Most/all DVD recorders are "compatible" with DirecTV meaning that you can hook up the outputs of the DirecTV receiver to the inputs of the DVD recorder and make DVDs.
If however, if by "compatible" you mean programming your DVD recorder to get certain shows at certain times, then you must get a DVD recorder with some type of TV Guide and timer capability.
I do not understand aversions to TIVO (or DVRs) so my suggestion is to get a DirecTV with TIVO to capture shows. You'll need something similar to this anyway with what you want to do. With this solution you can watch them on TIVO and if you like the program you can archive it to most any DVD recorder on the market. FYI ? the TIVO fee for DirecTV is only $4.99/month (although it is going to $5.99/month soon) for the entire account (i.e., not per receiver like their mirroring fee) and you can get 80GB models now for cheap (and sometimes free.)
I am trying to find a DVD Recorder that is compatible with DirecTV(preferably one that has a hard drive, as well, but not absolutely necessary) . It seems like many of them are not compatible. I do not wish to get TiVo for a variety of reasons, but would like the convenience of the easy programming. Any suggestions?

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