Dish network won't allow me to watch a TV program while recording another on my VCR?

I don't know what part of the world you are in - but your use of the word "Dish" instead of 'Sky' suggests you are not in the UK - if you were then SKY+ would solve your problems, but wherever you are your satellite box needs two tuners if you want to watch two different 'dish' programmes - in the UK that would also mean two cables from the dish to the set top box to provide the two inputs for the two channels.

Really sounds as though you need to talk to your installer again and ask for specific tuning instructions.

A dual tuner (like Dish's 322, 522, or 625) is required to perform this function. You could also use two separate tuners to do it, however, you would have to pay the $5 extra each month that Dish charges for another tuner. If you had a dual tuner in that room, and you plugged it into a working phone jack, dish will waive the $5 charge each month for the dual capability of the tuner. That would allow you to record one thing on your vcr, while watching something different on your television. It will also give you the capability to perform picture and picture (watch two different things on one tv at the same time) if your TV is capable of doing that. p.s. you don't need any splitters either. Satellites don't use splitters the way that land based cable operations do.

Digital Cable with DVR is awsome. Now that we have it, I don't know what I'd do without it. You can record TV while watching another station, pause live TV, rewind and all the good stuff!