I tried without success. I purchased a second receiver on clearance for $30 when my local Best Buy was closing which was a DVR model. I never bothered activating it when the service was still active as I was using my original non DVR box.
Several weeks ago I tried to see if it would be handy as a OTA DVR only but found the setup wizard stops when it can't find the satellite signal. On mine, the ethernet port was not active and there was no way I could do anything with it.
Too bad eBay is full of the receivers and unsuspecting buyers will be stuck with them.