I have a magnavox dvd player and just had directv installed and I cannot get the dvd to recognize the directv channels. I can only record two digit numbers.

Your best bet for this problem is to rearrange the way you have your direct tv and dvd hooked up to your television. a lot of the time you can plug the dvd player into the input/antenna in jack on the back of the receiver. that way you can watch all the channels you want AND be able to watch dvds without having to unplug and replug stuff in. more than likely you'll have to push an input or tv/vcr button in order to switch between watching direct tv and dvds, but it's a lot simpler than switching chords around.