I haven't seen anything less than about $5K however which will still buy a
lot of DVDs.

Exactly. I record quite a bit of programming to my DVR, then transfer it to
tape to watch on the boat whenever and wherever it's convenient. The DVR
makes time-shifting incredibly easy. Transferring the content to tape
significantly degrades the quality, but it's just generic TV, so I can live
with it. One of these days I'll get around to replacing my DVD player in
the AV rack at home with a DVD recorder, and then the stuff I take out to
the boat would have excellent quality.

Another solution would be to replace the sat receiver in the boat with a
receiver that has a built in DVR, like the one I have at home. Just program
a week or two worth of recordings before leaving the boat, and then you can
play them back with no quality degradation, even when the receiver is away
from the dock-mounted dish. I've thought about it, but my boat is only 29'
long, and it will get knocked around at times. Not too sure if the hard
drives in these DVR's would appreciate that or not.