external harddrives and the DVR

Im told that my new DishHD DVR receiver is able to accept an external harddrive in which I can save programs to. My question is what will be needed to download or play these recordings to my laptop or even a video ipod?

Also, is the format mp4? I remember hearing something like that but cant seem to find it in writing anywhere. Thanks

You can use an external HD to save movies onto but they can only playback through your dvr. They cannot be downloaded onto any third party devices.

Worth a shot I guess haha. Thanks