927 Code

nothing to do with phone lines. The error is telling you there was a problem with a download. Since you don't have an internet connection, my guess is that you accidentally set up to record an episode that was on "on demand" and of course it could not do that. 

The most common cause is that you have asked the DVR via search to record the whole of a current series and it is trying to find previous episodes via on demand. You need to make sure that you only set up series links by finding a showing of the program in the guide.

Actually no, I watched half of the episode the night before from the recorded playlist. When I went back to it the next day I got the 927 error eve though the playlist was showing half of the episode left to play. Hence my question about whether the DVR actually records programs or is it only a gateway to an ATT storage system?

All programs are recorded to the DVR's hard drive.  Have you done a red button reset?

Have done a red button reset. Oddly enough, I checked the episode last night before I did the reset and it actually played for about 5 more minutes and then came up with a message that the program needed to "buffer". After I left it and came back it went back to the 927 error again. The same with the red button reset.

Guess I'll need to speak to Tech Support. Should be interesting since I don't have phone at my house! :)

Ignore the phone line message. That has nothing to do with your issue. That is an outdated message from when boxes were required to be connected to a phone line. They left it in as older boxes still have use for a phone line, but that only applies to ordering PPVs by remote for those old models.

A buffering message refers to On Demand. If you don't have an internet connected to box at all (even by WiFi), then it is odd to get that message as the program would be from the satellite as On Demand is unavailable.

To be sure, you don't have another box connected to the internet? (SWM shares that connection to all boxes).

Since you don't use the internet connection features, I would make sure they are cleared. Menu > Settings > Internet > Advanced and reset network defaults.

Then unplug power for a minute, verify coax finger tight and power back on. Guide data will usually be cleared, populated again within 24 hours. Future recordings set through the guide, not smart search to prevent any chance of trying to pick up info from On Demand.