I just want to watch a movie, and I’ve done it before but forget how. Oh, the senility! It seems I should set the TV for channel 3 'cause that’s the one the signal comes in on, but channel 3 is “not available”. I think TV Input might be where I started before, but can’t remember anything after that. Anybody know if this needs to be done through Auto Tune or Quick Menu, and if so, how? I promise I’ll write it down this time.
It sounds like you’re confused between the DirectTV channels and your television’s channels. Chances are your DirecTV box is entirely unrelated to your DVD player. You’ll need to set your television to whatever input the DVD player is hooked up to (there’s no way for us to know that without looking at your setup.)
I realize the difference between the channels. When you say "set your television to whatever … " which button would I push first to set the television, please? I think that’s what I need to know!
On your DirecTV remote, there should be a button at the top called “TV.” If you press that, the remote will change your television channels, not your satellite channels. Press “TV” then change the channel to 3, and bob’s your uncle.
Shoot. When I do that I get the error message “The remote is in TV mode” and though I’ve tried other buttons (on the TV remote, the Directv remote and the DVD remote), nothing else will happen at that point. Thanks for the suggestion though.
Reinstall Windows. 
Kidding.
Seriously, you haven’t described your setup in enough detail to diagnose the problem. I assume you have a DirectTV box, a DVD player, and a TV. There are a number of ways to hook these 3 things together.
The most basic way is that the DVD player outputs to coax, which runs to TV In on the DirecTV box. The DirecTV box then outputs coax to the TV. In this case, you tune the TV (not the DirecTV box) to some common channel (like channel 3), and to watch the DVD.
The other way is that you use coax for the DirecTV box->TV, and a video/audio cable for the DVD->TV. In this case, you change the TV’s Input from the coax input to the video cable input to watch DVD.
Additional suggestion: look for buttons or remote control items that say “tv/video” and see what happens when you change it. If nothing good happens, change it back the way it was.
In case your setup is anything like mine – here’s what I have to do: Using the TV remote (not the DirecTV remote), I press the Input button until the word “DVD” appears on the TV screen.
Assuming I’ve powered up the DVD player and a disc is loaded, it’s ready to go.
It shouldn’t have to work that way, but we haven’t managed to program the DirecTV remote so that it does everything it’s supposed to do.
YES! That did it. Many, many thanks. It was the Input button I’d forgotten about.
Since Bob’s my uncle now, I’d like to consider Pam my auntie.
Miz, off to watch “The Queen”
… and I really appreciate the willingness of all of you to offer help. What a great group this is!