| Its about time!! I can use a 4TB hard drive! 
This way I will never run out of room |
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| If it is a Motorola box then expect that 4TB drive to be limited to 2TB or less. There is some hard-coded crap in those Motorola boxes that limit the size of the drives both internal and external. |
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 bbrlogueLearning New Things DailyPremium
join:2003-12-07
Alexandria, VA | Depends where you live Comcast deployment of cable TV upgrades is so fragmented. I'm in a major metro area and I still don't have MyDvr. |
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| reply to zippoboy7
Re: Its about time!! said by zippoboy7:If it is a Motorola box then expect that 4TB drive to be limited to 2TB or less. There is some hard-coded crap in those Motorola boxes that limit the size of the drives both internal and external.
Well even 2TB would be a nice improvment over the current 500GB. |
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andyrossPremium,MVM
join:2003-05-04
Schaumburg, IL | What's the big deal? Too many people use their DVR's for long-term storage. Presumably there are security codes and encryption on the stored data, and if you change your box, there goes all your recordings.
I also wonder just how much Comcast will charge to enable this feature? |
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ke4pymPremium
join:2004-07-24
Charlotte, NC Reviews:
 ·VOIPo
 ·Verizon Broadban..
 ·RoadRunner Cable
·Northland Cable ..
| Welcome to the party! I'd been doing this with a TWC box for several years. Until I got Signature home and the new DVR's didn't support it.
Left SH to go to DirecTV in 2010 and have been running external storage (currently a pair of 2TB drives in a RAID 1 cabinet) since. |
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KearnstdElf WizardPremium
join:2002-01-22
Mullica Hill, NJ | reply to andyross
Re: What's the big deal? I have heard that about other cable company DVRs that support external drives. a new box formats the drive.
It would have to be encrypted. the Media industry would never allow the feature to be enabled otherwise. If the box just dumped unencrypted Mpeg2 or Mpeg4 files right to the drive the media industry would throw a fit and fire off a full broadside from their lawsuit cannons. Gotta remember the media industry hates technology.
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[65 Arcanist]Filan(High Elf) Zone: Broadband Reports |
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| reply to andyross
No charge to enable.
The drive is a 1 TB drive. If the box is replaced, then the recordings will be lost. Soon as you plug it in to the new drive it will want to reformat it. |
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mogamer
join:2011-04-20
Royal Oak, MI | said by rendrenner:No charge to enable.
The drive is a 1 TB drive. If the box is replaced, then the recordings will be lost. Soon as you plug it in to the new drive it will want to reformat it.
This is why I like my Dish dvr. The EHD is registered to your account and not to any individual dvr. So if your dvr dies, the recordings can still be watched on the replacement dvr. And those recordings can be watched on any dvr that is on your account. Makes things so much easier. While Dish only allows this on their HD dvrs, you can still use an EHD with up to 2TB of storage. |
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amungusPremium
join:2004-11-26
America | Interesting. Did not know Dish did that. Sounds like a good approach. |
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 GooberPremium
join:2000-12-17
Naperville, IL
kudos:5
 ·Dish Network
| reply to ke4pym
Re: Welcome to the party! Wide Open West has allowed this for many years. I stayed with WOW for a long time because of that.
I can't believe it's taken Comcast so long to do this. Insane. And likely, I assume just like WOW, the HD will be reformatted if/when it's attached to a different cable box. Small price to pay for the added flexibility.
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"Politicians are employees of ours – and if somebody does not do the job, we gotta let ’em go" - Clint Eastwood. Vote for America, vote for Romney-Ryan in 2012. |
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| Um what the hell is the big deal? I've been using Western Digital external DVR expander hard drives for like five years now via the SATA port on both my SA8300HD and Cisco R200N out in New Jersey. »www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=360
Now personally I'd love to use this WD Sentinal DX4000 network storage. »www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=610 |
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| reply to andyross
Re: What's the big deal? said by andyross:Too many people use their DVR's for long-term storage. The "big deal" is - when your dealing with MPEG2 HD recording, it takes up probably DOUBLE the (HDD) space of MPEG4 HD. So IMHO, while a 500G HDD is "reasonable" for, say, either sat provider - it IS simply too small for any (current) cable system - or FiOS for that matter. Even Tivo realizes this, as their cheapest DVR only has 500g; the rest all start at 1TB+.
If/when they transition their HD all over to MPEG4, then it might be a different story...
If this actually DOES come to fruition, then it wouldn't be so bad in keeping their current Moto DCX series of DVR boxes. As long as it has enough HDD space & 30 second skip, I'm pretty happy with any DVR.
Presumably there are security codes and encryption on the stored data, and if you change your box, there goes all your recordings.  )
Yes, but you do realize it does NOT have to be that way! DISH Network ties ALL your recordings to your account - & NOT to a specific receiver/access card. You can move recordings freely between external (multiple) hard drives, & even multiple receivers on your SAME account. This IS the way it should be from ANY TV provider.
Unfortunately, DirecTV ties recordings to a specific receiver/access card combo...been there, done that! 
I also wonder just how much Comcast will charge to enable this feature? |
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Reviews:
·Comcast
·T-Mobile US
| weird Does anyone else think that this kind of stuff shouldn't be at the hands of the cable company? Where are third parties at making devices with the features that consumers really want? I have a feeling that the market is there, but something is keeping it from happening. |
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Russ
join:2011-03-17
Houston, TX
kudos:1 | Comcast Allows External Drives in SA/Cisco STB Areas In the SA/Cisco STB areas, Comcast has allowed external hard drives to be used for many years. Comcast does not "officially" support this, but it works. The customer has to supply the external hard drive and eSata cable. |
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Reviews:
 ·Frontier Communi..
| reply to Debi Lee
Re: Um what the hell is the big deal? Apricorn has been selling their branded DVR expanders for years.
Here's one for D*TV: (1.5TB or 2.0TB)
»www.apricorn.com/apricorn-dvr-ex···ctv.html
WD also listed models for VZ FiOS and Dish Network:
»store.westerndigital.com/store/w···21986300 |
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Reviews:
·Charter
| reply to Kearnstd
Re: What's the big deal? said by Kearnstd:I have heard that about other cable company DVRs that support external drives. a new box formats the drive.
It would have to be encrypted. the Media industry would never allow the feature to be enabled otherwise. If the box just dumped unencrypted Mpeg2 or Mpeg4 files right to the drive the media industry would throw a fit and fire off a full broadside from their lawsuit cannons. Gotta remember the media industry hates technology.
nope, its not encrypted at all, not really. There are easy ways to get it off the drive with some freeware out there, and its just encoded in MPEG2. TiVO has been allowing this for years. The fear is just that, a fear. The companies fear you will save everything and put it on the net. People do that already with capture cards and TV tuners with cableCARDs, so, its just another irrational fear. |
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 caffeinatorComing soon to a cup near you..Premium
join:2005-01-16
WA, USA
kudos:4 | reply to zippoboy7
Re: Its about time!! Oh, so they are 32-bit boxes eh? |
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caffeinatorComing soon to a cup near you..Premium
join:2005-01-16
WA, USA
kudos:4 Reviews:
·CenturyLink
2 edits | reply to dishrich
Re: What's the big deal? said by dishrich:said by andyross:Too many people use their DVR's for long-term storage. The "big deal" is - when your dealing with MPEG2 HD recording, it takes up probably DOUBLE the (HDD) space of MPEG4 HD. So IMHO, while a 500G HDD is "reasonable" for, say, either sat provider - it IS simply too small for any (current) cable system - or FiOS for that matter. Even Tivo realizes this, as their cheapest DVR only has 500g; the rest all start at 1TB+. If/when they transition their HD all over to MPEG4, then it might be a different story... What is that crap?
That was my TV Capture card in Win98 days man, c'mon.
Nobody uses MPEG for anything anymore unless you do sh1t off yer digi cam or do DVD's which is stupid as rewritable HDD storage is actually cheaper per MB. Oh, and now most all units stream off the network...DLNA/Gaming console, etc. anyone?
Oh, and we have better GUI's than you'll ever have.
»xbmc.org/
The Scene groups have officially switched over to high quality MKV/MP4 now. A 40min show is like 130-350MB in damn good qual. Never any commercials, ever.
So, you are saying by default, that pirated is better quality than what you currently are allowed to PAY to DVR?
I LOLZ.... 
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brad
join:2007-09-06
Etobicoke, ON | reply to caffeinator
Re: Its about time!! You can use larger drives just fine on a 32-bit architecture system. |
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