I don't think there is anything on the internal drive anymore. I have erased all the stuff I had recorded before hooking up the external drive. The box is only six months old, leased from Cox cable. Isn't there some way to just shut that drive off?

I think you're right in what you're trying to say, but wrong in the conclusion you draw, though I don't know exactly how to show it. The marketing is based on 1,000 per (decimal) and certainly accounts for some of the difference, but not all:

750 @ 1,000 per = 750
750 @ 1,024 per = 732
698 @ 1,024 per = 714

As the Wiki article says, the first two results do get further apart as the drive size increases, but still don't get to the amount of free space reported by the 8300. This may not be due to overhead in the PC sense, but AFAIK, the 8300 does set aside a portion of the HDD for it's use, perhaps index files, etc. The bottom line is that the amount of space available for actual recordings is less that either the Base 2 or Base 10 reported size of the drive and that counts as overhead in my book. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

There some rounding in there for sure, but 698 GiB = 750 GB. The number of bytes is the same.

698 GiB * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 = 749471793152 bytes / 1000 / 1000 / 1000 = 750 GB

There some rounding in there for sure, but 698 GiB = 750 GB. The number of bytes is the same.

698 GiB * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 = 749471793152 bytes / 1000 / 1000 / 1000 = 750 GBSee, I knew I was missing something. :)

I know this board might be somewhat out of date, but I wanted to post that I got this working with the following:

DVR: Scientific Atlanta 8300HD
Provider: Time Warner Cable
Location: San Diego, CA
Hard Drive: Maxtor DiamondMax 500 GB SATA 3.0 16MB Buffer
Enclosure: Vantec NexStar 3
Cable: eSATA to eSATA (provided with the enclosure)

I tried the following with no success:
1. Western Digital MyBook Home Edition 500GB
2. Seagate FreeAgent Pro 500GB

Hope that helps someone out.

-Mike

I know this board might be somewhat out of date, but I wanted to post that I got this working with the following:


Jerimiah - thanks for the database entry - can you please add your failures as separate entries too? The failures are just as important as the successes.

Also - I am going to delete your success entry - please add the entries to the 'Navigator' database. Navigator == Mystro.

Thanks a lot - and glad you got it working!
xnappo

I am also with Time Warner in San Diego (Navigator/Mystro), with an SA 8300HD, and an external HD. I am having reboots constantly. It seems to happen whenever I start watching a new recording, but at other times also. Are others experiencing this? Is there a cure? I have gone through several 8300HD/HDC over the last year or so. I am about ready to dump TWC and go to satellite!

Thanks for any input.

Roy

I am also with Time Warner in San Diego (Navigator/Mystro), with an SA 8300HD, and an external HD. I am having reboots constantly. It seems to happen whenever I start watching a new recording, but at other times also. Are others experiencing this? Is there a cure? I have gone through several 8300HD/HDC over the last year or so. I am about ready to dump TWC and go to satellite!

Thanks for any input.

Roy

What hard drive/case? Was it working fine before with Passport? You definitely have an HD and not HDC right now?

xnappo

It's an Apricorn case with a WD 7500AAKS drive. It was the most successful combination in the data base. The drive was just replaced by WD. I definitely have an HD at the moment. I have had both HD and HDC's in the past, but lately I have just had HD's. I think it was working OK prior to some of the recent TWC changes. But its been bad for about a month now. Maybe its time to request an HDC again.

I just got the WD 7500AAKS drive and tried it directly attached with an eSATA cable. No go.

Am thinking about getting the Apricorn case but am wondering if anyone has had success with HDC/2.4.9_3 combo. Please post in the DB as there is no info about 2.4.9_3 yet.

http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/navigator

It's an Apricorn case with a WD 7500AAKS drive. It was the most successful combination in the data base. The drive was just replaced by WD. I definitely have an HD at the moment. I have had both HD and HDC's in the past, but lately I have just had HD's. I think it was working OK prior to some of the recent TWC changes. But its been bad for about a month now. Maybe its time to request an HDC again.

I wouldn't go for an HDC - people have had more trouble both in general and with eSATA with the HDC vs. HD... Sorry, don't know what to tell you, other than I am thankful they haven't pushed Navigator here yet!

I don't suppose the power supply for your Apricorn is made by 'Starmen' ?

xnappo

No....the power supply is by CD - Coming Data.

BTW, a recent development is that on reboots, the SA 8300HD flashes ER.63 and then ER.31 Sound familiar to anyone?

Thanks.

No....the power supply is by CD - Coming Data.

BTW, a recent development is that on reboots, the SA 8300HD flashes ER.63 and then ER.31 Sound familiar to anyone?

Thanks.

Is your external enclosure's power supply made by starman? There have been a rash of bad power supplys for that case lately.

Is your external enclosure's power supply made by starman? There have been a rash of bad power supplys for that case lately.

I don't think that the issue with the Apricorn power supplies is limited to only the Starmans. I had a POWMAX power supply and had the same problems as everyone else. I switched out power supplies and all was good.

I have an 8300hdc running navigator. I hooked up an a wd5000aaks in a rosewill enclosure. Everything seems great until I go to bed. The next day, the cable box will be locked up and requires a reboot. I'm guessing it has a problem when it tries to defrag. Any ideas?

I don't think there is anything on the internal drive anymore. I have erased all the stuff I had recorded before hooking up the external drive. The box is only six months old, leased from Cox cable. Isn't there some way to just shut that drive off?

As I recall it, the internal drive has the various system files/OS and the live TV buffer. Then it gets used for recording programs until it is filled up and only then does your external drive actually get used.

I have an 8300hdc running navigator. I hooked up an a wd5000aaks in a rosewill enclosure. Everything seems great until I go to bed. The next day, the cable box will be locked up and requires a reboot. I'm guessing it has a problem when it tries to defrag. Any ideas?You're running into the Navigator sleep mode problem. Navigator no longer recovers from sleep mode when an external drive is attached.

You're running into the Navigator sleep mode problem. Navigator no longer recovers from sleep mode when an external drive is attached.

Correct. Complain to your cable co (just for fun).

The only work-around is to keep something recording 24/7.

xnappo

Thanks for the help guys. Guess we just have to wait and hope the bug gets fixed.

I have an 8300hdc running navigator. I hooked up an a wd5000aaks in a rosewill enclosure. Everything seems great until I go to bed. The next day, the cable box will be locked up and requires a reboot. I'm guessing it has a problem when it tries to defrag. Any ideas?

Return your box for a non-C , i.e. get a SA8300HD box. eSATA works very well on the non-C unit. Instant replay, no writing/reading in stand-by mode, accurate disk space meter.

Return your box for a non-C , i.e. get a SA8300HD box. eSATA works very well on the non-C unit. Instant replay, no writing/reading in stand-by mode, accurate disk space meter.

But... no 15 minute skip ahead or back. Takes awhile to work through a long recording because Navigator neglected to add a fourth "gear" and the 15 minute advance or rewind is gone w/ expansion drives. At least that's how it works on mine.

Correct. Complain to your cable co (just for fun).

The only work-around is to keep something recording 24/7.

xnappo

What are the sleep rules? (i.e. does it sleep after a certain amount of time?). So you could set up very short recordings just to keep it from going to sleep, instead of recording 24/7, right?

Scott

What are the sleep rules? (i.e. does it sleep after a certain amount of time?). So you could set up very short recordings just to keep it from going to sleep, instead of recording 24/7, right?
Wrong. You should search this thread for "sleep mode" or read http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...e#post12946421.

Return your box for a non-C , i.e. get a SA8300HD box. eSATA works very well on the non-C unit. Instant replay, no writing/reading in stand-by mode, accurate disk space meter.Does it work well in a non-C unit that is also running Navigator? If not, at some point swapping for a non-C unit won't work since they will all be running Navigator.

Does it work well in a non-C unit that is also running Navigator? If not, at some point swapping for a non-C unit won't work since they will all be running Navigator.

Dave,

Yeah, the reports are that Navigator MDN (HD version) works with external drives while ODN(HDC version) has issues. Of course both versions still have plenty of other problems.

xnappo

Yeah, the reports are that Navigator MDN (HD version) works with external drives while ODN(HDC version) has issues. Of course both versions still have plenty of other problems.Thanks, I didn't know so I thought I'd ask. Kind of interesting that they'd be different just because of the card. I also find it interesting that Nav seems to be developed along SARA back when there were only 3 FF/Rew speeds. :)

Thanks, I didn't know so I thought I'd ask. Kind of interesting that they'd be different just because of the card. I also find it interesting that Nav seems to be developed along SARA back when there were only 3 FF/Rew speeds. :)

What is really interesting is that they are running a totally different version of Navigator on the HD vs. the HDC. It has been reported that the HD version is running MDN - which is Navigator developed on top of the PowerTV(?) platform, while the HDC runs the tru2way/opencable version.

It has been theorized that this is because the HDC has more memory than the HD (?)

Also - there is a 15-minute skip ahead/back that you access by holding down the ffwd/rewind button. However it has been reported by archiguy that this does not work when an external drive is attached.

xnappo

But... no 15 minute skip ahead or back. Takes awhile to work through a long recording because Navigator neglected to add a fourth "gear" and the 15 minute advance or rewind is gone w/ expansion drives. At least that's how it works on mine.

Incorrect. I have 15 min skip forward by pressing and holding the FF button until the dvr jumps 15 minutes.

What is really interesting is that they are running a totally different version of Navigator on the HD vs. the HDC. It has been reported that the HD version is running MDN - which is Navigator developed on top of the PowerTV(?) platform, while the HDC runs the tru2way/opencable version.

It has been theorized that this is because the HDC has more memory than the HD (?)

Also - there is a 15-minute skip ahead/back that you access by holding down the ffwd/rewind button. However it has been reported by archiguy that this does not work when an external drive is attached.

xnappo

I have an eSATA drive on my SA8300HD; 15 minute skip works fine.

Does it work well in a non-C unit that is also running Navigator? If not, at some point swapping for a non-C unit won't work since they will all be running Navigator.

I thought we were talking about Navigator. I have Navigator on my SA8300HD with eSATA: 15 Minute Skip; Instant Replay; No disk activity in stand-by mode. What I don't like: no scheduled manual recording, basic 'find shows' function, slow guide load for advanced days.

Holy cow I never knew there was a 15min skip! Damn that would have saved me about 4 hours last year.

Holy cow I never knew there was a 15min skip! Damn that would have saved me about 4 hours last year.

Hello All.
I have a TWC 8240 HDC with a external Samsung 750 eSATA drive. The DVR formats it and it shows up in the DIA. But I can't play back anything from it.
Then when I unplug it everything works fine on the internal drive in the DVR.
Anyone have any thoughts on this.

Thanks in Advanced
pitt1989



SA 8240 HDC
SARA 1.90.5.110
Samsung 750g HD753LJ eSATA Drive

What external eSATA 750 Gig drive has worked with the Austin Texas TWC SA 8240HDC system





SA 8240 HDC
SARA 1.90.5.110
Samsung 750g HD753LJ eSATA Drive

I thought we were talking about Navigator. I have Navigator on my SA8300HD with eSATA: 15 Minute Skip; Instant Replay; No disk activity in stand-by mode. What I don't like: no scheduled manual recording, basic 'find shows' function, slow guide load for advanced days.We are talking about Navigator, but AFAIK some locations only use Navigator on the HDC models, not the HD models yet. My point was that eventually all will use Navigator, so swapping will not always work to avoid Navigator's problems like it does now. But, since the versions appear to be different, swapping for an HD with Navigator might still help resolve the problem with the HDC version. Kind of confusing, no? :)

What is really interesting is that they are running a totally different version of Navigator on the HD vs. the HDC. It has been reported that the HD version is running MDN - which is Navigator developed on top of the PowerTV(?) platform, while the HDC runs the tru2way/opencable version.

It has been theorized that this is because the HDC has more memory than the HD (?)Sounds about right. Is this now the case throughout TWC or are some HD's still running SARA or Passport? I haven't been reading the Nav thread.

Went back reading a bunch of pages just for fun and there was one guy that had a clicking problem with this 500 gig Esata drive

http://img.tomshardware.com/us/2007/02/09/valentines-day-2007-buyers-guide/seagate-esata-500.jpg

I'm not sure if he ever got the right answer cause everyone was telling him it was a bad drive but it isn't.

It's just the hard drive going to sleep and coming back up again. The clicking occurs when you are not recording or buffering from that drive but the internal from the 8300, it somehow wakes it up every I don't know 10 minutes or so.

I have 2 of them and they do the same whenever it's using the internal hd of the 8300.



...
Thanks KavMan, that was probably me. Yep, when the drive's not in use it clicks every 5 minutes. :(

Sounds about right. Is this now the case throughout TWC or are some HD's still running SARA or Passport? I haven't been reading the Nav thread.AFAIK, all TW systems that have been running SARA are still running SARA. So far, only the TW systems using Passport have been deploying Navigator - and then many of those are deploying it only on the HDC boxes.

AFAIK, all TW systems that have been running SARA are still running SARA. So far, only the TW systems using Passport have been deploying Navigator - and then many of those are deploying it only on the HDC boxes.Thanks, Dave. I guess not much has changed beyond "some" HD models running a version of Nav then.

Well it seems to be working after two reboots.


SA 8240 HDC
SARA 1.90.5.110
Samsung 750g HD753LJ F1 eSATA Drive

As I recall it, the internal drive has the various system files/OS and the live TV buffer. Then it gets used for recording programs until it is filled up and only then does your external drive actually get used.

I don't believe that is correct (at least with my previous SA non-HD box) - once you hook up an external drive, it is supposed to start recording to it until both drives have the same usage, then it bounces back and forth between each drive keeping both at the same "fill level".

If I am incorrect, please correct me.

I don't believe that is correct (at least with my previous SA non-HD box) - once you hook up an external drive, it is supposed to start recording to it until both drives have the same usage, then it bounces back and forth between each drive keeping both at the same "fill level".

If I am incorrect, please correct me.No, you are correct. It's based on a percentage of space available, so it will often seem like only the new external is being used.

How can I tell if my 8300HDC ACTUALLY sees and is using my WD DVR Expander hard drive? When I first booted it asked to format it, then it said that it works with this PVR. However, after recording 1 30 minute SD show and 2 30 minute HD shows it shows 3% used which would seem to calculate to less than 50 hrs. Heck I get about 30 hrs of HD on the built-in HD!! The diags screen where it shows HD1 and HD2 doesn't look like it knows it is there. Maybe there is another diag screen that shows more?!

Thanks KavMan, that was probably me. Yep, when the drive's not in use it clicks every 5 minutes. :(



One bad thing about the clicking is if you are recording or watching HD from the internal and the external clicks it will glitch up the video/audio. Doesn't really matter to me if I don't want to archive the show.

What I do is play a recorded show from the external to keep from it going to sleep, if you want to be watching the recorded HD channel then make sure you have the PIP window showing of the recorded external show.

If you don't have the PIP on even though you're playing the recorded external show it will click.

Can someone tell me if this External drive will work with the DVR

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=203268362

Its a Cavalry 500gb

No, you are correct. It's based on a percentage of space available, so it will often seem like only the new external is being used.


So, if my internal HD is empty, and I have a 500g external drive, it should start writing to it until the % disk space left is about the same, then ping pong back and forth?

Also, can someone answer my question about how I can tell for sure my external HD is seen and accessible?

No, you are correct. It's based on a percentage of space available, so it will often seem like only the new external is being used.

Not sure how it works in SARA/Navigator on the box, but I am 100% sure that in Passport it is not based upon percentages full -- it is purely based upon the amount of free space on the drives. Whichever one has more raw space on it (having nothing at all to do with percentages) gets the program written to it.

Can someone tell me if this External drive will work with the DVR

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=203268362

Its a Cavalry 500gb

I believe the Cavalry drives do not perform well (my memory), but it's best you check the databases.

"If you have no equipment yet, check the following databases for other member’s experience:

Navigator Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/navigator)
Passport Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/passport)
SARA Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/main)"

Bob:)
Comcast-SA8300HD-SARA 1.88.25.1-Maxtor 7H500FO-coolgear Dual Drive eSATA Case

How may hours of HD should I be able to get on the 8300HDC with a 500g external drive?

When I had asked here about changing to a larger internal IDE drive, few had done so. Now that I've done it, I thought I should at least give a progress report before going away.

Its going on two months and there have been no problems whatsoever. The larger drive works just like original except that we don't run out of space. The replacement itself was not hard nor was it difficult to keep the security sticker in perfect shape, not that I expect TW to take the time to notice even if I removed the sticker and gave them back the box.

I used a 300GB. I would be interested to know if anyone has tried larger drives.

(8300HD with Sara firmware)

How may hours of HD should I be able to get on the 8300HDC with a 500g external drive?

Approximately 60 (@8 gig per hour less some "overhead" lost from the 500)

Bob:)

I used a 300GB. I would be interested to know if anyone has tried larger drives.

(8300HD with Sara firmware)

Thanks for the report. At the time did you also have an external drive attached? If so were those recordings saved?

xnappo

Hey folks-

I just got "upgraded" to Mystro here in Cincinnati. I've had an external drive working with Passport for well over a year. But, when rebooting after the upgrade I could only get out of an endless loop by disconnecting the external HDD. Now when I reattach it, the box wants to reformat.

Is there any sequence I can use to connect the drive and preserve the programs on it? If not this box is going back to TW and I will just use my TivoHD. We don't have SDV here yet so the only reason I was keeping the SA box was for saved recordings.

I did search this and other threads but 227 pages starts to get overwhelming.

Thanks-

I used a 300GB. I would be interested to know if anyone has tried larger drives.

My 500GB has been working flawlessly for the last 6 months. Most of the time the drive will spindown when not in use, but this does not seem to happen when the drive is over 50% full. Maybe just a coincidence.

Thanks for the report. At the time did you also have an external drive attached? If so were those recordings saved?
My external drive was not in use at the time of the upgrade, and I have not connected it since. If an external was in use the recordings should still be on the drive, but the index pointers to them would be on the old drive, so the recordings would be accessible. The solution would be to use the hard drive copy software/process that someone reported here some time ago. The the upgraded drive would look like the old drive and have the index pointers to the recordings on the external drive.

Approximately 60 (@8 gig per hour less some "overhead" lost from the 500)

Bob:)

Does that include what can be stored on the internal drive? I want the total storage for both drives.

Hey folks-

I just got "upgraded" to Mystro here in Cincinnati. I've had an external drive working with Passport for well over a year. But, when rebooting after the upgrade I could only get out of an endless loop by disconnecting the external HDD. Now when I reattach it, the box wants to reformat.

Is there any sequence I can use to connect the drive and preserve the programs on it? If not this box is going back to TW and I will just use my TivoHD. We don't have SDV here yet so the only reason I was keeping the SA box was for saved recordings.

I did search this and other threads but 227 pages starts to get overwhelming.

Thanks-
With eSATA powered up, reboot DVR by pulling power plug & reinserting.
Watch the status bars on the blue Mystro screen as they march toward right.
Get your fastest fingers ready....
When the blue screen goes away hit POWER button and then "A" key.
You may or may not see the "Please hit A Key to reattach ext HDD" menu.
Check to see if your ext HDD recordings are present.

You probably need to try this a few times...mine is very finicky...
I used to be able to wait for it to properly power up and display the "Hit A" menu....
but it no longer tolerates any hesitation...

Hey folks-

I just got "upgraded" to Mystro here in Cincinnati. I've had an external drive working with Passport for well over a year. But, when rebooting after the upgrade I could only get out of an endless loop by disconnecting the external HDD. Now when I reattach it, the box wants to reformat.

Is there any sequence I can use to connect the drive and preserve the programs on it? If not this box is going back to TW and I will just use my TivoHD. We don't have SDV here yet so the only reason I was keeping the SA box was for saved recordings.

I did search this and other threads but 227 pages starts to get overwhelming.

Thanks-

Same problem here. Help please!!

Can someone tell me if this External drive will work with the DVR

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=203268362

Its a Cavalry 500gb
I have the Calvalry 500GB with the 8300 and it works great. You need the eSata model though, that one looked like USB only.

With eSATA powered up, reboot DVR by pulling power plug & reinserting.
Watch the status bars on the blue Mystro screen as they march toward right.
Get your fastest fingers ready....
When the blue screen goes away hit POWER button and then "A" key.
You may or may not see the "Please hit A Key to reattach ext HDD" menu.
Check to see if your ext HDD recordings are present.

You probably need to try this a few times...mine is very finicky...
I used to be able to wait for it to properly power up and display the "Hit A" menu....
but it no longer tolerates any hesitation...

Do you have to unplug and replug the 8300 cuz it reboots in a loop anyway...

Which power button? The 8300 on the remote work ok?

This isn't really working so far...:(

Damn...as soon as the blue screen goes away it reboots, there is no chance to hit the POWER button then the A button...

ok, last night i got home to find 2 of my 8300HD boxes(both have had e-sata drives connected and working fine for over a year) were in a constent 'Mystro install & convert data loop.

after talking with a TW rep i was told to not only unplug the power but also to unhook the coax cable for about 10 min.

that did not work.

then i repeated but with the e-sata drive disconnected.
that somewhat worked as it finished the 'MYSTRO install and data conversion but with limitations.

1. e-sata drive not connected
2. when viewing the list of recorded programs it did to the best of my knowledge list everything, but some shows were not available for play back at this time( located on e-sata) and others were just fine. even recently recorded stuff that i know was previously on the e-sata drive.
3. it showed that my drive was 100% full

conclusion: I believe that the endless loop is a result from the e-sata drive was/is accesable when the 'MYSTRO upgrade starts but errors when it fills the local drive and starts over.

i'm now at the office and won't be able to try anything else untill i get home in about 7 hrs.

but, after reading about the "POWER+A BUTTON" work around, this is what I'm going to try (with e-sata drive connected):

1. continually hold the "A" button when I power up(plug in) the STB
2. continually hold the "A" button again during reboots and when turning the power on.(before, during & after power on. not just after)


if anyone tries this before i can plaese post your results.
I will post my results and more as soon as I can.

good luck everyone!!!

Does that include what can be stored on the internal drive? I want the total storage for both drives.

The internal (usually 160gig) gives you another 15-20 hour for a total of 75-80.

Bob:)
Comcast-SA8300HD-SARA 1.89.22.2-Maxtor 7H500FO-coolgear Dual Drive eSATA Case

When I had asked here about changing to a larger internal IDE drive, few had done so. Now that I've done it, I thought I should at least give a progress report before going away.

Its going on two months and there have been no problems whatsoever. The larger drive works just like original except that we don't run out of space. The replacement itself was not hard nor was it difficult to keep the security sticker in perfect shape, not that I expect TW to take the time to notice even if I removed the sticker and gave them back the box.

I used a 300GB. I would be interested to know if anyone has tried larger drives.

(8300HD with Sara firmware)

Are you saying you only changed out the physical drive? I had assumed that you would have to copy the operating software. Is the operating system in firmware? Would that include the Navigator operating system?

Thanx Bob - I was estimating about 90 and was surprised at that figure, but you backed up my estimate!!

BTW, this drive does not show up in the diags anywhere, but IS working (that's how I got my initial estimate!) Is this normal for an 8300HDC?

Is Mystro another name for Navigator? I have Bright House in central FL. They are currently using Passport and are switching to Navigator end of June early July. Thanks

ok, last night i got home to find 2 of my 8300HD boxes(both have had e-sata drives connected and working fine for over a year) were in a constent 'Mystro install & convert data loop.

after talking with a TW rep i was told to not only unplug the power but also to unhook the coax cable for about 10 min.

that did not work.

then i repeated but with the e-sata drive disconnected.
that somewhat worked as it finished the 'MYSTRO install and data conversion but with limitations.

1. e-sata drive not connected
2. when viewing the list of recorded programs it did to the best of my knowledge list everything, but some shows were not available for play back at this time( located on e-sata) and others were just fine. even recently recorded stuff that i know was previously on the e-sata drive.
3. it showed that my drive was 100% full

conclusion: I believe that the endless loop is a result from the e-sata drive was/is accesable when the 'MYSTRO upgrade starts but errors when it fills the local drive and starts over.

i'm now at the office and won't be able to try anything else untill i get home in about 7 hrs.

but, after reading about the "POWER+A BUTTON" work around, this is what I'm going to try (with e-sata drive connected):

1. continually hold the "A" button when I power up(plug in) the STB
2. continually hold the "A" button again during reboots and when turning the power on.(before, during & after power on. not just after)


if anyone tries this before i can plaese post your results.
I will post my results and more as soon as I can.

good luck everyone!!!

I'll try this "hold down the A button" thing and report back. I'm having the same issue.

Thanx Bob - I was estimating about 90 and was surprised at that figure, but you backed up my estimate!!

BTW, this drive does not show up in the diags anywhere, but IS working (that's how I got my initial estimate!) Is this normal for an 8300HDC?

Not surprising. Please add an entry for it in the appropriate database when you have a chance.

Bob:)

Are you saying you only changed out the physical drive? I had assumed that you would have to copy the operating software. Is the operating system in firmware? Would that include the Navigator operating system?Someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but AFAIK, the OS is in Flash memory. When you connect a new unit for the first time, the first thing that happens is the OS gets loaded and then the IPG/data. When new software is pushed, it replaces what is in flash memory. When you boot/reboot, it loads the OS from this flash memory ot RAM. If that is corrupt, it will download it again, etc.

Not surprising. Please add an entry for it in the appropriate database when you have a chance.

Bob:)


It's already in there as working on the 8300:

Comcast Houston 1.88.25.1 NA - External Drive WD My DVR Expander WDG1S5000 500GB Yes N/A (Pass!) Click Here 7/25/07 RobElliott Modify

I just don't see it in the diags. Where should I be looking??

[QUOTE=wookie]

I received the WD My DVR Expander 2 days ago; it was immediately recognized and formatted by my 8300HD. After letting it format the drive, I had to power cycle the 8300HD for it to reflect the new capacity. I've recorded and watched several hours of HD programming with no problems so far.


I have the same drive, and it also works, but I cannot see it in the diags screens anywhere - can you see it in your diag screens??

I believe the Cavalry drives do not perform well (my memory), but it's best you check the databases.

"If you have no equipment yet, check the following databases for other member’s experience:

Navigator Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/navigator)
Passport Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/passport)
SARA Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/main)"

Bob:)
Comcast-SA8300HD-SARA 1.88.25.1-Maxtor 7H500FO-coolgear Dual Drive eSATA Case

I dont quite understand what this means, i have an Explorer 8300HD using Cablevision, so which of the three is mine, Navigator, Sara, or Passport

thx in advance

My External is a Cavalry 500GB CAUE37500

Also, what cable do i need to connect it to the DVR?

My External has an ESATA slot while the DVR has a SATA, so i need a SATA to ESATA cable?

Thanks for the report. At the time did you also have an external drive attached? If so were those recordings saved?...xnappo

Are you saying you only changed out the physical drive? I had assumed that you would have to copy the operating software. Is the operating system in firmware? Would that include the Navigator operating system?

Sorry about the delay. I was traveling with no time for anything but biz.

No. I didn't have an external hooked up. Had earlier tried with mixed results and work-arounds leading to frustration for my non-technical wife.

I did not have to install software on the drive. The box did this itself in about 25 minutes. If only Windows was so easy;)

Re: Navigator, I'm sorry, I only tried with Sara. Since it seems that the problematic Navigator is in all of our futures, I wanted to get the drive installed such that when my box does get gatored, it will look like any other boring Sara box to the update program.

I'm agree with BPlayer and DoubleDAZ's assumptions. It makes sense for SA's needs by allowing them to ship the same box to all cablecos, regardless of what firmware they use.

My 500GB has been working flawlessly for the last 6 months. Most of the time the drive will spindown when not in use, but this does not seem to happen when the drive is over 50% full. Maybe just a coincidence....

Thank you. That's interesting. I may try what you did while we can still buy IDE drives.

I'm not sure what you mean though by "not in use" since the drive needs to be spinning whenever there's a channel playing so that you can scan back to earlier points in the program. Do you mean that the drive still spins when the unit is asleep at night? From testing for gyro I'm pretty sure thats the only time mine stops.

If you are saying that you hear it no matter what it is doing, if it is over 50% full, I would hazard that this may be from the drive working harder from your files being in a more fragmented state when the drive is near full. I only notice noise from mine, with old or new drive, when I ask it to record two shows while I watch another or when it nears capacity.

[QUOTE=RobElliott;11116985]I have the same drive, and it also works, but I cannot see it in the diags screens anywhere - can you see it in your diag screens??
If you have SARA software then the external drive information is found on screens 33 and 35 of the diag info.

I'm not sure what you mean though by "not in use" since the drive needs to be spinning whenever there's a channel playing so that you can scan back to earlier points in the program. Do you mean that the drive still spins when the unit is asleep at night? From testing for gyro I'm pretty sure thats the only time mine stops.

If you are saying that you hear it no matter what it is doing, if it is over 50% full, I would hazard that this may be from the drive working harder from your files being in a more fragmented state when the drive is near full. I only notice noise from mine, with old or new drive, when I ask it to record two shows while I watch another or when it nears capacity.
I mean that the PVR is turned off and is not recording. This could be overnight or during the day. In the past the HDD has spin down and stopped, and was completely quiet. WHen the PVR was turned on you could hear it spinning up. Currently it is spinning constantly and there is a low audible hum even when the PVR is off and not recording. Incidentally, the noise from the drive doing seek operations during recording or playback is hardly noticeable.

The large number of recordings is likely the cause and the software may be trying to degrag, although I cannot hear any seek activity. Any respectable software should be able to perform a defrag on the drive within 30 minutes, but the PVR has been in this state for the last couple of weeks. I am working on watching and deleting some of the recordings to bring the used capacity below 30%, and will see what happens then.

Note: The most successful drives are SATA. Some converters (i.e. to IDE) work, but not well for the SA8300HD(C). If you have no equipment yet, check the following databases for other member’s experience:

Navigator Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/navigator)
Passport Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/passport)
SARA Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/main)

Links to the databases can also be found in the sig of xnappo.

How To Determine Software Being Used. Interactive Program Guide Images are useful for determining which software is being used. Look at the A/B/C button labels at the bottom of the guide:

Button= A/B/C
Navigator= Access Menu/Find Shows/[no label]
Passport =Time/Theme/Search or Title
SARA =Browse By/Date[ ]/Home or [curved backarrow]

PLEASE,

We are here to help. And we need your cooperation to be at our best.

Read the first post and the last two pages-The most recently discussed problems are there. They are also the most recently developing problems. Do not read every page that will only drive you crazy. Older pages likely contain outdated information.

An efficient search will help. Try to use just one highly significant word. For tips on searching or any general questions, please PM me or the ID of a frequent poster, or a high post count, or any member. We may use different terminology!

If you can’t find your answer or are not sure you understand it, ask in any way you are comfortable. Try to be brief-Think of the next new person reading this thread.

Tell us where you (or the person with the problem) are-City and State.

Tell us what equipment you are using-HDMI? -All makes and models, and include your video provider (i.e. Comcast, DirecTV)

Try to be brief-Think of the next new person reading this thread.

Be patient-It may take a few days before the best qualified member to answer your question “picks up.”
THANK YOU!

Bob:)
SA8300HD-Comcast-SARA 1.89.22.2-Maxtor 7H500FO-Coolgear Dual Drive eSATA Case

I dont quite understand what this means, i have an Explorer 8300HD using Cablevision, so which of the three is mine, Navigator, Sara, or Passport?


How To Determine Software Being Used. Interactive Program Guide Images are useful for determining which software is being used. Look at the A/B/C button labels at the bottom of the guide:

Button= A/B/C
Navigator= Access Menu/Find Shows/[no label]
Passport =Time/Theme/Search or Title
SARA =Browse By/Date[ ]/Home or [curved backarrow]

Bob:)
Comcast-SA8300HD-SARA 1.89.22.2-Maxtor 7H500FO-coolgear Dual Drive eSATA Case

I
Also, what cable do i need to connect it to the DVR?

My External has an ESATA slot while the DVR has a SATA, so i need a SATA to ESATA cable?

Correct.

Bob:)

Bob thx for answering me each time

after googling for hours i found out that i need an Asata to Asata since the DVR is really asata even though it says SAta

any truth?

cause i have been plugging it in for an hour and my DVR still wont acknowledge the External even though the cable fits into both perfect

any help?

How To Determine Software Being Used. Interactive Program Guide Images are useful for determining which software is being used. Look at the A/B/C button labels at the bottom of the guide:

Button= A/B/C
Navigator= Access Menu/Find Shows/[no label]
Passport =Time/Theme/Search or Title
SARA =Browse By/Date[ ]/Home or [curved backarrow]

Bob:)
Comcast-SA8300HD-SARA 1.89.22.2-Maxtor 7H500FO-coolgear Dual Drive eSATA Case

I just wanted to pop in here to say THANKS SO MUCH! Somehow I missed this before today. It's by far the easiest and quickest way I've ever tried to determine what software my DVR uses. (It's an older SA 8300HD box...by "older" I mean from last year or older than that.) It uses SATA, thankfully. :)

DGK

Bob thx for answering me each time

after googling for hours i found out that i need an Asata to Asata since the DVR is really asata even though it says SAta

any truth?

cause i have been plugging it in for an hour and my DVR still wont acknowledge the External even though the cable fits into both perfect

any help?

I know of only SATA and eSATA. The SATA has a little "tail" giving it an L shape. The eSATA is straight.

Bob:)

Greetings,

I have a WD 500GB drive in an epower case which has worked flawlessly on my 8300HD for about 15 months. The fan on the case is starting to go so I need to switch out the case. I know the apricorn ezbus works on my system because I had it on there previously but this was with a freshly formated new drive.

My question is if I take the existing drive and put it in the new case will the DVR still see the shows recorded on the drive previously. I'm concerned that if theres a slight difference in the sata interfaces it may cause problems.

Greetings,

I have a WD 500GB drive in an epower case which has worked flawlessly on my 8300HD for about 15 months. The fan on the case is starting to go so I need to switch out the case. I know the apricorn ezbus works on my system because I had it on there previously but this was with a freshly formated new drive.

My question is if I take the existing drive and put it in the new case will the DVR still see the shows recorded on the drive previously. I'm concerned that if theres a slight difference in the sata interfaces it may cause problems.


Changing the enclosure should not cause you any issues as long as you hook it back up to the same DVR. The drive and DVR are tied to each other by some sort of proprietary encryption.

I have had the Apricorn 1TB drive since November and it has been working flawlessly until about 2 weeks ago.

Many recordings started having a lot of freezes and the problem seems to be getting worse. I am even getting freezes now on Live TV.

I have seen postings here where some people have reported that the power supply is the source of the problem... mine is Coming Data, not the Starman that some have indicated is problematic.

I have called Apricorn Tech Support today and they did not know how to resolve the problem.

I specifically asked them about replacing the power supply and they said they would do it if I really wanted to, but they did not think that this would cause the problem I am having and did not seem to know that they have been sending replacement power supplies as reported by others in this thread (could be a different person I was talking to - he said he would check with his collegues)... In fact, they recommended replacing the whole unit.

I also have an Antec enclosure that I'm currently using for something else but I can spare it to do some testing/troubleshooting. I can try swapping the 1TB HDD to the Antec enclosure to see if the problem is the Apricorn enclosure/power supply or if the HDD is somehow corrupted...

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated...

Btw, details of my enclosure are in the database.

I also have an Antec enclosure that I'm currently using for something else but I can spare it to do some testing/troubleshooting. I can try swapping the 1TB HDD to the Antec enclosure to see if the problem is the Apricorn enclosure/power supply or if the HDD is somehow corrupted...

Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated...

Btw, details of my enclosure are in the database.

I believe the Antec uses the same type of supply doesn't it? You could just try that. Otherwise, try swapping the cases. Hopefully it is the power supply as that is the easiest thing to resolve.

xnappo

Regarding my previous posting:

I have tried swapping the 400Gb Seagate HDD that I have in my Antec enclosure and the 1TB WB HDD in the Apricorn enclosure. After lots of testing and different combinations of enclosure, drives, cables etc, it seems that the 1TB HDD itself is the problem (somehow the drive is corrupted or defective), not the enclosure because the 400Gb Seagate drive works fine in the Apricorn and the Antec enclosures in all scenarios whereas the 1TB drive is not working at all in either enclosure.

In fact, the 1TB HDD has stopped working altogether in all the testing I have done (although I do hear the drive spinning when I turn it on) and I now get a "external device not functioning properly..." when I connect it to the DVR after it reboots.

I'm going to call Apricorn and get the whole unit replaced...

Has anyone encountered a similar problem with Apricorn or with the 1TB WD drive?? any thoughts would be greatly appreciated...

Guys, i have a hard Drive that has an ESATA port

What cable do i need to connect this Esata to the 8300Hd?

please post a link for me on which cable

thx

As a follow-up from my post above, I have called tech support. As I expected, they asked me to send the unit in for a replacement under the warranty. I have mailed it in yesterday (probably takes about 10 business days). We'll see how long it takes for them to send a replacement.

Based on the trouble shooting I have done (per my previous post), it would seem that the 1TB Western Digital drive is/got defective. I'm not sure if this was a unique occurance or if the 1TB WD drives are problematic...

Guys i have read this thread for hours literally

My HD was reported as working but problematic, thats fine, but after getting the cables and everything and connecting to the DVR, i never even get an acknowledgment that its connected

What else can i do?

Guys i have read this thread for hours literally

My HD was reported as working but problematic, thats fine, but after getting the cables and everything and connecting to the DVR, i never even get an acknowledgment that its connected

What else can i do?

I've checked your enclosure in the database and under your model number it only shows one entry for your HD. This is under navigator. It's going to be a crap shoot at best to determine if it will work with your system. You really need to let us know what firmware your DVR is using. There were directions on how to find this out a few posts up.

Look here

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=14096443&postcount=6823

subscribing.

Seems like the best HD for cablevision customers is the CAXE3701T0 from Cavalry.

all the peeps who reported on this have said that it works well.

Thx to AVS, i am ordering this with the info i got here!

I've got the 8300HDC and hooked up the apricorn 1TB external drive. Now, when I turn on my tv the next day I get no picture or sound. The box display shows 480i and just sits there. Without the external drive hooked up it would come on with 480i as well but at least I could change the channel to get HD going. Has anyone else seen this? If I reboot it'll come back on with 480 selected but a picture at least. I'm getting tired of rebooting every day :(

For reference, I'm running the cable box via hdmi to the Integra Dtc9.8 prepro and then out via hdmi to the Pioneer Elite Pro150FD plasma.

I've got the 8300HDC and hooked up the apricorn 1TB external drive. Now, when I turn on my tv the next day I get no picture or sound. The box display shows 480i and just sits there. Without the external drive hooked up it would come on with 480i as well but at least I could change the channel to get HD going. Has anyone else seen this? If I reboot it'll come back on with 480 selected but a picture at least. I'm getting tired of rebooting every day :(

For reference, I'm running the cable box via hdmi to the Integra Dtc9.8 prepro and then out via hdmi to the Pioneer Elite Pro150FD plasma.What cable service? If it's TWC, you're out of luck. There's currently a deficiency (bug) in Navigator on HDC boxes that doesn't play well with external drives after entering sleep mode (3 hours idle).

Thanks, yes with TWC. So can I switch to the 8300HD to fix this for now?

I've got the 8300HDC and hooked up the apricorn 1TB external drive. Now, when I turn on my tv the next day I get no picture or sound. The box display shows 480i and just sits there. Without the external drive hooked up it would come on with 480i as well but at least I could change the channel to get HD going. Has anyone else seen this? If I reboot it'll come back on with 480 selected but a picture at least. I'm getting tired of rebooting every day :(

For reference, I'm running the cable box via hdmi to the Integra Dtc9.8 prepro and then out via hdmi to the Pioneer Elite Pro150FD plasma.Software??????????? (SARA, Passport, Navigator?)

I'm running Passport thru TWC. A cable guy is coming here in an hour or so and hopefully they can let me swap out for the 8300HD...

Thanks, yes with TWC. So can I switch to the 8300HD to fix this for now?The reports I've read indicate that the HD boxes still handle the external drive.
I'm running Passport thru TWC. I don't understand this. You're the first person I've heard of to claim they have something other than Navigator running on a TWC 8300HDC box.:confused:

Originally Posted by dvdguru
I'm running Passport thru TWC.
I don't understand this. You're the first person I've heard of to claim they have something other than Navigator running on a TWC 8300HDC box.:confused:You might want to rephrase that to:
You're the first person I've heard of to claim they have Passport runnig on a TWC 8300HDC box.

There are lots of TWC 8300HDC boxes running SARA.;)

Maybe I misspoke. It says mystro when it reboots so you're probably right. The cable guy came out and said "we don't have any 8300HD's UGH I'm stuck either rebooting each day and waiting for a software update, using component for now or waiting for a software update....

Seems like the best HD for cablevision customers is the CAXE3701T0 from Cavalry.

all the peeps who reported on this have said that it works well.

Thx to AVS, i am ordering this with the info i got here!

Got the CAXE3701T0 and it works like a gem!

Hard drive went from 95% to 11%!!!

Had a problem because i bought a separate ESATA to Esata cable but the one wasnt thin enough so it didnt go all the way in the External. Used the cable which came with CAXE3701T0 ( i thought it was inferior, thus i used other cable first) and it worked like a charm.

Like others mentioned, there is no message that the formatting is complete, just wait 5 minutes and reboot.
thx to all for the great info

the CAXE3701T0 cost $199 on Newegg for a 1TB drive with no headaches of getting enclosures

Well, the TWC had an 8300HD on his truck so now I have it hooked up and everything is working perfectly and much faster at that :) I didn't erase all the programs on my external drive before I hooked it up to the new box so do I need to hook it to the computer and erase any data on it? The previously recorded programs aren't showing up in the new list but it seems like I reached %5 full pretty quick after setting two hd programs to record.

Also, I checked the diagnostic screen and couldn't find anything showing my full dvr plus external capacity. When I booted the box up it recognized the external drive but didn't format it (because the old box already did?) So far so good as it boots up to 1080i or 720p (not 480i like the newer box).

Looks like I have a problem, is this a bad HDD?

I've been using the following components for over a year with no problems:
SA 8300HD (running SARA software)
500GB External SATA (WD Caviar SE16 in a Nextar passively cooled enclosure)
Cable provider is Rogers and this is a popular combination for a bunch of us Canadians expanding the internal HDD in the 8300HD.

Both the PVR & external enclosure drive are both hooked up to an APC battery backup which was brand new about 5 months ago and still in good working condition (I check it monthly). All of a sudden the external HDD seems to have crashed with no real warning. I can no longer play anything that appears to be recorded on the external drive, even though I can play stuff that was recorded on the internal drive. I noticed the problem on the weekend when I tried to watch something PVR'd and I went immediately to the green screen that you get when you are on the PVR channel with nothing loaded yet. I tried to view stuff I know that I used to watch that was still stored and I got same result. I tried to view newer stuff (1-2 weeks old) and some of it I could view, some I couldn't. So this would indicate that the problem was pretty recent since if the HDD was corrupt, the PVR wouldn't record to it, would it? I think something happened when I tried to load a program that was stored on the external drive. I was running around 90% full for about the last 6 months, sometimes even running out of space and missing some shows, but this hasn't happened in the last 4-6 weeks though (all the good shows are done for the summer now).

Here's what I tried to do to revive it, all to no avail.

I turned off the PVR, unplugged it, unplugged the SATA cable, switched off the external enclosure, unplugged the external enclosure, let everything cool down for at least 30 minutes, plugged external drive back in, switched it on, waited about 5 minutes for it to power up, plugged the drive's SATA cable to PVR making sure a good solid connection was made, plugged PVR power back in, waited for PVR to reboot, turn it on and I now get a message similar to "there is something wrong with the external HDD and it won't work with the PVR". I redid the same procedure a couple of times with no luck. I tried connecting the external enclosure to my PC using the USB, the PC sees it but I didn't want to initialize it for fear I'd lose something that only the PVR can handle. Since I didn't initialize it I couldn't really see it in terms of how much data was on it or if it was corrupted. I've never even tried to do this before so I can't say if this is a problem or not. I do know when I bought an external drive for additional portable storage for my PC, I had to do the same thing in Win XP in order to use it when you first plug it in.

So I'm not sure what else I can do at the moment to fix. At this point I wouldn't care if I lost the recorded programs, but I don't even get a choice to reformat the drive since the PVR doesn't like the connection. I was going to dismantle the enclosure and have a look inside, perhaps the internal connection has come loose (doubtful).

Anyone have any suggestions?

Looks like I have a problem, is this a bad HDD?

Anyone have any suggestions?
There were some earlier posts about bad power supplies for the external drive, so you should try to eliminate this as a problem first. If you are using the SATA cable should be checked as well to eliminate it as a problem.

If the power supply is fine, it is possible that the FAT (or equivalent structure) on the external drive was somehow corrupted. Unfortunately, there is no recovery process and these recordings are lost.

Connect the PVR is stand-alone mode and go through all the recording entries to identify and delete those that point to the external HDD, e.g., anything that will not playback.

Connected the external HDD to a PC and run a format process. If the drive checks out correctly on the PC, i.e., the format process does not fail, it can then be reconnected to the PVR. At this point you should get the message about formatting the drive, and be back in business.

If the format process is not successful, it could be that the drive is bad. You should also try connecting it directly it to the PC, e.g., without the case to make sure that the case is not the problem.

There were some earlier posts about bad power supplies for the external drive, so you should try to eliminate this as a problem first. If you are using the SATA cable should be checked as well to eliminate it as a problem.

Cool, thanks for the input. Gives me a couple things to try. Can I hook up the HDD directly to a PC and do some kind of test on it to see if its the culprit without losing any data, or is formatting it the only way to know for sure?

The eSATA cable is hard to come by, ie. I don't have any spares sitting around at home, and I've only unplugged this cable maybe twice since I've connected everything about 18 mounths ago. Do these cables have a history of going bad in such a short period of time under these conditions? I know anything's possible, but shouldn't a cable problem have reared its ugly head way before now?

Got the CAXE3701T0 and it works like a gem!

<snip>

Like others mentioned, there is no message that the formatting is complete, just wait 5 minutes and reboot.
thx to all for the great info

the CAXE3701T0 cost $199 on Newegg for a 1TB drive with no headaches of getting enclosures

I also installed a Cavalry drive today (500GB CAXE37500) today (Amazon - $116, free "Prime" 2 day shipping/no taxes) and it appears to be working very well. Drive is quiet - can't hear it at all sitting on the floor next to where it sits in my entertainment center, and after I put a little tape over the very bright and large blue light (what is it that almost every light on a device these days is blue?!) it looks like it's going to be a good addition.

Installed on TWSD SA8300HD running Navigator.

What I did:

- Connected drive to SA8300HD, drive powered off, SA8300HD on
- Turned on power to drive - message appeared and I confirmed I wanted to format the drive
- Format complete message appeared (unlike above, I did get a message that formatting was done)
- After formatting I turned off drive and then SA8300HD.
- Turned on drive and then SA8300HD, got message that a new drive was available.

Anything else I need to do to get the % free to update? Do I need to pull power from the SA8300HD to do a full reboot?

All of the recorded shows that had the red warning icon that they were set for imminent delete became unmarked shortly after I went into the Show List view, so it appears that the drive is being seen by the SA8300HD.

Thanks!

[Edit] I rebooted the SA8300HD (turned it off, pulled plug and waited 15s, then plugged in again) and at the end of rebooting the message that there is an external drive available appeared, but I'm still seeing the same % free as before I added the drive. What's the trick here...does the internal drive need to be full before the % free will update properly, or ?

[Edit 2] Never mind...I didn't realize how many hours of HD I already had stored on the SA8300HD...the % full numbers may be OK after all, and I may have mis-remembered the number before I added the drive. I have 11 hours of HD and 20 hours of SD and I'm showing 22% full. That sounds reasonable for the stock drive + 500GB addition. I do know Navigator makes mistakes w/the % full numbers...I've seen mine off by quite a bit - recently I was showing around 90% full when I only had 6 hours SD and 8 hours HD...had to reboot the SA8300HD to get it to show a more accurate number.

Can I hook up the HDD directly to a PC and do some kind of test on it to see if its the culprit without losing any data, or is formatting it the only way to know for sure?

Windows cannot error check the drive as it is not in a recognized format, and stand-alone hard drive diagnostic utilities generally need to write to the drive to verify the status. However, check the manufactures site for an installation utility and see what it can do.

The eSATA cable is hard to come by, ie. I don't have any spares sitting around at home, and I've only unplugged this cable maybe twice since I've connected everything about 18 mounths ago. Do these cables have a history of going bad in such a short period of time under these conditions? I know anything's possible, but shouldn't a cable problem have reared its ugly head way before now?

It does not sound like a cable problem, but it does not hurt to clean the contacts and make sure that they are reseated properly.

Update on my Cavalry drive installation...there have been regular "glitches" since installing it. During playback there will be momentary pixelation and/or sound garbling. Can happen several times in an hour or less.

I've ordered a WD My DVR Expander drive to compare the performance...not sure if the problems I'm seeing are due to the Cavalry drive or the Navigator software, but hoping the WD Expander will resolve the issue.

So the Cavalry might be going back...

Update on my Cavalry drive installation...there have been regular "glitches" since installing it. During playback there will be momentary pixelation and/or sound garbling. Can happen several times in an hour or less.

I've ordered a WD My DVR Expander drive to compare the performance...not sure if the problems I'm seeing are due to the Cavalry drive or the Navigator software, but hoping the WD Expander will resolve the issue.

So the Cavalry might be going back...

So far, so good. In watching about an hour of recorded HD shows this AM from the WD My DVR Expander, I haven't seen any glitches like I was seeing with the Cavalry enclosure.

The WD enclosure is also more subtle and looks a lot more like a family room accessory than "hardware" (which my wife cares about, as it sits in view next to the DVR).

So far the WD My DVR Expander looks like a keeper...and the Cavalry like "returner."

So, over time I am seeing some of the same glitches w/the WD My DVR Expander...they are much less frequent and less disruptive than w/the Cavalry drive, but they are still there.

I have the SA8300HD (not HDC) box from TW. Is anyone using that box w/an external enclosure w/out having any momentary glitches/drop-outs when playing back from the external hard drive?

Wondering if this is just the way it is w/the current Navigator SW, or if I should keep looking for an external drive option that will resolve the issue entirely.

Great news for SA8300HDC owners. TWC released a new Navigator in KC and it has fixed basically every bug I've heard of, including eSATA. Am using Antec MX1 with WD 750GB drive and everything works fine. No skipping, rewinding live TV works great, no 'sleep bug', works perfectly so far.

When your market upgrades Navigator, may be worth the switch to the HDC box. I'm also able to perfectly record to laptop via firewire using VLC.

Best thing about the new upgrade... we now have nearly 50 HD channels thanks to SDV.

I have the SA8300HD (not HDC) box from TW. Is anyone using that box w/an external enclosure w/out having any momentary glitches/drop-outs when playing back from the external hard drive?


I have one of the "HD" boxes with a 500GB WD drive w/ Apricorn enclosure and it works great; no glitches whatsoever. My other DVR, same kind but with no expansion drive, will no longer tune into any channels - although playback of previously recorded material from the programming list occasionally works. Been like that about 2 months now, ever since we got 'gatored. Odd that one works fine and one doesn't.

I'm using the 8300HD with an apricorn 1TB dvr expander and have had no problems. That's two posts in a row for Apricorn...

Great news for SA8300HDC owners. TWC released a new Navigator in KC and it has fixed basically every bug I've heard of, including eSATA. Am using Antec MX1 with WD 750GB drive and everything works fine. No skipping, rewinding live TV works great, no 'sleep bug', works perfectly so far.

When your market upgrades Navigator, may be worth the switch to the HDC box. I'm also able to perfectly record to laptop via firewire using VLC.

Best thing about the new upgrade... we now have nearly 50 HD channels thanks to SDV.

Few questions: Does the "instant replay" (may be called "skip back") button now go back the advertised 8 seconds instead of 3? And you said the rewind button is working - does that mean it now drops you off at the last frame you saw during the rewind (i.e. no jumping forward from 7 seconds to half-a-minute when you hit "play" again)...? And is the 15 minute jump forward or backward function returned? (accessible by holding down the FF or REW buttons for a couple of seconds in non-expansion-drive-equipped DVR's) And have they done anything with the Guide, i.e. expanded the program description field to be more than a measly 2 lines?

^There do not appear to be any new features, just bug fixes. The behavior of external drive is exactly the same as internal.

There are a lot of fixes though in new Navigator release, which also included new drivers. While there are features I'd like to see addressed, all of the bugs I used to have are now gone.

I have one of the "HD" boxes with a 500GB WD drive w/ Apricorn enclosure and it works great; no glitches whatsoever. My other DVR, same kind but with no expansion drive, will no longer tune into any channels - although playback of previously recorded material from the programming list occasionally works. Been like that about 2 months now, ever since we got 'gatored. Odd that one works fine and one doesn't.

I'm using the 8300HD with an apricorn 1TB dvr expander and have had no problems. That's two posts in a row for Apricorn...

Thanks very much for the replies. I'm going to order the Apricorn 500GB and give it a whirl. Fingers crossed (again)...

Great news for SA8300HDC owners. TWC released a new Navigator in KC and it has fixed basically every bug I've heard of, including eSATA. Am using Antec MX1 with WD 750GB drive and everything works fine. No skipping, rewinding live TV works great, no 'sleep bug', works perfectly so far.

When your market upgrades Navigator, may be worth the switch to the HDC box. I'm also able to perfectly record to laptop via firewire using VLC.

Best thing about the new upgrade... we now have nearly 50 HD channels thanks to SDV.
Xeno:

Can you give more info on how you are recording via firewire to your PC. Not sure what VLC is. Here are some questions:

For HD programs on the DVR, are your recordings to the PC also in HD?
What file format are they recorded in?
Can you play the recordings back to the DVR to play on the TV via firewire or is that a one-way link?
Do you have a tuner card to play the recordings on your TV?
Can those recorded video files be used in the future to make Blue Ray recordings?

Mega thanks...

Xeno:

Can you give more info on how you are recording via firewire to your PC. Not sure what VLC is. Here are some questions:

For HD programs on the DVR, are your recordings to the PC also in HD?
What file format are they recorded in?


Yes, HD content is still in full HD. It's stored in MPEG2 format if you use VLC but you can convert to other codecs. VLC plays it back just fine in full HD. I do get some digital artifacts once in a while, which I'm working on.

vlc is at videolan.org. You also need firewire drivers for the STB. There's a firewire thread that explains how to get drivers.

Can you play the recordings back to the DVR to play on the TV via firewire or is that a one-way link?

Not the I'm aware of. I have HDMI out on my laptop so do it that way.


Do you have a tuner card to play the recordings on your TV?

Nope, using HDMI out or just view on laptop or burn to DVD. There are some DVD players that will play DIVX HD files if you convert to that format. You can get very good HD quality on 7GB dual layer DVD disk in DIVX HD format.


Can those recorded video files be used in the future to make Blue Ray recordings?

Not future but today if you want to blow 20 bucks on media and buy a pricey BR burner. I have converted HD content to DVD using Nero Vision and it still looks very good. When BR media gets down to a buck or two each, I'll probably get a BR burner.

Xeno:

Wow, great info. I'm sure others here will also appreciate it.

Not future but today if you want to blow 20 bucks on media and buy a pricey BR burner. I have converted HD content to DVD using Nero Vision and it still looks very good. When BR media gets down to a buck or two each, I'll probably get a BR burner.

Actually this is a perfect application for AVCHD. This is basically a DVD5 or DVD9 using BluRay CODECs(h264/VC1). Most Bluray players support this format. Given the bitrate of HDTV, this will give you very good results.

If your player doesn't support AVCHD, you can just burn a bluray structure in UDF 2.50 format on a DVD and it will work.

There is plenty of info on the net regarding all this, just google.

xnappo

vlc is at videolan.org. You also need firewire drivers for the STB. There's a firewire thread that explains how to get drivers.


Intresting,

Last time I tried it on a amd duel core 5200 processer PC and got all sorts of glitching and microblocking. It seemed that the firewire drivers could not support the transport stream. Have they recently released improved firewire drivers (firestb).

I've been doing this on a dinky 475mhz MAC G4 for sometime now and get great captures.

Actually this is a perfect application for AVCHD. This is basically a DVD5 or DVD9 using BluRay CODECs(h264/VC1). Most Bluray players support this format. Given the bitrate of HDTV, this will give you very good results.

If your player doesn't support AVCHD, you can just burn a bluray structure in UDF 2.50 format on a DVD and it will work.

There is plenty of info on the net regarding all this, just google.

xnappo

This is also a great application for the DIVX 1080P profile which most settop media streamers such as the buffalo linktheater, popcorn hour, MVIX players and most pc based media centers support.

You can also leave the stream in its raw captured format usually .tp .ts or in The MAC's case .m2t and they will also stream in all its HD glory perfectly on this equipment but the file sizes are huge.

For anyone wanting to try this here's a nice thread if your intrested in doing this on a MAC. This is the most successful method.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=386740

Here are some nice threads for the PC. It states that you can't capture pre-recorded shows just live TV but thats not true so just ignore that. Be four warned, there has been limited success capturing to PC.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=403695

and

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6380734&&#post6380734

There are many other sources of information so just search. These 3 threads served as my primary learning tools.

I've had the 500GB Apricorn esata enclosure installed for about 3 days and it appears to be providing the best results of the three external esata drives I've tried (Cavalry, WD My DVR Expander, and the Apricorn DVR Xpander).

So if anyone is looking for a recommendation, for an SA8300HD external drive, I'd point at the Apricorn.

Anyone here know if there is any way to DVR the On Demand channels?

I presently have an Apricorn enclosure with a 500 GB WD HD. I would like to replace it with a 1 TB drive of some description. The only ones I see listed in the (SARA) compatibility database seem to be WD also. Has anyone had experience with any others? (The new Hitachi seems to have a very low power requirement at idle (claimed about 4.5 watts) is why I am asking.)

I would like to copy/clone the contents of my existing drive to a new one, but I do not know what the file format of the recordings is and what computer(s) might be capable of "seeing" the files and moving them over. (I just want to move them, not try to decrypt them.) I have hooked one drive up to a Mac (OS 10.4.x) in the past, but it did not recognize the file format and asked if I wanted to format the drive. Does anyone know if a windows PC or Linux box would "see" the files and be able to copy them over?

Thanks in advance.

Great news for SA8300HDC owners. TWC released a new Navigator in KC and it has fixed basically every bug I've heard of, including eSATA. Am using Antec MX1 with WD 750GB drive and everything works fine. No skipping, rewinding live TV works great, no 'sleep bug', works perfectly so far.

When your market upgrades Navigator, may be worth the switch to the HDC box. I'm also able to perfectly record to laptop via firewire using VLC.

Best thing about the new upgrade... we now have nearly 50 HD channels thanks to SDV.

I have this version in NYC (Manhattan) but the eSATA does not seem to work as I get the same bug as before.

Is it still working for you?

^Yes, no issues. eSATA works perfectly. Click on eSATA link in my sig for config. NYC now has Navigator 2.4.10_11? Which bug are you referring to?

^Yes, no issues. eSATA works perfectly. Click on eSATA link in my sig for config. NYC now has Navigator 2.4.10_11? Which bug are you referring to?
I received the new version 2.4.10_11 version Navigator last week here in San Diego and it is working much better for me than the previous one on the HDC box also. The problems I had with recording failures and with the HDMI and eSATA ports previously seem to be fixed. I installed a 500MB Apricorn DVR Xpander two days ago and it went flawlessly, recognizing and formatting the drive on the first boot, and my storage level went down to 8%. Recordings have all happened without any error messages or 'sleep mode' problems with the expansion drive so far. The FF or R 'jump 15-minute' function works fine on live channels while recording with the other tuner as well.

I had changed to component cabling to the TV because of problems with the HDMI port, but I reconnected the HDMI cable and have not experienced the same resolution switching as I did previously when exiting the guide, or the annoying 'sticking' of the screen image in the upper right corner. I don't know about the Firewire or USB ports, but this new ODN version of firmware seems to have fixed the problems I had and seems more stable to me. Now if they can just improve the feature set of the guide....

TT
La Jolla, CA
SA8300HDC - TWC Navigator 2.4.10_11

Yeah, now that they've fixed the bugs, they need to focus on features and actually make an effort to compete with Tivo.

Note: The most successful drives are SATA. Some converters (i.e. to IDE) work, but not well for the SA8300HD(C). If you have no equipment yet, check the following databases for other member’s experience:

Navigator Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/navigator)
Passport Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/passport)
SARA Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/main)

Links to the databases can also be found in the sig of xnappo.

How To Determine Software Being Used. Interactive Program Guide Images are useful for determining which software is being used. Look at the A/B/C button labels at the bottom of the guide:

Button= A/B/C
Navigator= Access Menu/Find Shows/[no label]
Passport =Time/Theme/Search or Title
SARA =Browse By/Date[ ]/Home or [curved backarrow]

PLEASE,

We are here to help. And we need your cooperation to be at our best.

Read the first post and the last two pages-The most recently discussed problems are there. They are also the most recently developing problems. Do not read every page that will only drive you crazy. Older pages likely contain outdated information.

An efficient search will help. Try to use just one highly significant word. For tips on searching or any general questions, please PM me or the ID of a frequent poster, or a high post count, or any member. We may use different terminology!

If you can’t find your answer or are not sure you understand it, ask in any way you are comfortable. Try to be brief-Think of the next new person reading this thread.

Tell us where you (or the person with the problem) are-City and State.

Tell us what equipment you are using-HDMI? -All makes and models, and include your video provider (i.e. Comcast, DirecTV)

Try to be brief-Think of the next new person reading this thread.

Be patient-It may take a few days before the best qualified member to answer your question “picks up.”

THANK YOU!

Bob:)
SA8300HD-Comcast-SARA 1.89.22.2-Maxtor 7H500FO-Coolgear Dual Drive eSATA Case

I presently have an Apricorn enclosure with a 500 GB WD HD. I would like to replace it with a 1 TB drive of some description. The only ones I see listed in the (SARA) compatibility database seem to be WD also. Has anyone had experience with any others? (The new Hitachi seems to have a very low power requirement at idle (claimed about 4.5 watts) is why I am asking.)

I would like to copy/clone the contents of my existing drive to a new one, but I do not know what the file format of the recordings is and what computer(s) might be capable of "seeing" the files and moving them over. (I just want to move them, not try to decrypt them.) I have hooked one drive up to a Mac (OS 10.4.x) in the past, but it did not recognize the file format and asked if I wanted to format the drive. Does anyone know if a windows PC or Linux box would "see" the files and be able to copy them over?

Thanks in advance.

I do not believe that anyone has found a way to copy the data from your old drive to a new one.

I do not believe that anyone has found a way to copy the data from your old drive to a new one.

I wonder about that. If you clone the drive, make a bit-for-bit copy, why wouldn't that work?

I'd like to upgrade my 500 GB drive to a 750 or one of these newfangled 1 TB drives and would like to save the stuff I've got on it by moving it to the new drive.

I wonder about that. If you clone the drive, make a bit-for-bit copy, why wouldn't that work?

I'd like to upgrade my 500 GB drive to a 750 or one of these newfangled 1 TB drives and would like to save the stuff I've got on it by moving it to the new drive.

Yes, this is possible. See this post:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=12575357&postcount=1

I am now going to add a bunch of keywords to make this post easier to find.

bit copy drive clone disk low level bit-for-bit copy disk clone disk bitwise

xnappo

Thanks, xnappo, that's great to know. I'm sure I'll want to go to 1 (or 2!) TB at some point, so it's good to know that options exist.

Thanks, xnappo, that's great to know. I'm sure I'll want to go to 1 (or 2!) TB at some point, so it's good to know that options exist.

No problem. Definitely a FAQ!

xnappo

As I had previously reported, my 1TB Apricorn DVR eXpander failed back in early June (started with freezing/glitches on some recordings, then some recordings became unplayable and then finally the drive was no longer recognized by the PVR). Also as I had mentioned, the culprit seemed to be the 1TB WD drive inside (the enclosure seemed to work fine with another drive when I was troubleshooting). Anyway, after speaking with Apricorn’s tech support, they asked me to ship them the old unit and said they will replace it.

Finally, I have received the replacement unit yesterday. I installed and did a little bit of testing and everything seems to be in order. It seems that they have sent me a brand new unit. Also, the new unit’s power indicator light is now green instead of red. Not sure if this means that they have made some changes to the enclosure (otherwise it looks identical to my old one).

I still don’t know why the WD drive failed. It had worked flawlessly for 6 months so I’m hoping that was a fluke and I don’t have to go through this again in 6 months. Btw has anyone else using the 1TB WD drive have any problems with it??

Btw the details of my drive are in the SARA database

Drives fail, that's a fact of life. Some die a quick death (usually due to a failure in the HW), others develop sporadic issues like yours did, which could have been to due bad sectors developing on the drive that the enclosure and the DVR's firmware didn't have the ability to deal with.

Short answer is that unless there is a problem w/the Apricorn drives in general (I've seen nothing to indicate that) you probably just got "unlucky" and got a drive that was destined to die young.

The green light part is interesting...either they are making a change to the Xpander line to make it look more "living room friendly" and believe green is a better choice than red, or this could indicate a general update of the enclosure/firmware. In either case, I have green envy... ;-)

Comcast in Houston, SARA SW:

I have a 8300HD with a WD DVRExpander. Seems when I am playing back (what I guess is recorded on the external HD, can't tell for sure) I get very jerky FF and RW, not smooth as normally.


Is this a bug in this software?

I have used an external SATA drive on my 8300HD successfully for many months, thanks to the valuable info on this forum.

Today it seems that the internal drive on the 8300 has failed. After several attempts, the unit has finally booted, but pressing "LIST" yields: "Your recording device is being checked. One moment please." Note that at this point my SATA drive is turned OFF. I suspect that the box is trying to reformat the internal drive, judging from the intermittent clicking noises. But it's been trying for quite a while, and I fear it will not succeed.

I know that if I replace the box, I will lose all the programming on the external SATA drive. My question is: if I get the internal drive replaced, keeping the same box, will my external programming be accessible when I reconnect the external SATA, or is it lost no matter what?

Any info/advice appreciated.

I have used an external SATA drive on my 8300HD successfully for many months, thanks to the valuable info on this forum.


The problem here is that the list of recordings for both the internal and external drives are stored on the internal drive. So if your internal drive is not totally dead, I would try cloning it using the post I posted a few days ago and see if you can get recovery.

If you pull off this stunt you will be quite the hacker (well, at least in terms of this thread). Obviously opening your cable box is against your contract/you could be liable etc etc.

xnappo

The problem here is that the list of recordings for both the internal and external drives are stored on the internal drive. So if your internal drive is not totally dead, I would try cloning it using the post I posted a few days ago and see if you can get recovery.

If you pull off this stunt you will be quite the hacker (well, at least in terms of this thread). Obviously opening your cable box is against your contract/you could be liable etc etc.

xnappo
I feel like I read something a long time ago that if the internal hard drive (with the directory listing on it) gets zapped, the programming on the external drive will still be available, but none of the shows will have any information (title, description, etc.)

I could be totally off the mark here, but I'd swear I recall someone discussing that.

I think it would actually be a relatively-low risk test to open the box, yank the drive, put in a fresh one, and see if the external drive's programming is still available. In the worst case, they could just put the original (but faulty) drive back afterwards and try their best to watch everything on the external drive in a marathon of TV watching. ;)

Be advised: Specs for existing and most new DVRs say 1.5 GB MAX.

Comcast in Houston, SARA SW:

I have a 8300HD and a WD DVRExpander. Seems when I am playing back (what I guess is recorded on the external HD, can't tell for sure) I get very jerky FF and RW, not smooth as normally.


Is this a bug in this software?

I had some issues w/a WD My DVR Expander (500GB) and ended up returning it...I got drop-outs on play back, and some of the jerky FF/RW that you refer to.

I returned the WD unit.

I am now using an Apricorn DVR Xpander (500GB) and haven't had much better performance overall.

W/the Apricorn, occasionally FF/RW will briefly (just at the start of the FF/RW, for a second or two) not appear to be as smooth as normal, but not like w/the WD, where the entire FF/RW would be jerky/jumpy.

Bottom line I think the Apricorn is a better option and will be using them going forward for any external drives on my SA8300HD...YMMV, of course.

Be advised: Specs for existing and most new DVRs say 1.5 GB MAX.

1.5 GB max for what, Holl_ands?

I installed a 500MB Apricorn DVR Xpander two days ago and it went flawlessly, recognizing and formatting the drive on the first boot, and my storage level went down to 8%. Recordings have all happened without any error messages...

I had my first problem today with the SA8300HDC running TWC Navigator ver. 2.4.10_11 and my newly installed expansion drive, and I don't know what is going on with it, so thought I would ask here for advice.

I was watching a recording of the Tour de France that I made earlier today, and put the DVR on pause for a "natural break", as they call it in the bike race commentary. When I returned, the screensaver was running and the screen was dark with the "press any button to continue" message displayed, as usual. I hit play twice, which in the past had always worked to continue playing the recording. The sound came back on right where I left off, but no picture was displayed. The screensaver message had disappeared, but the screen was still blank, while the audio portion played on. I hit stop and save, returning to live broadcast, but none of the cable channels had anything but audio--no picture on any of them! I switched sources to make sure it wasn't a problem with the display, but the picture came on brightly as soon as I left the STB source, so I knew it wasn't a display problem with the TV. I figured it was a problem with the STB and that I should reboot it.

I turned the STB off and waited 20 seconds or so, then unplugged the power cord, leaving the expansion drive hooked up and powered on. When the STB rebooted, the picture was back on all channels along with the sound, and it still recognized the hard drive (according to the % full), and I can record and watch new programs to it, but all the recordings I had made since hooking it up were not in the list anymore, only the recordings on the internal hard drive were there.

Checking the recording log, it shows some of the last programs I had recorded as "unable to be recorded" that were previously in the list, but other shows were not there at all, even though I had already recorded and watched them. No message such as "deleted by user" for them or anything. This does not make any sense. Did I do something wrong in the rebooting process? Should I have powered down and disconnected the external drive before rebooting, then reinstalled it? I tried doing this after the fact, and without the expansion drive, my "percentage full" shows as 31%, and reinstalling the drive it shows as 8%, so I know the drive is being recognized and used, but the previous recordings are not listed correctly, and the space they must have taken up on the expansion drive is no longer accounted for. It only shows the ones recorded prior to the installation of the expansion drive in the list, which are on the internal drive, and I had been up to 21% utilization or so with the new drive attached. 8% is what it showed when I first hooked it up, so it is not seeing any recorded shows on the expansion drive.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, but my most likely guess is this version of Navigator on the HDC box is still bug-ridden regarding the storing of info on shows recorded on an expansion drive. Since it is so new, I know that not many of you will have any experience with it, but I am not happy about the fact that it seems if the box reboots at any time, I am going to lose any record of the shows recorded on the external drive.

Thx,
TT

I have an SA8300HD box (looks like you have an HDC) w/the Apricorn, and haven't had any issues like you report. It sounds like there was a pretty good "hiccup" and either data was lost/corrupted or pointers to the data got blown away.

Could be the SW on the DVR, could be an early indication that the drive is accumulating bad sectors...

I think if I were concerned about the integrity of the data on the external drive, I'd want the DVR to reformat the drive so I could start over clean. Not sure how to force that...might have to connect the drive to your PC and format it there and then reconnect to the DVR so it would reformat. Someone else likely knows a simpler way.

Could be the SW on the DVR, could be an early indication that the drive is accumulating bad sectors...

Thanks for the reply, Dana. I think the expansion drive is fine, and that it is a DVR/software problem. More data to support this--when I went into the scheduled series recording list, everything I had set up to record was still there, but they all said "0 scheduled, 0 recorded" even though the List Programs view contains one example of a scheduled and previously recorded program still. Then when I checked for them, there are multiple instances in the guide of series that should still have been scheduled to be recorded which are no longer highlighted in red anymore. After selecting one of them in the guide and scheduling it again, all of the previous entries on the series recording page have suddenly disappeared--only the newly scheduled one is left. This is another instance of instability in the ODN software, I am afraid, and I have had a major "hiccup." The external drive still seems to work perfectly, but the reboot has effected the DVR's record-keeping radically.

Anyone else using an expansion drive with the 8300HDC and the 2.4.10_11 software reboot their boxes yet? Anyone brave enough (and unconcerned enough with saved content) to try it?

TT

Ok, here's the setup:

TWC Austin TX
8300HDC
SARA 1.90.5.110
eSATA WD7500AAKS Caviar SE16 750GB
Antec MX-1

Ok, so I plugged it in last night for the first time. Recorded a couple of shows to test it out.

Stuff recorded before I added the eSATA has no problems, no glitches, looks good.

New programs recorded after I added the eSATA have audio/video glitches at least once a minute. The glitches aren't awful, but they are bad enough to make me not want to watch the program.

The HD is on the SARA list, and shows no glitches on someone else's TWC Austin SA8300HDC (as reported on the list).

Edited to add: I have also performed both a forced reset and a hard reboot. Neither helped.

Please help if you can.

Ok, here's the setup:

TWC Austin TX
8300HDC
SARA 1.90.5.110
eSATA WD7500AAKS Caviar SE16 750GB
Antec MX-1

Ok, so I plugged it in last night for the first time. Recorded a couple of shows to test it out.

Stuff recorded before I added the eSATA has no problems, no glitches, looks good.

New programs recorded after I added the eSATA have audio/video glitches at least once a minute. The glitches aren't awful, but they are bad enough to make me not want to watch the program.

The HD is on the SARA list, and shows no glitches on someone else's TWC Austin SA8300HDC (as reported on the list).

Edited to add: I have also performed both a forced reset and a hard reboot. Neither helped.

Please help if you can.

That's exactly what I experienced w/the Cavalry and WD My DVR Expander drives (both of which are on the Navigator compatibility list). I have not had problems w/the Apricorn DVR Xpander drive that I now use.

Don't know what to say, other than unless you can try another drive it's pretty hard to troubleshoot if it's the drive, the SW version you're running on, or some of both. Based on my experience, I would expect it's the drive...

If you are able to return the antec setup you might want to consider trying the Apricorn DVR Xpander...I think it's only about $135 or so from Amazon, Amazon has a liberal return policy, and likely no sales tax for you.

If you are able to return the antec setup you might want to consider trying the Apricorn DVR Xpander...I think it's only about $135 or so from Amazon, Amazon has a liberal return policy, and likely no sales tax for you.

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll give that one a try. I can always use the Antec setup with my home office computer.

Anyone else using an expansion drive with the 8300HDC and the 2.4.10_11 software reboot their boxes yet? Anyone brave enough (and unconcerned enough with saved content) to try it?

OK, apparently this glitch I experienced was not from my rebooting procedure, because I just ran a test to repeat the process and did not get the same result. With the expansion drive hooked up and functioning, I recorded several programs and rebooted the DVR. When it came back on, they were still there in the program list and could be played just fine. They did not disappear as they did the last time, and I did everything the same way, leaving the expansion drive hooked up and powered on throughout. My series recordings were also back (the ones that had disappeared) though, and are still saying "0 recorded and 0 scheduled, even though some of them are in the guide and should be scheduled. I don't understand this at all. The original problem I experienced while pausing a show during replay must have had something to do with losing the recording data from the external drive. If all this data is stored on the internal drive, as I have read here, then perhaps I had a problem with the file allocation table on the internal drive which pointed to the data on the external drive, and it used an earlier copy instead to restore functionality to the DVR? I'm just guessing here, but it does not appear now that simply rebooting caused the data loss.

Another interesting coincidence is that after recording the last of the shows I used for this test, for the very first time I saw a message displayed that said the DVR was about to go into "sleep mode," and I pressed the "A" button to prevent this, as prompted. This was within a minute of the recording ending, with both the DVR and the TV on. In the 5 or 6 weeks I have had the DVR, I have never seen this message before. Why would this happen at such a time?

TT

I've never seen or heard of a "sleep warning" message that I can remember. Don't know if that's new w/the Navigator SW, or something that was in Passport as well...

I've never seen or heard of a "sleep warning" message that I can remember. Don't know if that's new w/the Navigator SW, or something that was in Passport as well... I have never had a DVR before the middle of May, when I took TWC up on their offer of one for a free 3-month trial, so I never experienced the Passport software except on a SA3250HD box and an older non-DVR box. Navigator sucked on both of them--extremely slow and unreliable. I still have the 3250HD box running the 2.4.1-107 version of Navigator and it is extremely slow at populating the guide, etc., but seems more reliable now. I have never seen a "sleep" warning from it, either, but it has not rebooted spontaneously since the last firmware update like it used to do.

One more datapoint that may be germane to my recent problem with the programming on the expansion drive disappearing: I had been hooked up to the TV thru component cabling, because of the resolution switching problem with the previous 2.4.9_3 version of the ODN software when using the HDMI port. When I received the 2.4.10_11 version update to Navigator, I tried the HDMI cable again and it seemed to work well now, so I left it hooked up that way. When I lost the picture as reported above, after pausing the DVR, I wonder if it was an HDMI handshake problem? I still had audio, just no picture. If it happens again, instead of rebooting the DVR, I am going to just power it down and switch to component cables again and see if that fixes the picture failure without sending the programming on the expansion drive to the cornfield.

I am also wondering if this had anything to do with TWC experimenting with or preparing for the roll-out of SDV in our area, which is scheduled for next month?

TT

I bought a "My DVR Expander". Tested it out on my SA8300HD. Worked perfect. Moved it to my GF's apartment. Same type of DVR, SA8300HD. The DVR recognizes it. But the percent of disk space available does not change. Any suggestions?

BTW, I returned my SA and dropped cable. Tired of HDMI problems, and not getting the channels I want to watch in HD. Switched to Directv. The standard def channels look really bad compared to TWC. HD seems to be the same quality.

I bought a "My DVR Expander". Tested it out on my SA8300HD. Worked perfect. Moved it to my GF's apartment. Same type of DVR, SA8300HD. The DVR recognizes it. But the percent of disk space available does not change. Any suggestions?


You need to format it on a PC, right now it is locked to your box.

xnappo

Don't know what to say, other than unless you can try another drive it's pretty hard to troubleshoot if it's the drive, the SW version you're running on, or some of both. Based on my experience, I would expect it's the drive...


Short update: Tried recording a few more programs last night using the Caviar SE16. When two programs were recorded at the same time, both have audio/video glitches at least once per minute. When only one program was recorded at a time, that program had a glitch only every 5 minutes or so (maybe even less often, can't remember).

I've got a 750GB Apricorn DVR Xpander on the way. Should arrive next week. Will update with the results. Interesting to note that the specs on the Apricorn show that it has an 8mb buffer, while the WD Caviar had a 16mb cache. I guess something like that doesn't necessarily make a huge difference.

Should also note that a couple of weeks ago I tried a 750GB Acomdata Pure Drive. Recognized by the machine, but had many awful glitches every minute. I wouldn't even use it to store punchcard data.

It will be very interesting to see how things go w/the Apricorn...I have the 500GB, not sure of the specs of it vs. the 750GB.

If you still get poor results it may in fact be an issue w/SARA, or (?) possibly a HW problem w/your DVR.

Another interesting coincidence is that after recording the last of the shows I used for this test, for the very first time I saw a message displayed that said the DVR was about to go into "sleep mode," and I pressed the "A" button to prevent this, as prompted. This was within a minute of the recording ending, with both the DVR and the TV on. In the 5 or 6 weeks I have had the DVR, I have never seen this message before. Why would this happen at such a time?

TTBy chance was it 2 or 3 AM when this happened? Sometime overnight the DVR will shutdown if left on and no keys have been touched. I have never seen the message so not sure how it comes up. /Dan

I bought a "My DVR Expander". Tested it out on my SA8300HD. Worked perfect. Moved it to my GF's apartment. Same type of DVR, SA8300HD. The DVR recognizes it. But the percent of disk space available does not change. Any suggestions?

BTW, I returned my SA and dropped cable. Tired of HDMI problems, and not getting the channels I want to watch in HD. Switched to Directv. The standard def channels look really bad compared to TWC. HD seems to be the same quality.

Make sure you use it for a while before you throw away receipts, or put another way, use it a lot before your return window closes.

At first I thought the WD My DVR Expander was working well for me, but playback glitches started appearing...

OK, apparently this glitch I experienced was not from my rebooting procedure, because I just ran a test to repeat the process and did not get the same result. With the expansion drive hooked up and functioning, I recorded several programs and rebooted the DVR. When it came back on, they were still there in the program list and could be played just fine. They did not disappear as they did the last time, and I did everything the same way, leaving the expansion drive hooked up and powered on throughout. My series recordings were also back (the ones that had disappeared) though, and are still saying "0 recorded and 0 scheduled, even though some of them are in the guide and should be scheduled. I don't understand this at all. The original problem I experienced while pausing a show during replay must have had something to do with losing the recording data from the external drive. If all this data is stored on the internal drive, as I have read here, then perhaps I had a problem with the file allocation table on the internal drive which pointed to the data on the external drive, and it used an earlier copy instead to restore functionality to the DVR? I'm just guessing here, but it does not appear now that simply rebooting caused the data loss.

Another interesting coincidence is that after recording the last of the shows I used for this test, for the very first time I saw a message displayed that said the DVR was about to go into "sleep mode," and I pressed the "A" button to prevent this, as prompted. This was within a minute of the recording ending, with both the DVR and the TV on. In the 5 or 6 weeks I have had the DVR, I have never seen this message before. Why would this happen at such a time?

TT

I have a SA 8300 HD with the MDN software, so my experience might not help, but here it is anyway. I had a similar experience with my eSATA drive several months ago. After a power off reboot, the shows recorded on the LIST for the eSATA were gone, but the percent space used looked like the space was still being used. I tried every way I could think of to try to recover it: power off on the box leaving the eSATA on, power off on both, power off on the eSATA, warm boot, etc. Nothing worked. I left the eSATA off for a couple of months.

Then my box was updated with 2.4.1-107 and the closed captioning quit causing spontaneous reboots. After a few days, I hooked the eSATA back up. At first, it worked like yours (and the way it worked several months ago). I could record new shows and watch them, but the old shows were still missing and the percent used looke like they were still on the disk. I again tried several reboots to no avail. Finally, I turned the box off, but still had power to the box and eSATA. Then I held the power button on the box for about 10 seconds, forcing a reboot. After a very long reboot time (15 to 20 minutes) the box finally came back up and the old shows, recorded several months earlier, were back in the List. And they worked!

I have rebooted several times since then, with no problems, but normally forcing the reboot with the box power button.

After a power off reboot, the shows recorded on the LIST for the eSATA were gone, but the percent space used looked like the space was still being used.
In my case, the space on the external drive is not showing as allocated. Before the installation of the external drive, I was at 31% usage. After installing the external drive I was at 8%. Using both, it had risen back up to about 21%. After the incident, I am back at 8% with both drives hooked up, and 31% with the internal only. The 13% between 8 and 21 is nowhere to be found, and not indicated by the usage meter.

Finally, I turned the box off, but still had power to the box and eSATA. Then I held the power button on the box for about 10 seconds, forcing a reboot. After a very long reboot time (15 to 20 minutes) the box finally came back up and the old shows, recorded several months earlier, were back in the List. And they worked! Is this like a "warm boot" rather than a "cold" boot? I will definitely try it, since I have nothing to lose at this point.

Thx,
TT

EDIT: OK, I tried this, but nothing happened with my HDC box by holding down the power button for even 30 seconds. Is there a different way to do a "warm" boot on an HDC model with my version of firmware?

By chance was it 2 or 3 AM when this happened? Dan-
No, it was late afternoon when it showed the "sleep message", about 4 or 5 PM.

TT

Well I'm back to the glitching every 5 to 10 minutes. I had an epower ep-301sa which was great until the fan died. As the epower is discontinied I ordered a new apricorn ezbus_dts and like the first apricorn I had, it also glitches very badly. I know about the power supply problem with the apricorn as I was the one that discovered it and I still think the new replacement bricks are not much better.

Xnappo's database reflects glitching problems for the apricorn in a lot of the comments. I'm thinking of shelling out (again) for a new enclosure SO I would like to here from the antec MX-1 users before I do. I'm on SARA but any comment regardless of firmware will be appreciated.

Any glitching?
Any video freezing?
Any audio dropouts?

If yes to any of the above, how often?

I've read some great things about the MX-1 but would like to here from the MX-1 users here.

W

Any glitching?
Any video freezing?
Any audio dropouts?



I switched to one after my Apricorn power brick issue. I have been quite happy with it, other than the fact it is a bit ugly! No glitches at all.

xnappo

I switched to one after my Apricorn power brick issue. I have been quite happy with it, other than the fact it is a bit ugly! No glitches at all.

xnappo

I went ahead and bought one. I could not pass up the deal I found on amazon for $34.66 + free shipping. Its better then the $59 - $69 I've been seeing.

I still want to here comments from the users here.

I just figure this will add to the vast collection of enclosures I've already tried :)

I picked up a 500GB MyBook on Ebay for $70 bucks shipped.. had a whole bunch of them... nice deal.. you could just strip the drive (SATA II drive) It's USB 2.0 and eSATA on the rear.

I switched to one after my Apricorn power brick issue. I have been quite happy with it, other than the fact it is a bit ugly! No glitches at all.

xnappo

You know what they say about ugly.

Beauty's only skin deep but ugly's to the bone :)

It will be very interesting to see how things go w/the Apricorn...I have the 500GB, not sure of the specs of it vs. the 750GB.

If you still get poor results it may in fact be an issue w/SARA, or (?) possibly a HW problem w/your DVR.

Got my Apricorn DVR Xpander today. 750GB.

I'm still getting glitches, but not as bad and not as often. Programs recorded one at a time have no glitches. Two programs recorded at a time = glitches in both.

Does drive size have anything to do with it? Would a 500GB drive work better?

Are the glitches recorded? Or do they happen upon playback?

UPDATE: When I re-watch the recorded programs, the glitches seem to appear if different spots. So, I'm guessing that the glitches are happening on playback (instead of the glitches having been actually recorded). Am I right?

Also, the drives I've tried all had a 16MB buffer. The Hitachi CinemaStar7k1000/ (http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/en/products/cinemastar/7K1000/) drives have a 32MB buffer. Would the larger buffer make a noticeable performance difference?

Thanks.

UPDATE: When I re-watch the recorded programs, the glitches seem to appear if different spots. So, I'm guessing that the glitches are happening on playback (instead of the glitches having been actually recorded). Am I right?
Thanks.

With my apricorn enclosure about 50% of the glitches are on the recording and 50% of the glitching is from playback. I seriously think its the enclosure and not the drive. I had the same drive in an epower enclosure and never had glitching. I had to change the enclosure because the fan gave out and is not replacable. The enclosure is no longer available and so I went with another apricorn. The glitching started almost right away. I am now getting rid of the apricorn enclosure and getting an antec MX-1.

If the MX-1 don't solve it then my next step is to build my own enclosure with the guts I saved from the epower enclosure and add my own fan.

I've searched AVS and can't find any info on this Iomega DVR expander. Does anyone have one or have any info about them? Thanks.

http://http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3887559&CatId=2459

Odd...I haven't been having glitching w/the Apricorn on my SA8300HD, which has the Navigator software...I wonder if Navigator plays better w/the Apricorn for some reason?

I don't have any info to indicate that a 500GB would do any better for you, DIAB. At this point the best bet might be following Danny or others who also have SARA on their DVRs...

Odd...I haven't been having glitching w/the Apricorn on my SA8300HD, which has the Navigator software...I wonder if Navigator plays better w/the Apricorn for some reason?


Well, I ordered the Hitachi CinemaStar 7k1000 750GB, 32MB cache.

Hopefully it will arrive early next week so I can test this 4th drive with my setup.

EDIT: OK, I tried this, but nothing happened with my HDC box by holding down the power button for even 30 seconds. Is there a different way to do a "warm" boot on an HDC model with my version of firmware?


With the unit powered off, pull the plug. Wait 20 secs. then while holding the power button in, insert the power plug. Keep holding the power button in until you see Boot on the display, then release. It will soon shut off, and may take up to 5-7 minutes for it to finally come up. That's called a hard reboot.

I picked up a 500GB MyBook on Ebay for $70 bucks shipped.. had a whole bunch of them... nice deal.. you could just strip the drive (SATA II drive) It's USB 2.0 and eSATA on the rear.

Not sure if the MyBook works - I know the DVR Expander works fine. Check the database listed in the first post.

Odd...I haven't been having glitching w/the Apricorn on my SA8300HD, which has the Navigator software...

Wish I had tried this before :o

On a whim, I plugged the Apricorn DVR Xpander into the 8300HDC in my bedroom. Works perfectly (so far). No glitches after 4 recordings. Will continue testing tomorrow.

I can't believe I didn't try this a couple of hard drives ago. Looks like the problem lies in that particular DVR.

Will continue testing tomorrow.


I've recorded another half-dozen or so programs this morning. No glitches. No problems of any kind.

I'm left to assume that there was a hardware problem with my other 8300HDC.

Thanks to everyone who helped.

Interesting...hope things continue to work well for you.

I've recorded another half-dozen or so programs this morning. No glitches. No problems of any kind.

I'm left to assume that there was a hardware problem with my other 8300HDC.

Thanks to everyone who helped.

If you rent and don't own the box exchange it for another and try it on the new box. Let us know how you make out.

I have a new external drive that I found out I can't use since my 8300HDC box has the "sleep bug". Does anyone know if I take this HDC box to the local TW office and exchange it, is there a chance I'll get one with a newer version of Navigator that may not have the sleep problem? And I'm sure they would have no clue what version of software is on their boxes, right?

I have a new external drive that I found out I can't use since my 8300HDC box has the "sleep bug". Does anyone know if I take this HDC box to the local TW office and exchange it, is there a chance I'll get one with a newer version of Navigator that may not have the sleep problem? And I'm sure they would have no clue what version of software is on their boxes, right?

No, the software gets downloaded to all the boxes. Your only option is to wait until they push the new release. You could try calling them and asking when they are going to push out a new Navigator version but... good luck with that :) as you inferred, their tech support is usually clueless.

You want version 2.4.10_11 or higher.

xnappo

I am getting a lot of a/v glitching since pairing my sa8300HD and a WD My DVR Expander. Has is become the consensus that it is going to be a faulty dvr? Has anyone had luck with any type of restart sequence that might clear this up? Although my pairing is new, I'd rather not have to replace the dvr if at all possible..
Thanks

P.S. read my review of the DVR Expander here:DVR Expander Review (http://bigbrain28.squarespace.com/blarg/2008/8/11/review-of-the-my-dvr-expander.html)

I have an 8300HDC box with the sleep bug. I'm waiting for TW to upgrade Navigator and fix this so I can add an external drive. What is the software version that corrects this sleep bug problem? Is this verified for sure by many users?

Those with 2.4.10_11 report that their external drives now work again.

My HDC box has been rebooting itself continually all night - I can only hope they are attempting a Navigator upgrade. My HD box is not rebooting however, so who knows what might be going on now....

I am getting a lot of a/v glitching since pairing my sa8300HD and a WD My DVR Expander. Has is become the consensus that it is going to be a faulty dvr? Has anyone had luck with any type of restart sequence that might clear this up? Although my pairing is new, I'd rather not have to replace the dvr if at all possible..
Thanks

P.S. read my review of the DVR Expander here:DVR Expander Review (http://bigbrain28.squarespace.com/blarg/2008/8/11/review-of-the-my-dvr-expander.html)


Very nice review. You mentioned in your review that you had another 8300HD in an upstairs room. If the programming on the WD is not that important you may want to put the WD on the other 8300HD as a test and see if you have more/less/no glitching from that one. I had bad glitching on my first 8300 and replaced it and the glitching was gone. Recently I replaced my external and glitching is back but this time its the enclosure. If you do a search on my name you will see I've had many battles with this.

Very nice review. You mentioned in your review that you had another 8300HD in an upstairs room. If the programming on the WD is not that important you may want to put the WD on the other 8300HD as a test and see if you have more/less/no glitching from that one. I had bad glitching on my first 8300 and replaced it and the glitching was gone. Recently I replaced my external and glitching is back but this time its the enclosure. If you do a search on my name you will see I've had many battles with this.

I don't think I've even got anything on the external yet, still under 12hrs, so that test is doable, however the unit upstairs is the one with the Cablecard slot, is that a HDC I keep reading about? And what would I really prove with that test? If it glitches right away it's the connection to the external that screws up the internal - since ther data isn't actually coming from the external? what's weird is that the glitches are NOT in the recording, eg, when i rewind and replay a segment that was glitched it plays fine...

I will do a search on your name and read about your experience as well.

Thanks for compliment on the review, also.

I don't think I've even got anything on the external yet, still under 12hrs, so that test is doable, however the unit upstairs is the one with the Cablecard slot, is that a HDC I keep reading about? And what would I really prove with that test? If it glitches right away it's the connection to the external that screws up the internal - since ther data isn't actually coming from the external? what's weird is that the glitches are NOT in the recording, eg, when i rewind and replay a segment that was glitched it plays fine...

I will do a search on your name and read about your experience as well.

Thanks for compliment on the review, also.

As I mentioned my previous glitching stemed from a problem with the DVR. I to when it would glitch would go back to that point and then it would'nt gltch. I think it may have something to do with the way the DVR buffers the content on the external drive. If you read back a page or 2 you will find someone recently that had the same problem and narrowed it to the DVR.

We were just upgraded to version 2.4.10_11. Besides fixing the sleep bug, what other improvements are there? None seem to be visible?

We were just upgraded to version 2.4.10_11. Besides fixing the sleep bug, what other improvements are there? None seem to be visible?I've seen reports it also fixes problems with HDMI.

It would sure be useful to the rest of us if you told us where your from. Maybe put it in your profile?

I'm in Erie, PA. I did have sound dropouts with HDMI before. Maybe I'll hook it up that way again and retest.

Does anyone own the Iomega DVR Expander (link below)? Just wondering if works well or not.

http://http://store.iomega.com/section?SID=2ab3b5c9ba83658b6f652af5d6937639040:4760&secid=40079

I'm in Erie, PA. I did have sound dropouts with HDMI before. Maybe I'll hook it up that way again and retest.

Were almost neighbors. I work in Erie, pa.

Bill

Our upgrade to version 2.4.10_11 did NOT fix the sleep bug on my HDC8300HDC. It still comes up with a blank screen after being turned off overnight. This seems very strange, since other users reported this version always fixed the sleep problem. This is very discouraging......

Any suggestions? I'm now rebooting it one more time before I return the hard drive.

Maybe double check your release? Perhaps they backed up to the old release for some reason.

After rebooting, the DVR went thru a cycle of numbers from 1000 on down, I guess to complete the upgrade. And now success! The sleep bug is gone and the external drive works fine.

It's entirely possible that I've overlooked this in the 200+ pages of this thread, but can anyone confirm/deny using an external SATA on the 8300HD in Tampa on BHN? Specifically, is the port enabled?

Thx, and my apologies for any redundancy...

It's entirely possible that I've overlooked this in the 200+ pages of this thread, but can anyone confirm/deny using an external SATA on the 8300HD in Tampa on BHN? Specifically, is the port enabled?

Thx, and my apologies for any redundancy...

There has never been a report of eSATA being disabled on any system, anywhere.

xnappo

It's entirely possible that I've overlooked this in the 200+ pages of this thread, but can anyone confirm/deny using an external SATA on the 8300HD in Tampa on BHN? Specifically, is the port enabled?

Thx, and my apologies for any redundancy...

BHN Tampa is a SARA system so you shouldn't have any issues if the port is enabled. Like xnappo said, it should be enabled.

There are three posts in the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD SARA eSATA Database for BHN but they don't indicate where.

thx xnappo and jax... guess I'll bite the bullet and see what happens :)

thx xnappo and jax... guess I'll bite the bullet and see what happens :)

I'm holding off here in Orlando until we get an update to replace ODN 2.4.9_3.

Note: The most successful drives are SATA. Some converters (i.e. to IDE) work, but not well for the SA8300HD(C). If you have no equipment yet, check the following databases for other member’s experience:

Navigator Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/navigator)
Passport Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/passport)
SARA Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/main)

Links to the databases can also be found in the sig of xnappo.

How To Determine Software Being Used. Interactive Program Guide Images are useful for determining which software is being used. Look at the A/B/C button labels at the bottom of the guide:

Button= A/B/C
Navigator= Access Menu/Find Shows/[no label]
Passport =Time/Theme/Search or Title
SARA =Browse By/Date[ ]/Home or [curved backarrow]

PLEASE,

We are here to help. And we need your cooperation to be at our best.

Read the first post and the last two pages-The most recently discussed problems are there. They are also the most recently developing problems. Do not read every page that will only drive you crazy. Older pages likely contain outdated information.

An efficient search will help. Try to use just one highly significant word. For tips on searching or any general questions, please PM me or the ID of a frequent poster, or a high post count, or any member. We may use different terminology!

If you can’t find your answer or are not sure you understand it, ask in any way you are comfortable. Try to be brief-Think of the next new person reading this thread.

Tell us where you (or the person with the problem) are-City and State.

Tell us what equipment you are using-HDMI? -All makes and models, and include your video provider (i.e. Comcast, DirecTV)

Try to be brief-Think of the next new person reading this thread.

Be patient-It may take a few days before the best qualified member to answer your question “picks up.”
THANK YOU!

Bob:)
SA8300HD-Comcast-SARA 1.89.22.2-Maxtor 7H500FO-Coolgear Dual Drive eSATA Case

I am getting a lot of a/v glitching since pairing my sa8300HD and a WD My DVR Expander. Has is become the consensus that it is going to be a faulty dvr? Has anyone had luck with any type of restart sequence that might clear this up? Although my pairing is new, I'd rather not have to replace the dvr if at all possible..
Thanks

P.S. read my review of the DVR Expander here:DVR Expander Review (http://bigbrain28.squarespace.com/blarg/2008/8/11/review-of-the-my-dvr-expander.html)

I got glitching w/the WD My DVR Expander and w/the Cavalry 500GB eSata drive (Cavalry was the worst of the two by far).

Switched to Apricorn 500 GB DVR Xpander and haven't had glitching problems.

I didn't have a second DVR to try the WD on, so no idea if there was something DVR-specific that the WD didn't like.

I am sure that my issues has already been addressed, but there's too many pages to wade through (though I did try):

Can you use an 8300 as an external SATA for an 8300? I have a friend (really, it's not me) who has an extra 8300HD (don't ask) and wants to use it to expand his DVR memory. Neither of us are computer literate, and I doubt he would be willing to buy an external hardrive, but he's got a spare 8300HD sitting around.

TWC in NYC running Passport. Thanks in advance.

I am sure that my issues has already been addressed, but there's too many pages to wade through (though I did try):

Can you use an 8300 as an external SATA for an 8300? I have a friend (really, it's not me) who has an extra 8300HD (don't ask) and wants to use it to expand his DVR memory. Neither of us are computer literate, and I doubt he would be willing to buy an external hardrive, but he's got a spare 8300HD sitting around.

TWC in NYC running Passport. Thanks in advance.I would have to say no. However, if your TV has more than one input (most HDs do) there's no reason why you can't hook up both 8300s to the cable and feed them both to your TV. This, of course, assumes that both boxes are functional with your cable system.

To the person who asked about Tampa, yes it works fine with Bright House. I am on the list and mine has been working for over a year with no problems.

From what I've read in here, the WD "My Book" does not work, but the WD "DVR Expander" does.

On the Tiger Direct Canada site they have a "Western Digital MyBook DVR Expander 500GB ". Is this the one that works, or the one that doesn't work??? :confused:

Here is a link to the product:

http://http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3947439&CatId=2422

Thanks in advance.

From what I've read in here, the WD "My Book" does not work, but the WD "DVR Expander" does.

On the Tiger Direct Canada site they have a "Western Digital MyBook DVR Expander 500GB ". Is this the one that works, or the one that doesn't work??? :confused:

Here is a link to the product:

http://http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3947439&CatId=2422

Thanks in advance.WD calls all their units that look like books "My Book". If it has "DVD Expander" in the title it is the one meant for DVRs. /Dan

Hey everyone,

Haven't posted in this thread for many many months since the sleep bug started last November. 2.4.10_11 fixed it for me, too. My WD 500gb expander still glitches like it used to, but at least it's working. I bought a few extra drives while waiting for the bug to be fixed, the last one being the Apricorn 1TB DVR Xpander. Maybe I'll try that if the WD keeps acting up.

This has been a loooooong wait! Fios will be coming to my building here in lower Manhattan very soon. This sleep bug fiasco pushes me towards switching to Verizon.

I've done a search in this thread and looked at the database and am still unclear if anyone has gotten an external HDD to work with an SA8240HDC receiver without any kind of glitching. If you have please state the drive you are using.

I'm with Cox San Diego (SARA), and the older 300GB Seagate HDD (bought in 2006) I had used quite successfully for 1 1/2 years with an SA8300 (until the SATA/eSATA cable went bad) is now very glitchy with the 8240 that replaced the 8300. I've reformatted the Seagate and am pairing it with an Antec MX1 enclosure and am using a new cable. I've also done numerous hard reboots on the 8240.

Would anyone recommed reformatting the drive on my 8240 to see if that would help? I don't have too many things recorded that I'd hate to lose, or do you think just getting a new receiver will help? (It might be hard to convince the cable co. of another trade since there is nothing else wrong with the 8240, and they don't support external HDDs.)

Thanks in advance for your help.

I've done a search in this thread and looked at the database and am still unclear if anyone has gotten an external HDD to work with an SA8240HDC receiver without any kind of glitching. If you have please state the drive you are using.


Yes it is possible to get a non-glitching combo. You are likely using a Seagate 7200.10 drive, which is a known 'glitcher'.

xnappo

Yes it is possible to get a non-glitching combo. You are likely using a Seagate 7200.10 drive, which is a known 'glitcher'.

xnappo

It sounds like I need a new drive anyway, but how can I tell if it's a 7200.10?
The model is TSD-300AS (300GB, 7200, 8MB, SATA-150) and it worked fine with my 8300. Is the 8MB cache possibly the issue?

At any rate, I'd love to hear if anyone has gotten a WD5000AAKS drive to work with an 8240 (SARA).

Thanks!

are there any threads like this that compare Direct TV and Dish Network current and near-future equipment.. I am moving- but still will probably go with some dish service instead of cable as I do now, but I need to know which service has the best equipment, especially for adding external drives such as the 8300 (but the equivalent for their service)

It sounds like I need a new drive anyway, but how can I tell if it's a 7200.10?
The model is TSD-300AS (300GB, 7200, 8MB, SATA-150) and it worked fine with my 8300. Is the 8MB cache possibly the issue?

At any rate, I'd love to hear if anyone has gotten a WD5000AAKS drive to work with an 8240 (SARA).

Thanks!

That is strange that it worked with your 8300... From what we know here the two boxes are identical other than the 8240 not having analog tuners in it. The TSD-300AS is a 7200.8 drive, which others have used successfully.

There are three possibilities:

1. The case or case power supply is going bad (this happened to a lot of people here recently)
2. The drive is going bad
3. Your particular 8240 has an issue (at least one person swapped boxes and it fixed the issue)

Not much help, I know...

xnappo

I am going to upgrade my external 500 GB hard drive with the Antec MX-1 enclosure and a WD 1 TB Drive. Everything has been working great for the last 18 months, but believe it or not, at one point my 500 GB drive was getting full.

I have about 15 recordings on my existing drive. I don't really care about watching thejm, they are just summer fill-ins. However, should I manually delete these shows first before disconnecting the old drive and connecting the new one? I am thinking that the recorded show index is going to be screwed up if I don't do that?

Or can I just connect the new drive.

Hi everyone

I have a 8300 hd and am wondering is the following from apricorns site all I would need to get up and running? Does it include the wire? If not where can I get whatever else is needed. Sorry I am a newbie when it comes to this and simply just want some more space on my dvr so I can stop deleteing movies that have yet to come to blu ray for me

ADVRX-500 Apricorn DVR Xpander - 500GB, eSATA interface

Hi everyone

I have a 8300 hd and am wondering is the following from apricorns site all I would need to get up and running? Does it include the wire? If not where can I get whatever else is needed. Sorry I am a newbie when it comes to this and simply just want some more space on my dvr so I can stop deleteing movies that have yet to come to blu ray for me

ADVRX-500 Apricorn DVR Xpander - 500GB, eSATA interface

Yes...that's the external drive I use and it's all you need, as long as you have a version of the SA8300HD software that fully supports an external drive.

Yes...that's the external drive I use and it's all you need, as long as you have a version of the SA8300HD software that fully supports an external drive.

I just found out that I have the following

A B C
SARA Browse By Date [curved backarrow]



so am I good to go???


edit

Newegg.com has the 750 gb for only a bit more. Would this be the better route to go?

Yes...that's the external drive I use and it's all you need, as long as you have a version of the SA8300HD software that fully supports an external drive.

What about the 8300HDC with Navigator or Mystro ???:(

What about the 8300HDC with Navigator or Mystro ???:(8300HDC with Navigator works fine as long as you have version 2.4.10_11. This release came out a few weeks ago and has been spreading to many of the TW markets. If you don't have it yet, you'll probably be getting it soon.

I just found out that I have the following

A B C
SARA Browse By Date [curved backarrow]



so am I good to go???


edit

Newegg.com has the 750 gb for only a bit more. Would this be the better route to go?

I'm afraid I don't know anything about SARA.

The larger drive is better if you want more storage than 500GB provides and don't mind the extra $$. :) Depends on the individual...I'm finding 500GB is enough for me. If it's only a bit more, then I'd go for it, easier to get a little too much space than a little too little.

But you first confirm what version of SARA is required for stable external HD support.

8300HDC with Navigator works fine as long as you have version 2.4.10_11. This release came out a few weeks ago and has been spreading to many of the TW markets. If you don't have it yet, you'll probably be getting it soon.

This is good news as I just got this Navigator version on my HD8300HDC in my bedroom. I don't have an eSATA drive on it now, but may want one in the future.

have SARA(190.5.311, just put in a thermal take case (2395/2396) USB/ESATA case with a Maxtor 160 GB drive. Before installation I formated it with the XP NTFS structure.

Diagnostics show the correct space as an additional device (2), however in page 26 the partition info, there are zeros in all the categories.

When I do hard boot, the "Want to format" screen pops up, and that is all. How long does it normally take to appear in the recording space, or on the diagnostics screen. The recording space does not change.

I have seen other themaltake cases posted, although it does nto appear on the "compatible list.I have exchanged the case, I am quessing the same results, as I did not check the diagnostics screen previously. Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreaciated.

Thanks in advance,

I'm having this problem with my 8300HDC as well. Its not like I can easily format it on my PC either because the WDC DVR Expander only has a sata port and none of my computers has an external SATA connector.

You shouldn't need to format the drive on your PC - the DVR will do that when it sees one attached, and doesn't use XP NTFS formatting as far as I understand.

But if you mean you want to get the drive back to how it was when new to see if the DVR will format it and set things up successfully, you might just ask a few neighbors...esata ports are getting more common. You could also buy another DVR expander of the same size and attach it...if it works, put your existing drive in the box and return it as a faulty drive.

You shouldn't need to format the drive on your PC - the DVR will do that when it sees one attached, and doesn't use XP NTFS formatting as far as I understand.

But if you mean you want to get the drive back to how it was when new to see if the DVR will format it and set things up successfully, you might just ask a few neighbors...esata ports are getting more common. You could also buy another DVR expander of the same size and attach it...if it works, put your existing drive in the box and return it as a faulty drive.

I only asked about formatting it because that is what several posts in the forum recommend.

I ordered the dvr expander on amazon. I've never really returned anything to them before, wonder how much of a hassle it would be.

I only asked about formatting it because that is what several posts in the forum recommend.

I ordered the dvr expander on amazon. I've never really returned anything to them before, wonder how much of a hassle it would be.

Returns are a breeze...I returned two external drives that didn't work well for me, a WD DVR Expander and a Cavalry drive.

You go to Amazon, go to your account and click on the link to return an item, and follow the steps. If you're within the time limit (30 days for many items) you'll have no issues.

Good luck...

Maybe someone can help me out.....I've got an 8300HD dvr (Cablevision) and ~3 months ago hooked up a cavalry 500mb esata external drive (Costco had it cheap)....has been working great! This week Cablevision sent out some sort of update (woke up to a rebooted box, not powered on - I always keep my box turned on), and the external drive is now not being recognized. I think I've tried everything....rebooted cable box with the drive still connected; unplugged cable box, disconnected external drive, rebooted again w/o external drive; then tried to reconnect from scratch.
For some reason, the external hard drive just is not being recognized by the cable box!!! Any suggestions?!?!

I plugged in an external hardrive, and connected to the usb port on my 8300hd from WOW cable, and it was not detected.


Why this is not working? What settings do I need to enable this?

:confused::mad:

I plugged in an external hardrive, and connected to the usb port on my 8300hd from WOW cable, and it was not detected.


Why this is not working? What settings do I need to enable this?

:confused::mad:

The USB port does not work for this. Use the eSATA port, as this thread mentions in its title (sometimes a little reading-before-posting can head off a question before the need to post it).

Does anyone know, if I have an external hard drive that uses USB, can I just get a USB to ESata converter and use it on the Sci Atl 8300HD?

I've read the first post it has no info except "IT WORKS" :mad:

What settings you need to use? :confused:

How about using a USB to ESATA cable? :confused:

I plugged in an external hardrive, and connected to the usb port on my 8300hd from WOW cable, and it was not detected.


Why this is not working? What settings do I need to enable this?

:confused::mad:

I read the the first post it has no info except "IT WORKS" :mad:

What settings you need to use? :confused:

How about using a USB to ESATA cable? :confused:
Your kidding right?
The very first six words of the very first post, and the name of the thread say 8300HD and External SATA - It Works!!.
If you want to engineer and make a eSATA adatper for a USB drive,
go ahead and give it a try. I'm betting it won't work.
You should go back and re-read the first post and links, althouugh I think this process may be too complicated for you to attempt.

vegggas

I've read the first post it has no info except "IT WORKS" :mad:

What settings you need to use? :confused:

How about using a USB to ESATA cable? :confused:

You might also find the manual to your cable box to be helpful. That's how I learned to connect mine. If you didn't get one with installation, it's easy to find online, either on your cable cos. Web site or Scientific Atlanta.

I am not sure why, but I plugged in my external drive, and it is not detecting drive.

TW Cable South Manhattan
Fantom eSATA 1TB external drive
8300HD with Passport 2.6.002

I have tested the drive and my computer can detect it and write to it. I deleted all partitions on the drive.

Any ideas? Thanks!

so I've been reading through this thread and my only issue with external HD is that we use the pause live function alot while watching live tv. Are there any rumors and anything known that this issue will be resolved?

Thanks

so I've been reading through this thread and my only issue with external HD is that we use the pause live function alot while watching live tv. Are there any rumors and anything known that this issue will be resolved?

Thanks

:confused: "Pause live function"...? What are you talking about?

:confused: "Pause live function"...? What are you talking about?

supposedly the live buffer (where you can pause live tv and come back to it) does not work if you have an external drive.

supposedly the live buffer (where you can pause live tv and come back to it) does not work if you have an external drive.

No, it works fine as long as you stay with that particular tuner. What you can't do with the Navigator software (really has nothing to do with the external drive) is have each tuner act individually. As soon as you leave the tuner you're on for whatever reason (you change channels, start watching a recorded show, hit "previous channel" or the swap button) you will lose your place in the buffer and when you come back it will be "live". With the old, lamented Passport software, you had individual control over each tuner. You could pause the tuner you were in, do one of the above mentioned tasks with the other tuner, and come back to the first tuner which would still be paused right where you left it. A great way to watch two games at once, for example. Thanks to Navigator, that ability to individually control each tuner is now gone.

supposedly the live buffer (where you can pause live tv and come back to it) does not work if you have an external drive.
With Passport I believe that is true. What is being called "trick play" does not work when recording to external drive. You can record it and it works fine on the recording. So the work around people are using is to hit record and work with the recording (with Passport). /Dan

No, it works fine as long as you stay with that particular tuner. What you can't do with the Navigator software (really has nothing to do with the external drive) is have each tuner act individually. As soon as you leave the tuner you're on for whatever reason (you change channels, start watching a recorded show, hit "previous channel" or the swap button) you will lose your place in the buffer and when you come back it will be "live". With the old, lamented Passport software, you had individual control over each tuner. You could pause the tuner you were in, do one of the above mentioned tasks with the other tuner, and come back to the first tuner which would still be paused right where you left it. A great way to watch two games at once, for example. Thanks to Navigator, that ability to individually control each tuner is now gone.:eek: That’s a major negative. I watch TV, the majority of time, bouncing back and forth utilizing the two tuners with the pause and buffer feature. The work around –record everything- is not a good solution since it will slow me down or eat up tremendous disc space (with sporting events on two tuners in extended end time :rolleyes: ). I look forward to FIOS availability in my neighborhood and hope their software is better than this crap.

I have followed this thread for the last few days. I have not read every post but I have read the majority. I have a few questions on expanding my 8300HD.
By the way my 8300 is running SARA 1.89.22.2.

1. Would a dvr expander be more compatible then a hdd and enclosure setup?
2. Will expanding storage more than 500gb cause compatibility issues with 8300?

Thanx in advance.

:eek: That’s a major negative. I watch TV, the majority of time, bouncing back and forth utilizing the two tuners with the pause and buffer feature. The work around –record everything- is not a good solution since it will slow me down or eat up tremendous disc space (with sporting events on two tuners in extended end time :rolleyes: ). I look forward to FIOS availability in my neighborhood and hope their software is better than this crap.

Exactly Larry. I really miss that feature of Passport (also REW and INSTANT REPLAY buttons that work properly and a decent IPG, among many other Navigator blunders). Also waiting on FIOS, but laying all that fiber all the way up to the front door of your crib is awfully expensive. I fear we'll be waiting a loooong time for FIOS in this area. And AT&T's U-verse doesn't offer the PQ upgrade that FIOS does. And I need the cable modem for my Internet broadband. So, it looks like I'm stuck with TWC for the near future at least. :(

OK, so I replaced my old Seagate HDD with the WD 500GB Caviar (WD5000AAKS), and like the old Seagate, the new drive (using an Antec MX1 enclosure) is still glitchy--video freezes every 30-60 secs. My DVR is the SA8240HDC, running SARA, and does not exhibit any problems or glitchy performance playing back from the internal HDD.

I'd really love to hear if anyone has gotten an external HDD to work glitch free with an 8240.
Thanks!

OK, so I replaced my old Seagate HDD with the WD 500GB Caviar (WD5000AAKS), and like the old Seagate, the new drive (using an Antec MX1 enclosure) is still glitchy--video freezes every 30-60 secs. My DVR is the SA8240HDC, running SARA, and does not exhibit any problems or glitchy performance playing back from the internal HDD.

I'd really love to hear if anyone has gotten an external HDD to work glitch free with an 8240.
Thanks!

I just received this very same DVR last weekend and have been searching around this forum looking for anyone who has gotten an external drive working with this model. If not I may be calling my local TW and seeing if they have a 8300 model available.

Got an 8300, Sara version 1.89 (I believe), Antec enclosure and a WD 1 TB drive connected. Tonight America's Got Talent was set to record; I sat down at about 9:30 to watch it. The time marker was in the middle of the show, to the left of it was red, to the right of it was green, and it indicated there are only 36 minutes left. :mad:

Started watching the show, it started from the beginning and after just 36 minutes it stopped. I have this DVR for 1 1/2 years without any problems. Until last week had a 500 GB drive connected; then swapped for the 1 TB drive. The 36 minutes played without any glitches.

Has anyone seen this kind of problem before. I have not encountered it before. I have had shows not recorded, or only 1 minute, but not his behavior.

Thanks

Maybe someone can help me out.....I've got an 8300HD dvr (Cablevision) and ~3 months ago hooked up a cavalry 500mb esata external drive (Costco had it cheap)....has been working great! This week Cablevision sent out some sort of update (woke up to a rebooted box, not powered on - I always keep my box turned on), and the external drive is now not being recognized. I think I've tried everything....rebooted cable box with the drive still connected; unplugged cable box, disconnected external drive, rebooted again w/o external drive; then tried to reconnect from scratch.
For some reason, the external hard drive just is not being recognized by the cable box!!! Any suggestions?!?!

Any help with this??? Please..... Thanks in advance!

Got an 8300, Sara version 1.89 (I believe), Antec enclosure and a WD 1 TB drive connected. Tonight America's Got Talent was set to record; I sat down at about 9:30 to watch it. The time marker was in the middle of the show, to the left of it was red, to the right of it was green, and it indicated there are only 36 minutes left. :mad:

Started watching the show, it started from the beginning and after just 36 minutes it stopped. I have this DVR for 1 1/2 years without any problems. Until last week had a 500 GB drive connected; then swapped for the 1 TB drive. The 36 minutes played without any glitches.

Has anyone seen this kind of problem before. I have not encountered it before. I have had shows not recorded, or only 1 minute, but not his behavior.

Thanks

I've seen all of what you report above....partial recording, a 2 hour show split into 2 pieces, no recording (one night I actually was reading with the TV off and saw the 8300 reboot when it was scheduled to do a recording - so I know it didn't record that show)...lately I'm getting a lot of shows showing up in the recorded list as being the proper length and when I go to play them, it goes right to the "recorded program splash screen" (the screen you get when you hit "exit" from the recoded list screen after watching a recording) so there's nothing to watch (VERY annoying). I tried a hard boot of the DVR and it doesn't seem to have made any difference. I haven't tried to reformat yet....but I'm wondering if I should just go get a new 8300....this one is a couple years old already. I also haven't tried unplugging the external drive to see if that would make a difference.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I have followed this thread for the last few days. I have not read every post but I have read the majority. I have a few questions on expanding my 8300HD.
By the way my 8300 is running SARA 1.89.22.2.

1. Would a dvr expander be more compatible then a hdd and enclosure setup?
2. Will expanding storage more than 500gb cause compatibility issues with 8300?

Thanx in advance.

1. Folks have had good experiences w/the Antec enclosures, I like the Apricorn DVR Xpander better than the WD DVR Expander.
2. Not that I've heard of...people have used up to 1TB

1. Folks have had good experiences w/the Antec enclosures, I like the Apricorn DVR Xpander better than the WD DVR Expander.
2. Not that I've heard of...people have used up to 1TB

Thank you. Also any particular hd brand (wd, seagate etc.) been more compatible than the other?

Thank you. Also any particular hd brand (wd, seagate etc.) been more compatible than the other?When you said you had followed the thread, I assumed you had already checked the databases where users have logged their experiences with various drive/enclosure combinations. They should answer your questions. Choose the one for the software your DVR uses:

Navigator Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/navigator)
Passport Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/passport)
SARA Software (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/main)

-

Baseportal (which hosts the drive databases) appears to be down. No idea if it is permanent or not.

For now, you can use Google cache to view them:

You can view the contents using Google cached versions for now:
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:nPWTT7DFuTkJ:baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl%3Fhtx%3D/xnappo/main+esata+database+baseportal&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:nPWTT7DFuTkJ:baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl%3Fhtx%3D/xnappo/main+esata+database+baseportal+navigator&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us

http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:4a1c4YOuLmkJ:www.baseportal.com/baseportal/xnappo/passport+esata+database+baseportal&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us


We will see how things go - if it is gone for good I will look into some other way of hosting the data.

Looks like Google docs has something similar now...

xnappo

Baseportal (which hosts the drive databases) appears to be down. No idea if it is permanent or not.



It is back up...

xnappo

So I added a nextstar 3 enclosure equipped with a WD500. The 8300 recognized it and even recorded a show on it. A few hours later, the 8300 lost track of the drive. A reboot of the 8300 fixed the problem... temporarily. A few minutes after, the drive was lost again. I then turned off/on the drive itself. The 8300 indicated it needed a reboot to recognize the drive which it did. A day after, no issue. I am crossing my fingers.

Anyone who found ways to make the setup more stable? I don't want to rely on it if it won't work.

Thanks,

J-L

Sounds like a bad cable...