So has anyone had any success yet with a 1.5TB drive on a SARA system? Checking Xnappo's databases, I only see a couple of attempts, and none were successful.

I just ordered a 1TB WD10EADS drive and Antec MX-1 enclosure, which several people have reported success with...but I sure was tempted to get the WD15EADS, instead!

You might try checking out some reviews on Buy.com or the like, seems like there are always people trying to expand DVRs leaving feedback on external hdds.

Ok thanks for the reply. So even if I go back and get an 8300HD, this would probably still have the ODN 3.1.x_x rendering the external drive useless?


No - the 8300HD run MDN not ODN - so it should work (for now at least).

xnappo

No - the 8300HD run MDN not ODN - so it should work (for now at least).

xnappo
Great, thanks xnappo I will get on that equipment swap ASAP. Hopefully the 8300 was not the source of my non-DVR related issues in my last apartment.

Thanks man!

So even if I go back and get an 8300HD, this would probably still have the ODN 3.1.x_x rendering the external drive useless?The 8300HD has MDN software and I believe the reports I've read say that the external drive still works.

2. If I spend megabucks on an HD Tivo, can I use that with existing TWC and maybe even expand that HDD also?Yes, TIVO works with TWC. You'll need to have them give you a tuning adapter for the SDV channels. It can also be expanded but only with certain qualified drives. If you go back a few pages, you'll see that there's also some interest in the new Moxi DVR.

aceofspadez619,

dsurkin,

I am sorry that the procedure I used did not work out for you...I am trying to think of an explanation for the different result. [snip]

Interestingly, Apricorn also offers the DVR Expander with a 1.5 TB drive which should mean that a drive that size would work with the SA 8300s.

Ronin1:

I suspect it's the different version of SARA. Once again, thanks for your time and trouble.

By the way, the Apricorn website mentions that Cablevision boxes do not support more than 1 TB external drives. I was able to confirm this with my WD15EADS. I substituted a WD10EACS and it worked.

My wife actually suggested that we may have fewer problems buying a TIVO and getting a subscription. It's not like her to suggest spending money on gadgets, but she's very practical: if it wastes my time and doesn't record her favorite shows, replace it.

Ronin1:
[snip]
My wife actually suggested that we may have fewer problems buying a TIVO and getting a subscription. It's not like her to suggest spending money on gadgets, but she's very practical: if it wastes my time and doesn't record her favorite shows, replace it.

Yea, that may be the way to go.

If TWC changes equipment here and it does not work well I would be inclined to give TIVO a very close look. Just why the cable companies do not want to accommodate their customers eludes me. They have had long enough to figure things out.

Ronin1:

I suspect it's the different version of SARA. Once again, thanks for your time and trouble.

By the way, the Apricorn website mentions that Cablevision boxes do not support more than 1 TB external drives. I was able to confirm this with my WD15EADS. I substituted a WD10EACS and it worked.

My wife actually suggested that we may have fewer problems buying a TIVO and getting a subscription. It's not like her to suggest spending money on gadgets, but she's very practical: if it wastes my time and doesn't record her favorite shows, replace it.

Tivo subscrition + cable card fee is typically less than cable company digital box fee + DVR fee; also, you can get lifetime Tivo subscription. On the minus side, it will take many months of collecting the difference to make up for the initial Tivo cost.

Have just been able to get connected with Seagate ST310005N1A1AS (1TB)in an Antec Veris M-1 case to a Minneapolis Comcast 8300HD, software 1.89.22.2. Booted the 8300 from power off with drive connected and turned on, the drive was recognized and formatted on first boot, though it did not change the % remaining number. Did a second power off boot and it came up fullly working on a second boot. The % remaining went from 47% to 5%. Record and playback works, but there are frequent (2-10 minutes between) audio drop-outs and some sporadic pixelation even when only viewing broadcast mat'l. Not sure whether to post this as a success or not, but at least I can confirm for a previous poster that the Minneapolis Comcast boxes apparently have active SATA ports. I am using the cord that came with the MX-1 on which both ends appear to be identical.

The 8300HD has MDN software and I believe the reports I've read say that the external drive still works.

Yes, TIVO works with TWC. You'll need to have them give you a tuning adapter for the SDV channels. It can also be expanded but only with certain qualified drives. If you go back a few pages, you'll see that there's also some interest in the new Moxi DVR.

Thanks for the help and replies. I am going to try to swap for an 8300HD tonight. If that doesn't work I will have to check out the TiVo or Moxi...

AVS Forums, coming through again and again throughout the years!

I am using the cord that came with the MX-1 on which both ends appear to be identical.

Definitely NOT a success. Though I am a bit surprised as others seem to have used this drive without issue. Though the 7200.10 Seagate series was notoriously incompatible with the 8300.

Did you try the 'stress test' mentioned on the database web page? My guess is that will fail miserably.

xnappo

Have just been able to get connected with Seagate ST310005N1A1AS (1TB)in an Antec Veris M-1 case to a Minneapolis Comcast 8300HD, software 1.89.22.2. Booted the 8300 from power off with drive connected and turned on, the drive was recognized and formatted on first boot, though it did not change the % remaining number. Did a second power off boot and it came up fullly working on a second boot. The % remaining went from 47% to 5%. Record and playback works, but there are frequent (2-10 minutes between) audio drop-outs and some sporadic pixelation even when only viewing broadcast mat'l. Not sure whether to post this as a success or not, but at least I can confirm for a previous poster that the Minneapolis Comcast boxes apparently have active SATA ports. I am using the cord that came with the MX-1 on which both ends appear to be identical.

Definitely NOT a success. Though I am a bit surprised as others seem to have used this drive without issue. Though the 7200.10 Seagate series was notoriously incompatible with the 8300.

Did you try the 'stress test' mentioned on the database web page? My guess is that will fail miserably.

xnappo

It could have something to do with his SARA version. I have that EXACT same setup on my drive and it works flawlessly (so far).

I have just purchased a Antec MX-1 esata drive & have a question for owners of this unit.
On power on I get the blue Led light & then it goes off. Can any one confirm that their unit does the same. Drive works with no problem but is the light staying on or off.

Mine stays on, but acts like a hard drive activity light. It flickers when the drive is being accessed. The fan I have disconnected because the humming was very annoying and the unit doesn't really get hot enough to warrant the fan.

can you tell me what size hard disk you are using, I read somewhere someone had the same problem & was using the same as me (samsung 750gb)

Seagate 1TB 7200RPM with 32MB Cache - has been working perfectly for me with my version of SARA. I have like 50 HD recordings right now and am only using 18% of my storage space. It's great considering that I used to miss recordings for lack of space or have to delete things I wanted to keep. Plus TW just added another batch of unannounced HD channels so we have like 75+ networks.

thanks, well it's not the size of disk that's the problem then. Maybe something to do with samsung. I sent the first one back & the second one does the same thing.
My standard mobile usb drives both light up & flicker while it's reading data so this one should too.

Gee you certainly have some channels, in australia we have only 5sd & 5hd however the hd programs are usually the same program on sd. Of course we have pay tv but most channels are crap & repeat most often. If I lived over there I would never get away from the TV.

I just received an email from antec & they say some drives the light won't stay on or doesn't come on at all & they do not know why.

First off, thanks to all the users who've posted their results with external drives to Xnappo's databases (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/main). Based on those inputs, I selected a WD10EADS 1TB drive and an Antec MX-1 enclosure to replace my aging (and full!) 300GB drive and Kingwin enclosure.

But special thanks have to go to Ronin1 for sharing his experience with cloning the old drive contents to the new, larger drive. I've been wanting to get a larger drive for a long time, but didn't want to lose my recorded shows. I followed his instructions and used Active@ Disk Image (http://www.disk-image.net/)'s "Clone Disk" function. On my computer, it took 2 hours to complete the sector-by-sector duplication of my 300GB drive (YMMV).

When the copy was complete, I installed my new drive in its new enclosure (I had temporarily installed the two DVR drives in my PC case for the disk copy operation), plugged in the power and data connectors, powered on the DVR, and then powered on the drive. Within ~30 seconds, the DVR popped up a window that said something like, "This external storage device will work with this DVR, but the DVR needs to be restarted first. Do you want to restart the DVR? (Restart will take approximately 2 minutes.)" I pushed the [A] button to confirm the restart, and it took a little longer than 2 minutes (maybe 3-4 minutes) before the cycle completed and the time reappeared in the DVR window. Maybe 15 seconds after the time reappeared, I powered the DVR back on, and it popped up a window saying "The external storage device is now ready for use. To safely remove the external storage device, power off the DVR and wait 10 seconds before disconnecting the device."

I cleared that window and successfully spot checked several shows recorded from 3 years ago to yesterday, including FF / REW ops and skipping to the end of the show. Fast forwarding performance through HD programs was clearly much smoother and faster on the 3x and 4x speeds compared to my old setup.

So far, a very satisfactory experience!

First off, thanks to all the users who've posted their results with external drives to Xnappo's databases (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/main). Based on those inputs, I selected a WD10EADS 1TB drive and an Antex MX-1 enclosure to replace my aging (and full!) 300GB drive and Kingwin enclosure.

But special thanks have to go to Ronin1 for sharing his experience with cloning the old drive contents to the new, larger drive. I've been wanting to get a larger drive for a long time, but didn't want to lose my recorded shows. I followed his instructions and used Active@ Disk Image (http://www.disk-image.net/)'s "Clone Disk" function. On my computer, it took 2 hours to complete the sector-by-sector duplication of my 300GB drive (YMMV).

jruhnke--

I'm consumed with envy. Mine didn't work with SARA 1.91.x (Cablevision). I see you're in TX--what version of SARA do you have, and does your diagnostic screen show that the partition has expanded to fill your entire disk?

jruhnke--

I'm consumed with envy. Mine didn't work with SARA 1.91.x (Cablevision). I see you're in TX--what version of SARA do you have, and does your diagnostic screen show that the partition has expanded to fill your entire disk?My SARA version is under my name to the left of all of my posts.

I'll check my diags later, but some quick math will probably answer your question:

Before I installed the new drive, I was using ~90% of 160+300 GB, or ~415GB.

After installing the new drive, SARA reported ~34% in use. 1160*.34 = ~394GB.

Both results indicate ~400GB in use, so I'd say the math works out. The whole new drive appears to be in use.

...does your diagnostic screen show that the partition has expanded to fill your entire disk?Yes, it does:

pg 33/39: HD INFO
DeviceID: 1
Model: Maxtor 4R160L0
Capacity: 152GB
Removable: No

Device ID: 2
Model: WDC WD10EADS-00L5B1
Capacity: 931GB
Removable: Yes

pg 34/39: PARTITION INFO
DeviceID: 1
FS Type: ITFS
Partitn Size: 1GB
Free Space: 870MB
FS Type: AVFS
Partitn Size: 151 GB
Free Space: 12 GB
FS Type: RESERVED
Partitn Size: 0 KB
Free Space: 0 KB

pg 35/39: PARTITION INFO
DeviceID: 2
FS Type: ITFS
Partitn Size: 1GB
Free Space: 771MB
FS Type: AVFS
Partitn Size: 911 GB
Free Space: 666 GB
FS Type: RESERVED
Partitn Size: 1 GB
Free Space: 0 KB

911-666 = 245 GB used on the "big" drive
151-12 = 139 GB used on the internal drive
139 + 245 = 384 GB currently in use
911 + 151 = 1062 GB total capacity available
384 * 100 / 1062 = 36% space used

TWC was supposed to send me a new 8300HD to replace my 8240, instead I just received a SA 4240HDC from UPS.

It has a USB input on the back, but no SATA or eSATA. Should I even bother trying to hook up a external USB drive? My 1TB external I was using on my old 8300HD has USB interface too...

Anyone know anything about the 4240HDC?

Gah...thanks....

TWC was supposed to send me a new 8300HD to replace my 8240, instead I just received a SA 4240HDC from UPS.

It has a USB input on the back, but no SATA or eSATA. Should I even bother trying to hook up a external USB drive? My 1TB external I was using on my old 8300HD has USB interface too...

Anyone know anything about the 4240HDC?

Gah...thanks....

Hmm that model doesn't sound like a DVR version at all...

Hmm that model doesn't sound like a DVR version at all...

crap...TWC knocking it out of the park as usual.

I have been gone for almost a year, but I need some help, and this is the best place to get it! :)

Ronin1, I am interested in your instructions for cloning your external hard drive to an larger one. If you can provide a link, it would be much appreciated. I want to be able to clone to the Apricorn 1.5 TB DVD Expander, so I am extremely interested in knowing whether anyone has used that size Expander successfully in Austin with TWC, SARA software--not sure of the version, but I suspect it is the latest available. Not sure which brand HD is used in the Apricorn DVR Expander, but I think it might be Western Digital. I am still a Seagate girl, but I did buy a WD MyBook to use for backing up my laptops--after 2 different HD crashes without backups for either! You don't have to tell me 3 times! :)

Do you think it would be possible to clone two External HDs to the same DVD Expander? I have one 300GB HD and one 500GB HD, both of which were formatted with the same 8300HD and are interchangeable. The index for the 300GB HD is still present on my 500 GB HD, although, naturally, the programs themselves are inaccessible while using the 500 GB drive.

I have one other unrelated problem: My son's external HD has quit working. I know the case could use a better eSATA cable--one end will not stay connected--but I don't think that is the problem. The bigger problem is that the HD does not spin up when powered on. I used an Apricorn EZ-BUS DTS case, and it has worked well for two years. What I need to know is whether there is a way to test the hard drive to determine whether it has failed or perhaps the external case is the problem. I could put the hard drive in another case here to see if it spins up, but, of course, the hard drive was not formatted with my 8300HD, so none of the programs will play on it. I just need to be sure that my 8300HD won't start formatting it--which would erase all of the resident programs--without confirmation from me first.

If the HD still does not spin up, is there any other way to test the drive itself for problems, i.e., can it be diagnosed in a PC? And if so, what diagnostic program would you suggest?

This is a lot to be answered on my first day back after such a long absence, but as always, any help is much appreciated!

Scarlett

aceofspadez619,

Just what cloning tool did you use and what procedure did you follow?

I have forgotten whether I mentioned this before, but I was told, but can not vouch for the accuracy of the statement, that the Linux "dd" command should accomplish the same sector by sector cloning. I suppose that it would be possible to set up a bootable CD (of Ubuntu or Puppy Linux or whatever) and try it without getting the Windows drive cluttered up.

dsurkin,

I am sorry that the procedure I used did not work out for you...I am trying to think of an explanation for the different result. I was using an Apricorn ez bus dts enclosure which has since been superseded by a new model, the Aegis Desktop (http://apricorn.com/product_detail.php?type=family&id=56). I have not tried the new enclosure yet, but did speak with Apricorn's tech support and they indicated that there should be no changes in terms of expected compatibility. They indicated that there have been improvements to the power supply and fan, as well as the changes to the case itself...the new feet look to be a useful improvement. I would expect that the chip set has been tested in their ready-to-go DVR Expander (http://apricorn.com/product_detail.php?type=family&id=55). The web page describes it as "the perfect companion for the Scientific Atlanta 8300 series."

Interestingly, Apricorn also offers the DVR Expander with a 1.5 TB drive which should mean that a drive that size would work with the SA 8300s.

I have seen some listings in the database with mixed results with large drives in other enclosures. Has anyone tried a 1.5 TB or 2 TB drive in the Apricorn enclosures?

I have been gone for almost a year, but I need some help, and this is the best place to get it! :)



Hello old friend, long time no see on either of your usual haunts :)

1st question - I don't know, but just knowing how hard drives work on a lower level, I think it is unlikely that it is possible to combine two drives on to one. Not sure if it has been done in Austin, but it has in San Antonio and they are pretty similar to us.

2nd question - Dollars to donuts the power supply is bad. Apricorn has had a rash of power supply failures. They will replace it at no cost regardless of when you bought it as it is a known problem. Knowing you, you probably have another one lying around somewhere to try right? Mine had this issue too - it would kinda power up, but didn't have the oomph to really power the drive.

xnappo

Hello old friend, long time no see on either of your usual haunts :)So sorry! It is wonderful to hear from you again, and I will send a PM to let you know what I've been up to!]

1st question - I don't know, but just knowing how hard drives work on a lower level, I think it is unlikely that it is possible to combine two drives on to one. Well, I haven't seen the procedure for cloning even one drive, so I don't know what is involved. Since the indexing feature seems to be permanently located on the internal hard drive, I was hopeful that the external drives were little more than data repositories. Also, since I don't know how hard drives work (although I should), I wasn't thinking in terms of sectors. With two hard drives, I guess you would have two Sector 1's, two Sector 2's, etc. Is that even close to what you mean?

Not sure if it has been done in Austin, but it has in San Antonio and they are pretty similar to us.I am assuming that this statement is in answer to whether anyone has been successful using the 1.5TB DVR Expander. I ordered one yesterday. Worst case, if it doesn't work with the 8300, I can always use it to back up all of my computers! If it does work, I am going to be sorry that I didn't order one for the upstairs 8300! My husband had a good question, though: If something goes wrong with the 8300HD itself, does TWC still have that model, or has it replaced all of them with the 8300HDC? No external drive will work with the 8300HDC--or at least that's what the lady at Apricorn told me.

2nd question - Dollars to donuts the power supply is bad. Apricorn has had a rash of power supply failures. They will replace it at no cost regardless of when you bought it as it is a known problem. Knowing you, you probably have another one lying around somewhere to try right? Mine had this issue too - it would kinda power up, but didn't have the oomph to really power the drive.Correct on all counts! The PS is bad, I did have another one to test it, and Apricorn had replaced one of mine a couple of years ago! Duh--why didn't that even occur to me? Serves me right for being gone so long! :o

Thanks, xnappo! Now all I have left to do is find the link to the instructions for cloning the hard drive, and I will be all set to try it! I also would be interested to read about San Antonio's experience with the 1.5TB DVR Expander if you can point me in that direction.

Thanks again!

Scarlett

I'm hoping someone here can help.

I was a comcast customer for many years using an 8300HD with an external drive. Never had a problem. I moved and the cable provider is now cablevision. I plugged my drive into the new cablevision 8300hd and I did not get any message regarding reformating the drive. The picture just glitched a little. I rebooted the 8300 hd and some type of count down started and after it was done the 8300 hd came back online. However, I dont know if the drive was reformated or even recognized. How can I test to see if the drive is working? If not, is there a manual way to initiate the reformatting of the external drive?

I'm hoping someone here can help.

I was a comcast customer for many years using an 8300HD with an external drive. Never had a problem. I moved and the cable provider is now cablevision. I plugged my drive into the new cablevision 8300hd and I did not get any message regarding reformating the drive. The picture just glitched a little. I rebooted the 8300 hd and some type of count down started and after it was done the 8300 hd came back online. However, I dont know if the drive was reformated or even recognized. How can I test to see if the drive is working? If not, is there a manual way to initiate the reformatting of the external drive?

Hi - I answered over in the SARA forum today...

xnappo

Well, I haven't seen the procedure for cloning even one drive, so I don't know what is involved.I posted an earlier note (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=16346020#post16346020) to describe my overall experience. If you're looking for a cloning procedure, it's this:
Download and install Active@Disk Image (http://www.disk-image.net/download.htm) (you can use the trial version, but it's really worth paying the nice people! Other sector-copy tools may also work, but this is what Ronin1 and I used.)
Attach your old and new DVR drives to your PC
Launch Disk Image and select the "Clone Disk" operation
Select the source disk (old DVR drive with content on it), target disk (new, blank drive), and start the copy (make SURE you select the correct target drive!!)
Wait a few hours for the copy to complete (took me 2 hrs to copy 300GB; I had the drives directly connected to SATA ports on my motherboard)
Remove the drives from your PC, and refer to my other note (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=16346020#post16346020) for what to expect when you connect the new drive to your DVR


Since the indexing feature seems to be permanently located on the internal hard drive, I was hopeful that the external drives were little more than data repositories. Also, since I don't know how hard drives work (although I should), I wasn't thinking in terms of sectors. With two hard drives, I guess you would have two Sector 1's, two Sector 2's, etc. Is that even close to what you mean?Yes. In this process, you're just copying Sector 1 of the old drive bit-for-bit to Sector 1 of the new drive, etc. There's no way to merge the content of your two source drives into one new, larger drive. It's possible you could continue to swap the drives after cloning one or both of the old ones to larger drives, though.

If something goes wrong with the 8300HD itself, does TWC still have that model, or has it replaced all of them with the 8300HDC?I'm not sure. The non-cablecard version seems very hard to come by, but I don't know if that means they're impossible to obtain.

No external drive will work with the 8300HDC--or at least that's what the lady at Apricorn told me.The Apricorn rep is not correct--there are 8300HDC users with external drives. I think your experience still depends heavily on what user interface (SARA vs. Navigator vs. whatever) and what software version of that interface you're using (note Dean Surkin's inability to duplicate Ronin1's and my success (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=16349408#post16349408) using SARA 1.91 in New York).

As always, your mileage may vary...

The Apricorn rep is not correct--there are 8300HDC users with external drives. I think your experience still depends heavily on what user interface (SARA vs. Navigator vs. whatever) and what software version of that interface you're using (note Dean Surkin's inability to duplicate Ronin1's and my success (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=16349408#post16349408) using SARA 1.91 in New York).

As always, your mileage may vary...

Seems pretty clear that the last 2 versions of ODN (which typically goes on 8300HDC boxes) break external drive use. I'd also guess there are FAR more HDC/Navigator boxes than HDC/SARA boxes, so I think it's totally appropriate for a rep for external drive outfit to be clear about it.

I think it's totally appropriate for a rep for external drive outfit to be clear about it.If the rep had been clear, I'd have no beef. But if there are HDCs that work with external drives--and in my area, there are plenty of 'em--then there's nothing clear about saying "external drives won't work on HDCs".

Seems pretty clear that the last 2 versions of ODN (which typically goes on 8300HDC boxes) break external drive use. I'd also guess there are FAR more HDC/Navigator boxes than HDC/SARA boxes, so I think it's totally appropriate for a rep for external drive outfit to be clear about it.

I had no problem with latest ODN 2.x and I can get esata to work fairly well with 3.x using the workaround in my signature.

If the rep had been clear, I'd have no beef. But if there are HDCs that work with external drives--and in my area, there are plenty of 'em--then there's nothing clear about saying "external drives won't work on HDCs".

Indeed you are correct, I should have said a more appropriate response from them would be to indicate that are hearing many folks who can't use external drives with certain boxes/software versions on said boxes.

Yes I know it's only anecdotal, but based on posts I've read, many more folks overall are having issues with external drive support with the past 2 revs of ODN than say it's working for them.

Indeed you are correct, I should have said a more appropriate response from them would be to indicate that are hearing many folks who can't use external drives with certain boxes/software versions on said boxes.

Yes I know it's only anecdotal, but based on posts I've read, many more folks overall are having issues with external drive support with the past 2 revs of ODN than say it's working for them.

From what I could gather, on the three most recent versions, eSATA:

1) 2.4.10_11: works just fine
2) 3.1.0_11: barely works, if you are lucky, with a lot of patience to get it to reformat the drive, and the "record something all the time" workaround
3) 3.1.1_3: does not work at all

1) and 3) I have personal experience with.

I had no problem with latest ODN 2.x and I can get esata to work fairly well with 3.x using the workaround in my signature.

How much more energy in watt-hours are you using recording 24x7? Will TWC reimburse you for this?

From what I could gather, on the three most recent versions, eSATA:

1) 2.4.10_11: works just fine
2) 3.1.0_11: barely works, if you are lucky, with a lot of patience to get it to reformat the drive, and the "record something all the time" workaround
3) 3.1.1_3: does not work at all

1) and 3) I have personal experience with.

MDN 2.4 is broken now too. Not as bad as ODN but it has the SLEEP COMMAND bug. It is less of a problem leaving STB on always, but the eSATA still will disconnect usually overnight requiring reboot. Plus, with this setting my SA8300HD seems to freeze more and that requires a hard reboot with the hexa-decimal count down that takes 10 minutes. Big pain.

How much more energy in watt-hours are you using recording 24x7? Will TWC reimburse you for this?

I don't notice a difference in utility bill.

The end of an era. Was just upgraded as of last night and eSATA no longer works.

That sucks. I can't believe TW won't fully support eSATA with such paltry internal hard drives. If I lose my 1TB drive, then I basically won't be able to keep up with anything. I have like 60+ recordings in HD right now because my schedule. This allows me to catch up on my off days or when nothing else is one.

We desperately need Tru2Way and third party hardware.

How much more energy in watt-hours are you using recording 24x7? Will TWC reimburse you for this?

Hardly any. I've measured energy consumption (kw/h) on my box and it seems to draw the same amount on or off or recording or recording and playing, etc.

Good news. I have eSATA working on ODN 3.1.1_3. Have confirmed it is writing to the external in the Diag screen (free clusters decrease every 5 sec). Big Q now is if it will work consistently.

The odd thing is that I didn't really do anything. I just disconnected my drive for a day and then hooked it back up. All working now.

Good news. I have eSATA working on ODN 3.1.1_3. Have confirmed it is writing to the external in the Diag screen (free clusters decrease every 5 sec). Big Q now is if it will work consistently.

The odd thing is that I didn't really do anything. I just disconnected my drive for a day and then hooked it back up. All working now.

Based on what I read in various AVS forums, I think the majority (running ODN) do have issues with external drive support. Your experience clarifies (at least in my mind) that it's an intermittent bug in the ODN software (not the drive!). I find the focus on the drives to be misplaced... they all absolutely do what they were designed to do, it's not their fault things don't work for many!

Oh forgot to say that I AM happy it's working for you!

And don't get me started about low level formatting! If you go from a non-functioning to a functioning state with a low level format in between, that is no evidence the format actually does anything GIVEN that we have plenty of evidence of the randomness of external drive support.

And don't get me started about low level formatting! If you go from a non-functioning to a functioning state with a low level format in between, that is no evidence the format actually does anything GIVEN that we have plenty of evidence of the randomness of external drive support.I believe the purpose of the low-level format is merely to get the drive back to looking like a new drive so that the DVR will attempt to do its own reformat.

I believe the purpose of the low-level format is merely to get the drive back to looking like a new drive so that the DVR will attempt to do its own reformat.

A low level and a simple format both do exactly the same thing to another device... they both present a blank directory.

BUT I'm just as guilty as everyone is these kind of voodoo things... there are various "computer" functions I do that I know don't have any real effect except in extremely rare occasions; but I still do them!

Actually the low level is useful _if_ the box won't format at all, which was a problem I had with 3.1.0. The Windows low level does allow HDC format to work consistently. But if the box sees the drive and formats on its own, low level then has no meaning. You may have never had that problem.

Bottom line is that I'm working OK so far with 3.1.1_3. I don't trust it just yet... maybe after a week. Everything is working with no special tricks.

I wonder if there is a possibility of a driver version that is different for KC, like maybe a XIAT driver. I also wouldn't discount the drive or drive enclosure model entirely. The HDC esata drivers may not be cleanly following all eSATA standards. Or if buggy, some devices may indeed work better together than others (like in the early ethernet days).

Everything still working 2 days later, even after several soft/hard reboots. Curious that it's better than ever, as if they actually attempted to fix bugs. Works as expected.

I just received an old beat up SA8240 from TWC(1st HDTV). I called Tech support and they told me that it holds approx 20 hours of HD. This, of course, is insufficient. Do any other TWC boxes(SA8300 for instance) hold more?

Also what is the general cost of the external drives that would bring my capacity up to about 50 hours?

I'm hoping to not make a move to Satellite but I don't really want to have to pay for an external drive due to TWC inabilities, Thanks.

Most of the set top DVR boxes come with 100GB drives, enough for only 20 hours of HD.

External SATA drives of 500GB capacity will give you 5 times that - 100 hours.

Some folks have had success with 750GB and 1TB external drives, YMMV.

-gil

20 hours of HD is about right, but it's 160G for drive size, not 100G.

Everything still working 2 days later, even after several soft/hard reboots. Curious that it's better than ever, as if they actually attempted to fix bugs. Works as expected.

That was temptation enough for me to try it again. Hooked up the drive, got prompted to reformat, no confirmation, no change - does not see the drive. At least did not delete a recording from the internal drive like the two times before that, I thought. Tried rebooting without low level reformatting, that does not even give the propmt. Did the low level formatting once again, hooked up the drive, got prompted to reformat, no confirmation, does not see the drive, and as a bonus, I got a recording deleted. That's three recordings deleted in 4 tries to hook up the drive since 3.1.1_3. I give up. :mad:

Got a hiccup overnight. The DVR List showed 0% used and new recordings wouldn't work. I setup a recording then soft rebooted (Vol+/- and Info) and everything is fine. I've setup constant recording of a channel. Will see how that goes.

I just received an old beat up SA8240 from TWC(1st HDTV). I called Tech support and they told me that it holds approx 20 hours of HD. This, of course, is insufficient. Do any other TWC boxes(SA8300 for instance) hold more?

Also what is the general cost of the external drives that would bring my capacity up to about 50 hours?

I'm hoping to not make a move to Satellite but I don't really want to have to pay for an external drive due to TWC inabilities, Thanks.

20 hours of HD is about right, but it's 160G for drive size, not 100G.True, and only very limited locations may be getting bigger drives. So, all you would get are same size. I think TWC is compressing a little more in my area now and may get 25 hours, but you are correct, too small. With HD, the drives became small very fast. For a ballpark, external drives are $100-150 depending on build yourself or not and 500GB size (+50 for 1 TB). BUT, make sure you are ready and have read up. Many problems these days with new TW software. Your software and future software on your machine could make a HUGE difference on whether you are happy. I have actually held off since we have been planned to get Navigator for months (just never actually arrives so I wish I had taken the plunge months ago). /Dan

We have been on 3.0.11 for a while, TWC San Diego.

I had a 8300HDC box that was getting slower and slower and I finally replaced it.
They gave me an 8300HD box and it works much better with an external SATA.
It set up right away, and I had one strange failure a couple of weeks ago after having it for a couple of months. I lost all the recordings that we not set up to not erase, but otherwise, no problems so far.

I have a second box, an 8300HDC in another room and I can not get an eSata to work on it at all. It recognizes the drive but will not ask to format it. I was told that this is a known issue with the HDC box, it uses middleware to make the external drive work and that middleware is not complete right now. It was a lot of work to get the old HDC drive working, this one I can not get it to work at all. I was told TWC does not support an external drive on an HDC box, they will with the next update (June?)

I have been messing with this for a long time (+- a year) with 3 different boxes. I got the eternal drive to work on the 8300HDC but it was a lot of work and I could not get it to work consistantly.

The 8300HD seems to be a better match for an external drive, at least in San Diego.

Has anyone else found this, or is it a matter of luck, good and bad?

Luckily I have an 8300HD box that works well with my 1TB external drive. However, I'm stuck with garbage SARA software. The only real solution to this problem is if Time Warner deploys Tru2Way CableCards so we can have fully functional third party boxes like Tivo and Moxi. Give me a third party box that works with VOD and PPV and I will turn in my SA 8300 the very next day!

I've started seeing hesitations and pauses that last a few seconds in both live channel viewing and DVR recordings. This seems to have started after some new channels were added. Also may be connected to using the guide and program list. I'm on MDN Navigator.

Could my external hard drive be going bad?

Heck, I popped in a larger internal drive and it worked. However, since it was just a standard HD I observed a number of artifacts in the video. HD's made for this purpose are available, and their use would avoid the software issues experienced with the external drive.

I've started seeing hesitations and pauses that last a few seconds in both live channel viewing and DVR recordings. This seems to have started after some new channels were added. Also may be connected to using the guide and program list. I'm on MDN Navigator.

Could my external hard drive be going bad?

that seems to always be an issue when they add channels, at least for me.

anyhow, did you try to re-boot?

that seems to always be an issue when they add channels, at least for me.

anyhow, did you try to re-boot?

I did reboot today, and it seems better so far. When you notice it, does it affect both your live viewing and recordings?

Heck, I popped in a larger internal drive and it worked. However, since it was just a standard HD I observed a number of artifacts in the video. HD's made for this purpose are available, and their use would avoid the software issues experienced with the external drive.You do inexperienced readers here a disservice to throw that out without pointing out the risks of that approach: Most US customers lease their cableco-provided DVRs, and will eventually have to return them to the cableco. Most cablecos use anti-tamper features on their boxes (holographic tape along a seam, loc-tite on screws, etc.), and if they notice the anti-tamper features have been altered, they could try to lay a big fee (or even press criminal charges) on you for messing with their box.

Folks should be aware that most US cablecos get pretty torqued when customers tinker with cableco equipment. Swapping out an internal drive on a leased box trades technical risk for legal / financial risk.

I did reboot today, and it seems better so far. When you notice it, does it affect both your live viewing and recordings?

at its worse, it happened in both.

Help! I think my 8300HD running Navigator MDN is self-destructing. Several times when I checked the DVR in the morning it has been recording by itself all nite long and is still recording. Nothing shows up on the list as being recorded, but my used disk space has gone up 8% overnight (with a 1TB external drive). Also, it has missed recording most of the shows it should have the night before. The recording log says "Unable to record". If I reboot it stops recording, and the used space returns to being 8% less. But I've still lost the shows it was supposed to record. I'm also getting some hesitations and short freezes both with live TV and recordings.

I would just exchange the box, but I've got shows on it and my external drive from 4/5 on. I'm not sure I can still get another HD box, and if I get an HDC box my external drive will no longer work. Meanwhile, my other 8300 HD box is working fine.

Any suggestions on what's going on, and if I can get this box to work for awhile longer?

You do inexperienced readers here a disservice to throw that out without pointing out the risks of that approach: Most US customers lease their cableco-provided DVRs, and will eventually have to return them to the cableco. Most cablecos use anti-tamper features on their boxes (holographic tape along a seam, loc-tite on screws, etc.), and if they notice the anti-tamper features have been altered, they could try to lay a big fee (or even press criminal charges) on you for messing with their box.

Folks should be aware that most US cablecos get pretty torqued when customers tinker with cableco equipment. Swapping out an internal drive on a leased box trades technical risk for legal / financial risk.

AND this is the first time I've ever seen ANYONE in the US claim they swapped out the internal drive. Yes, Rogers customers in Canada seem to be able to do this, but nobody in the US seems to have really done it. I suspect the issue has to do with the ability to download the WHOLE suite of software necessary for turning a "blank" drive into a functioning one.

OR it could be something like what Compaq used to do years and years ago (they probably used to embed some code in the boot sequence that was unique to their computers, one could NOT buy a drive and have it function as the boot drive, the drive HAD to come from Compaq.

So the bottom line is I'm highly skeptical that someone in the US actually swapped out an internal drive for a functioning third party one.

So the bottom line is I'm highly skeptical that someone in the US actually swapped out an internal drive for a functioning third party one.

All,

There are many people who have done it. They just don't post on this forum, because everyone knows the AVSForum attitude about doing 'grey' things.

The short of it is it works on SARA but not Passport. I do not know about Navigator.

xnappo

P.S. and please do not harass me about whether it is slightly illegal or really illegal, I honestly could care less.

[EDIT] I stand corrected. There are plenty of US people reporting success here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=483092&page=3

I am new to this thread. I read the first few pages of posts. I am in NC with TW cable. I have a 8300HD and my local TW is running Mystro. Is there any info on eSATAs that work with Mystro like there is for SARA and Passport?

Has anyone used a FreeAgent Xtreme drive? 1.5 TB version Shown Here (http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=1568276) This is $40 cheaper than the 1.5 TB Apricon and is the least expensive 1.5 TB eSATA I have found so far.


One other question about what Apricorn has on their site. They claim 187.5 hrs of HD programming on a 1.5 TB drive. The 8300HDs have a 160 GB drive and claim 20 hrs of HD programming, so thats 8 GB per HD hr. If you multiply 187.5 hrs times 8 GB/hr you get 1500 GB. HOWEVER isn't a TB 1024 GBs? So 1.5 TB is 1536 GB. Therefore a 1.5 TB drive should hold 192 HD hrs not 187.5, right?

I am new to this thread. I read the first few pages of posts. I am in NC with TW cable. I have a 8300HD and my local TW is running Mystro. Is there any info on eSATAs that work with Mystro like there is for SARA and Passport?Your DVR's software is usually called Navigator. You can check the Navigator database (see xnappo's signiture above) to read other's experiences.

One other question about what Apricorn has on their site. They claim 187.5 hrs of HD programming on a 1.5 TB drive. The 8300HDs have a 160 GB drive and claim 20 hrs of HD programming, so thats 8 GB per HD hr. If you multiply 187.5 hrs times 8 GB/hr you get 1500 GB. HOWEVER isn't a TB 1024 GBs? So 1.5 TB is 1536 GB. Therefore a 1.5 TB drive should hold 192 HD hrs not 187.5, right?Make sure you do the same math with the 160GB (each GB being 1024 MB actual data). When you get to 1.5TB the difference becomes significant in hours, but not in percent. TWC is now saying 35 hours HD on a 160GB drive in many advertisements. Compression varies (even by location) and each minute of a show will vary so everything is "ballpark" anyway. The 160GB will not hit "FULL" at exactly 20 hours of HD. Knowing you have over a week of 24 hour a day recoding space is enough.
/Dan

Your DVR's software is usually called Navigator. You can check the Navigator database (see xnappo's signiture above) to read other's experiences.

AH Ok. Thanks. Did I just miss a Navigator title page on the boot up? All I remember is the Mystro title page. (We had Passport but TWC switched sometime last year) Is there some where in this thread that discusses the Pros/Cons of the different software? I am slowly making my way through the thread.

Danki6x, Yeah I realize that those hour numbers are approximate. I just thought it was interesting to see Apricorn list the hours at 187.5 instead of 190 or around 190. The 187.5 make it seem like its more exacting than it really is.


Has there been a discussion in this thread of the largest eSATA drive that anyone has gotten to work? I have seen 1.5 TB listed, any higher? I tend to do my TV watching in big chunks. I will save up several episodes or even half a season or so and then watch it all at once. That doesn't happen now that I have gone HD. One weekend of F1 racing can take up 6.5 hours. I would like to try a 2 TB unless there is a known upper limit to what the 8300HD can handle.

Heck if the 35 hours is anywhere close then you at talking over 330 hours instead of 187........

First post and I know very little about this stuff, but hopefully you guys won't mind helping.

I have an SA8300HD running Navigator/Mystro. I installed the Western Digital e-sata 500gb My DVR Expander, no problems, it recognized it, asked me to format it, and my storage % dropped like it should.

I have all types of problems recording though. It doesn't start a scheduled recording or it only records a portion of the show, and when it does record something, it's glitchy. My SA8300HD was working perfectly prior to this and my old recordings still play back just fine.

Western Digital was no help, they just offered to replace the drive. Cisco was no help, they told me to contact Bright House. Bright House was no help, they told me they don't support third-party devices. I do actually have a free replacement coming tomorrow from Amazon in case the drive is defective, but I was wondering if you could provide any assistance.

Is there anything I can do or try or does it sound like the drive is defective?

Thanks a lot if you're willing to help, I'd greatly appreciate it!

First post and I know very little about this stuff, but hopefully you guys won't mind helping.

I have an SA8300HD running Explorer/Mystro. I installed the Western Digital e-sata 500gb My DVR Expander, no problems, it recognized it, asked me to format it, and my storage % dropped like it should.

I have all types of problems recording though. It doesn't start a scheduled recording or it only records a portion of the show, and when it does record something, it's glitchy. My SA8300HD was working perfectly prior to this and my old recordings still play back just fine.

Western Digital was no help, they just offered to replace the drive. Cisco was no help, they told me to contact Bright House. Bright House was no help, they told me they don't support third-party devices. I do actually have a free replacement coming tomorrow from Amazon in case the drive is defective, but I was wondering if you could provide any assistance.

Is there anything I can do or try or does it sound like the drive is defective?

Thanks a lot if you're willing to help, I'd greatly appreciate it!

unplug it and wait for a newer firmware.

unplug it and wait for a newer firmware.

I'm a total newb. Could you explain that in layman's terms? Unplug what exactly and how/when would I get newer firmware? Thanks.

No one has any help or suggestions to offer? :(

No one has any help or suggestions to offer? :(

Many people are having problems with the Navigator software. People are trying to tell you to forget about it until TWC releases a new version which may (or may not) fix it.

xnappo

Many people are having problems with the Navigator software. People are trying to tell you to forget about it until TWC releases a new version which may (or may not) fix it.

xnappoThe thing is, he says he has the 8300HD which means he has MDN Navigator. I may not be keeping up, but I thought it was only the lastest release of ODN Navigator on the 8300HDC boxes that were having problems with an external drive.

The thing is, he says he has the 8300HD which means he has MDN Navigator. I may not be keeping up, but I thought it was only the lastest release of ODN Navigator on the 8300HDC boxes that were having problems with an external drive.

Sorry - you are right. In that case, he should try the usual. Try replacing things in order of your convenience. You have four variables:

- DVR
- Case
- Cable
- Drive

Replace them in order of easiest to most difficult, and report back. There really isn't any special 'trick' to try here...

xnappo

Yes, I have the 8300HD, not the HDC. I must have read nearly a hundred reviews of the WD My DVR Expander working fine with the 8300HD, some of them quite recent. I would have to think that some of those people have the same software as I do.

Let me go in another direction. Do you experts think there's nothing to try (other than re-installing the Expander since I have a new one coming today anyway)? If so, I won't bother you anymore.

Thanks for responding btw, sorry if I sounded impatient, I'm just used to figuring things out on my own, plus I got a brand new 52" Sony LCD last week so I was eager to get everything up and running to take full advantage of it's picture quality. My wife and I record so many shows that we were recording most of them in SD on our old HDTV b/c we'd run out of room if we used HD.

EDIT: I was posting when xnappo made his last post and didn't see it. Thanks man. Just a few quick newbie follow-ups...

1. If my DVR was working flawlessly before I got the Expander, could it really be the DVR? Would it be the SATA connection that might be bad?
2. What's the case? The case for the Expander? I can't do much about that other than getting a new Expander, which will arrive today, correct?
3. Cable is referring to the eSATA cable that comes with the Expander, correct? I'll have a new one of those coming with the replacement Expander, so I can test both.

Goats, welcome! I'd strongly suggest you update your profile to automatically show your location, box, software and software version number (BTW, you have a MDN equipped 8300HD). ALL of these small data points can be critical for anyone who may try and help... and maybe prevent replies that don't work because the "respondent" is making a huge assumption you have ther exact same setup as he does.

FWIW, we have seen things being very different even if you have the same box, software and version, sometimes different markets have set things differently than another area with the same customer equipment.

Is this better? I don't know where to find the Mystro/Explorer version info.

Sorry for not including this info sooner, but I only registered yesterday b/c of this issue. To be honest, once it's resolved, it's unlikely I'll be visiting this forum very often, if at all. Most of the info. here is over my head.

Is this better? I don't know where to find the Mystro/Explorer version info.

Yes MUCH better! The software is more widely known as "Navigator MDN."

Yes MUCH better! The software is more widely known as "Navigator MDN."

Ok, I'll change it. Now that we've taken care of my signature, I just need to solve my actual DVR problem. :(

1. If my DVR was working flawlessly before I got the Expander, could it really be the DVR? Would it be the SATA connection that might be bad?
2. What's the case? The case for the Expander? I can't do much about that other than getting a new Expander, which will arrive today, correct?
3. Cable is referring to the eSATA cable that comes with the Expander, correct? I'll have a new one of those coming with the replacement Expander, so I can test both.

1. Yes, there have been people for whom it was working fine without the drive, but when they added the drive it did not work. When they swapped DVRs the problem went away. Problem is, you might get an 8300HDC if you try to swap - which REALLY would break it.

2. Yeah, in your case it would mean opening up the DVR expander and trying to put the drive in another case. Since there are people who report success with the database, hopefully that is not the problem.

3. Yes, the eSATA cable.

One of the risks of buying a drive that comes in a case is that the drive inside the case may be different than the drive someone reported success with in the database.

My recommendation now that there is a ton of data is:

Antec MX-1 or Apricorn EZ-Bus case
WD Caviar hard drive (SE16 preferred)

It is clear from the data that the chance of success with that combo is high.

xnappo

Thanks again xnappo, I appreciate the follow-up.

I went with a pre-packaged drive that claimed to be designed for DVR's and SA8300-compatible b/c I don't know about any of this stuff. As simple as it sounds, I'm not sure I'd really want to try to build my own.

I actually have a 2nd 8300HD (in my bedroom) that I have no desire to add an external hard drive to. From what you've just said, if playing around with the new drive/cable and the same DVR that I hooked the first one up to doesn't work, is swapping my two 8300HD's worth a shot? I already knew from prior research that I don't want an 8300HDC, so like you mentioned, I'd rather not have Bright House swap my DVR b/c of that risk.

For the past few days the GUI on the SA8300HD with ESATA drive has been very slow. I rebooted but that made no difference...

Thanks again xnappo, I appreciate the follow-up.

I went with a pre-packaged drive that claimed to be designed for DVR's and SA8300-compatible b/c I don't know about any of this stuff. As simple as it sounds, I'm not sure I'd really want to try to build my own.

I actually have a 2nd 8300HD (in my bedroom) that I have no desire to add an external hard drive to.

Yes, definitely give that a shot. Note that you will, unfortunately, have to hook the drive up to a computer and reformat it before it will let you try another box. SO if you have another one coming and do not have the ability to do this - maybe you should consider starting with your bedroom box...

xnappo

Note that you will, unfortunately, have to hook the drive up to a computer and reformat it before it will let you try another box.

xnappo

Whoa, are you sure that this applies to the WD My DVR Expander?

The manual doesn't say anything about hooking it up to a computer except that if I want to use it with a computer it will have to be reformatted for computer use and I obviously won't be able to view anything I recorded on it.

When I installed it the first time, it had to be formatted by the DVR (a message comes up on the TV asking if you want to format it). I assumed that if I moved the drive to a new DVR it would simply ask me to format it again.

I guess I'll check out WD's support site while I await your response.

It's my understanding that hooking it to your computer is not necessary. When you move the drive to the other DVR it will automatically ask you to format it again.

It's my understanding that hooking it to your computer is not necessary. When you move the drive to the other DVR it will automatically ask you to format it again.

I just got off the phone with WD and that's what they told me. Thanks for chiming in, it's always nice to have someone back-up what free tech support tells you.

I just got off the phone with WD and that's what they told me. Thanks for chiming in, it's always nice to have someone back-up what free tech support tells you.

Be careful - I know for a fact that some people have NOT been able to get a reformat message when the drive was already tied to another box.

I am not sure what software it was with though - so hopefully it is not an issue with Navigator.

xnappo

Thanks for the warning. If it works, it works.

I have too much stuff saved that I need to watch on my 2nd 8300HD to try that one first, so I'm gonna try the new drive on the original DVR again, and if that doesn't work, I'll try moving it to the other one in a few days when I've cleared enough recordings out.

Thanks to everyone one last time for helping someone as clueless as myself. Sorry for having so many questions and cluttering up the thread. I'll post an update when I'm done trying the new drive.

Oh well, no luck with the new drive on the same DVR. It recorded everything I had scheduled, but the recordings are glitchy again.

As a side note, when I disconnected the old drive, the shows I had previously saved on the DVR weren't erased.

I'll try connecting the drive to my other 8300HD in a day or two... after that I give up.

Hello all

Please help I have an 8300 from cablevision with Sara 1.91 I purchased a Western Digital-My Book Home 1TB External FireWire/USB 2.0/eSATA Hard Drive-WDH1CS10000N and a Dynex®-6' eSATA Cable-DX-C113221. When I reboot nothing comes up as to format the drive. If I look in the diagnostic pages it sees the hard drive but shows it as 0 gb. Is the cable the problem? the eSata cable fit right into the 8300. I'm at a dead end.

Hello all

Please help I have an 8300 from cablevision with Sara 1.91 I purchased a Western Digital-My Book Home 1TB External FireWire/USB 2.0/eSATA Hard Drive-WDH1CS10000N and a Dynex®-6' eSATA Cable-DX-C113221. When I reboot nothing comes up as to format the drive. If I look in the diagnostic pages it sees the hard drive but shows it as 0 gb. Is the cable the problem? the eSata cable fit right into the 8300. I'm at a dead end.

That drive won't work. Check the database - everyone has the same problem.

xnappo

Hello Xnappo, All ::

The database is a huge help. I wish I read it more closely before buying the first shiny eSATA box I saw on the shelf. :-(

Does anyone know what the hardware differences in the enclosures that work, vs. those eSATA cases that seem to be PC only?

Sorry if I missed this in search: will my eSATA drive (currently working with SA8300HD also work with a newer cable box like the Samsung 3090?

Thanks in advance...

Hello Xnappo, All ::

The database is a huge help. I wish I read it more closely before buying the first shiny eSATA box I saw on the shelf. :-(

Does anyone know what the hardware differences in the enclosures that work, vs. those eSATA cases that seem to be PC only?

There shouldn't be ANY hardware differences as SATA is the native interface of both the drive and the cable STB... so essentially one is running wire straight from the drive to the cable STB. Some claim that multi-interface drives changes this, but that makes little sense (there no good reason to convert to USB then back to SATA).

Everyone seems focused on the drive and it's enclosure, but in reality it's the STB and it's software that determines things. It's kinda a techie point, but every "drive" listed on xnappo's DB does what it's supposed to do, writes and retrieves data.

Sorry if I missed this in search: will my eSATA drive (currently working with SA8300HD also work with a newer cable box like the Samsung 3090?

Thanks in advance...

We've seen a few folks saying it works, but it's pretty well known the latest 2 revs of ODN in general do not work with any external drives.

We've seen a few folks saying it works, but it's pretty well known the latest 2 revs of ODN in general do not work with any external drives.

So I should try to hold on to my SA8300HD, then? Do any of the newer boxes work with eSATA? 20 hrs. of HD is relatively useless for me...:mad:

Please exciuse ignorance but I'm a bit confused as I haven't been up here for a while.

Can someone sumarize what's going on with TWC hardware and software, define ODN MDN, so I can make a decision about which boxes to keep or replace when I get my Tivo HD?

I would like one other cable box that will work with eSATA drives, and can also get HD PPV movies. Right now I have an SA 8300HD and Samsung 3050HD non-DVR box.

Thanks in advance...

The 8300HDs that have Navigator are known as MDN boxes... I think external HDDs may generally work OK with MDN. At some point, many think TWC will force MDN on all existing 8300HD boxes that are running passport (the rumor was we would get it 6/1, but that did NOT happen). Passport has a nasty SATA bug that kills an external HDD... has to do with loss of FF and RW for stuff one buffers.

There's a slow rollout of a Samsung DVR, the 3090. An ODN box (i.e. for most with ODN, external HDDs tend not to work). It comes from Samsung with a 320G drive but caan be fitted with other drives. OF COURSE that means TWC hands out 320G boxes in some areas, but 160G one in other areas.

The 8300HDs that have Navigator are known as MDN boxes... I think external HDDs may generally work OK with MDN. At some point, many think TWC will force MDN on all existing 8300HD boxes that are running passport (the rumor was we would get it 6/1, but that did NOT happen). Passport has a nasty SATA bug that kills an external HDD... has to do with loss of FF and RW for stuff one buffers.

There's a slow rollout of a Samsung DVR, the 3090. An ODN box (i.e. for most with ODN, external HDDs tend not to work). It comes from Samsung with a 320G drive but caan be fitted with other drives. OF COURSE that means TWC hands out 320G boxes in some areas, but 160G one in other areas.

Is my Passport 8300HD an MDN box? eSATA drive has worked fine. Do I have Navigator or some older software - how do I know? Will a rollout of new software kill my eSATA?

What is the best strategy at this point for getting a box that will work with eSATA?

Sorry for all the questions, but I'm obviously a bit confused...:confused:

Yes MUCH better! The software is more widely known as "Navigator MDN."

Can someone give me a detailed explaination of the relationship between Navigator, MDN, and Mystro? I am a bit confused on this. I didn't realize that I Navigator until someone here told me that Mystro was Navigator. I see on Xnappo's Navigator database that there are version numbers. Is Mystro a version of Navigator or are all Navigator versions Mystro? How do I tell which version do I have? How does MDN relate to all this? What does MDN stand for?

TIA

How does MDN relate to all this? What does MDN stand for?

[/QUOTE]

MDN stands for Mystro Digital Navigator. It is the C++ version of Navigator. It runs on non-cable card versions of SA boxes (8xxxHD). ODN is OCAP Digital Navigator. It is the Java version of Navigator and runs on the HDC (cable card) boxes.

xnappo

Can anyone tell me if any other box besides the SA8300HD will work with eSATA? Will new software break eSATA on the SA8300?

TIA...

MDN stands for Mystro Digital Navigator. It is the C++ version of Navigator. It runs on non-cable card versions of SA boxes (8xxxHD). ODN is OCAP Digital Navigator. It is the Java version of Navigator and runs on the HDC (cable card) boxes.

xnappo


So is it true that all Navigator is either MDN or ODN? And how do I tell which version number I have? Examples on your Navigator database are 2.4.4_2 or 2.4.5_4 or 2.4.8.2, etc.

I seem to recall that "Mystro" was essentially a code name for the Navigator software. And some times, internal code words leak out and get adopted very quickly by the public, so the originator ends up using the code name for real (Apple is a good example, the big cat names for OS revs was supposed to only be used internally, but they leaked out and ever the marketer, they started using them in adverts).

I have be digging through the thread to see if there were any reports of a drive greater than 1 TB working on an 8300HD I also checked the three databases Xnappo has. There is only one indication of a pass for a 1.5 TB but if you read the comments its clear that it didn't really work. And finally, I spoke with an Apricorn tech today. They confirmed what I suspected, that no one has reported successfully using their 1.5 TB model on any 8300HD regardless of software type or version, despite no mention of that on their website. They have had plently of complaints of it failing to work. It seems like its a safe bet that 1 TB is the limit.

The 8300HDs that have Navigator are known as MDN boxes... I think external HDDs may generally work OK with MDN.

Nada. Have to record ESPN News constantly to prevent eSATA from disconnecting after more than a year of solid operation. TWC sucks.

Nada. Have to record ESPN News constantly to prevent eSATA from disconnecting after more than a year of solid operation. TWC sucks.

I have 2 8300HD's with MDN using external drives. Both work fine. They did not work with the 8300HDC boxes however.

I have 3 different dvrs in my house 1 HD8300 the others HDC8300. The HD8300 external drive works fine. One HDC8300 external drive works fine. The other HDC8300 external drive is a no go. Is there a way to request an older style HD8300 dvr from TW. The main TW depot is 10 minutes from my house

I have 3 different dvrs in my house 1 HD8300 the others HDC8300. The HD8300 external drive works fine. One HDC8300 external drive works fine. The other HDC8300 external drive is a no go. Is there a way to request an older style HD8300 dvr from TW. The main TW depot is 10 minutes from my house

I was able to exchange my 8300HDC for an 8300HD with no problem, but I'm not sure how long they will still have the HD boxes.

I have 2 8300HD's with MDN using external drives. Both work fine. They did not work with the 8300HDC boxes however.

Please post your PE version (mine is MDN 2.4.1, May 28 2008), Host version (mine is 1.38 MDN 2.4 Nov 11 2008), PTV version (mine is v6.14.94.1sp May 2008), and Res version (mine is 2.4.4-15-ptv Pyramid Peak Nov 11 2008).

To get into DIAG, press SELECT until MAIL icon displays, then press down arrow. Go to page 14 for software stack versions.

Thanks!

Please post your PE version (mine is MDN 2.4.1, May 28 2008), Host version (mine is 1.38 MDN 2.4 Nov 11 2008), PTV version (mine is v6.14.94.1sp May 2008), and Res version (mine is 2.4.4-15-ptv Pyramid Peak Nov 11 2008).

To get into DIAG, press SELECT until MAIL icon displays, then press down arrow. Go to page 14 for software stack versions.

Thanks!

PE Version - same as yours
Host Version - 1.38 MDN 2.4 Dec 23, 2008
PTV Version - same as yours
Res Version - 2.4.4-16-ptv Pyramid Peak Dec 23, 2008

I got my new ext. drive set up an running. I used a WD Caviar Green. P/N WD10EADS. That's 1 TB with a 32 MB cache. I put it in a Thermaltake Silver River DUO Enclosure. P/N A2396, (the black one). This case is solid Al and fanless. You can see my DVR info in my sig. It took less than 5 minutes to put the drive in the case and hook it up. This was cheaper than a pre built external DVR drive and I think I have a better drive as well. I was suprised at the format time. I was probably less than 20 seconds. I have been doing a constant burn to the drive of HD material with one or both tuners depending on my watching and "real" recording. I am doing this to check capacity. I was a bit concerned about the quick format. IE if the full 1 TB was recognized or not. Everything seems to be on track for about 125 to 150 hrs of HD material not including the 20 hrs on the 8300. Even with this constant recording for the past 24 hrs the case is cool to the touch. I even have it lying flat instead of on edge.

TWC is going to have to send armed storm troopers to get my 8300HD back now.:D

To others out there running MDN and an ext drive: I turn off my 8300 when its not in use. Every time I turn it back on I get a message that a drive is attached, etc., etc. I have to turn it off using the yellow triangle A key on the remote. Is there a way to defeat this message? Or do most people leave their 8300s on?

I get over 100 hours on a 500GB e-SATA drive, you should be getting 200 or more hours.

I turn off my SA8300 using the remote, but lease the e-SATA drive on 24/7 - I don't get the error message when I power up the 8300.

I get over 100 hours on a 500GB e-SATA drive, you should be getting 200 or more hours.

I turn off my SA8300 using the remote, but lease the e-SATA drive on 24/7 - I don't get the error message when I power up the 8300.

Is that 100 hrs of HD? For example, Apricorn claims 125 hrs on their 1 TB drive and 187.5 for their 1.5 TB drive. Thats for HD.

I am not turning my drive off either, just the 8300. Its not really an error message, more like an annoucement. But after the first time my reaction is, "no duh, I am the one who hooked it up."

QUICK QUESTION GUYS...

Any of you using a 2.5" SATA laptop drive in an enclosure attached to your 8300HDC with any success? I am not too happy with the noise level of my Antec MX-1's fan. I'm sure a 2.5" laptop drive would not require a fan and use less power...

Thanks for any feedback you can provide!

CxP

QUICK QUESTION GUYS...

Any of you using a 2.5" SATA laptop drive in an enclosure attached to your 8300HDC with any success? I am not too happy with the noise level of my Antec MX-1's fan. I'm sure a 2.5" laptop drive would not require a fan and use less power...

CxP

No, but I disconnected my Antec MX-1 fan a year ago and haven't had any problems. That will depend on the drive though to some degree. Keep in mind the HD inside the SA8300HDC doesn't have a fan...

xnappo

As far as I know, you shouldn't have any problem. The system only tries to reformat the drive if it hasn't been formatted or it is moved to a new DRV. I've gone through several power failures since attaching a hard drive and it has recovered every time. As an added precaution, you might want to power on the hard drive a few seconds before booting the DVR.

My 8300HD failed after TWC sent through an update. I swapped in a new 8300HD from TWC and now my Apricorn DVR Extender is not working. If I have it plugged in the DVR will not even record. I get an error message that says the channel could not be found. If I unplug the Extender the DVR works fine. (although it will not retain the aspect ratio setting when a do a hard reboot) When I swapped in the new DVR it did not reformat the Extender. Any advice on what to try next? I am thinking I need to plug the SATA drive into a computer and format it there. Then hopefully the DVR will reformat the SATA.

Any advice on what to try next? I am thinking I need to plug the SATA drive into a computer and format it there. Then hopefully the DVR will reformat the SATA.

That is exactly what you need to do.

xnappo

That is exactly what you need to do.

xnappoI might add, many have reported that a full reformat on your computer may not be needed. You should be able to abort it after a minute or two.

Great, thanks I will try that tonight and report back.

No, but I disconnected my Antec MX-1 fan a year ago and haven't had any problems. That will depend on the drive though to some degree. Keep in mind the HD inside the SA8300HDC doesn't have a fan...

xnappo

What drive do you have? I have a 500GB WD 7200RPM. WD500AAKS I believe.

What drive do you have? I have a 500GB WD 7200RPM. WD500AAKS I believe.

750GB version of the same drive. Of course I have to give the disclaimer: YMMV.

xnappo

Thanks for your feedback. I decided to unplug the fan. Upon doing so I realized that my 8300 HDC is powering down the external drive when the DVR is turned off. I had no idea the disk was powering down because of the fan noise in the Antec enclosure. That's reassuring that the external drive is powered down when not in use..

That is exactly what you need to do.

xnappo

Well I tried just about everything that was suggested. The new box TW gave me is a 8300HDC and I have had nothing but trouble with it since I picked it up. It will not record properly with or without the eSATA connected. It skips scheduled recordings and the box in the Navigator guide turns gray. It gives a message that the channel is not available. So before I make any other attempts to get the eSATA working I need to get the box replaced. I am taking it to the TWC office today and I am going to ask for a 8300HD if one is available. Hopefully that will work better with the eSATA as well. I had no problems for two years with my old 8300HD until it froze up during a TWC update.

Well I tried just about everything that was suggested. The new box TW gave me is a 8300HDC and I have had nothing but trouble with it since I picked it up. It will not record properly with or without the eSATA connected. It skips scheduled recordings and the box in the Navigator guide turns gray. It gives a message that the channel is not available. So before I make any other attempts to get the eSATA working I need to get the box replaced. I am taking it to the TWC office today and I am going to ask for a 8300HD if one is available. Hopefully that will work better with the eSATA as well. I had no problems for two years with my old 8300HD until it froze up during a TWC update.

The HDC undoubtedly has ODN on it and that software is well know to have serious issues with external drives.

I just bought a Tivo HD (special promotion, only $99) that will hopefully solve all issues and doubts about TWC. It will work with a specific WD 1 Terrabyte eSATA expander drive.

TWC was supposed to install cablecards last Saturday - never showed up. Take 2 is tomorrow. I will keep my fingers crossed. I will keep my SA8300HD box temporarily. If TWC gets a box and software that takes an external drive, I might keep it to have 4 tuners and the ability to DL HD movies on box. Tivo has Amazon HD and Netflix - haven't tried them yet...

The HDC undoubtedly has ODN on it and that software is well know to have serious issues with external drives.

That's what I gathered reading the posts here. I just returned from TWC and I had a very nice rep. that went out of his way to get me a 8300HD. I will try that box out tonight and see if the problems are solved.

The new box I got from TWC is a 8300HD w/ Mystro. When I booted it up with the eSATA attached I got the message recognizing an external drive is attached. It did not give me the format message. I tried plugging the drive into my Vista PC (using the USB cable). Vista gave me the message that new hardware was found and installed but the drive does not appear in My Computer so I don't know how to go about reformatting it on the PC. Any help here?

If I am using a new DVR why wouldn't it offer to format the drive if it recognizes it? Could there be an issue with the eSATA Apricorn DVR Xpander 1TB drive?

I just bought a Tivo HD (special promotion, only $99) that will hopefully solve all issues and doubts about TWC. It will work with a specific WD 1 Terrabyte eSATA expander drive.

TWC was supposed to install cablecards last Saturday - never showed up. Take 2 is tomorrow. I will keep my fingers crossed. I will keep my SA8300HD box temporarily. If TWC gets a box and software that takes an external drive, I might keep it to have 4 tuners and the ability to DL HD movies on box. Tivo has Amazon HD and Netflix - haven't tried them yet...

I think policy is they have to give you a free month for missing a scheduled appointment.

The new box I got from TWC is a 8300HD w/ Mystro. When I booted it up with the eSATA attached I got the message recognizing an external drive is attached. It did not give me the format message. I tried plugging the drive into my Vista PC (using the USB cable). Vista gave me the message that new hardware was found and installed but the drive does not appear in My Computer so I don't know how to go about reformatting it on the PC. Any help here?

If I am using a new DVR why wouldn't it offer to format the drive if it recognizes it? Could there be an issue with the eSATA Apricorn DVR Xpander 1TB drive?Click your start button, type "computer", then click the line that says "Computer Management" (You'll also see it listed in your administrative tools). Click on the line that says "Disk Management" and you'll see your drive listed. Right-click on the drive and select "Format".

Click your start button, type "computer", then click the line that says "Computer Management" (You'll also see it listed in your administrative tools). Click on the line that says "Disk Management" and you'll see your drive listed. Right-click on the drive and select "Format".

I'll give that a try tonight. Thanks for the quick reply.

I think policy is they have to give you a free month for missing a scheduled appointment.

How do I get them to implement this? They did not offer it...

I got the format to start on the PC and let it run to 4%. I reattached it to the DVR and it did run through the format procedure.

Thanks for all the help. Now I just need to see if it records properly.

How do I get them to implement this? They did not offer it...

They never offer anything to reduce your fee... unless you have a case and call and ask. Service outages are the same... they KNOW they owe thousands for service interruptions longer than 24 hours, but those who call and ask are the ONLY ones who get reimbursed.

They never offer anything to reduce your fee... unless you have a case and call and ask. Service outages are the same... they KNOW they owe thousands for service interruptions longer than 24 hours, but those who call and ask are the ONLY ones who get reimbursed.

Second cable guy came yesterday and installed cable card (M-card) into Tivo HD with no problems.

I'll still call about missed appt. and see if I can be reimbursed. Tivo HD is great - I may give up TWC boxes altogether.

So, a little back story..I've had 2 DVR Expanders and 2 Cable boxes..lol.

Bottom line, the SA8300 HDC isn't supported(should have visited Western Digitals site..dooh) and I'll just state that the HDC is a really buggy box..can't believe they made it to commercial distribution..someone must have gotten paid off. Although, I'll admit that they definitely improved the Search functionality on this version..Want to find out where sports are living with all the HD channels? It is a snap with the HDC..unfortunately that advantage is outweighed by the excruciating wait time for channel change on remote. Actually, you don't really need the DVR feature with the HDC as it takes so long for the channel to change, that you can run and do your errands and make it back in time for it to land on the new channel..lol.

Anyway the bottom line for me (Time Warner, NYC/SA8300HD/WD 500 gig DVR Expander) was to follow the instructions that came with the Expander and then at the end, unplug the SATA cable from the back of the Expander and immediately plug it back in again...Walla, a "Do you want to format?" message graces my TV screen..follow 2 more simple steps on the remote and I'm in DVR heaven.

Net net, I saw this "cure" on xnappo's database site that someone else from my area, who had the same setup, listed..Thank you all as it was very frustrating constantly rebooting, replugging and eventually replacing units(both cable box & Expander) w/o success.

Who woulda thunk that simply plugging/unplugging SATA cable would do the trick..unreal :D

Has anyone here had a service call while they had their eSATA hooked up? esp. anyone in the Raleigh NC area? What kind of reaction if any did you get from the tech? I have a service call scheduled for 8:00 in the morning. (My 8300HD rebooted itself four times yesterday and I am also having occasional picture drop outs on the HD channels.) Should I unplug my drive and keep it out of sight or does TWC not care?

I usually unplug it. Gives them one less thing to blame things on.

Have two 8300hds with dvr expanders. When they send the software update from passport to navigator will I lose everything on the external drives?

Thanks for any help.

Anyone know if passport to navigator upgrade wipes out external recordings?

Anyone know if passport to navigator upgrade wipes out external recordings?

It didn't for me. I have Bright House in central FL. Whether BHN firmware is precisely the same as TWC is another ?

Anyone know if passport to navigator upgrade wipes out external recordings?

Theoretically, no. However, there are some folks who have reported all existing recordings being wiped out following a major IPG upgrade. And some have reported this to happen when the moon goes into another phrase!

Seriously, the best approach (IMO) is to watch stuff quickly and don't let it pile up. Not to mention with the paltry drives most MSOs put in their DVRs, this is also a good strategy to always have room to record something.

I'm in one of those "any day now that could be a year" situations. As they are replacing Passport, it seems it may not be a year. Sooo, if I record a new episode of something that may not come around for a long time, I'll watch that first. While most cable dramas DO have multiple viewings of a single episode, it's usually within one week.

One reason why I bought a Tivo HD (special $99 for old customers) is that with TivoToGo you can transfer any program to your computer thru home network and save it, or transfer to DVD or another device. Tivo HD also allows music, photos and video thru home network, as well as programming remotely thru computer or cell phone.

I actually like the 8300 HD, but glad I'm using Tivo as well.

Theoretically, no. However, there are some folks who have reported all existing recordings being wiped out following a major IPG upgrade. And some have reported this to happen when the moon goes into another phrase!

Seriously, the best approach (IMO) is to watch stuff quickly and don't let it pile up. Not to mention with the paltry drives most MSOs put in their DVRs, this is also a good strategy to always have room to record something.

I'm in one of those "any day now that could be a year" situations. As they are replacing Passport, it seems it may not be a year. Sooo, if I record a new episode of something that may not come around for a long time, I'll watch that first. While most cable dramas DO have multiple viewings of a single episode, it's usually within one week.

damn sons my 8300hd plus external might have taken a hit. Worked flawless for months before the "erase on xmas" and after. But today i come back cant play anything on the box, shows all recordings but cant play them! and says 00% available. SO i reset the box and now it wont finish booting. it hangs on the 4th box at the mystro screen.

damn sons my 8300hd plus external might have taken a hit. Worked flawless for months before the "erase on xmas" and after. But today i come back cant play anything on the box, shows all recordings but cant play them! and says 00% available. SO i reset the box and now it wont finish booting. it hangs on the 4th box at the mystro screen.

Does it then repeatedly do Hexadecimal Countdown? If so, disconnect the eSATA and reboot the SA8300HD, then put SA8300HD into standby and reconnect the eSATA. When message about detecting external drive appears follow the prompts. This should get it going, but it will probably disconnect after a SLEEP command. This is what happened to me after eSATA being solid for over a year. I have to record ESPN News constantly saving only 1 episode to try to keep the eSATA drive connected all the time. Report back with what you find...

Mybe you guys can help - I bought a WD DVR Expander way back when I got my first 8300HD, and it worked flawlessly, until my 8300HD died and they gave me an HDC - surprisingly, it worked also! Then that died, and now Comcast Houston has the latest POS - the Cisco RNG200. Now, it ALSO works flawlessly with the DVR Expander, however, for the last month or more, I have had an issue where every channel that is in the 705-759mHz range comes in with excessive errors, audio dropout/loss, pixelated/tiled video. Last night, my 5th tech came out and after trying everything else everyone else had done, I asked if he had an 8300HD in his truck - to my amazement, he did (NOTE: the 8300 series have both an Analog and Digital tuner in them, the RNG200 only has Digital, so when I tune a channel that was previously picked up on analog, it now picks it up via QAM). However, a couple of techs ago ALSO had 2 8300HDs, and both would produce exactly ZERO errors on the same digital channels that would drive the RNG200 crazy - HOWEVER, whenever I hooked up my DVR Expander, seconds after the BOOT message, the box would reboot. Well, same exact issue with this third 8300HD - and I know for a fact my DVR Expander worked with an 8300HD previously (heck, it's CERTIFIED to work with it - (unless some cable co. dorks up the firmware!!)) Anyway, I'm back to my RNG200. Has any one seen this issue with the 8300HD and SARA1.89.22.2 firmware? JRHUHKE claims his doesn't do this, but I don't know what ext. HD he is using. I tried to get an 8300HDC from the office yesterday, but they didn't have any (surprisingly, they DID have an 8300HD! - so they said they would get me one on Monday). I'm just trying something to troubleshoot here.

On another note - last night the digital channels that have been absolutely unwatchable for over a month came in without a single error/glitch! So either they found something, or it is heat related! I hope they found something so I don't have to worry about the ext. HD thing!

JRHUHKE claims his doesn't do this, but I don't know what ext. HD he is using.For what it's worth, I'm currently using a Western Digital WD10EADS 1TB drive and an Antec MX-1 enclosure. (Prior to that, I was using a Seagate ST3300831AS 300GB drive and a Kingwin SS-350S-BK enclosure, which also didn't cause problems when the box was rebooted.)

I've seen posts about changing the e-SATA cable - I'm stopping by Frys on the way home to see if they have any. Hopefully, though, the fixed my problem and I can keep the RNG200 (with all my Deadliest Catch recordings!)

I had an 8300HD fail (internal hard drive, overheating probably), swapped it at the office for an 8300HDC. The 8300HDC seems to have these characteristics:

Axiom OCAP/Mystro/PowerTV/Esmertec softare
160GB internal drive

Some anomalies with software, but my main question for this thread is how to get an external hard drive to work. I had one that worked fine for the 8300HD, a Western Digital 500GB, but when I hook it to the 8300HDC, results are uneven, mostly it's not correctly seeing int drive:

1. On initial cold power up, both units connected saw the drive, said programs couldn't be saved (I knew that), reformat? I picked the key to do that. Went for a few seconds, then whole unit rebooted, so I assume something went a bit haywire.

2. Repeated, eventually got to a screen on the TV that said format drive, which I said yes to. That seemed to not do much, but then...

3. On subsequent cold reboots, see either nothing, or a message that the external drive is bad (which I think is unlikely).

4. The info screens (Vol+ & Info keys held on base unit) do show the external drive, correct designation, WDC 500GB, etc. But still the unit does not recognize the drive correctly for usage.

Any suggestions on what to do next?

Are there any programs that I could load onto a PC to reformat the drive in the SA 8300HDC desired format (AVFS?)? Seems like the unit is having trouble formatting the drive, so if I could do it off system, maybe some chance of success. Or alternatively get the drive marked again as unformatted, so that maybe it takes a different route through the menus?

I've worked long enough with this, to the point I'm close to calling it not-woring, so put an entry out in xnappo's database, showing it as failed. At least that's the case so far. I have the hard drive off attached to a PC, formatting it, to confirm it's somehow not the drive gone bad. I'm thinking, however, this looks like software.

http://www.baseportal.com/baseportal/xnappo/navigator

(search on pwjone1)

One thing that would be handy if the database was enhanced to include the Scientific Atlanta model number (8300HD, 8300HDC, ...) as a column. What was working on 8300HD is not working on 8300HDC, and it actually would be handy if we could sort and see if anything was working on 8300HDCs. Could spot actually only one that was close, at current software levels (ODN 3.1.x and above).

<snip>
One thing that would be handy if the database was enhanced to include the Scientific Atlanta model number (8300HD, 8300HDC, ...) as a column. What was working on 8300HD is not working on 8300HDC, and it actually would be handy if we could sort and see if anything was working on 8300HDCs. Could spot actually only one that was close, at current software levels (ODN 3.1.x and above).

It's not the hardware difference cause the chipset for the external connection is still the same. The 8300HD and 8300HDC are virtually the same, except that the HDC does not use analog tuners (more memory and faster processor, etc. excluded). The 8300 typically does not use the analog tuners either as most systems tune a digital equivalent of the analog channels anyway.
The differences YOU and other Time Warner customers see is the differences between the Software written and licensed by Time Warner that they use on the 8300HD vs the 8300HDC - NOT the hardware. Many of us not on Time Warner still use the base SARA software that functions the same between the two boxes and do not have problems with external drives specified for use with the 8300 series of DVR's. That claim of compatibility with the 8300 series DVR's is determined by the hardware, not the software.

vegggas

Hi,

I've been skimming this thread and I'm a bit confused. I apologize if my questions have been answered elsewhere and if I've overlooked some things:

I just got cable service set up by Bright House Networks (I'm in the Orlando-CFL area). They gave me an SA 8300 HDC and an SA 8300 (standard def) for my other TV. Both are running Navigator, I'm not sure exactly how to check which version (any tips?).

It looks like adding an external drive to my HDC will be a problem from what I have read, but I would like to add an external drive to the 8300 SD since 30 to 50 hours of storage won't cut it. Are there any known problems with that setup?

I keep reading about the live buffer bug, sometimes called the passport bug, where the live buffer is lost when an external hard drive is used. Does that bug also exist on Navigator, or will I still be able to use the live buffer as I do now?

Thanks,
Andre

Hi,

I've been skimming this thread and I'm a bit confused. I apologize if my questions have been answered elsewhere and if I've overlooked some things:

I just got cable service set up by Bright House Networks (I'm in the Orlando-CFL area). They gave me an SA 8300 HDC and an SA 8300 (standard def) for my other TV. Both are running Navigator, I'm not sure exactly how to check which version (any tips?).

It looks like adding an external drive to my HDC will be a problem from what I have read, but I would like to add an external drive to the 8300 SD since 30 to 50 hours of storage won't cut it. Are there any known problems with that setup?

I keep reading about the live buffer bug, sometimes called the passport bug, where the live buffer is lost when an external hard drive is used. Does that bug also exist on Navigator, or will I still be able to use the live buffer as I do now?

Thanks,
Andre

On the SA 8300HDC, you can go into diag mode via:

To go into Diag mode, hold the Sel button on the base unit, until a mail with wing icon comes up, then press the down arrow. Also can be done on the remote. Scroll through the diag menus via the page up and down keys on the remote.

and into the Information screens via:

On base unit, hold down VOL+ & Info buttons at the same time for a few seconds. Info screens show signal levels, DVR info (including external hard drive), and allow you to Reboot (although above is easier)

The Diag screens show the ODN level, the Info screens the software level. The above is for ODN 3.1.1_sp1, YMMV.

What this group needs is a wiki, to get the info all down to something quicker to read (and current, although there seem to be so many levels of Navigator out there in the wild, hard to tell if anything would be really practical).

It's not the hardware difference cause the chipset for the external connection is still the same. The 8300HD and 8300HDC are virtually the same, except that the HDC does not use analog tuners (more memory and faster processor, etc. excluded). The 8300 typically does not use the analog tuners either as most systems tune a digital equivalent of the analog channels anyway.
The differences YOU and other Time Warner customers see is the differences between the Software written and licensed by Time Warner that they use on the 8300HD vs the 8300HDC - NOT the hardware. Many of us not on Time Warner still use the base SARA software that functions the same between the two boxes and do not have problems with external drives specified for use with the 8300 series of DVR's. That claim of compatibility with the 8300 series DVR's is determined by the hardware, not the software.

vegggas

Thanks for the explanation.

Bear with me for a follow-on question, or three:


Is the firmware/software level box dependent (8300HD vs 8300HDC)?
What levels of firmware/software work for external hard drives?
Is there a PC or Linux based utility to create the AVFS on an external hard drive?


Unfortunately, I don't get much choice here with TWC, the 8300HD croaked, and so I'm stuck with a 8300HDC as a replacement, and I realize most of the end user perceived differences have to do with ODN (vs. in my case Passport on the previous box). The ODN firmware/software seems to be having difficulties formatting the external hard drive, to get it going (starts, but just never completes). If I could get around that, to create the external drive's file system, I might be able to get it operational. If not, and I go back and ask for an 8300HD (old model, the area is putting a lot of FIOS in (I'd switch if I could, but Verizon stopped about 500 yards short of my house), if I were persistent, they probably have 8300HDs around, from all the turn-ins), I'm worried that I just end up at square one, now or some future point, if the firmware ends up same level. But I do notice also that the web sites for two of the major DVR expanders, Western Digital and Apricorn, specifically list them as not working with 8300HDCs, so software or hardware, it's a problem area.

On the SA 8300HDC, you can go into diag mode via:

To go into Diag mode, [...]

What this group needs is a wiki, to get the info all down to something quicker to read (and current, although there seem to be so many levels of Navigator out there in the wild, hard to tell if anything would be really practical).

+1 on the wiki idea :)

Thank you!

OK, so I have ODN 3.1.1_3 on my HDC, which, as I understand means that an external drive for that unit is a no go (although I know that xenophonite has had some success).

Now, on my 8300 SD, I have MDN 2.4.4-16. If I added a hard drive to this unit, should I still have the live buffer? Any known problems with adding a hard drive to an MDN 2.4.4-16 SD unit?

Thanks for the explanation.

Bear with me for a follow-on question, or three:


Is the firmware/software level box dependent (8300HD vs 8300HDC)?
What levels of firmware/software work for external hard drives?
Is there a PC or Linux based utility to create the AVFS on an external hard drive?


There are differing firmwares for HD or HDC boxes that are needed for seperable security of cableCards and to take advantage of the extra memory and processing of the HDC.
Almost all Versions ever written by Scientific Atlanta called SARA (Scientific Atlanta Resident Application) since it was part of the base code of the DVR software - Those written by Time Warner called MDN (Mystro Digital Navigator) sort of work and ODN (Ocap Digital Navigator) probably won't work. Those written by Aptiv (Passport) work, but do not have enough memory left over to run the live buffer, etc., etc.
No. Nope. None at all. Zero. Zilch. Nada. AVFS is not a computer based partition, but one based on the specific hardware and chipset serial number of the STB.



Unfortunately, I don't get much choice here with TWC, the 8300HD croaked, and so I'm stuck with a 8300HDC as a replacement, and I realize most of the end user perceived differences have to do with ODN (vs. in my case Passport on the previous box). The ODN firmware/software seems to be having difficulties formatting the external hard drive, to get it going (starts, but just never completes). If I could get around that, to create the external drive's file system, I might be able to get it operational. If not, and I go back and ask for an 8300HD (old model, the area is putting a lot of FIOS in (I'd switch if I could, but Verizon stopped about 500 yards short of my house), if I were persistent, they probably have 8300HDs around, from all the turn-ins), I'm worried that I just end up at square one, now or some future point, if the firmware ends up same level. But I do notice also that the web sites for two of the major DVR expanders, Western Digital and Apricorn, specifically list them as not working with 8300HDCs, so software or hardware, it's a problem area.
Your Passport loaded box *8300HD) will change to TWC's own MDN software very soon if it is not already loaded. They will not extend licensing fees to SA or Aptiv and have built their own software platform to control the boxes and options.
I will repeat again that the 8300HDC running the base SARA code with approved external drives work just great. Ever notice that there are never any more Cox users (Cox still uses SARA until later this year) complaining here, compared to TWC users who have had their OS changed (individual hardware failures excluded).

vegggas

One thing that would be handy if the database was enhanced to include the Scientific Atlanta model number (8300HD, 8300HDC, ...) as a column. The 8300 HD = MDN, the 8300 HDC = ODN software versions. /Dan

I've spent the last hour or 2 trying to read parts of this thread/research some of whats being said, but most of this is over my head, so I give up and am just going to ask.

I have a SA 8300HD, comcast cable, and live in Stafford Virginia. I don't see on the box anywhere whether I'm SARA or passport? I'd like to be able to expand my DVR (i guess 300GB-1TB), and would like to know what all I need to buy/what are the best most reliable options. Also, whether or not I'd be subject to this buffer issue (meaning i lose the ability to pause live tv?). Can anyone help? Sorry that so much of this is over my head.

I've spent the last hour or 2 trying to read parts of this thread/research some of whats being said, but most of this is over my head, so I give up and am just going to ask.

I have a SA 8300HD, comcast cable, and live in Stafford Virginia. I don't see on the box anywhere whether I'm SARA or passport? I'd like to be able to expand my DVR (i guess 300GB-1TB), and would like to know what all I need to buy/what are the best most reliable options. Also, whether or not I'd be subject to this buffer issue (meaning i lose the ability to pause live tv?). Can anyone help? Sorry that so much of this is over my head.

I just copied this from the SARA tips & Tricks thread (can't link to it yet).

How To Determine Software Being Used. Look at the A-B-C button labels at the bottom of the IPG (Interactive Program Guide) to determine which software is being used:
A B C
SARA Browse By Date [curved backarrow]
Passport Echo Time Theme Search
Passport (non-DVR) Time Theme Title
Navigator Access Menu Find Shows [no label]

For the buffer issue, I don't know, I'm on navigator and wondering the same thing...

I just copied this from the SARA tips & Tricks thread (can't link to it yet).

How To Determine Software Being Used. Look at the A-B-C button labels at the bottom of the IPG (Interactive Program Guide) to determine which software is being used:
A B C
SARA Browse By Date [curved backarrow]
Passport Echo Time Theme Search
Passport (non-DVR) Time Theme Title
Navigator Access Menu Find Shows [no label]

For the buffer issue, I don't know, I'm on navigator and wondering the same thing...

Thanks. FYI everyone - I updated the databases to provide this info.

xnappo

Could someone familiar with MDN and ODN versions, eSATA status, and links to posts with work-arounds please write something up for me to put at the top of the Navigator database?

Thanks!
xnappo

I'm pretty sure the navigator upgrade in nyc killed my box. My laptop does not have an esata port. If I need to reformat my dvr expander 500gb on a computer is there another way? Thanks.

I'm pretty sure the navigator upgrade in nyc killed my box. My laptop does not have an esata port. If I need to reformat my dvr expander 500gb on a computer is there another way? Thanks.

Hunt around and you can probably find a gizmo for 30-40 bucks which plugs into a standard HD port and has a USB connector for the computer. It's used for juggling bare drives without having to mount them in a box or inside the computer. BTW, they also are able to supply the DC power to the drive.

I'm very new to this so, please, bear with me!

When connecting an "approved" external HDD through the eSATA input on the rear of a SA 8300HD, do all the DVR functions still work as if one were using the unit's internal hard drives?
Specifically, can two shows be taped simultaneously while watching a third show that has been already recorded? Also, does the pause and rewind work in Live programming? Are there any differences or limitations in use with an external HDD?

Many thanks for these clarifications from those with more experience!

I'm very new to this so, please, bear with me!

When connecting an "approved" external HDD through the eSATA input on the rear of a SA 8300HD, do all the DVR functions still work as if one were using the unit's internal hard drives?
Specifically, can two shows be taped simultaneously while watching a third show that has been already recorded? Also, does the pause and rewind work in Live programming? Are there any differences or limitations in use with an external HDD?

Many thanks for these clarifications from those with more experience!

It SHOULD. Assuming it woks at all... theoretically a HD box with either MDN or Passport mostly should work.

The issue is NOT the HDD you get, it's all up to TWC's software.

It SHOULD. Assuming it woks at all... theoretically a HD box with either MDN or Passport mostly should work.

The issue is NOT the HDD you get, it's all up to TWC's software.

DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

STOP SAYING THAT!!!! It is both!!! You cannot buy any drive!!!!!!!!

SARA: Will work with a good drive from the database
Passport: Ditto, but 'trick play' is broken (live rewind/ffwd)
Navigator MDN: Will work with a good drive from the database (for now anyway)
Navigator ODN: Broken on almost all revs.

xnappo

[EDIT]
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12471618&highlight=riverside_guy#post12471618
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12461421&highlight=riverside_guy#post12461421
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11083128&highlight=riverside_guy#post11083128
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10672616&highlight=riverside_guy#post10672616
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9555444&highlight=riverside_guy#post9555444

Hunt around and you can probably find a gizmo for 30-40 bucks which plugs into a standard HD port and has a USB connector for the computer. It's used for juggling bare drives without having to mount them in a box or inside the computer. BTW, they also are able to supply the DC power to the drive.

Thanks for the answer. my box cable box has come back to life and my dvr expander is working. For general information, you can buy a usb to esata converter for $5-$10

DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

STOP SAYING THAT!!!! It is both!!! You cannot buy any drive!!!!!!!!

SARA: Will work with a good drive from the database
Passport: Ditto, but 'trick play' is broken (live rewind/ffwd)
Navigator MDN: Will work with a good drive from the database (for now anyway)
Navigator ODN: Broken on almost all revs.

xnappo

[EDIT]
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12471618&highlight=riverside_guy#post12471618
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12461421&highlight=riverside_guy#post12461421
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11083128&highlight=riverside_guy#post11083128
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10672616&highlight=riverside_guy#post10672616
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9555444&highlight=riverside_guy#post9555444

Thanks for all the help, guys! My unit has "SARA 1.89.22.2" and I picked a HDD from the master list that confirms it as a working model. I should get it in a couple of days, so I'll post my results. Keep your fingers crossed!

jumping in on this thread...

I have a 8300HDC from Time Warner Cable NYC running Mystro software. Will external storage work, and if so, where is listing of compatible external drives.

Many thanks for your suggestions.

jumping in on this thread...

I have a 8300HDC from Time Warner Cable NYC running Mystro software. Will external storage work, and if so, where is listing of compatible external drives.

Many thanks for your suggestions.External drives used to work with the 8300HDC running ODN Navigator (that's what you have), but the last release messed up this feature. TWC fixed it once before (in the previous release) so we're hoping it might be resolved in the next release.

My eSATA HDD still works with MDN version (2.4.6_19 Mt. Sherman) we received a couple days ago.

Still haven't figured what they "fixed" in this latest release, other than Frame Advance now works
and Slow-Motion is REALLY slow....

My eSATA HDD still works with MDN version (2.4.6_19 Mt. Sherman) we received a couple days ago.

Still haven't figured what they "fixed" in this latest release, other than Frame Advance now works
and Slow-Motion is REALLY slow....

holl_ands/phousley,

I know it is a pain in the butt, but could you two please two provide a list of MDN and ODN versions that work/don't work that I could put on the Nagivator database? Once I have a starting point I think I will be able to keep up with it.

xnappo

holl_ands/phousley,

I know it is a pain in the butt, but could you two please two provide a list of MDN and ODN versions that work/don't work that I could put on the Nagivator database? Once I have a starting point I think I will be able to keep up with it.

xnappoYou're taxing my memory. The last ODN release external drives worked with was 2.4.9_3. The current ODN releases (3.1.0_11 and 3.1.1_3) do not work. I doubt if anyone still has releases earlier than these.

You're taxing my memory. The last ODN release external drives worked with was 2.4.9_3. The current ODN releases (3.1.0_11 and 3.1.1_3) do not work. I doubt if anyone still has releases earlier than these.

That'll get the list started anyway - thanks!

xnappo

You're taxing my memory. The last ODN release external drives worked with was 2.4.9_3. The current ODN releases (3.1.0_11 and 3.1.1_3) do not work. I doubt if anyone still has releases earlier than these.

I wish I still had 2.4.9_3. Using 3.1.0_11 with workaround, but sometimes the guide fails me and for whatever reason my series recording of ESPNNEWS just decides to stop. A reboot fixes the issue. This happens maybe every two weeks on average.

Is it true that the workaround doesn't work with 3.1.1_3?

I don't have the patience to mess with it.

You're taxing my memory. The last ODN release external drives worked with was 2.4.9_3. The current ODN releases (3.1.0_11 and 3.1.1_3) do not work. I doubt if anyone still has releases earlier than these.

A slight correction: the last ODN release that worked fine with eSATA was 2.4.10_11 (2.4.9_3 required "have something recording all the time" workaround). Not that it matters now, as everybody seems to be on 3.*., and from what I could gather, 3.1.0_11 generally does not work (I think one report of it working somewhat unreliably with workaround and a lot of patience), and 3.1.1_3 does not work at all.

I have a SA 8300HD DVR and I know that the Cavalry CAXE 1TB (silver case) works well, as reported by users. Does anyone know if the newer CAXM 1TB (black case) is also compatible with my DVR--and without any issues?

Grateful for answers from anyone with hands-on experience.

FPCross.

OK, an update on trying to get an 8300HDC at ODN 3.1.1_sp1 (TWC New York (Poughkeepsie)) to work with an external hard drive. I believe this probably also answers partially the question later in the sequence about getting this to work in NYC. So far, I've been unable to find a working combination. I had the external drive setup that worked on the 8300HD, that was a no-go on the 8300HDC (with Navigator ODN 3.1.1_sp1). I also bought an Antec MX-1/Hitachi 1TB setup, something that had worked for a previous user on a 8300HDC at a different firmware level, but for me, it does not, fails exactly as it did for the earlier drive, i.e.:

1. The drive is seen on 8300HDC power on/boot, asks to format [A]
2. Thereafter nothing, % available doesn't go up, no sign of any bytes on the drive
3. Diag screens do show the unit as reading the drive

So I think it's just a no-go all around, at least at ODN 3.1.1_sp1. It may be that somewhere along the way, TWC broke (intentionally or unintentionally) the ability to format an external drive, it's unclear if later firmware levels fix this, or if it's a continuing problem.

OK, an update on trying to get an 8300HDC at ODN 3.1.1_sp1 (TWC New York (Poughkeepsie)) to work with an external hard drive. I believe this probably also answers partially the question later in the sequence about getting this to work in NYC. So far, I've been unable to find a working combination. I had the external drive setup that worked on the 8300HD, that was a no-go on the 8300HDC (with Navigator ODN 3.1.1_sp1). I also bought an Antec MX-1/Hitachi 1TB setup, something that had worked for a previous user on a 8300HDC at a different firmware level, but for me, it does not, fails exactly as it did for the earlier drive, i.e.:

1. The drive is seen on 8300HDC power on/boot, asks to format [A]
2. Thereafter nothing, % available doesn't go up, no sign of any bytes on the drive
3. Diag screens do show the unit as reading the drive

So I think it's just a no-go all around, at least at ODN 3.1.1_sp1. It may be that somewhere along the way, TWC broke (intentionally or unintentionally) the ability to format an external drive, it's unclear if later firmware levels fix this, or if it's a continuing problem.

I should also note, I've also updated the Navigator database, at:

http://www.baseportal.com/baseportal/xnappo/navigator

with the failure.

The 8300HDC is reading the external drive just fine, I can see the temp, and the Antec MX-1 is doing very nicely in that regard, much cooler than the 8300HDC internal drive, reads of drive model number and so forth. I went through a whole series of power reboots, etc., so I don't think it's that, it just appears that the format is somehow failing, without an error message, and nothing pairs. Given that the setup is exactly what's worked for other people on other levels of firmware, seems likely a firmware problem.

There is just way too much stuff here so I'm just going to ask my question and hopefully someone can help me out, because what I want to do would be completely awesome.

Let me set the scenario...

In my den my family has an InFocus 4805 and a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD DVR.

In my room I have a 32" Westinghouse and no box at all but I do have an Xbox 360.

My question is that.... Can I plug in an external USB hard drive into the 8300HD and record a movie onto there, then I take that file on my laptop and convert it to a proper file type so the 360 can play it in HD with Dolby Digital 5.1 in my room.

Please help me out.

There is just way too much stuff here so I'm just going to ask my question and hopefully someone can help me out, because what I want to do would be completely awesome.

Let me set the scenario...

In my den my family has an InFocus 4805 and a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD DVR.

In my room I have a 32" Westinghouse and no box at all but I do have an Xbox 360.

My question is that.... Can I plug in an external USB hard drive into the 8300HD and record a movie onto there, then I take that file on my laptop and convert it to a proper file type so the 360 can play it in HD with Dolby Digital 5.1 in my room.

Please help me out.

No, you can't copy movies from your DVR to an external drive for viewing elsewhere. In fact, you can't even take an eSATA drive from one SA8300 to another and watch what is stored on the drive. The 8300 encrypts/matches the drive to the box it was installed on.

I have installed a MAXTOR DIAMOND MAX21 in an outside enclosure for the purpose of hoking up to the SATA connection of a cable decoder/personnal recorder: SCIENTIFIC ATLANTA EXPLORER Model:8300 HD.

The recorder recognizes the hard disc and everything seems fine, except that the hard disc never stops spinning, even when the EXPLORER unit is off. I contacted the cable company who provides the unit and was told to contact the hard disc manufacturer's service since they do not provide assistance to outboard apparatus.

They also claim that SCIENTIFIC ATLANTA favors the use of Western Digital or Seagate products wich would lessen the risks of related problems ?!?

I use the external hard disc only when I travel for extended periods since the internal disc of the Explorer holds 250gb. I don't think it's such a hot idea to let the external disc spin 24/24 for months.

Any solution?

Thank you,

JAC D

I have installed a MAXTOR DIAMOND MAX21 in an outside enclosure for the purpose of hoking up to the SATA connection of a cable decoder/personnal recorder: SCIENTIFIC ATLANTA EXPLORER Model:8300 HD.

The recorder recognizes the hard disc and everything seems fine, except that the hard disc never stops spinning, even when the EXPLORER unit is off. I contacted the cable company who provides the unit and was told to contact the hard disc manufacturer's service since they do not provide assistance to outboard apparatus.

They also claim that SCIENTIFIC ATLANTA favors the use of Western Digital or Seagate products wich would lessen the risks of related problems ?!?

I use the external hard disc only when I travel for extended periods since the internal disc of the Explorer holds 250gb. I don't think it's such a hot idea to let the external disc spin 24/24 for months.

Any solution?

Thank you,

JAC D

It's probably a combination of your external drive box, and the SA 8300HD. It's pretty normal for the SAs to spin up the drives full time, not sure why. Some external bays/drives have a power-saver mode, if not used for a while, will spin down. But that's a definite minority out there. This is even with the SA turned off, although it's not really "off", they're often downloading stuff, recording channels, reorganizing the box, etc. Whether it will hold up indefinitely is a function of the drive, and the cooling. Mostly though, DVRs are not going to be much worse than a computer left on for a long period of time. Probably doesn't hurt to power-cycle the drive every so often, and you will lose drives, just get used to the concept. Of course, sometimes, particularly with Navigator type updates, you lose more the ability to use an external drive.

The eSATA drive can be powered down when not in use and then power up and REBOOT
SA8300HD when you want to use it again. Apricorn told me they do this all the time
with the SA8300HD and even mention it in on their website wrt Dish (USB port):
http://www.apricorn.com/product_detail.php?type=family&id=55

As has been mentioned numerous times in this thread, you'll still SEE the external
recordings in the list, but the SA8300HD will tell you it can't access them....until
you reattach the eSATA HDD via the REBOOT process...

"Currently, you can only connect one DVR Expander to the receiver at one time;
however, you can connect multiple DVR Expanders one-at-a-time (for example,
to dedicate one drive for your movies, favorite shows or one for sporting events). "

Of course, there are no guarantees and since TWC doesn't "support" eSATA,
you could lose recordings at any time, esp. if the drive isn't connected
when they push a new release....

BTW: A HDD is designed to run FOREVER, spinning along until the bearings
wear out....after MANY, MANY years of service....the more likely failure modes
are when the drive is continually accessing data, as is done thousands of times
a minute in servers all around the world....YOU WORRY TOO MUCH!!!

I have an SA 8300HD in Columbus Oh with TWC. I connected a LaCie 500gb external drive a year ago and everything worked just fine. My drive failed and LaCie sent me a new one. I connected to the 8300 and was never prompted to format it. When I remove the drive I get the 10 sec. message that I should turn off the set top first. I formatted the drive from OS to FAT32 and still no luck. I just went out and purschased a WD My Book 1tb drive and I get the same results. Should I format the WD drive first then connect it? What is the order that I should use to connect it. I found a Cisco document that says to power both devices off. Attach eSATA then power to external drive. Then power up the SA 8300. Still nothing. Any suggestions?

I have installed a MAXTOR DIAMOND MAX21 in an outside enclosure for the purpose of hoking up to the SATA connection of a cable decoder/personnal recorder: SCIENTIFIC ATLANTA EXPLORER Model:8300 HD.

The recorder recognizes the hard disc and everything seems fine, except that the hard disc never stops spinning, even when the EXPLORER unit is off. I contacted the cable company who provides the unit and was told to contact the hard disc manufacturer's service since they do not provide assistance to outboard apparatus.

They also claim that SCIENTIFIC ATLANTA favors the use of Western Digital or Seagate products wich would lessen the risks of related problems ?!?

I use the external hard disc only when I travel for extended periods since the internal disc of the Explorer holds 250gb. I don't think it's such a hot idea to let the external disc spin 24/24 for months.

Any solution?

Thank you,

JAC D

Maxtor drives back in the day were notorious for failing prematurely. I was and am a Seagate fan. That said, Seagate bought Maxtor about 2 years ago or so. It may be a Seagate drive underneath the branding...

My SA8300HD has never spun down my eSATA drive. Passport did. R.I.P. Passport, I miss ya.

Hi,

I discovered an excellent solution for additional external storage with the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD and I'm writing to share my discovery with you!

I had bought a Thermaltake BlacX SATA HDD eSATA and USB Docking Station (model ST0005U) to perform some data recovery awhile back and I was preparing to pack it away in my closet. It's a cool device: you simply plop a naked SATA HDD into the docking station and it exposes it via either eSATA or USB! You can see more information on this device here: http://www.thermaltakeusa.com/Product.aspx?C=1346&ID=1731

Coincidentally, I was also preparing to pack away a 1TB SATA HDD that was left unused from another adventure. Then it dawned on me to see if these would play nicely with my Scientific Atlanta 8300HD. Well, I'm happy to report that it does and I now have 1TB of external storage!!! But here's the kicker: the docking station supports 2TB drives, which means that I even have an upgrade path when the time comes.

Niiice, I like! ;)

nv

Been a loooong time since I posted in this thread, but just wanted to ask if anyone has tried the new Samsung boxes?

Specifically,

1. What upgrades can we expect with this unit compared to the SA boxes?
2. Will it work with an external HD?

And just for the record, for those of you concerned about your HD running constantly, I bought whatever the recommended external HDD enclosure was at the time this thread was started (as well as a random drive I found on sale) and it has been working WITHOUT FAIL since that time (4 yrs +) I should say that the blue light on the enclosure (I think it's a Nexstar or Vanns maybe?) burned out long ago (thankfully), but that thing has been running (NO fan) for YEARS and nary a problem.

Just fyi for the concerned.

[..]
And just for the record, for those of you concerned about your HD running constantly, I bought whatever the recommended external HDD enclosure was at the time this thread was started (as well as a random drive I found on sale) and it has been working WITHOUT FAIL since that time (4 yrs +) I should say that the blue light on the enclosure (I think it's a Nexstar or Vanns maybe?) burned out long ago (thankfully), but that thing has been running (NO fan) for YEARS and nary a problem.
[..]

Agreed, I don't think its really much of an issue anymore. The mean time before failure on HDDs is so high now that they will likely "outlive" your SA 8300HD. This is an important practical matter because the content is encrypted on the HDD such that it is tied to a particular SA 8300HD unit. Therefore, I believe replacing your SA 8300HD renders your content unreadable.

I have to concur, my solution (last post) with the eSATA docking station has no fans either and it's working like a champ. I've checked the temperature of the HDD in the docking station and its not even approaching anywhere near where I might be concerned, and it never spins down.

Cheers,

nv

Dear All:

I have an 8300HD and was "pushed" the mystro MDN around a week ago. Don't like the weird, lack of channel surfing/buffering when compared with the previous Passport...but, oh well, i do not have a choice. Such is the life of living with a near monopoly, or at least an oligopoly!!

As such, i'm been thinking about my possibilities:

1) stay put, do nothing: the downside is that i'm perpetually running out of space, despite the fact that i'm a very light user and only record a relatively limited number of shows when compared with many who i see contribute here.

2) add an INTERNAL drive: risk: being sued as someone suggested. More work...etc. Note: i have taken an interest in building PC's and built my first home-built PC 2 years ago, so i do have a very limited aptitude in building PC, however klutzy i seem to be...

3) add an external eSATA drive: more money, may not be transferable; other future dvr's from time warner may not support eSATA...etc. I'm NOT a heavy user and record only a small number of shows, esp when compared with many users' posts here, yet, i still run out very quickly of space.

I happen to have in my apartment (and never ever used) a:

- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3500630AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148136


- ENERMAX JAZZ EB307ES-B 3.5" USB 2.0 & eSATA External Enclosure
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817194025


May i ask if the good folks here can help guide me in how to plug it into my 8300HD in terms of a step-by-step instructions? I read a number of posts and searched around, including the Gearbits.com page and baseportal page on this topic.

My initial questions are:

- do i plug the eSATA cable in the 8300HD only with the front on/off switch of the 8300HD in the off position? Or, is it smarter/better to have the plug of the 8300HD unplugged from the power source (a power conditioner)?

- is the eSATA drive ok to be plugged into the back of the 8300HD's convenience outlet?

- I understand that one should power up the eSATA drive FIRST, then the 8300HD's front power switch. Do I need to REBOOT the 8300HD by pressing the On switch for a long time to reboot the 8300HD with the eSATA plugged in and turned on? Or, merely turning it On is sufficient? Once the front on switch of the 8300HD is on, I understand that there is a recognition on screen of an external drive plugged in and it asks (so i read) if one would like to reformat this newly found external eSATA drive. I should answer yes, right?

- what is next please?

I only managed to piece together this info as i am a total newbie at this.

sorry to seem so detailed oriented, but i'd like to do thing correctly and not suffer consequences due to poor execution later on.

thx again in advance.

The general procedure (as I understand it) is as follows:
Turn off, then unplug the 8300.
Connect the esata drive.
Power on the esata drive.
Power on the 8300.
When it finishes booting, power on the 8300.
It will ask you if you want to format the drive -- answer yes.
Approx 10 sec later, it will confirm that the drive is being used.

The general procedure (as I understand it) is as follows:
Turn off, then unplug the 8300.
Connect the esata drive.
Power on the esata drive.
Power on the 8300.
When it finishes booting, power on the 8300.
It will ask you if you want to format the drive -- answer yes.
Approx 10 sec later, it will confirm that the drive is being used.

hi, thx for your post reply to my eSATA question.

may i ask a few follow up questions please?

How essential/important is it to disconnect the power from the 8300HD BEFORE plugging the eSATA drive in and BEFORE powering up the eSATA?

you wrote that the eSATA drive should be powered up BEFORE the power is plugged back into the 8300HD and then one should wait till the boot up process completes, and then turn the power back on from the from on/off button of the 8300HD. however, HOW does one know that the rebooting process after plugging the power back in is "complete"? usually, i'd have to turn on the TV and watch the screen because i turn the on/off switch on prematurely, and i have to watch the little progress bars go from left to right, so in effect, i've turned the power on/off switch of the 8300HD "on" before your suggested timing.

thx in advance!

- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3500630AS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148136




Of all the drives in the world, it had to be THAT one eh? If you check the database (and go ahead and look at SARA, the compatibility other than with ODN is really not different) that is the most failing-est drive in the DB...

BTW - this is a very nice drive inside a computer. I have had one running for quite some time. After learning the hard way that the 8300HD does not like it.

xnappo

hi, thx for your post reply to my eSATA question.

however, HOW does one know that the rebooting process after plugging the power back in is "complete"? usually, i'd have to turn on the TV and watch the screen because i turn the on/off switch on prematurely, and i have to watch the little progress bars go from left to right, so in effect, i've turned the power on/off switch of the 8300HD "on" before your suggested timing.

thx in advance!

On SARA, at least, the time shows up when it is done. Have no idea on MDN.

xnappo

On SARA, at least, the time shows up when it is done. Have no idea on MDN.

xnappo

thx for your reply, but i don't have SARA!

i have mystro MDN on my 8300HD, not 8300HDC.

additionally, i was under the impression that the enclosure of the external hard drive has a great deal to do with whether or not it would pass, right? i.e. whether there is the direct eSATA to eSATA, or whether it required some usb to eSATA converter plug? i thought that this issue has a lot to do with whether or not it would pass.

does that change anything? thx in advance.

thx for your reply, but i don't have SARA!

i have mystro MDN on my 8300HD, not 8300HDC.

additionally, i was under the impression that the enclosure of the external hard drive has a great deal to do with whether or not it would pass, right? i.e. whether there is the direct eSATA to eSATA, or whether it required some usb to eSATA converter plug? i thought that this issue has a lot to do with whether or not it would pass.

does that change anything? thx in advance.

There are a lot of variables. I do not know if your case will work, but I know for a fact your drive will either not work, or will cause glitching. I know you don't have SARA - I was just telling you what it does in case MDN is the same.

xnappo

thx to the various contributors on this thread. i did mine and it literally took 30 seconds and was the least painful upgrade i've ever done. that included the reformatting of the 500GB hard drive! (it was blank, fyi)

if you scrolled up, you'll see my components/case. (Seagate 500GB and Enermax Jazz case, fanless).

thanks all, for such a useful thread.

gratefully...

thx to the various contributors on this thread. i did mine and it literally took 30 seconds and was the least painful upgrade i've ever done. that included the reformatting of the 500GB hard drive! (it was blank, fyi)

if you scrolled up, you'll see my components/case. (Seagate 500GB and Enermax Jazz case, fanless).

thanks all, for such a useful thread.

gratefully...:cool: Cool! Congrats and happy recording.

well...there are some hiccups.

i tested the 8300HD with my new eSATA drive by recording The Tonight Show and Letterman at the same time, both HD channels, i.e. 702 and 704.

every several minutes, i'd say maybe approx every 5 or 10 minutes, maybe a bit less frequent, like every 10-20 mins, there is a quick, 1/2 second to 1 second jarring screen artiface and buzz in the sound to go along with it, almost like a hiccup.

is this the best i can expect? or is something wrong and i need to fix it? is it possible that sometimes, we should count our blessings and not futz around with "good enough"? sort of along the lines of "if it ain't really broken, don't fix it"?

thx.

I think those glitches have nothing to do with an external drive... I get them as well (no external drive). From comments made, my guess is it may be the 8300HD... I see less complaints from folks who are NOT using this hardware. From my experiences with how terrible the series recording function is (not going to repeat all the experiences I had, it's all in the Craptigator forum) to several folks stuck with 10+ segments for most one hour shows, I will be swapping it for a 3090.

I have some time to go through my recorded shows because all the series giving me fits are over (well one more Weeds) so I won't have to be watching too make sure it doesn't record the same show 4-5 times each week.

It seems very likely one CAN swap out the 160 in a 3090 for a 320... several in other markets have already done that and one guy in NYC is about to!

I'm having problems getting a 1TB drive that works for me. For the first drive I tried, I Binged around a bit and came across this one:

Iomega DVR extender 34508. The description sounds great. Engineered to work with the SA8300! SARA found it and formatted it fine. Recorded programs work great. However, when pausing live TV, it stutters and glitches like a SOB.

Then, I found xnappo's awesome database (thanks!). Since I'm on Cablevision (in Monmouth County, NJ if it matters), I decided on this drive: Cavalry CAXE3701T0.

Same issue. Recorded programs work great, pausing live TV is usless.

Are there any tweaks on my SA8300HD, or should I just keep going through the database? I'd rather not get a drive smaller than 1TB, they are so cheap now.

[Edit: tried to provide links to Amazon product pages, but I'm too much of a newb, the board wouldn't let me...]

well...there are some hiccups.

i tested the 8300HD with my new eSATA drive by recording The Tonight Show and Letterman at the same time, both HD channels, i.e. 702 and 704.

every several minutes, i'd say maybe approx every 5 or 10 minutes, maybe a bit less frequent, like every 10-20 mins, there is a quick, 1/2 second to 1 second jarring screen artiface and buzz in the sound to go along with it, almost like a hiccup.

is this the best i can expect? or is something wrong and i need to fix it? is it possible that sometimes, we should count our blessings and not futz around with "good enough"? sort of along the lines of "if it ain't really broken, don't fix it"?

thx.The full test is to record two HD shows and play back a third that has been recorded. As xnappo said, that drive is least likely to work perfect and what you see if likely showing the problems. Some has postulated buffers and error correction built into the drives mess up video. For video you just want things written without playing with it. /Dan

well...there are some hiccups.

i tested the 8300HD with my new eSATA drive by recording The Tonight Show and Letterman at the same time, both HD channels, i.e. 702 and 704.



Errr.. Didn't I say that was going to happen with the Seagate 7200.10? That is what almost everyone in the database who tried it says happens (including the very first entry ... by me!)!

And RG - it has EVERYTHING to do with that particular drive.

xnappo

Hmm...

Upon trying it more last night (i don't want that many hours of tv so it was just trying it here and there a bit), the number of interruptions (i.e. artifacts) were rather few and relatively far in between. I'd guesstimate the interruptions at roughly 1 per 10 or 15 minutes, and they were very very short: way less than 1 second, more like 1/2 or 1/4 second. Plus, that's with recording TWO HD shows and watching another pre-recorded program.

doesn't this warrant a relative "success" rating?

Hmm...

Upon trying it more last night (i don't want that many hours of tv so it was just trying it here and there a bit), the number of interruptions (i.e. artifacts) were rather few and relatively far in between. I'd guesstimate the interruptions at roughly 1 per 10 or 15 minutes, and they were very very short: way less than 1 second, more like 1/2 or 1/4 second. Plus, that's with recording TWO HD shows and watching another pre-recorded program.

doesn't this warrant a relative "success" rating?

I personally find it unacceptable. It should work just as well as your box works with the internal drive.

It is a 'Fail >1 glitch/30 mins'.

Please do not put 'pass' because that will lead people to think the 7200.10 works fine.

xnappo

I need some help. I have a scientific atlanta 8300 hd pvr box with videotron. I had purchased an external wd hard drive that turned out not be be compatible with it, so I returned it and bought something that was showing up on the compatibility list. So I purchased a separate enclosure Vantec Nextar3 Model # NST-360FBSU-BK and connected a 1TB Wetern Digital hard drive to it: WD10EADS.
I tried 5 times now and im either getting the error stating that its not functioning, or no message at all. Does anyone have a similar setup as mine and is their any tricks to get it to work?
im following videotron's instructions from their web site.

edit: and just to add, my sara version is 1.89.25.100
Videotron tech support told me that the box has a limit of 500GB externally, is this true?
Is that the reason why it might not be working. Does anyone live in the province of quebec that can tell me what they have that has worked?
thanks

I personally find it unacceptable. It should work just as well as your box works with the internal drive.

It is a 'Fail >1 glitch/30 mins'.

Please do not put 'pass' because that will lead people to think the 7200.10 works fine.

xnappo

I'll test it out in greater detail to see if it is really "> 1 glitch/30mins".

Btw, I tried to IM you and say that there's no way for me to edit my input on your page. Is there some special method I'd need to use to edit? Thx.

I would like to know your total cost for each item.

Hmm...

Upon trying it more last night (i don't want that many hours of tv so it was just trying it here and there a bit), the number of interruptions (i.e. artifacts) were rather few and relatively far in between. I'd guesstimate the interruptions at roughly 1 per 10 or 15 minutes, and they were very very short: way less than 1 second, more like 1/2 or 1/4 second. Plus, that's with recording TWO HD shows and watching another pre-recorded program.

doesn't this warrant a relative "success" rating?

Absolutely not. However, this "skippage" happens just as much for those w/o external drives, so it seems the issue is NOT related that that factor. Not only that, but it seems to be mostly limited to some very specific channels. Even more so, that points to a non HDD related issue.

I need some help. I have a scientific atlanta 8300 hd pvr box with videotron. I had purchased an external wd hard drive that turned out not be be compatible with it, so I returned it and bought something that was showing up on the compatibility list. So I purchased a separate enclosure Vantec Nextar3 Model # NST-360FBSU-BK and connected a 1TB Wetern Digital hard drive to it: WD10EADS.
I tried 5 times now and im either getting the error stating that its not functioning, or no message at all. Does anyone have a similar setup as mine and is their any tricks to get it to work?
im following videotron's instructions from their web site.

edit: and just to add, my sara version is 1.89.25.100
Videotron tech support told me that the box has a limit of 500GB externally, is this true?
Is that the reason why it might not be working. Does anyone live in the province of quebec that can tell me what they have that has worked?
thanks

Actually, almost all of those who have successfully swapped out an internal drive seem to hail from Quebec. Down here, it SEEMS the issue relates mostly to the software used.

I personally find it unacceptable. It should work just as well as your box works with the internal drive.

It is a 'Fail >1 glitch/30 mins'.

Please do not put 'pass' because that will lead people to think the 7200.10 works fine.

xnappo

Absolutely not. However, this "skippage" happens just as much for those w/o external drives, so it seems the issue is NOT related that that factor. Not only that, but it seems to be mostly limited to some very specific channels. Even more so, that points to a non HDD related issue.

Well, thx for your input, Mr. Riverside Guy. You and Mr. xnappo have different opinions then.

Mr. xnappo appears to be adamant that I currently have a "fail". Mr. Riverside Guy, however, feels that this does happen anyway with the existing, factory-installed internal hard drive, hence it cannot be due to the additional of the external hard drive.

I have to experiment more to be certain. I watch relatively little tv so I'll try this weekend - it's going to be a washout since there appears to be a big storm coming to nyc.

oh, btw, xnappo: i tried to edit my entry on your table/chart but there's no way of editing, so i sent you a Private Message.

Actually, almost all of those who have successfully swapped out an internal drive seem to hail from Quebec. Down here, it SEEMS the issue relates mostly to the software used.

However I am using this externally. am i supposed to re-format the hard drive on pc first before trying to connect to the pvr?

Actually, I think the only real disagreement we have is more one of focus. Yes, certain drives do seem to work better as external drives for DVRs. xnappo believes it's the drives that don't work, I think the "responsibility" is not with the drive but the software on the DVR.

But that doesn't matter a whole lot when one is trying to use an external drive... it still seems that some work mostly, some mostly don't work. I would still advise anyone to use his DB (for which he HAS put a lot of effort into) to try and get the best success.

I'm also not real sure he thinks the skippage is caused by the external drive. Many have this issue who don't have any external drives. Not only that, but in general I see conclusions drawn from a single instance, or maybe several. I like to look at the issue over a significant period of time. Like the whole audio break-up issue didn't seem to ever happen 2+ years ago.

However I am using this externally. am i supposed to re-format the hard drive on pc first before trying to connect to the pvr?

Yes I know that... I think there's a greater chance for success with a larger internal drive than an external one.

Yes I know that... I think there's a greater chance for success with a larger internal drive than an external one.

I definitively want to change it internally, however i have the first years warranty, in case something else fails with the pvr. I was hoping to wait until next year.
is it proven that the western digital dvr works?

Errr.. Didn't I say that was going to happen with the Seagate 7200.10? That is what almost everyone in the database who tried it says happens (including the very first entry ... by me!)!

And RG - it has EVERYTHING to do with that particular drive.

xnappo

Mr. Riverside Guy: the above quote is what led me to believe that xnappo feels that it is my particular brand/model of external drive that causes it.

I personally think that it is a combination of several things:

- the external drive's manufacturer, specific model
- the enclosure one uses (I used Enermax Jazz non-fan cooled)
- the "controller" circuitry that the enclosure uses to control the hard drive to the eSATA port on the enclosure: this may have a large effect!!
- and whether or not one uses a usb-to-eSATA conversion plug

Yes I know that... I think there's a greater chance for success with a larger internal drive than an external one.

also, one more question, as a general rule of the thumb is it better to format the external hard drive before trying to connect it to the pvr? thanks

also, one more question, as a general rule of the thumb is it better to format the external hard drive before trying to connect it to the pvr? thanks

No need to. Reason: the first thing that happens when you turn on the dvr after the eSATA external drive has been plugged in is: "an external drive has been detected. Format now?"

then you press button "A" and the reformatting begins.

No need to. Reason: the first thing that happens when you turn on the dvr after the eSATA external drive has been plugged in is: "an external drive has been detected. Format now?"

then you press button "A" and the reformatting begins.

I was hoping to see that message.
Reason I was asking is maybe it will detect it easier? but i doubt it.

Sorry for all the questions, hopefully this is my last one.
looking at the SARA database, if someone posted a hard drive that worked on a previous version of SARA than mines, is it safe to assume that it will work on mine since it is more recent?

someone had posted this, and im thinking of maybe purchasing it:
Videotron 1.89.22.2 Vantec NexStar3 NST-360SU-BK Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 16MB Yes N/A (Pass!)

my sara version is 1.89.25.100

I was hoping to see that message.
Reason I was asking is maybe it will detect it easier? but i doubt it.

Sorry for all the questions, hopefully this is my last one.
looking at the SARA database, if someone posted a hard drive that worked on a previous version of SARA than mines, is it safe to assume that it will work on mine since it is more recent?

someone had posted this, and im thinking of maybe purchasing it:
Videotron 1.89.22.2 Vantec NexStar3 NST-360SU-BK Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 16MB Yes N/A (Pass!)

my sara version is 1.89.25.100

As far as we *know* the only software that behaves differently from a compatibility point of view the the TWC ODN software.

Have you tried formatting the drive on a computer?

xnappo

As far as we *know* the only software that behaves differently from a compatibility point of view the the TWC ODN software.

Have you tried formatting the drive on a computer?

xnappo

no but i can though, i plugged it into my pc yesterday, then the pop up window came up asking me to format it as a dynamic disk. should i do this?
fat32 or ntfs, does it matter?
thanks

no but i can though, i plugged it into my pc yesterday, then the pop up window came up asking me to format it as a dynamic disk. should i do this?
fat32 or ntfs, does it matter?
thanks

Well, mainly I was just making sure the drive actually worked... It wouldn't hurt to format it, but at this point I am thinking you 8300HD has a bad eSATA port. Over the last 2-3 years there has been at least one case of this that I know of...

xnappo

Well, mainly I was just making sure the drive actually worked... It wouldn't hurt to format it, but at this point I am thinking you 8300HD has a bad eSATA port. Over the last 2-3 years there has been at least one case of this that I know of...

xnappo

will do. I'm assuming that because it prompted me to format it that it works, but I'm gonna format it tonight anyways, just to test it.

I really hope that its not the eSata port.

So im not crazy here, technically this model hard drive should work, correct?
even though it looks like videotron locked the size for external hard drives up to 500GB.

will do. I'm assuming that because it prompted me to format it that it works, but I'm gonna format it tonight anyways, just to test it.

I really hope that its not the eSata port.

So im not crazy here, technically this model hard drive should work, correct?
even though it looks like videotron locked the size for external hard drives up to 500GB.

From what I can tell from looking at the DB, I think it should work.

xnappo

Can anyone confirm the known disconnect bug for Navigator on SA8300HD and eSATA drive??? I was upgraded to 2.4.6-19 two days ago, but my Rosewill/Seagate eSATA drive continues to disconnect after what is probably the SLEEP command.

Can anyone confirm the known disconnect bug for Navigator on SA8300HD and eSATA drive??? I was upgraded to 2.4.6-19 two days ago, but my Rosewill/Seagate eSATA drive continues to disconnect after what is probably the SLEEP command.

I have an 8300HD that was recently upgraded from Passport to Navigator, and my eSATA drive (WD My DVR Expander) works fine. I have read about sleep problems with the 8300HDC, but not the HD.

-barry

What is the best combo for a 1.5 TB to 2 TB drive on a SARA (or a 1 TB if the 2 TB aren't proven to be successful)?

What is the best combo for a 1.5 TB to 2 TB drive on a SARA (or a 1 TB if the 2 TB aren't proven to be successful)?

All of the info we have is in the databases. Looks to me like no one has tried anything bigger than 1TB - if you were to try - I would suggest finding a drive from the same model line as a successful 1TB.

If you try - please enter your results in the DB...

xnappo

All of the info we have is in the databases. Looks to me like no one has tried anything bigger than 1TB - if you were to try - I would suggest finding a drive from the same model line as a successful 1TB.

If you try - please enter your results in the DB...

xnappo
What's the cheapest 1 TB solution?

What's the cheapest 1 TB solution?

Changes every day. In general it will be cheaper to buy a drive and case separately.

xnappo

I used the Western Digital "My DVR expander" WDG1S5000 and got 500GB of more storage for my 8300HD box. My platform is SARA And my provider is Knology. All tests passed.

If I can provide more info' for the database, just let me know.

Also, I was able to fill up the 8300HD's onboard storage first, and then plug in the external drive and keep on growing. :)

Hi guys,

I intended to buy a WD 1TB drive and put it in an enclosure but since my cable co seems to be selling DVR extenders with Seagate drives I figured I'd give Seagate a try particularly since I got a decent deal on a 1.5 TB unit; I also bought a Vantech Nexstar 3 enclosure.

The Seagate has no jumpers so I just installed it into the enclosure; the SA8300HD recognized it and all seemed fine. After recording about 15 hours of programming onto the Seagate things started to go off the rails; when I try to playback recently recorded programming it either comes back all black or riddled with artifacts (my signal strenght is +8 and S/N fluctuates between 36 and 37 so I know that's not the culprit, that plus the first 15 hours were fine).

I also encountered a blackout and thereafter the SA 8300HD required that the drive be reformated (my other SA 8300HD with an extender - Vantech with WD drive - did not require reformating the drive after a power failure) so I'm not quite sure what to make of this.

So to make a long story short I was wondering if anyone has been successful in getting this drive to work reliably for a significant time period. I have attached the link to the drive below:

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=511a8cf6a794b110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD

I can only speak for the 1TB model. I have one hooked up using an Antec MX-1 enclosure for going on a year now. Now problems whatsoever. The drive is quiet and has been performing well. I get occasional skips during playback, but I got that on the internal too. It could be your enclosure or you got a bad drive.

I can only speak for the 1TB model. I have one hooked up using an Antec MX-1 enclosure for going on a year now. Now problems whatsoever. The drive is quiet and has been performing well. I get occasional skips during playback, but I got that on the internal too. It could be your enclosure or you got a bad drive.

Did you have to make any adjustments (e.g. jumper settings) or did you just drop the drive into the enclosure?

No jumps on the SATA drive. I just installed it to the enclosure, plugged it in and rebooted the box. It is suppose to work as plug and play, but I had to reboot the box to get it to take. I LOVE the extra storage! I used to have to constantly manage what I had on the unit because it'd miss recordings due to lack of space. Now, I don't worry about how much I record.

Ugggg. I'm ready to give up and go back to betamax!

-I've tried 3 separate recommended drives off the database.
-I've tried calling Cablevision support - useless; the guy told me I needed to restart the DVR and it would work.

I cannot find an external that will work without glitching. Recordings are unwatchable, especially in HD - I get like 10+ glitches a minute.

What is the best way to get more throughput? Is an enclosure / internal drive kit a better alternative than an external DVR expander?

Is 500 GB somehow faster than a 1TB? Are my problems because I stubbornly want 1TB of space?

Are there any Sara tweaks I can play with? Are there any diagnostic screens that will show what's wrong?

Cablevision, Optonline. Sara version 1.91.36.101.

Drives I've tried:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00284AQLO/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013PCHUW/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001VKRPGK/


I really miss my Dish DVR. They treat external drives like an archive - you can move recordings to it, but it doesn't directly record to it. At first I thought the 8300 way of doing it was better, but I really wish I had the option of using it like an archive instead of for direct recording.

Ugggg. I'm ready to give up and go back to betamax!

-I've tried 3 separate recommended drives off the database.
-I've tried calling Cablevision support - useless; the guy told me I needed to restart the DVR and it would work.

I cannot find an external that will work without glitching. Recordings are unwatchable, especially in HD - I get like 10+ glitches a minute.

What is the best way to get more throughput? Is an enclosure / internal drive kit a better alternative than an external DVR expander?

Have you checked the signal strength from the diagnostic pages? If the signal strength is poor it can put additional load on the processor leading to glitching. This can happen without an external drive connected, but is sometimes worse when one is connected.

No jumps on the SATA drive. I just installed it to the enclosure, plugged it in and rebooted the box. It is suppose to work as plug and play, but I had to reboot the box to get it to take. I LOVE the extra storage! I used to have to constantly manage what I had on the unit because it'd miss recordings due to lack of space. Now, I don't worry about how much I record.

Well, I reset everything (reformatted the drive) and set it to record; the first 20 hours or so seem fine (watched bits and pieces - e.g. 20 minutes each, fast forwarded all the way through) I only noticed one glitch on one program that lasted all of about a second; One recording seemed to have some issues but as it was still recording when I started to watch it I checked the diagnostics and the signal strength was spiking at +13 on that channel so I imagine that could have something to do with it as I started to notice some issues even after I stopped recording and continued to watch the program.

The other change I made was to move the drive outside my closed A/V rack; it seems to run much cooler now (perhaps this has something to do with it). I'll continue trying it over the weekend to see if I can replicate the problems; if not maybe I'll keep it; if they reappear I'll go with a Western Digital.

Also, I mentioned above that the drive required reformating after a power outage; now that I think about it I seem to recall it was recording at the time; perhaps this has something to do with it; I'll try and recreate the issue (minus have it recording) by turning off the power bar that both the SA and external drive are connected to. BTW, does anyone have any suggestions to prevent this from occurring; I can tell you that it is fine if the drive is powered on before the SA (I have rebooted the SA a couple of times without issue).

I didn't, but the Cablevision rep did, and said the levels were great.

I'll check it myself, though. Thanks.

Have you checked the signal strength from the diagnostic pages? If the signal strength is poor it can put additional load on the processor leading to glitching. This can happen without an external drive connected, but is sometimes worse when one is connected.

I have encountered a problem tonight which I hope someone can shed some light on. I have a TWC 8300HD running Sara 1.89.24.1 ( I think) with an external Apricorn drive (750GB). Tonight while watching a recording I noticed the video and audio would freeze for a few seconds and then would start again and a minute or so later it did it again although this time it was a series of freezes. I happened to notice when it was freezing that the red power light on the Apricorn drive was going off when the freeze began and came back on when the picture returned. After a few seconds of this it returned to normal and the picture did not freeze again for the duration of the movie.

Has anyone encountered something like this with a similar equipment arrangement? I can't decide if the DVR is causing this or if the problem is with the drive itself. Something like this has happened previously but the freezes were short duration and not in rapid succession like tonight and I never noticed if the drive power light was turning off and on.

I have encountered a problem tonight which I hope someone can shed some light on. I have a TWC 8300HD running Sara 1.89.24.1 ( I think) with an external Apricorn drive (750GB). Tonight while watching a recording I noticed the video and audio would freeze for a few seconds and then would start again and a minute or so later it did it again although this time it was a series of freezes. I happened to notice when it was freezing that the red power light on the Apricorn drive was going off when the freeze began and came back on when the picture returned. After a few seconds of this it returned to normal and the picture did not freeze again for the duration of the movie.

Has anyone encountered something like this with a similar equipment arrangement? I can't decide if the DVR is causing this or if the problem is with the drive itself. Something like this has happened previously but the freezes were short duration and not in rapid succession like tonight and I never noticed if the drive power light was turning off and on.

This is a huge issue in my market. It seems that it doesn't have any specific tie to particular boxes or software. Happens just as frequently as it always did for me with Passport or MDN. Also it seems to be channel specific in that it happens on half a dozen channels a lot, very occasional on others, and on some, never happens. I think the issue is very sloppy attention they pay at the head end. Makes me think they hire first year engineering students for cheap rather than pay the rate for a competent, professional working engineer.

Ugggg. I'm ready to give up and go back to betamax!

-I've tried 3 separate recommended drives off the database.
-I've tried calling Cablevision support - useless; the guy told me I needed to restart the DVR and it would work.

I cannot find an external that will work without glitching. Recordings are unwatchable, especially in HD - I get like 10+ glitches a minute.

What is the best way to get more throughput? Is an enclosure / internal drive kit a better alternative than an external DVR expander?

Is 500 GB somehow faster than a 1TB? Are my problems because I stubbornly want 1TB of space?

Are there any Sara tweaks I can play with? Are there any diagnostic screens that will show what's wrong?

Cablevision, Optonline. Sara version 1.91.36.101.

Drives I've tried:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00284AQLO/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0013PCHUW/
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001VKRPGK/


I really miss my Dish DVR. They treat external drives like an archive - you can move recordings to it, but it doesn't directly record to it. At first I thought the 8300 way of doing it was better, but I really wish I had the option of using it like an archive instead of for direct recording.

I had a similar issue a while back, and swapping the DVR box fixed it. Probably a flaky eSATA port. You can get a new DVR box, try the drive with it, and if it works, return the old one. At least in my case, TW charges for the second box were prorated, so I paid very little to keep two boxes for a few days.

I happened to notice when it was freezing that the red power light on the Apricorn drive was going off when the freeze began and came back on when the picture returned. After a few seconds of this it returned to normal and the picture did not freeze again for the duration of the movie.


This is due to an Apricorn power supply going bad. MANY people have had it go out. Call them and they will send you a new one even if you are well past your warranty.

xnappo

This is due to an Apricorn power supply going bad. MANY people have had it go out. Call them and they will send you a new one even if you are well past your warranty.

xnappo

Thanks for the head's-up ....

I just switched from Dish HD to Time Warner Cable, and can not stand my new DVR! I have been searching online for a Sata drive to upgrade the pathetic recording space, however, many sites have conflicting reports on whether the 8300HDC running SARA version 1.90.5.116 works or not. It seems that the 8300HD has no problems, but the 8300HDC is not compatible... Can anyone help me with this???

I was looking at purchasing the Western Digital My DVR Expander 500 GB eSATA Desktop External Hard Drive WDG1S5000VN from Amazon, but I have no clue if it will work or not...

Even some of the reviewers for this Hard Drive were reporting problems with the 8300HDC.

Thanks for the help!

Jay

Even some of the reviewers for this Hard Drive were reporting problems with the 8300HDC.

Thanks for the help!

Jay

It should work with the SARA software, however the current version of TWCs new guide, called Navigator, does not work with the HDC.

There is a chance that sometime this year your area will be 'upgraded' to Navigator and it will break your external drive.

xnappo

It should work with the SARA software, however the current version of TWCs new guide, called Navigator, does not work with the HDC.

There is a chance that sometime this year your area will be 'upgraded' to Navigator and it will break your external drive.

xnappo

Actually, all the HDCs for the past year or two (in my market) have come with ODN/Navigator. FWIW, there is another version (MDN) that seems only aimed at 8300HD boxes that DOES seem to work more than not with external drives.

Complicating things, the "latest" DVR TWC is using (Samsung 3090) only runs ODN AND we've had several filed swaps for 320G drives be successful. Not to mention every now and then, customers get a 320G 3090 right from TWC.

That's strange because they gave me this receiver last week... I am in a very small market in Upstate NY, so maybe they don't have the newest equipment yet. If I hold the pause button and get to the Status Summary page and it says that I'm running SARA, that is, in fact, the program that the DVR is running on correct?

The SARA information page(Pg 11/63) means that is the program my 8300HDC is running right? Also pg14/63 says the SARA Version It's running is 1.90.5.116

Thanks for the help guys!