Samsung 3090/3270 HD-DVR Thread - Page 5

What market are you in? What was the original drive and what was the replacement?

I have the WD 500 gb DVR expander and the 3090.
After a couple of tries I was able to get the 3090 to format the expander.
After which the capacity of my DVR dropped from 50% to about 10%.
Once the capacity reached 17% the DVR started to delete older content to free up space for new content.
It appears that once the internal drive is full data does not get written to the external drive.

I was told that TWC in NYC has the SA 8300 HDC and the 8000.
Has anyone gotten either of these or better yet the 390 to function with a dvr expander?

I tried what someone else did a while back, and actually swapped out the internal drive.

It booted, and formated the new 604GB Caviar Green internal drive. So far so good...

We'll see what happens in a couple days. The other person who tried this eventually had the box crash, so I don't have the highest hopes.

-KG

The original drive was Seagate model number ST3160815AS, it was replaced with Seagate model ST3320310CS which is the same model that was in jcalabria's original unit mentioned earlier in this thread. There may be a drive size limitation, if you look at the specifications on page 2 of the brochure under options it states "Hard Disc Expansion upto 320GB".

I am in Orlando, FL served by Bright house.

Keep us up-to-date on any issues you find... that drive is cheap enough (<$50) that it's a no-brainer "field upgrade". I miss my original 320GB version... always fighting the capacity of the current 160GB unit.

Ah, very interesting. We do know that frequently while the maker of the DVR says one thing, as deployed by TWC it may NOT be able to do what it COULD do.

Do keep us in the loop...

Yeah, I have a feeling that HDD support is software dependent. Since each provider is using different software I'd expect great variations of functionality. It's a shame that they're using good boxes like these but gimping them with the software they're using.

It'd be great if I'm wrong and we can come up with a list of usable HDD to expand storage on these units.

Plugged in my SMT-H3260 to my PC's FW port. It detected it as a SMTH3270 but I couldn't get the AV/C front panel to work. Oh well I don't use it for firewire.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/14086328@N00/3779778975/

Rear panel of the SMT-H3260. The 3260 is very similar to the 3270. Uses the same software and motherboard. Though it lacks eSATA and the DVR feature.

So here's what I learned after a weekend of messing around with an internal drive swap:

1) It boots! It works!!
2) But.... it is much less stable. Frequent crashes requiring reboot
3) And.... when I reboot, it erases all saved content on the drive. Oddly, when I reboot with the original drive hooked up, my content on that drive is still there.

So, for me... this is a deal breaker. I'd like to have the extra space, but the risk of losing all my saved shows is not worth it.

I'll have to try again when they release a new software version, hopefully soon!

What division/market/location/cable company?

It will be interesting to compare your results with the person who put in the same Seagate Pipeline ST3320310CS 320GB DVR-optimised drive used by Samsung. There may in-fact be limitations in the low-level box operating system that cannot reliably go beyond 320GB regardless of the high level software running on the box. Could be an overall size limitation or the box may be hard-coded for a particular track/sector/platter configuration.

Definitely interested in hearing how others make out with an upgrade like this. It's really a shame that e-SATA connects, but won't actually store data.

I'm not sure what makes a drive "DVR optimized" since tons of people have had luck using "any old drive" via e-SATA in the past. If it did work, it would be great. I'll take 320GB over 160GB any day of the week! Also, it looks like the pipeline comes in 500GB and 1TB as well. If the 320GB works, we'll then have to try the larger capacities.

For the record, I'm on Time Warner in Queens County, NY.

-KG

I think the "optimised" part comes down to being quiet, low power consumption and ability to withstand higher temperatures (i.e., no fan).

Supporting capacities up to 1TB, Seagate® Pipeline HD™ series hard drives were designed to deliver 24x7, reliable operation with performance tuning oriented toward low-power consumption, silent operation and smooth video streaming performance. With the ability to support a minimum of 10 simultaneous streams of HD content and operate at temperatures of up to 75°C, they provide reliable storage that enables consumers to take full advantage of premium services like video on demand. Boasting the industry's lowest overall power consumption profiles...

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.js...D&locale=en-GB
However, the low level operating system of the box may not be nearly as flexible as the BIOS on most PCs and may be configured to see only a specific drive configuration and may have an upper size limitation. We don't KNOW the specifics, but its certainly possible.

No stability issues seems to be running fine, I have forced a couple of reboots and all recorded programs are intact.

I just ordered one of these Pipeline 320GB drives for $55 shipped... worth a shot for that. I feel good about this drive working as it's a factory available option. I wasn't feeling adventurous enough to try a 500GB or 1TB version since I never had capacity issues when I had my first 320GB 3090. The 500GB drive was tempting, though, as it is only $5 more than the 320GB.

If it doesn't work I can stuff it in my media PC.

TWC San Diego is going to deploy the Samsung SMT-H3270 HD-DVR late next week. It will have a 320 GB HDD or so I hope. It may have a 160 GB HDD for all I know.

Edit: The major bugs have been fixed which is good. There are a few bugs that are minor enough not to cause them to deploy it late next week.

Sorry guys this is not cool what I am doing, so forgive me.

My 8300HD just got a software upgrade. To the Mystro stuff. I had a 8300HDC when it came out and had trouble with the external drive stuff (all of you did too at the time) so I just returned it and went back to the 8300HD.

So now I have the exact same software as the 8300HDC, and don't seem to be having any trouble with the external drives that I can tell.

I also just found out that Time Warner in NYC is going to be switching to the Samsung's.

I'm not sure which model. Some of them look nice.

However, I if decide to swap out my Scientific Atlanta Box for these new Samsung's I want to be sure the SATA port works (from what I was able to read here, it might do it).

And I read something about an 'Extender' what is that?

What other stuff do these new boxes have that might be interesting?

So if all the info that I am requesting is in this particular thread let me know and I will read through the entire thread.

If I remember correctly, aren't we suppose to be able to buy these boxes now?

Is that possible yet.

Oh yeah, which model should I be asking for if all of you think the switch is worth it.

And what do I have to watch out for as far as problems go?

Thanks!

Rob

I thought the HDC's have broken eSATA.

The general consensus is that external drives tend to work on MDN (8300HD) but not with ODN (8300HDC, Samsung 3090). Most think it's all in the software.

TWc could very easily be giving us 320G HDD Samsungs, but apparently chooses to only give out 160G HDD DVRs.

We have one report of someone (Brighthouse, FLA) swapping the internal 160 in a 3090 with a similar 320G drive.

I need some help here. I have my new cable box connected via HDMI to my receiver (HK AVR254). My receiver sends video to tv via HDMI and audio to 5.1 speaker setup. The audio format settings in the cable box give me 3 settings: HDMI, PCM, AC-3. HDMI is defaulting but when I chose AC-3, no sound is heard. Additionally, my receiver is outputting Logic 7 with this box and was outputting Dolby Digital with the SA8300. Couple questions here...

1) Which of the three should I be outputting audio in the cable box? HDMI, PCM, AC-3 are my choices (didn't know HDMI was a "format")
2) When HDMI is selected as the output format for the cable box, my receiver always outputs Logic 7. Is this preferred to Dolby Digital?

You need to select HDMI in your setup. However, AC3 over HDMI is disabled by factory default... for no reason that any of us can fathom, it will only output 2ch PCM from the factory. That is why your receiver was in a matrix surround mode.

You have two options to get AC3 audio in your system:

1. Enable AC3 over HDMI. See: How to enable AC3 over HDMI
2. Connect an optical or coax connection to the receiver for audio... in the factory config it will output AC3 on the digital audio ports while video is sent over HDMI.

Jcalabria,

I have to say that your response was the most consise and informative post I've seen to one of my questions. Thanks man. I had no idea what Logic 7 was but it didn't sound right. Matrix surround mode from a 2channel source makes all the sense now. I will go with option 1. I wonder if I'll have to update the box everytime they push an update.

To keep in spirit with the previous topic, I just got a new Samsung 3090 and was one of the lucky few to receive a 320gb one (Manufactured Dec 2008). It's one of the Seagate HD Pipeline drives. Looks like they are still passing them out.

You're welcome. There are some of us with engineering degrees that actually can spell and write intelligible sentences, lol. In fact, a large part of my job is writing functional descriptions of (sometimes) complex commercial AV systems for proposals.

I can't personally say whether the AC3 setting holds after an update... haven't had any here, yet. The procedure to enable AC3 is no big deal... once you do it you will see that it takes all of 15 seconds to do.

My first 3090 (one of the very first handed out in Charlotte) was a 320GB. I turned that box in because of some issues and got a 160GB unit the second time. Unfortunately, the same problems were also in the second unit and seem to be tied to the version of ODN we have in Charlotte. NYC and Charlotte are the only markets we know of still running ODN 3.1.0_11... newer versions seem less problematic with the Sammies.

I just ordered a 320GB Seagate Pipeline drive to try in my box, since external SATA hasn't really worked consistently on any ODN box. We'll see how that goes... would be nice if it arrived before the weekend.

The 3090 docs are HERE. I haven't seen any hard copy on the 3270.

The 3270 has a 320 GB HDD.

Here are some guestimated 3260 specs.

BCM7405 CPU
256 MB of RAM
64 MB flash
HDMI
Component
S-Video
Composite
FireWire
Ethernet
Power Plug
SCTE 55-1/2 Legacy OOB support
Cable Card Slot w/ a SA M-Card
Unknown OCAP middleware that has a Samsung Logo
SATA
All black cabinet
DOCSIS 2.0+ w/DSG

Could have sworn the 3090 literature had said it came with a 320G drive, but on looking again, it says "up to a 320G drive." AND we seem to have at least one report of someone swapping the 160 for a similar 320 in a 3090 and it working.

What I find VERY curious is that we 're talking about a model that seems to have come out at about the same time as a previous model. We read it's "better" but with no specific idea of exactly how. Which kinda makes me think the 3270 is a 320G version of the 3090, with everything else the same.

that could quite posibly explain why the initial release of the 3090 had 320GB then later ones have 160. perhaps they decided to go with the 3270 as the 320 model.
or it could be that the initial release of the 3270 will be 320 and then change to 160 also.