8300HD and External SATA - It Works!! - Page 5

Has anyone tried this with Passport software?

I'm in San Diego with TWC and would love to add some more storage.

If not I'm willing to give it a try, thanks for all the info!

Tim

Oops, accidental double post.

Is anyone planning to do more than an incremental improvement in storage capability? Like maybe a terabyte?

Why? What happens when your 8300HD conks out or you have to get it replaced? Would you risk losing all those recordings (terabyte is a lot to record) because the cable company swaps out your 8300HD?

Not me... I'd use it as a fun alternative to backing up. Losing 160GB is one thing, but losing a terabyte's worth of recordings is bordering on criminal in my book

Be interesting to see if anyone actually goes through with it and gets a raid array though...

Well, just ordered the cable from Cruz. My SARA version (here in Houston) is 1.87.4a4, so I'll give it a shot and see if it works. FYI, if you order it by UPS ground, it may take up to 5 business days and cost $7. Ask about USPS Priority Mail, and it will take 2-3 days (and they work Saturdays).

Now, the million dollar question... anyone find any deals on compatible SATA drives and enclosures (or even kits)?

Perhaps I missed this when skimming the thread, but what happens when you plug this external drive back in your pc?

Can your pc read the contents of the drive, and if so what does it look like?

With limited recording capacity and no active firewire output, you'll 'lose' your recordings anyway, when you have to delete them to make room for more. I do agree though that there is a big disconnect with the replacement box issue.

More and more it seems to me that the best alternative is NO DVR, active firewire, and a used Powermac for recording.

Which means no guaranteed ability to record copy protected, flagged content...

Well I got my cable and enclosure last night and tried it this morning. Removed power from the box and hooked up my external drive. I then booted the box, nothing. Went into the diag screen and it did not see the drive. I rebooted several times and still nothing.

So just like I was already told by Barry, it looks like Bright House Networks in CFL has not yet enabled the external SATA drive. Bummer.

So enjoy it you lucky SARA box owners, the rest of us will have to wait.

I did exactly the same thing this morning with the same lack of result. Time Warner Cable in NYC. Passport 1.8.095. Diagnostics show no second drive.
" Copy Prot" screen displays
HDMI Port: Block HDMI - HDCP Auth Failed .
HDMI Port: Always use HDCP .
YPrPb Port: YPrPb Port on .
1394 Port: Enable 1394 Port always .
CompPort: NA - Reserved .
VOD: No CCI Override .

I can't tell if this screen tells me anything about the failure to do anything with the drive.

I looked through all of the diag screens on my box and can't see anything anywhere that shows the external drive as being active. Everything looks the same as before I connected the external drive. Running SARA 1.85.19.

I received my enclosure (IDE to SATA/USB http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...145-369&depa=0) and cable (http://www.cruzsystems.com/COMAX-221303D.htm) yesterday and got it working last night, using a 250GB IDE drive.

I first connected it to my PC via USB and used Partition Magic to delete all old partitions on the drive.

On first reboot of the 8300HD after attaching the drive, a message popped up saying the disk had an invalid format and asked if I wanted to reformat. Selected yes, and the box continued normal operation, but no indication of the completion of the reformat. Give it 10 minutes and rebooted.

Second reboot took much longer. When it came back, it gave a "external drive successful" message and the space used bar showed a much smaller % as expeceted.

So it looks like it needs a second reboot after a reformat for the drive to be recognized.

SARA 1.85.19.1

-Rajiv

This looks promising:

"1394 Port: Enable 1394 Port always"

To me, this is more important that having an active SATA port. Now you can connect an HD VCR, or connect to a PC or Mac.

EDITED TO ADD: Could those of you running SARA rather than Passport determine if your firewire port is enabled?

I see that Fry's and Outpost.com are today advertising a Western Digital 250GB SATA drive for $169 with a $50 rebate ($119 AR):

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/3868597

The one year warranty is kind of a downer, though -- the 300GB Seagate that I got for $169 has a five year warranty.

My external drive is still working perfectly -- the only glitches were in a recording of a Showtime-HD movie made overnight. I'm thinking that the pixelation/skipping/glitches I previously reported always occurred in late night/early recordings of movies (when I didn't have as much space, I rarely did that). I may have some signa problems at that time that causes the glitches.

But every recording made during prime time has been perfect.

Another successful install. I am using a Western Digital 160GB ATA/100 drive.

For anyone shopping, Best Buy has this drive available for $39.95 after $90 of mail-in rebates. This offer ends 3/26. I originally had a Maxtor 300GB SATA drive, but my 8300 wouldn't recognize it for some reason and I sent it back.

Success in Houston. Using 250 GB Maxtor IDE with the enclosure from Newegg:
IDE to USB/SATA Enclosure

Only problem is that enclosure has an annoyingly bright blue led that I need to disconnect.

Only question: Did anyone else completely power down the DVR before plugging in the SATA drive? Instructions say to do that, and that is what I did.

No kidding, that's got to be the brightest most annoying light I've seen in quite some time. Mine was immediately disconnected.

Has anyone tried to connect there external Hard drives back to a pc yet? Just curious if you can read the files or not.

What is this with Blue LEDs? They seem to be everywhere. My Samsung HD841 DVD player has this annoying blue LED. The worst is on my Syntax 30" LCD TV, there is a big (size of two quarters) Blue LED ONLY turned on when the TV is off! Since I installed this LCD in my bedroom, no need for night light any more

If you're with Time Warner Houston, I think you have to be using SARA, which is good for adding he external drive.

Because I've always known SATA drives to be hot-pluggable, I plugged mine right in without rebooting. It was immediately recognized and said the drive had garbage on it (or something like that, I can't remember the exact message) and did I want to reformat. So I selected yes (A) and I assume it did so (no messages). However, my remaining use stayed at 64% which is what it was at before I plugged in the SATA drive.

I have not rebooted b/c at this point I had to leave for work. I will try rebooting tonight and see if it changes anything. Anxious for it to work!

My hard drive is 250 Gig so if it works it should provide quite a few more hours of storage! I'm hoping the drives don't have to match in size.....

BTW also hooked up the HDMI cable and love it!! Occasionally it reverts to a fuzzy screen which I have to fix by resetting the cable unit, otherwise it's beautiful and I definitely see a difference between HDMI & component.

EDIT: Did not see Rajiv's comment on a 2nd reboot, I did this at lunch and it seemed to hang on the reboot, so I left - will check it tonight and report back. I'm guessing it will work!

Do you still need the SATA to SATA-II conversion cable with this enclosure?

Yes you do, you just don't need an SATA drive.

250 GB drive works in central NY too!!

Just needed a 2nd reboot.

It is working in central NJ as well (Cablevision).

I am using a 200GB WD SATA drive, the Comax/Cruz cable, and a 3.5" Kingwin SS-350S-BLK SATA case. My storage went from 93% full to 42% full.

I had some problems getting the Comax cable to fit in the SATA connector on the case. I had to trim down some of the plastic on the connector and file the metal opening on the case.

The case is OK, but it is louder than I would have liked. It would get quieter if I disconnected the fan, but I don't know if the drive would stay cool enough. The case itself is aluminum so it might be able to dissipate enough heat.

If I hadn't already bought the case, I probably would have gone with the Newegg SATA version that can use a regular (cheaper) IDE drive.

Another success story. I'm using Adelphia in Northeast PA and added a 250GB Hitachi. My used space went from 99% to 38%. Recordings play back perfect from the external drive.

It works for me as well. I'm on Adelphia in Spotsylvania, VA.

I used the Comax/Cruz cable and the Kingwin SS-350S-BK SATA Enclosure with the Western Digital WD2500JD 250GB SATA drive. I also had trouble attaching the cable to the enclosure and had to trim it down a bit.

I connected everything to the 8300HD which was already on and then turned on the drive. After a few seconds I got a message indicating that an external storage device was located and asked if I wanted to format it, which I did. There was no indication that it had completed the format so I let it run while I watched a recorded show for about an hour. No change occured in the space available percentage until I rebooted the 8300HD, but after the reboot the percentage went from 58% full to 23% full.

I purchased 2 of everything so I can upgrade my second DVR as well.

It worked for me (1.87.4a4)... an extra 300GB. Plugged it in (hotswapable) and was good to go. It prompted me to do a format. Just remember that if you ever want to unplug it, be sure to power off the DVR.

I bought this case (since it looked nicer, no obtrusive led on the front, and next day shipping for me since the store is located in Austin, TX):
http://www.usb-ware.com/aluminum-sat...drive-case.htm

ksas

In my area, my phone company just started offering HD TV service using fiber optics. I have my phone, DSL internet, and now HDTV service all with the same company. And of course, when you have all 3, they give you a discount. I think it's pretty reasonable.

They are using the 8300 stb. I live across the street from one of the engineers with this company, so I find out a lot of info before it comes out.

Last night, he came over with a box in his hand, and it was a Maxtor 300gb external SATA drive. Supposedly especially made for the 8300 stb.
We hooked it up, it asked for the format, and was ready to roll in about 5 minutes.

Just so happened that the day before he came over with the drive, I called Maxtor, and they said the drive isn't available yet, but should be available some time in the next couple months. She said there will be a 160gb, and the 300 gb models. They will cost $199, and $299 respectively.

I guess your area is a secret, huh?