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8300HD and External SATA - It Works!! - Page 98

post #2911 of 8986
10/31/06 at 6:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Riverside_Guy View Post

Indeed, it looks like I colored her answer a tad... yes, not a ringing endorsement.

One of the things about climbing the corporate ladder is that one becomes more like a politician - people hear what they want to hear when the person really said nothing at all. Sorry, Diana.
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post #2912 of 8986
10/31/06 at 7:15am
Quote:
Originally Posted by pepar View Post

One of the things about climbing the corporate ladder is that one becomes more like a politician - people hear what they want to hear when the person really said nothing at all. Sorry, Diana.

I prefer the believe (and I think that is the case here - based on Diana's earlier active participation on the AVSForum) is that management is looking for an effective way to get public input for their product development.
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post #2913 of 8986
10/31/06 at 7:23am
Quote:
Originally Posted by davehancock View Post

I prefer the believe (and I think that is the case here - based on Diana's earlier active participation on the AVSForum) is that management is looking for an effective way to get public input for their product development.

And we all wish the best for Diana in this new position!

But as you said, it's for them to get public input. I'll bet that very little real info will flow the other way. I hope I'm wrong. And I also hope that her sunny disposition wears well in the trench that they're throwing her into. The "public" - especially on this forum and on this subject - can be brutal.
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post #2914 of 8986
10/31/06 at 7:34am
She has been in that trench for many years. I know from when she was active on a national scale that information did flow both ways (but people on the forum need to listen to what is being said). I (and I know that this is also true of the other Dave) gained a good of insight from her of the technical difficulties that the cable companies face.
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post #2915 of 8986
10/31/06 at 7:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by davehancock View Post

She has been in that trench for many years. I know from when she was active on a national scale that information did flow both ways (but people on the forum need to listen to what is being said). I (and I know that this is also true of the other Dave) gained a good of insight from her of the technical difficulties that the cable companies face.

Sometimes what I think is realism on my part is actually pessimism. Tough to tell the difference sometimes. Again, I hope i'm wrong and that we, TWC (and possibly by extension, the cable industry) and Diana benefit from this move.

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post #2916 of 8986
10/31/06 at 8:45am
Quote:
Originally Posted by BobKat6 View Post

My understanding is that the machine will choose the drive with the least recorded on it when a scheduled recording starts. I don't know if the selection is based on % of capacity or hours of content. (SARA 1.88.?)

I believe it selects the drive based upon raw MB free on the drive.
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post #2917 of 8986
10/31/06 at 9:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by scott_bernstein View Post

I believe it selects the drive based upon raw MB free on the drive.

That's it. Real simple. It's which drive has the most space available.
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post #2918 of 8986
10/31/06 at 12:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pepar View Post

That's it. Real simple. It's which drive has the most space available.

And on SARA (perhaps also on Passport) that "space available" is determined on a %full (not on available GB) basis.
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post #2919 of 8986
10/31/06 at 12:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by davehancock View Post

And on SARA (perhaps also on Passport) that "space available" is determined on a %full (not on available GB) basis.

Which drive it writes the files to purely depends on which drive has the most physical space available at the time of recording. That's it.
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post #2920 of 8986
10/31/06 at 12:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by davehancock View Post

And on SARA (perhaps also on Passport) that "space available" is determined on a %full (not on available GB) basis.

I see the little scales showing percentage(s), but the text leads me to question whether the "logic" uses percent or raw space . . .
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post #2921 of 8986
10/31/06 at 12:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by scott_bernstein View Post

Which drive it writes the files to purely depends on which drive has the most physical space available at the time of recording. That's it.

And you know this how??

This SA Documentation (pdf pg 23) (which at least applies to SARA) clearly shows "% Space Used".
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post #2922 of 8986
10/31/06 at 1:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by davehancock View Post

And you know this how??

This SA Documentation (pdf pg 23) (which at least applies to SARA) clearly shows "% Space Used".

Quote:
Originally Posted by pepar View Post

I see the little scales showing percentage(s), but the text leads me to question whether the "logic" uses percent or raw space . . .



edit: I'll expand a bit. The internal 160GB drive is 90% filled and the external 500GB drive is 92% filled. Where's the 8300HD going to put a scheduled recording of a three-hour movie? In spite of the little graphic, I think the "decision" is based on absolute space available, not percentage available.

Just my $.01.
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post #2923 of 8986
10/31/06 at 6:51pm
i'm sure this has been covered but i haven't been able to locate it...so could someone please point me in the right direction

what were to happen if after i got my 8300HD to record on my external drive, i unplugged it and used it with my CPU. What types of files would i see, would windows still recognize the drive? I would love to believe that i would see all my recordings with a weird number then .ts and i could transfer these to my computer, but i'm guessing its not quite as easy as that.

thanks in advance
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post #2924 of 8986
10/31/06 at 7:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by PeRFeCK View Post

what were to happen if after i got my 8300HD to record on my external drive, i unplugged it and used it with my CPU. What types of files would i see, would windows still recognize the drive? I would love to believe that i would see all my recordings with a weird number then .ts and i could transfer these to my computer, but i'm guessing its not quite as easy as that.

Perhaps someone else can address what you will see in the terms of file types and organization but I do know that the file contents are encrypted with a key that is unique to the particular 8300 that recorded it. The bottom line is that the files supposedly cannot be decrypted by anything but the particular 8300 that created the files.
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post #2925 of 8986
10/31/06 at 7:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by PeRFeCK View Post

i'm sure this has been covered but i haven't been able to locate it...so could someone please point me in the right direction

what were to happen if after i got my 8300HD to record on my external drive, i unplugged it and used it with my CPU. What types of files would i see, would windows still recognize the drive? I would love to believe that i would see all my recordings with a weird number then .ts and i could transfer these to my computer, but i'm guessing its not quite as easy as that.

thanks in advance

It has been covered, but not for a while. You would see nothing on the drive because your computer would see an unformatted drive and offer to format it. Do you really think content providers would allow their HIGH DEFINITION programming to be copied to a computer and uploaded to the 'net?

You also cannot move an external drive to another 8300HD, in your house or a neighbor's, and watch the recorded content. That includes your 8300HD going south and you getting a different 8300HD. You're starting from scratch at that point.
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post #2926 of 8986
10/31/06 at 7:30pm
hmm i see! well i'm a little lost why windows wouldnt recognize the drive as already formatted with data on it at least, wouldnt the SA 8300HD use a simiar file system/structure?

thanks for the info though, and i do believe u it doesnt work
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post #2927 of 8986
10/31/06 at 7:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by PeRFeCK View Post

hmm i see! well i'm a little lost why windows wouldnt recognize the drive as already formatted with data on it at least, wouldnt the SA 8300HD use a simiar file system/structure?

No, it wouldn't. And on purpose at that.
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post #2928 of 8986
10/31/06 at 7:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by PeRFeCK View Post

hmm i see! well i'm a little lost why windows wouldnt recognize the drive as already formatted with data on it at least, wouldnt the SA 8300HD use a simiar file system/structure?

Similar, sure...in the sense that there are probably directories, and files, and an index table that keeps track of where the data is physically stored on the platter, etc.

In that sense, all file systems--Linux, Mac, DOS/Windows FAT, Windows NTFS, etc.--are similar. But "similar" does not equal "compatible". Try sticking a Linux-formatted hard drive in a Windows box, or an NTFS-formatted hard drive in a Linux box. Without special applications or operating system extensions, those OSes won't just automatically read each others' file systems.

Now imagine that someone were designing a hard-drive based storage system that they intentionally didn't *want* anyone else to be able to read, to prevent the stored data from being duplicated and distributed to others. It's relatively easy to do. Futher suppose that same someone combined their proprietary, undocumented file system with undocumented encryption for the data stored within that file system.

The result is that even if you could write an app to detect and interpret the file system, the data representing your recorded shows would still be gibberish.

Further, the encryption key is different for every 8300HD out there, so if someone else figured out how to read the file system and managed to crack the encoding for their box, they wouldn't necessarily be able to tell you how to decode the data from your box.

Doesn't mean it can't be done. Just means it's likely a lot of work. If someone's managed to do it, they're not bragging about it here.
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post #2929 of 8986
11/1/06 at 4:19am
Quote:
Originally Posted by davehancock View Post

I prefer the believe (and I think that is the case here - based on Diana's earlier active participation on the AVSForum) is that management is looking for an effective way to get public input for their product development.

Ah, raging optimism! For no particular reason, I kinda think this is more about who is as opposed to any "directive" from her immediate manager, i.e. her participation here is at her own direction.

No matter, at the least she can be somewhat of a voice for the customers in those internal meetings. I recall saying before I even knew about her that SOMEONE in that org HAD to actually care about what customers wanted!
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post #2930 of 8986
11/1/06 at 5:43am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Riverside_Guy View Post

Ah, raging optimism!

Nah, Dave's just being supportive and a gentleman, two things the world can use more of . .
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post #2931 of 8986
11/1/06 at 6:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mweppner View Post

Hi Everyone,

My Dad is having some problems. Let me give you a brief history on my set-up, and then the problems he is having (we have the same set up).

A few months ago, I added the Vantec Nexstar 3 and a Maxtor 300GB drive to my 8300HD. Over the first couple of days, I had to do several reboots of everything as the box kept losing "sight" of the external drive. Since then, I have not had the problem at all and things have been working great. My case is quite hot, but it's been working, so I am not that worried about it.

A few days ago, I sent my Dad a list of what I had purchased to do the addition. He got the exact same items and set up was a breeze. He has called me a couple times since then saying that his box stopped recognizing the drive, etc. I told him it happened to me for a couple days and then stopped, so hopefully that was the same thing for him. It's been 4 days now and he still has problems.

Here was his latest problem: This morning, he turned everything on. The cable box sent some sort of signal to the TV, but no picture (basically just a border). A few minutes later, the picture came on, but none of the buttons would control the cable box (neither from the remote nor the box itself - he couldn't even turn the box off). After a few minutes of that, the box rebooted itself. When it came on from that self-reboot, the box worked fine but did not see the external drive. He then unplugged everything, let it all reboot, etc, and it is now working fine.

Any idea what the problem is? I don't think he minds the very seldom need for reboots, but if it needs to be done daily, or several times a day, that can be quite frustrating.

One note: I have Comcast in Manassas, VA, and he has Cox in Annandale, VA. So, not sure what differences that could play, if any, given that we have the same equipment.

Looking forward to any ideas/suggestions/fixes! Thank you!

Quote:
Originally Posted by pepar View Post

It's difficult to do any more than speculate at this point. What software and version is your/his box running? Was the balky start and unresponsive controls accompanied by anything flashing on the display?

Quote:
Originally Posted by mweppner View Post

I am running SARA 1.87.23.1 (no...no updates here yet!). He is running SARA 1.87.xx.x (he is not home now, but checked this morning and is certain it is 1.87...). He said he did not experience any flashing on the display during this.

I posted this a few days ago and I am hoping it just got lost in the thread. Is there anyone who has had similar experiences with SARA? I am looking for some suggestions to look into. Thank you! (And thank you to Pepar for the quick replies to the original post!)
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post #2932 of 8986
11/1/06 at 6:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mweppner View Post

I posted this a few days ago and I am hoping it just got lost in the thread. Is there anyone who has had similar experiences with SARA? I am looking for some suggestions to look into. Thank you! (And thank you to Pepar for the quick replies to the original post!)

SARA users seem to be (fortunately only) occasionally afflicted with odd incompatibility issues. Have you tried attaching your drive to a computer to verify operation? Don't worry about formatting it for computer usage as the 8300HD will see it as unformatted when attached (and working ). If it does work on a computer and not the STB, then this might be one of those incompatibility situations. If that is the case (haha) then you've got yourself two computer hard drives and need to try a different drive for the STBs. Sorry . . .
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post #2933 of 8986
11/1/06 at 7:21am
ok, thanks. I'll ask him to give that a try. Appreciate it!
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post #2934 of 8986
11/1/06 at 7:47am
Quote:
Originally Posted by davehancock View Post

She has been in that trench for many years. I know from when she was active on a national scale that information did flow both ways (but people on the forum need to listen to what is being said). I (and I know that this is also true of the other Dave) gained a good of insight from her of the technical difficulties that the cable companies face.

Being the "other" Dave, it was a sad day indeed for all when Diana chose to leave the national 8300 threads and devote her time to the SC thread. Unfortunately, the same thing may happen again, though I suspect she is a bit wiser now and started the Customer Input thread knowing full well what she was in for. I trust she will simply ignore the bashers, etc., and press on with the work at hand in her new position. Those complaining about things on other cable systems should be completely ignored and those complaining about TWC issues should be referred to the correct thread. Eventually most folks will get the hint that the thread is only for what the title (and forst post) says it is and nothing more.
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post #2935 of 8986
11/2/06 at 8:54am
I have an 8300HD, and purchased a Maxtor Quickview Expander (300GB) about 15 months ago. It's been working flawlessly up until about a week ago. The Maxtor started getting noisy, and I've traced it to the little fan failing. Maxtor doesn't do any service on this kit, and it's out of warranty (12 months). Right now, I've got a 280 buck paperweight sitting on my desk.

Does anyone know how to take these apart? All I need to do is replace the fan, and I'm back in business. Maxtor is no help right now.

Thanks!
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post #2936 of 8986
11/2/06 at 1:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bcoombs View Post

I have an 8300HD, and purchased a Maxtor Quickview Expander (300GB) about 15 months ago. It's been working flawlessly up until about a week ago. The Maxtor started getting noisy, and I've traced it to the little fan failing. Maxtor doesn't do any service on this kit, and it's out of warranty (12 months). Right now, I've got a 280 buck paperweight sitting on my desk.

Does anyone know how to take these apart? All I need to do is replace the fan, and I'm back in business. Maxtor is no help right now.

Thanks!

Maxtor the paperweight factory

Buy Seagate next time around , they have 5 (five) years warranty.
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post #2937 of 8986
11/2/06 at 1:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bcoombs View Post

I have an 8300HD, and purchased a Maxtor Quickview Expander (300GB) about 15 months ago. It's been working flawlessly up until about a week ago. The Maxtor started getting noisy, and I've traced it to the little fan failing. Maxtor doesn't do any service on this kit, and it's out of warranty (12 months). Right now, I've got a 280 buck paperweight sitting on my desk.

Does anyone know how to take these apart? All I need to do is replace the fan, and I'm back in business. Maxtor is no help right now.

Thanks!

Get some tools and take it apart. It's not like you'll void your warranty. Fans are pretty much standard sizes. Yank the one that's in there and look for a mfg name and number paying attention to the connector. If you don't know where to look for a replacement, post your info here and someone will point you to a replacement.

look30: You're so helpful.
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post #2938 of 8986
11/2/06 at 1:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by look30 View Post

Maxtor the paperweight factory

Buy Seagate next time around , they have 5 (five) years warranty.

Wow, what a big help!

Anyway, now that Seagate has purchased Maxtor, they are still keeping the Maxtor warranties the same on Maxtor branded products.

And Seagate didn't have a simple, plug-in solution, which is what I was looking for at the time. The build-your-own solution was still in its infancy when I was looking to add the external drive July 2005, and I wasn't interested in being one of the guinea pigs back then.

So, anyone know how to take one of these apart without totally destroying it?
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post #2939 of 8986
11/2/06 at 1:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by pepar View Post

Get some tools and take it apart. It's not like you'll void your warranty. Fans are pretty much standard sizes. Yank the one that's in there and look for a mfg name and number paying attention to the connector. If you don't know where to look for a replacement, post your info here and someone will point you to a replacement.

look30: You're so helpful.

Aaaahhhh, a long time trusted poster arrives...

Pepar, I tried taking it apart (a little). There are two small screws, one covered in tape to easily show tampering. I removed these, and a little plastic cover came off. I poked and prodded, and couldn't see anything past this, other than the two screws securing the fan to the case. The fan was still on the other side of a plate, so I'd have to remove the plate (the fan coming with it) and then separate the fan from the plate with above mentioned screws. I can't figure out how to remove the plate from the rest of the case. All else fails, I'm going to end up destroying this thing to figure it out. But if someone has any info, I'd like to keep it.
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post #2940 of 8986
11/2/06 at 2:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by bcoombs View Post

Aaaahhhh, a long time trusted poster arrives...

Pepar, I tried taking it apart (a little). There are two small screws, one covered in tape to easily show tampering. I removed these, and a little plastic cover came off. I poked and prodded, and couldn't see anything past this, other than the two screws securing the fan to the case. The fan was still on the other side of a plate, so I'd have to remove the plate (the fan coming with it) and then separate the fan from the plate with above mentioned screws. I can't figure out how to remove the plate from the rest of the case. All else fails, I'm going to end up destroying this thing to figure it out. But if someone has any info, I'd like to keep it.

I don't have one, but from the pictures the first place I would look to see what's holding it together would be on the bottom. Look for screws. If there are feet, look at their screws. It went together, it has to come apart.
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