8300HD and External SATA - It Works!! - Page 195

Well, yes, it does depend on location and cableco. One can check various channels in the diagnostics (at least for SARA) to see how the flags are set. Locals are generally set to Copy Freely while others are up to the cableco, etc.

I thought I was meaner and smarter than others here.

I programmed my FreeAgent 750's firmware to never turn off, reformatted its drive, gave it a new name and bought it an expensive E-Sata cable. About all I didn't do for it was buy it new lingerie from Victoria's Secret.

None of the above allowed it to be recognized by my Sara, Time Warner 8300HD. #**@#ing wasted Sunday.

It was so cheap though, I think I'll keep it and buy a new case for the drive.

BTW, on the issue of an 8300 being a "computer" or not.. of course it is a computer, a handheld calculator or a digital watch is a computer. I think an abacus and a person's brain can be considered a "computer".



-it's just not a "PC", but it is very similar to one in many ways.

Yes, this whole fun conversation could have been avoided if Dave had said 'PC' instead of 'computer' which is of course what he meant.

To answer Dave's car question - no a car is not a computer, however they usually contain quite a few.

xnappo

Oh good grief! Not everything with a processor and storage is a computer, personal or otherwise. Our 8300HDs are DVR/tuners. Controlling the functions is a processor. My Acura is a car with a processor and memory. Our Jenn-Air is a refrigerator, our Advantium is an oven, my IR RDC-7 a pre/pro and my Mororola V3i a cellphone. All of them have processors and memory, but they are not computers. It could be said that they contain computers, but they are not computers themselves.

Sorry, I beg to differ(though your last sentence has us close to agreement) - by definition anything that performs computations is a computer - this can also be a human (or a horse?). A car's engine controller is very much a complex computer. Not worth arguing about though - we will have to agree to disagree.


Just because a lot of people use the word 'computer' to mean 'personal computer' does not change the definition (at least not yet )

xnappo

Sorry as I haven't been able to read through but a portion of this thread, but from what I can tell, all that is required is to plug the esata enclosure in and go. Is there a step by step how to enable if this is not the case? How can I set the 8300 to use external instead of the internal? Anyway to copy alreay recorded stuff over from the internal to the external?
Thanks and sorry for the newbness.

No disagreements here because you seem to be making my point: A car's engine controller is a computer . . the car's engine controller is a computer. It's a car whose engine's controller is a computer, not the car.

Your sub-conscious seems to agree with me!

Agreed

xnappo

I don't know about any step by step, but many people have tried hot-plugging (plug in cable while both units are On) and gotten things to work. Also, sometimes it can take 3-4 reboots before the external drive is recognized.

You can't, at least not without a lot of hassle managing your saved recordings, etc., and it's just not worth all that. It uses whichever drive has the most available space. It's not like the Dish DVR.

No. It's not like a computer in that regard.

We were all new at one time.

My bad! You are almost right (how about a Mac, etc.?). I should have really used the term "general purpose computer".

But, the reason that we got onto this topic on this thread is that all too often, folks expect the 8300 to act like a general purpose computer. And that is wrong.

I note that as you made this post, it happened again:


IT'S NOT A (General Purpose) COMPUTER!

IT'S NOT A (General Purpose) COMPUTER!

IT'S NOT A (General Purpose) COMPUTER!

Haha - okay now on to the next horse

xnappo

The 8300 is defined as a "computer appliance" the operating system commands and functions are hidden to the user and only leaves the software interface to operate the unit.

Wait, so the 8300 is a computer?

so should I fillup the internal beforehand so it doesn't use it?
My concern is that once the internal has more space than the external, it will use that HD to record and I won't be able to switch between the 2.

Ahh - the beauty of this not being a (general purpose) computer! Don't worry about it, the 8300 knows where everything is, so it worries about what goes where.
If you have SARA (and I believe that what Howard County has), the fact that you have an external drive is totally transparent to you (except that you have more capacity). According to Scientific Atlanta, the 8300 always puts the program on the drive that as the most available space (on a % basis). So initially, most everything will go on the external drive.

Niiiiiiiice.

You might not think so if you have to swap your 8300 for another one as all your recordings, including those on the external drive, will be lost. That's why we caution folks against trying to use it like a general purpose computer for long term archiving. Record all you want, but try to view it relatively soon in case of a failure. Nothing wrong with then keeping the recording for subsequent viewing. I know quite a few folks record series for summer viewing, and there is nothing wrong with that as long as you know of the potential danger.

Since we all appear to be off-topic, I just had to say that this post had me laughing out loud - particularly the bit about Victoria's Secret....

Guess you didn't catch the multiple times I said it was NOT like a general purpose computer! And THAT is 100% because the OSes APIs are very much NOT exposed, nor is there a SDK.

However, FUNCTIONALLY is "acts" like a computer, it has a processor, it has RAM, it has software. As such, it must be judged as any "computing device." As such, I have every right to think and believe that it HAS to act like a "computing device."

Does the BIOS have an entry to enable the SATA-2 adapter? I have a Dell machine here that has four SATA ports, and the BIOS has an entry for EACH port.

Jack

Funny (and OT) question for this thread, but are there any cablecard, non-DVR HD set top boxes out there? I need an HDMI hi-def tuner and the only one Comcast is offering up is the 8300HD - for another $22/mo.

You mean like a computer?

SA makes other models (8300C, 8240C, 4240C, etc.), but what does Comcast do for those who just want HD and no DVR? They don't force everyone to take an 8300HDC, do they?

Edit: Sorry, I didn't note the HDMI requirement. I'd check the models out, but if Comcast doesn't offer them, why waste the time?

Computer, schmuter, what a waste of bandwidth.

Just out of curiosity, why do you need a STB with a cable card? My provider has HD STBs, in fact we have one. It's an SA, forget the number, something like 3500.

Wait....it's NOT a computer? But, but, but, it has SATA ports...

I've seen the cable system in Buffalo (once Adelphia, now TW) issue 8300HDs to anyone who wanted a HD STB. In those cases, they did not enable the DVR fuction. Perhaps they were just using the 8300s when they did not have HD STBs in stock, but it was something (as late as this June) that they were doing for some HD customers. I assume that still may be a business practice with the "C" versions.

I bought 5 of these 1TB Western Digital drives for a RAID project I have
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136151 and of course I was curious how they perform with the 8300HD and if they work it all so I installed it in one of the two Vantec enclosures I've been using for a year and half and they're flawless. These drives are the coolest and quietest I've ever had but a little expensive for fun use.
I'll run it for a week or two and I will update.

PASSPORT Echo 2.6.002

WOW! However, there have been enough reports on 500G drives that issues crop up when it gets over 1/2, 2/3 full... leading to speculation it may be the limited RAM at play as an assumption has been made the RTOS always loads the directory into memory and may not update it from disk near as much as a proper computing device does.

Watch it carefully as you add content to that external drive.