[theedge]

Hi, I am new to the land of ReplayTV, I just purchased one at Rexstores last week. A decent deal for a Panasonic Showstopper 30 hour unit at $280 after rebate.


Anyway, I plan on upgrading this unit soon. I like the 30 hour capacity, but not the quality, so I figure the 15 hour setting is pretty nice. I have a 60GB Maxtor drive which would give me a nice 45 hour record time at that setting.


I have seen the upgrade sites and the upgrade seems simple enough.


My Questions...


Does the hard drive matter?


I can get an 80GB Maxtor, 75GB IBM, 100GB Maxtor or possibly a 160GB Maxtor from where I work. I don't know if the 60 hour drive I have will be enough if I want to archive shows or movies. We make ATA based storage arrays, and I think I can work out a deal for a good price on any drive.


Are the 7200 RPM Drives (IBM) bad, considering the heat level in the unit is already high?


Has anyone installed a small computer case like fan? Something you could tee off from the hard drive power supply? Any sites that have diagrams etc?

 

[asinshesq]

Welcome to Replayland.


In response to your questions about the HD upgrade:


1. It generally doesn't matter which manufacturer you go with.


2. 60gb, 75gb, 80gb or 100 gb -- people have used all of those successfully. And yes, it's easy to do.


3. I haven't seen anyone report on using a 160gb HD, and given address limitations it is conceivable that a 160gb drive might not work; I wouldn't want to be the guinea pig until someone reports success. Try a search and see if anyone else has done this successfully.


4. If you want 160g, putting in twin 80gb drives probably won't cost much more and certainly will work. (I've got a twin 80gb setup which has been humming well for the last 7 months).


5. Steer clear of the 7200 rpm models -- too much heat, even if you try to cool things down with a fan.


6. If you upgrade, you are right to worry about heat -- go ahead and add a fan. You can throw it anywhere in the case (most people have inserted it under the top air vents blowing out) and splice into the power cable going to the HD (or use a y connector for both the HD and fan); you can even put the fan on top of the unit (outside the case) if you prefer)


7. If you go the dual HD route (a dual 80gb unit -- 160gb in all -- is great if you're like me and hate recording at any speed other than top quality), check out lizard_boys pics for how to mount(just pull up a recent lizard boy post and you'll see a link to pics in his signature).

 

[theedge]

Thanks for the info...