Western Digital My DVR Expander 500 GB eSATA External Hard Drive
by Western Digital
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List Price: Category: CE See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Western Digital My DVR Expander 500 GB eSATA External Hard Drive
Customer Review: More storage with a glitch - EDITED
Summary: 4 Stars
Pretty easy to install on Scientific Atlanta HD DVR (Time Warner). Took me a couple tries... first time had TV off. 2nd Try had TV on and saw the screen that asked if I wanted to Format the external drive. All great after set up... haven't seen an hour glass "soon to expire" since installing. But am having pixelation stutters during playback. Just a quick picture and sound break-up for 1 second several times during playback. If I rewind and play that part again, no stutter... so is not in recording. I'm using HDMI from DVR to TV. I will try switching to Component Out to see if that helps. I tried new ESata II cable from DVR to Extender Drive... didn't help. It is getting annoying - seems to happen right when someone is saying something important. May just be coincidence that it started after installing the WD DVR Expander. I deducted one star for this problem.
EDIT: I changed from HDMI to Component output from DVR to TV - still had break-up problem. I disconnected the WD Expander (you lose all recordings) and ran w/o Expander and playback worked perfect. Have to assume it was the unit. Sending it back. Amazon has great return policy.
Customer Review: No Space Worries
Summary: 5 Stars
I added the WD DVR Expander to my TiVo HD DVR to increase the capacity from only 20hrs (HD programs) to something like 90hr. HD. Standard definition is 4 to 5 times that capacity. Now I'm able to collect all the programs I want without fretting about things getting deleted before I want them to or running out of space. It set up very easily and thus far (about 2 weeks of use) I've had no issues. It runs seemlessly with the TiVo without any user interface to decide what gets stored where. About the only concern I noted was that the unit must be "mated" with your DVR and that to ever move it to a different DVR you would need to undo this "mating" and you would lose all programming that was saved. Thus far I have had to reboot my TiVo on a couple of occassions and have had no problems with any data loss. The TiVo continued to recognize the expansion drive without issue. Do shop around for price, as you can save some money by doing so. I would most definitely recommend the product for anyone not wanting to worry about capacity issues with your DVR. Would have even consider a 1 terrabyte unit if it had been available.Customer Review: DOES NOT WORK with Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR
Summary: 1 Stars
I think others had the same problem as I did. I have a Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD DVR (Time Warner Cable) and although installation was easy and my SA 8300 can read the extra memory...the shows that are recorded on my Western Digital external drive don't play back normally. There is a LOT of pixelated distortion and not just occasionally, like every 10 seconds or so. So much that it just makes whatever I recorded un-watchable and I end up deleting everything that's recorded on the external drive. When I unplug it and go back to using my SA 8300 DVR, the shows get recorded normally, so I'm sure it's the external hard drive that cannot record properly from cable. Does anybody have any solutions to this? It's too late for me to return the hard drive, so it just ends up getting dusty and unused...and I'm out about $100 bucks from this now. I've called WD many times and so far I have had 2 replacement drives...but they all have similar results. They say they "don't do refunds", so what am I supposed to do? If you have a scientific atlanta DVR (from Time Warner Cable) DO NOT buy this product unless you like throwing out $100.Customer Review: Limited lifespan indeed!
Summary: 2 Stars
Another reviewer, Early Adopter,on Nov 2008 used just about the same headline as I have above to claim his frustration with a until that died within 18 months. I agree totally. for a couple of weeks my Tivo unit has been freezing and restarting multiple times when playing back programs. I was afraid my 2 year old HD TIVO was dying and I don't really have the money to replace it AND pay for ANOTHER "lifetime" subscription (which right now totals about $900 on Tivo.com). One morning, my Tivo unit was in "restart" mode, but would not come back to life and start up at all. After unplugging the unit and restarting 3 or 4 times-but never get past the "startup" page, something made me unplug the additional storage drive to see if this would help.
Sure enough, the TIVO finally came back to life. But now 90% of my saved programs are gone forever. And even worse it looks like i'm stuck buying another one of these, since I am not aware of another manufacturer making these that are compatible with TIVO, and the TIVO unit has such limited storage space for HD programs...
Customer Review: Did not work with my Scientific Atlanta 8300 HDC
Summary: 1 Stars
I purchased this to use with an SA 8300 HDC. Cable provider is Time Warner in Milwaukee area. Time Warner verified the esata port on the 8300 was active but would not support its use. The expander was recognized fine and appeared to install properly. Also, the available space increased dramatically. But within 24 hours I started to have issues recording shows. Two different scenarios happened. 1) Shows will not record at all. Scheduled recordings will not start, and if I press the record button on my remote nothing happens. Also, I cannot rewind, pause or fast forward live TV. 2) Shows have appeared to record, but I cannot play them back. The cable box shows 'Record' on the LCD screen like normal, and the show appears in my recorded list, but when I go to playback nothing happens, the screen remains blank. I contacted WD support and was told to contact Scientific Atlanta. Since they 'certify' it works with the 8300 series I thought they would offer some troubleshooting options. I have returned the item since it did not function properly with my 8300 HDC.