HD/DVR fills up quickly how can I add external disk drive to HD DVR - eSATA or Firewire?
I have Motorola QIP6416 HD/DVR
You can't.
__________________________________JustinVerizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phoneQIP6416, IMG 1.7, Build 09.82Keller, TX 76248
@FIOSTV wrote: HD/DVR fills up quickly how can I add external disk drive to HD DVR - eSATA or Firewire?I have Motorola QIP6416 HD/DVR
There has been talk of adding this ability to the SATA on the newer HD\DVRs. Q1 2010 perhaps. Or Cablecard and a third party DVR if you can't wait. TIVO or MOXI. $199 previosly enjoyed TIVO (Refurbished) has the same 160 gig drive the Verizon DVR has, but you can expand it by replacing the drive or adding an external.
But for now you can not increase the size.
The harddrive for the HD media center dvr is really not sufficient.
I had a lot more room on Time Warner's HD system and they had LESS CHANNELS!
I just spoke to a rep and they said this hd was the biggest one, though the sales person who upgraded me hinted that I could add more HD space and to call 888-660-3666.
I then had to call another number sie that one wasn't working and was told that I couldn't add more space externally.
It's a shame because with more HD channels, I'd like to be able to record more.
I have heard that with other providers you may have more space due to compression. Verizon sends the signal as is, with the exception of some format changes from mpeg4 to mpeg2. But the more efficient mpeg4 is converted to mpeg2 that uses more space but has the same high quality that is provided to Verizon. At least that is the way I read it. Some providers use mpeg4 and compress the signal even more to fit more HD channels. Verizon does not do that, but provides the content in the same quality that is received. So the DVRs could have the same drive size but less capacity.
Many of the newer DVRs with USB ports and SATA ports are perfectly capable of having external hard drives attached and used for increasing the recording capabilities of the system.
It is a capability that Verizon chooses not to enable. I do not know why, other than it would probably increase their troubleshooting and home visit frequency. Most subscribers, those who cannot follow directions and those who cannot keep their own computers running properly, would present a liability to the Verizon bottom line. Therefore, no one can be allowed to attach, format, and use any of the thousands of different makes of hard drives available on the open market.
It's a control thing.
@MrMcMac wrote: Many of the newer DVRs with USB ports and SATA ports are perfectly capable of having external hard drives attached and used for increasing the recording capabilities of the system. It is a capability that Verizon chooses not to enable. I do not know why, other than it would probably increase their troubleshooting and home visit frequency. Most subscribers, those who cannot follow directions and those who cannot keep their own computers running properly, would present a liability to the Verizon bottom line. Therefore, no one can be allowed to attach, format, and use any of the thousands of different makes of hard drives available on the open market.It's a control thing.
actually, the motorola boxes that verizon uses currently dont have the ability to add external hard drives. the ports are there but are not connected. However, verizon says that they are going to get new STB's from Cisco sometime around the first of the year. And they are hinting at the fact that these will have expandable storage. As for increasing their troubleshooting or home visits wont be a factor. It will be one of those things that they will not support. It can do it, and you can use it but at your own risk. Just like with many things on the service. The router can do port forwarding, but verizon does not support it. VPN's will work, but Verizon will not support it. You can connect stereo equipment to the STB's but they dont support it. Same will happen with the expandable storage. They will only support the storage in the DVR and the customer will be on their own for the external drive.
I just talked with tech-person. He told me to google it. According to him, external ports are activated. He could not tell me how but it appears it's possible. I tried to google but no luck yet.
@Jotaro wrote: I just talked with tech-person. He told me to google it. According to him, external ports are activated. He could not tell me how but it appears it's possible. I tried to google but no luck yet.
Don't know what the "tech person" was smoking, but NONE OF THE PORTS (except the 1394 which can only be used for video transfer of programs that don't have the copy flag set) on the Verizon STBs are active. This has been discussed ad nauseum in this and other fora - explains why your Google search came up empty. The only current options for more storage are TIVO, MOXI, or a few media enabled PCs with cable card tuners and sacrificing VOD (and widgets - if that matters) .
Fios' new tag line should be, "THIS IS FIOS, THIS IS BIG, (except for our tiny dvr storage)."
what a joke the dvr storage is. what are they afraid of? free up the ports to do whatever we want with them. if we want to plug in a TB drive and have near unlimited space to archive stuff, then let us do it! we're already paying a lot of money per month for this silly little dvr that barely has any room on it to record and save programs. it's pretty laughable, verizon. give us the freedom !
