FIOS DVR External Hard Drive

[CatButt]

Anthony, not how to send you a PM. I am having an issue with my external HDD...having spent 2 hours on the phone with Customer/Tech support only to have them tell my ANY eSata HDD will work I purchased a 3TB GDrive (not cheap). I have since discovered that VZ does not recognize them as compatible. Quite a let down. However I need to exhaust every install option before selling this HDD (cannot return it).

My DVR is compatible and it does "see" the HDD upon reboot as it asks if I want to use the HDD. Of course I select yes and all seems well. When I go to the DVR menu it still only lists the DVR as a storage device AND there is NO option to format the external DVR.

Please help.

[mxfxdlg]

Thanks for the straight answer.

So what are the tricks, if any, that folks are doing to get around this roadblock. I just want to be able to access movies throughout the house without having to move the HD every time I do.

Can I load a "Fios formatted" external drive with movies via my computer or any other way?

[ILikeFIOS]

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@mxfxdlg wrote:

Thanks for the straight answer.

So what are the tricks, if any, that folks are doing to get around this roadblock. I just want to be able to access movies throughout the house without having to move the HD every time I do.

Can I load a "Fios formatted" external drive with movies via my computer or any other way?

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I don't think you will be able to do this through the FIOS DVR.

You will have to resort to a media server or media streaming device.  If you are lucky, your TV or DVD player will be DLNA compatable and allow for direct streaming from a media server (or your desktop PC if you so choose).

Since my HDTV does not do this, I use a networked Acer Revo mini computer attached to my HDTV and installed Boxee and XBMC to access and play movies from my main PC on my TV.

However, if you want a simpler solution, just buy a Boxee Box and it will stream all sorts of content from your local network/PCs as well as the internet.

[bc391]

in the article that was posted about the upgrade to 1.9, there was mention that some devices would be compatiblle with mp3 and mp4 playback. do you know which devices these would be? i have a motorola 7216, and like the idea (ok, i LOVE the idea) of adding an external drive. but from what i've read above, any content that i add to the external drive will be lost in format.

so why the support for mp4, and how do you get the content onto the dvr to be played?

[dkerov]

A week ago Verizon upgraded my FIOS DVR to the Cisco one.... Main reasons were to have black DVR and to have 1.9 firmware...

Reasons to have 1.9 were - HD guide and external HDD support.

I have two external HDDs - Seagate FreeAgent Pro 500Гб and ProDrive 1T . Both have eSATA. 

When I connect any of them to DVR - DVR comes up with the question Accept or Reject eSATA HDD. Of course I select accept. 

But when I go to DVR->Add additional storage I'm getting message that "eSATA already enabled on this Set-top box"...

So no menu to reformat the drive or to know it is used or whatever...

What I'm doing wrong? 

Thank you so much!

[joker21]

nice to see this working

[iamloco724]

i wanna take a drive out of one of my old externals and put it in an enclosure with an esata port

how do i know if this drive has sleep mode in enabled since i read that you shouldnt use a drive that goes to sleep

[Replete]

Well, it's the enclosure that you have it in (even external usb drives that are sold are really just drives in enclosures) that would determine if the drive goes to sleep, not the actual drive itself. You should be able to find the features of any enclosure you buy stated, or google it.

[KayWrites]

Can anyone tell me if the DVR will accept a new external drive using a USB connection? I have a 1TB drive but I only have a USB option of connecting. 

[Justin46]

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@KayWrites wrote:

Can anyone tell me if the DVR will accept a new external drive using a USB connection? I have a 1TB drive but I only have a USB option of connecting. 

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No.

__________________________________
Justin
FiOS TV, 25/25 Internet, and Digital Voice user
QIP7232, QIP7100-P2, IMG 1.9
Keller, TX 76248