HR21 Reversing Ext Drive Setup

[BarkingGhost]

Morning All,

This morning I put together a Seagate 1TB 7200 RPM hard drive and an Antec MX-1 enclosure with the intent of mating this to my DirecTV HR21 HD DVR.

I have read the process, which involved powering down the HR21, connecting the external eSATA drive solution, powering up the external drive (let it go for a minute), and then power back up the HR21.

I understand whatever was recorded on the internal drive will no longer be accessible, but I am curious if this is reversible. Can I power down the HR21, disconnect the external storage solution (disconnect eSATA cable), and power the HR21 back up will it re-use the internal drive?

I am ready to play this morning, but felt it a bit wiser to ask before action. :)

[houskamp]

yep..

[Mike Bertelson]

Morning All,

This morning I put together a Seagate 1TB 7200 RPM hard drive and an Antec MX-1 enclosure with the intent of mating this to my DirecTV HR21 HD DVR.

I have read the process, which involved powering down the HR21, connecting the external eSATA drive solution, powering up the external drive (let it go for a minute), and then power back up the HR21.

I understand whatever was recorded on the internal drive will no longer be accessible, but I am curious if this is reversible. Can I power down the HR21, disconnect the external storage solution (disconnect eSATA cable), and power the HR21 back up will it re-use the internal drive?

I am ready to play this morning, but felt it a bit wiser to ask before action. :)Power everything down and disconnect the eSATA.

Power up and your on the internal drive again. ;)

You can back and forth any time you like.

Mike

[BarkingGhost]

Sweet!

[BarkingGhost]

Ok, the first one was just physically connected and in the process of booting up. Before I started I tried to find on the HR21-200 where it reported XX hours of recording capacity, but couldn't find it. Anyone have any ideas?

[Richierich]

It doesn't provide that information as you can record in SD or HD and it could be MPEG-2 or MPEG-4 so how would they be able to calculate the number of hours that you can record???

There are lots of posts here that tell you those numbers if you only record MPEG-4or MPEG-2, etc. You have to do a Search for it though.

[BarkingGhost]

Ok, good enough. Doing a test recording now.

[carl6]

Ok, the first one was just physically connected and in the process of booting up. Before I started I tried to find on the HR21-200 where it reported XX hours of recording capacity, but couldn't find it. Anyone have any ideas?

When you press the LIST button at the bottom of the list screen there is a percentage used indicator.

One thing to keep in mind about swapping back and forth between the internal and externl drive is that all of your personal settings, series links, favorites lists, etc., are all stored on the drive. So each time you switch, you are also switching all of those items. I would recommend using the external as your default/primary and only switch back to the internal to watch a prior recording. As soon as your done with the recording, switch back to the external.

[Richierich]

My HR10-250 HD TiVo has the ability to calculate hours of recording capacity and if you add a larger drive it calculates it knowing the drive's capacity but the HR2Xs only show you a Percentage Left Indicator Bar which is not very accurate as has been stated here in posts before. Just a Guesstimation!!!

[BarkingGhost]

Isn't the HD TiVo an MPEG-2 only device? I think that is what makes it more easy to calculate. But I only watch the HD channels and removed the non-HD channels from the guide. I'm guessing that this means only MPEG-4 is being recorded, but I may be wrong.

As a caveat, I could be wrong regarding some channels like HDnet/Movies being MPEG-2. Anyway, I've already recorded a couple of movies, a couple of one-hour shows, and a handful of half-hour shows and its still 9x% available.

[Mike Bertelson]

Isn't the HD TiVo an MPEG-2 only device? I think that is what makes it more easy to calculate. But I only watch the HD channels and removed the non-HD channels from the guide. I'm guessing that this means only MPEG-4 is being recorded, but I may be wrong.

As a caveat, I could be wrong regarding some channels like HDnet/Movies being MPEG-2. Anyway, I've already recorded a couple of movies, a couple of one-hour shows, and a handful of half-hour shows and its still 9x% available.If the HDNet movies a channel in the 70's it's MPEG-2.

However if it's, I forget what the new channel number is but not in the 70's it's MPEG-4.

As for the HD TiVo, I think you're correct that it's MPEG-2 but I'm sure what the lates series is. I haven't kept up so maybe someone else may know for sure.

Mike

[Richierich]

The Channels in the 70 Range are MPEG-2 along with any OTA Channels you may have it you do indeed have OTA!!!

Yes, the HR10-250 is MPEG-2 only so that does make it easier to calculate since you don't have a MIX of MPEG-2 & MPEG-4 HD recordings along with SD recordings.

[russdog]

Morning All,

This morning I put together a Seagate 1TB 7200 RPM hard drive and an Antec MX-1 enclosure with the intent of mating this to my DirecTV HR21 HD DVR.

I have read the process, which involved powering down the HR21, connecting the external eSATA drive solution, powering up the external drive (let it go for a minute), and then power back up the HR21.

I understand whatever was recorded on the internal drive will no longer be accessible, but I am curious if this is reversible. Can I power down the HR21, disconnect the external storage solution (disconnect eSATA cable), and power the HR21 back up will it re-use the internal drive?

I am ready to play this morning, but felt it a bit wiser to ask before action. :)
No need to disconnect the eSATA cable.
Just turn the eSATA drive off via the switch on the back of the Antec.

[BarkingGhost]

Yeah, I discovered this when I connected the second MX-1/Seagate drive solution to my second HR21 and forgot to turn it on. Doh!