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eSATA - DIRECTV recommended list

576K views 4K replies 404 participants last post by  mjfoxtrot 
#1 ·
Can I increase the recording capacity of my DVR?

For folks that are adding HDD capacity to their receiverss, DIRECTV has added the following FAQ to their web page:

DIRECTV.com
Yes, you can increase the recording capacity of your DVR or HD DVR simply by connecting an external hard drive with greater storage than the receiver's internal hard drive.

First, make sure you have a compatible receiver. Check the model number inside the small door located on bottom right corner of the front of the receiver. The model number should read either R22 (DIRECTV Plus® DVR) or HR20 or above (DIRECTV Plus® HD DVR).

You'll need an external hard drive that uses an eSATA connection. The following hard drive models are recommended:

  • Western Digital 500GB (model WDG1S5000)
  • Seagate 500GB (model ST30500SCA109-RK)
  • Western Digital 1TB (model WDG1S10000)
  • [STRIKE]Seagate 1TB (model ST31000SCA109-RK)[/STRIKE]

Follow these steps to connect the external hard drive:

  1. Turn off your receiver by unplugging the power cord. (Do not rely on the power button.)
  2. Look for the port on the back of your receiver labeled SATA.
  3. Connect the eSATA hard drive with an eSATA cable. Make sure the cable is firmly connected on both ends.
  4. Turn on the eSATA hard drive and give it several seconds to spin up to speed.
  5. Plug in the power chord of your receiver.

When your receiver reboots, it will automatically see the newly-connected hard drive. The hard drive inside your receiver will be disabled.

You now have expanded recording capacity. With a 1TB hard drive, you can record up to 200 hours of HD programming.

Please note: We offer this tip because we want to help you get the most out of your DIRECTV experience. It is recommended for advanced users who are comfortable working with electronic hardware. This modification of your DIRECTV system is not officially supported by DIRECTV.
 
#3,003 ·
drh said:
At the risk of irritating the forum gods, I will cross post this question here, as many of you did not see it where in it's own thread.

Anyone try a wd black enterprise series drive, perhaps a wd2000fyyz in a raid 1 configuration in a sans digital mr2ut+ esata enclosure?
I presently have two mr2ut enclosures 1 with 2 wd red 3 tb efrx drives in raid1. Am now getting lots of delays from the Hr34 series dvr. Drives now running about 50% full. Wd says raid should use enterprise spec drives because of error correction circuit in lesser series drives cause delays. Was thinking that this may be the reason I am experiencing occasional delays.

Question 2: not having swapped out any drives in the mr2ut enclosures, with success, what is the procedure to retain the current programming? I think the enclosures are "hot swappable" and that I just take one drive out, while the system is up and running, and put in a new drive. Wait for it to populate and replace the second original drive the same way. Is this correct? The last time I tried replacing a suspecious drive with a new one, I ended up loosing everything. But I did power down the system before I swapped out one drive.
to q#1: all the new variants of RAID enclosures and drives will never would be covered - you are a pioneer and on your own; I would test your RAID on PC, measures by IOmeter throughput, test recovery, etc
to q#2: if internal RAID controller is working, then it wouldn't be matter when you replace failed HDD or imitating the problem, same for powering off/on
 
#3,012 ·
Finally upgrading this week from our HR20-700. I have been using an ESATA for several years (MX-1 and a WD green) with no issues. I've read through several pages of this thread and have a few questions about what to use for the ESATA on the HR44

1. Drives: I've read posts about each of these drives: WD Green WD30EZRX (NOT UERS), WD Purple WD30PURX, and WD Red/Red Pro WD3001FFSX/WD30EFRX. Which of these is the most recommended?
2. Enclosure: Antec MX-1 or the Thermaltake Max5

Thanks!
 
#3,013 ·
illinileo said:
Finally upgrading this week from our HR20-700. I have been using an ESATA for several years (MX-1 and a WD green) with no issues. I've read through several pages of this thread and have a few questions about what to use for the ESATA on the HR44

1. Drives: I've read posts about each of these drives: WD Green WD30EZRX (NOT UERS), WD Purple WD30PURX, and WD Red/Red Pro WD3001FFSX/WD30EFRX. Which of these is the most recommended?
2. Enclosure: Antec MX-1 or the Thermaltake Max5

Thanks!
I can't tell you "best" but I just hooked up a WD Purple, 3T, with the Thermaltake Max5, with the HR44, and it works great and took about two minutes to connect it and get it running (once I initialized the drive on my PC.)
 
#3,015 ·
Rich said:
Why gamble? We know the EZRX is a dependable HDD.

Rich
Gamble indeed, mine WD20EURX may now be acting up. It worked fine since March 13 in a Max5 Enclosure. Now, I either have a memory leak or it's the drive. I'm getting audio and video breakup that are currently cured by a restart/clearmybox on the HR44-700. I can't say for sure it is the drive, as I restarted 72 hours ago and all is fine, but had many corrupted recordings. Live was fine.Things look fine for now, but if it happens again soon, I have an EZRX in my wishlist.

Excerpt describing the problem from another post:

This problem started about a week ago. I first noticed it on a recording of Mike and Mike in the Morning (209). It started as a slight stutter, very, very slight that would come and go every 20 or 30 seconds or so. As time progressed, (15 minutes or so), I began to get full audio breakup...missing syllables along with pixellation of the video, but not of the type caused by loss of signal. I would sometimes see an entire face go "negative", along with a second long hole in the audio. The problem continued throughout the recording. It was not present "live".

I then saw it on two different network recorded shows, USA and TNT. I then saw it on a movie, wherein it lasted for 30 minutes off and on, and then disappeared for the remainder of the movie.

Then it began happening on most recordings,but not all. In all cases it would become progressively worse over time, and then (in the same recording), suddenly cure itself. It would then show up on other recordings of other shows (but not all recordings).

Hoping it wasn't a failing external drive (that is only a few months old), I did a CLEARMYBOX (which had not been done in several months). The problem was solved (no disk errors on reboot), the old recordings are still pixellated video with audio holes, but all new recordings since the clearmybox have been perfect for about 36 hours. (Now about 72 hours)

So what do you think, Rich, should I order the other drive? !rolling
 
#3,019 ·
mocarob said:
Hasan, I saw issues like you describe today using a WD20 EZRX with Thermaltake BlacX dock. Recordings were breaking up. Live was ok.
I switched to a different enclosure and everything is working good again. I'll report back if the issue returns.
Now, that is VERY interesting, as I'm using the Max5 Enclosure by the same company. I tell you what, since you are using the EZRX and I'm using the EURX and we have had some similar issues, I'm going to keep leaning toward the firmware issue for now. The drive is only 5 months old or so, and I have not seen another instance of the problem since dong a "CLEARMYBOX" over 72 hours ago (and I do a LOT of recording). Since both the BlacX dock and Max5 enclosure are in wide use by forum members, what are the chances that the problem is with the enclosure and we are the only two to experience it and with two different models?

If the problem is cleared by a periodic restart of the DVR, then it strongly points toward a memory leak in the firmware.

When you switched to a different enclosure, you had to restart the box. Restarting the box and not changing the drive or enclosure solved the problem here. Did you try a "clearmybox" with the old enclosure? BTW I'm using the BlackX dock on an HR24-200 and have had no problems.

At this point, I'll watch carefully for an early reappearance of the issue and do an immediate clearmybox keyword search and see if I get the problem to go away ...that would further lead one to think it is a memory leak and not a drive or enclosure problem. If it is a drive problem, it should come back soon and become more of an issue in both frequency and intensity. (failing drive). If it is a compatibility issue, it could stay the same in frequency and intensity.

Thanks so much for your post, it has added considerably to my early attempts to analyze the problem. If I get more info, i'll post here, so you can determine what is going with your end as well. Let me know if anything new pops up.
 
#3,020 ·
hasan said:
Gamble indeed, mine WD20EURX may now be acting up. It worked fine since March 13 in a Max5 Enclosure. Now, I either have a memory leak or it's the drive. I'm getting audio and video breakup that are currently cured by a restart/clearmybox on the HR44-700. I can't say for sure it is the drive, as I restarted 72 hours ago and all is fine, but had many corrupted recordings. Live was fine.Things look fine for now, but if it happens again soon, I have an EZRX in my wishlist.

Excerpt describing the problem from another post:

This problem started about a week ago. I first noticed it on a recording of Mike and Mike in the Morning (209). It started as a slight stutter, very, very slight that would come and go every 20 or 30 seconds or so. As time progressed, (15 minutes or so), I began to get full audio breakup...missing syllables along with pixellation of the video, but not of the type caused by loss of signal. I would sometimes see an entire face go "negative", along with a second long hole in the audio. The problem continued throughout the recording. It was not present "live".

I then saw it on two different network recorded shows, USA and TNT. I then saw it on a movie, wherein it lasted for 30 minutes off and on, and then disappeared for the remainder of the movie.

Then it began happening on most recordings,but not all. In all cases it would become progressively worse over time, and then (in the same recording), suddenly cure itself. It would then show up on other recordings of other shows (but not all recordings).

Hoping it wasn't a failing external drive (that is only a few months old), I did a CLEARMYBOX (which had not been done in several months). The problem was solved (no disk errors on reboot), the old recordings are still pixellated video with audio holes, but all new recordings since the clearmybox have been perfect for about 36 hours. (Now about 72 hours)

So what do you think, Rich, should I order the other drive? !rolling
Yup, and the EURS is still under warranty so you'll at least get a replacement for it.

But I see that's on a 44-700 and I have no experience with 44s. I dunno, it almost sounds like it's not an HDD problem, I don't see any lockups in your post and that's usually a firm symptom of a bad HDD. Might be the 44. Won't cost you anything to get a replacement from WD and it might not be an EURS. Then you'll know for sure.

Rich
 
#3,021 ·
mocarob said:
Hasan, I saw issues like you describe today using a WD20 EZRX with Thermaltake BlacX dock. Recordings were breaking up. Live was ok.
I switched to a different enclosure and everything is working good again. I'll report back if the issue returns.
You're right, I have only one external drive left and I've kinda stopped thinking about them. It does sound like a bad external device. They are the weakest links in the HR chain.

Rich
 
#3,022 ·
I did not 'clearmybox' after changing enclosures. Just a reboot. And to make everybody cringe, it's an old Cavalry enclosure.
I've been using the Cavalry for years.. It use to have a WD drive in it that failed yrs ago. I've probably recorded 15hrs of programming since the switch. no issues..
 
#3,023 ·
hasan said:
Now, that is VERY interesting, as I'm using the Max5 Enclosure by the same company. I tell you what, since you are using the EZRX and I'm using the EURX and we have had some similar issues, I'm going to keep leaning toward the firmware issue for now. The drive is only 5 months old or so, and I have not seen another instance of the problem since dong a "CLEARMYBOX" over 72 hours ago (and I do a LOT of recording). Since both the BlacX dock and Max5 enclosure are in wide use by forum members, what are the chances that the problem is with the enclosure and we are the only two to experience it and with two different models?

If the problem is cleared by a periodic restart of the DVR, then it strongly points toward a memory leak in the firmware.

When you switched to a different enclosure, you had to restart the box. Restarting the box and not changing the drive or enclosure solved the problem here. Did you try a "clearmybox" with the old enclosure? BTW I'm using the BlackX dock on an HR24-200 and have had no problems.

At this point, I'll watch carefully for an early reappearance of the issue and do an immediate clearmybox keyword search and see if I get the problem to go away ...that would further lead one to think it is a memory leak and not a drive or enclosure problem. If it is a drive problem, it should come back soon and become more of an issue in both frequency and intensity. (failing drive). If it is a compatibility issue, it could stay the same in frequency and intensity.

Thanks so much for your post, it has added considerably to my early attempts to analyze the problem. If I get more info, i'll post here, so you can determine what is going with your end as well. Let me know if anything new pops up.
Yeah, I should have thought of the external device. I just threw a bunch of bad TT docks out a few weeks ago. Cheap is cheap. The thing about the TT docks is they either work or they don't. You know right away if the device is shot. I don't remember seeing any posts about problems with the enclosure you're using, but I've pretty much written TT off as a reliable external device provider. They even make you pay the postage to return the damaged devices.

Rather interesting problem you have. I hope it's just the external device. Really didn't sound like an HDD problem when I read your post. I'm sure the great majority of the EURS drives work properly. I just wouldn't buy one with my luck.

Rich
 
#3,024 ·
I still have the original TT BlacX dock you told me about years ago...it's on a 2 TB drive on the HR24. I have never used the power switch, other than the first time to turn it on. I just pull the power plug if it needs to be turned off for some reason. I just checked, Feb 2010 for the TT dock. The Max5 Enclosure I got in Feb 2014 and put it on the HR44..

The problem has not shown up again since the clearmybox restart, but now, of course, I'm paranoid, imagining all sorts of things that aren't there. I've got to look back now and see when I first did the clearmybox that solved (at least temporarily) the problem. Yes is was on the 19th of Feb, early, so 72 hours. I'll see if it makes it a week, and if so, will do another clearmybox, as I don't want to miss something like a NCAA or NFL game by having the issue sneak up on me.
 
#3,025 ·
Aloha! It's been a long time. Nice to see some familar names still hangin around these parts. :up:

I'm also seeing some stutter on my HR24 with WD20EVDS & BlakX dock. The external setup is from Jan 2012, so my first thought is the HDD is starting to go bad. I have a nearly idential setup in another room, the difference is a WD20EARX HDD, also circa Jan 2012. Now that I see similar reports, I wonder if it's a software issue....

Anyway, I'll probably swap out the external systems as they are nearing 3 year birthday soon with 2TB Purple HDDs and the new Max5. Yes, I did read back about 10 pages and that looks like a nice setup. For $41, I'm thinking about getting a Sabrent USB 3.0 to SATA Dual Bay External Hard Drive Docking Station for 2.5 or 3.5in HDD, SSD with Hard Drive Duplicator/Cloner Function [4TB Support] (EC-HDD2). In the past, I'd hook the drives up to a spare PC and clone drives with software, but these days time is short, and $41 bucks for a cloner? Dayum!

I'm more interetsed is a stable setup than saving every last cent. With wife and 2 kids (now 6 & 9 YO) I get enough grey hair. Any additional advice/suggestions are most appreciated....
 
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