[Jared701]

I just installed a 1TB external drive and from my understanding my HR21 had 50 hours of recording space for HD and that was 220 gigs (320 gig HD and 100 reserved by D*) From looking at that I should get about 200 hours of HD recording on the TB HD. I recorded about 4 hours of HD though and it still showed 99% empty. Can I record way over 200 hours of HD on this?

 

[Smuuth]

I just installed a 1TB external drive and from my understanding my HR21 had 50 hours of recording space for HD and that was 220 gigs (320 gig HD and 100 reserved by D*) From looking at that I should get about 200 hours of HD recording on the TB HD. I recorded about 4 hours of HD though and it still showed 99% empty. Can I record way over 200 hours of HD on this?

Actually, the stock HD in an HR2x DVR will hold approximately 32 hours of HD. It may be slightly more or less depending on whether you are recording only MPEG4 or MPEG2.

A 1 TB HD should give you somewhere in the neighborhood of 140-160 hours of HD recording.

 

[davring]

Actually, the stock HD in an HR2x DVR will hold approximately 32 hours of HD. It may be slightly more or less depending on whether you are recording only MPEG4 or MPEG2.

A 1 TB HD should give you somewhere in the neighborhood of 140-160 hours of HD recording.

I have very regularly recorded way over 32 hours of HD, many times approaching the 50 mark, with some SD thrown in on top of that. MPEG2 used considerably more drive space.

 

[Jared701]

Actually, the stock HD in an HR2x DVR will hold approximately 32 hours of HD. It may be slightly more or less depending on whether you are recording only MPEG4 or MPEG2.

A 1 TB HD should give you somewhere in the neighborhood of 140-160 hours of HD recording.

I hope this is wrong... I know I had over 12 hours recorded on my internal drive and still had over 75% remaining on the drive. I am only recording MPEG4 programming. I didn't even know they still had 2? I believe everything I watch is on the 99 or 103 satellite. Are they still running any of the national HD channels on the 110 or 119 in MPEG2?

 

[russdog]

I just installed a 1TB external drive and from my understanding my HR21 had 50 hours of recording space for HD and that was 220 gigs (320 gig HD and 100 reserved by D*) From looking at that I should get about 200 hours of HD recording on the TB HD. I recorded about 4 hours of HD though and it still showed 99% empty. Can I record way over 200 hours of HD on this?

In multiple places, I see the HR21's stock capacity listed as 30 hours MPEG2, 50 hours MPEG4, or 200 hours SD.
The people at weaknees say that 1TB raises these numbers to 145 MPEG2, 240 MPEG4, and 1000 SD.
(All hour-numbers preceded by "up to" whatever the number is.)
However, to me that doesn't add up. When I do the arithmetic, I come up with 126 MPEG2, 210 MPEG4, 840 SD.

All this assumes that the system overhead is 100GB. AFAIK, that 100GB is approximate and is also somewhat dynamic.

 

[MountainMan10]

You will get over 200 hours. I have stuff on my 1TB drive dating back to Feb that I simply don't have time to watch. A few months ago I added up the HD on my drive and I had about 250 hour with room to spare and another 100 hours in SD.

I don't think there is an actual number that anyone can state, for numerous reasons. I don't think all programs take the same space per hour. Do SD programs on HD channels take as much room as HD programs?

 

[Sirshagg]

http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=1308085&postcount=2226

 

[TomCat]

In multiple places, I see the HR21's stock capacity listed as 30 hours MPEG2, 50 hours MPEG4, or 200 hours SD.
The people at weaknees say that 1TB raises these numbers to 145 MPEG2, 240 MPEG4, and 1000 SD.
(All hour-numbers preceded by "up to" whatever the number is.)
However, to me that doesn't add up. When I do the arithmetic, I come up with 126 MPEG2, 210 MPEG4, 840 SD.

All this assumes that the system overhead is 100GB. AFAIK, that 100GB is approximate and is also somewhat dynamic.

I think your numbers are pretty close, and Weaknees' are a bit optimistic.

I have a 1TB (from Weaknees, BTW) and my findings mirror your numbers for both the 320 GB internal and the 1 TB X drive. I have a spreadsheet set up that does the math, and depending on which column (MPEG-2, MPEG-4, SD) I enter things into, my percentages seem to always be within 1 to 2 % of the reserve capacity percentage listed at the bottom of my NPL, which indicates that my math is pretty close. And I based my math on MPEG-4 taking 30% less space than MPEG-2, and MPEG-2 taking about 5.5 times the space of SD.

It's a bit superfluous for the HR20 (but pretty handy for my HR10s) since I now have a reserve capacity counter, but I am used to NOT having one (from Tivo) which is why I went to the trouble in the first place. I originally extended it to the HR20 to check accuracy, but now it's just a legacy exercise I could probably abandon (at least for the HR20) now that my math has proven pretty accurate. On the other hand, having all my recordings listed on a spreadsheet makes finding something to play back much easier than scrolling through 3 different NPLs.

 

[cartrivision]

Actually, the stock HD in an HR2x DVR will hold approximately 32 hours of HD. It may be slightly more or less depending on whether you are recording only MPEG4 or MPEG2.

A 1 TB HD should give you somewhere in the neighborhood of 140-160 hours of HD recording.

That's way off. It can vary widely depending on the program source but I get about 180 hours for an average mix of MPEG4 HD recording on a 750 GB disk and about 250 hours on a 1 TB disk.

Maybe you were thinking MPEG2 HD, but since all HD on DirecTV is now available in MPEG4, no HR2x owner should be recording any of the MPEG2 HD versions of the channels.

 

[n3ntj]

Any updates if or when the HR2x series will allow an external HDD to be connected and still use either the internal HDD?

Last I recall, if you connect an external HDD, you can only use that drive and once you disconnect it, the internal HDD will be used but will also be formatted?

 

[carl6]

Maybe you were thinking MPEG2 HD, but since all HD on DirecTV is now available in MPEG4, no HR2x owner should be recording any of the MPEG2 HD versions of the channels.

Keep in mind that OTA HD is also mpeg2. So you are looking at approximately...
50 hours of mpeg4 HD (DirecTV mpeg4 feeds)
30 hours of mpeg2 HD (OTA HD)
200 hours of mpeg2 SD.
??? hours of mpeg4 SD (in those few markets that have it) (well over 200 horus).

Carl

 

[kevinturcotte]

Varies depending on what you're recording. If all you record is MPEG-4 local news, you'll probably get well over 200 hours. If you're recording MPEG-4 action movies, probably around 175-180 hours.

 

[TomCat]

...since all HD on DirecTV is now available in MPEG4, no HR2x owner should be recording any of the MPEG2 HD versions of the channels.

That depends:

1) Not all markets are served, meaning OTA is a factor.

2) Also, some channels are not served in some markets.

2a) Also, for example, subchannels.

3) Some viewers switch to OTA channels when they can predict a possibility of rain fade (OTA typically does better in bad weather than DBS).

4) And there are even folks who consider the quality of OTA to be better. I have not seen that to be true, but there may be some stations in some markets that may have issues.

5) OTA also gives smoother FFWDx1, so if a particular program is recorded with the anticipation of a lot of FFWDx1 action, it then makes sense to record the OTA (MPEG-2) version.

 

[cartrivision]

Keep in mind that OTA HD is also mpeg2.

That's why I record all my local programs from the DirecTV local feeds.... its all in MPEG4, and while not everyone has all their HD locals provided by DirecTV yet, all the major network local programming is available to everyone in MPEG4 from DirecTV.