If you have a Scientific Atlanta 8300 series digital video recorder from your cable company, maybe you noticed it’s got an eSATA port on it. Well Western Digital announced something last week that you’ll want to plug into it: My Library Video Edition DVR Expander. The $199 500GB external drive lets you add up to 60 hours of high-definition or up to 300 hours of standard-definition digital TV storage to your cable box.
Just connect up the drive via the eSata port on the back and start recording. And like the company’s MyBook line of external drives, it’s built inside what’s basically a heatsink allowing it to run nearly silent with no fans needed. It also features a low-intensity LED activity and capacity gauge so you know when your recording and how much space is free on the drive.
Right now, the Scientific Atlanta 8300 boxes (including the 8300 HD, 8300 MR, and 8300 HD-MR) are the only models supported, but as other cable and satellite DVR manufacturers enable the eSATA ports on their current DVRs, Western Digital intends to make the My Library compatible.
I read about these “expanders” a couple years ago, and nearly bought one, until I actually read the limitations…
The external HD is mated to one specific box. You can’t unplug it from one box & watch it’s contents on another box, nor on a PC.
If your cable box shits the bed, the content on your external HD is useless; you’ll have to reformat it.
You can’t move content currently on your DVR onto the external HD.
I’m guessing that after you add the expander to your DVR, all future recordings are spread across both drives, so if you record a 2-hour movie, maybe the first 11 minutes are on the DVR’s HD, then the next 24 minutes are on the external HD, then the next chunk is on the DVR, etc., etc.
Pros – WD 500 gb more than triples recordable space. It is quiet.
– documentation states shows alternate drives, not parts of shows.
Cons – it is always on. Does anyone have other experience?
– as stated, it is not transportable. It’s not so easy to move the
base DVR either, so it suits the purpose – to have some overflow
space when needed – will be extremely usefull for football and
college basketball.
How does the WD 500gb expander know what 8300 DVR it’s connected to? And it can’t be moved from a dead dvr to a new one? Are there any expanders that can be moved?