Comments on: WD My Library Video Edition DVR Storage Expander

By: Gary

Gary — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 18:18:35 +0000

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?

By: swat

swat — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 03:45:55 +0000

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.

By: Scott

Scott — Tue, 03 Jul 2007 22:09:59 +0000

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.