Any Updates on Putting a 1-Terabyte drive in the Home Media DVR ???
charliebarrett
Contributor - Level 2

I'm upgrading to FiOS HDTV, but I just discovered it will cut my DVR record time in half !!!

That is unacceptable, since almost everyone in the family has their own favorite shows to record - The drive already fills up too fast, and frequently erases my programs before I can watch them!!!.

I see some old FAQ's that hint that this option is not available yet, but a HDD driver upgrade up might be out later... Is this software update ready yet?

  • Can a Verizon service center install a larger hard drive in my system if I bring them the drive? (which interface is required)?
  • Can I rent a better HDTV DVR that already has a 1-Terabyte drive?
  • Do the USB or firewire port drivers work yet, so I can just plug in an external drive? (preferred solution) 
  • Do yo have DIY instructions for s to follow?

It's unbelievable that the multi-room DVR was not designed to be expandable- wow, that took planning.

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Re: Any Updates on Putting a 1-Terabyte drive in the Home Media DVR ???
Justin46
Legend

No to all of your questions. Rumors have it there will be a new DVR with increased storage in the not too distant future, whenever that is.

You can certainly go buy a Tivo to use with FiOS. You gain guide data accuracy, increased storage, more functionality, etc, you lose the FiOS Guide, widgets, and VOD.

__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP6416, IMG 1.6.2, Build 08.58
Keller, TX 76248

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Re: Any Updates on Putting a 1-Terabyte drive in the Home Media DVR ???
spacedebris
Master - Level 2

There is talk that Verizon will be putting out new dvr's around the first of the year with double the recording that they currently have. I have a buddy at Verizon who says this this will happen, we just dont know the exact date yet. Just that its supposed to be shortly after the first of the year.

Now the rumor according to him is that at the same time they may open up the usb or firewire port to allow for external drives to be added. This one according to him has not been confirmed but its what they are expecting.

As for the DIY options. These will not work on verizon DVR's. The software in the STB will only recognize 160G regardless of the size of the drive that is installed. So if you put in a 500G HD it will still only see 160G. But as these are only rentals, you dont want to start opening it anyway as if they catch you, you'd likely be billed for the DVR and these are not cheap ($400-500).

Like what was posted above, if you want increased size (along with a better guide) go with a tivo/cable card  option.

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Re: Any Updates on Putting a 1-Terabyte drive in the Home Media DVR ???
jmw1950
Specialist - Level 2

I doubt you will EVER be able to connect an external drive to the current Motorola boxes. The information I have is that there will be a new DVR product out early next year, but Verizon is going to change vendors and walk away from development on the Motorola boxes in favor of the Cisco/Scientific Atlanta 8000 series.

A lot of the problems in the Motorola boxes are related to inadequate resources within the box.  This has made every function in the firmware a balancing act, and even with investment of large amounts of time and money, the Verizon DVR product is still very much a work in progress.

The Cisco/Scientific Atlanta boxes actually have 4 cpu's inside, including one dual core engine, and up to 384mb of memory.

So instead of having to do everything on a single dual core MIPS engine, there are separate processors for applications, video, audio, and network operations. The applications engine on the Cisco box is about twice the performance of the entire Motorola box..

Given the state of the Motorola boxes relative to the competition, I can easily see Verizon deciding to cut their losses, and moving to a more capable platform. The Motorola boxes are likely to be obsolete before many of the firmware issues are sorted out, so there are good reasons to consider abandoning the effort.

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Re: Any Updates on Putting a 1-Terabyte drive in the Home Media DVR ???
ffrcoupe
Enthusiast - Level 3

@jmw1950 wrote:

I doubt you will EVER be able to connect an external drive to the current Motorola boxes. The information I have is that there will be a new DVR product out early next year, but Verizon is going to change vendors and walk away from development on the Motorola boxes in favor of the Cisco/Scientific Atlanta 8000 series.


At a first glance, the Cisco Explorer 8650HD DVR looks like it could meet the needs of the FiOS TV service and meet the needs of the consumer all except for this:

● Dual-tuner DVR allows one program to be recorded while viewing or recording another

This feature seems commom across the 8000 series. (Once again, at first glance.)

I'd be **bleep** if Verizon switched boxes to one that loses the ability to record TWO programs while I watched another.

I'd be calling 1-800-DIRECTV in about a nano second.

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Re: Any Updates on Putting a 1-Terabyte drive in the Home Media DVR ???
sgip2000
Newbie

I believe this is referring to watching a program on one tuner while the other tuner records another program.  You would still be able to record a program on both tuners while watching a program that has been recorded previously.

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Re: Any Updates on Putting a 1-Terabyte drive in the Home Media DVR ???
spacedebris
Master - Level 2

If JMW is correct about the model numbers, I know that they are going with cisco but I didnt know the models. Then this link will give an idea of what type Verizon is likely to use. From the looks of this, it is exactly what we want. Of couse on paper, the motorola are good as well. But these use M-card systems which means that is has multiple tuners as well as bidirectional communication to allow for VOD, Widgets, and other interactive features.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps8613/index.html

The only issue I see on the data sheets listed is that most of these still show a 160 gig Hard Drive, and I know that the one that Verizon is going to roll out has at least double that. So I'm not sure if we will be looking at updated models of these or a different model all together. We will just have to wait and see.

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Re: Any Updates on Putting a 1-Terabyte drive in the Home Media DVR ???
Keyboards
Master - Level 3

@spacedebris wrote:

 But these use M-card systems which means that is has multiple tuners as well as bidirectional communication to allow for VOD, Widgets, and other interactive features.


M-cards have nothing to do with Widgets, VOD or other interactive services.  M-cards only enble multiple tuners with a single cable card.  VOD, Widgets, etc. are IP services over MoCA - nothing to do with a cable card.

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Re: Any Updates on Putting a 1-Terabyte drive in the Home Media DVR ???
spacedebris
Master - Level 2

sorry, I wasnt clear. it uses m-cards for multiple tuners, and has bi-directional communication capibilities. I didnt mean that the cards did the bidirectional, I ment the stb is bidirectional. lol

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Re: Any Updates on Putting a 1-Terabyte drive in the Home Media DVR ???
charliebarrett
Contributor - Level 2

@spacedebris wrote:

I know that the one that Verizon is going to roll out has at least double that.


Verizon would be very dumb to just DOUBLE the capacity - I'd give up, turn in my DVR box, and go buy something else if I they dissapointed everyone like that.

A 10x-increase should be their target to take care of HDTV customers who already felt squeezed with SD. They need to roll one out that is at least 1-Terabyte standard, plus the ability to upgrade the drive or add another drive as a striped set.

Ideally it should have the ability to accept an external drive so no one would have to take the box apart..

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