Is it true you can add an External Hard Drive to the Home Media DVR?

[jmk8732]

I'm considering switching from Directv to the Fios Triple Play but have a major concern about the capacity of the Home Media DVR at only 20 hrs recording of HD and 85 hours of standard tv, especially when that one box will be the only recording box in the house (sharing with the other tvs)

My Directv box currently does 100 hrs recording of HD and 400 hrs of SD.

I just chatted with 2 Verizon customer service agents about if the current Home Media Box can connected to an External Hard Drive via usb port and was told YES.

Can anyone confirm that is true and that that could be used to expand the current capacity???

This will be a deal maker or breaker for me going with Fios TV...

[Hubrisnxs]

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@jmk8732 wrote:

I'm considering switching from Directv to the Fios Triple Play but have a major concern about the capacity of the Home Media DVR at only 20 hrs recording of HD and 85 hours of standard tv, especially when that one box will be the only recording box in the house (sharing with the other tvs)

My Directv box currently does 100 hrs recording of HD and 400 hrs of SD.

I just chatted with 2 Verizon customer service agents about if the current Home Media Box can connected to an External Hard Drive via usb port and was told YES.

Can anyone confirm that is true and that that could be used to expand the current capacity???

This will be a deal maker or breaker for me going with Fios TV...

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not yet, but by the end of the year that will be an option, or with the 1.9 software release.     and it won't be USB it will be esata. 

if the HD capacity is the only thing stopping you, then you should just pick up some tivo boxes at blockbuster.  the hd ones were 99 bux when i went there last, and the sd boxes were 49. 

then you just need a cable card for each of those tivo's.   they are 3.99 a month from verizon.  

OR you could wait for the release, because that is not an available feature right now.  

[jmk8732]

What is the hard drive capacity of those $99 Tivo's at Blockbuster?

[Hubrisnxs]

I am pretty sure it has a 160 gb hard drive on the one that is at blockbuster, but it's expandable 1 tb.    give them a call before driving though,  It might have been a sale,  I am not sure if they permenantly are at 99 bux. 

Tivo HD DVR is 160 gig


Tivo HD series 3 DVR is 250 gig


Tivo HD series 3 XL DVR is one terabyte(i.e., 1,000 gigabytes)

all three can be expanded and 1tb hd are pretty cheap these days.

[prisaz]

My Tivo HD came with 160 gig. I upgraded to 1tb for $99 and $20 for the image software called instant cake. 1tb drives are down to about $90 for an OEM version. I have not heard of an upgrade option for the newest Tivos, so do your checking.

I my Tivo.

[alden]

I also considering switching to FIOS triple bundle from DirectTV mainly for FIOS internet, but 20hours HD DVR is very small. OK, I can wait until new DVR will be available but I would still like to have external drive fro more recording. You said new boxes will be connected by esata, not USB. Are external 1tb drives capable of connecting through esata? Verizon is so slow implementing new equipment!!. No wonder Verizon is behind everybody, sattelite providers, cable companys in DVR capacaty! 

Thank you for answer,

AD 

[prisaz]

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@alden wrote:

I also considering switching to FIOS triple bundle from DirectTV mainly for FIOS internet, but 20hours HD DVR is very small. OK, I can wait until new DVR will be available but I would still like to have external drive fro more recording. You said new boxes will be connected by esata, not USB. Are external 1tb drives capable of connecting through esata? Verizon is so slow implementing new equipment!!. No wonder Verizon is behind everybody, sattelite providers, cable companys in DVR capacaty! 

Thank you for answer,

AD 

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Yes, but it depends on the external drive you purchase. I like purchasing my own large drive and external drive case as a separate item. I have found it cheaper plus. Some external drives only come with a 1 yr warranty, where as the internal come with 3-5 yr warranty. External drives tend to get bounced around and the manufactures know that. But they don't know that you are using and internal drive in an external case.

If you are going to wait for a better DVR before you get FIOS, I would say don't wait. Get the phone and Internet bundle now. That is what I had years ago, before Verizon had TV. Then I had a period of overlap when I has FiOS TV and DTV. But as soon as the currently paid DTV month expired, it was quickly canceled. I had two coax outlets at all my locations, so it worked out great. Or get a Tivo with a one year commitment at $12.99 a month and $3.99 a month for a cablecard. and a STB from VZ as a minimum. The cost of Tivo and card is close to what the VZ HM DVR costs. Also the Tivo can use an external drive if you do not wish to play with the Tivo internals, and void the warranty. You could reuse the external drive later. I made the switch from DTV as soon as TV was offered, and have been happy I did.

[alden]

Yes, I tend to sign  FIOS triple package as soon as it will be available ( Verizon promised it will be available by the end of August at my house).

I will take Home media DVR 6416 for now, especially because Verizon is offering it now 6 month for free, and then, just try to replace it with new DVR with 320G drive plus activated esata port for external drive when it will become available.

The only thing I am little worried  that after new DVR will become available, Verizon will be reluctant to replace old DVR with new ones for existing customers because the demand for new DVR's will be too big. I talked about this with one Verizon employee and he said most likely Verizon will not offer new DVR unless Motorola will produce enough  boxes to meet demand but that is his personal opinion. My feeling are that it may take many, many months for Motorola and Verizon to meet demand for new DVR's especially considering the fact that FIOS availability is growing fast, many more new customers will need new DVR. Hopefully I am wrong and  will be able to exchange old DVR for new one as soon as it will be available...

[spacedebris]

I dont think your wrong. With the number of DVR's already out there and everyone wanting more recording, there is no way for them to make enough to swap everyone out. Not in the short term anyway. Likely, they will get the new dvr's and offer them first to new customers. Then start upgrading the dvr's in the order of oldest customer to newest customer as supply allows. 

A couple years ago they ran out of HD stb's. Every customer was issued a SD stb instead. Then when they started getting the HD stb's back in stock, it took about 5-6 months to get caught back up. I think the DVR issue will be about the same except take even longer do to the number of DVR's involved.

Either that or they will charge more for the higher capacity DVR's

[alden]

I am curious when new 1.9 software release will be out will it allow to add external HD to the existing 7216 DVR? From what I've heard, USB port on 7216 DVR is for presentation only and it's not hooked up to the system at all. So, if it is - new software will not change anything - 7216 DVR is not upgreadable at all. Am I right? Everybody has diffrent opinion on it...

AD