622/722 External HDDs now movable between boxes ?

[David_Levin]

I noticed that both my 622 and 722 (449) (made me reactivate their external HDDs last night). So it looked like something had changed.

I tried the box that had been reactivated on the other PVR (622 to 722), and it worked without reactivating (again). Then I moved it back to the original and it was still working fine.

It looks like Dish may have enabled the "per account" feature.

Next I'll have to take a spare drive, activate it, test it on both boxes, then have a friend try it on his 622.

---------------
Edit:
Perhaps dish reset all the 622 on an account so they use the same (new) external HDD code. That's why both my boxes required HDD reactivation. But, now I can move the drives between boxes.

 

[KAB]

I just checked and I'm getting the same thing. I don't want to reactivate till I find out what is going on. Several reports of this in the EHD Bug thread.

 

[RandallA]

There hasn't been any software updates for the 622/722 this week so that's kind of weird. I haven't seen this on my receivers yet.

 

[David_Levin]

Perhaps the household key has been activated on the central system ?

http://www.satelliteguys.us/1311155-post697.html

 

[RandallA]

Well, I'll definitely will be looking into this when I get home.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I hope this is true.

 

[KAB]

I hope this is true.

It's not. Just got off the phone with Tech Support. They are aware of the problem and are working on a fix...yadda yadda.

 

[navychop]

"...then have a friend try it on his 622."

I trust you mean test the going back and forth multiple times within an account. I wouldn't take an EHD from my account to someone else's. It won't work, different account, and will want to reinitialize the drive, erasing it, whether the 3 move limit is lifted or not.

 

[David_Levin]

Navy:

Have you ever actually tried moving an external HDD to a 622 on a different account?

Without a household key (the old way), each 622 used a unique hdd key. An HDD was allowed to change keys 3 times. I would expect the box wouldn't know if it was the same of a different account.

This may have changed if the household key has been activated. Perhaps 3 key swaps are still allowed (which might allow an account change -> say if you get married or move).

 

[David_Levin]

It's not. Just got off the phone with Tech Support. They are aware of the problem and are working on a fix...yadda yadda.

It still could be a new feature. The fact that the household key is non-zero is a big indication.

This really depends on what level of tech support you got. Dish really does a very bad job of disseminating this type of information to the ranks that answer the phones. This is the answer I would expect if they have no idea what is going on.

This will have to funnel up to the actual design engineers.

 

[jmalyn]

I can confirm I can move my two external hard drives between my two 622s. (moved about 5 times testing to make sure.) I didn't get a prompt to reauthorize at any time on either receiver.

I also have the household code on both receivers, and it is the same code. (as expected, but had to be certain.)

I also tested playing an audio recording (sirius channel recording) on one receiver twice, the other once, to make sure it wasn't waiting to complain when media was played.

I also tested playing a recorded show, stopping it, moving it, resuming it, and it resumed where it was stopped on the other recorder. So even current play spot is usable between the receivers. (I should have assumed as much, since that should be stored with the video file, but wanted to test anyway.)

This is really good. Now I can split my 622s to different rooms and shuttle shows using the EHD. I had been keeping everything together, as I didn't want to be forced to be in one room just to watch the show that receiver recorded. Being able to do this over a network would be better, but I can live with hard-drive shuttling for now.

-Justin

 

[JTDeel]

anybody want to try it on a 211. I thought you could do this anyway up to 4 or 5 times.

JT

 

[gdarwin]

Household sequence on 211 is still all zeros.

 

[langlin]

I can confirm I can move my two external hard drives between my two 622s. (moved about 5 times testing to make sure.) I didn't get a prompt to reauthorize at any time on either receiver.

I also have the household code on both receivers, and it is the same code. (as expected, but had to be certain.)

-Justin

Justin, is the code the same on the last digit? I have a 612 and a 622 and the last digit is different.

 

[gdarwin]

Code is the same on both of mine.

 

[Sean Mota]

because of this non-sense a 720GB external disk is damaged. It won't play any movies recorded on it before yesterday. I can see the movies but I can't play them back. I just get a black screen and have to re-boot in order to clear the memory of the 622 since it thinks that it is still playing the movie. This is really bad. What they did for this mess up the external drive. mine is a seagate 750gb.

 

[gdarwin]

I did get the prompt to reauthorize. Went ahead and said yes on both of my drives. Everything is still intact and I can switch between both 622's.

 

[jmalyn]

The full number including last digit were the same on both of mine.

Regarding whether they were past or recent shows, they were recordings at least 2 weeks old that I played back on both receivers. I haven't tried any newer recordings.

For drive capacity, one is a 500GB, the other is 80GB. I hope the issue on the 750GB doesn't indicate they messed up on where they place the home ID on the larger drive, and overwrote a data section on those drives.

 

[langlin]

I did get the prompt to reauthorize. Went ahead and said yes on both of my drives. Everything is still intact and I can switch between both 622's.

I didn't get the prompt to reauthorize so I think I'll wait until I know more before I switch the EHD to my 612.

 

[David_Levin]

I didn't get the prompt to reauthorize so I think I'll wait until I know more before I switch the EHD to my 612.

Best way to experiment would be with an extra HDD. I always keep 1 or 2 around. Just picked up a couple of WD 1TB from Micro Center for $180 each (OEM, coupon, no rebate).