External HDD with the Hopper 3

[rexlan]

I have a Hopper 2 w/sling and am upgrading to the Hopper 3. I also have a
WD 1TB My Passport Portable External Hard Drive - USB 3.0 - WDBYNN0010BBK-WESN external drive and it is powered on a separate hub. It works well - no issues.

Question. I am transferring all of my recording to it so I can restore them to the new Hopper 3. Is there anything I "must do" to enable this EHDD to the new Hopper 3 since it may be paired somehow with my Hopper 2 unit? I believe Disk locks them so they can't be given it to someone else or passed around ... makes sense.

I just need to be sure that it will transfer or if the tech needs to do something when he is here.

Thank you.

 

[navychop]

You need do nothing. The EHD will just work with the H3.

But wait three days or more for the new receiver to settle in before trying to make the transfer. Or just watch them directly from the EHD.

EHDs are locked to the account, not the receiver. No one else will have your account number married to their receiver.

Keep using the powered hub.

 

[rexlan]

Great - thanks

 

[long_time_DNC]

Not to annoy folks by waking up a sleeping thread, but I finally went from my 722 to a Hopper 3 this past Wednesday and have an EHD question and since this thread is dealing with that topic, well...

I have a hub (7-ports) that's been connected to my 722 for quite a while with 5 2TB drives connected to it (the drives have on/off switches on the back, so only one drive is on at a time, obviously). This setup has served me quite well for a number of years, and with the 622 I had before that.

Here's my issue:

After the tech setup my H3, he turned on the top EHD to make sure the H3 was going to "see" it. It did, just fine. I just figured that the other drives would be "seen" by the H3 when I turned one on.

Such is not the case.

I turn on any other drive (other than the top one) and it powers on, the drive activity light blinks some, goes out and then blinks a little more and then comes on solid and stays that way, but nothing else ever happens. Nothing shows up on my TV, the drive activity light will occasionally turn off, but mostly stays on solid...

So, what am I missing? Thanks!

 

[long_time_DNC]

Ok, figured it out, all of them are working fine now. Took about an hour per drive, but the H3 now "knows" all of them now...so the thread can go back to sleep.

 

[TheKrell]

Ok, figured it out, all of them are working fine now. Took about an hour per drive, but the H3 now "knows" all of them now...so the thread can go back to sleep.

An hour per drive? What did you do to fix this condition?

 

[long_time_DNC]

Turned each one on (in turn, not all at once) and waited for the H3 to "see" it. Then, after it recognized it, turned it off and turned on the next one and waited about another 40-50 minutes. Now that all of them have been recognized, when I turn any one of them on it takes about 15 to 20 seconds to get the external drive screen and I press select, then DVR and it works just fine.

 

[sktrus]

What type of hub with 7 ports did you use? There were many threads in the past with members having issues with Hopper 3 not recognizing several ehds at the same time. Glad you figured it out and shared it here.

 

[long_time_DNC]

I don't remember the brand, but it's a 7-port USB 2.0 hub with green lights on it. I've had it and been using it since I had my 722 (about 5-6 years). Didn't see any reason to upgrade to a USB 3.0 hub as all 5 drives are USB 2.0 and wouldn't be able to take advantage of the faster data rate.

Anyway, it was worth the experiment as it eventually recognized the other 4 drives (one at a time) and didn't reformat them or not "see" them at all. It just took 40-50 minutes per drive (no idea why so long). Now, upon turning a drive on, it takes about 15-20 seconds for it to pop up the EHD screen.

 

[bookworm370]

As long as all 5 drives don't add up to more than 7TB then you should be good.

As for taking long, it's because of the encryption on the drives. You could have speed it up a bit by calling Dish Tech Support and having them send a 'HIT' to your Hopper. That sends the authorization data and the Hopper will confirm that all attached devices also have the same auth ID.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Thanks for the info! Makes sense about the re-encrption, going from a 722 to a H3. I thought about calling them, but figured I'd look here first. Found this thread and figured "eh, why not ask here first"?

The 5 drives are 2TB drives each, but as we all know, you never get the full 2TB post-formatting, so I'm sure, since each one works just fine, the total must not be over 7TB (never "sees" more than 2TB at one time anyway). I'm not planning on adding any more drives.

 

[Jim5506]

The 7TB thing only comes into play if you try to have more than one EHD powered at a time. You could possibly have 3 of your 2TB drives active at once and have it still working.

 

[sktrus]

calling Dish Tech Support and having them send a 'HIT' to your Hopper.

Most calls are answered by young crew from Phillipines. Are they able to do this or do we need to ask for a tech dept based in US?

 

[long_time_DNC]

The 7TB thing only comes into play if you try to have more than one EHD powered at a time. You could possibly have 3 of your 2TB drives active at once and have it still working.

Wish I'd known that...It wouldn't have taken me most of the day get the 4 other drives re-encoded. I would've turned on 3 of them and let the H3 do those and then turned those off and let it do the 4th one. The 722 only permitted 1 EHD on at a time. I figured the H3 was the same. The user's manual I downloaded didn't mention multiple EHD use at all. That's good to know, thanks!

 

[Jim5506]

From what little I've seen of the H3 manual, they just rubberstamped the H2000 manual and you have to pencil in whatever changes you find. WARNING: don't use whiteout on your computer screen.

 

[long_time_DNC]

I wish there were a better manual for the H3, honestly. It's got a lot of pictures, not a lot of text to go with the images. For cryin' out loud, I'm not a 3 year old and can read very well. I want info on the unit, the more in-depth the better. I don't need nice images of people smiling at their TV's like it's in 4k now. Sheesh!

 

[Altitudinous]

I don't need nice images of people smiling at their TV's

Some people have to.

This TV Only Works When You’re Smiling

Your enjoyment is not just encouraged, but mandatory.

www.fastcompany.com

 

[long_time_DNC]

Some people have to.

This TV Only Works When You’re Smiling

Your enjoyment is not just encouraged, but mandatory.

www.fastcompany.com

I'd have to pass on a TV like that.

 

[long_time_DNC]

Ok, annoying issue with my H3 and putting movies I've DVR'd out on an EHD: when I go to watch movies out on an EHD, they randomly break-up in a kind of blocky pixelization. If I skip back after the pixelization stops, yep, it's still there. When I play back movies that are on the same drives that I recorded with the 722k I had, zero issues - no pixelization at all.

Is this a new "feature" of the H3, or is there a setting I can use to help fix this, or it just the way it is?