Give me some advice - Hard Drive on Hughes SD-DVR40

[Sentry]

Hello -

I have the receiver mentioned above and it works fine for our family situation right now. Just too small of a hard drive.

Am tempted to put a bigger hard drive in because:

- We like Tivo and are just used to using it along with our kids.

- No need for HDTV right now, we get it OTA to our HDTV but Tivo'ed stuff doesn't matter to us.

- Hard drive is pretty small and very old. Suprised it has lasted this long.



So should I try weaknees.com or is too high priced? Any other places?

Will Direct let me use this receiver for a long time in the foreseeable future?


Thanks, now let me have it!!!

 

[Bob Nielsen]

The Weaknees drives will work, but you can save some money by doing it yourself. I upgraded a HDVR2 to use a 120 GB drive a few years ago by downloading the free MFSTOOLS CD image, installing both drives in a PC chassis and booting from the CD. You can also make a rescue CD to use if you have a hard drive failure. A knowledge of Linux or Unix would be helpful, but not necessary for the process.

As long as Directv offers SD programming in MPEG2 (some DMAs will be getting MPEG4 LIL), it will work.

 

[Sentry]

Thanks Bob...

I thought I knew the difference between MPEG4 and 2 but I guess not. Thought that was just related to High Definition.

I assumed that since I wanted to stay Standard Def my locals would too and the MPEG4 wouldn't matter. My DMA is pretty far down the list but our Standard Def channels have been up for a long time. (Charleston/Huntington WV)

Guess I need to figure out if our locals are going to be changed to MPEG4 in the future.


Thanks again. I have been out of the loop on satellite TV since I have 3 kids under 6 and hardly any time to read this great forum...

 

[joed32]

I thought I knew the difference between MPEG4 and 2 but I guess not. Thought that was just related to High Definition.

I assumed that since I wanted to stay Standard Def my locals would too and the MPEG4 wouldn't matter. My DMA is pretty far down the list but our Standard Def channels have been up for a long time. (Charleston/Huntington WV)

Guess I need to figure out if our locals are going to be changed to MPEG4 in the future.


Thanks again. I have been out of the loop on satellite TV since I have 3 kids under 6 and hardly any time to read this great forum...

They will not be changed anytime in the near future. I would think you could buy a used Direct Tivo for less than they would charge you to upgrade.I would guess they are $50 or less.

 

[jcrandall]

You may want to call DirecTV and ask about pricing for the HD-DVR. If you can get one for $20 or $99 you may be better than ordering a new hard drive ($50+)

You would probally need the $10 HD Access though which will raise the monthly bill.

You would have alot more HD though. Sometimes they give the first 6 months of HD access free - may at least be worth asking.