OFFICIAL External Storage Information

[navychop]

Will this be available later for DVR 625 or PVR 721 or are they going to offer and exchange/upgrade to a different receiver

Like the man says, NO. Anyway, those units have USB 1.1 and external storage requires USB 2. And they won't likely offer an upgrade for such an optional feature. However, I expect in 2 or 3 years, as they want to move SD to MPEG-4, they may offer an upgrade.

I have a ViP622, a 721 and a 508. I'm happy with all three. I planned on waiting until they pry those 2 SD (grandfathered) DVRs from my fingers before giving them up. However, if my bedroom SDTV departs this world sooner, and it's looking like it might, and I replace it with, say, a 40" or so LED backlit LCD, which I might (if price is right), then I'll get a ViP722 and move the ViP622. And it's bye bye for the 721 and 508.

YMMV. But if you like this feature, it may be time to consider upgrading on your own. Charlie would like that. But you'd also get to enjoy more features, rather than doing without, outwaiting him.

 

[Hall]

Didn't they say on the last tech chat that they're considering this for the 522/625 ?? Granted, "considering" something and it ever happening are two very different things with Dish !

 

[Rlanham]

I played around alot with the skip ahead and the FF playing back after I archived Superbowl XLI to the external HD. When you hit play after FF, or after skip ahead.. the picture/sound would sometimes stutter, more often than not. Only way to fix it would be to hit FF for a few seconds and play again. I have a WD Mybook 7200rpm 8MB buffer, so it can't be that the drive can't keep up.. must be the USB connection with the bottleneck.

Its not a deal breaker, but have never noticed it on playback off the 622 HD

 

[lakebum431]

Didn't they say on the last tech chat that they're considering this for the 522/625 ?? Granted, "considering" something and it ever happening are two very different things with Dish !

Are you sure? I can't remember, but I thought that they said they were considering it for "other receivers". I took that to mean the other (non-DVR) ViP boxes, but maybe I'm wrong.

 

[navychop]

Didn't they say on the last tech chat that they're considering this for the 522/625 ?? Granted, "considering" something and it ever happening are two very different things with Dish !

Are you sure? I can't remember, but I thought that they said they were considering it for "other receivers". I took that to mean the other (non-DVR) ViP boxes, but maybe I'm wrong.

I think Lakebum is right. The 522/625 have only USB 1.1 and the system is stated to require USB 2 to work. I think even if they somehow got it to work with the 522/625 (& we don't even know if those 2 can support whatever security system they're using), it would be ungodly slow, maybe less than real time, in transferring programs.

 

[jdr01930]

I think even if they somehow got it to work with the 522/625 (& we don't even know if those 2 can support whatever security system they're using), it would be ungodly slow, maybe less than real time, in transferring programs.

But on the plus side, since they are SD only, they only have to transfer/manage the much smaller SD recording file sizes. That said, I still doubt we'll ever see it on the older receivers for all the various reasons that have already been mentioned.

 

[Hall]

They just replayed the last tech chat at 9pm tonight.... anyone watch or record it ??

External hard drives *do* work with USB 1.1. Are they fast enough to "stream" continuously ?? I can't say.

 

[John Kotches]

They just replayed the last tech chat at 9pm tonight.... anyone watch or record it ??

External hard drives *do* work with USB 1.1. Are they fast enough to "stream" continuously ?? I can't say.

For SD content? Yes.

For HD content (even MPEG-4) it's iffy.

Cheers,

 

[Hall]

For SD content? Yes.

For HD content (even MPEG-4) it's iffy.

And 522/625 receivers don't do HD, so....

 

[bigthrust]

Looks like I did the right thing by waiting for external storage. Looks like it's not quite there yet.

 

[8bitbytes]

Looks like I did the right thing by waiting for external storage. Looks like it's not quite there yet.

How so? Looks like it does everything advertised to me.

 

[KAB]

Looks like I did the right thing by waiting for external storage. Looks like it's not quite there yet.

It's all there for me. Almost all of any problems are with pre-built Seagate external drives. So just don't use one of them. See:

http://www.satelliteguys.us/dish-hd...ernal-hd-results-drives-working-properly.html

 

[AaronS]

Just curious does anyone have any idea if/when Dish plans on enabling the external hard drives to work on all receivers on an account or if they have already? I moved a single movie, Scary Movie 4, from one receiver to a hard drive, and then connected the hard drive to my other receiver. The receiver didn't delete it and it was successfully moved to that receiver's hard drive. I was curious if that meant contents moved to external hard drives can be played on all receivers on an account now. Thanks in advance for any information.

 

[RandallA]

Just curious does anyone have any idea if/when Dish plans on enabling the external hard drives to work on all receivers on an account or if they have already? I moved a single movie, Scary Movie 4, from one receiver to a hard drive, and then connected the hard drive to my other receiver. The receiver didn't delete it and it was successfully moved to that receiver's hard drive. I was curious if that meant contents moved to external hard drives can be played on all receivers on an account now. Thanks in advance for any information.

So you move one movie from one 622 to another 622? It's not supossed to work from what I understand but if it does, that's great.

 

[navychop]

Yes, you can do it 3 times. Only. Later, that limitation will be removed.

 

[kstuart]

Will this be available later for DVR 625 or PVR 721 or are they going to offer and exchange/upgrade to a different receiver

 

[DishInSD]

so when this feature is activated is it capable of treating all storage as one big group for the sake of ease or do you always have to go to that seperate menu for usb storage vs internal storage?

 

[kstuart]

so when this feature is activated is it capable of treating all storage as one big group for the sake of ease or do you always have to go to that seperate menu for usb storage vs internal storage?

It is treated as entirely separate, there is a separate menu and listing for the USB External Drive. Items moved to the External Drive no longer are visible on the regular recordings list (unless you move them back, of course).

 

[KKlare]

I wonder when the 3 times kicks in? I moved say 100GB 622 (4.41) to USB (unknown 200 GB) . Then unloaded under new management that on a new 722 (4.42). Repeated the same again.
So 4 new managements including the initial one. Did not reformat after initial. Emptied by the move each time. No problem.

Lucky or that's what we can do?
-Ken

 

[Jim5506]

The 3 is the number of times you can connect a particular USB HDD to a different HDPVR on your account. It is meant to allow you to replace a failed unit 3 times and still be able to access your recordings.

With that in mind, connecting the ext HDD to the second VIP would be 1; moving it back to DVR 1 would be 2, and moving it back to DVR2 would be three. I you then tried to reconnect it to DVR 1 it would fail and possibly reformat the drive.