External HD for DTV HD DVR

[TSNBDSC]

... looking to add an external HD to my wifes DTV DVR ... DTV recommends certain types of externals ... does it matter ? ... also, any web sites that sell 3TB externals at a decent price ? ... BTW, does the DTV "whole home" thing work well ? ... thanks to all ... tom

[Fezmid]

... looking to add an external HD to my wifes DTV DVR ... DTV recommends certain types of externals ... does it matter ? ... also, any web sites that sell 3TB externals at a decent price ? ... BTW, does the DTV "whole home" thing work well ? ... thanks to all ... tom

 

Check out dbsforums.com for some info on external enclosures. I don't think it makes that big a deal, but I haven't looked recently.

 

You might also want to considering opening up the box and putting the drive in internally -- the box will automatically format it so that it works. Two of my HD DVRs are like that and it works great. Don't attempt if you're not comfortable working inside of a computer though -- and you probably violate your warranty or something if they find out. Blah blah blah.

 

If you do hook up an external drive, it will "short circuit" your internal drive, meaning you can't see any of those shows anymore until you power it off and disconnect the external drive. Kinda annoying, and is why I put my own drive in.

 

Also realize that hard drives are really expensive right now due to the floods in Thailand. You might be better off to wait.

 

I haven't used the Whole Home DVR offering, but I was part of the beta program where the networking was done over Ethernet cable. That worked great for me; I just wasn't prepared to pay a monthly fee for the service.

 

Hope that helps.

[ajzepp]

Whole home DVR has worked great for me so far. No problems. Works a helluva lot better than that stupid "combo box" thing that Dish Network has.