External Hard Drive

Interesting factoid:  We live in Texas (and have U-Verse) but have a summer home in the Toronto area, where we have BellTV's satellite service.  Their DVR system allows the user to add an external drive!  They're quite specific on what to buy: On first pass, they told me Western Digital 500 Gb.

Here's a more detailed response:

I understand that you would like to know if you can use USB-powered hard drive on your receiver. Please be informed that generic external hard drives that meet the following specifications can be used on Bell receiver: - 7200 RPM rotation speed - Between 40GB and 1.0TB of capacity (1.5 TB for 9241/9242) - Holds a single hard drive (enclosures holding 2 disks not supported) - Plugs into AC power outlet - USB 2.0 connection - No sleep mode (cannot power down when idle) NOTE: 3.5" devices are more likely to meet the specifications than 2.5" EHDs, which are designed more for portable use 

This info is not readily available on the website, and the general info I found didn't restrict the customer from using a USB-powered drive. We'll bring an appropriate HD with us when we come back up next year.

OK, U-Verse, your turn.

Any update on this?  Has anyone used a Western Digital DVR expander with USB on the uverse set top box?

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@fuel52 wrote:

Any update on this?  Has anyone used a Western Digital DVR expander with USB on the uverse set top box?

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        NO !!!!!!

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@fuel52 wrote:

Any update on this?  Has anyone used a Western Digital DVR expander with USB on the uverse set top box?

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Won't work.  The USB ports are not enabled (though they will provide power).

Not true. DISH and Direct-TV have a USB out port for connecting an external HDD. The idea is to provide more space for DVR recording since the STB's have a 60g capacity (typically). The port to the HDD only allows for extra storage of recorded shows, including movies, etc. the same as the DVR. You cannot disconnect the HDD and re-connect to another device to "burn" content or view. You can only up-load back to the DVR for viewing via that STB.

The AT&T contractor who instlled my system said the USB port only provided power for charging devices like cell, MP3, etc. Usually, these ports are only for dedicated firmware upgrades via a flash drive. I suspect that the Cisco STB uses the USB port for that capability, so adding a downloading HDD will not work.

Incidently, I asked the Tech about adding a NAS HDD to the RG via USB or RJ45 port. (That is a standalone hard disk that can back-up or store files on all connected PCs in the local WiFi network.) He said that it would not allow this, odd, since the RG is a router for both WLAN and LAN networks. (NAS = network attached storage)

I hope AT&T is reading these. You need to get in line with other providers and allow external hard drive use on your DVR's. Don't give us the excuse about Pay Per View, all the other providers do it and they have PPV. They are encrypted so it can only be watched on their equipment, can't be copied or burned to DVD. It is a place for us the consumer to save favorite programs for future use. I have show series that I record and would like to save. Now if I run out of space I could loose them. Yes I could secure them but then that limits total space even more. Get on the bandwagon AT&T and try and be the best.

So far I have tried charging:

My PS3 controler - No joy

My Cell Phone - Motorola Backflip - Works!

My Bluetooth ear piece - Motorola H500 - Works!

My Bluetooth stereo headphones - jWIN JB-TH710 - Works!

My Electronic Cigarette - Joy 510 - Works!

But really, the only thing I WANTED to be able to charge was the PS3 controller. Too bad it was the ONLY thing so far that won't charge! Ah well, that's life!

If preventing recording copyrighted material for permanent retention is what is keeping AT&T from providing the capability for an external hard drive.....they've already lost the battle.  There are already numerous devices on the market which can be used to transfer SD and HD video w/stereo audio to a PC and then burned to a DVD.  We already have one of those devices (SD) which I've used to transfer old home videos and a few of our old video taped movies to DVD.  Good thing I did too because our VCR shot craps not too long ago.

Anyway....my point is....if AT&T isn't going to allow an external hard drive to be used with an STB or DVR....they're trying to kill an already dead animal.

Late to the party, but I have my usb extranl hard drive connected to my dvr stb, the 1225 is it ?

And I can read and play movies off it just like I can from my networked pc...

but, I DO have a $100 wired Samung 5500 blu-ray n the mix that probably allows the reading from the hdd!

(or maybe I'm off base and youse guys are talking about recording TO it? if so, apologies for the misinformtion)