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November 15, 2004

SATA Drive for Explorer 8300

I'd like to expand my capacity of stored recorded programs and Scientific-Atlanta's Explorer 8300 DVR allows you to attach a SATA hard drive. Which companies make these devices for this use?

I assume the video is encrypted and that you couldn't transfer it to your computer for editing purposes.
-- C. Zaglifa

November 15, 2004 in Hacks, Scientific Atlanta

Answers

I would be real interested to hear if you get this to work! I just got one of these from my cable company (adelphia in Cumming, GA) yesterday and haven't even hooked it up yet, but am really excited about being able to enlarge the storage capacity since I know for sure that it won't hold a fraction of what I want to record. Please drop me a line if you get it working!

Posted by: Redmenace at Nov 24, 2004 11:39:51 AM

I heard Maxtor, Western, Seagate are making drives to work with the 8300. If so, that will be awesome simple compared to putting a bigger drive inside the box. Pretty sure it would be encrypted and not available to a computer. Did you call your cable company about the external drives?

Posted by: M. Ledge at Dec 8, 2004 8:20:58 PM

I have a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD and I am interested in expanding my storage capacity with an external drive. Has anyone done this yet?

Posted by: CDog at Dec 27, 2004 3:00:04 PM

I called my cable company in NJ (Cablevision) and they said they did not support, nor do they plan to in the future, the use of an external hard drive. Neither do they support the HDMI connection on the back.

Posted by: Nancy at Dec 28, 2004 5:32:22 AM

I just got Cablevision, could use the Firewire to load and unload?
Also NJ, do can you view DVR on other box?

Posted by: hasselhoffer at Jan 4, 2005 1:47:56 PM

Looks like SiL has a device ready:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050107/sff046_1.html

Posted by: Wade Menard at Jan 12, 2005 8:12:38 PM

I just got an Explorer 8300 and it has the SATA slot and two 1394 Firewire slots on the back. On the front it has another unknown slot and a second set of Red White and Yellow RCA inputs. The book mentions that you can add an SATA drive to the back for extra recording space. I went to Fry's and got a 250GB SATA drive and an outboard SATA case for it. But all for naught. When I called Time Warner here they just said that none of those inputs are "activated". Whatever that means. I'm really disappointed with this can't do attitude. Anyone else?

Posted by: ObeWanKobe at Jan 20, 2005 7:34:12 AM

I was very disappointed, too. I was bummed as well that the HDMI connection is not supported. That means you can only hook up with component video connections, and I have other devices that I want to hook up with those. The specs on the unit sound great, it's too bad Cablevision won't allow you to use those functions!

Posted by: Nancy at Jan 21, 2005 10:40:44 AM

I too am trying to connect a SATA drive to my 8300. I have note bought one yet, and after reading all this I might not.

I am however using my HDMI output. Someone said that Time Warner was not supporting that output, but mine works great.

Posted by: tavaman at Jan 30, 2005 1:48:18 PM

Is your TV HDMI also? Mine is DVI and I bought a connector to hook it up to the HDMI port on the Explorer. The Explorer guide suggested this approach. However, Cablevision is still not supporting it. At least it sounds like maybe they are working towards it.

Posted by: Nancy at Feb 4, 2005 3:41:27 PM

I just got a panasonic hdmi enabled tv, and the 8300hd this week. I picked up the hdmi cable before cablevision came out to hook up. When their techs got there, i showed them the cable...they were like...what is that? Anyway, we used it, and it works. This is cablevision westchester county ny. The quality is AMAZING.

Posted by: John at Feb 6, 2005 9:16:29 PM

I have Cablevision in Long Island, with an 8300HD, and although the cablevision tech setup the box without using the HDMI->HDMI cable i provided, i set it up after he left and it worked without any problems.

Posted by: phoem at Feb 10, 2005 5:41:19 AM

I have adelphia in Cleveland and the 8300HD. Have only had a few pixelation problems when I'm recording 2 shows and watching 1. I haven't had any recording problems on shows at all except once it broke up a recording into 3 segments. It broke up on the commercial breaks which made it nice. I am using the HDMI output on mine and it works fine. I couldn't get the component to work on my box, was giving a red cast to the picture. So I tried the HDMI and it worked perfectly. Maybe I've been lucky so far but I really enjoy this setup coming from the Directv Tivo non HD units. I get more channels for the same price and the picture is teh same as DTV.

Posted by: Urnso at Feb 10, 2005 7:36:57 AM

I work with Time Warner Cable in southern California (Palm Springs). We just got the explorer 8300HD in the company in mid January, and have installed it in quite a few homes now. Time Warner out here does support the HDMI output and the other outputs such as the cable out to a rf inpout on a tv, the video out, and the optical and coaxial audio outs on the box. As for the Sata drive inputs, I have not heard of any customer using a external drive yet but what i am told is that it is supported!! Its all a programming issue from your cable company that allows the different outputs to be activated. Out here in the desert the first HD/DVR we had the 8000HD did not support the cable out and the video outs or s-video outs cuz of the way the box was from SA, but now the new 8300HD does support it. hehe, contact ur cable companies to get the software updated so the outputs work. That guy with the non HD tivo is bull-sh**, true digital TV is high defintion TV, not what satellite say is digital tv, its just transfer differently than the cable companies, and thats y theres a lil difference in picture quality, but cable is just the same, and actually better than satellite cuz of the on-demand video capability and everything, Cable TV will always be better than Satellite TV!! 8300hd from tiem warner rocks!

Posted by: Matt at Feb 13, 2005 9:28:23 PM

I also have a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD and I am interested in expanding my storage capacity with an external drive. I found that the HDMI slot is active and makes a world of difference! So far the Time Warner - Charlotte has not been able to tell me if they will support the SATA Port. Tech Support at Scientific Atlanta told me that they supply the 8300HD will all Ports disabled so that the local cable companies can activate what the want. Scientific Atlanta did tell me that if I can find out what my Site ID Number is that they will then be able to tell me the status of all of my ports.

Posted by: Chuck at Feb 16, 2005 12:22:51 PM

I am getting the 8300HD Friday and plan on hooking up hdmi to tv, however, I have a receiver for sound and plan on hooking up digital audio out to receiver. Has anyone tried this? Will it work?

Posted by: imc at Feb 16, 2005 6:46:00 PM

I have the 8300HD. The HDMI and optical audio ports work just fine. Still pissed about the SATA port....I'll figger it out though.

Posted by: WB at Feb 17, 2005 5:17:04 PM

I have heard the cable companies sometimes disable the ability to use 2 ports. I have comcast and everything they do seems anti customer. We will see.

Posted by: imc at Feb 17, 2005 6:11:36 PM

Check this out...I just found this link....
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050105/sfw017_1.html

Posted by: WB at Feb 17, 2005 9:58:40 PM

Reference my 2-16-05 posting about the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD, Time Warner - Charlotte told me that they will not open the SATA Port for at least a year, if then.

Posted by: Chuck at Feb 21, 2005 7:47:43 AM

the fcc regs require that the cable company have all in/outs on the box to be active. It might take some whinning but they can do it for you, dont let them tell you other wise. I know all of this cause i work for them.

Posted by: cableguy at Mar 15, 2005 2:49:27 PM

After fighting with TWC-Houston for two hours today, they still say the "CAN'T" activate the SATA port. I asked if Scientific Atlantic could, and they said no. So I said, you mean you "WON'T" activate the port. They replied, no, we said we "CAN'T" activate the port. When I asked "If you can't activate the port and the manufacturer can't, who can". Dead silence. What morons.

Anyway, can you provide any info on the FCC regs that will force TWC to activate the port.

Thanx

Posted by: Bob in Houston at Mar 31, 2005 7:42:28 PM

TW in Cincinnati said the same basic thing: "We are not activating anyone's SATA ports at this time". I say "BS". Exactly what needs to be said to them? Threaten them with the FCC stuff?

A friend and I both purchased a 300GB drive, external sata enclosure, and a SATA to SATA2 cable and so far it's useless. GRRR!

Posted by: Chris at Apr 1, 2005 5:13:06 PM

The guys in the AVS Forum seem to have this thing working! http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=516559&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

A TRUE SATA2 cable is required for it to work apparently, and thats the trick!

Good luck

Posted by: Walter at Apr 5, 2005 11:36:08 AM

The guys in the AVS Forum seem to have this thing working! http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=516559&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

A TRUE SATA2 cable is required for it to work apparently, and thats the trick!

Good luck

Posted by: Walter at Apr 5, 2005 11:44:58 AM

I too have the Scientific Alanta 8300HD-DVR

My provider (Cox Cable) says all the ports are active.....but I can't get the hdmi to dvi-d cable to work to my JVC I ART. And I can't get the 6 pin 1394 connections to work to my comp.......does anyone know of a special process I'll have to go through in order to get my tv or comp to recognize the box with these connections?

Posted by: PoNy at Apr 7, 2005 1:27:52 PM

I have charter cable in southern California, and have a working 8300HD with external SATA drive. When I first plugged the drive into the cable box, I had the cable box in standby mode. I then turned it on, but nothing happened. However, I removed the power cord from the back of the 8300HD, reinserted it, watched it go through boot, and then turned it one (with the HDD on and plugged into the cable box) and then the 8300HD recognized the SATA drive. I had to do this process one more time after I said for the drive to be formated...and then I had a lot more storage space!!
By the way, I called my cable company before I tried installing, and they said the SATA port wasn't activated, and they didn't plan on activating it in the near future. I called a day later to get someone else, and that person said the SATA port wasn't activated, but they plan on activating it soon. So, I don't think you can truely rely on all tech people at these places.
After reading much about this process online, I really believe if you have the SARA software installed on your 8300HD and not the PASSPORT software, you should be able to get this to work. To check, go into the diagnostics (hold select on front, wait until mail icon blinks, then press info). Use page up/down until you see Either SARA or PASSPORT, and then you'll know what you have, and if SARA, it'll probably work.

Hope this helps

Posted by: Jeff at Apr 16, 2005 9:17:24 AM

Thanks for the info/confirmation, PoNy...

I would like to point out to the posters before PoNy's last posting that what PoNy said (PULL THE PLUG on 8300, not standby mode) is PRECISELY what the manual says you MUST do to have it recognized, right along with "Do not have the 8300 in standby mode when connecting the SATA drive." The manual threatens corruption of data et al, but it seems pretty obvious that the boot code on these boxes is the only place it LOOKS for an SATA drive. You might have noticed that "standby" is nothing like "off" since the unit continues to spin drives, record shows and even give a video signal at times? If the thing isn't off, I wouldn't attempt a hot-swap on the drives to work (what you effectively are doign by "just jam it in and pray"). Just my 2 cents, which boil down to RTFM, DMF.

-W

Posted by: IkanReedGud2 at Apr 21, 2005 11:25:10 PM

Hey everyone, now that we all got our drives working (right?), has anyone had luck with getting video off the box using an SATA drive? There was mention of possible encryption... can anyone verify 1) If there is, and 2) what sort it might be? Thanks.

-JM

PS: I don't have a SATA drive handy myself, don't record THAT much stuff without watching it, and hence don't really need the extra space if I can't transfer video using the drive...

PPS: after a little research, it appears that some version of RSA is implemented... anyone interested in working on a crack? The keys have gotta be on box somewhere... :->

Posted by: JustMe at Apr 22, 2005 12:08:58 AM

I bought a serial ATA drive, (cablevision LI) the cbale company does nopt support it, so the port is off in thier boot software i notice3d that I hooked it up it boots to my drive first... wich makes me think some sort of bootstrap program could be written... anyone out there with the skills...

Mike

Posted by: Mike at May 6, 2005 9:33:46 AM

TWC NYC Time Warner Cable New York.
DVR not HD enabled; 8300 - Brooklyn
SATA NOT ENABLED on ALL TWCNYC boxes, even the HD ones. No info about when they will have enabled port boxes, but the 8300 is a recent release so....

The 8300 I have has a 160GB internal. I am assuming most are. I am going to try to perhaps Ghost or something like it to a 250 or bigger drive.

Posted by: Britt at May 23, 2005 4:35:44 PM

I have just leased the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD from Brighthouse in Tampa Florida. Is it possible to download the recorded program to a DVD burner such as a Panasonic DVD video recorder? Or is there some other way? The unit allows me to record to a VHS tape player, but that's not what I'm looking to do. The installers did not leave a tech manual.....bummer.

Posted by: BruceB at Jun 4, 2005 1:41:42 PM

Simple.

Basically when it says hit record with your vhs, hit record with your dvd.

Thats it. I have tested it, and it works.

Posted by: yea at Jun 8, 2005 7:03:14 PM

specifically, the SATA receptacle on 8300HD is called "eSATA", not SATA2. then you need regular SATA for client (hard-drive). unfortunately, external SATA kits only give you an SATA1/2 cable. eSATA required shield. an eSATA cable is a rare bird, it's bleeding-edge, like HDMI (try to find HDMI-HDMI cable). here's the reference info:

http://www.sata-io.org/esata.asp

unfortunately, your DVR also has to have right S/W

Posted by: doubtingt at Jun 9, 2005 3:32:33 PM

Here's an eSATA -> SATA converter:
http://www.cruzsystems.com/Products/Comax/221303D.aspx

Posted by: Mike at Jun 28, 2005 5:24:39 AM

Is there a way to transfer the recorded shows to a PC directly?

No SATA to ATA cable available?... or a SATA-card in the PC with a cable to the SATA port of the DVR?..., or what's up with the USB port in front of the DVR? My 8300 model does not have Firewire/HDMI but would like to find a solution to transfer the shows to the PC. Don't want to use a DVD recorder yet via the video ports because I want to edit the shows in my PC first. Anybody pop-open the SciAmer Explorer 8300 to see if it contains other ports inside?

Posted by: JDo at Jul 3, 2005 1:21:07 AM

Apparently, you can download software to the box too! Can you please tell me how to get software on to it? I think it would have something to do with a SATA hard drive or a USB drive. Thanks!

P.S. COX cable sometimes updates it, so I know it is possible for me to also do it.

Posted by: Flarn at Jul 20, 2005 7:28:03 PM

I just talked to TWC Cincinnati and was told ALL ports on the back of the 8300HD are atctive. Guess I'll look into a SATA drive.

Posted by: Mxy at Jul 28, 2005 1:09:18 PM

Cablevision in NJ first told me the SATA port would be available and then told me it wont. I'd love to see the FCC reg on this.
My suggestion is that if everyone here who feels that this should be enabled would write to:

1. cablevision
2. The FCC
and most importantly
3. The board of public utilities.
I think we would get results.
-Jeff

Posted by: jeffrey a. schwartz at Jul 30, 2005 2:44:34 PM

All I found in Reference to FCC regs (and I searched a good 2-3 hours) was that FCC Regs required all cable boxes to have active FireWire Ports. Nothing about 'all ports being active' or anything mentioning SATA at all.

Posted by: Dicion at Aug 27, 2005 1:53:56 PM

hi, let em tell you that this sucks becuas eof fcc wire ports we should do something about it you know!

yay life is hell!

-polly

Posted by: polly at Aug 28, 2005 2:50:58 PM

Time Warner NYC
I have video with the HDMI but no audio. My TV does not have dolby digital. The general settings menu does not have a digital out setting.Any suggestions on how to set it to 2 channel.

Posted by: Rob at Aug 31, 2005 12:38:56 AM

Still looking into the SATA drive option, but a friend just got his 8300HD last night and his nephew plugged a USB drive into the front port and it (apparently) tried to init.

I have a USB drive I can try....anyone else tried this?

(We're on COX in Oklahoma)

Posted by: NinjaNerd at Sep 6, 2005 6:45:30 PM

NinjaNerd

I was wondering if you tried your USB option and if it worked? If it did, how can you then reconnect to your hard drive and download to your computer?

Posted by: stmuffin at Sep 11, 2005 6:37:16 PM

Is it possible to program or boot the 8300 without the cable company knowing? Just purchased a box from someone and I have one of them already in my home from the cable company.

Posted by: Gloria at Sep 12, 2005 1:08:28 PM

I'm in NY with Time warner, and it seems from both posts and my own experience that the tech support people really haven't a clue as to what they are talking about. I have yet to hook up to my PC and just screw around, but TWC NY said they dont support any external drives. Anybody know any different?

Posted by: jLynch at Sep 14, 2005 9:57:08 AM

I have not tried it yet, but I got some info after a half hour on the phone with my cable company, Cox in San Diego. They said there are 2 SATA hard drives that will work with the 8300HD. They are Maxtor P08K160 (160 gig) and J08M300 (300 gig).

Posted by: Fred at Sep 24, 2005 8:31:49 AM

MIKE FROM TWC-SAN DIEGO:
TWC IS GOING TO BE UPDATING ALL DIG BOXES IN THE USA BY 10-15-2005 WITH FIREWARE UPGRADES. WE ARE TOLD THAT SATA AND ALL PORT SHOULD BE ENABLE AND WORKING. WE ARE TRYING TO CHANGE THE DAMN PASSPORT TO A NICER BETTER SOFTWARE/FIRMWARE

Posted by: Mike at Sep 26, 2005 12:45:05 AM

Has anyone gotten an external SATA drive to work with Cablevision's version of the 8300HD?
Any word from Cablevision on supporting this?

Posted by: jeff at Oct 5, 2005 9:28:14 PM

Pretty much like Mike asked on 9/26/05 about external drives, I wondered the same thing on who if anyone has a working external drive that the explorer 8300 recognizes and uses. Can anyone that has been successful post what they have done, with what and what steps they used. Also whether they used one of the external maxtor's listed or used a SATA external drive case bought separately that they added an internal SATA drive in the external box.
Second question is has anyone cracked open the box and tried to add a second internal drive like most of us do inside pc's or whether that's even an option.
My cable provider is Warner Cable in Houston.

Posted by: Steve S at Oct 6, 2005 8:18:30 AM

Has anyone tried to get a USB wireless NIC to work with the 8300?

I recently got a Scientific Atlantic 8300 from TWC San Diego with their fandangled interface (the lack of options and information is so Windows-esk its scary), and have been trying to find a way to connect this box with my home network. I am aware that TiVo has a service called TiVo-To-Go that allows you to connect your TiVo to a home network and download recorded programs to a computer. I was hoping I could get something similar set up with TWC's box. This would save on the cost of a HD (assuming you have space in a PC) and allow infinite more flexibility with the recordings.

Thanks in advance.

Posted by: Brent at Oct 8, 2005 12:48:43 AM

fred with timewarner: does your comment mean that there will be an ACTIVE dvi or hdmi on the hd boxes now? i live in the godforsaken rio grande valley and progress would be nice!!!

Posted by: sewerpickle at Oct 10, 2005 10:39:16 AM

From everything I've read, I believe the gating factor was posted earlier in this thread.
SARA software supports it, PASSPort software does not.
If you follow the directions in the post you can easily determine which software your 8300 is running.

Lob

Posted by: Lobstah at Oct 11, 2005 7:42:04 AM

Also, regarding the FCC requirement to enable ports, I haven't dug through the requirement for a few months, but I believe what you are referring to is an FCC requirement that all cable companies make available a box with an ACTIVE FireWire port. That doesn't mean that they have to enable the port on your DVR, it just means they have to make available a box with an active port if you request it.

Lob

Posted by: Lobstah at Oct 11, 2005 8:00:47 AM

Has any successfully connected a PC to the DVR and downloaded movies?

Posted by: Ralph at Oct 30, 2005 3:31:37 AM

I just tried to get this to work in Kansas City Time Warner. No dice. And as for the advice on how to find out your software from the holding select in the front and it doesn't work on my device. I don't get a mail icon. I even tried holding it down for two minutes.

Posted by: dan at Nov 2, 2005 9:05:17 PM

Cox in Phoenix, AZ supports the drives mentioned earler... the J08M300 300gb. I'm going to get one and try it.

Also, the FAQ advises that the DVR will format the drive, and even if you move it to another DVR of the same type, it will reformat it. So if you have recordings on it, and want to move the drive to another room and watch them, you can't. Apparently when formatted, it will only record and allow you to view from the DVR it was connected to.

http://www.maxstore.com/qvx/QVX_FAQ.asp

Posted by: Dennis at Nov 4, 2005 7:24:58 PM

Windows Media Center 2005, with PVR (copy from 8300HD to YOUR HD), and a Linksys Media extender...

Posted by: Dennis at Nov 4, 2005 7:28:14 PM

here is a external drive that is being sold that says it works only for the SA8300hd box as an upgrade sata drive...i didnt really look into it much but im not really looking to upgrade my storage relaly i just want to connect the box to my computer and trasfer saved shows/movies to my computer to edit out commercials and either burn them to dvd or host online in my webpage...but anyways heres the link i found..go check it out....
http://www.weaknees.com/maxtor_qvx.php
and still nobody has answered any of the questions about the front usb port...is it useful? i probably wont check back on this page but if anyways has any info on how ic an connect it to my pc and transfer save items email me at jetii74@yahoo.com
thanx
late

Posted by: TiDDy at Nov 6, 2005 1:52:52 PM

yeah i should have read through wut i posted...typos all over...but yall get the point

Posted by: TiDDy at Nov 6, 2005 1:54:51 PM

All you guys that want to transfert your data, get a dvdrecorder-vhs combo and you won't get problem with recording with the dvd.

Posted by: WildParadise at Nov 10, 2005 8:13:33 PM

I have Cablevision North Jersey and an SA8300 HD box, and the external drive works fine, I just bought a standard 300GB SATA hard drive from tigerdirect for $89: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1487962

an eSATA to SATA/II cable for $20, and an external enclosure for another $19, plugged it in as per the instructions on ecientific atlanta's website, and it worked fine after self formatting.

total cost $140, Don't waste your money for drives made specifically "for the 8300 HD". THey are tryign to rip you off, SATA is industry standard, and the cable company won't "Support" you if you have a problem with the drive anyway. (can you blame them?)

300GB + the 160 it comes with seems like enough room for about 30-40 full length HD movies, pretty awesome...

Posted by: Brandon at Nov 14, 2005 5:59:53 AM

correction, here is the link, the link above is not SATA:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1121653&CatId=139

Posted by: Brandon at Nov 14, 2005 6:14:32 AM

To the poster that mentions getting a "dvdrecorder-vhs combo" so that you can record to DVD. The only problem with that is that it's probably converting the signal to analog when you do that. What type of connection are you using to your dvdrecorder-vhs combo? Are you able to record HD programs to DVD like that? I seriously doubt it.

Posted by: Travis at Nov 14, 2005 7:37:03 PM

I am on Brighthouse Networks in Orlando, FL. I have an 8300, but not the HD version. First of all has anyone had any luck installing a SATA drive on a 8300 on Brighthouse? I tried pressing and holding the Selct button on the front panel, but the blinking mail Icon never came up, so I never made it into diagnostics. Any ideas?

Posted by: psyspyder at Nov 17, 2005 7:13:23 PM

http://www.1buytramadol.com

Posted by: cielak at Nov 18, 2005 9:46:08 AM

Hi Brandon, i do the link via svideo, i know this is not hd quality but it's the simple way to put your stuff on dvd right now.

Posted by: WildParadise at Nov 20, 2005 3:20:49 PM

Hey thanks everyone for the info...I have just gotten an 8300 from Cablevision NJ and look forward to hooking it up.

For those who have successfully added a second HD: does anyone know anything how the encrpytion works? Once formatted for the 8300, can the HD be recognized by a PC? And has anyone heard of a way of transferring files off the HD onto a PC?

(I know these are all pipe dreams, but still...)

Posted by: >Mike at Nov 22, 2005 9:11:18 AM

I just ordered an 8300 to replace my 8000 from Cox in San Diego, for no additional cost. The Tech Support lady said the SATA port was active, and she checked for a few minutes to see if my 8000's 1394 port could be activated (nope).

Cox does not support the external hard drives, other than having an active port. Directions here:

http://www.cox.com/support/digitalcable/dvr/pdf/SA8300HD%20connects.pdf

Am looking forward to anyone that can provide info on taking the SATA, hooking it into a computer, and being able to render DVDs somehow.

But, at least, it will be nice to have the additional storage available.

Posted by: Jon at Jan 9, 2006 2:51:17 PM

External SATAs are activated, you only need external drives that support that HD copy protection DRM

like these:

http://www.weaknees.com/maxtor_qvx.php

TimeWarner is only saying that it's not activated so you'll stop calling, because really, those employess are not as techy as us here..

Posted by: Michael Scwartz at Jan 14, 2006 6:13:15 PM

I have the 8300HD plugged in VIA firewire to my PC. Anyone have any luck gettiing video/audio off of the fire wire link?

Posted by: Fred at Jan 14, 2006 9:00:02 PM

**PC HOOK UP*

I got this thing a few months ago and love it. The only way i've figure out how to hook it up to my PC is through the A/V connection. I go from the Device's A/V to my camcorder and from my camcorder into my PC w/ a firewire.

And it does work...I've transfered a few movies and shows to DVD already. The only thing is it isnt the greatest quality. It looks fine on a normal TV..but i'm not sure how it would look on a real high quality TV (like plasma or one of those). Sometimes it looks a shade darker, so i find myself trying to adjust it a little on my PC. But its damn good quality compared to not having to buy the movie for 15 bucks.

So i'm still trying to see if I can go into my computer w/ one of those other connections on the back of the device. So far havent found out a way (and doesnt seem like any of you have either). But if i do i'll post it.

Posted by: Travis at Jan 18, 2006 9:57:38 AM

I just spoke to someone at Time Warner New York, and she said the SATA port on the Explorer 8300HD is NOT enabled. I assume this is the correct information but am wondering if anyone definitively knows otherwise. HD "Lost" is eating up my available space!!!

Posted by: Matt at Jan 18, 2006 11:46:10 AM

For all of you who can't get the HDMI to work, try this. I had it working just fine (HDMI to DVI converter, and DVI cable to my Hitachi HDTV), then I disconnected the cable to hook up my computer to the TV, and when I reconnected it to the 8300HD, I kept getting a screen that said HDMI was blocked because my TV did not support HDCP. After much playing, I figured out how to get it to work. Hook up the 8300HD to your TV using component video. Turn on both the TV and the 8300HD, make sure it works. With everything still on, hook up the HDMI cable, then pull the component cables. Looks like the 8300HD checks what it's connected to only when it's first connected.

Posted by: Joe at Jan 21, 2006 1:13:11 PM

Well !!! I can say just this:
step:
1) get the Hard drive for exp: http://www.weaknees.com/maxtor_qvx.php
2) SATA Not enabled not a problem do you know how to use Linux ??? Well almoust all of DVR's run the SARA program. What you need to do is...
Open your box find where the sata port shoulb conect (in the back) inside the box there is a swich (actually four of them) set them to this
1 up |2 down |3 slave|4 up |
Don't forget that sata not gonna work if you don't disable the encryption in the box.
So you conect your computer to the DVR like here :http://pvr.blogs.com/pvr/drives-connected-pc.jpg
and you need knowlege of linux to disable line 45 in the promt. And don't forger to set your DVR's hard drive to slave !!!

Posted by: TjkCH at Jan 27, 2006 7:13:29 AM

Well I descovered that usb in the front can become very hundy !!!
You can connect a wireless usb antenna to transmit your shows to your PC and then save them there. The only problem is that DVR record shows in MPEG-2 MP@ML wich supose to be a standart MPEG Decompression, but it not working on my pc so you can't really watch your show's on your pc but you can burn then on the DVD and try to play them on your DVD player main works perfect. Ohhhhh and you need to open your box and connect manually the usb post :)

Posted by: TjkCH at Jan 27, 2006 7:25:29 AM

Is it really possible to add wireless network capability to your 8300 dvr? TWC Houston

Posted by: Justin j at Feb 3, 2006 11:20:59 AM

Cablevision of NYC running SARA version the HDMI and SATA ports are enabled. The firewire ports are disabled.
If you are running Passport version on the STB the eSATA drives will not work.

Posted by: Lou at Feb 8, 2006 8:04:14 AM

does anyone know if i can pull the recordings off my 8300 box through the firewire, i set it up for recording fromt he computer but i would like to pull it off my scientifc box and put it on my computer is there any way?

Posted by: benjamin at Feb 8, 2006 6:42:51 PM

This works on Rogers Canada with an Explorer 8300 and SARA FW

Just get a Vantec NexStar 3 NST-360SU-BK case. It comes with the right eSATA cable, PSU, case, USB cable and eSATA adapter for your PC.

http://www.vantec.com.tw/_en/01_product/03_detail_01overview.php?mainid=6&fid=49&sid=60&id=120

You need a SATAII drive eg. Western Digital 250GB Hard Drive KS

You must power off the explorer completely by removing the mains cord. Power up the drive - then power on the explorer - it them discovers the drive and asks you if you want to format it. A 250G drive gives you 4 times the total capacity for a total outlay of ~$200CAN

http://www.dslreports.com/faq/sciatl/all#11880
this link show you how to access the diagnostic screens - as far as i can tell from this and other data the sata port is active all the time.

Posted by: Dave at Feb 8, 2006 6:53:21 PM

My Adelphia box just showed up. I tried to connect my PowerBook to the Firewire ports and run Disk Utility. It didn't read the 8300 at all.

Not like I really need more space though. :)

Posted by: Justin at Feb 18, 2006 6:59:53 AM

I have time warner cable in newburgh ny. I have the SA explorer 8300hd running passport echo 1.8.112. I've been to pioneer's site where they say that v2.7 is available. the box has sata and firewire ports that aren't activated. I called customer support to ask when the software will be updated and when the ports will actually be useful. The best they could say was "we don't know". I asked if there was at least a way to be notified when the features would be available and was I told that I would have to wait until I saw advertising for it. Most customers service operators know less than actual customers. why is this? Can anyone give me any advice or info on software updates and port activation?

Posted by: Daniel at Feb 18, 2006 3:59:22 PM

Can anyone post or link to somewhere to let me know how to connect my 8300HD to my wireless network? Would love this feature... I'm TWC, NYC. Thanks

Posted by: brindian at Feb 24, 2006 10:23:02 PM

Have been searching for any info on downloading recordings to PC. Anyone have ideas? Could a SATA drive be used?

Posted by: Zatoichi at Feb 25, 2006 10:40:11 AM

I just got a 8000 Scientific Atlanta DVR installed by Time Warner here in San Diego. The installer said go swap to an 8300 - it's smaller and higher capacity. But it appears to me only the 8300HD model is 160gig higher capacity.

My questions is two-fold - will the 8300HD work for an non-HD system - from reading it's documentation it says it records 90-hr non-HD programming, but will it work with a non-HD cable service ?

Second question, has anyone anywhere gotten the SATA extra hard drive to work on the 8300 with the Passport software ? Or are you out of look if you have Passport instead of SARA software ?

If anyone can point me in the right direction, I'd appreciate - especially before I go running to swap the box ! bradinca@gmail.com

Thanks - Brad

Posted by: Brad at Mar 5, 2006 3:51:55 PM

I understand one way to burn a dvd (obviously not HD quality) is to connect 8300HD to dvd recorder through S video. Is this signal digital or analog and what resolution? 240 lines like standard vhs or 480? Thanks.

Posted by: Steve at Mar 6, 2006 9:33:07 AM

I'M TRYING TO HOOK UP (8300HD BOX)HDMI CABLE TO 50" PLASMA...I GET VIDEO BUT NO AUDIO THREW TV. EVEN TRIED TO HOOK UP EXTRA AUDIO CABLE (RCA AND OPTICAL)TO TV. CALLED COX THEY SAID THEY DONT KNOW WHATS WRONG. HELP PLEASE

Posted by: PATRICK at Mar 7, 2006 11:32:13 AM

Just installed it succesfully with Explorer 8300 and SARA software. My provider is Videotron (Montreal, Canada).

Just followed the instructions I read on the forum:
1. disconnect wall outlet from Explorer.
2. Connect hard drive. Power it on.
3. reconnect power to Explorer. After boot, message appears: "do you want to format the external drive ?". I said yes. 30 sec later, it was done.
4. disconnect the power from the Explorer. reconnect.
5. After second boot, I now had a message that said "you now have an external hard drive". And my space taken has dropped from 67% to 25%.

The equipment I bought at TigerDirect.com:
- Hitachi SATA II 300 250GB
- Vantec Nexstar SATA to eSATA enclosure.

me happy :-)

Posted by: Bernard at Mar 13, 2006 9:12:55 AM

Try this link for more help on these topics...

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:TCq27N6--hwJ:www.gearbits.com/archives/2005/03/scientific_atla_1.html+scientific+atlanta+hd+dvr+external+hard+drive&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=6

Posted by: Me at Mar 20, 2006 12:04:09 PM

1) Passport and SARA seem to be the Operating system of the 8300HD... so when the box formats a sata hdd, it is no longer in the standard PC format. Just like MAC and Windows drives cannot be swapped without certain steps (not HOT-SWAPPABLE).
2) I would like to know more about using linux to read a HDD formatted with SARA or Passport. Is the data still in a MPEG file format?
3) Has anyone found out what the USB or the Flash card reader on the front does? It would be very unlikely that video and audio go thru such an interface. Firewire is a bit faster than USB 2.0 but only because it has direct access to the CPU. Has anyone confirmed that any multimedia has passed thru any of these interfaces?
4) I think that the USB or the Flash card reader on the front is for loading configurations or doing diagnostics or transfers of small data.
5) The firewire is a mistery to me because it can stream data for a decent video quality but I am sure that the 8300HD does NOT have a device driver for windows which is necessary to make it compatible. The SciAtl box is not a PC. And its internal HD is NOT PC formmated.
6) You can burn HD-DVD's if you have the latest technology. Regular DVD's cannot hold that quality of video. High Def must be supported along the whole path. An HD cable box, an HD video capture card (ATI HDTV WONDER), an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray Burner(SH-B022A, Samsung), and then an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray Player. $$$
7) The best (cheapest) way to get your recordings on your PC and to DVD is to get a Video capture device ($40-$300) the cheaper it is, the worse the interface and quality. $ Composite(yellow RCA), $$ SVideo(4pin round), and $$$ Component (3 cables red, green, blue) which will get HD to your PC. Software is needed but usually included with hardware.

Posted by: JoeG at Mar 25, 2006 7:18:14 PM

This is a ATI HDTV tuner from Newegg for $113...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815116310

Posted by: JoeG at Mar 25, 2006 9:32:55 PM

We here at Glyph technologies have a drive that has been tested and works with the 8300 Scientific Atlanta series. It's an all steel enclosure, using a quiet fan, internal powersupply, seagate db-35 (video drive), and something called quiet metal, which isolates the hard drive from the enclosure and minimizes vibration noise. you can read about it more if you look up the GT050Q on the glyph website www.glyphtech.com ... you may also contact me with any questions. jsularski@glyphtech.com

Posted by: Josh at Mar 28, 2006 12:18:15 PM

I have a simpliar sucess story to adding a SATA drive to my Explorer 8300HD. My provider is Cox(Phoenix, AZ).

Buy drive and connect to case. external SATA cable included with case.

Then followed the instructions I read on the forum:
1. disconnect wall outlet from Explorer.
2. Connect hard drive. Power it on.
3. reconnect power to Explorer. After boot, message appears: "do you want to format the external drive ?". 30 sec later, it was done.
4. My space taken has dropped from 75% to 16%.

The equipment I bought at newegg.com:
- Seagate SATA II 500GB
- Penguin Gear PG380 SATA to eSATA enclosure.
no fan but alum case

cost $325 with shipping.

Posted by: Robert W at Apr 4, 2006 11:20:52 PM

Guys,
has anyone had any luck hooking the firewire ports of a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD to a laptop? I'm using Windows XP and once I plug the firewire cable in all sorts of New Hardware Found messages pop up and it wants drivers. I've tried Googling for the drivers and scanning message boards, but to no avail.

Any help would be appreciated!!

Steve

Posted by: SteveATL at Apr 15, 2006 11:50:19 AM

Has anyone been able to use an external SATA drive on a TWC NYC 8300HD? They told me that the port is not activated. Some people in other locations on this board have said that they got the same info in their locations, but it turned out to be false. Also, I've tried to procedure to get into Diagnostics Mode to see if it's SARA or Passport software, but if I hold down the Select button, no matter how long, the Mail icon never comes on, etc.

Thanks.

Steven

PS: I don't have an external SATA drive to test and don't want to buy one that I can't use so I want to find out.

PPS: I read a post saying FCC regs require all ports to be active, but no one seems to have found any support for that.

Posted by: StevenC_in_NYC at Apr 22, 2006 10:07:23 AM

I can confirm an eSATA drive works on a Cablevision 8300HD:SARA in Brooklyn NYC. Went from 88% to 33% full!

250gig SATA3.0 Maxtor:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144048
+
VANTEC eSATA + USB2.0 (future uses) Enclosure:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145167
=$130!!!

Now that I've recorded a few programs onto the new drive I'm a bit depressed that I didn't get the 500gig drive... Wasn't sure it was going to work in the first place so didn't want to risk the additional $200 for 500 instead of 250, but damn!

Posted by: Chris at Apr 25, 2006 4:54:11 PM

I saw a post on here that someones has success getting wireless USB to work with the 8300HD.

I'm trying the same thing, but havn't had any luck yet. Can anyone post more detailed instuctions or a pointer to some more info.

Thanks!

Posted by: parkman at Apr 27, 2006 7:11:42 PM

Hey Techs.,

I just received the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300 HD. However, when I plugged (Power Cord)it the Green LED screen displays (Er.63) then stays on (h) with numbers ascending quickly from about 066 to about 874.
I kept it on for several hours and overnite, but with the same results. If anyone has any suggestions or resolution to this problem it would be great to hear about them.

I think based on LED display the converter is going through some diagnostics process and is unable to proceed due to en error. During this process, you can't start the system using the power-on button because it does not work. My guess is that there is something wrong (Bad Clusters Maybe)with the internal hard drive.

Thanks

Posted by: Ralph at Apr 27, 2006 9:31:28 PM

i pluged my logtech wireless key bored in to the usb port on the front of my 8300 box and could chang channels with the arrow keys and number keys so i think the port is enabeled my box wonder if i can get linux to boot

Posted by: david at Apr 28, 2006 4:22:47 AM

The USB ports on all Sci Atl boxes allow channel changes through a keyboard, but that's it. To load Linux you will have to remove the actual hardrive and connect it to a computer.

Posted by: HTPCman at Apr 28, 2006 2:00:22 PM

Got a Western Digital SATA drive and a SATA to E-SATA cable. Followed the instructions and lo and behold it formated and worked as described. The one problem I have is that when I want to rewind or fast forward live TV it does not work anymore. Has anyone else experienced this? Is there a fix?

Posted by: The Edge at Jun 29, 2006 11:18:40 AM

I currently work at Cox Communications and I only read about half the posts so I'll just say what I know.

According to my sources, only an external Maxtor 250GB and 300GB SATA drive have been able to work with the SATA port on the back of the SA 8300HD. The problem is that the HDCP prevents you from transfering the data on the external HDD to another device because plugging it into another SATA port reformats the HDD. Also, only 1 Firewire port on the back is activated and the USB port on the front isn't supposed to be activated. I don't have any information on the Motorola one because I only work with Scientific Atlanta devices...

Posted by: Cox Employee at Jul 8, 2006 2:41:49 AM

I bought a Western Digital 400MB internal drive ($200)and an enclosure with a SATA I interface ($40) Then I bought a SATA I to SATA II cable ($9).

it tooks all of 5 minutes to install the drive in the enclosure and attach it to the 8300 DVR. I cut power to the dvr for about a minute to force a reboot on startup. (This was purchased retain so I probably would be cheaper to get the items on-line)

The 8300 recognized the drive and asked for an OK to format it. After a few minutes I got a popup saying the drive was ready to use.

I have 5 times the storage that I had with the 8300 built in drive alone. Its working great!

Posted by: Marc at Jul 10, 2006 11:46:36 AM

I just recently learned that the firewire ports on the back of the SA 8300HD are not active and will not be activated because they don't want anyone to be able to transfer or copy data. You can, however, copy your recordings onto a VHS. Then, from there I don't see why you can't copy it onto a DVD and eventually onto your computer if that's what you so wish...

Also, if there is any confusion to what I said previously, the HDCP will allow you to transfer from the DVR to the HDD but once you unplug the HDD from the SATA port, it gets reformatted. I was told it reformats once it's plugged into another SATA port but it might be once it's unplugged.

Posted by: Cox employee at Jul 10, 2006 9:10:15 PM

I have a SA EXPLORER 8K DVR, I saw that it had a SATA port and (I think, could be my last non-DVR CBL box)a firewire port, it also has a second composite connection, there are some features that didn't work

(1) Firewire: I never tried this feature, but it said in the manual that it was not supported, I was thinking about plugging it into my computer and offloading shows I had recorded, but that never happened

(2) second composite connection: This one i've tried, I have a television in my room but I don't have cable in it, I have cable (the box)in my living room, so if I want to watch cable in my room, I have to plug in my wireless composite A\V sender and plug it in row 2 of the cable box (first row is devoted for the living room television), now I have to unplug row 1 justt to plug in the wireless

(3) SATA port: I have never used it quite yet, but based on how things have been going, I think it is disabled

I know somebody who has the HD DVR, the componet video works (somebody here was saying something about their componet connection giving a red tone, I think it's in the wires, all 3 wires have to be connected, disconnecting one of the wires gives it funny colors), but the HDMI (which does work)produces a bad picture

Posted by: gamechaser001 at Jul 25, 2006 2:16:52 PM

Hey,

I have had an 8300HD since Oct 2005. Got an eSata enclosure and stuck a Seagate 300GB SATA I drive in it in Nov 2005. Sure, it expanded my space, but have had many many problems with the DVR. Not sure if it's related to the Seagate SATA I drive or not though.

More info...

The stupid DVR would not always record the entire program. Half the time, it stopped recording early. Might get only a few minutes, or nearly all of the program. Sometimes even all of it, but it was unreliable as heck.

Had a Cox/Phoenix tech come out, and he knew of a switch to change that would fix this problem, but he had to call someone up to have them do it. Don't know what the switch is, but it seemed to have helped.

Next, the DVR was tiling lots on HD channels. I mean every few seconds on CBSHD. NBCHD sucked too with the Winter Olympics. NBA playoffs sucked on TNTHD due to tiling evey 10 or 15 seconds.

Techs came back out, changed my splitters, checked my levels, etc. All within +/-10 dBmV, and SNR of 35dB. So all OK right? Still tiles like a sonofabitch! Even after he ran a test line from the pedestal in my neighbors front yard directly into the 8300 and it still tiles badly.

Had the techs replace my 8300HD with a new one to fix other stupid problems. Around this time I also upgraded my 300GB Seagate SATA I drive to a 500GB Seagate SATA II drive in the same enclosure.

Anyways, looks like a problem out at the pedestal. Another tech came out to check that. He had an HDTV on his truck, but it wasn't tiling for him. Apparently he replaced my drop, and now my levels are at +1dBmV, so even better. Also, he cleaned the fiber optic leads or something.

STILL, it tiles! On the off chance all the tiling was being caused by the external drive, I removed it. Voila! Hardly any tiling at all!

WTF is going on here???

Put the drive back on because I want the space, and tiling is back with a vengence. Sux.

Still bugging the Cox techs, but haven't told them yet that it might be my drive doing it. They're coming out on Tuesday.

Also, this is interesting. Was cruising through the diagnostic screens and found a screen titled "QAM CHANNEL STATUS". Channel 6 and 7 are coloured orange (and sometimes red), and the overrun column shows non-zero for these two channels! The overrun numbers are ticking up by one or two each time my screen tiles!

Anyone know what this is telling me? Could the QAM frequencies for channels 6 and 7 be overlapping, and thus be messing with each other's data? This would cause data packets to be screwed up horribly and/or lost and recorded on this screen as overruns, maybe?

Oh ya, and all my problems with the recording stopping early are back again with this new DVR, but nobody knows how to fix it. Grrrr!

Neville

Posted by: Neville at Aug 2, 2006 12:14:59 AM

Well, Neville, I've had the exact same problems. I added a SATA drive and had the tiling and unfinished recording problems. I just recently switched to a SATA II drive hoping to fix those problems but I'm still having them. The weird thing about the unfinished recordings is that I'll be sitting right there as it's recording something and I'll think it finished just fine, but when I check the list it's only a partial recording. It's like it records the whole time but for some reason only registers part of it. I don't know. It's cool to be able to add more recording space but I do wish it was more reliable.

Posted by: vic-20 at Aug 11, 2006 8:03:09 PM

well i work for time warner in houston if you are having tilling problems then you have signal issue since each channel runs on a differnet band ie. (lower channels run on the inside of coaxial and higher channels on outer layer of the coaxial) you will get tilling on certain cables and clear picture on others. try adding an amplifier that supports freq. between 5 - 1000mhz this should clear any signal problem you have.

Posted by: Shawn w/twc houston at Aug 23, 2006 5:31:17 PM

FWIW - I have a TimeWarner DVR 8300 (non-HD) in Cincinnati Running Aptiva Passport Echo 2.5.066, OS Version PowerTV 6.14.74.1sp.

I just tried hooking up an external SATA drive following the instructions I've read here and elsewhere...AND IT WORKED!

Powered off everything, plugged the drive in, powered up the DVR in boot mode, let it load, turned on the external and got a screen telling me the drive was not formatted, formatted it, confirmed, when to the diagnostic page and confirmed the additional avaialble space. :-)

Now, I've not actually recorded anything yet - but just wanted to pass along that this apparently does work now for TW DVRs in the Cincin area.

Posted by: Dave at Aug 30, 2006 8:34:18 PM

When adding an eSATA drive, when recording can you choose which drive you are going to record on, can you see on which drive a show is recorded on, can you copy show from one drive to another? Also, can the external drive be turn on and off without turning off the 8300HD? And finally, what are the firewire connections for?

Posted by: Rick at Sep 1, 2006 12:58:35 PM

I am on Time Warner Central Ohio. Installed explorer 8300HD today. The tech installed it using component video. Since I had HDMI cable, I wanted to use that. I installed the cable, but no picture. Called Time Warner and they said "not enabled". Power cycled (remove power cord), works fine. Only problem is that every time I power cycle, the output formats only support 1080i, and I have go into "Settings" to change it to enable 720i/p and 480i.

Also had to change audio to "HDMI" in 8300 and HDMI in TV to get audio out of TV.

Posted by: Kim at Sep 12, 2006 1:20:04 PM

I have a Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD from Cablevision. I installed a Maxtor SATA drive 6 months or so ago, following the instructions to buy the cable referred to on the Ed Bott website. Worked great until about a month ago when it starting acting up. Programs would record half-way, programs that had been recorded could not be accessed. Rebooting by unplugging would fix matters for a few days or less.

This got worse, but the last and final time I rebooted, it had a total breakdown followed by reincarnation. That is, it restarted once, then halfway through, it restarted a second time. All previously recorded material was wiped out, all future recording setting lost. However, since then, it has worked perfectly. Perhaps the threat of the new HD TIVO has it scared. Other than that, I don't know what I did, if anything, to apparently reformat it if that is what happened.

Posted by: Henry at Sep 25, 2006 12:30:37 PM

I'm trying to network the latest version of the SA Explorer 8300DVB to my home computer system using its rear ethernet port, but so far without success. Has anyone actually managed to achieve this and if so how?

The box is supplied by Telewest here in the UK and I've been told by them twice that this is possible, but judging from the lack of detailed information I've got a suspicion they don't know how to do it! I've also contacted Scientific Atlanta directly but unfortunately they say they don't answer technical queries from third party supplier's customers :(

If it helps, my computer system is Windows XP Pro based and is networked through a Netgear RP114 router, to which the Explorer 8300DVB is connected.

Hoping someone, somewhere, has managed this integration and can advise.

Posted by: Midas at Sep 28, 2006 3:10:02 AM

You can NOT select which drive your recordings go to - nor can you transfer recordings from one to the other. My understanding from reading other tech forums is that the content is split up among the available space on both drives equally.

The fact that I can hear/see the external drive working all the time - even though I should have space available on the internal drive - kind of confirms that to me as well.

So far - no troubles recording or playing back recorded material.

Now, I need to find a DVD recorder to save some of my kids shows. Any suggestions?

Posted by: Dave at Sep 28, 2006 2:41:15 PM

I am a TWC subscriber in Hudson Valley region of New York. I currently have a Explorer 8300HD hooked up to my SONY 42" WEGA and BOSE Lifestyle 48. I use the HDMI for picture only and an Optical digital cable for audio. That allows me to get true 5.1 on sound. If I use HDMI for audio, I do not get 5.1 through the BOSE system. I am wondering if anyone can reccomend the best bang for your buck on an external drive for more content storage. I know a ton of people will address this with many different drives, but my number one priority is ease of setup. Thanks in advance for any and all help.

Posted by: CK1 at Oct 9, 2006 10:19:28 AM

I recently purchased a 320 GB Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200ks 3.0Gb/s sata hard drive and an azio usb + sata external enclosure from Newegg. Excellent drive and enclosure. Drive is cool and quiet and runs almost constantly. Putting the drive in the enclosure took all of 5 minutes. I then plugged it into my 8300 with the included esata to esata cable, fired up the 8300, and was asked if I wanted to format the drive. I said yes, and in about 2 minutes, I was up and running. Cost about $140. Has been working great for about a month so far. Hope this helps.

Posted by: Dann at Oct 16, 2006 10:38:11 AM

To Dave from Cincy - Have you been able to record to your external sata drive?

Can you post what all you bought and where you bought it from?

I have TWC in Cincy as well with the same Passport running.

Posted by: Bryan at Oct 23, 2006 7:06:18 AM

need help with connecting a dvd player to the Explorer 8300hd dvr. i have connected the AV wires but i can't get the dvd to play on my tv.

ANy help is appreciated

Posted by: Aimee at Oct 24, 2006 3:06:58 PM

Success Story.
I was able to add a 160GB external SATA drive to my Time-Warner HD8300 DVD. This is for Time-Warner in Rochester NY.

Here is what I had to do.

- Purchased referbed drive from woot.com for $55 several weeks ago
- Purchased an external SATA case. I paid a little more $35 to get a case that has both USB 2.0 and SATA external connectors. Thought was that if this drive did not work on the DVR than I could use the storage on my PC, which does not have SATA.

- Turns out its was a REALLY good thing that I purchased the dual interface enclosure since I was not sure if the DVR wanted to see a raw drive with no partition or formating info, some devices use their own raw filesystem, or if the drive needed a FAT32 or NTFS file system.

- After putting the drive in the enclosure I tried it on the DRV. No luck, the DVR did not see it or try to access it, saw no drive light access or seek sound.

- Next I connected the drive to my PC and partitioned and formatted it using NTFS, 50:50 it would be NTFS vs FAT32. It wants NTFS.

- Next I had to play around with several DVR reboots with different combinations of which one is turned on first. Looks like the drive should be on first and the the DVR will see it when it boots. We are talking unplugging the AC power, NOT just turning the ON/OFF button on the unit or remote.

- Eventually I was able to get a window to pop up on the TV indicating it saw the drive and was reformatting it. The reformat only took about 1 min. But after it was done I still did not see any additional free space available, I was already 98% full with the internal drive.

- After another reboot or two it came up and indicated that it saw the external drive and that it was functioning properly. Then I saw that I was only 30% full. Yahoo, no one would figure our local TW would enable this port. They are so anti-customer here that I knew if I called and asked about doing this they would say that you cannot, or start charging you more money if the could detect you were doing so.

- SO far the unit has been working well. I did lose some of my existing recordings during this process so backup anything you really want to keep. I dump to a DVD recorder shows I want to keep.

- My total cost on this project was less than $100. Well worth it. Previously I was not willing to spend the $300 on a prebuilt package since I REALLY doubted I could get it to work. But when I saw the SATA drive for $55 that made it worth it. I see another prebuilt package for $156 which would be OK if you are not able to assemble a HD in and enclosure, which is really easy.

- This weekend I intend to shut the drive down, hook it back to my PC via USB and examine the files on the drive. I understand they are encrypted but may still be worthwhile to archive them for the future. Maybe someone on the web has a cracker for the encoding, would love to hear from you if you do. All for personal use only of course.

- If anyone has any questions I would be happy to help you best I can. I do not watch this blog so send me an email. I found the info here helpful so I wanted to give back my success story.

- Also, I have to wonder how many of the people who failed to get this to work were using an unformatted or wrongly formatted drive!!!

- If you found this helpful I would like to hear so, makes the effort rewarding.

my email is 82indypc@frontiernet.net

enjoy

Posted by: 82indypc at Oct 27, 2006 8:10:18 AM

You mentioned that you back up your recordings on DVD just in case... how do you do that... I have a SA 8300 but have no idea how to record what I have saved to a DVD. It gives instructions on how to copy the recording to a VCR but who owns one of those anymore??? any suggestions?? Hawk

Posted by: Hawk at Nov 5, 2006 4:59:29 PM

Aimee, did you have any luck with looking at the recorded files on your PC? I want to be able to use my PC's DVD recorder to write programs to DVD so I'd be interested to know if you need a decrypter or not.

Posted by: Jono at Nov 7, 2006 3:52:55 PM

Hawk

Is really simple I have a dvd recorder that takes the svid out of the TW DVD and then onto my TV SVID. So I start the DVD recorder and press play on the DVR. Same as you would with a VHS recorder. Yes you have to either watch the program set the timer. Since I want to edit out the commercials I generally record when I watch or am sitting at my desk on the computer.

Posted by: 82indypc at Nov 7, 2006 4:00:00 PM

Jono, I think this Q is for me vs Aimee.

I did not get a chance to do this yet. Its on my todo list but not yet. I also want to make sure I have all the critical data off the DVR on to DVD before I disconnect the unit. I have lost several programs without indications since adding this drive, they just went away, without a crash, reboot etc. No I do not have auto delete enabled. I hope to do this soon and I will report back. Overall this is working out great. Its a daily battle to keep the used recording space from always going up.

Posted by: 82indypc at Nov 7, 2006 4:04:16 PM

I just set this up following the instructions above with Time Warner in Austin, TX and it seems to be working. The 8300HD saw the SATA drive. I formatted the drive prior to install using my PC, NTFS. You will also need a SATA to eSATA cable. I had to reboot the 8300HD several times, but it finally did work.

Posted by: Dan at Nov 10, 2006 9:47:02 AM

Has anyone had any luck in being able to record to their pc dvd-r from their explorer 8300?

Bright house networks tampabay area

Posted by: Mark Helms at Nov 11, 2006 6:15:20 PM

Can you use an external USB 2.0 hard drive with some sort of SATA converter? They make converters to connect SATA drives to USB so i dont see why they wouldnt make converters in the opposite manner to connect a USB drive to a SATA port. Anyone?

Posted by: Special K at Nov 17, 2006 10:32:34 AM

My setup - Time Warner Cable, Manhattan, NY with the 8300 HD box. Received the unit Oct 2006.

Just followed the directions above. Here is my setup:

- VANTEC NST-360SU-BK 3.5" eSATA enclosure (fanless and thus silent)
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS 320Gb drive

Total newegg cost = $152.41

Formatted drive to NTFS using my laptop. Connected the powered off enclosure to my cable box. Used the cable remote to turn off the cable box. Turned on Sata enclosure. Turned on cable box. Took about 15-30 seconds for unit to respond. It then told me it saw the drive and that it needed to be formatted.

Followed the directions, it did *NOT* delete my previous recordings. Remains to be seen whether it actually uses the drive but it definitely formatted it and seems to be using it.

Good luck, but hopefully you wont need it!

Posted by: Rob at Nov 28, 2006 2:04:23 PM

After the event has finished recording, select"MY DVR" from the remote control. A window will appear with several selections. You want "Copy to VCR". You will need to connect the 2nd audio and video connections to your DVD recorder, I use the "S-Video" and stereo audio. Prepare your DVD recorder as needed and select record, and immediately select "A" on the Cable Box remote for "Start Now". You will be able to watch another program while that is recording without interfering. If you press "Watch" program by mistake, nothing will be output on the Second set of Outputs. I mentioned this was my Computer DVD recorder, Pinnacle Studio 10, and I don't think using a stand alone DVD recorder would make any difference, as Studio blocks "Copy Protected" programs just like a stand alone. BTW, Individual Cable Companies restrict using the DVR feature on certain Programming. I cannot use the DVR to Record from the HBO On Demand Channel to record an entire past season of the Soprano's, nor the Monthly Howard Stern On Demand Channel, as the EPG doesn't list these events. I assume this would prevent any "Pay Per View" as they are not listed in the EPG either.

Posted by: caleb wynn at Dec 3, 2006 1:56:46 PM

I just for the 8300HD from the Palm Desert Time-Warner and called them about the SATA. the tech guy told me that it is not legal to add an ext drive at all and they will never support it. Urnso posted that it should work but this tech told me the SATA are disabled.

Posted by: tekchef at Dec 6, 2006 1:12:20 PM

Hello all,

I am a technical support representative with Cox Communications which employs the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300 HD/DVR in their services. In reference to the HDMI port on the back, it is active and able to be used from the start. However, the 1394 firewire ports and SATA capabilities can be activated via a form we send to our Information Technology department in order to activate them on the receivers. Once we receive word we will call the customer back stating that it has been activated. The receiver will then download the update. The way to do this would be to simply power off the receiver for two minutes and then turn the receiver back on and the update should take about 6 minutes to complete and then the ports should be active. I hope this helped to answer some of your questions.

Regards,

Chris
Cox Communications
TSR-Telephony/Video

Posted by: Chris Bailey at Dec 6, 2006 4:49:18 PM

My God people, have you all gone insane, I sure thought I was half way through this thread...anywho, I've got you all beat, I snagged a USB (big blade to big blade) from my niece's two dollar digital barbie camera she just got as a gift ( no kidding I couldn't believe it either that's why a snaged it) don't worry moral nazis I will be giving it back. Well to make a long story short, plugged her in, and then to the puter...rebooted and whammo, straight to my hard drive, also know the decrypt but that that took a lot of time and research so no giveaways there...sorry, but it must be nice to know finally that it is possible right? Can we stop with the crazy conspiracy theory threads already. THANXS....

Posted by: Horuken at Dec 6, 2006 8:32:08 PM

Well, I just bought a seagate 500gb external "eSATA" hard drive from Compusa. They had a sale today for $200 after rebates. The drive works with the 8300HD.

More importantly, HERE IS A LINK TO A SCIENTIFIC ATLANTA PDF FOR THE 8300HD THAT INCLUDES AN EXPLANATION OF WHAT IS REQUIRED OF AN EXTERNAL DRIVE, HOW TO SET IT UP, AND HOW IT WORKS:

http://www.scientificatlanta.com/ExplorerClubGuides/getting_started/4003986.pdf

Thank me.

Posted by: Benjamin at Dec 9, 2006 6:09:18 PM

Can we take the external drive and copy all the program on to a computer to edit them and make a DVD?

Thanks

Posted by: JP at Dec 10, 2006 7:41:25 AM

Have a Scientific Atlanta explorer through my cable company. I recorded a show. Now I want to copy the show on my DVD. HOW DO I DO THAT since it is in the box (recorded) and no longer on televised. Thanks

Posted by: cory at Dec 18, 2006 5:30:23 PM

Is it possible that if the 8300 had to be swapped out for another one that the sata drive might not be recocognized by the new 8300.

Posted by: Milt at Dec 19, 2006 1:00:24 PM

Not sure if this was answered in a previous thread...
I will be upgrading my SD 8300 for an HD model in a few weeks. (Getting a new HD set for the holidays!) I've got lots of stuff on my SD DVR. Is there any way to transfer that off to an external SATA drive then back to the HD 8300? Or use the external SATA drive with the HD 8300?

I hate to loose all those shows. I don't have a DVD-R and it's not worth copying to VHS.

Looking at SA's documentation it looks like data can only we written to the drives as it's being recorded not after the fact.

Posted by: tripletdad at Dec 19, 2006 8:01:47 PM

As for external Sata drive on the 8300HD, I have reviewed all the forums to fix my blip problems. Yes it works, BUT the small pixelation and sound blips every few minutes will drive you crazy over time. Yes it is the external SATA drive causing it and only on HD channels. Disconnect the drive and the problem goes away! All suspected faults have been ruled out like: low signal strength (above -6dbm ok), full format with a PC first to remove bad HDD sectors, use a sheilded eSata cable, High HDD temperature causing data errors, 1.5Gb/s vs 3Gb/s jumper on newer HDDs. There is currently no solution to fix this, so hold off on the new drive until there is one. Likely will be a SARA code update that fixes it, don't hold your breath! I hate cable!!!

Posted by: fatbadcat at Dec 30, 2006 12:25:28 AM

I just added Seagate 500 GB eSATA (external hard drive) to my Explorer 8300HD, and it works great! Setup was a little tricky at first. I almost gave up with no success initially as I precisely followed the directions in the Explorer manual by connecting and powering everything in the sequence directed in the manual. The hard drive did not appear to be recognized by the cable box as there was never a message letting me know that there was a new external drive connected. As I was getting ready to call it the quits, I powered off my external hard drive, by mistake, first (out of sequence from the recommended order of disconnecting the units written in the manual) and suddenly the first message regarding the drive appeared on the screen telling me that “the external drive is now disconnected”. I powered the drive on again only to read the second message letting me know that “an external hard drive is being detected” and it gave me the option of formatting it. So I did and voilá! It started working like a charm. The hard drive is 7200 RPM and very quiet! I have a ton of room now to record HD movies and shows.

Posted by: Chris at Jan 2, 2007 12:59:03 PM

With all confusing information on this forum can anyone just show us step by step how to burn a HD show(or regular saved tv show) from a scientific atlanta 8300HD to a computer's dvd burner. The USB from the 8300HD was not recognized by the laptop and I am not sure the firewire works. Any ideas?

Posted by: Echo at Jan 2, 2007 1:14:45 PM

Thanks Benjamin!

Posted by: Finn at Jan 2, 2007 4:45:10 PM

Does anyone know how to "trick" the DVR and make it think it is connected directly to an HDTV?? I am getting the DVI ALERT "Your HDTV does not support HDCP....". I spoke to Scientific Atlanta and they said the FCC requires that they program the DVR to block the signal if it detects that it is connected to something other than the TV. The guy suggested that the only way around this is to make the DVR "think" that is is directly connected (ie. without the receiver in line). How do we do this???

Posted by: travis at Jan 2, 2007 7:20:04 PM

I have an Exployer 8300HD and I am using the HDMI output to my TV. That all works fine, except: I have recently purchased a SlingboxAV to be able to view my 8300HD recorded programs remotely on my notebook computer while traveling on business. The SlingboxAV is connected to the S-video output from the 8300HD. I have found that the 8300HD S-Video output as well as the Composite Video output are only active if my TV is actually turned on. Somehow the 8300HD knows if my TV, which is connected to the HDMI output, is on or off. If my TV is off, the 8300HD turns off the S-Video and Composite Video outputs. Leaving my TV on 24 hours a day, so that I can connect to the 8300HD remotely to watch recorded programs, is not a good option. Are there any other options? Is there other 8300HD firmware or settings that will leave the S-Video and/or the Composite Video output on when my TV is off?

Posted by: Richard Johnson at Jan 5, 2007 5:16:12 PM

I just bought the Vantec Nexstar eSATA/USB with a seagate 320GB SATA drive with perpendicular recording technology and it worked on the first try.
Richard, try connecting the slingbox to the VCR out on the 8300. I run the output into my Panasonic DVD recorder. I do NOT use HDMI, so I'm not sure if this is useful or not for you. The bonus is that I can watch the same show as the main HD tuner (Composite) or can playback a recorded show (without the benefits of pause, etc).

Posted by: Ken at Jan 5, 2007 6:32:56 PM

From continued discussions with both Scientific Atlanta and Time Warner today, I have learned the following:

It seems that the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD is configured by Time Warner to turn off all video outputs if the HDMI port is configured to be used and it does not reconize a HDCP capible HDTV connected to it that is also turned on.

This means that the HDMI port port video, as well as the S-Video, Composite video and RF video outputs are all turned off. (The Audio continues to work)

If you have the 8300HD box configuted for use with a HD TV using the HDMI port, the only option that will allow any of the video outouts to be turned on is to leave the TV on.

Since that is not a good option, I am returning my SlingboxAV today. Sling Media has a very good idea in making the Slingbox, but they do not have the nexessary agreements with the DVR manufactures and cable companies to make the box a usable product if you have a HDTV using the HDMI connection.

Posted by: Richard at Jan 8, 2007 12:23:12 PM

It is a shame no one has talked about what happens when they take the external SATA drives they have gotten to work with the 8300 and hooked it up to the computer. Are the files encrypted? What does the format look like? ARe the files accessible in any way? Can you copy them to another hard drive?

How about an external SATA drive that also has a network port? Anyone try that, and then look at the drive ove rthe network?

One more.. Does building a PVR and using software like GB-PVR allow you to view the files through the computer?

Posted by: Mark at Jan 8, 2007 5:24:53 PM

Has anyone got the 8300HD connected to a network so that the programs can be downloaded and burnt to a dvd ?

Posted by: Andrew at Jan 11, 2007 12:55:39 PM

I'm a Time Warner Cable of NYC customer using a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR running the Passport software.

I've been a TW NYC customer for 14 years now (cable TV and broadband since they offered it), and I really have no complaints at all with their service. BUT if you contact tech support, they'll tell you that the SATA port on the boxes they rent are NOT enabled and you can NOT use an external drive. That ain't necessarily so. I got into the diagnostic screen on my box and saw that it DID have SATA enabled.

Soo.. bought a Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 500GB internal SATA HD and an Azio USB 2/eSATA enclosure (total cost: $214.00 including 2nd day FedEx). I've added RAM and various cards to my desktop PC, but I'm not particularly tech savvy. Putting the drive into the external enclosure really was a piece of cake, though, and costs *significantly* less than buying an external SATA (eSATA) drive. Near as I can tell, I saved about $120 by doing it myself.

Connecting it to the DVR, I had pretty much the same experience as fatbadcat reported.. followed the instructions for hooking up an external HD to the letter in the S.Atlanta manual and kept getting a "Drive is not working properly" error message. Powered the drive down, did *NOT* reboot the cable box and eventually got a format drive message. Followed the on screen instructions and *BINGO!*, I now have 660 GB of storage space (give or take a few gigs)on my DVR!

Anybody else in NYC using an external drive with SA 8300HD? Tips? Tricks?
I'll post again next week about any bugs/weirdness I come across.

C. Holmes

Posted by: Celebrity Holmes at Jan 16, 2007 4:42:33 AM

I'm a Time Warner Cable of Hudson Valley (Newburgh, NY) customer using a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR running the Passport software.

I have also successfully installed an external SATA drive. I used a Western Digital 500GB internal SATA HD and an Azio USB 2/eSATA enclosure.

I also experienced the same issues fatbadcat and Andrew reported. The instructions on how to install the drive don't seem to work. However, you do need to unplug the DVR before you hook up the external drive. Once I hooked up the external drive and turned it on, I plugged in the DVR. I let it boot un completely, then I turned the external drive off while it was hooked up to the powered on DVR. A message appeared that the external drive had been disconnected. I accepted the message, and then turned the external drive back on. At this point, the TV picture froze, and I thought I hosed the DVR. However, about 10 - 15 seconds went by, the TV picture resumed, and another message appeared saying the DVR detected an external drive and it needed to be formatted. I selected to format the drive, and the external drive has been working for the last 5 days.

For those wondering what happens when you hook the drive up to your computer after the DVR formatted it, and recorded some shows on it. I tested this out, and my PC could not read the contents of the drive. I hooked the external drive up through the USB 2.0 port, and Windows XP Pro recognized the drive instantly. However, it did not assign a drive letter. When I went into computer management to assign a drive letter, the status of the drive was "Not initialized". In order for me to assign a drive letter, I would have to format the drive, and I would lose all my recordings. So I did not go any further. Hope that answers some questions.

This is a great blog, and I want to thank all that have posted. It made hooking up the external drive a lot easier.

Posted by: the800kid at Jan 19, 2007 8:25:35 AM

For recording on to your computer and burn DVDs of your TV recordings, well you have to think 'outside the box'.
The easist option is to buy one of them TV Tuner cards with PVR built in. You can get some of them for about $100! Anyway, it comes with a remote and is fairly easy to use. Once it is saved on the computer you can spend some time on the weekend and edit the recordings the way you like (maybe delete the commercials) and finally burn them (so you can view them in the bedroom TV/DVD, etc).

Maybe not a techie solution, but hey, it works. Think outside the box guys!

Posted by: Outsider at Jan 19, 2007 9:39:13 AM

Outsider,
I've had an ATI All in Wonder card w/PVR on my PC for maybe 5 years now.. pretty cool for watching TV on a widescreen LCD monitor while cooking, but the quality ain't so great. As far as I know, there aren't any PC PVR cards that'll resolve an HD cable signal. In fact, I'm pretty sure that they all step down a digital cable signal to analog, greatly reducing the picture quality. The PC PVR cards that ARE HD are analog broadcast only (i.e. they won't resolve an HD signal from cable, only over air broadcasts). This means no premium channels in High Def as they're not broadcast over air. And, honestly, even if they were, I live in an apartment in NYC and the reception is, well, awful at best.

Hopefully, the hardware vendors and the content suppliers will come to some agreement in the near future and we'll have PC cards we can record digital cable/hd from. But I ain't holdin' my breath.

C.Holmes

Posted by: Celebrity Holmes at Jan 19, 2007 4:37:12 PM

I have had two scientific atlanta 8300HD boxes from time warner houston for a year and have used the maxtor SATA hard drive with one of them for about 6 months with no problems. Starting 2 days ago, the boxes will not work when connected to the hard drive. They just keep booting over and over again every 15 seconds. Each box works OK without the drive attached but will not book when the drive is attached. Anyone have any clue what that means? Has the cable company changed the programming of the box?

Posted by: Kimy at Jan 20, 2007 5:45:01 PM

A Success Story:

Service: Time Warner / Brooklyn
Box: Scientific Atlanta 8300HD
Software: Passport

SATA Drive: Western Dig. Caviar 500GB
Enclosure: Thermaltake
Cost: $192 at newegg.com, including shipping.

Here's what I did:

Unplug 8300, plug in SATA connection and power up external drive.

With 8300 booted, turn off the power to SATA drive, look for "Drive has been removed" message.

Accept message, turn power to SATA drive back on, look for "Drive must be formatted" message. Accept the message for formatting.

After that, it worked. And I've got 350% more storage space! Hasn't caused any other problems as far as I can tell.

Posted by: ElBrooklyn at Jan 23, 2007 7:58:09 AM

i'm right there with elbrooklyn. same setup, same location (brooklyn, time warner) except we decided to buy a drive from iomega and i'm here to tell you that it's a mistake! do not buy the iomega black series hard drive. the fan in it was way too loud and drove me nuts after being plugged in for more than 3 minutes. the good news was that it worked and the DVR recognized the drive so i felt confident in returning the drive for one i could just build myself.

i bought a 500GB western dig. caviar drive with a vantec nexstar 3 blue enclosure from tigerdirect. total $220. not bad but not as good as elbrooklyn :)

should be here soon! thanks so much for this post! i love the internet.

Posted by: gleek at Jan 23, 2007 4:53:59 PM

I have TimeWarnerCable in Queens, NY with an SA 8300HD.

I followed the suggestions I found here concerning a Seagate 300GB eSATA and I finally got the format question.

Now my question is how to find out if it was successfully installed and how much space is used.

I read in another site that if I press the selection button on the console (or hold it in, or hold in the Pause button, I tried all 3) that a "mail" message would come up I could scroll to the right page to get info but that did not work.

TWC was zero help. I have called several times and get different answers to the same questions including the question of what is the total recording time available on the built-in 160GB and does it depend on if I record HD or regular shows

Thanks.

Posted by: Arnold H at Jan 27, 2007 5:17:58 PM

I'm a Time Warner Cable of Hudson Valley (Newburgh, NY) customer using a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR running the Passport software.

I have also successfully installed an external SATA drive. I used a Western Digital 500GB internal SATA HD and an Azio USB 2/eSATA enclosure.

My first post let everyone know that I successfully installed an external drive, and explained how I did it. This post is a followup after using the external drive for a few weeks.

Pros
1. The DVR has been recording all my shows with no noticable flaws.
2. The external drive enclosure does not seem to get too hot. Don't get me wrong, it does get warm, but it does not burn you when you touch it.
3. The external enclosure has no fans, so there is no noise.
4. All caching and recordings are being saved on the external drive.

Cons
1. I did not notice at first, but I can no longer rewind/fastforward Live TV. However, I can pause Live TV. I thought the caching was not working, but I pressed the record button after I watched a channel for 5 minutes, and the recording included the first 5 minutes of the channel. Has anybody else experienced this? (I can rewind/fastforward any previously recorded content with no issues.) I have rebooted the DVR since I have installed the external drive, and that did not clear up the Live TV issue.
2. The external enclousure has to stay on all the time.

Posted by: the800kid at Jan 31, 2007 12:23:54 PM

I'm a TW customer in Kansas City using an SA 8300HD DVR running Passport 2.5.066.

I successfully connected a Samsung 400 GB SATA HDD in a PowerSpec enclosure to my DVR last October. I have been so pleased with the results that I volunteered to make a similar installation for a friend.

I found an inexpensive 500 GB Seagate drive and enclosure and installed it on her 8300HD DVR. Unfortunately, she has been experiencing the pixelization (tiling?) mentioned by others in this thread. It goes away when we unhook the drive.

After several hours on the internet, including this thread, I think it is a problem with the drive itself. Samsung lists a single 400 GB SATA drive with 16 mb buffer and recommends it for "desktop to pvr." Seagate lists three drives: the DB35 series 7200.3 for "consumer electronics", the Barracuda 7200.10 for desktop storage, and the Barracuda 7200 ES SATA for servers and enterprise storage. From what I can tell, each is "tuned" slightly differently to optimize it for it's specific purpose. My son, a computer major, told me some Seagate drives do not do well in a RAID configuration. The DVR specific drives advertised at WeakNees and others are the DB35 series.

It may be that Seagate drives are actually better than Samsung, if you select the right drive. At this point, I think the pixelization on my friends system is because I used a Seagate desktop drive on her DVR.

Posted by: Mike Roberts at Jan 31, 2007 9:51:28 PM

This is in response to the800kid.

I am also a TWC customer (in NYC). I installed a 300GB Seagate eSata and am having the same "live TV" issues you are having. As an experiment I turned off the external drive. The 8300 froze for a while (about 30 seconds) the resumed. I had to change channels to get something on the screen.

When I did that my live TV functions (rewind, fast forward) returned. My guess is that when the DVR is recording to the external those functions are disabled or just plain don't work. When recording to the internal they're back.

Since the external is so much larger that the internal the DVR will default to the external more often than the internal since it will have a higher free space percentage. Unfortunately since we can't control which unit live TV records to we'll be stuck without those features when it goes to the external.

Does anyone else have a solution????

Also, you mentioned pressing record and seeing that the caching in fact was working. I tried that also but when I tried to play back the "cached" portion, even though it indicated it was all there it had truncated the show.

(FYI: I was trying to figure out total recording time on my combined 460GB so I just started recording everything I could in HD. I ran out of space after 70 hours.)

Posted by: Arnold H at Feb 2, 2007 4:18:47 PM

The SA boxes like most are proprietary Linux based Systems. I believe the files are encrypted. You will not be able to see the drive from Windows, you would need to run Linux. Formatting the drive for Linux before connecting the drive to the 8300, might help bypass the protection but more than likely the files are unusable, worth a try maybe.

Posted by: TRipflydog at Feb 4, 2007 7:59:32 PM

Does Comcast in Philadelphia carry this 8300HD? I have the old Moto and wanted to swap it out with Comcast?

Hoping.

Jeff

Posted by: Jeff at Feb 5, 2007 2:20:40 PM

This is a follow up to my 1/31/07 post.

I had installed a 500 gb Seagate (ST3500630AS) eSATA drive on my friends 8300HD. She had pixelation (tiling) problems while watching HD. I replaced that drive with a 400 gb Samsung (HD400LJ) and the pixelation (tiling) is gone. I am now convinced that the Seagate drive that I used was the problem. The 500 gb DB35 series Seagate drive probably works fine, but those seem to be more expensive. MicroCenter has the Samsung HD400LJ on sale for $120 with no rebates in OEM packaging. Seems like the way to go to me.

Re Arnold H's problem with loss of live TV rewind and fast forward: I don't watch live TV often, and it is not a problem with a recorded show. Rewind and fast forward work fine. I think I tried a work around by hitting the record button, then watching the recorded show while it is recording. I think that returns the rewind and fast forward functions. Anyone else tried that?

Posted by: Mike Roberts at Feb 5, 2007 9:40:51 PM

Given the problems of rewinding and fast forwarding using an external hard drive, has anyone tried opening up the SA8300 unit itself and swapping out the internal hard drive for a larger one? For example, my unit has a 160gb internal and I'd be willing to remove it and put in a 320gb in its place. This way, I'd have double the storage capacity and I can just purchase and enclosure and use the spare 160gb drive for some other purpose. Has anyone tried this?

Posted by: joho at Feb 7, 2007 12:33:14 PM

in response to 800kid and arnold h, i am also having the same problem with live tv. i can't fast forward or rewind it but if i press record or watch a recorded show then it works just fine.

the whole unit though seems to be flaky now that i've installed the external drive. for example, last night, i recorded LOST and the DVR claims it recorded the whole hour but in actuality it only recorded the first 6 minutes! i had this same problem with a show that i tried to record a week ago except that it only recorded the first 30 minutes.

i have no idea what's going on. i'm tempted to totally remove the drive and just get things back to normal which would be a bummer. any help you can provide would be great.

Posted by: gleek at Feb 15, 2007 2:41:29 PM

Thank you all for the useful discussion here, hopefully I can add an answer I didn't find in here. "Can you use a SATA I drive with an 8300?"

The answer is yes. I checked the specs on the 8300 and a SATA I drive should be fast enough. Since I had an extra SATA I drive lying around (Seagate Barracuda 7200.8, 250GB), I decided to give it a try. I bought a Vantec NexStar 3 NST-360SU-BK case (a thing of beauty, it even comes with an eSATA adaptor for your computer) and followed the double reboot method described repeatedly above. I have since tested both live TV and recordings (including sports) and everything has worked great for several weeks now.

I am located in Ottawa, Canada and subscribe to Rogers. My 8300 runs the SARA firmware (which has just been updated to new firmware that adds an option to jump to the start of a recording in progress and doesn't dump you out when the recording ends - sweet!).

Posted by: Dan O'Shaughnessy at Feb 24, 2007 7:34:45 PM

CONCERNING HOW TO PRODUCE A DVD BACKUP FROM THE 8300: THE THREAD THUS FAR

Well, from what I can see after reading this lengthy thread, no one is yet able to make a dvd recording at the quality the shows are broadcast and DVR recorded. Granted it's easy to make S-video copies but who wants to. Apparently the DVR within the 8300 reformats any external drive to its own custom format which is incompatible with a PC and each external drive will only work with the 8300 on which it originally recorded the program. If that's not enough it seems that when you have an external drive it splits the recording between the internal 8300 drive and the external drive. Of course there was the one clown who said he had broken the code on how to do it but 'it took too much time' and so he wasn't going to reveal how. I think I saw him during the auditions for American Idol. If he's who I'm thinking he is then he sang 'Like a Virgin'.

I'm sure someone will figure out how to do this. My guess is that the solution is not going to be found within the 8300 or on the external hard drives but in finding a way to bring the component videos out of the 8300 and into some other type of burner recorder. On it's way to the TV it has to be pure signal. Hmm..... If you figure it out my email is day_trader_az@yahoo.com. Thanks.. Andy

Posted by: Andy at Mar 1, 2007 12:07:55 PM

Thanks to the helpful info posted by others, I have successfully added a 500 gig hard drive to my S.A. 8300HD. My experience was similar to others'. You have to turn the HD on first, then the cable box. You'll get an error. Turn the HD off, wait, then turn it back on. Box will freeze for 30 secs or so, then will ask you if you want to format.

I have TWC in Brooklyn NY. I used a Seagate ST3500830SCE (the CE at the end designates that it for use with consumer electronics). My first HD purchase was a Seagate ST3500641AS; it was not a CE drive and it caused the video to stutter. I returned it. I used a blue Vantec NST-360SU enclosure.

I do have the problems that others have noted with rewind and fast forward with live TV, but I seldom watch TV live so it doesn't bother me. No other complaints so far. The cable box does need to be rebooted from time to time -- occasionally the sounds cuts in and out and rebooting fixes it -- but I don't know if that's related to the hard drive or just a bug with the box. It doesn't seem to affect recording, only playback.

I had a series I tivo w/ lifetime subscription, and moved to the SA DVR when I got my hi-def TV. I do miss the tivo interface a bit, but I'm not about to spend $800 on series III just for a pretty interface.

Posted by: a.v. at Mar 13, 2007 12:18:03 PM

In response to Mike Roberts's question about swaping out the internal drive on an SA 8300, follow this link:

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/how20/0ad08278d3daa010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html

It's Popular SCience online. I haven't tried it, but let us know if it works!

Posted by: Alan Miller at Mar 13, 2007 3:52:56 PM

I'm a Cablevision of Brookhaven subscriber on Long Island. I have two questions about the 8300HD DVR:

#1 - Has anybody been able to get the Firewire port to activate
if it's not already working when received from the cable company?

#2 - I have my unit hooked up to my SONY HD TV via the HDMI connector. However, I often playback my recorded program out of the composite video and audio connectors and into an edit system so I can edit out commercials before coverting the programming to IPOD format.

I noticed that when I'm running back programming, if I shut off the
TV, the video stops coming out of the box. I think this is because
I have the box wired up via the HDMI port. I noticed last night
that it gave me the option of "exiting" the HDMI mode, allowing the video to play out of the box even with the TV off, which is what I wanted. However, when coming back a few minutes later, I find I can no longer get the composite video to come out of the box at all, TV on or not.

I'm trying to figure out how to restore the composite out of the box?

Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Posted by: BR at Mar 28, 2007 6:12:25 AM

HDTV PCI-X and AGP 8x cards are available from both Nvidia and ATI. Some of the cards show an S-Video style output labeled "TV", but this is not HD signal...s-video was around years before ED or HD...if they offer True HD signal they will use either Component or DVI. It is possible to connect an 8300(HD) to your PC using the same RG6 or RG8 Co-axial cable supplied by the cable company using a TV input card. After decryption the co-axial cable will support the compressed HD signal to the card where it will be uncompressed and routed to the HD video card (BUT...ONLY on an SLI setup.) Currently there are no GPU's that support HDMI but word from an ATI corporate sales rep I know from College said that it is currently being tested for implementation on 1 model of the All-in-Wonder and 1 not yet released PCI-X bus high-end gaming card...fyi :)

Posted by: Thecableguy at Mar 30, 2007 2:33:57 AM

Correction...the signal is compressed until it reaches the HD GPU*

Posted by: Thecableguy at Mar 30, 2007 2:36:04 AM

I went to Fry's Electronics on Monday to find the recommended "Vantec NexStar 3 NST-360SU-BK" kit, and a suitable SATA II hard drive. They didn't have the Vantec Kit, but I noticed a Seagate FreeAgent Pro, which offers an eSATA connection.

I ordered an eSATA cable overnight, and tried everything on Tuesday. The 8300HD actually saw the hard drive, but couldn't get it to work. I tried removing partitions, reformatting, etc. I tried connecting in the various sequences mentioned above - but I kept coming back to the "not operating properly" error message.

I gave up and restored the Seagate FreeAgent drive to its original status and returned it to Fry's. By bizarre coincidence, they had actually received the Vantec NexStar 3 NST-360SU-BK on Tuesday. I picked this up and tried a Maxtor 300 Gig SATA II hard drive.

The Vantec enclosure and the Maxtor hard drive worked like a champ. I had to reboot a few times in order to get the 8300HD to fully utilize the additional hard drive. I had an issue where audio was coming in and out with a bit of a stutter, but a reboot cleared it up. I actually had to reboot about three times to get the 8300HD to fully utilize the external drive.

I'd imagine the problem with the FreeAgent drive was it probably wasn't a true SATA II drive in the enclosure. Fortunately, the Vantec enclosure kit includes the proper eSATA cable as well.

So, it looks like you need a true eSATA enclosure (Vantec NST-360SU recommended - cable included), and SATA II hard drive. All of this has been mentioned in previous responses. Other combinations of equipment/enclosures may work - I'd recommend others to post specifics.

I'm also using Cox in Phoenix.

Posted by: sonnik at Apr 4, 2007 1:13:06 PM

Hi guys if any of you is interested I have a 500GB external drive with a Galaxy METAL GEAR external case + esata cable included...$150 + shipping

Posted by: Alex at Apr 10, 2007 9:25:43 AM

Thanks to a.v. who posted the link above for http://www.popsci.com/popsci/how20/0ad08278d3daa010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html. Does anyone know why they keep saying in the article to use up to a 300 GB drive? Has anyone had any luck upgrading the internal, or even the external, with more than 300 GB? I tested an external 750 GB Seagate Free Agent Pro drive that I had actually purchased for another application. I kept getting the error message that the drive was not operating properly and to check the cables. I want to upgrade the internal drive, but do not want to buy the box if something goes wrong. I am on Time Warner in Central Texas (Waco, Temple, Killeen) and my box is running SARA.

Posted by: shawn at Apr 21, 2007 9:10:21 PM

Live TV Issue:

Has anyone figured out a fix for the Live TV issue?
I got a 300GB Seagate external HD to work fine--but I can't rewind or fast forward live TV anymore.
I'm in San Diego with TWC and Passport Echo software.

Posted by: Paul at Apr 26, 2007 8:23:38 PM

Can anyone confirm/deny what Chris Bailey posted on 6 December 2006?
I think it must be bull.
In any event, my laptop isn't even aware of the 8300HD being connected to it, let alone not recognizing it. I assume that's because the USB port is not connected at all. If it were I'd at least expect it to report that an unrecognized device were connected.
Before hacking into the box I'd like to know there's at least a possibility that connecting the USB port might be useful.

Thanks for any info...

Posted by: Merrick at May 17, 2007 3:18:32 PM

im in manhattan and got this to work perfectly! thank you!! i now have an extra 300gb to play with. now to figure out how to download the shows onto my computer...

Posted by: hd at May 23, 2007 5:17:16 PM

I have the Vantec NexStar 3 NST-360SU-BK with a Maxtor 500 GB SATA II/300 hooked up to my Scientific Atlanta 8300HD. Everything runs properly, but I have encountered one major nuisance:

NOISE.

When the Maxtor is recording, it clicks quite loudly. Very distracting, particularly as this setup is for my bedroom. I have a Seagate 500GB SATA in my desktop that I know is unsuitable since it makes similar loud noises. Is there a large capacity hard drive (500 gigs+) that runs quietly? I've read favorable noise reviews of the Western Digital drives (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article617-page1.html). Can anyone confirm this? Is there a quieter drive available? Are there quieter enclosures? Does the Western Digital sacrifice performance for silence, and does that affect the recording quality?

By the way, the Vantec enclosure has been reduced in price:

https://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=370891&ps=ho7

Posted by: turkey at May 27, 2007 4:34:56 PM

I tried the Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750GB with the SA8300HD and as mentioned above it did not work.

I took the drive out of the case and hooked it up with a sata to esata cable and it worked first time.

Something about the FreeAgent case that interferes with esata.

Posted by: rooobosmith at May 29, 2007 9:59:14 AM

I found this blog after trying to get a new FreeAgent Pro 750GB up and running. As indicated, the hardware that resides between the eSATA port and the drive affects access to the hard drive within the case, and the SA8300HD will not format it.

After returning the FreeAgent to Fry's and pickup up a Seagate internal ST3750640AS-RK, I had a chat with one of the salespeople there at Fry's and he plainly told me that you need raw access to the HDD for the SA8300HD to work with it. This is the one time that I can say I am sorry not to have talked to the FryMan before making a purchase. Careful reading of this blog suggests that the "CE" variant is needed to avoid the "stutter/tiling/pixelation" that occurs when a non PVR rated drive is used. Back to Fry's this ST3750640AS-RK goes, as I am nearing the point of insanity from the glitches. I can also confirm that the live video functions are not operational when the external drive is picking up the storage chores -- at least when the "AS" variant is used.

I'll keep the Vantec NST-360SU enclosure for the next drive I pick up for this grand experiment. With the unit in the living room, and the lights out, the blue indicator on the Vantec is just too bright to be friendly. I disconnected the indicator LED when I popped off the 150Gbps restraining jumper in an attempt to fix the HD decode glitches. If you look carefully at the internal SATA wiring inside the Vantec NST-360SU, you can see that the SATA wires go straight to PCB mount points that are right at the back of the eSATA connector -- so this is about as raw as it gets.

Just disconnected the ST3750640AS-RK and rebooted my HD8300, running Passport Echo 2.6.002 software. What I can say is that the HD playback problems match what I know to be missing interrupt problems from other experience. It is apparent that attaching the "AS" variant Seagate causes the SA8300HD digital decoder to drop packets. This can be caused by poor signal quality, hence several of the entires on this blog -- but since I have disconnected the eSATA drive from my DVR, I have had no glitches whatsoever. Fairly convincing. Perhaps it is related to the read-ahead mechanism, or oversize blocks of 4700 clusters that the SA8300HD wants to use -- who knows for sure -- but what I do know is that there does exist engineering that can track this down, but that's too much like work for me to tackle here at home.

Just for grins, since I have Yellow Dog Linux installed on my PS3, I connected the ST3750640AS-RK unit via USB and checked it with "dmesg" -- where it reports that it is connected as /dev/sdf. "dmesg" reports "sdf: unknown partition table" which is interesting. "fdisk" opens by reporting a warning of "invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected by w(rite)" so I will be exiting without writing.... Attempting to p(rint) out the partition table results in no entries. Let's take a peek at the first sector . . .

I've dumped the first 4 blocks to a file successfully (dd count=4 if=/dev/sdf of=foo). I grabbed a USB flashdrive and mounted it on my PS3 and copied the file over to the flashdisk. Pulling that 2k file into debug reveals that only the first 1/2 of the boot sector are interesting. Everything past offset 0xFF (bytes from offset 256 thru 2047) are all zeros. Here it is in HEX with ASCII to the right:

0000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0020 34 12 78 56 00 00 00 04-00 00 0A 00 10 00 00 00 4.xV............
0030 0F 00 FE DF 00 00 02 20-12 FA 13 DE E5 4F 7B 6A ....... .....O{j
0040 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00-00 00 01 00 1E 9F 5A 2D ..............Z-
0050 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0060 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-A4 D4 73 1E 00 00 04 00 ..........s.....
0070 00 40 00 00 16 00 DB 92-72 CD 00 00 00 00 00 00 .@......r.......
0080 00 00 00 00 38 3A 78 1E-4B 42 50 55 4C 5F 43 4F ....8:x.KBPUL_CO
0090 54 41 52 4F 4D 5F 47 41-43 49 31 30 00 00 01 00 TAROM_GACI10....
00A0 0F 00 63 D3 00 00 9C 2C-00 00 01 00 00 00 11 00 ..c....,........
00B0 30 32 49 43 41 47 5F 4D-4F 52 41 54 4F 43 5F 4C 02ICAG_MORATOC_L
00C0 55 50 42 4B 10 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 UPBK............
00D0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00E0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00F0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

Have all the fun you want decoding the above data dump. It looks like a very basic filesystem based on raw access. If you view the above with a monospace font, it works much better. For those that really want to hack on this thing, this is the starting point. If I discover more, I'll post again -- I'll check back with this page from time to time for additional comments, so please, don't be shy -- post!

Posted by: Mister M at Jun 7, 2007 10:20:15 PM

I just installed a new seagate barracuda 750 gig sata 2 in a Antec MX-1 case.
I plugged it to my SA8300HD and work the first time.
But Antec said their case is reducing noises...I can hear the drive working behind a closed door.

For listening of recorded programs, image and sound "cut" sometime. Is there anyone who can help with this trauma?

Posted by: C. Harrison at Jun 12, 2007 8:42:23 PM