Shaw pvr expander

[Bertuzzied]

ok just bought that mem express combo. took 2 minutes to setup the enclosure. Got through to Shaw in less than a minute and it the format took 2 seconds!

Now i gotta test it by recording crap hd stuff. so 10 hours of baseball and 4 hours of golf should suffice. hehe

Oh yeah Bell lovers. Eat it! hehehehehehehe

[yads]

Originally Posted by Old Yeller

Yads, dumb question but how did it ask you to format it?

Like was there a display on your TV prompting you to do this?

Yes, a prompt appears on the TV.

[Bertuzzied]

If it asks you to format right away you don't have to call shaw. if it says your external device cannot be used you would have to call them


I LOVE shaw!! woohooo

[yads]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

If it asks you to format right away you don't have to call shaw. if it says your external device cannot be used you would have to call them


I LOVE shaw!! woohooo

I'd recommend doing a hard reboot before calling shaw. It likely meant your PVR didn't get the firmware update. So just unplug it, wait 10 seconds and plug it back in.

[Old Yeller]

Hey Bertuzzied,

So you bought the mem express combo that I linked? Does it come with any cables?

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Old Yeller

Hey Bertuzzied,

So you bought the mem express combo that I linked? Does it come with any cables?

Yup!

It comes with the esata cable. i'm at 3% full with about 18 hours of hd recording right now.

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

Yup!

It comes with the esata cable. i'm at 3% full with about 18 hours of hd recording right now.

I have a DCT 3416 with a SATA input... does the eSATA denote the input on the expander not the terminal? Meaning, is my terminal too old or will it work with the regular SATA input.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by Bent Wookie

I have a DCT 3416 with a SATA input... does the eSATA denote the input on the expander not the terminal? Meaning, is my terminal too old or will it work with the regular SATA input.

it should work. esata just means external sata and anything you will be plugging into your pvr will be external.

from the Best buy website for the shaw pvr expander.

Compatible with the following SHAW Set Top Boxes: Pace DC758D; Pace TDC776D; Pace TDC770D; Pace TDC775D; Motorola DCX3400; Motorola DCT3416; Motorola DCT6416; Motorola DCT3080 (not HD compatible); Motorola DCT6412 (Phase III)

[DuffMan]

Mine is a 6416, and I swear there is no Sata port on it, but I will have a better look when I get home.

[Bertuzzied]

Originally Posted by DuffMan

Mine is a 6416, and I swear there is no Sata port on it, but I will have a better look when I get home.

it will say III on the front. if it does than you would have one. I've had mine for 3 years so if you bought it after it should be good. The memory express guy asked me why they were selling so many of these today. I told him we were doing a porn swap. hahaaha

[DuffMan]

Originally Posted by Bertuzzied

it will say III on the front. if it does than you would have one. I've had mine for 3 years so if you bought it after it should be good. The memory express guy asked me why they were selling so many of these today. I told him we were doing a porn swap. hahaaha

yay, terabytes of porn. Ya, mine's ok, it has a Sata slot. My ext. hdd I've had for a while is only USB though, so i guess I need a new hdd.

Also, can someone test if its possible to remove to HD, connect it to a pc and d/l the movie, etc.

[Old Yeller]

I highly doubt it Bent Wookie, I'm betting the HD is encrypted and can only be unencrypted by that specific PVR.

That's what I figured, but it's worth a shot.

[yads]

I know people have been able to use the firewire port to stream whatever the PVR is playing to PC. Check digital home.

[jtfrogger]

Originally Posted by Old Yeller

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/PID-BDL_V_35SE_528AS(ME).aspx

Will work and save you a bunch of cash. Also the HD in it has a faster RPM speed and bigger cache than the shaw expander.

I picked up that hard drive today and plugged it in to my DCT6412. I had to call Shaw to enable my system, but it appears to have worked.

Now I am just waiting for my guide to reload so that I can search for a bunch of movies to record.

[Jimmy Stang]

Has anyone had success using their own external eSATA drive with one of the new "Pace" boxes from Shaw? I am finally making the leap into HD, and saving $80 or $90 on the hard drive (as opposed to the extender) would be helpful right about now.

[DuffMan]

Don't the new pace boxes have a 1 tb hdd to start with.

[Jimmy Stang]

From what I have been able to gather from Shaw's web site, the new Pace boxes are not PVRs at all. When you buy a PVR from shaw now, you get the box and a PVR Expander which turns your box into a PVR. I could be wrong though, and I'm sure that there will be some new units rolling out all of the time.

To answer my own question from earlier - buying just the box and then adding your own eSATA hard drive works just fine. It took a couple of power cycles of both the box and the hard drive and then I was presented with an option to format the drive (came up on the screen).

I bought the combo from Memory Express that someone posted earlier (thanks!) and it works great. My only concern is that the hard drive has a manual on/off switch, so it'll likely get left on most of the time.

The other thing thast I did was disconnect the LED light on the front of the drive. It was just way too bright, was always on, and would flicker like crazy whenever watching TV (as the PVR records while you're watching - just in case you pause live TV).

So yeah - it works. So if you're looking go HD, you can buy the box for $298 and then a HD and enclosure for $111. Saves you $89, which is better than nothing.

[yads]

The hard drive is supposed to get left on all of the time, at least with the motorollas. If you notice, the motorolla doesn't actually turn off, the hard drive continues to spin.