Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD external hard drive

[Rhino Chaser]

After voicing my frustration with the 8000HD to my cable company (Astound: www.astound.net), I was given an 8300HD as a replacement.

Along with worthless search functions, I have always been frustrated with the amount of drive space available on these boxes. 160GB is just not enough room for HD recordings and I would frequently limit out my drive space and have to delete unseen shows to make room for other recordings.

While I was installing the 8300 I noticed a serial ATA cable port on the back which piqued my curiosity so I did some research on the net and eventually found a manual with a solid set of simple directions.

I followed the directions that I found in this manual which I will post a link to below and by using a 300GB external drive my space went from 79% full to 26% full. Although it had to come out of my pocket this feature has increased the versatility of this box in my eyes.

So, if you have an 8300HD and are not with Time Warner (Peench), then here is a link to the instructions/drive specs. See page 22:
http://www.cox.com/support/digitalca...20connects.pdf

I found other references scattered around the web, however these were the clearest instructions that I found so far, more importantly they worked! This looks like it may be old news, but I figured that I would share it here anyway. The best part of this whole experiment was that with a 30 day return policy at Fry’s I really had nothing to lose!

[Peench]

Awesome work Rhino!! I looked into adding another drive when I got the 8300HD's for my house but for whatever reason the software that Time Warner uses doesn't allow it.

We've become fairly adept at deleting stuff so I guess its not that big of a deal, but I'd love to be able to queue up loads of HD stuff and then watch it or keep it at my leisure. Thanks for passing on the instructions Rhino!

[Rhino Chaser]

No worries bro, just another way to waste $!

I will say one thing this drive is loud! I can definitely hear the difference between the internal drive and the external drive.

Also, I looked around and found this:

Frequently Asked Questions:


Is this external drive compatible* with all cable companies' 8300HD's?

No. It works with many companies/8300HD boxes, but not all. It depends primarily on which software is running on your box.. Cable boxes that run the SARA software are fully compatible, those that run the Passport software are not. For example all Cox cable subscribers with the 8300HD are fully compatible. To check which software is on your box:

Go into Diagnostic Mode. There are two ways to enter the Diagnostic Mode:

Press and hold the Select button on the front of the unit until the Mail light starts to flash, then press the INFO button.

Press and hold the Pause button on the remote until the Mail light starts to flash (around 10-15 seconds), then press the Page Up (-) button.

Scroll through the pages until you see SARA or PASSPORT listed. If you see SARA, then your box is compatible!
Known to work with Cox Cable, Cablevision, Time Warner cable, Comcast, WOW Cable, Brighthouse Cable & Adelphia in most areas.

Our commitment to you, if you check the follow the instructions above, we guarantee our system to work with your SA 8300HD running SARA software or your money back!

They list your company....I found them early in my search, but they were more expensive than what I put together. It must be different in your area. I called my cable company and the techs were like WTF are you talking about? So I talked to them some more and then they were like, hey call back if you can get that to work, which I reiterated to them as: "so I have your permission to do this?" Which I was hoping would indemnify me if this experiment happened to go awry.

Here is the link: http://discountechnology.com/eSATA-H...GB?category=12

[BrewCityUpstart]

Peench, check this out http://www.milwaukeehdtv.org/forums/...ead.php?t=6538

[Peench]

Unfortunately I am positive that I have the Passport software installed on my 8300's.

Another way to tell what software you have is to reboot your DVR. You do that by holding down the power button. I've done this a few times and when it reboots, there is a huge PASSPORT logo and stuff while its loading.

Seems like San Diego Time Warner is different than the rest of the Country for some reason. I've run into this issue before when dealing with Road Runner problems. It is very strange to me. And to add insult to injury apparently its so hard for people to get into this market that I'll probably never see FIOS here either.

Oh well. If I really wanted to archive stuff that badly I'd build an HTPC. Maybe I'll do that with Vista... hm.....

[RISC_Taker]

Peench:

You don't actually need a full blown HTPC. I was recently in an episode of a National Geographic show called Seconds From Disaster. It was about Titanic. My girl friend is the "Frozen Irish Mommy" floating by a lifeboat holding her popsicle baby near the end of the Titanic movie some of you may have seen so the extras call each other about anything Titanic that is being filmed. Anyhow I DVR'd the Seconds From Disaster and wanted to get it off my Time Warner Explorer HD box. I was able to do it no problem with a very cheap external Pinnacle box.

Time Warner now will rent you an external drive for you box as well.

I have built a number of HTPC's to experiment, and the problem is an HD card for full resolution captures.



RT

[Peench]

Risc - thanks for the info. I checked into external drives a year or so ago and learned that the Passport software on my box prevented me from using an external. But if that has changed that would be very cool.

Props to your Girflriend. Did she say that water was freezing arse cold!! Dang, I don't know that I woulda been able to do that!

[Rhino Chaser]

I returned everything this weekend. My system started getting glitchy (thank you Frys!).

There was intermittent audio/video stutter a few recording also were only 8 minutes long, and my box froze twice.

I may try again later, all of the extra space was great, but not if I had to sacrifice picture and audio quality.

[Crippler]

Man, I wish I could use an external also. I have the Passport Echo software too. My hard drive space has decreased since the migration from the TV Guide software to Passport Echo 2 months ago here on RCN. Just enable it and allow us to use it. I'm running a Motorola 6412.

[RISC_Taker]

Heh Peench...The water was heated to 79 degrees she says.

But she also said after spending hours in it, it still got a little chilly.



RT