# Need to get video off dead R15



## BoJatey (Jul 1, 2011)

My r15 receiver went out and I need to burn some recordings that are left on the hard drive. I took out the hard drive and put it in the new receiver Directv sent and it booted fine and I brought up the recordings list but when I hit play it came back "access card invalid". I'm assuming its because I recorded these with the old card. Someone told me the drives are software coded to match the receiver and I don't need the card to access the list. Thought about external enclosure for the drive to give it power and connection but USB ports aren't active. On the HD receivers there is an ESATA port that would probably work but I have to upgrade to HD to get one. There are multimedia drives for sale that when you hook up to USB the software with it activates the USB ports. So my question is "How can I make the USB ports active?" or "What's the easiest way to access my recordings?"


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## RobertE (Jun 10, 2006)

Unfortunately, the recordings are tied to the receiver ID #. So, short of getting your old box operationaly, your recordings are lost to the ether.


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## BoJatey (Jul 1, 2011)

"RobertE" said:


> Unfortunately, the recordings are tied to the receiver ID #. So, short of getting your old box operationaly, your recordings are lost to the ether.


I would do that but can't find an authorized service center anywhere.


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

BoJatey said:


> I would do that but can't find an authorized service center anywhere.


That's because there aren't any and chances are your receivers are leased anyways so doing what you're doing is against the ToS. At this point your recordings are gone.


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## BoJatey (Jul 1, 2011)

So if I upgrade to HD and put the drive in an external sata to esata enclosure and run it through the esata port on the HD receiver, it won't read the drive?


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

BoJatey said:


> So if I upgrade to HD and put the drive in an external sata to esata enclosure and run it through the esata port on the HD receiver, it won't read the drive?


No you cannot take drives and swap them around receivers. It doesn't work that way with DIRECTV.


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## BoJatey (Jul 1, 2011)

Look man, I'm not doing a bunch of illegal stuff here. The receiver is mine bought and paid for along with the hard drive. Yeah, I put it in the new one, which violates TOS but the video is on a hard drive which belongs to me. The multimedia drives they are selling comes with software that activates the usb's on an r15 and if that is illegal they wouldn't be selling them. I'll find a way.


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

BoJatey said:


> Look man, I'm not doing a bunch of illegal stuff here. The receiver is mine bought and paid for along with the hard drive. Yeah, I put it in the new one, which violates TOS but the video is on a hard drive which belongs to me. The multimedia drives they are selling comes with software that activates the usb's on an r15 and if that is illegal they wouldn't be selling them. I'll find a way.


What you don't understand is that you cannot take a recording from one dvr and use another dvr to view it. They have encryption that doesn't allow it. That's why you get those messages. I'm not even talking about the video part, which technically you will never own, because it doesn't matter.

You cannot take recordings from one DVR and use another DVR to view them. DIRECTV doesn't allow it and that's the bottom line so nothing you do is going to work. I'm just telling you how it is but my guess is you'll have to find out the hard way.


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## carl6 (Nov 16, 2005)

Unfortunately, you won't find a way. The recordings are encrypted and associated with the specific receiver. There is no way to recover those recordings without getting the original R15 operational. Even the e-sata drives supported by the HD DVRs cannot be moved from one DVR to another. SD or HD, R15, R16, HR20/21/22/23/24, internal or external drive, does not matter. A recording can only be played back on the machine it was originally recorded on.

What type of failure does your original DVR have? Assuming you have owned receivers and are sufficiently skilled in electronic repair, you could move power supply or other component from a working unit to your defective unit to try and repair. That is the only way you will recover the recordings. One other possibility is if the drive itself is the problem, you might be able to clone from the bad drive to a new drive and put that into the original DVR. I'm not recommending any of these actions, only noting they are the only way you have to try and recover the original recordings.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

BoJatey said:


> So if I upgrade to HD and put the drive in an external sata to esata enclosure and run it through the esata port on the HD receiver, it won't read the drive?


You have only one chance to play your records again - *fix the broken DVR*.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

BoJatey said:


> Look man, I'm not doing a bunch of illegal stuff here. The receiver is mine bought and paid for along with the hard drive. Yeah, I put it in the new one, which violates TOS but the video is on a hard drive which belongs to me. The multimedia drives they are selling comes with software that activates the usb's on an r15 and if that is illegal they wouldn't be selling them. I'll find a way.


You're just not getting it. That drive is only readable in the DVR they were recorded on...thats it, end of story. The drive is encrypted, and in the 5 years or more since the D* branded models have come out, noone has reported successfully circumventing it.


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## admdata (Apr 22, 2011)

CCarncross said:


> You're just not getting it. That drive is only readable in the DVR they were recorded on...thats it, end of story. The drive is encrypted, and in the 5 years or more since the D* branded models have come out, noone has reported successfully circumventing it.


I'm sure someone has cracked the Directv encryption, but if they are smart (and they are) no one knows about it. As for the OP as many have said you are SOL, you have to fix your org r-15 to see the recordings, other than that you are screwed!


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## Newshawk (Sep 3, 2004)

BoJatey said:


> Look man, I'm not doing a bunch of illegal stuff here. The receiver is mine bought and paid for along with the hard drive. Yeah, I put it in the new one, which violates TOS but the video is on a hard drive which belongs to me. The multimedia drives they are selling comes with software that activates the usb's on an r15 and if that is illegal they wouldn't be selling them. I'll find a way.


How much did you pay for your R15? If you paid $99. you did not buy it, you initiated a lease and the DVR is DirecTV's property.


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