# ViP922 has eSATA port.



## P Smith

After looking into FCC documents, I came to a point of eSATA connector inside of it.
Have you seen it ?


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## DustoMan

Are you sure it isn't just a regular SATA port? There's only USB on the back of the box. It's essentially the same as eSATA, but eSATA is supposed to be facing the outside of the device and not used for internal drives.









SATA (left) and eSATA (right) connectors


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## P Smith

Look at the picture - J17 has on top a "E-SATA" label. 
Perhaps someone forget to put a socket and connect SATA cable to missing connector on back side of 922. Or another 'smart' person (an accountant ?) 'invent' the cost reduction.
Or dish didn't get certification from sata.org ..


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## DustoMan

P Smith said:


> Look at the picture - J17 has on top a "E-SATA" label.
> Perhaps someone forget to put a socket and connect SATA cable to missing connector on back side of 922. Or another 'smart' person (an accountant ?) 'invent' the cost reduction.
> Or dish didn't get certification from sata.org ..


Okay, don't know if I'm looking at the same photos as you are, but I see what you're talking about. The header is there, but the plug that mounts to the back was never put in there. I guess someone could crack one open plug a drive in there and see what happens. Or maybe it was used during the development of the product for debugging the software... who knows. Maybe the Weaknees people have messed around with it some?


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## P Smith

Such type of ports not using for debugging. It's for expansion of storage,


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## DustoMan

P Smith said:


> Such type of ports not using for debugging. It's for expansion of storage,


No, you could use them to do what ever you want to with them if you're the manufacturer and building a piece of consumer electronics from scratch. When the final product reaches consumers then you can lock it down and make it only work for functions you want them to be able to do. Which is what was probably done in this case, but I have no desire to crack open my 922 and find out for myself.


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## Stewart Vernon

I haven't read, heard, or asked... but what is the internal 922 drive?

Is it a SATA drive?

I've seen lots of cases where a generic blank "motherboard" was used to serve multiple purposes... and while there would be markings for parts, those parts might never be intended by the end-purchaser.

Could be a case where Dish is buying a generic board design that includes capability for components that they never intended...


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## P Smith

It's a OEM WD 1TB 10EAVS SATA drive. 
No, the board designed by the company specifically for the 722s aka 822 aka 922 model, as a base used a mainboard from 722k.


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## Stewart Vernon

Ok... so it definitely has a working SATA controller on it... which probably also would drive an eSATA port if there were one connected to the motherboard one would think.

Maybe it was something they thought about, and just decided not to add the expense of the connector and machining of the mechanical to accommodate.

External USB drives still are cheaper than eSATA drives... and honestly, USB 2.0 seems to be far exceeding what is necessary to support playback from the drive anyway.

I suppose if they wanted to support eSATA for simultaneous playback and recording to the external drive OR recording dual-channels to the drive... then maybe eSATA would be better.


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## P Smith

The main chip BCM7400 has dual SATA controller inside. Perhaps and the Linux does support both drive simultaneously ... Perhaps soldering second SATA connector onto mainboard and connecting second drive would reveal how it using.


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## Stewart Vernon

P Smith said:


> The main chip BCM7400 has dual SATA controller inside. Perhaps and the Linux does support both drive simultaneously ... Perhaps soldering second SATA connector onto mainboard and connecting second drive would reveal how it using.


Feel free to go buy one and do that and let us know 

I admit to being curious now myself... but not curious enough to buy one and open it up to modify... and I certainly can't to my leased one.


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## cditty

They were probably going to do it, but cut it somewhere late in the design stage. I think, in theory (my theory), that they were planning on DLNA to stream your home video and then you using DishOnline to get the other stuff and not using EHD's at all with the 922.

That's really not such a horribly bad idea, especially if they would allow you the capability to move your recordings to your DLNA server in an encrypted format that only allowed the 922 to play them.

The 922 was a great idea, but it got neutered and destroyed by Dish. It is a shell of what it was meant to be and will probably quietly be put to pasture at some point down the road, for something better.

To put it all into Windows terms (sorry, it's what I support all day long).

It's kind of like some of the great things that were going to be in Windows Vista, that got ripped out of it. Some of them surfaced in Windows 7. To me, the 922 is Vista, the 722K was good old reliable XP, and their next receiver will integrate Google and be Windows 7.


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