# 522 hard drive too small



## hounddog (Sep 3, 2005)

With the advent of terabyte hard drives, I seems logical to this ignorant person that I could archive all of the shows I have recorded to my DISH PVR and not have to worry with burning them to a standalone DVD recorded (which I have also done). Just think--having all of your recordings on one or more hard drives and not having to worry with DVD's. Is there a way to attach my 522 to my computer via firewire or USB and what would be the best software to record, edit, and archive the recordings? If not, should I go with an internal analog capture card such as from Hauppauge or an external device such as from ADS?

Thanks for the advice.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Just drop in _right_ 250 GB Maxtor. Or use many of them as a library.


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## hounddog (Sep 3, 2005)

P Smith said:


> Just drop in _right_ 250 GB Maxtor. Or use many of them as a library.


You will have to be a little more specific than that, as I am completely new to video capture and editing. From what I have read, there is no way to digitally archive recordings from the DVR to a computer hard drive, only analog. I guess that I will have to live with that. I am still uncertain, however, what hardware and software to purchase. I also noticed that there is a port on the back of the receiver next to the phone jack that looks suspiciously like a USB port, but I could not find anything in the owner's manual that describes the function of this port.

As usual, thank you.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

No computer involved - your DVR will play from all the disks installed into.


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## hounddog (Sep 3, 2005)

P Smith said:


> No computer involved - your DVR will play from all the disks installed into.


What? Are you telling me that I can take open the receiver and replace the hard drive with a larger one? That kind of surgery scares me (although I have built my last 5 computers). I have no desire to void the warranty. Also makes me wonder why DISH didn't put a mega hard drive in the 522/650 to begin with.


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Many reasons, that's way Dish doing.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Hmmm.. I have not played around with a 522, but from what I know about recent Dish receivers you cannot just drop in a larger drive in and go. Also, even if you could I am sure it would void your warranty and if it is leased could make returning it a rather sticky situation. 

But like I said... I am not familiar with the 522 and I could be wrong. Might be reading between the lines here, but what I think P. Smith is talking about is to use the a series of the same type of drives as what currently is in the box and swap drives out. To me, opening the box and swapping drives out would be more hassle than it is worth and like I said, I don't think you can swap out for a larger disk and get more capacity. 

Then again.. I might be reading it wrong and I am sure P. Smith will clarify if I am.


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

I would think that if it were possible to do this that we would have had someone who has done so post about their adventure by now.


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## hounddog (Sep 3, 2005)

Which brings me back to my original question--what is the best hardware and software to dump the recorded programs from my 522 onto a computer hard drive? I currently have about 400 DVD's of programs I recorded to my Panasonic DVD recorder over the past 3 years and would love the convenience and functionality of hard drives and not have to fool around with many, many DVD's. Maybe it is time to look into a home theater PC, but I still don't know the best hardware and software to get the programs off of my 522. And again, what is that USB-looking port on the back of the 522 next to the phone jack?


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

I use WinTv2000 software to download to the computer through a tuner card. I use Pinnacle Studio 10 to edit out commercials on the files.


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## hounddog (Sep 3, 2005)

Richard King said:


> I use WinTv2000 software to download to the computer through a tuner card. I use Pinnacle Studio 10 to edit out commercials on the files.


Which tuner card? And do you use a fast hard drive (10,000 RPM) or would a 7200 RPM drive suffice?


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Richard King said:


> I would think that if it were possible to do this that we would have had someone who has done so post about their adventure by now.


Well known fact and it posted a few years ago at satelliteguys.us by Pepper.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

So what you are saying is that the with the 522 you can swap with a larger drive and get increased storage?


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## Richard King (Mar 25, 2002)

hounddog said:


> Which tuner card? And do you use a fast hard drive (10,000 RPM) or would a 7200 RPM drive suffice?


I use this one: http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvr150.html and a 7200 drive is just fine. I recently added a 500G raid drive and it is faster in formatting and burning using that, but it worked fine before I upgraded


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Ron Barry said:


> So what you are saying is that the with the 522 you can swap with a larger drive and get increased storage?


I pointed above to the word _right_ model. And 522 will represent by itself as 625.
Well, practically you'll gain no user space - remember the infamous VOD partition, 
but my point was in other level - using _multiple_ disks as a the DVR's library 
[you're right  - 120 GB will be more cost effective here ].
PS. If you despreate in preserve PQ quality, then I saw ppl posted here and there a links to Yahoo groups.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

I was having a tough time connecting the dots. So it sounds like I read it right. You need to use the same type of drive and you don't increase your storage capacity. The increased capacity is obtained by physically swapping drives. (Similar to building a tape library). 

Correct?


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Absolutly !


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

Ron Barry said:


> You need to use the same type of drive and you don't increase your storage capacity. The increased capacity is obtained by physically swapping drives. (Similar to building a tape library).


But NOT transferring that content to PC/DVD or any other medium (which would be a violation of our forum rules to discuss).


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## hounddog (Sep 3, 2005)

James Long said:


> But NOT transferring that content to PC/DVD or any other medium (which would be a violation of our forum rules to discuss).


I really don't want to open up a can of worms and rehash something that has been rehashed to death, but I really don't see what the big deal is if I simply dump the recordings on my PVR to DVD via my Panasonic DVD recorder (as long as I don't plan to make a profit off of doing it). Also, wouldn't it be nice if one day the PVR's were built with hot swappable hard drives and/or a RAID array.


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## scooper (Apr 22, 2002)

Would be nice - but the content providers will never let it happen...


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## Kevin Brown (Sep 4, 2005)

I am not connecting the dots either. If you directly swap the drive, you still need an OS, drivers, etc, on the new drive. How is that accomplished? I think our DVR's are Linux based? So you can't just put a Windows XP/Vista/etc drive in there.

"But NOT transferring that content to PC/DVD or any other medium (which would be a violation of our forum rules to discuss)."

OK, so in essence, I'd just keep the old material on the old drive, and I'd just be adding new capacity to the DVR with a new (larger) drive. No copying of the old programs. (At least to legitimately discuss here.)


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## P Smith (Jul 25, 2002)

Kevin, if you will not hesitate to use Search and read more ... You'll have the answers w/out posting your questions.


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

hounddog said:


> I really don't want to open up a can of worms and rehash something that has been rehashed to death, but I really don't see what the big deal is if I simply dump the recordings on my PVR to DVD via my Panasonic DVD recorder (as long as I don't plan to make a profit off of doing it). Also, wouldn't it be nice if one day the PVR's were built with hot swappable hard drives and/or a RAID array.


As long as you are using the usual outputs of the receiver (A/V, S-Video, Component, HDMI) and not trying to hack the content off of the hard drive we have no issue with dubbing. It is the direct copying and decryption of files that leads to problems. _Legal or not_, we're not that kind of a site.

The soon coming external hard drives for ViP receivers and external SATA drives on D* receivers are good examples of creating a library of hard drives without decrypting files. Those methods are (or will be) completely supported by the satellite provider ... which means if the content providers don't like it they will have big companies to go after and not hassle the end users.


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## robert koerner (Aug 20, 2005)

We can buy the equipment, but cannot buy software to make it work.

When we sign up for service, we get to use their software (their way).

SImple
Bob


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