# External Hard Drive for 622 - 3rd Party Hardware?



## mark069 (Jan 10, 2007)

Since Dish Network has been dragging their feet for two years about introducing external hard drive support is anyone aware of any 3rd party solutions to this problem? I keep having to erase content on my 622 to make room for newer stuff....


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

None other than DVDR that I am aware of.


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

You do realize that hard drive space is like a closet, no matter how big it always fills up. If you had the ability to store 100 hours of HD you would still be erasing things to make room. 

Or were you planning to buy external after external as one fills up?

Date of the 622 review is only 02-23-06. Just curious if I am remembering the release date of the 622 wrong?


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

The ViP-622 DVR was released in February 2006 ... a little more than a year ago.


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## Stewart Vernon (Jan 7, 2005)

The "years" the original poster is talking about could possibly refer to similar support for the older receivers like the 921/942 models perhaps?

In any event... it would be hard for a 3rd party to come up with something for which Dish has not enabled support... so I think we have to all just be a little more patient. Dish is juggling a lot of balls right now to try and keep us all happy, so I'd be surprised if it was much longer before we see the external hard drive support enabled.

I have NO insider knowledge mind you... just the fact that they mentioned it on the last chat and the one before it too I believe.


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## mark069 (Jan 10, 2007)

Ron Barry said:


> None other than DVDR that I am aware of.


What's DVDR? Are you referring to a DVD recorder? If so, would that really be a solution for me since all of my recorded DVR content is HD?


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## mark069 (Jan 10, 2007)

HDMe said:


> The "years" the original poster is talking about could possibly refer to similar support for the older receivers like the 921/942 models perhaps?
> 
> In any event... it would be hard for a 3rd party to come up with something for which Dish has not enabled support... so I think we have to all just be a little more patient. Dish is juggling a lot of balls right now to try and keep us all happy, so I'd be surprised if it was much longer before we see the external hard drive support enabled.
> 
> I have NO insider knowledge mind you... just the fact that they mentioned it on the last chat and the one before it too I believe.


I guess it's only been a year - seems like they have been promising it for longer than that though....

I guess I was thinking that some third party vendor hacked into the 622 and sells a solution that way.....


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## James Long (Apr 17, 2003)

mark069 said:


> I guess I was thinking that some third party vendor hacked into the 622 and sells a solution that way.....


There is a third party vendor that has hacked inside of a 622 (and previous HD receivers) but that hack is limited to streaming LIVE satellite signals out to a PC. You cannot use it to dub from your DVR hard drive to your PC hard drive - but you could set up your PC to be a DVR and record live programming.

You do need to OWN any receiver that this 'hack' is done to. And, of course, it will only allow you to view and record programming you subscribe to. It isn't one of those program stealing hacks.


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## BobaBird (Mar 31, 2002)

mark069 said:


> I guess it's only been a year - seems like they have been promising it for longer than that though....


It's been at least two, with actual intent announced for the 942 as HDMe suggested. I put a brief timeline on a new EKB page I slapped together last week.

http://ekb.dbstalk.com/byodvr.htm

The page is very brief, especially compared to the amount of discussion on the topic :grin: . I think it hits the main points, though I didn't re-read the threads. I'd appreciate any feedback with corrections or missing info.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

I added the link to the tips Sticky Useful Tips thread BobaBird.


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

mark069 said:


> What's DVDR? Are you referring to a DVD recorder? If so, would that really be a solution for me since all of my recorded DVR content is HD?


Well since there are no good HD recorders. There are HD capture devices that can be fed from HDMI or Component. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.

A HD source fed into a DVD recorder makes a nice quality recording. Much better that a SD channel provides. I find that the 622 seems to squeeze the Video on the S-Video output as well as zoom it slightly. If I feed it into my MCE PC or DVD Recorder and hit the fill button on my TV then it fills the screen and looks like the proper AR. YMMV.

Edit:
The other nice thing about making a DVD is it is portable. it is pretty permanent. Hard drives. It is only when not if they will die. Note if I plan to play back a DVD made this wy on a 4:3 Tv then I have to hit zoom on the 622s remote once or it will look to narrow on the SD TV.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

To follow on TBoneit comments. correct it would not be HD. If you want more HD capacity you will need to wait for the external USB support. Lot of people use DVDRs with their 622s so that is why I mentioned it.


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

just a follow up on things.

Any drive that is powered up such as an external USB drive will die, sooner or later. 

Beyond that I work in a computer repair/sales. We get people bringing in their external drives on a regular basis. Why they bring them is to see if we can get their data back after they stop working.
Major mistake is putting your picture on the computer and re-using the memory card and not making two CDs of the pictures.

Add in the ones that died after being dropped....

If you are using more than one then the chance of dropping the drive is there. 

Thus I regard Hard disc drives as temporary storage. Want to be sure to keep somethign treasured, Back it up.

Anyone want to bet people start placing the externals on top of the 622?

Just to clear any misconceptions: I wasn't trying to imply the recorder is recording HD, However if I record 16:9 content. I can hit my TV sets Fill button, it will then fill the screen in the proper AR and look good. OTH if I hit zoom so it looks good on a SD 4:3 set it will be proper Ar already and if I hit the fill button on the HDTV then the picture is to wide so sometimes I do a cap both ways.

Cheers


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## allargon (May 3, 2007)

We all understand this one. The only thing that comes to mind is to capture the HD video on a computer then convert it to Xvid and burn it onto standard DVD+-R or VC-1 for HD-DVD/BluRay (if you've got a $500 burner).

It takes me awhile to gut my 625 to DVD, but I know I can. My 622 fills up much more quickly (30 hours of HD as opposed to 100 hours of sd on the 625--yeah I can put more SD on the 622 than the 625--yawn!) than my 625.

I'm greedily rubbing my hands together waiting to see the update for the 622. I wonder if they will limit it to single 500GB external USB drives or allow us to add multi-TB arrays for some serious media serving!


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## SaltiDawg (Aug 30, 2004)

allargon said:


> ...I wonder if they will limit it to single 500GB external USB drives or allow us to add multi-TB arrays for some serious media serving!


I believe I've read a single drive, up to 750Gig ...


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Yeah.. That is my understanding too SaltiDawg though I believe you could have multiple USB drives and then just swap them. Poor mans array.


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## CALI_WATCHER (Mar 22, 2007)

I know that would be great for me. Was at Fry's last night and they had one for $120 (500 GB). I am using it for backups and archiving older files off my hard drive. Once I clean it up, off to Double Layer DVDs for perm archive..

Anyway, I know the one complain my wife has is the limitation of HD material on the DVR... the 500GB drive would definitely help!


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## allargon (May 3, 2007)

CALI_WATCHER said:


> I know that would be great for me. Was at Fry's last night and they had one for $120 (500 GB). I am using it for backups and archiving older files off my hard drive. Once I clean it up, off to Double Layer DVDs for perm archive..
> 
> Anyway, I know the one complain my wife has is the limitation of HD material on the DVR... the 500GB drive would definitely help!


Dual layers? Those puppies are pricey! They're like $2 apiece. I usually just do an hour of best quality DVD+/-R on single layer for $0.19. However, for sports and movies, I could understand. Are you putting Xvid stuff on them or just standard definition MPEG2 DVD?


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

Last batch of Verbatim +R DLs I bought was $29.95 for 20 = $1.50 per. I use them since I have a HDTV I want the best quality. If I capture into the computer and author I do a 2 hour movie on one DL to keep the bitrate up. Otherwise for ease of use I use the DVD recorder.

Just one detail to check out. I need to try a unzoomed S-Video out and be sure I can reflag it to show proper AR. That should give a little better quality in one way since the image will be narrower the bitrate could be lower or just give better results than one zoom press to record in the proper AR but then more image for teh same bitrate.

Am I the only one that noties that the S-Video out looks more like a square on SD for example unless I hit the remotes Zoom button?


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