# WD's 500GB My DVR Expander drives certified for use with DISH HD DVRs



## Chris Blount (Jun 22, 2001)

WD's 500GB My DVR Expander drives certified for use with DISH HD DVRs. See article at Engadget *HERE*.

Western Digital today introduced its new My DVR Expander USB Edition external hard drives that are verified compatible with DISH Network Corporation's ViP Series HD DVRs (digital video recorders). The new 500 GB external drive increases the recording capacity of the DISH HD DVRs by storing up to 300 hours of digital standard-definition (SD) or up to 60 hours of high-definition (HD) television programming. Users can instantly increase their recording storage capacity by simply attaching the My DVR Expander USB Edition drive to their DISH Network ViP Series HD DVRs.

The new WD My DVR Expander USB Edition external hard drives include a unique no-fan passive cooling system and an eco-friendly WD AV-GP hard drive with GreenPower technology, making it quiet and ideal for use in living rooms or bedrooms, while consuming up to one-third less power than standard external hard drives. MSRP for the My DVR Expander USB Edition drive with 500 GB is $149.99 USD. Source


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## EXTACAMO (Apr 7, 2007)

I wonder what the certification process entailed? Probably is just marketing hype. I think I'll wait for the next software version. 4.49 seems to be causing some headaches for EHD users.


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## emathis (Mar 19, 2003)

Up next....Dish certified HDMI cables for just double the regular price.


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## dhclaypool (Oct 29, 2005)

Engadget jumped the gun and used the word 'certified' which implies some kind of formal process whereas the source article they linked to from fareastgizmo used the word 'verified' which can mean nothing more than 'we plugged it in and it seemed to work...'


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## EXTACAMO (Apr 7, 2007)

So then this doesn't resolve the "who do we call for EHD support issue" either? E* doesn't seem to want it and I'm sure WD want's nothing to do with it after it's connected to E* equipment.


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## teetiger (Jan 12, 2008)

Interesting. I purchased a Western Digital 500GB My Book Essential 2.0 - USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WDH1U5000N for about $112 on sale at Staples. I think you can get the same one for around $99 today on Amazon. I agree with others not sure what the certification buys you but it will cost you about $50!


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

On the WD web site they look and spec out like the same drive to me:
My Book® Essential Edition™
My DVR Expander™ 
My assumption is that could have done something: formatted for Linux, no sleep? They do use the Dish logo in their spin, so maybe Dish will sell them and hire people who know about such things? Who knows? Maybe they won't run on a Windows computer?

One big change: I noticed they changed the LED on the front of both from the circle on mine purchased several months ago.:sure:


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## heisman (Feb 11, 2007)

teetiger said:


> Interesting. I purchased a Western Digital 500GB My Book Essential 2.0 - USB 2.0 External Hard Drive WDH1U5000N for about $112 on sale at Staples. I think you can get the same one for around $99 today on Amazon. I agree with others not sure what the certification buys you but it will cost you about $50!





phrelin said:


> On the WD web site they look and spec out like the same drive to me:
> My Book® Essential Edition™
> My DVR Expander™
> My assumption is that could have done something: formatted for Linux, no sleep? They do use the Dish logo in their spin, so maybe Dish will sell them and hire people who know about such things? Who knows? Maybe they won't run on a Windows computer?
> ...


Isn't the difference that WD DVR Expander adds to your DVR's hard drive storage, while WD My Book replaces your DVR's hard drive storage?


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## dean P (Aug 20, 2006)

I have a 500gb WD My Book and it adds to the internal HD. It does not replace it.


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## rbyers (Jan 15, 2004)

heisman said:


> Isn't the difference that WD DVR Expander adds to your DVR's hard drive storage, while WD My Book replaces your DVR's hard drive storage?


All compatible EHDs add to your current hard drive storage for the 622/722. You may be thinking of the D* EHD that replaces the regular HD.


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## h3dude (Mar 11, 2008)

5/14-5/16 enter code: DISHSPECIAL at checkout on www dot shopwd dot com for 30% off the 500 GB DVR expander. 
$104.99 down from $149.99

5/14-5/31 get 20% off my book home edition 500GB and 1 TB and the 320GB passport elite (and the DVR expanded) with code DISH2008.


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## lionsrule (Nov 25, 2003)

Thanks for the headsup and the code, but don't forget SHIPPING.....$8.61 for me making it 113.60.......an OK price.


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## heisman (Feb 11, 2007)

rbyers said:


> All compatible EHDs add to your current hard drive storage for the 622/722. You may be thinking of the D* EHD that replaces the regular HD.


Didn't realize that. I have WD's DVR expander for my Tivo HD which adds to my storage, but I have a WD My Book for my HR-20 and it just replaces it.


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## pjm877 (Apr 27, 2003)

do you still need to get the one-time $39.99 activation to your account to use this drive on the devices? 

I have a seagate 750 USB 2.0/eSATA drive on my 622 now?? 

what does this wd drive buy me over the Seagate 750??


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## DustoMan (Jul 16, 2005)

I'll have to look when I get home, but I think I bought that exact drive from Best Buy a couple months ago. Without the DISH "certification."


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

pjm877 said:


> do you still need to get the one-time $39.99 activation to your account to use this drive on the devices?


I'm sure Charlie ain't given' anything away, and this one-time charge is to go up $10 according to the Tech Chat Recap. Of course, you've already paid it once as I have.



> I have a seagate 750 USB 2.0/eSATA drive on my 622 now??
> 
> what does this wd drive buy me over the Seagate 750??


Nothing I can see except 250GB less storage.

Which leads to the obvious observation. This thing is for archiving programming and movies. Per GB of storage most of the time it's cheaper to buy two WD My Book Essential 750GB drives than three WD My DVR Expander 500 GB drives. Although, right now folks three My Book 500's are cheaper than two My Book 750's at Amazon. Got to watch those sales.


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## jsk (Dec 27, 2006)

It does solve one problem that others have been complaining about in other threads. If the hard drive doesn't work and you call E*, they might tell you to contact the hard drive manufacturer (and it may be an issue with the hard drive). If you contact the manufacturer, they say they don't support the drive when used with a DVR. If a drive is certified to work on E* equipment, then E* and the manufacturer can work together to provide support.

I don't know if it really needs to cost much more though.

The next step is for E* should be to include some sort of diagnostics in a future update (like they have with the internal HD).


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

dean P said:


> I have a 500gb WD My Book and it adds to the internal HD. It does not replace it.


Do you have a Dish DVR? If so, your internal drive capacity remains the same. The EHD is separate.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

I'm a little surprised that WD would do this given that the Tivo lawsuit specifically targets DVR's that allow an external hard drive. Or, this is pure marketing and there is no difference in these drives when compared to the My Book Essential drives; other than price, of course. I'll bet there wasn't a lot of R&D spent on this model.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

Someone who has a ViP622 that has had problems using the EHD needs to pony up some cash and get one of these and report back to see if they work. Or, if it doesn't, where the Tech Support comes from.


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## Keyser Soze (Feb 23, 2008)

From the specs I can see no difference between this and the standard WD My Book Essential drives. I've been using a 750 gig connected to my 622 for about 6 months now with no problems. Best Buy has them this week for $154.99.


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## dean P (Aug 20, 2006)

TulsaOK said:


> Do you have a Dish DVR? If so, your internal drive capacity remains the same. The EHD is separate.


Yes, I have a VIP622. That is what I meant by it adds to it. I still have the full capacity of the internal drive to use in addition to the 500gb EHD.


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## phrelin (Jan 18, 2007)

Just for clarification, the WD web site shows the USB unit for Dish and an eSata unit for others.

It's my understanding that on DirecTV boxes and TiVo boxes that use eSata the external drive replaces the internal drive.

On the ViP622/722 you can move recorded material to the USB drive, clearing space on your internal drive, and you can play programming directly off the USB drive, but can't record directly to it.

All this assumes, of course, everything works properly, which mine do, at least through yesterday....


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## Thinslice (Apr 28, 2008)

emathis said:


> Up next....Dish certified HDMI cables for just double the regular price.


Dish certifies that they're recievers will work would be a nice start.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

Buy.Com has the 500Gb. WD My Book Essential for $99.99 w/free shipping.


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## satgeek550 (May 30, 2008)

All "certified" means is they certify you pay an extra $100 bucks and they throw in there all of the quiet, eco friendly to sell it you, a regular WD HD can't make more noise than the one inside the DVR!!


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## mayo*1 (Sep 7, 2007)

has anyone tried it with a HR-21 HD dvr?


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## UT06 (Jun 27, 2006)

I just bought the 1 TB version. Works great.


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## AVJohnnie (Jul 27, 2004)

UT06 said:


> I just bought the 1 TB version. Works great.


I'd be interested in hearing from you again once you've transferred more that 750GB to the device - say after 800 to 850GB or so. I've seen numerous posts now wherein it's been stated that a greater than 750GB device is being used successfully. At this point though I'm still left to wonder if any of these posters have actually transferred more than 750GB of data to these devices and whether or not the devices are still functioning "trouble free" after doing so.

My concern on this matter would be -- What happens once the potential maximum addressable data block count limit is hit and exceeded? One possibility that comes to mind is a condition I call "address wrap-around" and is what happens when an address counter's precision is exceeded, possibly by bit truncation. If this can actually happen on the 622/722 due to some limitation, I would expect it to cause the entire device content to become corrupted since in such a situation data presumed to be being written to the device's upper storage area (above the first 750GB) actually is being written (but in reality overwriting the data) in its lower (say 0 to 500GB) area.

But then again, on the other hand, it may work fine and there's nothing really to be worried about. Personally I'm too chicken to try it myself, just to find out&#8230;


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## UT06 (Jun 27, 2006)

It'll be awhile before I get to that point. I transferred my movies and I still have 746gb free.


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