External Hard Drive

fig95 · ‎02-06-2010

I have done some searching and I know that you can not add a external hard drive to the DVR. I have seen post as far back as 2008 wishing for this. Anyone know if this is in the works?

callmeox · ‎08-30-2007

There were questions about it in a Uverse customer survey that I took within the last few months, but no official or unofficial release date on it yet.

Kieran_1 · ‎08-16-2009

I do not expect this anytime soon.

bronskrat · ‎07-03-2010

the big problem with enabling this, I was told, is that if it were enabled, you'd be able to order something on On Demand, and keep it since you could connect your computer to the hard drive.

BUT the guy told me the front USB port on the Cisco IPN4320 works. hasn't worked for me yet!

mibrnsurg · ‎07-15-2008

It only gives power, there is no data capability thru the USB port.

Chris

____________________________________________________________________

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-866-912-8216 for TS to avoid Mr. Voice Recognition
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

fig95 · ‎02-06-2010

As far as On Demand there are a ton of ways they can stop people doing that. Both of my cable DVRs let you connect an external harddrive and they had On Demand too....

Just more excuses from a company more interested in expanding to new markets then making customers happy....

mikedamirault · ‎05-11-2009

Most DVRs I have seen that supports external hard drives have eSATA ports on them, and being that the U-verse DVR doesn't have an eSATA port, it would either need to be a USB hard drive (I think USB is too slow to support real time video, so the internal hard drive would need to buffer it before being sent to the external drive) or a network hard drive, and the DVR would have to be directed to the hard drive (by inputting an IP or MAC address on the DVR)

On top of that, to keep the recorded video from being copied to a PC (and probably to a DVD-R, even though some other DVRs allow that), the video would have to be encrypted specifically for the DVR, and the hard drive may need to have a special partition and/or formatting for the DVR
mibrnsurg wrote:
It only gives power, there is no data capability thru the USB port.

Chris
____________________________________________________________________
Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-866-912-8216 for TS to avoid Mr. Voice Recognition
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more
I think that the front USB port has potential for data transfer, and that a simple update could be made to allow data transfer over the USB port, but that either Windows CE or Microsoft Mediaroom blocks the use of the USB port in some way, so being that data transfer is blocked, it can only be used for power

cheer · ‎10-20-2007

mikedamirault wrote:
Most DVRs I have seen that supports external hard drives have eSATA ports on them, and being that the U-verse DVR doesn't have an eSATA port, it would either need to be a USB hard drive (I think USB is too slow to support real time video, so the internal hard drive would need to buffer it before being sent to the external drive) or a network hard drive, and the DVR would have to be directed to the hard drive (by inputting an IP or MAC address on the DVR)

On top of that, to keep the recorded video from being copied to a PC (and probably to a DVD-R, even though some other DVRs allow that), the video would have to be encrypted specifically for the DVR, and the hard drive may need to have a special partition and/or formatting for the DVR

This is somewhat true. USB 2.0 should be fast enough -- the HD streams on U-Verse are ~6 Mbps, which USB 2.0 should more than handle.

The encryption/etc. wouldn't be any different from that used by the internal hard drive.

mikedamirault · ‎05-11-2009

cheer wrote:

mikedamirault wrote:
Most DVRs I have seen that supports external hard drives have eSATA ports on them, and being that the U-verse DVR doesn't have an eSATA port, it would either need to be a USB hard drive (I think USB is too slow to support real time video, so the internal hard drive would need to buffer it before being sent to the external drive) or a network hard drive, and the DVR would have to be directed to the hard drive (by inputting an IP or MAC address on the DVR)

On top of that, to keep the recorded video from being copied to a PC (and probably to a DVD-R, even though some other DVRs allow that), the video would have to be encrypted specifically for the DVR, and the hard drive may need to have a special partition and/or formatting for the DVR

This is somewhat true. USB 2.0 should be fast enough -- the HD streams on U-Verse are ~6 Mbps, which USB 2.0 should more than handle.

The encryption/etc. wouldn't be any different from that used by the internal hard drive.

"This is somewhat true. USB 2.0 should be fast enough -- the HD streams on U-Verse are ~6 Mbps, which USB 2.0 should more than handle."

That may be, I am used to using firewire for video, so I usually trust firewire more than USB when it comes to real time video transfer, USB 2.0 may be fast enough though

"The encryption/etc. wouldn't be any different from that used by the internal hard drive."

Right, my point to it was that if you decided to share the external hard drive with your computer (either network or USB), the format that the DVR would use would probably not be FAT16, FAT32, or NTFS, which are the only formats supported by Windows, and it may not use HFS+, supported by Mac OS, so if you choose to use it with a computer as well, it should be partitioned, also, for those that think they could use it to back up their shows, the fact that it uses a different format or encryption would stop them from doing that

It's probably not something that at&t thinks is worth their effort to implement such a feature

SomeJoe7777 · ‎01-30-2008

I believe the file system written by the Sigma Designs 8634 chip (used in the STBs) is FAT32 and can be read by ordinary PCs.

However, the data that is saved in the files on the hard drive is encrypted by the Sigma chip.

The USB ports on the STB are USB 2.0 and can easily be used to read/write from a storage device, but the Windows CE Mediaroom implementation in its current form has no USB driver stack, so it will not currently recognize any devices plugged into the USB ports.

mikedamirault · ‎05-11-2009

SomeJoe7777 wrote:
I believe the file system written by the Sigma Designs 8634 chip (used in the STBs) is FAT32 and can be read by ordinary PCs.

However, the data that is saved in the files on the hard drive is encrypted by the Sigma chip.

The USB ports on the STB are USB 2.0 and can easily be used to read/write from a storage device, but the Windows CE Mediaroom implementation in its current form has no USB driver stack, so it will not currently recognize any devices plugged into the USB ports.

"I believe the file system written by the Sigma Designs 8634 chip (used in the STBs) is FAT32 and can be read by ordinary PCs."

It may be FAT32, I was just saying that it is unknown (at least to me), and their are proprietary hard drive formats made especially for certain devices, so it was a possibility, and if somebody wanted to also use the hard drive on a PC, it could be unusable, of course if it is FAT32, then like you said, it would be compatible with PCs

"However, the data that is saved in the files on the hard drive is encrypted by the Sigma chip."

Right, the question is how it's encrypted, I think I heard something somewhere about the files on the DVR's hard drive aren't based on the recordings themselves but on clusters of files filling the entire drive/partition, that together result in the recording on the DVR and unused storage, given I have never tried connecting the DVR's hard drive to a PC, I have not seen anying firsthand, so I am not really sure how the DVR records or encrypts shows

"The USB ports on the STB are USB 2.0 and can easily be used to read/write from a storage device, but the Windows CE Mediaroom implementation in its current form has no USB driver stack, so it will not currently recognize any devices plugged into the USB ports."

Exactly, that was basically what I was saying, was that the USB ports do work (hardware wise), it's just that they are limited/blocked by software (by not having the proper driver stacks like you said), in which case, a simple update could make them usable, but at&t chooses not to make them usable

CanTex · ‎07-21-2010

Interesting factoid: We live in Texas (and have U-Verse) but have a summer home in the Toronto area, where we have BellTV's satellite service. Their DVR system allows the user to add an external drive! They're quite specific on what to buy: On first pass, they told me Western Digital 500 Gb.

Here's a more detailed response:

I understand that you would like to know if you can use USB-powered hard drive on your receiver. Please be informed that generic external hard drives that meet the following specifications can be used on Bell receiver: - 7200 RPM rotation speed - Between 40GB and 1.0TB of capacity (1.5 TB for 9241/9242) - Holds a single hard drive (enclosures holding 2 disks not supported) - Plugs into AC power outlet - USB 2.0 connection - No sleep mode (cannot power down when idle) NOTE: 3.5" devices are more likely to meet the specifications than 2.5" EHDs, which are designed more for portable use

This info is not readily available on the website, and the general info I found didn't restrict the customer from using a USB-powered drive. We'll bring an appropriate HD with us when we come back up next year.

OK, U-Verse, your turn.

fuel52 · ‎08-18-2010

Any update on this? Has anyone used a Western Digital DVR expander with USB on the uverse set top box?

randyl · ‎10-25-2007

fuel52 wrote:

Any update on this? Has anyone used a Western Digital DVR expander with USB on the uverse set top box?

NO !!!!!!

cheer · ‎10-20-2007

fuel52 wrote:
Any update on this? Has anyone used a Western Digital DVR expander with USB on the uverse set top box?

Won't work. The USB ports are not enabled (though they will provide power).

Aesculus · ‎08-18-2010

Not true. DISH and Direct-TV have a USB out port for connecting an external HDD. The idea is to provide more space for DVR recording since the STB's have a 60g capacity (typically). The port to the HDD only allows for extra storage of recorded shows, including movies, etc. the same as the DVR. You cannot disconnect the HDD and re-connect to another device to "burn" content or view. You can only up-load back to the DVR for viewing via that STB.

The AT&T contractor who instlled my system said the USB port only provided power for charging devices like cell, MP3, etc. Usually, these ports are only for dedicated firmware upgrades via a flash drive. I suspect that the Cisco STB uses the USB port for that capability, so adding a downloading HDD will not work.

Incidently, I asked the Tech about adding a NAS HDD to the RG via USB or RJ45 port. (That is a standalone hard disk that can back-up or store files on all connected PCs in the local WiFi network.) He said that it would not allow this, odd, since the RG is a router for both WLAN and LAN networks. (NAS = network attached storage)

bongobob4 · ‎09-10-2008

I hope AT&T is reading these. You need to get in line with other providers and allow external hard drive use on your DVR's. Don't give us the excuse about Pay Per View, all the other providers do it and they have PPV. They are encrypted so it can only be watched on their equipment, can't be copied or burned to DVD. It is a place for us the consumer to save favorite programs for future use. I have show series that I record and would like to save. Now if I run out of space I could loose them. Yes I could secure them but then that limits total space even more. Get on the bandwagon AT&T and try and be the best.

RCSMG · ‎12-10-2007

bongobob4 wrote:

I hope AT&T is reading these. You need to get in line with other providers and allow external hard drive use on your DVR's. Don't give us the excuse about Pay Per View, all the other providers do it and they have PPV. They are encrypted so it can only be watched on their equipment, can't be copied or burned to DVD. It is a place for us the consumer to save favorite programs for future use. I have show series that I record and would like to save. Now if I run out of space I could loose them. Yes I could secure them but then that limits total space even more. Get on the bandwagon AT&T and try and be the best.

Thats a good idea, thanks for posting that.

flhthemi · ‎04-22-2009

So far I have tried charging:

My PS3 controler - No joy

My Cell Phone - Motorola Backflip - Works!

My Bluetooth ear piece - Motorola H500 - Works!

My Bluetooth stereo headphones - jWIN JB-TH710 - Works!

My Electronic Cigarette - Joy 510 - Works!

But really, the only thing I WANTED to be able to charge was the PS3 controller. Too bad it was the ONLY thing so far that won't charge! Ah well, that's life!

hpmsrm · ‎09-14-2009

If preventing recording copyrighted material for permanent retention is what is keeping AT&T from providing the capability for an external hard drive.....they've already lost the battle. There are already numerous devices on the market which can be used to transfer SD and HD video w/stereo audio to a PC and then burned to a DVD. We already have one of those devices (SD) which I've used to transfer old home videos and a few of our old video taped movies to DVD. Good thing I did too because our VCR shot craps not too long ago.

Anyway....my point is....if AT&T isn't going to allow an external hard drive to be used with an STB or DVR....they're trying to kill an already dead animal.

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JohnBoyToo · ‎08-13-2010

Late to the party, but I have my usb extranl hard drive connected to my dvr stb, the 1225 is it ?

And I can read and play movies off it just like I can from my networked pc...

but, I DO have a $100 wired Samung 5500 blu-ray n the mix that probably allows the reading from the hdd!

(or maybe I'm off base and youse guys are talking about recording TO it? if so, apologies for the misinformtion)

texasguy37 · ‎05-18-2009

No, you cannot use an external hard drive with the U-verse DVR.

JohnBoyToo · ‎08-13-2010

You are correct... I wasn't fully awake when I posted that

After using a few more brain cells this morning.

I have the external hdd connected to the internet ready bluray via usb and

the stb connected to the bluray via Ethernet cable...

that's how I view the hdd (as well as my home networked pc's) on the tv....

thanks for the clarification - still new to the new devices...

RCSMG · ‎12-10-2007

At least you were adult enough to state your mistake. But it is nice how you have your system wired. Thanks.

ncinsguy1 · ‎08-27-2011

Has AT&T enable adding an External HDD yet?

spd2demun · ‎07-28-2007

Nope.

Bigtex1622 · ‎12-26-2011

Any Idea on when this might start working.

Not sure why it is not working now,

since it does on so many other companies recivers.

mibrnsurg · ‎07-15-2008

We'll know if/when it starts working here first as someone will report it.

Chris

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-800-288-2020, After he gets acct info, press # a bunch of times, get a menu from Mr. Voice recognition
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

spd2demun · ‎07-28-2007

No truer words were ever spoken!

mibrnsurg wrote:

We'll know if/when it starts working here first as someone will report it.

Chris

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-800-288-2020, After he gets acct info, press # a bunch of times, get a menu from Mr. Voice recognition
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

TroulHawk · ‎01-02-2012

Can anyone tell me who I can write a leter to regarding this issue. Not being abole to attach an external HDD to my receiver is a major point, and if the competition is allowing it, then I would say ATT needs to get with the program or folks like me are going to consider moving along. I Sorry if I didn't find it in a search, but I tried.