Home Entertainment, apricorn, dvr, dvr xpander, esata, hard drive

Apricorn DVR Xpander Gives a Little More Room for 24

Listen up, Jason Chen. I know your DVR is chock full of 24 and here is the perfect solution to prevent a recording tragedy. The DVR Xpander is really a glorified external hard drive. It can plug into any DVR that has an eSATA port such as the Series 3 TiVo or Scientific Atlanta 8300 (commonly used by Cox and Time Warner). The 250GB model can tack on an extra 140 hours of recording or 30 hours of HD recording and has a $129 price tag. The 500GB model can add 280 hours of recording or 60 hours of HD recording for $199. –Travis Hudson

Product Page [Via Electronista]

9:15 PM on Wed Mar 21 2007
By Travis Hudson
2,805 views
12 comments

Comments

rfayed at 07:26 PM on 03/21/07
Reply by Email
*

very nice price tag.
Anjow at 07:28 PM on 03/21/07
Reply by Email
*

I know virtually nothing about DVRs, but how is this any different to any other external hard drive?
matto at 07:36 PM on 03/21/07
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 186
Brought to you by Acura TSX

@anjow: it isn't. well, aside from probably being more expensive.

Also; as far as I know, the ESATA port on the Tivo Series 3 isn't activated yet, and may never actually be activated.
G Maniac at 08:04 PM on 03/21/07
Reply by Email
*

The product manual says that if you use Time Warner and the Scientific Atlanta 8300 DVR, if the unit is recording to the DVR Xpander, you cannot rewind or fast forward live TV. Quite a drawback IMO. Has any Time Warner subscriber using an SA 8300 series HD-DVR (preferably in Manhattan) bought an eSATA drive and used it successfully? If so, would you recommend it?
earthling at 08:09 PM on 03/21/07
Reply by Email
*

Lots of information here:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=61

The Maxtor drives work well, especially the quickview ones which are supposedly more tolerant of heat and have the firmware tweaked for the type of I/O the PVR does. I have tried several in my SA 8300DVR and all can fast forward, rewind, record multiple channels simultaneously, in other words anything that the internal drive can do (which is also easily upgradeable).
weatherman at 08:36 PM on 03/21/07
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 162
Brought to you by Acura TSX

Still no way to get the content off to a PC though, right?
Jason Chen at 08:48 PM on 03/21/07
Reply by Email
*
Connectedness Index: 250
Brought to you by Acura TSX

Oh look, another post by Jason Chen about...wait a minute.
Azndude51 at 09:26 PM on 03/21/07
Reply by Email
*

I could REALLY use one of these, but if only my DVR had an eSATA port.
SuppleMonkey at 11:25 PM on 03/21/07
Reply by Email
*

It can plug into any DVR that has an eSATA port such as the Series 3 TiVo...

Ha! Just because we Series3 owners have an eSATA port, you don't think it actually WORKS, do you?

Like male nipples, it's turned out to be strictly for show.
jabber at 10:55 AM on 03/22/07
Reply by Email
*

I rather you not show me your male nipples please.
TurboFool at 11:38 AM on 03/22/07
Reply by Email
*

I was aware that the Explorer 8300 had this ability. Is this any different than any other eSata HDD in that case?
MirDreams at 04:17 PM on 03/22/07
Reply by Email
*

Are there a lot of harddrives one can hook up to your DVR? 'Cause this thing would be incredibly useful!