Re: [H] Best DVR/TivoHD upgrade drive?
I use a PopCorn Hour A-100, I use it to watch my DVD and BluRay movie collection. While I don't move my TV listings to this guy as it is too time consuming with my DVR/DVD burner, I do use it for all my other media watching needs, I like how easy it is to use, the only plus on a MediaPC is the TV tunner card imho. -Francisco http://sqlthis.blogspot.com | Tsql and More... On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 4:33 PM, Bino Gopal binogo...@hotmail.com wrote: Hey guys, so I'm sure there *must* be folks on this list who've done this.so what's the best HD to upgrade your DVR with, specifically a TivoHD? I read the FAQ at Tivo Community and did a bunch of researching and googling, and it came down to the WD10EADS and the WD10EVCS. Both are 1TB and the WD10EADS is the new version of the consumer Green Power drives they introduced last year; the main diff with the EADS vs last year's EACS is that it has 32 MB cache vs 16MB and uses 3 platters instead of 4 for greater areal density-all of these add up to better perf, at least according to Tom's HW: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/green-terabyte-1tb,2078-9.html The WD010EVCS is the newer version of the WD10EVVS, which is the actual drive they use in the TivoHD XL: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5616160#post5616160 The EVCS has 16MB of cache, while the EVVS has 8MB. These are actually drives that they market for A/V purposes, like DVRs etc. But I can't find many reviews or details about that; and WDs website is pretty useless. So anyone got any experience with either and thoughts on which to use? The Tivo FAQ says you won't get much benefit from the EADS even though it's newer and has better features since the Tivo itself won't really need it, but part of me wants to get it b/c the spec are better (and both can be had for the same price ~$100 w/ free shipping from Amazon). So looking for first-hand experience/thoughts from anyone who might've done a similar upgrade with their TivoHD or another DVR.thanks! BINO P.S. Anyone here have a Popcorn Hour A-110 and if so what do you use it for and do you think it can completely substitute for a MediaPC?
Re: [H] Best DVR/TivoHD upgrade drive?
yeah... 0 feedback for the seller. At 03:30 PM 8/10/2009, you wrote: I use a PopCorn Hour A-100, I use it to watch my DVD and BluRay movie collection. While I don't move my TV listings to this guy as it is too time consuming with my DVR/DVD burner, I do use it for all my other media watching needs, I like how easy it is to use, the only plus on a MediaPC is the TV tunner card imho. -Francisco http://sqlthis.blogspot.com | Tsql and More... On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 4:33 PM, Bino Gopal binogo...@hotmail.com wrote: Hey guys, so I'm sure there *must* be folks on this list who've done this.so what's the best HD to upgrade your DVR with, specifically a TivoHD? I read the FAQ at Tivo Community and did a bunch of researching and googling, and it came down to the WD10EADS and the WD10EVCS. Both are 1TB and the WD10EADS is the new version of the consumer Green Power drives they introduced last year; the main diff with the EADS vs last year's EACS is that it has 32 MB cache vs 16MB and uses 3 platters instead of 4 for greater areal density-all of these add up to better perf, at least according to Tom's HW: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/green-terabyte-1tb,2078-9.html The WD010EVCS is the newer version of the WD10EVVS, which is the actual drive they use in the TivoHD XL: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5616160#post5616160 The EVCS has 16MB of cache, while the EVVS has 8MB. These are actually drives that they market for A/V purposes, like DVRs etc. But I can't find many reviews or details about that; and WDs website is pretty useless. So anyone got any experience with either and thoughts on which to use? The Tivo FAQ says you won't get much benefit from the EADS even though it's newer and has better features since the Tivo itself won't really need it, but part of me wants to get it b/c the spec are better (and both can be had for the same price ~$100 w/ free shipping from Amazon). So looking for first-hand experience/thoughts from anyone who might've done a similar upgrade with their TivoHD or another DVR.thanks! BINO P.S. Anyone here have a Popcorn Hour A-110 and if so what do you use it for and do you think it can completely substitute for a MediaPC?
Re: [H] Best DVR/TivoHD upgrade drive?
Are the still offering to transfer a lifetime subscription? I have one dating back to my Series 1 that I transfered to my S2DT. NOw I want to transfer that to the HD version. Bino Gopal wrote: Well the TivoHD is pretty AWESOME! Note that I looked into it, and for whatever reason the tuner on the Series2 is CRAP for SD and it will look a lot worse than your cable box (I don't know why; it just does; plenty of posts to confirm this). So going to the TivoHD made that SD stuff look better, but I record almost everything in HD and DAMN does it look good! I got a TivoHD for $200 and they transferred my service from my series1 (circa 2000) for free so it was quite a deal. I ordered the 1TB HD for $100 and at that price point it can't be beat! But if you have to get a new one, it gets more expensive, though I still say buy the lifetime if you plan on keeping it long enough... Note that you can only get 2.2TB of storage on any Tivo, mainly due to firmware limits by Tivo; and the biggest internal drive you can put in a TivoHD is 1.2TB (the original drive + 1TB) and I can add a 1TB external storage drive, but there are too many problems with external storage at this point...here's the official upgrade thread; definitely read it; it tells you everything in much better detail than I just did! ;) http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5616160#post5616160 Anyway, HTH! BINO -Original Message- From: hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com [mailto:hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of Christopher Fisk Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 5:09 AM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: Re: [H] Best DVR/TivoHD upgrade drive? On Tue, 24 Mar 2009, Anthony Q. Martin wrote: I wouldn't worry about green at all...i'd worry about noise level...tivos with noisy HD will ruin your HD experience. Cool Quiet are what you want. Then Size, then way way down on the list is speed. I recently had a drive failure in my series 2 TiVo and tossed in a pair of extra drives I had kicking around (A 200GB and 250GB drive) just to get it back up and running. I can hear them working when my TV is off, but my hearing is bad enough that my volume on my TV is always higher than it really should be, so that drowns out the HDD noises. I will eventually get myself either a series 3 or a TiVo HD and upgrade that as far as it'll go. But I'm still saving for that. Christopher Fisk
Re: [H] Best DVR/TivoHD upgrade drive?
There are the ones that Hinsdale is using: **Maxtor DiamondMax, Western Digital Caviar, or Seagate DB35 7200RPM drives with acoustic management enabled quiet - run cool, very quiet (have fluid dynamic bearings), and offer performance benefit due to higher 7200 spindle speeds. http://www.newreleasesvideo.com/ I wouldn't worry about green at all...i'd worry about noise level...tivos with noisy HD will ruin your HD experience. I would consider the Samsung Spinpoint series as these drives are really quiet without your having to do anything specific. Bino Gopal wrote: Hey guys, so I'm sure there *must* be folks on this list who've done this.so what's the best HD to upgrade your DVR with, specifically a TivoHD? I read the FAQ at Tivo Community and did a bunch of researching and googling, and it came down to the WD10EADS and the WD10EVCS. Both are 1TB and the WD10EADS is the new version of the consumer Green Power drives they introduced last year; the main diff with the EADS vs last year's EACS is that it has 32 MB cache vs 16MB and uses 3 platters instead of 4 for greater areal density-all of these add up to better perf, at least according to Tom's HW: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/green-terabyte-1tb,2078-9.html The WD010EVCS is the newer version of the WD10EVVS, which is the actual drive they use in the TivoHD XL: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5616160#post5616160 The EVCS has 16MB of cache, while the EVVS has 8MB. These are actually drives that they market for A/V purposes, like DVRs etc. But I can't find many reviews or details about that; and WDs website is pretty useless. So anyone got any experience with either and thoughts on which to use? The Tivo FAQ says you won't get much benefit from the EADS even though it's newer and has better features since the Tivo itself won't really need it, but part of me wants to get it b/c the spec are better (and both can be had for the same price ~$100 w/ free shipping from Amazon). So looking for first-hand experience/thoughts from anyone who might've done a similar upgrade with their TivoHD or another DVR.thanks! BINO P.S. Anyone here have a Popcorn Hour A-110 and if so what do you use it for and do you think it can completely substitute for a MediaPC?
Re: [H] Best DVR/TivoHD upgrade drive?
On Tue, 24 Mar 2009, Anthony Q. Martin wrote: I wouldn't worry about green at all...i'd worry about noise level...tivos with noisy HD will ruin your HD experience. Cool Quiet are what you want. Then Size, then way way down on the list is speed. I recently had a drive failure in my series 2 TiVo and tossed in a pair of extra drives I had kicking around (A 200GB and 250GB drive) just to get it back up and running. I can hear them working when my TV is off, but my hearing is bad enough that my volume on my TV is always higher than it really should be, so that drowns out the HDD noises. I will eventually get myself either a series 3 or a TiVo HD and upgrade that as far as it'll go. But I'm still saving for that. Christopher Fisk -- Well, we all make mistakes. I've been known to mangle a syl-lab'-ble or two myself, you know. George W. Bush, October 11, 2000 Second Presidential Debate --- Winston-Salem, North Carolina. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.
Re: [H] Best DVR/TivoHD upgrade drive?
Well the TivoHD is pretty AWESOME! Note that I looked into it, and for whatever reason the tuner on the Series2 is CRAP for SD and it will look a lot worse than your cable box (I don't know why; it just does; plenty of posts to confirm this). So going to the TivoHD made that SD stuff look better, but I record almost everything in HD and DAMN does it look good! I got a TivoHD for $200 and they transferred my service from my series1 (circa 2000) for free so it was quite a deal. I ordered the 1TB HD for $100 and at that price point it can't be beat! But if you have to get a new one, it gets more expensive, though I still say buy the lifetime if you plan on keeping it long enough... Note that you can only get 2.2TB of storage on any Tivo, mainly due to firmware limits by Tivo; and the biggest internal drive you can put in a TivoHD is 1.2TB (the original drive + 1TB) and I can add a 1TB external storage drive, but there are too many problems with external storage at this point...here's the official upgrade thread; definitely read it; it tells you everything in much better detail than I just did! ;) http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=5616160#post5616160 Anyway, HTH! BINO -Original Message- From: hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com [mailto:hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of Christopher Fisk Sent: Tuesday, March 24, 2009 5:09 AM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: Re: [H] Best DVR/TivoHD upgrade drive? On Tue, 24 Mar 2009, Anthony Q. Martin wrote: I wouldn't worry about green at all...i'd worry about noise level...tivos with noisy HD will ruin your HD experience. Cool Quiet are what you want. Then Size, then way way down on the list is speed. I recently had a drive failure in my series 2 TiVo and tossed in a pair of extra drives I had kicking around (A 200GB and 250GB drive) just to get it back up and running. I can hear them working when my TV is off, but my hearing is bad enough that my volume on my TV is always higher than it really should be, so that drowns out the HDD noises. I will eventually get myself either a series 3 or a TiVo HD and upgrade that as far as it'll go. But I'm still saving for that. Christopher Fisk -- Well, we all make mistakes. I've been known to mangle a syl-lab'-ble or two myself, you know. George W. Bush, October 11, 2000 Second Presidential Debate --- Winston-Salem, North Carolina. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.
Re: [H] Best DVR/TivoHD upgrade drive?
It won't matter. Data rates for the highly compressed HD end-users receive (be it OTA, cable, or satellite) are so miniscule compared to what hard drives can achieve that the extra cache and performance are irrelevant. A full ATSC channel would max at around 2MB/s (most under that, especially most FOX affiliates), and a full QAM channel is going to max around 5MB/s. Satellite HD is usually MPEG-4 compressed with even smaller data rates. These drives can all hit 80-100MB/s write STR. That being said, the 3-platter drive should pull slightly less power and therefore run a bit cooler. It should be a touch quieter as well. I attached a spare WD 5000AAKS to my SA 8300HD DVR in an Antec MX-1 eSATA enclosure...works great. A buddy did the same a while back with the 1TB WD GP EACS drive. Seems that most DVRs get along best with WD drives. -Original Message- From: hardware-boun...@hardwaregroup.com [mailto:hardware- boun...@hardwaregroup.com] On Behalf Of Bino Gopal Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 6:33 PM To: hardware@hardwaregroup.com Subject: [H] Best DVR/TivoHD upgrade drive? *snip* So anyone got any experience with either and thoughts on which to use? The Tivo FAQ says you won't get much benefit from the EADS even though it's newer and has better features since the Tivo itself won't really need it, but part of me wants to get it b/c the spec are better (and both can be had for the same price ~$100 w/ free shipping from Amazon). So looking for first-hand experience/thoughts from anyone who might've done a similar upgrade with their TivoHD or another DVR.thanks!