Product Description

Instantly add up to 60 hours of high-definition TV or up to 300 hours of standard-definition TV to your Scientific Atlanta 8300 or 8300HD DVR. You'll have plenty of room to save your programs longer and never miss your favorite shows.Just plug My DVR Expander into the external SATA (eSATA) port on your Scientific Atlanta 8300 series DVR and start recording even more TV shows, sporting events and movies. My DVR Expander has been tested for compatibility with Scientific Atlanta 8300 series DVRs. The unique no-fan passive cooling system and special hard drive design make it quiet for the living room or bedroom. Designed with a soft amber LED indicator, My DVR Expander is ideal for the living room or bedrooms.

Product Details

• Color: Black
• Brand: Western Digital
• Model: WDG1S10000N
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 6.78" h x 2.23" w x 5.63" l, 2.90 pounds
• Hard Disk: 1TB

Features

• Instantly add up to 120 hours of high-definition TV or up to 600 hours of standard-definition TV to your eSATA-enabled DVR
• Soft amber LED screen is easy to read and helps avoid annoyance at night
• Cool operation
• eSATA interface

Customer Reviews

The Right Choice For Tivo
If you're a Tivo owner with a HD Tivo, then chances are you've come to the right place. This drive is the right choice for upgrading your capacity. It is the ONLY brand that is supported by Tivo, your warranty will remain in effect, and it is a painless install.

This package is the right enclosure, the right eSATA cable, and most importantly the right drive. This drive is NOT a standard PC drive. It is specially designed for 24/7 spinning, low noise, PVR use.

Note that 1TB should give you over 165 hours of HD, not the "60 hours" in this listing. Also note that most Tivos don't recognize drives over 1TB, so spending more won't help you.

If you really want to get into the details of upgrading your Tivo storage, look here: [...]

All my info is current as of Spring 2009. Things change.

Quality problems with new 1 TB model - wait or go with 500 GB
When I saw Western Digital had come out with a 1 TB model, I decided to take the plunge and hoped it wouldn't exhibit the quality problems that plague so many new models. When the hard drive arrived, I connected to my HD TiVo with the included eSATA connector. Unfortunately, TiVo did not recognize the external hard drive despite numerous tries. After a bit of troubleshooting, I determined that the eSATA connector into the back of the My DVR Expander wasn;t making a solid connection. Nothing a little duct tape can't fix, right? I then enjoyed a wonderful month or so with the hard drive and was able to record over 100 programs in both HD and SD formats. Can't stay awake for the Tonight Show? No problem. I could record every night and not have to worry about running out of disk space.

Then a more serious quality problem emerged. Shortly after the disk space filled up, my TiVo froze in the middle of a program I was recording. Nothing I did could get it to restart. After a long phone call with TiVo technical support, together we identified that the DVR Expander had caused the meltdown. The only way to use TiVo again was to disconnect the hard drive (and lose ALL those recorded programs) and reboot without the external hard drive. What choice did I have? Fortunately, the drive was still under warranty.

I called Western Digital customer support, who assured me a new unit would be shipped in 3-5 business days. After a week, I checked its status on the WD website and read a notice explaining there were delays and it would be another 2 weeks. Another 2 weeks passed and I called again. The customer rep explained they were experiencing manufacturing problems with the new 1 TB model and were out of stock, but he would try to expedite my replacement request. Another 2 weeks and another call. This time the rep tells the problems are so severe, the company hasn't been able to make a single good unit since I first called and he could not assure me delivery "in any reasonable time frame." Holy Cow! So naturally I ask for a refund. The rep refuses my request for a refund because it's against company policy. So now it's been almost three months, I'm out the price of the hard drive and some recorded programs, and am on an indefinite wait for a replacement.

If you're willing to gamble, the 1 TB model is a great product concept and chances are your unit will work fine. If not, you might want to wait for Western Digital to work out the quality bugs or go with their tried-and-tested 500 GB model instead.

Nice Drive, poor cable.
The drive works great now that I changed the eSATA cable. When I installed the drive it crashed my Tivo on a more than daily basis. I thought I would have to return it, but I asked on line about it and was told to try a SIIG brand eSATA cable. I was shocked that when I did change the cable the drive has worked great with no crashes since. Why they use a poor cable with an expensive drive I do not know.