Western Digital My DVR Expander

Western Digital WDG1S5000VN 500GB My DVR Expander Hard Drive

One of the greatest inventions for anyone who loves television is the DVR cable box. It allows you to digitally record two shows at the same time or watch one while recording another. They are menu driven so the days of manually programming your VCR are long gone. My cable company uses the popular Scientif Atlanta 8300 HD for cable access. It is great and provides a crisp, clear 1080i video through its HDMI output. The one limitation is it holds only a meager 20 hours of programming. This may seem like a lot but for the avid TV fan it can fill up in less that a couple of weeks. The answer is to get an extender. This is a eSATA external hard drive that will add about 60 more hours of HD or 300 hours of standard programming. It is easy to install, just plug it in to the cable box, format and go through a fast setup and you are up and running. Before you add an extender check with your cable company to make sure what model extenders are compatible with your cable box.

Installation was amazingly simple. First you shut off and unplug the cable box. Then plug in the extender and connect the eSATA cables to both it and the DVR. Turn on the DVR rebooting it. Once the reboot is done go to the DVR menu. You will see a notice that a compatible external hard drive has been detected and ask if you want to format the new drive. Answer yes and after a short forming the cable box will reboot again. Now just go back into the DVR menu and check the space remaining and it will be a lot larger than before. I was down to 94% with 24 hours of programming an after the installation had only 23% used.

Add My DVR Expander is a 500GB Hard-Drive from WD designed to connect to your eSATA-enabled DVR to instantly add space for up to 60 hours of High-Definition or 300 hours of standard definition TV. Just plug it in to your eSATA-enabled 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 and has been Tivo verified compatible with TiVo Series 3 and TiVo HD DVRs. A unique no-fan passive cooling system and special Hard Drive design makes it quiet for the living room or bedroom. Designed with a soft amber LED indicator, this expander is ideal for placement in any room. 500GB maximum Storage capacity (up to 300 hours of SDTV; up to 60 hours of HDTV)
eSATA interface - rapid data-transfer rates up to 3 GB per second
7200 RPM for fast read/write times
Soft amber LED screen is easy to read and helps avoid annoyance at night
Cool operation
Works quietly
Includes eSATA cable, AC Adapter and quick-installation guide
Note: The Western Digital WDG1S5000VN 500GB My DVR Expander Hard Drive is not intended to be an archival or portable storage device; MyDVR is exclusively designed to expand the recording capacity of a single DVR with an eSATA connection port
System Compatibility - Scientific Atlanta: Tested for compatibility with Explorer 8300 Series DVRs 8300, 8300 HD, 8300 MR, and 8300 HD-MR Digital Video Recorders / TiVo: TiVo verified compatible with TiVo Series-3 and TiVo HD Digital Video Recorders
Dimensions: Height 6.78" x Length 5.63" x Width 2.23" (172.2x143.0x56.7mm)
Weight: 2.6 pounds (1.2 kg)