TiVo Community Forums Archives - How to pick a single drive DirecTivo?

TiVoCommunity.com
(c)opyright 1995-2005 All rights reserved
indexcheckTC
This area is a static history of posts in the TiVo Community Forum Archive.
This archive history was made for the simple indexing of search sites like Google.

Pages:1

How to pick a single drive DirecTivo?
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)

Posted by: jimbabb

I plan on buying a Directivo unit.

A single drive is better for upgrading, right?

How do I know I'm buying a single drive DirecTivo unit?

Any help is appreciated.

Jim Babb

Posted by: Rcrew

Don't know that upgrading a single is better, a few less steps so easier might be true.

I believe the Hughes are all singles.

Rob

Posted by: rlangis

Both of my Philips DSR6000's were single drive units. One I got via mail-order for $20 (s/h, was free with dish and activation), and the other I bought at Best Buy for $99 (with free dish).

I see the DSR's on eBay going for $200+ and I shake my head in bewilderment. I adore mine, but I wouldn't have paid that much for them.

Posted by: yoV6cam

whay are they that much on eBay anyway? Some of them are $200+ even without card or upgrade.:confused:

Posted by: SteveGardiner

I have the Sony w/two drives and upgraded it this past weekend. It was quite painless, following hinsdale's instructions it took less than an hour. I replaced the 15GB B drive with a 120GB drive and now have ~136 hours of storage!!

Posted by: Rcrew

So Steve, you replaced the B drive with a 120GB, and got about 135 hours. Is the A drive a 15GB drive? Just curious about how GBs translate to hours.

Thinking more and more about doing my two Hughes. But it seems like I could buy one 120 GB for one unit, and re-use the original drive in the 2nd unit. Guessing that would give me something like 105 hours in one, and 70 in the other.

Rob

Posted by: DaveLessnau

quote:
Originally posted by Rcrew
Just curious about how GBs translate to hours.

On my Standalone system, the hours/GB ratio changes by quality as follows:

- Best: 0.33 hrs/GB
- High: 0.54 hrs/GB
- Medium: 0.72 hrs/GB
- Basic: 1.21 hrs/GB

On a DirecTiVo, they apparently get about 0.875 hrs/GB no matter what (well, it apparently changes based on the amount of movement in the show). So, they get Best quality (actually better than Best since it's just storing the digital satellite feed -- no analog/digital conversion) in a storage space someplace between the SA Medium and Basic settings.

Posted by: SteveGardiner

Rcrew-My Sony DirecTivo originally had a 30GB Quantum A drive and 15 GB Quantum B drive. This transalted to 35 hours. During testing, I booted with only the original A drive and it was 24 hours. The 15 GB-B added 11 more hours for 35 total.

Replacing the 15 GB B drive with a 120 GB Western Digital (WDC) took me to 136 hours, so the net increase with the 120GB drive was about 101 hours. The 120GB drive appears to store about 112 hours.

The 120 GB WDC drive is 7200 RPM (no noticable change in system temperature) and was only $199 at Fry's!! I hate Fry's but love their prices. It's working great.

Posted by: jsharper

Keep in mind that both a 45GB DirecTiVo (stock 2 drive unit: 30gb A and 15gb B) and a 40GB DirecTiVo (stock 1 drive unit: 40gb A) report "up to 35 hours" ...

I am curious if the hours calculation logic is just biased to report both of these scenarios as 35 hours for marketing-consistency reasons, and really the 2-drive unit has a little more capacity than the 1-drive unit?

hmm