External SATA Drive for your 8300HD (WOW Yes, TW No)

[nicholc2]

FYI to anyone out there that cares.

I have TW and the 8300HD. I decided to see if the external SATA port was active on the unit since it supports the addition of the extra drive according to Scientific Atlanta. Alas, the software that TW uses for the 8300 (Passport) does not recognize the drive. I DVR quite a bit of stuff and could really use the extra storage. Think TW will ever update their unit to allow this? Seems like kind of a waste.

For all you WOW folks, however, this DOES work. I have a co-worker that has the 8300 and WOW and he took my drive to his house and it immediately recognized the drive (after a reboot of the unit) and asked if he wanted to format it. So those of you who have WOW can take advantage of this. Considering that WOW has ABC/FOX in HD now, that's a nice bonus for those of us who use the DVR feature extensively. From what I can tell, it looks like WOW uses the builtin software from SA so that would explain why the drive was recognized.

[TheCableGuy]

The SATA port on the back of the 8300 is active in TWC, I have a couple techs that I showed them how to hook it up and it is working fine. So...I'm not sure if your unit has a problem, but it is active.

[nicholc2]

Really? I did exactly what my friend did. Unplug the 8300, plug in the hard drive, connect the SATA to SATA II cable, plug in the 8300. It booted up and never asked me to do the drive format. Never acted like it recognized the drive at all.

Other than that, I am at a loss. Did your friend's units have the Passport software as well?

UPDATE:

I tried it again when I got home and got the same result. After the boot process occurred, I turned on the power and saw the "Passport.Echo" startup screen. At no time was the drive identified or was I asked to format it. I did some research and it would seem that this is pretty standard with the Passport software. Do your friends, perhaps, have different software running on their units?

[scottc98]

Is the 8300 for WOW SARA or Passport? And does anyone know if either provider has firewire on their HD DVR's?

[nicholc2]

From what I could tell in watching his boot up, it's Scientific Atlanta's own software. Doesn't look like WOW actually modifies it much if at all. I'm guessing that's why his worked. I'm not sure if SARA is Scientific's software or not. Anyone?

[TheCableGuy]

TWC's 8300HD-DVR has Passport Echo, sw version 1.8.112 on them. Clarification and my bad, the tech that told me his was working lives in another cable system. As for the IE1394 ports we do have 8300HD-DVR's with firewire ports on them, and they are definitely active (I checked in the diagnostic screen under copy protection) Sorry about the confusion ~going back to my corner~

[nicholc2]

Ok, so now all you have to do is get TW to update their software to enable the port. :)

[scottc98]

TWC's 8300HD-DVR has Passport Echo, sw version 1.8.112 on them. Clarification and my bad, the tech that told me his was working lives in another cable system. As for the IE1394 ports we do have 8300HD-DVR's with firewire ports on them, and they are definitely active (I checked in the diagnostic screen under copy protection) Sorry about the confusion ~going back to my corner~

NICE!!! Just need to contact TW to trade in my 8300DVR for one with firewire.

[whitllam]

NICE!!! Just need to contact TW to trade in my 8300DVR for one with firewire.

Yeah, me too. Does anyone know if there's currently a wait to receive one of these boxes? Also, is it possible for them to move the recorded shows from one box to a new box?

[scottc98]

almost positive that you will lose your recorded shows.
As far as the wait, not sure yet as I am calling them this weekend.
I'll let you know how it goes

[TheCableGuy]

Just make sure you tell them to put it in the work order notes that you want one with firewire ports on them.:)

[nicholc2]

What do the firewire ports give you the ability to do?

[scottc98]

What do the firewire ports give you the ability to do?

connect to a DVHS or pc to record HD