Western Digital WDG1S5000VN 500GB My DVR Expander eSATA

I had held off buying one of these because I felt the price was way too high. It was very easy 2 install & now I have all the storage I will ever need.

It does just exactly what it says it does. My family was in a constant battle over whose shows got recorded & whose didn't. Basic DVR would record about 10 hour long HD episodes & we were lost. Installed extender. Went from 90% full 2 <20%. Problem solved, 4 now anyway.

Like the other 40+ reviewers, this was a breeze 2 install with my TiVo Series III HD. That was 18 months ago, & it's worked perfectly until today. I ran the Kickstart 54 SMART diagnostics, & the external drive has failed. A ton of stored stuff is gone forever (although I may try the trick of freezing the drive & transferring 2 my PC). 18 months is way too short 4 the life of an HD drive.

My plan was 2 eventually get this expander all along. I have always been a fan of Tivo, & when the right deal came my way I got the new Dual tuner HD Tivo that only recorded 20 hrs in HD. Tivo at the time was selling a larger Tivo with I believe 40 hrs recording in HD 4 $400-$500. 20 Hours is definitely not enough in my house, & if you are considering this, it's probably not enough in your house either.

At the moment they are selling a beast with 150 hrs in HD recording 4 $600!

Bottom line is that this expander worked perfectly right away. Setup 2 the device is as easy as plugging it in. Then setting up the Tivo 2 work with it was quite simple as well. Now I can record 86 hours in HD which 4 us is way more than enough. We went on a 2 week vacation & still had room 2 spare when we got back.

In my opinion it is much more economical 2 buy the standard 20hour HD Tivo & just get this expander 2 go with it. 86 full HD hours is huge & in just standard digital I think it's in the 500+ hour range. But if you are like me, if it's not in HD now, I don't watch it.

Definitely worth buying.

Bought my 500GB expander in October 2007. Worked great with Cox Cable's Scientific Atlanta 8300HD box 4 about a year. Then I started noticing tiling in some channels (on live TV, not recorded DVR programs). It got progressively worse. Three techs came out & gave me two new SA cable boxes. Turns out the problem was not the Scientific Atlanta box but rather the Western Digital expander, which was corrupting the live TV signal, even when it wasn't recording anything & I wasn't using the DVR.

Instantly add up 2 60 hours of high-definition TV or up 2 300 hours of standard-definition TV 2 your Scientific Atlanta 8300 or 8300HD DVR. You'll have plenty of room 2 save your programs longer & never miss your favorite shows.Just plug My DVR Expander into the external SATA (eSATA) port on your Scientific Atlanta 8300 series DVR & start recording even more TV shows, sporting events & movies. My DVR Expander has been tested 4 compatibility with Scientific Atlanta 8300 series DVRs. The unique no-fan passive cooling system & special hard drive design make it quiet 4 the living room or bedroom. Designed with a soft amber LED indicator, My DVR Expander is ideal 4 the living room or bedrooms.