External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

Is it possible to attach external HDDs to any of VMs cable STBs/DVRs for additional recording capacity?

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

No it's not

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

What if it were... would there be demand for it?

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

Who knows.

But Virgin have no plans to offer it, so its a bit pointless discussing it

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

Although it's not currently possible, I suspect in the long term, if VM do one day get their act together regarding HD, the V+ will either need a larger hard disk, or alternatively some external support for an external drive will be beneficial. In the meantime we are stuck with the archive via scart option.

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

The Samsung V+ doesn't have an eSATA socket so I wouldn't bet on external storage ever becoming avaliable

It is more likely that they will refit the V+ with bigger internal disks

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

That would probably be the easiest, and cheapest option for them, as i've no doubt the drives in the V+ boxes will probably end up needing replacing anyway within the life time of the boxes.

That's assuming they haven't done something silly, like using an IDE connector for the internal drives...

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

The Samsung does have a USB doesn't it? and the Scientific Atlanta boxes have eSATA.... how popular is the "scart" option?

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

The only reason the SA V+ boxes have eSATA is its a standard design

The Samsung V+ is a custom box so if Virgin were planning on external storage they would have left eSATA in as part of the design.

I'm not even sure if USB 2.0 would be reliable enough to handle live tv recording?

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

USB 2 works for a lot of FTA Satellite receivers.

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

Mine doesn't have that feature, but it does have ethernet ;)

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

It's pointless talking about it but I suspect there would be the demand. I'd be quite happy to pay VM fairly large amounts of money to get above the paltry 160Gb we currently have. It's an issue for Sky as well.

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

Thanks for all the replies... I should "come clean" with you all.... I work for a Storage device company. We have devices that come in USB or eSATA up to 1TB available now. Trying to talk the service providers such as VM and Sky to enable their external ports to allow users such as you all to expand your recording capability. However, they don't "get it" yet.

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

They probably do get it. It's not them you have to worry about. It's the content providers. They are the ones that are probably not keen on allowing their content to copied onto external removable storage ;)

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

That's part of it, however content is encrypted whether it be on the embedded or external storage devices. You can't access the content if you were to disconnect and take to a PC.

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

Not really an issue with Sky though... Virgin on the other hand has had it's problems on that front over the years.

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

And of course we all know you can never break encryption!

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

The problem with external storage is that you could connect it to a pc and copy the content, but suppose if you really wanted to, you could remove the internal hard drive to do it.

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

Though Panasonic are now going to be doing Blu-Ray PVRs for Freesat!

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

The <1% of people that may figure out how to crack the encryption are not the worry of the service providers. So long as 99%+ don't do it, then I believe it is not really an issue.

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

It's probably only because it's more hassle than it's worth for someone to open up a STM, pull out the hard drive, plug it into a PC, unplug it again, and put the STM back together that there hasn't been some form of software to break the encryption

If it was as easy as a USB/eSATA connection - then I would expect it to be a LOT more of an issue.

And again it's not the service providers - its the content providers that worry about it. For them even 0.5% is 0.5% too much.

Re: External Storage for VM STBs/DVRs?
 

If these have a CAM slot and someone can get the old Dragon/Sky combo working in one of these then I'm sold. The TD household requirements are a bit of HD, Dave, Living and Virgin One. A basic Sky sub would cover all this, and then I can DO WHAT I WANT WITH MY OWN RECORDINGS!

Ahem. Excuse me.