Western Digital WDG1S5000VN 500GB My DVR Expander eSATA

List Price: $189.99 Discount Price: $149.00

Features:

• 500GB maximum storage capacity (up to 300 hours of SDTV; up to 60 hours of HDTV)
• eSATA interface - Enjoy 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

Customer Reviews:

BEWARE: Do NOT Buy Expander Now [Posted on 2008-08-06]
Beware that digital rights management by TIVO is implemented by splitting each recording between the TIVO DVR and the Expander shown here. Once hooked up the two devices can not be divorced without losing all you programs on both the TIVO and the Expander.

If you are like my wife you will loose a lot of movies stored for later viewing. Wait for HDD or when your TIVO drive is filled up before committing. YOU DO NOT WANT TO LOSE YOUR EXPANDER BEFORE YOUR TIVO GOES, if you value your recordings. The average life of one of these HD expanders is 3-5 years or, if you have a defective one like mine, less than 2.

Easy to install works great [Posted on 2008-08-13]
Well to start off, I have had this a little over a month but it works flawlessly and was a breeze to install. I have many usb and even a few sata external HDs over the years. Almost all have a noise and or a longevity problem being always on, usually due to a cheap fan or poor cooling. This unit seems very well built and is noiseless comapred to other media units.

Installation was a breeze, just follow the enclosed instructions and it will just work. My first cable card installed ok, but this was 10x easier and no stress.

It is a bit pricey and I know there are hacks that can be done to larger and less expensive external and even internal drives. But having gone the cheap route in the past and having to deal with HDs that go bad after a year or so I decided that I would go with a better quality device that was certified for this job and I am glad I did. I took one star off for not having a 1TB option at this time.

Great expansion option [Posted on 2008-08-16]
I paired a WDG1S5000VN 500GB My DVR Expander with a Scientific Atlanta 8300 DVR in order to have room for recording more of the 2008 Olympics without running out of storage space so quickly. I am very happy with the purchase. Instillation is very simple, unplug the power to the DVR, plug in the hard drive, and then plug the DVR back in and allow it to format the drive. The unit is small and attractive. I have only had the unit for two days but have not experienced any playback/recording problems since adding the drive.

SIMPLY AWESOME & GREAT FOR MEDIA CENTER [Posted on 2008-08-27]
These external drives are simply perfection! Not only do these smartly designed drives look great and makes real-estate a non-issue, but they work fast and silent, good enough to use as a main drive for Vista Media Center downloading tons of regular and HD shows.

Given the reasonable price I was able to purchase 2 more so that space never becomes an issue for me and never having to worry about the delete function in MCE or backing up onto DVDs is a major plus+!

Excellent additional DVR storage [Posted on 2008-08-31]
This device installed easily, working with a Scientific American DVR on a cable system. The device runs silently, the front light is dim enough not to draw the eye. The expanded DVR capacity is awesome! Highly recommended.

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