Can I record directly to an external HDD? (VIP 622)

**sofakng** · 12-01-2009 02:39 PM

I'm using a VIP 622 HD DVR and I have a 500 GB external HDD connected.

Can I record directly to the external drive?

According to a tech I can do this if I enable "Enable recordings to an external device" from the ERD setup menu but I've also read that this is only for external Dish devices and not for hard drives.

It's nice to be able to connect an external hard drive, but it's a big pain to manually move content over to it. I always end up forgetting to do it and then my internal drive gets filled and content gets deleted.

I'd like to just open my receiver and upgrade the hard drive myself but I'm using a leased box. (would they even know if I did that?)

**osu1991** · 12-01-2009 02:41 PM

No, You can not record directly to the EHD

**sofakng** · 12-01-2009 04:57 PM

Darn. I was afraid that you would say that.

If I were to purchase a used unit and replace the hard drive myself, could I buy a 750 GB or 1 TB drive?

**KAB** · 12-01-2009 05:02 PM

Originally Posted by sofakng

Darn. I was afraid that you would say that.

If I were to purchase a used unit and replace the hard drive myself, could I buy a 750 GB or 1 TB drive?

No. There are VERY SPECIFIC 320 and 500gb HDs that are almost impossible to find. 750 and 1T is out of the question. Quit being lazy and do some moving.

**DishSubLA** · 12-02-2009 04:33 AM

Actually it really is easy to get in the habit of moving, or why not just move everything. Remember you can still playback from the external HDD. Just go in to your DVR and select all that you want to move, and let the machine do the rest. Quite easy.

**sofakng** · 12-02-2009 06:18 AM

Ok, thanks for all of the help.

I understand why the unit can't record directly to the USB drive (eg. they don't have guaranteed throughput speeds, etc). I wish more DVR/PVR boxes would just let you replace the main internal hard drive though. The content is still encrypted so why not let you change out the drive?

Oh well. Thanks for the help everybody.

**whatchel1** · 12-02-2009 04:58 PM

Originally Posted by sofakng

Ok, thanks for all of the help.

I understand why the unit can't record directly to the USB drive (eg. they don't have guaranteed throughput speeds, etc). I wish more DVR/PVR boxes would just let you replace the main internal hard drive though. The content is still encrypted so why not let you change out the drive?

Oh well. Thanks for the help everybody.

The int HDD is not encrypted. The ext HDD is encrypted. They don't want people inside their boxes possibly causing problems or pulling info from it.

**KAB** · 12-02-2009 05:07 PM

Originally Posted by whatchel1

The int HDD is not encrypted.

I believe it is.

**KKlare** · 12-02-2009 07:18 PM

Con: the EHD does not handle fragmentation. It will fill holes with smaller files/recording but doing a lot of recordings and erasing will end up with a disk of small fragments not allowing writing a large file because all files are contiguous on it. The only solution (very old fashioned) is to copy it out and back again. Thus the EHD works best for files that do not need to be erased from the middle. The internal seems to handle this much better, maybe it has multisegment writing? Try to erase adjacent files before writing to it, although there is no way to know which order they are stored in. (Sure would also like the size in MB without having to put an external in.)
-Ken

**whatchel1** · 12-03-2009 12:54 AM

Originally Posted by KAB

I believe it is.

I pretty sure the only time that it has encrypted files on it is when they have been moved back from the EHDD. I read dish rip on yahoo groups and pretty sure you can still rip SD MPEG 2 prgms from the int HDD.