DVR-1100c pc playback issues

[rv1pop]

Brian,
It appears to me that Costco is one of the biggest retailer of the WD drives. I do not know the present buyers, (all my buddies were my age and also have retired!), but IF you would chose to get in contact with them at the Issaquah office, they may be happy to sell a line of HDs that they can promote as compatible with DVRs and PVRs. This would be especially true if they were competively priced - AND - available in COSTCO quantities.

If SaatelliteGuy who are Costco member would contact the buyers by the front line contact slips, it would also help!

POP

[SatelliteAV]

RV1Pop,

Thank you for the suggestion to work with WD to provide a DVR compatible HDD. We decided to keep it simple and only stock a 15GB starter drive that has no known compatibility issues and update the recommended HDD model as the availability changes for those customers wishing to have increased recording capacity.

DVRs, like the GEOSATpro DVR1100c, usually are provided with a very short list of suggested, tested and supported hard drives. It is important to note that the manufacturers often change programming in the external controller when they change to a different drive or OEM batch of the same model and the model suddenly becomes incompatible. A cat and mouse game!

In the past, I have spoken with WD highest level technical support / engineering and they have little interest in putting out a patch to dumb down their "Smart" external drives to specifically address incompatibilities with DVRs. The problem is not the WD HDD, it is the USB controllers that they put in their external cases which have OTT features. WD acknowledges that their OTT features may cause issues. but the DVR market is small-time in their big picture as they are pushing their own Expander technology and media severs. WD has released some patches that shut off OTT features in the controllers as it seems that these features also will cause issues with some PCs.....

The real reality check: It is impossible to sell against the big box stores on PC items, or electronics. Wholesale cost on a main stream brand external 500GB hdd is nearly the same as it is available retail at a big box store. We can't compete with big box stores in distributing and supporting off the shelf hard drives and charging a premium price to customers. The market is too small to distribute a custom DVR drive supporting the diverse equipment found in the FTA market.

Many HDDs out there that work great! Keep the list growing! Continued input on the compatible drive sticky thread for the GEOSATpro DVR1100c will assist new HDD purchasers a fresh list of available drives available at the lowest street price.

BTW... In addition to the list above of verified drives, I have had great luck with generic cases with no OTT features and any brand hdd up to 500GB. Haven't had a single incompatibility yet!

[fyretech]

CompUSA.com | 0S02520 | Hitachi 0S02520 Mobile 500GB External Hard Drive

Would this hitachi drive be good, instead of the WD?

[SatelliteAV]

CompUSA.com | 0S02520 | Hitachi 0S02520 Mobile 500GB External Hard Drive

Would this hitachi drive be good, instead of the WD?

Yes, this one included in the Confirmed USB Drives stickie above. http://www.satelliteguys.us/glorysta...ml#post2424808

[fyretech]

I bought the above hitachi at another store:

Micro Center - Hitachi 500GB X-Series 2.5" USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive - HXSMNA5001 0S02520

I put it on ADtv, press the 'record' button, and let it run over night, the following day I edit what I want to keep and watch.

I still have a problem with files on the new HD. I formatted the hitachi on the dvr. I can play back the files on the dvr and media player classic.

When I try to convert and edit them to mpg in Freeplayer, then the full size 4gb files are good, but the files that I manually stopped the recording on the dvr, of which there are three, are mixed results:
1) first file is 1gb, and can play fine in freemake, and can moved the 'slider' around
2) second file is just short of 4gb, and can play in freemake, but as soon as I move the search bar to edit it, it freezes, as if it can't find it, and the LED on the HD stays lit
3)third file, same issue as second file

I haven't noticed this issue with manually stopped files before, so I will pay attention to them more. Perhaps I didn't wait long enough for the DVR to write before I unplugged it? Even though the LED on the HD stopped showing activity, indicating no recording going on, and the dvr display went from 'rec' to '111', perhaps there is some kind of lag?
Or there is a bug if the file is bigger than a certain size and the recording is stopped manually?

I still have files on my WD drive, and will check those problematic ones to see if they were also manually stopped or not (easily recognizable by the smaller GB size).

[SatelliteAV]

When pressing the stop button, the recording is finalized and "Please Wait, Saving Data" is displayed. If the USB is disconnected before the display disappears, possibly the file is not finalized correctly. All files have the same file headers, save and terminate identically.

All types of recorded files play fine on the DVR and using the media player app, Media Player Classic on your PC and I have used Video ReDo with the same success on these types of files.

Playback issues with FreePlayer might be better addressed by the developer of that program. Did you send Freeplayer support samples of the problematic files? They might be able to determine why the FreePlayer app is having issues with specific TS files when other apps are not.