Dish VIP612 hard drive size Upgrade?

[ronniedeck]

Hello all, I have a Dish VIP 612 which only supports about 30 short hours of HD programming. The USB option seems like a disappointing solution compared to having a bigger drive inside.

Does anyone know what size drive is inside this unit and, being quite computer literate, can it be replaced with a larger drive?

thanks, ronnie

 

[TheKrell]

I think it's a dinky 250GB drive. The firmware has knowledge of a limited list of OEM disks, the biggest being 1GB. I happen to have a WD10EAVS which was on the list. But alas my OEM disk was missing an extra 4 characters at the end which made it unrecognizable to the receiver. The model numbers must match exactly, no more nor less characters.

 

[Jonhern]

just be happy you have this thing on dish and not on Fios, while not compressing the image is good for pq, it is awful for dvr space. While the 612 only has 10 hours more than the fios dvr for hd, it actually fits a lot more since the hd videos are compressed. I had about 20hours of hd, and 60 or more of sd at one point and still had 15 hours of hd left of space. So while it has less space than the other dvrs i find it to be adequate, i guess if you like to save movies and have had it for awhile it might fill up, but you can just put the things you just want to save on the EHD.

 

[CowboyDren]

Does anyone know what size drive is inside this unit and, being quite computer literate, can it be replaced with a larger drive?

Nope, it's not replacable. Even if it was possible, nobody at Satelliteguys.us would be talking about it, since hardware hacking is against the forum rules. What do you not like about the EHD option? For $140, you can wander down to Walmart, pick up a 1.5 Terabyte (not 1.0 Gigabyte) hard drive and add OVER 176 HOURS of space. Or you could pick up a 500GB disk and add around 60 hours.

 

[brad1138]

It is actually more than 30. It is 30 hours of mpeg2 but about 50-60 of mpeg4 which all E* HD is.

 

[Jim5506]

Upgrading a drive is not "hardware hacking" and software hacking is what is prohibited since that is what gets FTA receivers to see Dish programming.

Now, the drive may be replacable, but it must be replaced with a drive that is listed in the 612s internal database.

It is possible to replace the 320GB drive in a 622 with one of the models meant for the 722, so I assume the same trick might work for the 612.

Nevertheless, the easiest way around this is to use the external hard drive facility and move recorded data to the EHD. From there it can be played or deleted just as if it were on the main HDD.

There is a one time $39.99 enabling charge for the archiving EHD for all ViP 612,622,722 and 722k receivers on your account.

 

[KAB]

Even if it was possible, nobody at Satelliteguys.us would be talking about it, since hardware hacking is against the forum rules.

It has been discussed here MANY times. See Tech Forum.

 

[Bob Haller]

If you LEASE your box, tampering replacing hard drive can cause major grief when you send it back

Thats one reason I buy my boxes. My 522s became 625s

 

[CowboyDren]

I stand corrected. Somehow I got the impression that breaking the warranty sticker was a big no-no here.

 

[Charade]

There is a one time $39.99 enabling charge for the archiving EHD for all ViP 612,622,722 and 722k receivers on your account.

Does the "one time enabling charge" cover all boxes or is there a one time charge for each box? I just enabled EHD for my 211K. Would that activation cover an EHD for my 612?

 

[KAB]

I just enabled EHD for my 211K. Would that activation cover an EHD for my 612?

No. 211 is a different software platform. Not interchangeable and a separate activation fee.

 

[kenalpine]

External HDD Stuff

1. I believe the current max size is 1TB. E* web site says 750GB, but PDF sheet (and CSR's) say 1TB. Not 1.5TB.

2. Once you have paid your fee, all receivers on the account are covered. I added 1TB to a 722 and the CSR said I could also add a drive to my 211 which would let me record the program currently being watched (don't plan to do so, though).

3. Another CSR told me that once a drive has been used on a 622/722 the disc cannot be carried to the 211 and vice-versa. If you try, the disc will be reformatted.

4. The process took nearly seven hours(!!) because the activation would not take. One supervisor said I had to go to the MFR web site (Seagate) and download drivers. Since the 722 had already formatted the drive to Unix I had to reformat to NTFS. The effort was bogus - still did not work. Finally on my fifth call the CSR said there were two flags for EHDD recognition and all of the earlier CSR's had set only the first. He set the second, hit me and we were off. Also two of the CSR's volunteered that "very few people use the EHDD option; mostly they are turned off by the activation fee.

 

[Charade]

1. I believe the current max size is 1TB. E* web site says 750GB, but PDF sheet (and CSR's) say 1TB. Not 1.5TB.

2. Once you have paid your fee, all receivers on the account are covered. I added 1TB to a 722 and the CSR said I could also add a drive to my 211 which would let me record the program currently being watched (don't plan to do so, though).

3. Another CSR told me that once a drive has been used on a 622/722 the disc cannot be carried to the 211 and vice-versa. If you try, the disc will be reformatted.

4. The process took nearly seven hours(!!) because the activation would not take. One supervisor said I had to go to the MFR web site (Seagate) and download drivers. Since the 722 had already formatted the drive to Unix I had to reformat to NTFS. The effort was bogus - still did not work. Finally on my fifth call the CSR said there were two flags for EHDD recognition and all of the earlier CSR's had set only the first. He set the second, hit me and we were off. Also two of the CSR's volunteered that "very few people use the EHDD option; mostly they are turned off by the activation fee.

I activated the EHD on my 211K via a chat session. Done in under 15 minutes (including formatting).

I read that you need to pay an activation fee for each receiver you have on your account. It would be nice to add an EHD to my 612 just in case I want more than 30 or so hours of HD recording.

Lastly, and despite being told otherwise, I got Dish to take $15 off the $40 activation fee. Didn't even have to beg that much.

 

[Jonhern]

I activated the EHD on my 211K via a chat session. Done in under 15 minutes (including formatting).

I read that you need to pay an activation fee for each receiver you have on your account. It would be nice to add an EHD to my 612 just in case I want more than 30 or so hours of HD recording.

Lastly, and despite being told otherwise, I got Dish to take $15 off the $40 activation fee. Didn't even have to beg that much.

It is one fee for all receivers, but there are two different fees. The one you paid is for 211k and i think 222k to turn non dvrs into dvrs. For the 612 you need to pay to get archiving activated which is a another $40, but that will be for all dvrs on your accout, VIP series ones anyways. So if you have more than one 612 or a 722 they will all be active and you can also move the EHD from receiver to receiver for the dvrs, but not between the 211k and the 612. Also, I the 750gb limit is for the 211k, but i have read people on here using 1tb. For the VIP dvrs the limit is 1tb, although people have gotten 1.5tb to work.

 

[CowboyDren]

In a Charlie Chat, they stated 1.5TB. The limitation used to be 750 because most 750s were a single disk inside the box, whereas early 1TB external disks were a pair of 500s, and the EHD software can't deal with multiple disks inside the same device. Incidentally, this "update" 1.5TB statement was made in a time when 2GB single-disk externals were rare, too. CSRs never know anything meaningful, let alone useful.

1.5TB is also the limit of the TiVo HD, which is based on the same hardware chip that the 612 uses. The TiVo's software can't recognize more than 2TB total (internal + external), but I don't know about Dish's limitation or reason for limiting, if it has one at all. If somebody's tried a 1.5 and failed, I haven't seen it (but I don't read every single post, either). I just like getting my dollars' worth, and 1.5TB is the disk storage sweet spot at the moment.

The info about 722 vs 211 is correct, but the 622, 722, 621, 722k, and [presumably] 922 use the same EHD technology, so if the OP gets a 1TB disk for a 621, it should transfer all of his recordings to a 722k or 922 just fine.

 

[mhowie]

So...is the consensus that a 1.5TB EHD drive will work with the VIP612 or should 1TB be used as the current uppermost limit? I am going to get a couple of EHDs (probably WD MyBooks)-- seems the 1.5TB is a go for my VIP722 receiver based on input elsewhere in the forum, but perhaps not yet for the 612?

Thanks.

 

[CowboyDren]

The difference between a 722 and a 612 is that the 722 already has more disk space than a 612; the other hardware (and firmware) is nearly identical. If you want to play it safe, go ahead and get the 1tb disk for the 612, but I think that's overly cautious. I'd get a 1.5, plug it into the 612, and if it doesn't work, move that disk to the 722. If it works, get another 1.5 and put that on the 722.

 

[mhowie]

Wound up going with two 1TB WD Elements...NewEgg had a pretty good price on them. Thanks for the thoughts.