eSata port on Hopper - Anyone used it for their external hard drives?
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I know that was for future use and I'm pretty sure its still not active but I don't have an Esata drive to confirm it. Maybe someone with an Esata drive can test it out to confirm.
I checked and as of S234 it is still not active.
There may be security issues if the internal drive isn't encrypted. Simply activating the eSATA port would probably allow storing unencrypted material on the external -- probably not something Dish wants to let happen.
Directv does it today by first reformating the dive to there file format and then encrypting all content on it from then on. Dish can do the same thing, maybe even similar to how they do it today with the USB external drive- those files are encrypted also.
I was pleasantly surprised to see the eSATA port when the Hopper was unveiled. Dish was the only DVR maker over the last several years (all generations of the ViP boxes) who did NOT provide an eSATA port, but choose to go and subsequently re-commit with later ViP's the USB 2.0, as cheap as was and is. It is the belief of many of us that USB 2.0 is the reason the ViP 222 and ViP 222K were never able to become DVR boxes using external drives as Dish has promised. At least it is here now in the Hopper, and eSATA allows for an external drive to function as a DVR, to add to the capacity of the internal HDD. However, we don't know if Dish added eSATA just to accommodate its archiving solution to those who have external HDD that doesn't have USB 2.0 connection, as a number of external HDD's don't.
Any update?
Shopping for a new EHD and was wondering if the eSATA port is active on the Hopper yet?
Shopping for a new EHD and was wondering if the eSATA port is active on the Hopper yet?
IOW, no.
There is no guarantee it will ever be. Dish has provided ports that were never used in the past.
I do not ascribe to the theory that an EHD using eSATA will be "much" faster. It would be nice, but its by no means certain. First, don't expect eSATA speeds to match SATA speeds - they don't. Second, there are other system limitations that may impact transfer speeds to a greater degree than port selection. I'm not convinced even USB 2 is used to the max.
Perhaps Dish has another idea entirely for that port.
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There is no guarantee it will ever be. Dish has provided ports that were never used in the past.
I do not ascribe to the theory that an EHD using eSATA will be "much" faster. It would be nice, but its by no means certain. First, don't expect eSATA speeds to match SATA speeds - they don't. Second, there are other system limitations that may impact transfer speeds to a greater degree than port selection. I'm not convinced even USB 2 is used to the max.
Perhaps Dish has another idea entirely for that port.
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And post #3 was from over 5 months ago. Just asking if anything had changed since then, and apparently the answer is still no. Thanks again though.
True but irrelevant. If the EHD interface were faster, we might be able to do more than one thing at a time. Maybe the Hopper EHD firmware has greater capability, but at least in the case of my VIP DVRs, I can archive, restore, or play back, but only one at a time. The last time I tried my 722 EHD, I couldn't even play back two programs (one going to TV1 and the other to TV2) from the EHD at once! I am not sure about this, but it seems that I can't FF very F when playing back from the EHD.
I don't know about others but to me there should be a big gain in transfer speed of files between the DVR and external hard disk.
The eSATA is higher bandwidth and that means as TheKrell has posted the benefits of eSATA vs. USB2.0. eSATA provides for full functionality for at least 2 tuner DVR's that use the EHD as both recording and playback medium as with TiVo, just one example. It would not function so if it were based on a USB2.0 connection. I (others agree) that the reason Dish could never deliver on its promise of external HDD DVR functionality for the ViP 222 and ViP 222K is because USB2.0 was the only port provided for external HDD instead of including an eSATA port, as evey other maker of DVR of that time and a few years before had.
Further, the WD My DVR expander (the official external HDD endorsed by most MVPD's including Dish, DirecTV, TiVo, and more) has both USB2.0 (to support Dish) and eSATA (to support everyone else) ports. Dish could activate the eSATA for external HDD if it wanted to, but they may have other plans for the eSATA and may forever stick with USB2.0. Yes, it would be nice if one could transfer to the external HDD and watch a recording from the same external HDD at the same time. eSATA would provide the bandwidth for this to work without stressing resources.
Further, the WD My DVR expander (the official external HDD endorsed by most MVPD's including Dish, DirecTV, TiVo, and more) has both USB2.0 (to support Dish) and eSATA (to support everyone else) ports. Dish could activate the eSATA for external HDD if it wanted to, but they may have other plans for the eSATA and may forever stick with USB2.0. Yes, it would be nice if one could transfer to the external HDD and watch a recording from the same external HDD at the same time. eSATA would provide the bandwidth for this to work without stressing resources.
So why is USB 2 good enough for EHDs on the ViP722 but not the ViP222?
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The Vip222 is not capable of becoming a DVR nor is it capable of having an EHD attached.
We know that. What we are discussing is the "why."
See the post above mine by DishSubLA. He attributes the lack of EHD functionality on the ViP222 series to it only having USB 2 and not eSATA. Yet other ViP series devices function quite well with only USB 2.
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A VIP722 can do only ONE thing at once; either archive, restore, or play back from the EHD. It does not record the satellite stream directly to the EHD. In the case of the 222, there are 2 sat and 1 OTA streams that potentially could be recorded, and two more streams potentially being played back. I think 5 streams would tax USB2 even without the "necessary" encryption and decryption, which would tax the cpu as well.
Having only a USB2 port makes no sense for not being able to attach an EHD. Thats what the 211/211K have and they can have an EHD. I believe the limitation is in the chipset for the 222. perhaps some one can confirm this.
