External HD On VIP 922- What Is The Benefit?

[leegart]

I had an online chat with a DISH technical support person about whether you could set up the 922 to record directly onto an external HD. I have a Toshiba 1 TB HD hooked up to the 922, He told me "no." He said the only current use for an external HD on the 922 is to access shows recorded on that drive by a 722 or 622. He also said there are no current plans to upgrade software to allow direct recording to an external HD.

What is enabled seems to be at best, a niche capability. I thought attaching an external HD would mainly be done for the following resons:

1) To expand storage for 922 recordings, or

2) To attach the HD with recorded material to a DISH box in another room if you wanted to watch the recording there.

Am I (and the DISH tech person) missing something or are there other benefits to attaching an external HD to the 922. I would love to tap into the normal level of brilliance and insight found on Satellite Guys to advise on this subject.

Thanks!!!

 

[MikeD-C05]

The only thing you can do with a external hard drive is to archive movies and shows you want to save, and yes, you can play them on other vip dvr receivers on your account. This allows you to use your internal hard drive on your receiver as a scratch pad so to speak , and move things you want to keep to your external hard drive. I do wish you could directly record to your external hard drive , but I don't see that happening right now.

 

[mcss]

I had an online chat with a DISH technical support person about whether you could set up the 922 to record directly onto an external HD. I have a Toshiba 1 TB HD hooked up to the 922, He told me "no." He said the only current use for an external HD on the 922 is to access shows recorded on that drive by a 722 or 622. He also said there are no current plans to upgrade software to allow direct recording to an external HD.

What is enabled seems to be at best, a niche capability. I thought attaching an external HD would mainly be done for the following resons:

1) To expand storage for 922 recordings, or

2) To attach the HD with recorded material to a DISH box in another room if you wanted to watch the recording there.

Am I (and the DISH tech person) missing something or are there other benefits to attaching an external HD to the 922. I would love to tap into the normal level of brilliance and insight found on Satellite Guys to advise on this subject.

Thanks!!!

The Dish tech is correct that you cannot record directly to the EHD, however he is incorrect if he said the only use is to access previous recordings from a 622/722.

An EHD functions exactly the same on the 922 as it does on the 622/722. In fact it is much easier to transfer recordings back and forth from the receiver to the EHD than it ever was on the 622/722.

So while you cannot record directly to the EHD, using an EHD would allow you to accomplish the 2 things you listed.

 

[john dusek]

Another good reason for an EX HD is for safety of your recorded programs,as if and when,your 722 goes out,you loose all the ones on your 722,but still have the ones on EX HD. Hopeful the EX will last a lot longer than 722. I checked with Western Digital and they said it would save the HD,so I turn it off when not using. I really like mine and having 1tb,wont fill it up in the near future.