New DVR causes loss of recordings on EXTERNAL hard drive

Recordings are encrypted, with the KEY being a special chip on the motherboard

New motherboard means new key... old recordings will not play

Are you telling me that it never occurred to Directv that a customer may want to preserve their recordings?  Or, it was discussed, and Directv's thought was, "Who cares?".

I assume that's a rhetorical question?

Seriously, you can thank Hollywood and the networks for these restrictions on your recording rights.  

as litzdog says, at the core of this problem is the copyright protection (Digital Rights Management) that the movie studios and TV execs fought for (i.e.lobbied for). If the data on the disk was not encrypted then you could give the disk to someone else and they could play your recordings, which the DRM lobby does not want you to do. That's also why you can't create digital copies of programs using the USB port on the receivers.

We see quite a few posts of this nature, and the user is usually quite upset at losing the programming.  From a practical standpoint you pay Directv for the privilege of watching the programming, not to buy it.  You'll note that DVD's for purchase cost considerably more than the ones you rent to watch.  DVR's are a time shift device and anyone who uses them for long term storage is eventually going to be disappointed.

http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=DVR&i=42147,00.asp

I have no complaints about copyright protection and I have done nothing that circumvents anybody's copyright protection.  My complaint is that I lost recordings that were important to me and cannot be replaced - for example, I had several Winter Olympics events recorded.  If I am allowed to "time shift" material then I am allowed to "time shift" it until I delete it.  Not when Directv decides to delete it.  Why does Directv relate its encrypted content with the hardware that is used to view it?  Why isn't the encyrpted content linked to my Directv account?  What moron links content to a special chip on the motherboard of the DVR?  I am only thankful that Directv designers don't work in the real data processing world. 

Well, three of us have tried to explain "how it is".  Arguing as to "how you wish it were" is rhetorical.  Lot's of us could give you a long list of how we wish things were, but to what end?  By the way, the Directv DVR's have been like this for a long time, it isn't new, it's just new to you.

Well with that attitude I can see why it has been like this for a long time!  I guess you pay ATM fees without question as well?

When TIVO came out one had a choice of paying a monthly fee, or a DEVICE lifetime subscription.  wether that device lasted 6 months or 10  years, the price was the same.  this analogy is the same with the recordings on a DVR, there are there for 1 day or 10 years, as longs as that DVR is "alive" you can access your recordings.  and to answer your question, If I had to use another's bank ATM to withdraw money from my bank, I always pay the ATM fee without any questions.

What do ATM fees have to do with anything?

It's certainly wonderful that you asked the question.  We provided answers on how it works.  If you think DirecTV should change this behavior, then email them because they likely won't see your comments here. 

You're shooting the messenger here, this is not a "let's beat up on the software" forum.  Finis.

That's BS....Dish allows you save your recordings onto an external drive which can also act as a supplemental drive (i.e. you don't have to use either the internal OR external) or an extension of the internal drive. This allows you to offload internal drive recordings and they are playable on another Dish Network DVR. I know because my VIP622 took a lightning strike which thankfully only fried the phone port so they replaced it with a VIP 722k but before they did I was able to move my recordings onto an external drive. i was then able to transfer those saved recordings from the external drive back onto the internal drive of the new DVR. You're going to tell me that Dish is the only one who can do this? That is BS. DirecTV is dumber than a bag of hammers on this issue. They need to pull head out of butt and quit marrying recordings to only one DVR. That is NONSENSE!!!

It is the way they  have always done it, this is a technical support forum run by users for users and we explain how things work, not go into a long argument about why they work that way and what could be changed. If you want to do that, then e-mail DirecTV

Are you aware that your response is close to a year late?