The HR24 and some of the other newer models has a 500GB drive, and the older models have a 350GB or so. Amount of recording depends on program content. A slow program takes less space than an action one. My HR24 currently carries 36 hours of HD programming and has used 30% of the available space. That would convert to 120 hours if you were able to use all of the drive, which isn't practical. I'd say 100 hours is a practical limit.
I can tell you that I watch as I record. If a program gets about a month old and I haven't watched it, I delete it. And using the DVR that way, you cannot watch all of the content you can record on a single DVR.
In regards to the calculation of determining the number of hours you can record on eSATA connected HDD's(or the stock internal HDD's), below is a dbstalk link that shows pretty accurate guestimates all the way up to 2TB. Also, just for you and other users' edification, this is what I found when I removed a 750GB eSATA drive from my HR20 DVR to use on my PC because it was "acting up" and I had decided to upgrade to a 1.5TB WD Caviar Green internal sata drive inside an Antec MX-1 enclosure. I recorded NOTHING except HD movies on this 750GB drive and it would hold exactly 100 1.5-2.0 hour movies(everytime I recorded a movie, my available space was reduced by 1%).When I installed the 750GB on my PC, Windows would not "recognize/assign a drive letter" to it because it had ONLY been used on my HR20(out-of-the-box) and had "Linux O/S/" partitions created on it. The dbstalk link shows a 750GB drive having 598GB "user area for recording", but the "partitions/volumes" that were created on my 750GB were broken down like this:698.64GB TOTAL available space(this pretty well matches what dbstalk shows for a 750GB drive); broken down as three partions-one partition@ 518MB(which I believe the HR20 reserved for the HD DVR "applications")-one partition @ 15.01GB(which I believe the HR20 reserved for Custom Guides, Movies Now downloaded PPV movies...and other DirecTV "data") and one partition at 683.12GB(which I believe was "my user area" for personal recordings). The dbstalk link estimated a user area of 598GB on a 750GB, so their calculation may be off a tad. So in essence when you connect an eSATA that a HD DVR has "never seen before", it should create 3 Linux partitions as described above regardless of it's pre-formatted partitions. Hope this info helps you(or someone else) determine the storage capacity of their eSATA external hard drive. The dbstalk link follows:
dcd
Expert
•
20.7K Messages
13 years ago
The HR24 and some of the other newer models has a 500GB drive, and the older models have a 350GB or so. Amount of recording depends on program content. A slow program takes less space than an action one. My HR24 currently carries 36 hours of HD programming and has used 30% of the available space. That would convert to 120 hours if you were able to use all of the drive, which isn't practical. I'd say 100 hours is a practical limit.
I can tell you that I watch as I record. If a program gets about a month old and I haven't watched it, I delete it. And using the DVR that way, you cannot watch all of the content you can record on a single DVR.
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djdicetn
Professor
•
1.5K Messages
13 years ago
redneck_tech,
In regards to the calculation of determining the number of hours you can record on eSATA connected HDD's(or the stock internal HDD's), below is a dbstalk link that shows pretty accurate guestimates all the way up to 2TB. Also, just for you and other users' edification, this is what I found when I removed a 750GB eSATA drive from my HR20 DVR to use on my PC because it was "acting up" and I had decided to upgrade to a 1.5TB WD Caviar Green internal sata drive inside an Antec MX-1 enclosure. I recorded NOTHING except HD movies on this 750GB drive and it would hold exactly 100 1.5-2.0 hour movies(everytime I recorded a movie, my available space was reduced by 1%).When I installed the 750GB on my PC, Windows would not "recognize/assign a drive letter" to it because it had ONLY been used on my HR20(out-of-the-box) and had "Linux O/S/" partitions created on it. The dbstalk link shows a 750GB drive having 598GB "user area for recording", but the "partitions/volumes" that were created on my 750GB were broken down like this:698.64GB TOTAL available space(this pretty well matches what dbstalk shows for a 750GB drive); broken down as three partions-one partition@ 518MB(which I believe the HR20 reserved for the HD DVR "applications")-one partition @ 15.01GB(which I believe the HR20 reserved for Custom Guides, Movies Now downloaded PPV movies...and other DirecTV "data") and one partition at 683.12GB(which I believe was "my user area" for personal recordings). The dbstalk link estimated a user area of 598GB on a 750GB, so their calculation may be off a tad. So in essence when you connect an eSATA that a HD DVR has "never seen before", it should create 3 Linux partitions as described above regardless of it's pre-formatted partitions. Hope this info helps you(or someone else) determine the storage capacity of their eSATA external hard drive. The dbstalk link follows:
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=142735
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