DVR recording amount & external drive

Hi Tas03,

The SA 8300HD receiver has a 160GB hard drive and will hold approximately 90 hours of standard definition (SD) content or 20 hours of high definition (HD) content. HD content requires nearly three times more storage space than SD content.

You can expand the recording capacity of the 8300HD by connecting an external eSATA hard disk drive. The guidelines and setup instructions are on page 17 in the user's guide found at http://media.cox.com/support/print_media/tv/equipment/user_guides/cable_box/SA8300HDC_user_guide.pdf.

Did you know that we have several new DVR models with much larger hard drives? For example, the Record-6 DVR allows you to record 6 programs at once and will store 300 hours of HD programming! I just wanted to make you aware of the options before you invest in an eSATA drive.

Please let me know if you have further questions!

tas03: "I have the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD DVR. I have seen references on line that the DVR will hold 20 hours of HD content. Is this the right amount?"

An hour of HD programming takes up about 6.5-7.0 GB of drive space. Based on that, a 160GB HDD will store about 23-24 hours of HD programming. However, not all of the 160GB is dedicated to program recording. So, 20 hours sounds about right. Remember: bit rates on channels vary greatly from 10-15 Mbps on HD channels.

Thanks for the answers.

There are questions I have about the external eSATA hard disk drive. The directions in the SA 8300HD say to leave the external hard drive on all the time. What about the DVR itself? I currently turn off the DVR when I go to bed - which puts in the DVR in standby mode. Would I need to leave it fully on all the time because of the eSATA drive? When the DVR comes out of standby, will it still recognize the eSATA drive?

I searched around the internet to find out about this, but could not even find an answer on the manufacturer's site.