Cox → [OK] Cox triples my Moto DVR "storage capacity"

I received an email from Cox Oklahoma tonight telling me that they have tripled my Moto DVR hard drive space. They say the DVR now has space for 280 hours in SD and 80 hours in HD. Upgrade was automatic and it was free.

Doesn't make much sense, as hard drive space is something that is local to the dvr unit. But I guess maybe they made a format change, in which they can store data at a smaller size, while keeping video quality high. So sounds like a new way they are doing video compression's.

They didn't actually say they increased the hard drive space. They said that they "increased the storage capacity" of my DVR. I'm curious about how they did that?

MPEG2 to MPEG4? Off unit storage?

My understanding is that most of the DVRs cox offers, contain a 500GB drive but are (have been) limited by software to about 160GB thus tripling the space is rather easy.

The Motorola DCX series DVRs w/ 500GB HDD are getting a software update that enables the use of all 500GB, previously they were SW/FW neutered to use just 160GB.

This happened in Hampton Roads, VA last month:
»www.avsforum.com/t/42643 ··· 22392875

There is also 1 report that the Cisco 8642HDC running Rovi Passport in Phoenix also is getting the update to use all 500GB, (although Cox on Facebook denied knowledge of it, perhaps they are not yet aware?)
»www.avsforum.com/t/12866 ··· 22453529

In other news Cox is starting to offer Stand-Alone Trio DVRs or STBs w/o the WHDVR option and Cox is also dropping the $5/mo fee in some markets on the Trio Stand-Alone DVR/STBs. Pro Install reportedly still applies.

How hard is it to install a receiver? and it's $8.00 here for the whole home DVR. I'm glad they realized that just for 3 channels it's not worth it.

They should start offering these 1ghz receivers across the board. The DVR looks very nice.

-Rob

My brother last week told me the same thing happened to him; he noticed it however on his own and before Cox Tulsa sent him anything. I have the WHDVR so I have the whole 500gb anyway.

Funny thing is, 500gb is still laughable in the DVR world today. And really comparing it to others since it is MPEG2 it's 250gb compared to their 1000 or even 2000. Don't see how you guys do it.

It's laughable with MPEG-2. 500GB on my DirecTV DVR is plenty though. It's easy enough to upgrade the space but I just don't see a need.

I don't know how people put up with 160gb of mpeg-2.

It sounds like they upgraded their firmware from LBA28 support to LBA48 support.

LBA28 has problems when you try to address hard disk space beyond 137GB or 160GiB, namely data corruption as when you try to write to areas beyond that limit, you instead write to the beginning of the disk. Think like how if your car drives so many miles that you reach the limit of your odometer, it goes back to 0 miles. This is a very bad thing. So you solve that problem by limiting the partition space to be smaller than that, making the remainder of the disk useless.

Or better yet, you upgrade the kernel and/or bios to support LBA48, and then you are "only" limited to 144 petabytes, so they can easily make use of that 500GB.

I have two Motorola DC 3416 boxes and have not gotten updated storage capacity yet. Does anyone have any more info on this? I would love the extra space because all I record and watch is HD only and I have 20-30 different 'season passes' on each box. Thanks in advance...

I thought the 16 in 3416 meant 160GB (I know the 3412 had 120)
so it may not get any more capacity. Best bet would probably be a trade in (of course you will lose whats on it) and there probably isn't any guarantee that a higher capacity is available.

Yes, that's how the model numbers worked. What would happen however is the box would come back with a failed hard drive and it wasn't cost effective to install another 160GB hard drive when larger ones were cheaper so many of them just had whatever was on hand installed provided it was at least 160GB. The firmware at the time found it easier to just treat the drive at 160GB.

Now I'm waiting for Cox to let my 500 gig Moto box receive ALL of the Cox channels. I'm talking about the Cox "plus" channel lineup. I'm also waiting for the long ago Cox promised TiVo DVR.

They do that to get you to buy into the whole home dvr and plus package[double dipping] scam.

the dvr i have has a 500gb hdd in it but limited to 160gb via firmware.
BT fills the bill if dvr is full or im out of tuners.