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imrf
Premium
join:2002-06-06
Utica, MI
 ·Comcast
| reply to tbeckner
Re: Series 3 has lots of good features
said by tbeckner  :Actually the DirecTiVo (TiVo) HR10-250 DVR, has OTA HD recivers built in and it was release two years ago. That's fine, but the box would be pretty useless without DirecTV service as the guide info was pulled over the sat and required DirecTV service to active it.
BTW, if you had a eSATA functionality on a DVR, what DVR where you using, one of the cheap Motorola, SciAmerican, or Moxi boxes, or a Dish DVR (which I understand are real cruddy), or one of the dead ReplayTV DVRs? Scientific Atlanta 8300HD.
And if you have had one for 6 months, then we do know that it is NOT SATA II compatiable, so no 3Gbps interface for you. Doesn't matter, the Tivo box uses the eSATA interface, which is the same as the SA 8300HD and the Motorola DCT-6412 Phase III. None of them will transfer at 3Gbps. SATA II doesn't even offer a major advantage over SATA I as the PCI bus is still the limiting factor in the transfer rates. The are few(if any) that break the 150Mbps transfer rate of SATA now. | |
tbeckner
join:2004-03-20
Bend, OR
4 edits | said by imrf :said by tbeckner :Actually the DirecTiVo (TiVo) HR10-250 DVR, has OTA HD recivers built in and it was release two years ago. That's fine, but the box would be pretty useless without DirecTV service as the guide info was pulled over the sat and required DirecTV service to active it. BTW, if you had a eSATA functionality on a DVR, what DVR where you using, one of the cheap Motorola, SciAmerican, or Moxi boxes, or a Dish DVR (which I understand are real cruddy), or one of the dead ReplayTV DVRs? Scientific Atlanta 8300HD. And if you have had one for 6 months, then we do know that it is NOT SATA II compatiable, so no 3Gbps interface for you. Doesn't matter, the Tivo box uses the eSATA interface, which is the same as the SA 8300HD and the Motorola DCT-6412 Phase III. None of them will transfer at 3Gbps. SATA II doesn't even offer a major advantage over SATA I as the PCI bus is still the limiting factor in the transfer rates. The are few(if any) that break the 150Mbps transfer rate of SATA now. But not everyone is using a standard PCI Interface (PCI-X (which is 64-bit) and x4 PCIe), a standard PCI lacks the necessary bandwidth, so that would be crazy for SATA II.
At this point the Series 3 has not been released, so we have no idea what the released product will use for it final SATA interface, but there is the possibility that it will support SATA II if it is released by the 3rd quarter of 2006.
The Scientific Atlanta 8300HD is a very interesting product. I did notice that it lacks something that I use every day on my DirecTiVos, 30-second skip. In fact, I would be lost when I watch NFL football without 30-second skip.
BTW, the documentation says that the SA 8300 HD supports VOD, including subscription based VOD, and xVOD, can you confirm this? I have heard that there is a lot of infighting going on in the cable industry and multi-way interactivity is not wide spread.
I did notice the all of the SA 8300 boxes (HD and Multi-Room) support external SATA attachment capability. BTW, is there a size limit on the supported external SATA drive? I did notice that www.weaknees.com is selling Maxtor external SATA drives for the SA 8300 series, starting 1/25/06. I guess it depends upon what version of the SA software that is running on the box and what cable company it was bought from. Most cable companies have not activated the SATA ports, and those that have you need to be running the SARA software, not the passport version.
The SA interface appears to be a very basic interface and not very fancy and I noticed that it uses the 1960's TV Guide like grid, which I have always hated, but most STBs do use it.
Thanks for informing me of the SA 8300 and SA 8300 HD, and because of that I found the 8300 Multi-Room. These products are very interesting are worth watching. | |
Balmora
join:2006-02-28
Minneapolis, MN
|  I found SATA to eSATA cable to connect my external SATA drive to the SA 8300HD. Plugs in the back and the cable box took care of everything. Better yet, the cable from this place was a good deal compared to others. See
»www.SATAsupply.com | |
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