Western Digital My DVR Expander Hard Drive - WDG1S5000VN
Western Digital 500GB My DVR Expander eSATA External Hard Drive

The drive arrived sooner that I expected and sat on my front porch for a day or two :-( Hook-up couldn't be simpler and it has worked flawlessly, so far.
 
Was this review helpful?    

We have a TiVo and love it, but wanted more space to save programs. I saw this originally on TiVo's site and decided to shop around. Was pleasantly surprised to find the same thing on Buy.com at a substantial savings and took the plunge. Placed my order on Saturday and it arrived Tuesday (which made me happy) and then it was a snap to hook up. I think a few others have mentioned having to re-boot twice (which was the case hooking mine up), but once it was up and running have had no problems and have been very pleased with the product.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I've read numerous reviews about how well this works with the Tivo boxes and the Explorer 8300 series boxes but very little about my newest Time Warner DVR Scientific Atlanta 8240HDC. I plugged it in rebooted it a couple times and went for 59% to 14% capacity almost instantly with 100% reliability. It works great!!!
 
Was this review helpful?    

I'm using the DVR Expander with a TiVo HD and, as promised, set-up was fast and simple. A "Quick Start" guide that comes with the hard drive directs you to a support page on the TiVo site that has a three or four step set-up routine. The longest part of the process is waiting for the TiVo to restart. Once that's done, presto, 65 hours of HD space, no loss of what was already on the TiVo HD to begin with. It's all good. And regarding some comments about early failure, the SquareTrade 3 yr. warranty for this product is CHEAP.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Following the short instruction booklet, I turned off my TiVo Series 3, plugged in the DVR Expander, and turned my TiVo back on. The TiVo detected the external drive's presence and informed me that it would format the drive and prepart to "marry" it to my TiVo. Took a few minutes, the TiVo rebooted, and presto! I can now record 5 or more episodes of any show, record HD movies without regard for how much space I have left, etc. I have over 100 TiVo suggestions to choose from. No hassles, no problems, worked exactly as I expected it to.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Just take it out of the box and connect it to your Tivo. Tivo does the rest! Comes with the eSata cable needed to connect so no having to make additional trips to pick up the cable other units don't offer. Buy.com cuts the cost almost in half. I can't ask for anything else! Thanks Buy.com!
 
Was this review helpful?    

Works like a charm! An amateur can hook it up to a SA 8300 in 2 minutes. It's up and running a couple minutes later! What a nice addition to our DVR.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I now have 2 Western Digital 500G DVR Expander. It is compatible with Time Warner's Scientific Atlanta Explore 8300HD but not with the newer 8300HDC, it will freeze after a few hours. I highly recommend this wonderful product.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Followed the instructions to the letter but my Series 3 TiVo wouldn't recognize the expansion box. Tried it again, still nothing. Third time was the charm, I reversed the eSATA cable around, the end that I had in the TiVo was now in the Western Digital box and visa-versa. This time it worked like a charm. My Series 3 TiVo is about 2 years old. It may have been that the process of plugging, unplugging, and re-plugging the eSATA cable cleaned the connection. I don't know. The bottom line is: I love having the ability to record up to 106 hours of HD on my TiVo series 3 box (that's what TiVo indicates in its "Account and System Information" panel). It is encouraging that TiVo validates this Western Digital box. I would buy it again.
 
Was this review helpful?    

No problems with installation and it works just as described for my HD Tivo.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Easy installation with TiVo HD, although it required 2 restarts before TiVo recognized it. I now have 93 HD or 810 SD hours. Runs cool and can be tucked away out of sight if desired. eSATA cable is included.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Following the simple instruction I had the Western Digital expander up in running in approximately 15 minutes with my Scientific Atlanta - Explorer 8300HD device. All the cables were provided making this one of the easiest installation.
 
Was this review helpful?    

The product installed easily and just as its instrucions stated and just as Tivos instructions stated. It is recommended by Tivo and has worked great for the two weeks I have had it.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I added the DVR Expander to my Tivo HD and it booted up as advertised. I don't have to worry about hard drive space anymore. And I don't have to open the Tivo box and mess with wires and Linux code to add more space. Just plug it in and reboot. Great product!!
 
Was this review helpful?    

5 over 5, great price, does the job. Up and running three weeks now, no problems. Hooking up the drive ona Digital HD Tivo increased the speed of the Tivo menus from medium slow to fast. Unadvertised advantage.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Had to reboot the 8300 2 times to get it to recognize the drive. Then started working as advertised.
 
Was this review helpful?    

My TiVo HD is great but was always running out of space with a few hockey games and couple of shows. Since I added this thing I haven't had any problems. It sets up with the standard "TiVo simplicity" and you're rockin in no time. Technically, it is quiet and runs pretty cool. I have it in my bedroom and little noises bother me but I don't even hear this thing unless I really try. Only problem with is that I wish it were a full 1TB instead of 500GB, but then if I had that much tv saved up to watch I think I'd need to stop recording shows.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Bought the drive from Buy.com and saved $70 over tivo.com, so I can't complain at all about the cost of the drive itself. Took it out of the box, followed the quick instructions, and it just worked as advertised. Now, I don't have to sit and delete programs every day to record others. Recording SD programming, it says "up to 810 hours". HD programming lowers that to "up to 83 hours" but even when I'm not paying attention, I've never gotten close to running out of space. Exactly what I needed. Thanks Buy.com!
 
Was this review helpful?    

The best thing about buying this TiVo Expander drive at Buy.com is that it was a lot cheaper than ordering directly from TiVo for the exact same product. Setting it up was about as easy as it can be. Just plug it in and turn on the TiVo, go to the Settings and have the TiVo do its thing to recognize it and set it up. Once that was done, I checked and saw that the TiVo had added all that extra space. Now that I am getting high def programming, I don't have to worry about running out of room on the hard drive. I didn't know ahead of time, but if you set up an external storage drive on the TiVo and then later decide to remove it permanently, you will lose almost all your recordings. That may have made me think twice before I bought another drive, but I am hoping I never have to worry about that. It can be removed temporarily, but then the TiVo won't work properly until it is connected again. This drive is pretty quiet, thank goodness but sometimes it does make a little bit of hard drive noise. At least there isn't a noisy fan running all the time.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Not the cheapest option but works very easily. I didn't want to save money by getting a non-official Tivo hard drive and risk losing any of my recordings. TiVo doesn't separate this hard drive from the one in the TiVo. It just sees them as one so if this thing dies on you all is lost.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I wanted a 1-tb expander but had problems getting other hard drives to be recognized by my DVR(Scientific Atlantic HD-DVR 8300), so I resorted to this 500GB expander because most posts said it would be compatible. This DVR-expander was plug and play and has work as specified.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Installed easy and as promised.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Followed the directions: turned TiVo off, plugged in expander, turned expander on, then the TiVo. After a couple reboots...I now have estimated 86 hours of HDTV space....and just in time for the fall primetime line up. Now if only I had more time to watch what I was recording!
 
Was this review helpful?    

We were tired of trying to find space on our TiVo. When we scheduled a new program for recording, TiVo would inform us that there was not enough space. When we tried to set an existing program as "Keep until I delete", Tivo would inform us that "other recordings may be deleted early and some programs may not record". Often, finding space was time-consuming. "My DVR Expander" has provided us with more space and has eliminated the periodic TiVo cleanup.
 
Was this review helpful?    

This worked just as advertised. Installation was painless. Silent, or close enough to it that I can't tell it's on. My one minor complaint is that it requires an AC socket instead of getting power from the Tivo like the Wi-Fi adapter. It's an even better value now that the price has dropped 25%.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I thought this drive was overpriced as so many good HDDs this size are much cheaper...but I found that it really does run quieter & cooler than my other external drives. This is a big plus when it's in the living room & on all the time. I now own three.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Works as specified to expand the storage of your Tivo Series III DVR. I had problems with non Tivo certified esternal eSATA drives, including those from Western Digital. This Tivo certified drive, installs easily, runs quietly with passive cooling (no fans).
 
Was this review helpful?    

This came in handy when trying to watch all the Olympic events. I recorded all primetime and daytime events without missing one part of it. The setup was less than 5 minutes. My Scientific Atlanta 8300HD recognized the drive immediately and went on its merry way recording everything I wanted. This was definitely worth the price. The ease and high quality processing and delivery from Buy.com is always great.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Unlike my Scientific Alanta DVR, this unit does not power down, as does the hard drive in the DVR. Thus it's on 24/7, with the disk spinning... and slightly vibrating. Yes it's EZ to install, and works as advertised. I wonder how long it will last being on 24/7???
 
Was this review helpful?    

Truly plug n play. I wish upgrading my PC was this easy. After connecting the drive, it took my Tivo HD about 5 minutes to recognize it was there. After that it required a reboot of the Tivo, and that was it.
 
Was this review helpful?    

WOW this was such a great product so much so I ordered a 2nd one. It was up and working within 5 minutes ans all the cables you need are included. I have told all my friends about it that is how blown away with how great it works
 
Was this review helpful?    

I bought the My DVR Expander for recording Olympics with my Tivo HD. Tivo software requires this special eSata expansion drive for the Tivo HD (not so for the Series 3 Tivo), and it is more expensive than other such drives from Western Digital and other manufacturers. But the installation went very fast and easy, and the drive has worked very well. I am especially amazed at how quiet it is--you can't hear it until you are literally touching it.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Easy set up and does exactly what it is supposed to do and does it seemlessly. The only reason for a 4 on value is the "premium" you must pay for a TiVo-certified external HDD as opposed to any other HDD. That said, it's still cheaper than adding another TiVo based on hardware + monthly fee.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Plugged the drive into my HDTivo, followed the instructions, and everything worked perfectly. The system info screen now reports that I have up to 86 hours of HD or 810 hours of SD.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I bought this drive to add HD recording capacity for the Olympics. Simple plug-n-play install and I tripled my capacity. Didnt miss a single broadcast Olympic event. I would recommend this drive to anyone wanting a simple storage solution.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I did not know what to expect at first but from time I opened box to time it was working with my SA DVR was under 5 minutes. I love it so much I am getting a second one. I am kind of wondering why last week when I ordered it was around $130 and now is $158 maybe got real popular after USA Today article. Do not care still well worth the money. Don Barefoot Durham NC
 
Was this review helpful?    

The external ports on a TiVo were always a tease. With capacity being one of TiVo's greatest constraints and external hard drives being a dime-a-dozen, it always seemed cruel that they didn't enable the ports for external storage. Well finally they did! This certified drive, while not the cheapest external eSATA drive in the world, brings lots of capacity to your TiVo. Installation was almost a no-brainer: power down, plug it in, power up, enable it in the menus. That's it. Really. It was that simple. Now we have oodles of capacity and the debates over what gets deleted and what gets recorded are over. The challenge now is to watch even a small percentage of what we record. It would be nice to daisy-chain these drives but it's not possible. While I'm perfectly comfortable with the current capacity, I realize as more programming goes HD I'll be filling up my TiVo faster. That's a future worry however. For now I'm very satisfied. I readily and happily endorse this product; TiVo's external port finally delivers.
 
Was this review helpful?    

This is the second one of these i've bought. it really works great with my Tivo and gives me so much more recording time.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Easy to setup, works just as it said. My DVR goes from 120 gigs to 620 gigs.
 
Was this review helpful?    

it is a nice unit and seems to work fine. However, I needed to send it to WeaKnees along with the hard drive of my TiVo HD to get “married”. That cost $70 and lost some Olympic Trials for me. It is a Western Digital problem.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Be very careful - the copy says it's compatible with the Scientific Atlanta 8300 series, but Western Digital now tells me it's NOT compatible with the 8300HDC which is the box Time-Warner uses exclusively in my area! Fortunately my wife had a legacy 8300HD box and it works very well with that, but I've been told the HDC is the box with FCC-mandated cable card support. I've reported the compatibility issue to SA, Western Digital and Time-Warner (although they won't even discuss an external drive). I hope WD can figure this out, but my experience with cable cards is not good.
 
Was this review helpful?    

follow the simple direction to power off plug everything in and make connections and power back on. Take several minutes but works seamlessly.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I had it hooked up to my Tivo and running in a matter of a few minutes. Works good and is small so it can be put anywhere. I no longer have to worry about limiting my recording because I have a lot more memory.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Followed the instructions to the letter and the TIVO wouldn't recognize the expansion box. Tried it again, still nothing. Third time was the charm, I reversed the SATA cable around, the end that I had in the TIVO was now in the Western Digital box and visa-versa. This time it worked like a charm, I didn't think SATA cables were directional!!!! :) but it worked. Love having up to 86 hours of HD on my TIVO series 3 box to record (that's what the TIVO states). True it was priced higher than other SATA expansion boxes but TIVO will support this one. I would buy it again.
 
Was this review helpful?    

I was skeptical about whether or not this would work with my SA 8300HD as TWC seems to block a lot of content on their receivers. I decided to give it a try and I am pleasantly surprised that it worked! Simple plug in and wait for the receiver to recognize it. When asked to format the drive, say yes and when the formatting is done, reboot the cable box. You should see the percent used decrease significantly (to 1/3 to 1/4 of the original % Full).
 
Was this review helpful?    

This is the boost that HD Tivo needs. My 180 hour Tivo would only give me 20 of HD. 20 hours of HD is pitiful at best. 87 hours is just right. There are some bugs in the HD Tivo's, but nothing that I have not been able to work around. Tivo has been working on a fix for a very long time, so who knows when we will see it. The video jitters once in a while, but only while watching TV, not recorded content. Hitting anything to change the display will fix it, and I don't see it happen very often. Once I had the picture freeze and the audio keep going. That was resolved by a restart, and only happened one time. I still love my Tivo.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Purchased the item to expand the storage capacity for our HDTV version of TIVO...so that we don't have to debate how long to keep which program and which to delete in order to expand recording capacity. This device has worked GREAT! It was simple to install/set up, and worked perfectly right out of the box. Of course it would be nice if it was less expensive, but it definitely did the trick. Buy.com shipped it very promptly to us. :-) I saw the cautions about "following the instructions" and went to the TIVO website to print out the direction...which I followed and everything worked great. One of the reviews uses the word "painful" regarding installation. I'm guessing that they meant "painLESS." It was incredibly easy and took no more than 10 minutes to do...the longest part being for the TIVO to reboot and identify that it had new hardware attached.
 
Was this review helpful?    

After researching many DIY options using an external eSATA enclosure and larger (1TB) HD, I decided to go for the out of the box solution. Why? At the end of the day, 500GB was enough storage for my viewing habits (>100 hours HD with the built-in 250GB HD in my Series 3 Tivo), and support from TiVo if things go south. Setup was dead-simple with the enclosed instructions, and its been rock-solid for the month I've had it installed. I finally have breathing room again and don't live at the mercy of my "Now Playing" list! You can get more storage for less with a DIY setup, but this is a no hassle option that is guaranteed to work and won't have me searching all over the place for an eSATA cable, enclosure, and drive that will play nice. My time is worth more than that, and quite frankly so is yours. Buy it.
 
Was this review helpful?    

This drive gives the Tivo HD much-needed capacity for additional shows, etc. I had problems getting it to work at first because I didn't follow the enclosed instructions to the letter (it is NOT just plug and play). Other than the long time it takes the Tivo to re-boot and recognize the drive, it's a fairly painful installation. I rated value a 4 because it is priced higher than comparably-sized external drives - I assume because of the proprietary OS on the Tivo and drive. Overall, it works great, is silent and I'm happy so far. Shipping was fast from Buy.com as usual. :) I would defintely give this a strong "buy" recommendation.
 
Was this review helpful?    

It does what it is supposed to, it is easy to install, it is quiet and unobtrusive.
 
Was this review helpful?    

Buy.Com = Best Price
 
Was this review helpful?    

Computers > Shop by Brand > Western Digital 2 > Hot Deals

Computers > Hard Drives > Media Players and DVR Expanders