Update - Bell had me try two days worth of unplug, plug, download, reset, wait, etc... with my new comstar 1TB EHD and then claimed they would 'send me an authorization signal' within 15 minutes to 2 hours and everything would be good to go but nothing happened.
I called again the next day, was taken through the same exercise as the 'tech' guy put me on hold to talk to their internal 'senior tech guy' for upwards of 45 minutes whom I was eventually put through to directly. In the end the 'senior tech' guy was no help and couldn't offer much in the way of a solution other than them telling me to buy a Lacie brand EHD from their Bell store as this is the one they recommend.
For what it was worth, I explained that the 6131 product is very misleading when it says PVR ready by attaching an external harddrive. I cannot find any literature under the spec's that says 'compatible only with brand X, Y, or Z.
Anyway, instead of being snookered into buying a $200 Lacie from the Bell store, I bought the 1TB Lacie for $40 less at Future Shop, plugged it in and it works perfectly.
Lessons learned:
1. Bell is in the wrong until they explicitly list 'compatible only with' on their 6131 receiver box and in their ad literature. If they want to be less direct, at least a 'may not be compatable with all EHD' or Bell recommends Lacie EHD., etc...
2. If you, as the buyer, buy anything other than a Lacie, you're flipping a coin on compatability. If you want to improve your chances, read the forum to see what works best other than Lacie.
3. Consider buying the $499 Dual Tuner Bell PVR. Yes, it's $150 - $200 more than 6131 with an EHD but it should work right out of the box.
Anyway, 3 trips to future shop and 3 hours or tech support later, I am enjoying the luxuries of PVR. Meh.
All the Bell employees were all very nice but not very helpful. I suspected the end result - go buy a Lacie - and should have figured it out from the start.