So, you power up the 9200, and then, while the 9200 is running, you unplug the SATA from the 9200 motherboard and plug it into your (already running, I presume) computer?!

Isn't that a huge no-no - plugging/unplugging on the mobo while fully powered up?

Please explain.....

I know it is for most connections (PS/2, parallel, serial, IDE etc), SATA is apparently hot-pluggable though, I just wouldn't trust it as much as I trust, say, USB.

What you could maybe do is pull the SATA plug from the 9200 (with it running) and plug it into your computer which ISN'T running. We'll have to wait for gacdss's response though, he's done it.

Yeah SATA is hot-pluggable. The internal cable on the 9200 is not very long however. So what I did was actually use an external SATA drive enclosure connected the 9200 SATA cable inside the enclousre, which then gave me the benefit of using either USB or SATA to connect to my laptop. Obviously not the most efficient way, but it did work. The 9200 continued to display the station I had on, but once I had transferred the stuff over I did power off the 9200 prior to connecting the SATA cable back to the 9200.

Now I know the 9200 does have a few different drive models in production so they may not all require the 9200 to power on the drive. So you may be able to remove the drive and take it over to you PC and then connect it up without a problem. I could not as Windows would not spin up the drive due to some setting on the drive. I have also read that you can purchase a SATA cable that would allow you to extent the cable out of the 9200 so basically one cable coming from the drive and another cable going to the SATA connection on the 9200. So on the outside you would have male end and female end cable that could be pulled apart to connect to you PC, thus allowing the 9200 cover to be left on at all times.

I was using the latest version of PVRExplorer do perform the extraction.

FYI, my 9200 is outside of warranty.

It was nice to be able to pull off some of the saved shows like BSG, thus freeing up valuable drive space.

I couldn't resist the challenge so I had to try this out. My 9200 is located in a place that makes it very inconvenient to pop the top all the time so I modified the case and installed a SATA plug on the back (see photo's below). I picked up a gizmo that converts SATA to USB2, so now I simply unplug the SATA at the back, plug in the SATA converter and fire up PVRExplorerPro on my PC. Presto, the files are there and I can download them to the hard drive. From there I can either burn a DVD or transfer the file to my Pixel Magic Media Box, which permits me to watch HD content directly with no further compression or transcoding.

The only thing I've noticed is that I lost the video output of the PVR when I unplugged the SATA cable, and I had to re-boot the 9200 when I plugged it back in. Also the beginning of the file names in PVRExplorerPro were truncated. Otherwise, everything works as advertised.

Many thanks to all that have contributed to this thread. This is great!



This is the STB with the SATA socket installed. If I did this again I would move the socket a bit to the right since there wasn't a lot of cable to spare from the hard drive.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2091/2410670992_ccf08bdc05.jpg

Here's two views of the external socket, with and without the SATA cable plugged in.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2376/2409840735_f68a370c6c.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3199/2409840781_5042f44f31.jpg

Here's the SATA to USB converter and the SATA socket & extension cable (with plate attached). I bought the converter at Tiger Direct and you can get the socket & extension on-line at either StarTech or CompuNation (who had cheaper shipping costs). Make sure you order the SATA plate and not the ESATA plate.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3189/2409840793_0d81e7d53e.jpg

Am I correct in assuming that even when the 9200 is deactivated you can still plug unit in and retrieve contents on the hard drive for burning?Also, any recorders anyone can recommend??


Thank you

Hi ,excuse me my english its not very good
I hope im explain me correct
I have 9200 Pvr Bell
evrything its ok when im extract the file with Pvrexplorer pro
But Vraktv Hd nothing work ,maybe its a mpg4,what im suppose take for extract the file mpg4

Video: -1x-1 at -1.00fps

KRD01967,

yes you can access the pvr events with the 9200 with no signal or deactivated.

Swwweeet!
I've been looking for a way to do this and this is nice.
Thanks

So, I have a few questions before I try this.
A) Is this the procedure?
1) With the 9200 plugged in but powered down, unplug the sata cable from the HDD & plug in the sata-to-usb dongle. Using a USB cable, plug that into your computer.
2) Start up the latest version of PVRExplorer & copy the desired files to your computer.

B) I imagine that the area on the HDD for on-demand shows is unaccessable. Correct?

C) Are there any other ways of connecting the HDD? I imagine that USB is kind of slow.

D) Most importantly, is it at all possible to fubar the 9200?

D) Most importantly, is it at all possible to fubar the 9200?
Definitely. You are doing things that should never be recommended.

Hot swapping of this nature is definitely a "try-at-your-own-peril" operation. It would not be covered under any warranty if proven. These drives were not meant for this. It may work, but don't be surprised if it doesn't. There is a risk to the computer, the HDD controller, the HDD drive and the receiver. Be warned. How much risk? Hard to say, but definitely there is one.

Yeah, that's what I'm worried about. I'll probably wait until Hauppauge comes out with their component-in capture card.

C) Are there any other ways of connecting the HDD? I imagine that USB is kind of slow.


Actually the SATA to USB2 interface is pretty fast. It only takes ~2 minutes to transfer a 1/2 hour program which is ~2GB.

Regarding the risks, the first couple of times I unplugged the SATA cable (while the PVR was running) I had to take a deep breath and cross my fingers. Then again, if you don't take any risks in your life, you're not getting the full experience. :D

New to the board.

Thanks, especially Simmer, for the info on retrieving files from the 9200. I plan on trying it out.

Wondering, Simmer, which revision of PVRExplorerPro you are using???

Thanks, and P.S. - sweet SATA mod. If this works good for me, I might have to follow suit!

Wondering, Simmer, which revision of PVRExplorerPro you are using???


I believe I'm using 2.0.3.0.

Simmer, is the PVR turned on (like when you're in the middle of watching TV) when you unplug the sata cable, or is it plugged in & turned off (in standby)?

Simmer, is the PVR turned on (like when you're in the middle of watching TV) when you unplug the sata cable, or is it plugged in & turned off (in standby)?

It doesn't seem to matter whether the PVR is on or in standby mode, although I would imagine standby is better since it's less likely there will be any hard drive activity. In both cases you will likely need to re-boot the PVR after you plug the SATA cable back in.

I hooked up the drive from my 5900 to my PC and PVRExplorer showed me a garbled directory listing. The drive works fine in the 5900. I have done this before on the PC, but not for many months.

Did one of the 5900 upgrades change things? Anyone else seeing this issue?

I'm seeing the same problem with my 5900. Unfortunately for me I only just started trying to rip the drive for my 5900 for the first time and came upon this problem. I got one file off. From what I understand it was the last update that 'broke' things. As PVRExplorer isn't being actively developed it could be a while before there's a fix. As it's open source hopefully someone who knows their way around code will step up and fix it for us.

I thought I should mention I tried ripping my 5900 again with the '369hack' version of PVRExplorer and was able to get a lot more off. It seems it was able to read the drive where the latest 'official' version could not (gibberish file list). I was not able to get relatively new programming off because the download stalls, but I had over 30 hours of programming dated up into February that came off fine. From what I've read on the Yahoo forum for PVRExplorer, the latest files suffer from some kind of audio problem (audio isn't synced I think) when ripped. Anyway, for whatever reason, that causes the download to stall.