Don't leave us hanging here cavu, I'd like to plop a bigger drive in my 6412!
(I just just want you to hammer out the details first :D

What's the prognosis?

Hey All,

I just tried doing this with my 6412 using a Samsung SP1614C 160GB Sata drive and it worked too. The config menu displays the following:


Drive : 1 INTERNAL
Model Number: SAMSUNG SP1614C
Device ID: P
Type: IDE
Total Size 160Gb Used Allocated
System 1 238 MB
GPFS 1 2861 MB
PVR Content 20413 147581MB
PVR Index 25 1907MB


It appears that you are not limited to Seagate or Maxtor SATA drives when doing the upgrade.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I am not all that pvr savy. I have a 6212 which I bought used and am not sure if it is a PI, PII or PIII nor can I determine from the specs what size HD it has. The config is:

S/W 73.45
Firmnware 10.12
MCA 0-4097, 1-8193, 2-17071, 3-34817

Can anyone tell me what unit I have and the size of the HD from above and if it would be possible to install the 160 HD as described above.

Many thanks in advance for answering.

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but I am not all that pvr savy. I have a 6212 which I bought used and am not sure if it is a PI, PII or PIII nor can I determine from the specs what size HD it has. The config is:

S/W 73.45
Firmnware 10.12
MCA 0-4097, 1-8193, 2-17071, 3-34817

Can anyone tell me what unit I have and the size of the HD from above and if it would be possible to install the 160 HD as described above.

Many thanks in advance for answering.
The 6412's have 120GB drives, hence the 12...the 6416's have 160GB drives.

I'm not sure about determining the Phase, mine has DCT6412 III printed on the front just below the card reader slot.

The Phase III's have an HDMI connector. Also says HDMI on the front.

Thanks for the replies!!

Does anyone know what has happened to cavu?

He was supposedly working on the 500 gb drive. No posts in the last month to any thread and he hasn't responded my pms either.

I'd like to know if the 160 gb is all we can get or if he figured out how to partition a larger hd.

Does anyone know what has happened to cavu?

He was supposedly working on the 500 gb drive. No posts in the last month to any thread and he hasn't responded my pms either.

I'd like to know if the 160 gb is all we can get or if he figured out how to partition a larger hd.

bah, why bother? We know that a firmware upgrade due in 2007 will allow
us to use the SATA ports and attach an external HD. (See interview with
Bissonette)

He has a thread on the same subject over at avsforum.

The firmware upgrade needs to be released by Motorola, so don't hold your breathe.

I had seen the SATA port upgrade in the interview. If Shaw/Motorolla say 2007, I'd be happy to see it by 2009. Past experience tells me whenever Shaw give a time frame it should be doubled or tripled.

Besides, if I can drop a 500gb internal drive in there, why bother using an external drive.

triple 2009 = 6027!! :)

I heard that with the 6208 model, people have been able to use up to a 250GB HD. I believe all they had to do was ghost the drive... now, i'm not sure if you took a ghosted sata drive and put it in the 6412 if it would see it as preformatted...

apart from that, I don't think we're going to see a 500GB drive anytime soon...

it seems from what i've read that the only reason we are able to use a 160GB drive right now is because of the 6416...

I heard that with the 6208 model, people have been able to use up to a 250GB HD. I believe all they had to do was ghost the drive... now, i'm not sure if you took a ghosted sata drive and put it in the 6412 if it would see it as preformatted...
I remember hearing that, but, I thought nothing came of it. I think there would have been as big a hoopla about successful ghosting as there is about a 160gb do-it-yourself upgrade. Not to mention a Sticky Thread. :D

A quick google search of motorola filesystem dct reveals that so far no one has been able to figure out what type of FS it uses.

I wonder if we phoned motorola and asked if they would tell us :p

So *MY* search of nearly exactly that to try to figure this out has lead to nothing except this thread, but I thought I'd share my experience here.

I have a 6412, I believe Phase 2 as I don't have SATA ports on it. Obviously the USB and Ethernet ports are disabled as we all hate. I have successfully streamed video over the Firewire port to capture it on my MacMini (and PC for testing too) and while it "works" it just seems rediculous to me to have the computer have to redigitize something that's sitting on a hard drive inches away. Invariably there's little glitches here and there, especially with HD, even on the fastest system.

So I purchased this IDE (and others) to USB drive adapter (which works amazingly BTW):

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer%20Technology/U2NVSPATA/

Then the special screwdriver for opening up the back of the box. Hooked the drive up to my MacMini just hoping it'd see it. Of course not!! Unreadable filesystem. It's also definitely not Ext2/3 as I download and installed a Mac (read-only) driver for those.

So I'm back to square one. Mac OS X reads all the other major filesystems out there that I know of anyway, so they must be using something proprietary.

Anyway, I thought I'd share and maybe get some feedback on possible other filesystems that are out there. I'm more than happy to have an offline conversation about this via e-mail as well. chad@chad-wick.com

Cheers!

If I remember, the file system is (or was) Linux-based.

If I remember, the file system is (or was) Linux-based.

That would have been my guess too. Linux (Unix) is typically Ext2/3 which couldn't be read. Mac OS X can directly read all of the other major file system types that I know of, unless I'm missing something.....of course there could have been issues with the USB adapter device (which has worked brilliantly with others...NTFS, FAT, etc.) or the Mac software as well. As I just tried all of this this morning, I'm going to be doing some more testing.

Remember that the files on the PVR are encrypted and readable only by the PVR. The only way to transfer them is via firewire real time as the PVR unencrypts them.

Security bit sets are on sale at Active Electronics this week for $10.
http://www.active123.com/b2c/redirect.cfm?pn=2&lang=eng&CFID=76473464&CFTOKEN=75298138&jsessionid=203088583aa7680274d1TR&locationID=itemDetail_3&itemID=800-048-ECL

Does anyone know what has happened to cavu?I have been consumed by "life" (I've travelled to NZ and all over North America this summer) and haven't been able to test the 500gb drive I got.

Hopefully September will be better. ;)

Just have say thanks to cavu, James, and the rest who have tried. Would have never occurred to me without this thread. Just dropped a Samsung Spinpoint P 160GB into the 6412 and went like silk. Works fine. I prefer the Samsung drives ... they are just so quiet. The only glitch I had was that stupid black plastic clip snapped off when removing the cover. I hope it is insignificant enough that if I ever have to take the box back to Shaw for a swap that it will go unoticed.