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Upgrading iHDD in PVR Discussion.

4K views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  NTensityX 
#1 ·
I know this might be early, but after my google-fu failed me I decided to reach out here. I'd like to know if it is possible to user upgrade the hard drive in the latest illico 4K Ultra PVRs (manufacturer / model : Samsung VD940CJ). Specifically, I'm look to replace the HDD with an SSD drive, now that prices for these have dropped. My goal is noise reduction, as this device is located in the bedroom, and we can hear the drive spin up at night / during a recording. I'm not concerned about matching the 2TB size of the HDD, as the majority of our recordings are done on other PVR devices - this is primarily for pause / play on live TV and recording the rest of a show before lights out.

So has anyone gotten curious enough to crack 'er open yet and see what's really inside? :wink
 
#2 ·
One has to ask you first if your model is bought or rented. If bought, then you could pull out the HDD and clone it onto a Seagate SSD (500GB), using the free cloning software called DiscWizard available for download. Another thing to remember is that HDD for video recorders are optimized for speed not precision. It doesn't matter if a few bits are lost on the magnetic platter, you won't see that on the TV screen, however the video style HDD driver will know exactly what to do with the corrupted video frame(s). A HDD or SSD not optimized for video but optimized for number crunching will try to repeat reading the corrupted disc sector before abandoning the chunk of data. However given that SSD have good track records for data integrity and have the speed to make up for any reading delays, this might not be a problem. A 500 GB Seagate SSD should cost you under $100 and if it doesn't work, you can always recycle it into your laptop or desktop PC.

P.S. 10 years ago, there was a small movement of users publishing ways to swap 160GB HDD for 320GB in Cisco brand PVR. In some cases cloning was not necessary as the firmware downloaded a fresh copy of the OS.
 
#3 ·
@montreal - thanks for the guidance and pointers - I'm assuming then that the drives that are used are the same as those used for CCTV systems (like the WD Purple series). I own all of my own boxes so no concerns about warranty or breaching a contract agreement on rented equipment. I've done an upgrade as you described previously, though those were on the Scientific Atlanta Videotron PVRs. I was just curious to see if anyone had actually tried it yet. Given that there's less reason to do so these days with the drives being two TB in space, I'm not surprised that few (or possibly no one) people have had any reason to try it. It would take very specific circumstances such as mine (I'm a really light sleeper!) to have a need to try it. As you said, if it fails, then I can add the drive to one of my existing systems as an additional drive.

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to go ahead and give it a shot - if I do so, is there any interest in this thread for a write up and pics of the tear down and upgrade?

Cheers!
 
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