Friday, February 27, 2009

More recording space on an DirecTv HD DVR.

If anyone wants more recording time available on their HR2x, just add an external SATA drive, connected by a shielded eSATA cable.

It's easy: the DirecTv unit is powered off, the SATA drive is plugged into the DVR and turned on, and the DirecTv unit is powered up. Upon powerup the DVR will "discover" the external drive, and format it if necessary. Thereafter the HR2x unit will only record on the external drive, and all "Season Pass" type settings have to be redone.

Any recordings or "season pass" type settings on the OEM internal drive, can again be accessed by powering down the DirecTv unit, powering down the external drive and unplugging it from the DVR, and repowering the DirecTv unit.
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Still don't understand why a firmware update months ago started recordings on my external HD to be problematic , (perhaps DirecTv removed some error checking during recording?) but I tried a fix recommended elsewhere in a discussion group.

I switched to a quality Shielded eSATA cable. (SIIG, purchased at buy.com, part # 202321891 :
~$12 with shipping). SIIG's part # CB-SA0111-S1. I could not find an eSATA cable at Frys or Micro Center, lots of SATA cables, not one eSATA.

And now my 1 Terabyte Seagate SATA drive in an external NexStar3 Case, purchased at Frys, records 2 HD programs simultaneously without glitches or audio synch problems. The NexStar3 supplied unshielded eSATA cable has been discarded.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Fox's u-bet Chocolate Syrup is the product you want if you desire a genuine New York City Egg Cream soda. Now I discover Fox's u-bet Sugar Free Chocolate Syrup; and best of all its sweetened with Splenda, not Sugar Alcohols (Sorbitol or Malitol) that may cause gastric distress.
It was found in the "Kosher for Passover" section of only one local supermarket. No reference to it yet through Google.

Monday, February 23, 2009


Cheeburger Cheeburger ; Discovered there is a franchise in Houston now. Not close to me, but I drove 30+ miles there (northwest of Houston) Friday evening and had a very good cheeseburger, and excellent fries, excellent onion rings, and excellent service.