Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300 DVR USB Port
 

As has been discussed here before, the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300 is a DVR used by some cable systems including Cablevision and Time Warner here in New York City.

On the front of the unit is a USB port labeled in the instructions as for "future use."

Anyone ever play with this and have any idea to what use it can be put?

I have the same DVR and have always wondered. It would be great if you could add additional capacity, especially when I am traveling.

Well, if you have nothing better to do and want to search this 7500 post thread on the AVS Forum for an answer, be my guest. But a quick search of USB doesn't seem to indicate that it has any present use.

The first post has some nice links.

Thank you for the link.

That's some thread! A whopping 252 pages and 7,531 messages that is still active.

But before I devote the next six months, a couple of questions, please.

1. Your thread says 8300HD but my box says only 8300. Is this the same machine?

2. It seems there is no thread search function when I pull up the URL. So, in order to avoid the suspense, can you tell me what it says about USB?

Agreed, along with other things like the ability to program a specific recording (e.g. the Super Bowl) more than a week in advance. My old VCR had 30 day programming.

1. My box says 8300HD. I suspect you have a non-HDTV box and can only get SD (standard definition) outputs.

2. The gist I got is that no one there was able to figure out what to do it with it other than the possibility of using it to charge an iPod from the port. That's one helluva charger!

Yes, you can add additional capacity. I added a 500 GB Apricorn DVR xpander to my 8300HD with a SATA cable several months ago. My recording capacity increased from about 30 hours of HD recordings to over 100 hours. Apricorn (and there are other drives from other manufacturers) sell these up to a 1 TB size drive.

I don't think the USB ports do anything, however, the eSATA ports may work depending on your market, etc. I do recall that there was a ~400GB limit on external hard drives in some configuration (again, depending on market/software). You can use a larger hard drive in these cases, but it won't recognize the capacity past the magic limit.

Do you have Cablevision as well?

A year or so ago, I had a problem when my box suddenly re-booted itself and none of the recorded programs appeared on the list.

I foolishly assumed that customer service would help me. What a joke! The "supervisor" told me, "You have a scandisk error and there is nothing you can do about it."

And they say calling outsourced customer service in India is bad! :D

I have an e-SATA port in the back but I haven't connected anything to it.

I was actually hoping you could use the USB port to copy some of the already recorded programs.

Yes, I am a Charlie Dolan disciple. :eek:

I used to have the rebooting problem as well. I am pretty sure it was caused by a low input signal level on the cable input into the box. I have a lot of splits in my house. My solution was to put some amplified splitters at various points in the system and the problem went away.

Press and hold SELECT on the front panel of the box until the little message icon starts to blink on the front panel, then press INFO and up on your TV will come a page of info. Look at the RF signal level. It should be in the -5 to +10 dBmv range. If it is too low or too high you will get either drop outs and/or reboots. You can go from one screen, or page as they call it, to another by using the page up/down keys (I think that is what they are called) on the top right of the remote. Use the EXIT key on the remote to get rid of the screen. You also want to make sure the reverse RF channel (the box's transmission level back to the headend) is in the 40's. If it is in the 50's, or worst yet, 55 dBmv, then the signal going back may be too weak by the time it gets to the headend and will get there with lot's of errors.

Also, these guys sell "the best" CATV distribution amplifiers, IMO. Far above the Radio Shack stuff. The "good goods" as I like to say. I've used different models and have had no problems. They have some good tutorials on their site too. Quick delivery and great support as well.

http://www.cabletvamps.com/drop%20amps.htm

Good luck!