Customer Reviews

Apricorn DVR Xpander 1TB eSATA Interface with eSATA Cable and AC Adapter

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I purchased this 1TB Apricorn DVR Expander, and I unfortunately discovered that it does NOT work with the TiVo HD DVR and TiVo Series 3 DVRs, even though the product description states that it will work with ANY DVR that has an active eSata port. I only purchased this DVR Xpander because it offers such a high amount of extra recording hours (562 hours of SD programming, and 125 hours of HD), and I have had to regrettably send this Expander back to the company that I purchased it from. Clearly, this will be and IS the same problem with the 500 GB Apricorn DVR Expander, too.

If anyone out there has a TiVo HD or Series 3 DVR and you want to add extra recording space to your DVR, then don't purchase this 1TB (or 500 GB) Apricorn DVR Expander because neither device will work. If you want to add extra recording hours to your TiVo DVR, then you will have to purchase the Western Digital My DVR Expander, which is the only Expander on the market that is compatible with the TiVo HD and Series 3 DVRs. (This is the official word from the TiVo Company Customer Service Technical Support staff themselves.)

Also, if anyone out there does buy the Western Digital My DVR Expander for their TiVo DVR, then be aware that that Expander actually adds a lot MORE recording space to a TiVo DVR than what the product description states on the box. The recording space on the box for the Western Digital DVR Expander states that it will only add 300 hours of SD recording space and 60 hours of HD, but it will actually add 626 SD hours and 72 HD hours to a TiVo DVR. My personal TiVo HD DVR originally held only 184 SD hours and 21 HD hours, but my recording space went to 810 SD hours and 93 HD hours when I plugged in the Western Digital Expander to my DVR.

Overall, the Western Digital My DVR Expander is truly a BETTER buy than the 1TB (or the 500 GB) Apricorn DVR Expander for those who own a TiVo HD or Series 3 DVR.

The Apricorn DVR Xpander 1TB did everything it was advertised to do. After buying, spending many hours trying to get it to work, and then returning a Western Digital 1TB hard drive from Costco because it really did not have a SATA drive under the cover, even though it had a SATA connector, I purchased the Apricorn. I had it up and running on my DVR in 5 minutes and have increased my Explorer 8300HDC DVR by a factor of almost 7. Great product, doing just what it was supposed to, and it is quiet. I would recommend it to anyone.

This DVR Expander is almost too good to be true! I've had it for about 3 months now, and it continues to work like a charm. The setup was extremely easy - simple plug and play. I just followed the directions and it took all of about 2 minutes.

Absolutely no negative issues to report; I disagree with the other review about it being loud - our unit is completely quiet, just like a normal DVR cable box.

We had some initial concerns about whether or not the eSATA port on our box was deactivated, but this was not the case and it turns out this hard drive is completely compatible with our setup. We're running a Cisco RNG 200 DVR HD cable box with Comcast service.

After rebooting the box with the hard drive, the box automatically recognized it, and our DVR space usage dropped from 80% to 11%! We no longer have to worry about deleting shows - right now we have 112 recordings, mostly HD, and have used less than 50% of the space. This product is worth every penny!

Installed this Christmas, 2008 without difficulty. Beware that you won't be able to see anything previously recorded on the HR20. But that's not the fault of the Apricorn. Great product.

This DVR expander is awesome!. Works exactly as described. Easy setup and completely transparent operation. Before setup, DVR reported 85% full, after setup it registered 8%!! Using with Scientific Atlanta 8300HDC DVR with Time-Warner cable. For $164.00 this thing was a steal! Smaller than it looks in product views, only the size of a standard paperback book. 1 MILLION megabytes for $164? Insanely great.

I got a couple drives before and they for some reason didn't work with my Astound DVR. But this thing just worked! Highly recommended for any Astound Cable DVR owners.

I was always frustrated with the lack of space on my cable DVR. HD programs used up the little memory provided very quickly and I would lose programs as they got bumped off. I now have more memory than I'l ever need and I don't have to constently edit my recordings to avoid losing them.

I installed this today, and I've found the hard drive to be incredibly loud. Not exactly what you want in your living room.

Well, this STARTED out to be a great product! But the "made in China" crap finally kicked in, and it died after about 1 year. I lost SO many good shows that I meant to burn to a DVD Recorder but never got around to. Bottom line: No matter WHAT you buy, make sure to back up all your recordings. All disc drives fail after a while, this one just did so much quicker than I EVER expected! Try WD or Iomega as both work with my Scientific Atlanta 8240 HDC.

The Apricorn Xpander worked great for about 10 months, then crashed and burned without warning, freezing up the picture. It was replaced under warranty and worked fine for about 15 months, then this new unit crashed and burned. Apricorn refused to replace it since beyond their 1 year warranty. Great machine if you only need it to work for 1 year but otherwise it is a piece a junk.