Western Digital My Book AV DVR Expander 1 TB USB 2.0/eSATA External Hard Drive

by Western Digital

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 1.9 x 6.5 inches ; 2.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B003MVZ60S
• Item model number: WDBABT0010HBK-NESN
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (239 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 22, 2010

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Instantly add more recording hours to your DVR.

Expand your DVR storage so you can record more of your favorite TV shows. Or, transfer and store videos from your compatible camcorder to free up space for more recording. Connect the drive to a game console, Blu-ray Disc player or media player, like one from the WD TV family, to smoothly stream video to your big screen TV. It's the perfect solution for your video storage and playback needs.

Make room for more TV shows.
Instantly add more recording hours to your USB or eSATA DVR. Never miss your favorite shows.

A companion for your camcorder.
Transfer and store videos from your compatible camcorder without a computer, so you can record more and delete less.

Store media for playback on your TV.
Connect this AV-optimized drive to a game console, Blu-ray Disc player, or media player, like WD TV, to enjoy your media on your big screen TV.

Features at a glance DVR expander to add more recording hours to your DVR Works with most DVRs and AV devices AV-optimized for smooth video recording and playback Storage for your compatible camcorder 2-year limited warranty

High-capacity DVR expander - Add extra hours of HD storage to your DVR. Connect the drive to your compatible USB or eSATA DVR to instantly create more storage for your TV shows, sporting events, and movies.

A convenient storage companion for your camcorder - Transfer your videos to your My Book AV drive without a computer to make room for more recording. You can even use the camcorder to play back the videos stored on the My Book AV drive.

AV-optimized - My Book AV DVR Expander offers smooth video recording and playback with SilkStream technology (available via eSATA connection only). Built with WD GreenPower Technology, the drive inside is optimized for the demands of reading and writing video as well as the high temperatures often found in entertainment centers.

Store videos, music, and photos for playback on your TV - Connect this AV-optimized drive to a game console, Blu-ray Disc player or media player, like our WD TV family of products, to enjoy smooth playback on your big screen TV.

Small enough to fit in your entertainment center - The small My Book form factor fits neatly in your entertainment center. It can stand upright or lie horizontally, making it easy to neatly position your drive near your AV devices while maximizing airflow and minimizing heat around the drive.

Maximum flexibility - My Book AV has both USB 2.0 and eSATA interfaces so your drive is compatible with most DVRs and other AV devices.

When used with a DVR, the My Book AV drive expands the recording capacity of a single DVR and cannot be also used as an expander with multiple DVRs or as storage for other AV devices.

Ideal for

• Expanding your DVR storage
• Saving videos from your compatible camcorder
• Storing movies, music, and photos for playback on your TV

What's in the box
DVR expander, external power supply, USB 2.0 cable, eSATA cable, adapter cable for Sony camcorders, Quick Install Guide, feet for horizontal placement.

Compatibility
System Compatibility

DVRs (Set-Top-Boxes)*
• Direct TV R15, HR20, HR2, HR23
• Dish VIP722K
• TiVo Series 3 & Premiere
• Pace DC7581
• Time Warner SA STB
• Scientific Atlanta 8300
• *Check with your cable service provider to confirm compatibility with their system.

Camcorders
• 2010 or later Sony camcorders with Direct Copy functionality, including: HDR-CX150/R, HDR-CX110/L, HDR-XR350V, HDR-CX300, HDR-XR150, HDR-XR550V, HDR-CX550V, HDR-CX350V, DCR-SX63, DCR-SX44, DCR-SR68/R, DCR-SR88, DCR-SX83

Blu-ray Disc Players
• Sony 2010 Blu-ray Disc Players, including BDP-S370, BDP-S470, BDP-S570, BDP-BX37, BDP-BX57, BDP-N460, BDP-560
• Sony Blu-ray Disc Home Theater Systems, including BDV-E370, BDV-E570, BDV-T57
• LG BD390
• Samsung BD-P1600

Game Consoles
• Microsoft Xbox 360 (media playback only)
• Sony PlayStation 3 (media playback only)

Televisions
• JVC LT-32P6
• Samsung LN32A550
• Phillips 42PFLA332D
• LG 47LH30
• Sony KDL-46XBR9

Media Players
• Western Digital WD TV Live Plus, WD TV Live, WD TV, WD TV Mini

Device Compatibility
Formatted FAT32
Compatible with Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7
Compatible with Mac® OS X® Tiger®, Leopard®, or Snow Leopard
Note: Compatibility may vary depending on user's hardware configuration and operating system

Product Description

Expand your DVR storage so you can record more of your favorite TV shows. Or, transfer and store videos from your compatible camcorder to free up space for more recording. Connect the drive to a game console, Blu-ray Disc player or media player, like one from the WD TV family, to smoothly stream video to your big screen TV. It's the perfect solution for your video storage and playback needs.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

94 of 97 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 30 seconds later mission accomplished!, July 13, 2010

By 

wiscy - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Western Digital My Book AV DVR Expander 1 TB USB 2.0/eSATA External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

I received my 1TB WD My Book AV Expander today. Here's how it went down:

Unpack, plug into back of DVR with included eSATA cable, plug WD HDD into wall outlet, turn on DVR and TV. See prompt on TV about new attached storage. Look for and find remote that kids misplaced. Then Press A on remote to format. Wait 30 seconds. Now when I press List it shows 5% Full (used to be 40%). It didn't even interrupt the current recording. No more taping over my World Cup matches. How easy is that?

So far no heat from new hard drive and it's whisper quiet. Drive also comes with a USB cable (not needed for this project as the Scientifc Atlanta 8300HD supports eSATA only for adding storage.) From WD's website this drive is on the list of supported drives for Time Warner SA8300HD but it was still a relief to see it immediately recognized.

69 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Works with TIVO HD DVR, October 10, 2010

By 

drifter yank (Richmond, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Western Digital My Book AV DVR Expander 1 TB USB 2.0/eSATA External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

Connection is about a 5-minute job, but initial boot-up takes awhile. Western Digital instructions are incomplete and fairly useless--just diagrams.

Unplug the Tivo power cord. Connect the SATA cable between WD Expander and Tivo. Power on Expander (check for white light in front). Plug in the Tivo power cord. Go to Settings menu on Tivo, then External Storage, then Add. Then, BE PATIENT! It took my unit about 25 minutes to boot and reconfigure everything. A couple of times I thought something might be wrong but I continued to wait and it finally completed and worked. You can also find instruction on Tivo's Web site. These are basically the same as given here.

The Expander box only shows compatibility with Tivo Series 3 and Premiere. But, that is wrong. I suspect that reviewers who say it does not work with a Tivo HD unit had a defective unit or cable, powered off and on in the wrong sequence, or were impatient and bailed out while the Tivo was still reconfiguring during the initial boot-up.

I bought from a local Best Buy store. Their price is too high ($150). But, I wanted the convenience of easy return in case the reviews saying the Expander would not work with a Tivo HD were correct.

I hope this helps anyone with a Tivo HD that is considering the WD My Book AV DVR Expander.

August 25, 2011 Update:

Several months ago our Tivo started randomly rebooting. This got progressively worse. We started having recordings interrupted or skipped entirely. Over several months dealing with Tivo tech support we finally eliminated all possibilities except the DVR Expander. Once I uninstalled it we had no more random reboots. The unit has a two-year warranty so we had plenty of time left on it. I returned it to Western Digital for a replacement which we have now received. Their return process is very customer friendly. I did have to pay about $17 for shipping return, however.

During one of my many conversations with Tivo Tech Support one person advised that these frequently go bad. They said you are better off buying a Tivo with a bigger hard drive to begin with. But, when we bought our Tivo a larger internal drive was not offered. Since this was a techie, I doubt he was trying to up-sell me. From his standpoint, obviously troubleshooting is easier if you have fewer peripherals attached to the system.

December 20, 2011 Update:

I received the warranty repaired or replacement unit several months ago. I delayed reinstalling it because of having recordings on the Tivo I did not want to lose in the reinstallation process. When I finally did reinstall the MyBook, I only had three recordings stored on the Tivo and did not care if I lost them. To my surprise, I did not lose anything with the reinstall.

The new unit has been up and running for a week now. Everything is good. I have another year left on the warranty. Hopefully, I will have better luck with this one.

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Works Great, Looks Great, August 9, 2010

By 

Timothy G. Blum (Amherst, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Western Digital My Book AV DVR Expander 1 TB USB 2.0/eSATA External Hard Drive (Personal Computers)

We have had a TiVo Premiere XL for about 2 months and got this pretty quickly as an accessory along with the wireless-n adapter. This 1TB HD works great and combined with the 1TB internal drive on the Premiere XL I now get 301 HD hrs/up to 2637 SD hrs (I have the SD recording quality set on highest so I actually get 447 sd hrs capacity). Installation was easy as I was used to hooking one of these external HDs up to the cable DVRs (we still haven't gotten rid of them all yet-still waiting for the "tuning adapter" just for this TiVo). The directions are on the TiVo website, but you basically unplug the TiVo, plug the HD eSATA into the TiVo, then plug in the HD and wait for it to spin up (about 20 secs), then plug the TiVo back in and the on-screen menus will take care of the rest after booting back up. No problems whatsoever with the exception of one time watching a show where there was a hiccup in the recording-not sure whether the recording was on the TiVo HD or the external HD-and rewinding to get it to play again sent the TiVo to do a reset. Only has happened once in 2 months. Very quiet, virtually no HD noise (you can hear spinning if you stick your ear up to it). Looks pretty nice with the single pin dot although you can just as easily hide it behind components if you want.

I was a little hesitant because I have had mixed success with WD externals. One, a 2GB My Book Studio II works great as my main backup with firewire on a Windows 7 x64 PC. Another, an older WD My Book 500gb had lots of issues with the controller card inside and eventually it failed-but I cracked it open (literally because this version at least was not user serviceable) and was able to remove the 500gb HD and put it into an Antec external enclosure and now it works great as a media (audio/video files) drive.