TVSquad

Running out of space on your cable company PVR? If you've got a Scientific Atlanta 8300 series DVR with the e-SATA port enabled, you can add an extra 500GB of storage with the new Iomega DVR Expander.

If that name sounds familiar, that's because Western Digital released an e-SATA hard drive last year with exactly the same name. Well, you know, except that it's called the Western Digital DVR Expander, not Iomega.

So how much extra room are we really talking about here? 500GB is enough space for 300 hours of standard definition TV or 60 hours of HDTV. The Iomega DVR Expander will be available later this month for $199, or pretty much the same price as the Western Digital version which is already available.

Either external hard disc should work with a number of set top boxes from cable companies including Cox, Comcast, CableVision, and Time Warner.

[via Engadget]

Sure, your TiVo HD can record 2 HDTV programs at the same time. But slap the upcoming Seagate Showcase external hard drive on your PVR or home theater PC and you can record up 12 at once. You know, if you've got 12 CableCARD or ATSC TV tuners.

The Seagate Showcase is basically a fancy new hard drive enclosure with a snazzy new Seagate Pipeline HD Series hard drive which can handle up to 12 simultaneous HD streams without cracking a sweat or making loud whirring noises. The Showcase comes in capacities of up to 1TB, which should be enough to store 200 hours of HD video or 1000 hour of standard definition video.

The box is designed to be compatible with Motorola set top boxes sporting eSATA ports. It also has a USB 2.0 port which means it should work with other devices including computers running Windows Vista with Windows Media Center.

The Seagate Showcase should be available this fall. No word on how much they'll cost.

[via Gizmodo]

Apricorn is upping the storage capacity of its DVR Xpander eSATA hard drives. Previously, you could pick up a 250GB model for $129 or a 500GB version for $199.

Now Apricorn is offering a 1TB model for $329 after rebate. There's also a new 750GB model for $279. The 250GB model seems to have been discontinued, while the 500GB model got a $20 price cut.

The DVR Xpander is really just a hard drive in an external case with an eSATA cable. So you could really buy any hard drive and enclosure you like and plug it into your personal video recorder if the eSATA port is enabled. But Apricorn's prices do seem pretty reasonable.

The only officially supported PVRs are the Scientific Atlanta 8300 and 8300HD. But we don't see any reason why the DVR Xpander wouldn't work with other boxes. Like say, the TiVo Series3 or TiVo HD.

[via Electronista]