LG LRH-780 harddrive upgrade

[canadian bacon]

so can you upgrade the harddrive on this machine,,im thinking of buying it and putting in a 300gig seagate,,or a 250 westerndig,,cheers

[obs]

I've read other users here who say they've done it, but I haven't tried myself. Use the search feature.

In any case, buy and try. FS's return policy is pretty flexible .

[canadian bacon]

im doing one now as we speak,,taking out the 80gig and trying a 250 maxtor,.,let you know,,cheers

[canadian bacon]

ok i can confirm this,,it works,,changed the 80 gig to a 250gig maxtor,,formatted it and know i have 127hrs on sp mode,,even recorded some stuff on it to make sure and no problem,,all that work to upgrade the pionner,,not for me,,cheers

[video_user]

Canadian Bacon: Is the Maxtor as quiet as the original HDD? What model # of the Maxtor did you get? And is everything still working well?
Thanks

[canadian bacon]

i dont know the model maxtor,250gig and yes it is very quiet and it works like a charm,i have been using it for a week steady and had up to 30 to 40 hours of video on the harddrive,,i should have bought this first,,i have a pionner with an 80gig and the work involed to change it is crazy,,,never going pionner again,,LG all the way,,cheers

[video_user]

Thanks CB. I switched my 80GB with a 320 GB Western Digital. It was a pretty simple switch, and I've recorded some titles with no problem. The HDD is really quiet, and I'm very happy with the switch.

Two complaints I have:
1. If you edit a recording, you can only transfer it to a disc in real time. This is a real pain. (Maybe there will be a firmware upgrade to resolve this (I hope.))

2. There's no timeshifting if you use the timer to record.

There may be a couple of other minor issues, but I'm really happy with this machine.

[canadian bacon]

hey glad to hear that,,im going to try when i get the time to put in a 500gig drive,,once i get my LCD tv ill be using the record mode in xp,,so i will need the xtra gigs for the best picture,,the problems your having i have not tried yet,,once i start playing with it more ill try and figure out how to transfer the edited part form the harddrive to dvd with speed,,will let you know,,cheers,,P.S. you can also transfer a DVD movie only to the hd,,fullscreen only,,just press play movie in the DVD menu and wait 5 seconds and press dubbing,,cheers

[video_user]

Thanks for the info. I'll try and copy a movie to the HD, and see how it goes. If you find anything out about the fast dubbing of edited files, I'd be very interested to know about it.

Thanks.

[obs]

1. If you edit a recording, you can only transfer it to a disc in real time. This is a real pain. (Maybe there will be a firmware upgrade to resolve this (I hope.))

Agreed. Even if you just cut/split the video, you can't fast dub anymore. I think it is because of how it handles the files. When you make edits, I think it just re-writes the ".ifo" file and leaves the actual ".vob" files alone.

I haven't used any other recorder with HDD, so I don't know if other models updates the clips in seconds (like the LG), or if it takes a few minutes for the machine to rewrite the clips.

Anyways, i don't think there will ever be a firmware update to change this. Even their latest model, the 890, has the same edit/fast_dub limitation.


One real pain is that there's no internal battery. If the power flicks off for a second or two, there goes all your timer programming!

[video_user]

You're probably right about the firmware upgrade. There's not much information about this recorder even on the LG site, so I don't think they'll be putting any updates/improvements out for it.

I have to agree with you on the internal battery issue. A split second loss of power, and I have to reset the time which messes up any timer recordings.

[LifeIsGd]

Thanks for the upgrade info; looks like FS sold out on this model!

I have Videotron Illico 3200 digital box, which cann't control this recorder; I have to program them seperately in order to do scheduled recording. Kind of pain!

Can someone can shed some light? Thanks in advance.

[canadian bacon]

i have a sony with a 160gig and a pionner with a 80gig,,when i edit whats on the HDD it will put it to disc at 4X,,this recorder is the only one i have seen so far that does this in real time,i guess you take the good with the bad,,this is the only recorder that will allow me to put a movie on the HDD,,and upgrade the HDD to what ever size i want,,and thanks for the heads up on the no battary,,going to ask my computer guy see if we can put one in,,will let you know,,cheers

[LifeIsGd]

Does this drive use IDE HD or the new SATA HD?

[video_user]

This drive uses the IDE HD.

[LifeIsGd]

This drive uses the IDE HD.

Thanks for the info.
This is a good recorder; the only glitch I encountered is as follows:
let's say, you copy 1 hour video from HD -> DVD, and then you want to add another 1 hour video to DVD. Sometimes this additional section of video will not be successfully added; it simply create a empty frame in the menu. The workaround is to eject the disc and then copy again.

[video_user]

I usually wait until I have enough video to fill a disc before I burn, so I haven't run into that issue yet, but that's good to know. Thanks for the info.

[Jeremiah58]

I switched my 80GB with a 320 GB Western Digital. It was a pretty simple switch.

Please describe how to do it.
Have you tried to put the 80GB HD in a PC?
Thanks.

[video_user]

From what I remember:

Take the cover off the unit.

You'll see the 5 or 6 screws on top of the HD holding the HD in the unit. There's also a screw on the side. Remove the screws.

There's a screw that holds the IDE connector (which is directly plugged in to the HD without a cable). Remove the screw.

Gently pull out the connector from the HD.

Unplug the power connector from the HD.

Remove the HD from the unit. (Be careful when taking the HD out of the unit, because there was a thin plastic type connector taped or glued under the HD and I almost pulled it out by mistake. There's also a small plastic piece above the HDD to watch out for.)

Install the new HD. Plug in the power connector and the IDE connector. Screw everything back in and put the cover back on, and you're done. It should take no more than 5-10 minutes.

I take no responsibility if anything goes wrong! If you take your time and be careful, this really shouldn't be a problem.

Yes I did try the 80GB HD in my computer, but unfortunately Windows couldn't see any of the recordings on it.

[Jeremiah58]

Thank you.

Yes I did try the 80GB HD in my computer, but unfortunately Windows couldn't see any of the recordings on it.

I read a post here, don't remember where exactly, that a HD pulled out of a DVD recorder, may be recognized and a content seen, under Linux.

[obs]

you copy 1 hour video from HD -> DVD, and then you want to add another 1 hour video to DVD.

I haven't had that problem when using +RWs.

BTW, HD = HiDef. HDD = Hard Disc Drive.

[LifeIsGd]

you copy 1 hour video from HD -> DVD, and then you want to add another 1 hour video to DVD.

I haven't had that problem when using +RWs.

BTW, HD = HiDef. HDD = Hard Disc Drive.

I use DVD-R to backup video fro HDD. It does not happen all the times.
Anyway, if you encouter any copy-to-DVD problem, try this workaround.

[chicolatino1]

I have a problem, I own an LG HDD/DVD recorder, model LRH-780. I recorded world cup games on it but they will not burn on dvd-r on any other type of disk at all, I'm thinking its cuz they are world cup games that were recorded in HD so perhaps they are encoded or something. In any case, is there anything I can do to extract these videos onto a MacBook by hooking them up? or Do i have to take it somewhere to do this? What would I need to buy?
PLEASE HELP, thank you

[LCSHG]

canadian bacon

What format is used
If the drive is erased or formatted in the unit does the drive format back to 80gb

[chicolatino1]

no idea, someone recommended dvd xcopy platinum? no idea what to do, i dont wanna lose those games!!!

[Jeremiah58]

If you recorded those games in mp4, you can not burn to DVD.

[LifeIsGd]

It took me 10 minutes to put in a Western Digital 500G ($119) hard drive; now it can record 259 hours (SP) DVD quality video (10 days 24 hours-recording).
Just in time for the Tennis U.S. Open coming Monday!

Thanks a lot for the instructions!

[zoobie]

I just bought a 250gb Seagate HDD (not that I wanted to) from newegg.com for $68 delivered so that seems about right...

I'd reeeeally hate to have a 500gb HDD fail on me...For storage, you'll soon find out that digital tape is the only way to go.

[LifeIsGd]

I just bought a 250gb Seagate HDD (not that I wanted to) from newegg.com for $68 delivered so that seems about right...

I'd reeeeally hate to have a 500gb HDD fail on me...For storage, you'll soon find out that digital tape is the only way to go.

Seagate 500G/750G HDD uses new technology (Perpendicular Recording), which might not be as reliable.
I hope Western Digital HDD can last a long time

Good recording goes onto DVD disc for sure!

[Seeker47]

1. If you edit a recording, you can only transfer it to a disc in real time. This is a real pain. (Maybe there will be a firmware upgrade to resolve this (I hope.))

Agreed. Even if you just cut/split the video, you can't fast dub anymore. I think it is because of how it handles the files. When you make edits, I think it just re-writes the ".ifo" file and leaves the actual ".vob" files alone.

I haven't used any other recorder with HDD, so I don't know if other models updates the clips in seconds (like the LG), or if it takes a few minutes for the machine to rewrite the clips.

Anyways, i don't think there will ever be a firmware update to change this. Even their latest model, the 890, has the same edit/fast_dub limitation.

One real pain is that there's no internal battery. If the power flicks off for a second or two, there goes all your timer programming!

All these things you mention sound like serious design shortcomings to me, whatever the other performance characteristics of this dvr may be. So, the (older and no longer available) Pioneer models continue looking better and better to me. We recently had a seven hour power blackout from the electric utility (thanks a lot, you turkeys !), and I fully expected a whole passel of programmed recordings I had input to be toast. But when the power came back on, they were still there in the Timer Recording list -- even on the older 520. However, I was not nearly so lucky with the corresponding timed events (for timed channel changes) that had been input into the two cable boxes . . . .