Upgrade Pionner DVR-450H-S/550HS/650HS

[fdchiu]

I have a pioneer DVR-450H-R with supports 1080P upscaling. I would like to upgrade it HDD to a higher capacity. Has anyone done it before?

Attached is the picture if it. Its HDD is SATA not IDE.

I have checked www.pioneerfaq.info and there is no such instruction yet.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

David

[Hkan]

Hi

You can use the same instructions as for the DVR-x4x series, just use a SATA HD instead

I can send you the service Manual, it has the replacement instructions.
Very simple: Mainly 4 screws for detaching the metal frame on which the HDD is mounted with an other 4 screws. And switching a damping foam element on the HDD.

[fdchiu]

HKan, Thanks for your reply.

I will give it a try and let you all know my progress.

fd

[fdchiu]

Hkan,

I forgot to ask for the service manual. Can you send me a link on where I can get one? Also, where do I get all these pioneer data discs?

Thanks in advance!

[Chuong72]

fdchiu,

Where you able to get the service manuals? And did you ever find the data disc. Interested in upgrading my unit also, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Chuong

[orsetto]

You do not need a service manual to replace the HDD in a Pioneer 450/550/650. In fact Pioneers own service manuals tend to be contradictory, confusing messes. As Hakan suggested, go to his pioneerfaq website and look at his DVR-x40 instruction page. In brief:

You need a service remote (or programmable remote with the service codes) and a "Type 2" Pioneer service disc. A message left on the Pioneerfaq contact page will usually result in suggestions for obtaining a disc, and many threads here give tips how to emulate a Pioneer service remote (try searching the "replace hard drive in Pioneer 520" thread). Once you have these two items, and your new larger HDD, you remove the existing HDD from the DVR and install the new HDD in its place, carefully putting back any metal grounding tape or padding you removed from the original drive. Once this is done, you turn the unit on and its display will flash HDD ERR. You use the service remote to engage service mode on the unit, and navigate some simple screens which ask you to delete and then re-enter the nine digit code found on the rear panel printed on a small white label near the AC socket. The unit will prompt you to load the service disc, and re-boot it. When it powers back on you will use the normal remote to go into the Home Menu/Disc Setup or Home Menu/Initial Settings panel, and select the Initialize (format) HDD option. Once this is done, pressing the Disc Navigator button should bring up an empty HDD title screen showing a larger number of available recording hours than you had before.

Note that it is really impractical to install huge drives in these machines- they are not meant to navigate more than 250 GB at the outside. The most popular and reliable size you can buy at retail for these units is 320 Gb. Many install 500Gb but that is really too much: it will work up to the limit of the units operating system which tops out at 99 titles or 999 file bits (edit points, titles, thumbnails, etc.). Good luck!

[Seeker47]

Note that it is really impractical to install huge drives in these machines- they are not meant to navigate more than 250 GB at the outside. The most popular and reliable size you can buy at retail for these units is 320 Gb. Many install 500Gb but that is really too much: it will work up to the limit of the units operating system which tops out at 99 titles or 999 file bits (edit points, titles, thumbnails, etc.). Good luck!

Glad you reiterated that point: the first time I recall it even coming up in the discussion was probably well less than a year ago . . . and some of these upgrade threads go back three years or more. Just 99 titles ? That's nothing ! I still have the stock HDD in my Pioneers. At the moment, the 640 has about 31 hours free (based on a recording default of MN26), and yet it must have around 80 titles on it. Many of these are shorter items like news segment clips. A lot of it should have been archived off of there quite some time ago. But now it looks like the "ceiling" may be much closer than I realized -- despite all those free hours of apparent capacity ? This could definitely be a problem, and makes me glad I did not stock any replacement drives larger than 320G. (The number of file bits will also become problematical, if one does a lot of editing on the unit, which I do.)

[orsetto]

Sorry, all, I seem to have lost my mojo this month- this is my second self-correction within a week: yikes!

In light of seeke47's concern, I just now double-checked the specs for current Pioneers (from the 640 on), and found I mis-spoke: there is no apparent limit on number of titles, but the official recording limit on any hard drive is 999 total "entries". An "entry" would be a title and also any of its edit points, thumbnail, chapters, etc. Assuming an hour TV show with 5 ad breaks removed and a thumbnail added would total 7 "entries", the average Pioneer should be able to hold approx 130 titles before it exceeds its file system limit, so the less editing you do the more titles you can store. Its probably a good idea not to use up all 999 "entries", leave yourself a cushion for editing options and safety margin. Similarly, Pioneer recording to DVD-R or DVD+R media maxes out at 99 "entries", far in excess of what you could actually fit on a single DVD anyway.