Hard Drive upgrade for Pioneer DVR-520H

srobart · Member Joined: 01 Jan 2005 Location: Somewhere

Has anyone been successful or even heard of anyone upgrading the hard drive in the Pioneer DVR-520H set top DVD-R/RW recorder? I have one, it's got the 80gb drive in it (which is nice, but it's always nicer to have a larger hard drive, right?).
I've upgraded my TiVo to 141 hours, it would be nice to have something around 140 hours or more for my DVD Recorder's Hard Drive too, that would allow me to record a lot of higher quality video. Anything below MN-21 on this recorder looks like crap.

Anyway, thanks in advance for your replies.

Epicurus8a · Posted: Jan 19, 2005 15:26

I've read two different opinions.
1.) Insert Hard drive, and turn machine on. HDD will format itself.

2.) Must be returned to Pioneer for repair.

rhegedus · Member Joined: 25 Sep 2002 Location: on the jazz

Hacking Pioneer DVR-5100H (DVR-510H)
_________________
Regards,

Rob

srobart · Member Joined: 01 Jan 2005 Location: Somewhere

Yeah Epicurus8a, that's the way my luck goes.

Thank you for the link rhegedus, I read the entire post, seems that people have pretty much given up on it, unfortunately. Hopefully someone will come on here sometime and figure it out. For now I'm off to take apart my old Philips DVD+R/RW set top (that no longer works) and see what all is inside!

-s

sync · Member Joined: 23 Apr 2003

There are going to be a lot of unhappy people in a few years when all these drives start failing.

rhegedus · Member Joined: 25 Sep 2002 Location: on the jazz

Don't see why they would - it's pretty low intensity stuff, much less than a PC drive has to put up with.
_________________
Regards,

Rob

srobart · Member Joined: 01 Jan 2005 Location: Somewhere

I guess it's just human nature to want to take what we have and make it better. I've upgraded every computer I've every own as well as both TiVos, I didn't figure this would be much different. I was wrong.

sync · Member Joined: 23 Apr 2003

It's actually probably fairly similar to a Tivo. You can't just put a new hard drive into a Tivo and have it work. It took some hacking to provide the tools to do that.

srobart · Member Joined: 01 Jan 2005 Location: Somewhere

Unfortunately, Pioneer does not release source code like TiVo does. That's probably the only reason that nobody has successfully upgraded this thing.

robke51 · Member Joined: 22 Jan 2005

I successfully installed 160GB hard drive into 510 recorder, today changed into 300GB, works perfectly! In SP mode shows about 128 hrs of space left.

Frobozz · Member Joined: 23 Dec 2003 Location: Eugene, Oregon

Glad to hear of your success. Was it as simple as removing the old one and inserting the new one? What model drive did you install?

rhegedus · Member Joined: 25 Sep 2002 Location: on the jazz

crazythunder · Member Joined: 01 Jan 2005

that's odd. he's got one post. and from what i've seen, it can't be done to a pioneer dvr. all of a sudden, someone figured it out?

seb · Member Joined: 08 Jan 2004

I'll be interested to hear how it's been done too.

From what I could establish when I last looked into it, it wasn't possible to just put a new hard drive in and get the recorder to initialise it for use. There was speculation that the formatting info (File Allocation Table?) from an existing 80gig drive could be mirrored onto a new drive, but I don't know of anybody who did this.

Watching this space for more info........

robke51 · Member Joined: 22 Jan 2005

There is my second post!

Simply changing hard drive is not enough, you need service remote GGF1381 or older one GGF1067, DATA ID disk and service manual. My first hard drive was Maxtor 160GB 5400rpm , then I changed to Maxtor Quick View 300GB(a little bit noisier than original, maybe size?), since original is 80GB Quick View(See Maxtor website, they’re designed for video recorders). But I think any HD works. In the service manual original HD models are: Maxtor model# 4R080L0- , Western Digital model# WD800LB- and Seagate model# ST38001~ACE.
Procedure is simple, you change HD, with service remote delete the CPRM ID #, then input ID , insert Data Disc, power down, power on, initialize HD.

robke51 · Member Joined: 22 Jan 2005

[img]http://www.videohelp.com/forum/images/guides/p1197750/IMG_1095a.jpg[img]http://www.videohelp.com/forum/images/guides/p1197750/

muckypup · Member Joined: 18 Jan 2005 Location: Wales, UK

How much did the service manual, remote & disc cost? Where did you get them from?

MP

robke51 · Member Joined: 22 Jan 2005

Service manual for DVR-510H (part # RRV2855) is around $33 at http://parts.pioneerelectronics.com/, manual for the DVR-520 (part# RRV2963) cost twice more, but the procedure for all recorders is the same. The disk part# GGV1179 is $47. For remote, look on eBay, they sell that only to dealers and repair centers.

Frobozz · Member Joined: 23 Dec 2003 Location: Eugene, Oregon

So the solution is to have a service center upgrade the hard drive. It might be cheaper just to buy two DVRs - especially with the $250 deal that Costco was offering on the 420H.

I like my setup. I'm renting the Comcast 120 GB 2-tuner High-Def DVR for $10 per month. If I want, I can copy recordings from it to the Pioneer DVR's hard drive or straight to DVD. I also can record the non-digital channels directly to the Pioneer which gives me a third tuner for recording. This way the built-in 80-GB hard drive is plenty.

seb · Member Joined: 08 Jan 2004

Interesting info. Hard drive space not enough of an issue for me to spend so much on the tools to do it, although I guess there are likely to be non-pioneer service centres who will start offering an upgrade service sooner or later.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone somewhere eventually makes available 1) codes to make a Pronto/Palm etc mimic a Pioneer Service Remote.... 2) An .iso of the DataDisc you mention. I see that there was a previous post regarding the 5100 that talked about similar issues, but it didn't come to anything in the end.

Good to hear about your success though!

rhegedus · Member Joined: 25 Sep 2002 Location: on the jazz

Pro-96 · Member Joined: 26 Jan 2005 Location: Woodland Hills, CA

I have the DVR-420H and 80GB is more then enough IMO.

Pro-96 · Member Joined: 26 Jan 2005 Location: Woodland Hills, CA

jerry62 · Member Joined: 13 Jan 2002 Location: United States

Also glad to hear of the success.. I'd still be interested if it would be possible to perform from a pc using software, and then extending the data area... Personally, the 80GB is not very much, and I'd like to extend that... I only record on FINE mode for most situations.

One had mentioned wondering if robke would rent out his remote ! hard to follow up on getting a return, i'm sure.

robke51 · Member Joined: 22 Jan 2005

Hi there,
There is simple Pronto template with all required buttons and IR to do HD upgrade.
pronto.zip

steve2713 · Member Joined: 19 Nov 2003

robke51, so that template you posted will work with ANY Pronto remote (Philips, correct?)? Do you know of a good site or link to provide more info on the remotes by chance? Thanks

seb · Member Joined: 08 Jan 2004

Palm owners can use a tool called OmniRemote - go to http://www.pacificneotek.com/ . The template that Robke51 has provided (THANKS!) is a .CCF file, there is a small conversion tool on the pacificneotek website that will convert this for use in OmniRemote.

Now I have half the tools I need for the job!

muckypup · Member Joined: 18 Jan 2005 Location: Wales, UK

robke51 · Member Joined: 22 Jan 2005

Hi,
1.Change HD
2. Power ON
3.Confirmation of the CPRM ID No. as follows: press ESC then STEREO, take a note of the 9 digit number, you will need it later( same No. is on the back of recorder), Exit this mode by pressing CLEAR.
4.Deletion of the CPRM ID No.: press ESC + STEREO, input the same number as the ID number and press STOP.
5. Input of the CPRM ID No. and ID data: press ESC+STEREO, input 9-digit ID number then press SEARCH to register ID, after this recorder's display indicates "INSERT ID", open drawer with recorder's OPEN/CLOSE button and insert ID disc, close. After recorder’s display indicates "ID DATA OK" press CLEAR button.
Do it at your own risk! I did.

muckypup · Member Joined: 18 Jan 2005 Location: Wales, UK

Sounds fairly straightforward... Whats the ID disc?