This might be a better fit for “General Questions,” but since not everyone’s cablebox is necessarily going to work the same way, and this may become a thread about people discussing how their boxes work, and the pluses and minuses of different types and different services, I decided to start here. If mods move it, I won’t squeak, though.
To start with, I have Comcast with Xfinity. The router and cablebox are separate units.
Here’s my question. My cablebox has hit 100% full storage a few times, causing me to have to delete things if I want to record new stuff, so yes, I’ve had to admit that as much as I love the movie Dinner at Eight, no, I’m probably not going to watch it again soon.
However, the cable company has the power to give me additional storage, which I always suspected, because the box updates every day, unless I choose to skip updates, which I can do, but no more than two days in a row, and occasionally, after an update, I will have more storage space-- it will go from being 97% full to 92% full, but nothing will have been deleted.
I was not sure though, whether I actually had more space, or it was just using a different encryption method.
Because, here’s the thing, when my nisht-so-graceful son knocked the box off the TV stand a few months ago, the top popped open, and I could see that it had a hard drive inside which looked exactly like the kind in a desktop computer.
So I was leaning toward “more efficient encryption,” but then, last week, I got an on screen message that for $9.95/month, I could have another n megs of space-- I don’t remember the exact number, but I decided to accept, and the DVR went from being 89% full to being 37% full.
So clearly whole shows are not stored on the cablebox hard drive. What is stored? URLs or “bookmarks” that link to the shows? Is this why it claims it will erase things after 1 year, but doesn’t? Does it actually mean it makes no promises to keep anything longer than a year, but maybe it will? it just depends on the space on the main storage? I don’t think it’s ever erased anything on its own-- I have stuff on it I’ve had for 3 years.
So does anyone know generally how cablebox storage works? Does anyone happen to know how it works with Comcast?
It’s mostly just idle curiosity, but it’s a little bit about practical knowledge. I can tear down a desktop, and put it back together, or build one from scratch-- or more to the point, from scrap. Is a cablebox more or less a desktop computer? does it have RAM? sound card? video card? It’s nice to know these things if it ever goes on the fritz. I have a couple of desktop computers no one is using right now (one has a corrupt OS, and maybe a bad sound card, but is otherwise OK; the other one is fine, but when the monitor to it went out, the boychik asked if he could have a laptop instead of a new monitor), so if the cablebox ever goes out, maybe it’s just had a part go bad that I can replace, rather than turn it in to the office, and lose all my recordings.