This link to another blog tells how to add a 30-second jump forward to some Comcast DVRs. This “hack” turns on a feature built-in to the DVR to skip ahead 30 seconds through the commercial, a feature that Comcast would have had to agree to leave out to make the ED pill, and adult diaper people happy.
Thanks for the comment, coolfeature.info!

How to program a 30-second skip button for Comcast DVRs | coolfeature.info

You can copy and paste the link into your browser.
The second method he mentioned worked for my HD-DVR. You have to do it EXACTLY. Hate to miss all those commercials showing men with hugely different sized wings standing at the urinals (Passat).

Check that your model is compatible on WD web site.

Buy drive from WD.

plug in drive to power.

Plug supplied eSATA cable to drive and Motorola DVR.

Immediately tv screen asks if you want to format (yes).

Wait 5 seconds.

Use. Everything works the same. Drive will only work with the one dvr that it is “formatted” for.

Increases storage space by about ten (240 hours of HD).

Large tablets are continuing to be popular. I, personally, like the largest size and skip the 7 inch size. Your preferences may vary……

The latest Samsung Tab 10.1 Pro should hit Amazon in a few weeks in the $500 range. It has a superfast processor and graphics card and super-dense display and an expansion slot for an additional flash card. It should have Android 4.3 Kit Kat, which is appropriate for 2014. 

The rumors of the similar Nexus 10 upgrade model are just that, rumors. 

So, if you’re buying soon this new Samsung model can’t lose.

Nexus is talking about an 8 inch model. Not sure if it would come before the next 10 inch Nexus. The Nexus models usually are consiiderably cheaper. The Apple models are always top dollar. The recent (last 6 months) Nexus 7 is a great deal for many fans of 7 inch tablets, at less than $200, with very recent software.

The Boston area Comcast customers are testing a DVR with no hard drive that stores movies in the cloud and streams them on demand. Tivo is coming out with a semilar device. This is significant. I’m not sure how long it will take to get the bugs out. My best guess is a couple years to reach Portland. My guess is the recorded data goes from some sort of hub and is ” flagged”as being recorded by you. So Comcast stores one original for multiple ( thousands)  of subscribers. When requested, the origiinal is streamed to the requester. I’ll have to work out in my head how this is different from “ON DEMAND”. To recap, the DVR is a database and a fancier streaming center and a fairly cheap box connected to your TV. This is my first guess.

This information comes from two sources. You can get a lot of old info if you just google it.

If you are on Comcast, you’ll have to log in to read the following Q&A page:

http://customer.comcast.com/help-and-support/cable-tv/external-dvr-storage-faqs

Has the statement:

“Answers to frequently asked questions about your new My Book AV DVR Expander, Western Digital’s external hard drive that has been tested and approved to work with Comcast DVRs.”

On the Western Digital website search the list of compatible devices (by TV provider, Make, and model. (Comcast, Motorola, DCT3412i)

For added insurance check if the provider area (Portland) supports external DVR storage (I think Portland does).

Don’t get one bigger than 1 TB. Larger ones won’t work at all.

The gist of it is that it’s easy to add 240 hours of recording time. Once the drive is plugged in to the DVR, the DVR asks to reformat the new drive. You do that. The new drive is “married” to that particular DVR, now. You can only play the recordings on that physical DVR. You can’t move the recordings to another DVR and if you replace the DVR you have to reformat the drive to use it again. There is some sort of utility build into the DVR to disconnect and lose the recordings if you remove it, so keep the connections stable. Otherwise the same DVR display shows approx. 250 things recorded instead of around 25.

There are “better” ways to do it, I suspect,  and (heaven knows!) more complicated or less legal ways to get massive storage, but this is so simple that just about anybody can do it.

As a comment, this has been a pain for some time because of the content-protection concerns. I think they came up with a decent compromise

.

Today, the $99 price on the WD site is as low as it gets and includes shipping. I “you gotta have it now”, go to Best Buy and be recording HALF PIPE events to your heart’s content tonight (Olympics). This same gadget has other purposes not mentioned here, like plugging it into an X-Box or TV or maybe a media box. But I’m talking DVRs today.