Tata SKY+ New DVR STB split wide open (The inside with photos :)

i recently upgraded from Tata Sky to tata sky plus and while doing an internet search for instructions on upgrading the hdd of tata sky plus i came across this website
i had a spare 320gb 3gbps sata2 wd hdd which is the same type as the 160gb one in the Tata Sky DTH+
first i changed the setting in the tata sky+ to hdd manual management and prewiew buffer to 0 mins
deleted all my recordings- had only 2 which i had already watched
switched off the stb and disconnected all the cables and opened the Tata Sky DTH+ stb and took out the original hdd and connected that and the 320 gb hdd to my pc through internal sata cables
the format of the original Tata Sky DTH+ hd is fat32 and i am using windows vista which will not allow you to format a hdd above 32gb to fat32 so spent some time searching the net and came across a small program(fat32 formatter which is 400kb size download) which did the fat32 format for the 320gb hdd
downloaded copy+ software which did not recognize the format of the original Tata Sky DTH+ hdd
so tried nortan ghost and copied the 160gb Tata Sky DTH+ hdd to the 320gb hdd following which the 320gb drive appeared as a 160gb drive in my computer properties
connected the 320 gb drive to the Tata Sky DTH+ stb and switched it on
well it worked till i went into the tata sky+ settings and tried to change the options which would not stick and when i came back to the channels the picture had disappeared
so put the original 160 gb hdd back and its working fine

maybe it may work if the stb could be reset and the new hdd formatted by the stb
but i could not find the settings to reset the stb and format the hdd
someone has posted images of the service menu of the stb on this page but didnt post how he was able to access it?

has anyone been able to successfully swap the hdd of the tata sky plus stb?


Try formatting with the hidden menu ...to get the hidden menu on the system menu press 0 and 1...you will get the option to format the hard drive...take it from there.

ok i was able to access the hidden menu seems i was pressing the 0,1 and select at the same time figured out that i have to press the 3 buttons 1 by 1now the 320 gb hdd is formatting message on tv screen -disk format in progress...please wait...this message has been there since more than 30minsany idea how long it takes to format the original hdd of 160 gb?the 320 should take double the time

any idea how long it takes to format the original hdd of 160 gb?


It did not take more than 10mins

well in that case the 320gb hdd should take around 20mins but its been almost 2 hours and the 320gb hdd has still not completed the formati guess its not possiblei give up unless anyone here has any new ideas

Hey thanks for the reply.but as of now iam just looking to take my recorded stuff out.upgrading to a higher capacity is not on my list.i guess we can use extract + to extract SRT and latter convert SRT to other format like avi etc.has anyone done this then please let me know...i dont want to void the warranty until iam sure that its possible.regardsgurpal

Well its a sturday and I didnt really have anything else today , woke up at 6am and there was no electricity , so I decided it was time to use the new Tata Sky + DVR STB in a diffrent way .

So I decided to open it up to see what they have hidden inside , what kinda upgrade we can try ourselfs to get more recording time , can we transffer the recorded videos to a PC ....and guys the answers were all positive!!!

Opening the Tata sky STB is one of the easiest experiments I have ever done (this may vary from person to person , opening your STB up causes your warranty to be void , so please do this at your own risk - this is not my responsibility nor is it the forums , but all I can say is its very hard to do something wrong and mess it up ) .

Opened up the 5 screws of the STB , one on each side and 3 at the back of the stb , this causes the upper lid of the STB to slide off , so once the screws are removed just gently slide the top of the STB open.

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/6103/89873162wj4.jpg

The HDD imaged :
http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/9598/dsc01130na4.jpg

Sitting right in the middle of the board is the Broadcom chip :
The big broadcom chips is a :
BCM7453TKPB10G
UN0829P31
881512U3

http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/3694/dsc01146xk5.jpg

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/2391/dsc01132op8.jpg

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/5227/dsc01133my2.jpg

Just above the HDD enclosure is the processor used by the STB :
http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/9167/dsc01138pu8.jpg
I didnt open this up to see what they are using here (this is for another experiment another day.

A closer look at the HDD Area :
http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/9428/dsc01139np0.jpg

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/7880/dsc01140vj5.jpg

http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/2985/dsc01141jf0.jpg

The HYNIX Chips (these are the memory modules on board ) :
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/2704/dsc01149je7.jpg

HYNIX -830A
HY5DU561622FTP-D43

The Dual tuner and another broadcom chip :

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/5663/dsc01151xr7.jpg

Broadcom chip details :
BCM4506KQLEG
CN0834 P11
8884213

HDD removed : WD 1600AVJS -63wna0
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/4509/dsc01155hh9.jpg

http://img65.imageshack.us/img65/4084/dsc01156ik0.jpg

http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/5020/dsc01157og7.jpg

http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/3714/dsc01158lm9.jpg

http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/2218/dsc01160rz3.jpg

http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/6159/dsc01161gx3.jpg


The good thing is its a regular SATA Desktop (not laptop) HDD.
It Can easily be replaced with another HDD say a 500 GB increasing your recording capacity by 3.5 times .

To see if this is possible connected this HDD to my PC :
Vola.... The file format is FAT 32 !!! so what you would ideally need to do is
Buy a new SATA - Desktop HDD - create one big partition and format it in FAT 32 and then connect it to the STB and it should simply work (I havent tried this yet , but will do it next week , but i dont have any doubts it will just work).

The good thing is in case you have recorded something important and you need to transffer to the PC you can do it this way (since the file system is FAT 32!!

Screen shots of the HDD connected to my PC :

http://img366.imageshack.us/img366/575/wd1zd9.jpg

http://img83.imageshack.us/img83/9205/wd2yn6.jpg


After all this o just put back everything to gether , and switch on the STB and well everything just worked like nothing happened
Feedback appriciated!
Updated with trying to copy recorded content here.

Why so much desperationeffort&e whn the same can be achieved with any thrd party DVR of ur choice or TV tuner card

@ chetanhooli, Good attempt and effort in getting to know inside the Hardware and thanks for sharing.

watch it

- Tata Sky+[/URL]

hello sir so did u find any information on how to copy the recotded videos to computer?

gr8 work chetan......
Thanks for this valuable information