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Question about reutilizing harware.


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#1
Deadna

Deadna

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I have a question about reusing a piece of hardware. I have these two DirectTV H20 tv boxes I recieved for free from a garage sale. I thought they were DVR's, and wanted to salvage the hard drives. But after opening them up, I found that they were not DVR's, but just HD tv boxes. I was disappointed, but don't feel like throwing them out. I noticed that there was a USB port on the board, and was wondering if anyone knows of a way to reuse it with my laptop? If not, are there any chips or parts I should salvage?

Sorry for the weird question, I really don't have any knowledge about this stuff.


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#2
admin

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Welcome to Geeks to Go Deadna,

 

More than likely that USB port is for a technician to plugin a thumb drive and update the firmware. DRM (digital rights management) would prevent it from streaming content to your laptop, not to mention the bandwidth required of HD and the limitations of USB 2.0. Pretty sure all the hardware components are proprietary and likely not of any value when parted out. It does appear these boxes are going for about $40 on eBay if they include the remote.


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