# NEWS: WD renames "AV-GP" line of drives to "AV".



## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

NEWS: WD renames "AV-GP" line of drives to "AV".

There are two WD Product SpecSheet PDFs now.

One PDF (old) is for "AV-GP", which only goes to 3TB.

The second (new) one is for "AV", which is the new name for the product refresh cycle. They dropped the "-GP". Includes 4TB model.
http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-800015.pdf

I guess "AV" sounds sportier that "AV-GP". This is further proof that they are refreshing the line. I doubt it will bring anything good to the discussions here, likely more confusion, than anything.

*From the new PDF:*
WD AV (formally WD AV-GP) SATA hard drives store more
hi-def audio and video than ever before - up to 4 TB. They
are optimized with SilkStream™
technology to capture data
from up to 16 simultaneous HD video streams. With 24x7
operation, low temperature, and best-in-class reliability,
WD AV hard drives are ideal for DVR/PVR and IPTV
applications. 3-year limited warranty

*ETA1:*
*Disclaimer for all:* I welcome healthy discussion and debate in this thread. However, there are a few members, whom I have deemed as troublemakers, who will debate and argue, until/unless their opinion is deemed the gold standard, regardless of facts, versus fiction. Should such members arrive here, and behave in such a way, I will simply refuse to engage, or limit how much/long I will engage, and will report any posts that break the forum rules. *Please try to remain on the topic of hard drives, and their TiVo usage scenarios.* Thank You.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

So how many Terabytes are they rated for monthly?

I'm still considering messing around with a 4TB upgrade on my Roamio Pro. But I never pulled the trigger on any hard drives this past week. I should have picked up a 6TB for my TiVo PC and a 4TB for my Roamio Pro.


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

Unless they do more than rename the line, and add capacity, the TB/yr workload rating may remain "unpublished". I knew a product refresh cycle was (supposed to be) coming, but did not know when, until they silently snuck it in. But, I kept this to myself, as there was no proof, or any way to confirm it, until now. The best I could say was the AV-GP was not an EOL drive line, and the Purple is NOT the "newer model of the AV-GP".

I'm going to try and reach out to Anandtech, and see if they can get a comment from WD (with emphasis on getting a TB/yr number, or at minimum, an "official unofficial estimate"). It's very unusual, they way this all just happened, under the radar, and I seem to be the first one to take notice of the change, which is more than a rename, and adding a 4TB model. The second group of digits/letters, after the WDxxEURX-(right here), are different for the renamed ones, than the ones still carrying the old name.

Product hard drive HCLs have been changed to list the two separately. I originally thought Samsung had dimwits making their HCLs, when I saw a column for "AV-GP" and "AV". Samsung seems to be the first large company to know about the change, outside of WD.

I will update this thread, as soon as I have more viable evidence on the AV hard drive formerly known as AV-GP hard drive...


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## emerz (Aug 18, 2007)

It has been at least 3 months since they made the change. On 8/21/14 I purchased what was advertised as a "WD AV-GP 4TB WD40EURX" from Newegg (as a spare for my 4TB Red). 

The label is marked "AV", contrary to Newegg's description.


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

emerz said:


> It has been at least 3 months since they made the change. On 8/21/14 I purchased what was advertised as a "WD AV-GP 4TB WD40EURX" from Newegg (as a spare for my 4TB Red).
> 
> The label is marked "AV", contrary to Newegg's description.


If you had shared this information, back when you found it, I would have dug in and started this thread (and made the many announcements) as soon as I could confirm the info.

No biggie. I had my suspicions this was overlooked news, and had already (silently) guesstimated that it had been around 3 months since that change, which would have came at about the time that WD published the PDF, and started selling the WD40EURX.

The fact that vendors are selling the newly named drives as "AV-GP", and that Newegg is still claiming that the *new model* WD40EURX has a "newer model available", the WD PURX Purple, only confirms my prediction that "I doubt it will bring anything good to the discussions here, likely more confusion, than anything."

How do we get Newegg to stop claiming the PURX Purple is the new AV-GP, when the "AV" is the new model (and newer than the Purple is)?

I want to put a stop to this deceptive click-bait, and people getting duped into buying a lesser drive!

I'd also like to shine a spotlight on Weaknees using the PURX Purple, as the margin-fattening, non-WD-sanctioned/approved, use of the drive, that it is!

If WK had gone with the EFRX Red, that would still be unsanctioned/unapproved use of the drive, according to WD. But, it would be a premium drive, as many had/have come to expect from WK, as they used to use AV-GP drives, when they could have used plain Green drives to fatten their margins. However, a plain Green drive, such as the EZRX Green, only has a 2yr warranty, rather than the 3yr of AV-GP/AV, Red, and Purple.

But, as I've pointed out in other threads, the fine print of WD's warranty terms, states the warranty will not cover issues caused-by/resulting-from use of any of their drives for uses other than specified/approved. Furthermore, the Red and Purple are only approved for use as single drives, in host devices that have a RAID controller.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

If you buy a drive from weaKnees, then you do not have a WD warranty of any length, unless weaKnees, acting as your agent, purchased the retail version of that drive for you.

The only warranty you would have would be whatever weaKnees offers.


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

unitron said:


> If you buy a drive from weaKnees, then you do not have a WD warranty of any length, unless weaKnees, acting as your agent, purchased the retail version of that drive for you.
> 
> The only warranty you would have would be whatever weaKnees offers.


I am aware of that technical limitation, which depends on how WK is acquiring the drives, and if it is in a manner that by any means registers WK as the OEM purchaser of the drives.

Things do not always work as warranty terms state, as I'm always reminded, when I point out the actual warranty terms they *could* enforce (drive mfg), but currently are not.

I've successfully registered OEM WD hard drives that came in everything from TiVos, to laptops, in my name with WD, and got RMAs by the date of mfg. It has been at least a year since the last drive I've done so with (Lenovo laptop). The WD Support Portal has been reworked, and kept my warranties on such drives, but looks like it could have been a rework to stop such things from being possible. Every OEM TiVo drive I have ever had in my hands, made by WD, is on my WD account as being a customer purchased OEM drive, and was given the full warranty period.

*What it all adds up to, no matter what*, is a fatter profit margin for WK, when they could be using WD Reds, with twice the TB/ye workload, but are instead using Purples, which are the cheapest WD AV drives that can be bought.

If enough potential customers asked for Reds, and told WK they want Red, or no sale, maybe we'd see a choice in the future, and see what the price premium would be, after they add their profit margins.

I'm not slamming WK for making a profit. I'm only pointing out that they can make a lot more using the WD Purple, as they do, rather than the more robust WD Red, where a fat margin might price them out of competition with the ebay sellers, who tend to replicate the results, which WK tends to pioneer.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Weaknees prices are already very high. If they used Red drives their prices would be in the stratosphere.


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

aaronwt said:


> Weaknees prices are already very high. If they used Red drives their prices would be in the stratosphere.


I have no disagreement with you on this.

I just have found that if I come down too hard on WK, or imply they are gouging customers (even weakly), some loyal fans of WK will come down hard on me (or anybody else) for doing so.

It also seems like that if you get into a fight with another member over it, the mods intervene, striking down posts casting WK in a negative light. They are forum sponsors, after all. They are probably more valued to the TCF powers that be, than those who work hard to make upgrades free to all capable of DIY prepping, host the sites for downloads, and provide free support here.

It's a tight-rope walk, when what you post (or provide) may upset the sponsors, and/or the PTB think it might upset them. Thus, better to just focus on that there is something more that can be gained by a community provided DIY option, allowing you to choose the drive you use, and get a full warranty along with, rather than what WK can get for cheap, and likely only get whatever warranty WK provides.

When it comes to reviews on WK, when it's a review beyond "It was fast, easy, and worked!", I don't see a lot of love. The support is limited in scope, limited in method, and limited by the warranty period.

I also have seen a lot of those using WK/ebay upgrade vendor drives, get stuck, when something goes wrong later on, the free tools don't know how to deal with the drive image layouts, and those trying to help are befuddled by a layout only such drives use, or some other quirk about them.

Hopefully, a future version of DVRBARS, or another utility, will be able to make reasonably-sized failsafe backups of WK drives, before installation, allowing the end-user to buy a drive of their choice, apply the image, and recover from a failed WK drive situation.

I bought some drives from DVR_DUDE in the past, they registered with to me with WD just fine, and the warranty length was in-full. If what Unitron said applies to WK, the same can not be said. This seems to hurt the value, should you opt to clone a WK Purple drive to your own Red drive, then hope to sell the WK drive. What warranty would the Purple drive have, if any, when resold (as a blank drive, of course)? (I think I know the answer)

If I were buying a used TiVo, I'd actually avoid one with a WK drive (for my own reasons and reasoning, which some might not care about).


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## hardly (Sep 4, 2008)

nooneuknow said:


> If you had shared this information, back when you found it, . . .


http://www.frys.com/product/8351387

EDIT: expired


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## lew (Mar 12, 2002)

WD has another way to designate retail packaged drives. One "brand" is mainstream. It's not clear if those drives are equivalent to blue or green. Some of the web material says blue but the specs seem closer to green. 2 year warranty Microcenter (only B&M) is selling the 3T drive for $90.


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## SteveD (Oct 22, 2002)

lew said:


> WD has another way to designate retail packaged drives. One "brand" is mainstream. It's not clear if those drives are equivalent to blue or green. Some of the web material says blue but the specs seem closer to green. 2 year warranty Microcenter (only B&M) is selling the 3T drive for $90.


I believe that the blues only go up to 1TB, so the 3TB are probably greens.


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## Cybernut (Oct 1, 2013)

nooneuknow said:


> One PDF (old) is for "AV-GP", which only goes to 3TB.
> 
> The second (new) one is for "AV", which is the new name for the product refresh cycle. They dropped the "-GP". Includes 4TB model.


I bought my 4TB WD40EURX back in January of 2014, that is well over a year ago. I even left a review for it back in March 2014 on Newegg's product page (see review by Avik R.) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822236634

So, I am not sure why you'd think this is a refeshed line. Usually when they refresh the line they change the model number (as they did for their black line several times)...in this case that model is still being sold just as it has been in Jan 2014. Seems like just the moniker has been updated from AV-GP to AV.


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## dcline414 (May 1, 2014)

nooneuknow said:


> I'd also like to shine a spotlight on Weaknees using the PURX Purple, as the margin-fattening, non-WD-sanctioned/approved, use of the drive, that it is!


Is there actually any difference between AV and purple? The specs are IDENTICAL and both are intended for 24/7 video recording.

The purple is advertised as a surveillance video drive and AV is a DVR drivehow exactly does the drive know (or care) if the video is from a local camera or a TV broadcast?


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

dcline414 said:


> Is there actually any difference between AV and purple? The specs are IDENTICAL and both are intended for 24/7 video recording.
> 
> The purple is advertised as a surveillance video drive and AV is a DVR drivehow exactly does the drive know (or care) if the video is from a local camera or a TV broadcast?


The drive is very very intelligent


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## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

dcline414 said:


> Is there actually any difference between AV and purple? The specs are IDENTICAL and both are intended for 24/7 video recording.
> 
> The purple is advertised as a surveillance video drive and AV is a DVR drivehow exactly does the drive know (or care) if the video is from a local camera or a TV broadcast?


If you truly read the full whitepapers on each line, you'd know they are not "identical". The differences are also in the marketing papers. But, I don't draw conclusions from how something is marketed, alone.

Hint: One differences is the Purple supports more simultaneous streams, through WD's enhancement of the ATA streaming extensions command set (AV streaming protocol), which TiVo doesn't even use.

I'm not a fan of the Purple, nor would I ever recommend it, so long as a WD Red exists, meeting the capacity/power profile/heat requirements of the end user.

Purples belong in RAID systems for high-end motion-activated surveillance/security systems. They are meant to spend time in Idle Mode 3, also something TiVo doesn't make use of.

Regardless, I recommend:

For most: AV-GP (now just "AV")
For those who want the best: WD Red
For those who want the cheapest, or nothing: WD Green (plain variety)

The Purple has a lot of potential pitfalls, in a TiVo. But, if you feel profiteer (and forum sponsor) WK is choosing the best drive, rather than the biggest profit margin, use what they now are: WD Purple.


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## dcline414 (May 1, 2014)

nooneuknow said:


> If you truly read the full whitepapers on each line, you'd know they are not "identical". The differences are also in the marketing papers. But, I don't draw conclusions from how something is marketed, alone.
> 
> Hint: One differences is the Purple supports more simultaneous streams, through WD's enhancement of the ATA streaming extensions command set (AV streaming protocol), which TiVo doesn't even use.
> 
> ...


Thanks, I thought I'd read the most detailed tech specs PDFs on the WD site, but I must have missed something.

On the retail side, the cost difference for many of the sizes is negligible, which is why I asked. I'm just waiting for a lightning deal or shell shocker on one for my next upgrade.


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