USB Stick as PVR.

mearaman

Hi All,

I recently got me a Technomate 6900 Combo. I've been very impressed with it especialy the DTT. There is a couple of small things that would make it a bit better but i'll leave them for another post sometime.

My query is about the PVR functionality. I was uploading the latest software to the box and was trying out the recording function using a cheap as chips USB stick. ( i got it free with something;)) and was impressed with the playback from it.

However when recording BBC HD it seemed to stutter (not techie I know:rolleyes:) on the play back and quality was lost on it.

On DTT it was fine although stuttered at the start of playback but continued fine from there.

Long term would I be better off with a proper hard drive but anyone any recommendations for such or even comments on USB sticks as PVR.

Is there certain specs I should look for when going to purchase them?

Thanks

Mearaman

jackbauer

I have the same issues. Use an 8gb generic usb stick. Also a 1gb. In this day and age and for the cost of the receiver they should at least provide an internal drive bay like the dreambox.

I used two external hdds. One a hitachi which died and another chinese ide to usb converter that works sometimes.

mearaman

With the price you would think they would alright. I've ordered a 8gb USB for myself for files and stuff so will prob get another for recording.

Is the speed a factor in picking out PVR for playback of HD?
I have an external HardDrive from LACIE which is 420mb/sec transfer rate.

Only issue I have with using that is the ugly look of it etc.

slegs

I've used both an 8gb USB stick and 420mb/s USB drive for recording HD on an MVision HD200 Combo. I found the hard drive to be way more usable with no playback issues to date. Live Pause (aka Timeshift) also worked only on the hard drive for HD - it was unwatchable on the USB stick but fine on the hard drive.

Not sure if this is relevant for the Technomate 6900 but it is possible that they are using very similar components.

Apogee

The problem here is with the USB stick rather than the receiver. The read/write process is much slower onto flash memory than it is with a hard drive. So a very high bitrate channel such as BBCHD is going to give you problems, whereas SD channels or DTT are transmitted at much lower rates which the stick can cope with.

fat-tony

Absolutely agree. My experience with a generic USB stick was that it was unusable for PVR functions with the Mvision 200 HD on HD channels. On the other hand, an old (circa 2000) hard disk in a USB 2.0 caddy was perfectly ok. Flash RAM is generally too slow unless you pick your device carefully - cheapo devices are generally too slow for successful use with HD streaming.

mearaman

Cheers all.

I'll transfer all the files from the LACIE onto something else and use that I reckon.

I'll probaly have to make it accesible though as it tends to warm up quiet a bit when in use for long periods.

I've seen bit rates of 30/35 advertised for some USB sticks but that still ain't fast enough i reckon and they are expensive for what they are.

Thanks again for help.

snaps

Also usb sticks really dont have the capacity on them for HD recordings. some films ive recorded off canal+ HD have been 16gb or so.