External HDD for Humax HB-1000S

[David]

Got the box today and it seems to be working fine.

I tried to use a USB stick for recording (well, USB adapter and SDHC card)
and the Humax said that it could not format the USB stick.

Haven't tried with a real USB stick yet.
Can a PC tell the difference between a USB memory stick and a USB hard
drive? The memory stick is a Solid State Device (so SSD).

Anyway, I began idly searching for an HDD and looked at Argon (going there
later today) and found

<http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/1427187.htm#pdpFullDesc>

Portable hard drive.

However one of the Q&A was

"I have a Humax Freesat set top box and want to be able to record TV
programmes from it. Would this be possible with this hard drive? Thank you
in advance."

"Hi there,

I can confirm that this item would not be suitable for use with a Humax
Freesat set top box.

Thanks for using Argos Q&A."

Why not?? Or it Argos just not very tech savvy?

There is close to bugger all description about connecting hard drives to
the box and certainly no warnings about drives being unsuitable.

Anyone recommend a drive?

Cheers


Dave R


--
Windows 8.1 on PCSpecialist box

[David]

http://www.humaxdigital.com/me/pvr.php

This says you can't record to a memory stick.

However it doesn't say anything about incompatible drives.

[Java Jive]

The USB port may not supply the greater power requirement of a real
HD, but can support a SSD?

On 27 Apr 2016 11:59:26 GMT, David <wib...@btintenet.com> wrote:
>
> "I have a Humax Freesat set top box and want to be able to record TV
> programmes from it. Would this be possible with this hard drive? Thank you
> in advance."
>
> "Hi there,
>
> I can confirm that this item would not be suitable for use with a Humax
> Freesat set top box.

--
========================================================
Please always reply to ng as the email in this post's
header does not exist. Or use a contact address at:
http://www.macfh.co.uk/JavaJive/JavaJive.html
http://www.macfh.co.uk/Macfarlane/Macfarlane.html

[Indy Jess John]

On 27/04/2016 13:05, David wrote:

>> "Hi there,
>>
>> I can confirm that this item would not be suitable for use with a Humax
>> Freesat set top box.
>>
>> Thanks for using Argos Q&A."
>>
>> Why not?? Or it Argos just not very tech savvy?
>>
>> There is close to bugger all description about connecting hard drives to
>> the box and certainly no warnings about drives being unsuitable.
>>
>> Anyone recommend a drive?
>
> http://www.humaxdigital.com/me/pvr.php
>
> This says you can't record to a memory stick.
>
> However it doesn't say anything about incompatible drives.

It might be a power problem. Some portable drives use the USB power to
run the disc, and some USB ports are a bit weak in power output.

That said, it is possible that Humax expect a USB Stick to be a
read-only device (though I can't comment on their Freesat offerings). I
have an elderly Freeview Humax 9200 and although it will read a USB
device, it only has menu options for displaying JPGs to screen or
updating software; it can't even import AVI or MPG from the USB drive.
I can't find any reference at all to writing to the USB port.

Jim

[David]

On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 13:35:15 +0100, Java Jive wrote:

> The USB port may not supply the greater power requirement of a real HD,
> but can support a SSD?
>
> On 27 Apr 2016 11:59:26 GMT, David <wib...@btintenet.com> wrote:
>>
>> "I have a Humax Freesat set top box and want to be able to record TV
>> programmes from it. Would this be possible with this hard drive? Thank
>> you in advance."
>>
>> "Hi there,
>>
>> I can confirm that this item would not be suitable for use with a Humax
>> Freesat set top box.

Sorry, possible cross purposes.

Humax say use USB HDD (which I am pretty sure will include an SSD packaged
as a hard drive but doesn't discriminate) so an HDD should work.

There is no suggestion that it has to be mains powered - but then again
there is very little hard information apart from the fact that the drive
has to be reformatted by the box before it can be used.

As the Humax box is mains powered I would assume (but who knows) that
there was enough power to drive an HDD - especially as there are two USB
ports (so you can use a double cable).

So I am now wondering if the Seagate drive from Argos has as unusually
high current demand on start up or if the support people are wrong.

Another question says it isn't suitable as an external drive to a BluRay
recorder so there is a common theme.

Shame, because £39.99. for a 1TB drive is not a bad price.

[Peter Duncanson]

I use Seagate drives for that purpose. The problem is that the drive
can't be used "out of the box" because it is formatted as NTFS.

The Humax PVRs are Linux-based and can copy only to disks formatted as
FAT32, Ext2 or Ext3.

I format my Seagate drives as Ext3 using a separate Linux-based box that
I have for other purposes.

My Humax Freeview box, HDR-FOX T2, has an menu item for formatting an
external storage device. I haven't tried it so I can't say what format
it creates or whether there is a choice.

On the Humax Freesat box there is no sign in the menu of a facility to
format an external drive.


A drive formatted as Ext2/3 can't be read on a PC without extra
software.

--
Peter Duncanson
(in uk.tech.digital-tv)

[Davey]

On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 16:22:23 +0200
Martin <m...@address.invalid> wrote:

> According to the manual ( translated from Dutch version) iHDR5299C
> expects the USB to be formatted
>
> ext3: reading, copying (digital tv/radio, MP3, JPEG, XviD)
> FAT: reading, copying (digital tv/radio, MP3, JPEG, XviD)
> NTFS: reading (MP3, JPEG, XviD)
> • The USB-ports provide in total 800 mA. 800mA shared over all
> connected devices.
>
> Foxsat USB data port spec 100mA
>
> It could of course be different for other Humax devices.

As far as I know for my HDR Fox T-2 Freeview, it will only recognise
anything plugged into a USB port by noting that it draws power from the
Humax, so externally powered HDDs won't be seen.
I have never tried to record a programme straight to a USB stick, I
just copy it over from the Humax's own drive, which process also
decrypts it.
Nowadays I don't bother, I just FTP directly to and from the PC over
the network.

--
Davey.

[Java Jive]

You might be interested to know that recently Seagate have had a
particularly poor reputation:
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/

On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 19:00:04 +0100, Peter Duncanson
<ma...@peterduncanson.net> wrote:
>
> I use Seagate drives

[David]

On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 19:39:54 +0100, Java Jive wrote:

> You might be interested to know that recently Seagate have had a
> particularly poor reputation:
> https://www.backblaze.com/blog/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/
>
> On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 19:00:04 +0100, Peter Duncanson
> <ma...@peterduncanson.net> wrote:
>>
>> I use Seagate drives

Of course, this could be why the drive is so cheap!

I've re-purposed a 500GB Seagate FreeAgent drive for the moment and
formatted it using the Humax menu.

Now well distracted looking all through the stored music that I've moved
to my main file server, and playing tracks. An evening productively wasted.

[Brian Gaff]

One assumes you turned off the write protect on the sd card and asI don't
know how this switch works, could it be that the adaptor does not honour it
and is only a reader not a writer?
Brian

--
----- -
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
bri...@blueyonder.co.uk
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"David" <wib...@btintenet.com> wrote in message
news:dobnsuF...@mid.individual.net...

[Brian Gaff]

Sounds like the port is a bog standard usb 1 with no write on it then. Many
tvs seem to have these ports for viewing photos on.

Brian

--
----- -
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
bri...@blueyonder.co.uk
Blind user, so no pictures please!

"Indy Jess John" <jimw...@OMITblueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:Fo2Uy.17384$nU4....@fx34.am4...

[Paul Ratcliffe]

On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 19:24:40 +0100, Davey <da...@example.invalid> wrote:

> As far as I know for my HDR Fox T-2 Freeview, it will only recognise
> anything plugged into a USB port by noting that it draws power from the
> Humax, so externally powered HDDs won't be seen.

You don't know much then.

> I have never tried to record a programme straight to a USB stick,

You can't on a HDR Fox T2. You can on a HD Fox T2, if it's big enough.

[Davey]

On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 21:27:48 GMT
Paul Ratcliffe <ab...@orac12.clara34.co56.uk78> wrote:

> > As far as I know for my HDR Fox T-2 Freeview, it will only recognise
> > anything plugged into a USB port by noting that it draws power from
> > the Humax, so externally powered HDDs won't be seen.
>
> You don't know much then.
>

Please elaborate, rather than making cryptic comments. What I wrote came
from the Humax Manual.

--
Davey.

[Johnny B Good]

On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 19:26:34 +0000, David wrote:

> On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 19:39:54 +0100, Java Jive wrote:
>
>> You might be interested to know that recently Seagate have had a
>> particularly poor reputation:
>> https://www.backblaze.com/blog/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/
>>
>> On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 19:00:04 +0100, Peter Duncanson
>> <ma...@peterduncanson.net> wrote:
>>>
>>> I use Seagate drives
>
> Of course, this could be why the drive is so cheap!

This *is* why the drive is so cheap!

>
> I've re-purposed a 500GB Seagate FreeAgent drive for the moment and
> formatted it using the Humax menu.
>

Did you spot the "S" suffix letter in the model number? That means it
was a "Special", basically identical to "S"less models except for a hard
coded 10 or 15 minute power saving spin down (not optional as is standard
in all IDE and SATA drives that inherited this feature from the early IDE
laptop drives -programmable 0-15 minute time out with 0 meaning disabled).

You might suffer exacerbated problems with the "Exact Record" FreeView
feature, like an extra 8 or 10 seconds delay starting a recording due to
the spin up time.

I had a Medion rebranded FreeAgent 500GB drive which kept pissing me off
due to the spin up delay almost every time I needed to access it. I
googled to find a way of turning off this power saving feature but
eventually discovered there was no way to alter it and finally repurposed
it into a PC that had been afflicted with that ironically named Vista OS.
It was a "Match made in Heaven", an OS that just wouldn't stop frigging
around with its HDD and an HDD that needed its pointless spin down
activity stopped dead in its tracks. :-)

I wouldn't have thought a DVR and a Seagate "Special" were a
particularly favourable match in all honesty. :-(

"What was wrong with using Spin Down power saving?" I hear you ask. Good
question and one where the answer gives you a very good reason to boycot
any Seagate product.

In short, Seagate decided, rather misguidedly, to use *Power Saving* as
a method to mitigate against the style over function induced total lack
of ventilation in the FreeAgent external USB enclosures which caused
their already hot running drives to fatally overheat (Click of Death,
anyone?) unless a small desk fan was used to improve the cooling efficacy
of the enclosure by a few measly, but critical, degrees[1] (possibly
reducing the drive temperature by as much as 5 to 10 degrees C) during a
protracted backup or restore operation (a mere 100GB's worth of movie
files, just 20% of the drive's capacity, typically requiring just under
an hour of run time to complete - more than an ample amount of time for
the drive to well and truly cook itself).

Such protracted backup/restore operations totally defeat Seagate's
strategy to avoid fatal temperature limits being exceeded since the spin
down *power saving* will do absolutely nothing under this not untypical
usage case. What's worse, if the run times are reasonably short (say 10
or 15 minutes or so)[2], the drive will experience pretty extreme
temperature cycling which is one of the main drivers of premature failure
in disk drives.

Only a total blithering Idiot could have chosen such a mitigation
strategy to compensate for the piss poor design of the external USB
enclosures used by the FreeAgent model range rather than do the right
thing and have the enclosures completely redesigned to cope with the
unusually higher than normal running temperatures of their primary
product.

When a manufacturer can display such stunning stupidity in their
understanding of their own product's limits (and in another case of
stupidity, claim that not all of their product range is validated for
24/7 NAS/Server usage - once a drive has been spinning for just an hour,
it's about as hot as it can get. An extra 23 hours is unlikely to add
more than another Deg C temperature rise), you do have to question the
reliability of *all* of their product range. The BackBlaze data, afaiac,
is just the 'Icing on The Cake' in the array of evidence against using
Seagate product.

[1] Fortunately, I realised there was a real risk of overheating the
drive whilst my first backup session had been running for ten minutes or
so with an ETA of another hour or so to go. I quickly set up a floor
standing fan (not having a desk fan to hand) to waft a cooling breeze
over the drive enclosure for the remainder of the backup session.
Thereafter, any further protracted backup/restore sessions would see me
setting up the floor standing fan.

When I finally got a chance to check the SMART temperature stats after
fitting it into a Vista afflicted Desktop PC, it had logged a maximum of
60 deg C, right on the upper limit. If I hadn't taken the precaution of
additional cooling, it's likely to have exceeded this limit by at least 5
degrees which, in most cases, is enough to generate bad sectors.

Vista would have kept it spinning non-stop which was a good thing now
that the drive was no longer 'wrapped up in a FreeAgent blanket' and
could 'breath' much more easily in the less confining environment of a
ventilated desktop PC case.

[2] As well as the 'session time', there's also the 10 or 15 minute run
on time of the spin down time out counter to add onto the total. Whilst
this idling time uses slightly less power than normal read/seek activity
and even slightly less power again than during write/seek activity, the
temperature is unlikely to reduce by more than a degree or two (assuming
the drive has reached its limiting temperature by this stage - a 15
minute backup session may see the drive temperature continue to increase
during this spin down idle time out period).

--
Johnny B Good

[David]

On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 20:35:11 +0100, Brian Gaff wrote:

> One assumes you turned off the write protect on the sd card and asI
> don't know how this switch works, could it be that the adaptor does not
> honour it and is only a reader not a writer?
> Brian

Further investigation reveals that the Humax identifies USB sticks and
refuses to write to them by design.

I have no idea why - as USB drives are now large enough to allow at least
pause and rewind of the current program.

Perhaps to discourage people from trying to move a thumb drive between
recorder and PC and TV and then complaining that the encryption of HD
content makes this pointless?

It appears (responding to other comments) that both USB ports are capable
of writing to a device. I have the HDD on the less accessible one to make
it easier to add a USB stick for read only content (should I wish to).

[Max Demian]

On Thu, 28 Apr 2016 00:56:15 +0100, Davey <da...@example.invalid>
wrote:

I think you must have misread it:

"Please connect power to a USB storage device which requires an
external power supply. If not, the device may not be recognized."
(Page 38)

...Which is the opposite of your assertion.

--
Max Demian

[David]

On Thu, 28 Apr 2016 01:16:13 +0000, Johnny B Good wrote:

> On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 19:26:34 +0000, David wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 19:39:54 +0100, Java Jive wrote:
>>
>>> You might be interested to know that recently Seagate have had a
>>> particularly poor reputation:
>>> https://www.backblaze.com/blog/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/
>>>
>>> On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 19:00:04 +0100, Peter Duncanson
>>> <ma...@peterduncanson.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I use Seagate drives
>>
>> Of course, this could be why the drive is so cheap!
>
> This *is* why the drive is so cheap!
>
>
>> I've re-purposed a 500GB Seagate FreeAgent drive for the moment and
>> formatted it using the Humax menu.
>>

<snip useful stuff>

Just to check - does the over heating apply equally to the 2.5" and 3.5"
drives?

I am assuming at the moment that the Backblaze study is for "desktop" 3,5"
drives.

[David]

On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 19:39:54 +0100, Java Jive wrote:

> You might be interested to know that recently Seagate have had a
> particularly poor reputation:
> https://www.backblaze.com/blog/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/
>
> On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 19:00:04 +0100, Peter Duncanson
> <ma...@peterduncanson.net> wrote:
>>
>> I use Seagate drives

Ploughing through that, I read:

"The Seagate Barracuda Green 1.5TB drive, though, has not been doing well.
We got them from Seagate as warranty replacements for the older drives,
and these new drives are dropping like flies. Their average age shows 0.8
years, but since these are warranty replacements, we believe that they are
refurbished drives that were returned by other customers and erased, so
they already had some usage when we got them."

I also read:

"What Drives Is Backblaze Buying Now?

We are focusing on 4TB drives for new pods. For these, our current favorite
is the Seagate Desktop HDD.15 (ST4000DM000). We’ll have to keep an eye on
them, though. Historically, Seagate drives have performed well at first,
and then had higher failure rates later."

Although the updated post says:

"The surprising (and bad) news is that Seagate 3.0TB drives are failing a
lot more, with their failure rate jumping from 9% to 15%. The Western
Digital 3TB drives have also failed more, with their rate going up from 4%
to 7%."

The awful Seagate Barracuda Green 1.5TB drive which looked to be skewing
the results for Seagate seem to have disappeared from the latest table.

Seagate Barracudas seem to be potentially the dodgiest drives.

To quote:

"We use two different models of Seagate 3TB drives. The Barracuda 7200.14
is having problems, but the Barracuda XT is doing well with less than half
the failure rate.

There is a similar pattern with the Seagate 1.5TB drives. The Barracuda
7200.11 is having problems, but the Barracuda LP is doing well."

So from their analysis it seems that the slower spinners may be more
reliable, and the 7200 rpm drives may be more failure prone across more
than one manufacturer.

There doesn't seem to be a conclusion that "All Seagate bad.".

Just glad I bought a WD Red for my latest 3TB drive.

[Davey]

Hmmmm. Without finding the manual reference again, I can confirm that I
have connected three different sticks to my HDR, and they have all been
recognised.

--
Davey.

[Java Jive]

On Thu, 28 Apr 2016 11:55:34 +0100, Davey <da...@example.invalid>

STICKS!!! They don't need an extra source of power, it's spinning
rust that does!!!

[Davey]

On Thu, 28 Apr 2016 10:59:22 +0100
Max Demian <max_d...@bigfoot.com> wrote:

Ok, I have found my manual. I see that:

The second line states:
"Compatible USB devices include portable flash memory (particularly key
drives) etc". This matches my experience.

The line before the one you quote is:
"USB Ports supply 800 mA total etc". This implies that the Humax can
supply power to USB devices, which is confirmed by my trials.

I think that they mean, by the line you quoted, that if a connected USB
device is one that needs an external power supply, then you need to
attach an external power supply, which is a little bit patronising, and
might fall into the same category as putting notices on microwave ovens
telling people not to put their cats in them to dry them off. If you
don't, somebody will eventually complain that their cat died.

Whatever they meant, un-powered USB sticks are readily identified by my
HDR-Fox T2 Freeview, which can then copy programmes, automatically
de-crypted, to them, and also from them.

--
Davey.

[Paul Ratcliffe]

On Thu, 28 Apr 2016 00:56:15 +0100, Davey <da...@example.invalid> wrote:

Externally powered HDDs will be seen.
HDDs will use above the USB port power limit and which are not externally
powered will obviously not work.
It is not a difficult concept to understand.

[Davey]

On Thu, 28 Apr 2016 12:12:54 +0100
Java Jive <ja...@evij.com.invalid> wrote:

> STICKS!!! They don't need an extra source of power, it's spinning
> rust that does!!!

Yes, I know that. But that wasn't the question, which has been now
adequately discussed.

--
Davey.

[Davey]

That being said, I have an external HDD which is powered via the USB
connection, but I have never tried it on the Humax. It might be an
interesting experiment, though.

--
Davey.

[Davey]

On Thu, 28 Apr 2016 16:25:46 +0200
Martin <m...@address.invalid> wrote:

> On Thu, 28 Apr 2016 11:55:34 +0100, Davey <da...@example.invalid>

> Have you got the same PVR? Humax software isn't the same in all Humax
> models. The Dutch Humax PVR software is so different that it is hard
> to believe that it came from the same company.
> I noticed that the newer the Humax product is the less technical
> information is provided in the manual.

Mine has a one and a half page Appendix, with minimal actual technical
information. The unit is a refurbished one, about two years old.

--
Davey.

[Davey]

On 28 Apr 2016 10:27:40 GMT

I have Seagate 3TB external HDD, and I let it slip, and it fell a
couple of feet gently onto my foot. It never worked again.

--
Davey.

[Davey]

On Thu, 28 Apr 2016 12:20:59 GMT

Paul Ratcliffe <ab...@orac12.clara34.co56.uk78> wrote:

> On Thu, 28 Apr 2016 00:56:15 +0100, Davey <da...@example.invalid>
> wrote:
>
> > On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 21:27:48 GMT
> > Paul Ratcliffe <ab...@orac12.clara34.co56.uk78> wrote:
> >
> >> > As far as I know for my HDR Fox T-2 Freeview, it will only
> >> > recognise anything plugged into a USB port by noting that it
> >> > draws power from the Humax, so externally powered HDDs won't be
> >> > seen.
> >>
> >> You don't know much then.
> >
> > Please elaborate, rather than making cryptic comments. What I wrote
> > came from the Humax Manual.
>
> Externally powered HDDs will be seen.
> HDDs will use above the USB port power limit and which are not
> externally powered will obviously not work.
> It is not a difficult concept to understand.

My portable USB-powered HDD works just fine when plugged into the Humax.

--
Davey.

[Davey]

On Thu, 28 Apr 2016 14:49:32 +0100

[Peter Duncanson]

Somewhere I have a Freeview box that has no internal storage but will
record to USB keys or disks plugged in to its 4 USB sockets.

It may be made to an earlier spec because the power output of each USB
connection is inadequate for a disk. However, if you use a "dual"
connection cable to the disk it can power the disk via two of its
sockets.
Like one of these (originally from Maplin):
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/like/201228002351

[Max Demian]

On Thu, 28 Apr 2016 18:15:26 +0200, Martin <m...@address.invalid> wrote:

> The Dutch Humax PVR manual has a 1.5 page specification AFAIR.
> The Dutch one only has a 3 day EPG making it useless for series.
The best it can
> do is record once a week what ever is on at the time of the first
episode. If
> left alone it will carry on recording long after the series ends
and until the

I don't see why a 3 day EPG should (on its own) prevent the correct
recording of (weekly) series. Surely the reservation would just hang
around until a programme with the right series ID appears in the EPG.
Does the box even claim to support series link?

--
Max Demian

[David]

On Thu, 28 Apr 2016 16:30:06 +0200, Martin wrote:

> Maybe it would have been cheaper if you had bought a refurbished Humax
> PVR rather than buying a refurbished STB and an external disk :-)

I looked at the prices.

PVRs seem to be well over £100.

The STB was just over £40 including delivery.

The HDD was already in stock.

Another HDD starts at just over £30.

I would be very grateful if you could supply a link to a Freesat PVR with
500GB of HDD for £70-£80.

I could well buy it.

[David]

Very device specific.

My latest SSD (Crucial) wouldn't run reliably from a single (or doubled
up) USB post when I checked it prior to fitting it. It worked fine when
connected to a SATA port.

That said, I can't recall having any problems with 2.5" HDDs in external
enclosures.

[sintv]

http://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/refurbished.html

[Ian]

In message <nft4dc$8f2$2...@n102.xanadu-bbs.net>, Davey
<da...@example.invalid> writes

I also have one, which is powered by the Humax FoxT2.

A 250GB 2.5" External SATA Portable Hard Drive.

Cost me £33, and that now buys a 500GB.
--
Ian

[David]

On Thu, 28 Apr 2016 11:10:22 -0700, sintv wrote:

> http://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/refurbished.html

Yep - cheapest (500GB) is £99 plus delivery and out of stock.

[David]

On Fri, 29 Apr 2016 00:39:03 +0200, Martin wrote:

> On 28 Apr 2016 17:52:53 GMT, David <wib...@btintenet.com> wrote:
>
>>On Thu, 28 Apr 2016 16:30:06 +0200, Martin wrote:
>>
>>> On 28 Apr 2016 10:27:40 GMT, David <wib...@btintenet.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>>On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 19:39:54 +0100, Java Jive wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> You might be interested to know that recently Seagate have had a
>>>>> particularly poor reputation:
>>>>> https://www.backblaze.com/blog/what-hard-drive-should-i-buy/
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 19:00:04 +0100, Peter Duncanson
>>>>> <ma...@peterduncanson.net> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I use Seagate drives
>>>>
>>>>Ploughing through that, I read:
>>>>
>>>>"The Seagate Barracuda Green 1.5TB drive, though, has not been doing
>>>>well. We got them from Seagate as warranty replacements for the older
>>>>drives, and these new drives are dropping like flies. Their average
>>>>age shows 0.8 years, but since these are warranty replacements, we
>>>>believe that they are refurbished drives that were returned by other
>>>>customers and erased, so they already had some usage when we got
>>>>them."
>>>>
>>>>I also read:
>>>>
>>>>"What Drives Is Backblaze Buying Now?
>>>>
>>>>We are focusing on 4TB drives for new pods. For these, our current

>>>>favorite is the Seagate Desktop HDD.15 (ST4000DM000). We?ll have to

> http://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/refurbished/hdr-1000s-500gb-dd125d.html £99

Plus delivery and out of stock.

Still misses the target of £70-£80.

The box is £60 more than the discless one.

One step too far at the moment.

It seems a little dodgy, as well, when the cost premium between 500GB and
1TB is £40. HDD costs don't increase by that much. Quick Google suggests
around £5-£10 between equivalent 500GB and 1TB internal drives.

I assume you could open up the 500GB model and add a larger drive?

The main gain is 2 tuners instead of 1.

[Peter Duncanson]

It is possible that the difference in prices is partly a reflection of
the original purchase prices and differences in age of the two units.

>I assume you could open up the 500GB model and add a larger drive?
>
>The main gain is 2 tuners instead of 1.
>
>Cheers
>
>
>Dave R

--

Peter Duncanson
(in uk.tech.digital-tv)

[David]

On Fri, 29 Apr 2016 16:10:55 +0200, Martin wrote:

> but worth it.

>
>
>>The box is £60 more than the discless one.
>>
>>One step too far at the moment.
>>
>>It seems a little dodgy, as well, when the cost premium between 500GB
>>and 1TB is £40. HDD costs don't increase by that much. Quick Google
>>suggests around £5-£10 between equivalent 500GB and 1TB internal drives.
>>
>>I assume you could open up the 500GB model and add a larger drive?
>

> I think people here have done it. I've never used more than 80% of my
> 500GB.

>
>
>>The main gain is 2 tuners instead of 1.
>

> That's a big advantage, especially on Sundays when there are often
> occasions when I would like to record three programmes at the same time.
> I can get around that using +1 channels most of the time.

For context, this was a replacement for a failing satellite decoder for an
upstairs TV.

We have a Virgin Tivo downstairs for the main recordings.

The ability to record (using the single tuner) and especially pause and
rewind was just a bonus and I don't expect to use this as my main recorder.

[Johnny B Good]

This was for the 3.5 inch drive models. Did Seagate do a 2.5 inch based
FreeAgent model range?

I doubt use of a sealed unvented USB housing with a laptop drive would
cause heat related problems simply due to the maximum power limit of a
self powered USB2 drive (just a measly 2.5 watts maximum versus the 6 to
10 watts consumption typical of 3.5 inch desktop drives).

--
Johnny B Good

[Roderick Stewart]

On Fri, 29 Apr 2016 16:10:55 +0200, Martin <m...@address.invalid> wrote:

>>I assume you could open up the 500GB model and add a larger drive?
>

>I think people here have done it. I've never used more than 80% of my 500GB.

I think the 500GB drive on my PVR must be about half full of
programmes I've never watched, and will never have the time to watch.
In some cases I can't even remember why I wanted to watch them.
Sometimes when it gets like this I check through them, either playing
little samples or looking up descriptions on IMDB, but usually about
once a year I just get fed up bothering with this and use the format
command. You have no idea how good it feels.

Rod.

[Davey]

In my case, it's programmes that SWMBO asked me to record while she
was doing something else, and then can never be bothered to watch. I
will soon be in introducing a three-month rule, watch it or lose it.

--
Davey.

[Davey]

On Sat, 30 Apr 2016 14:07:37 +0200
Martin <m...@address.invalid> wrote:

> SWMBOs tend not to notice :-)

Very true. Until suddenly, in three months time: "I think I'ld like to
watch that episode of Antiques Roadshow that you saved for me back in
March".

--
Davey.

[Davey]

On Sat, 30 Apr 2016 15:52:34 +0200
Martin <m...@address.invalid> wrote:

> On Sat, 30 Apr 2016 14:32:30 +0100, Davey <da...@example.invalid>

> "You watched it already and I've deleted it" sometimes works :-)

Maybe for you and yours...

--
Davey.

[David]

Yes - I have a FreeAgent (presumably just a corporate branding) 2.5" drive.

It has a single USB 2 connector, and some kind of fancy light effect
within the case which comes on slowly when you first connect it.
This does suggest a slow power up to get round any surge issues.

Not been massively used (mainly as a backup store for pictures when
travelling) but seems to work O.K.