Choppy Video?

Couple of tips

If you can then get 5400 RPM ATA Drive as 7200 can get a bit noisy and hot.

If you cannot get 5400 get a drive that has a utility to slow the drive down (quiet mode) - you will need to configure the drive in a PC.

If you can look at the Drive warranties. A few years back I got a Samsung Spinpoint 120Gb as all the other manufacturers had dropped back to a 1 year warranty and the Samsung had a 3 year. Drives do fail and as Tivo runs them constantly expect them to fail sooner.

Although you CAN get a huge drive think about failure. If you can archive off over a network do so onto a PC with a SATA drive or DVD - less prone to terminal failure. Also because of failure think about cost benefit of getting a smaller drive rather than bigger if you do not need the space - if it dies after 2 years it will not cost so much to replace a 200Gb than a 300GB.

I did the math with SATA drives (got a Seagate 250GB) for my PC a couple of months ago - I too have Techpac access but found they cost more for the same drives than Super Cheap PC in Auckland. So if you are in Auckland check out price spy as you will often find Techpac more costly even at Trade once you add GST and $3.75 courier. Have pity on us IT sales types we do not actually make much Margin :( and the likes of Super Cheap bring them in direct from Singapore - you run the risk of warranty based in Singapore if the retailer goes under but do the math....

Lastly there was a comment of large drive size - what is the current max size without cahce card - I though the Tivo maxed out at around 200GB?

Chris

Hi Chris

Seagate now have 5 year warranties on their hard disks but be careful as this time starts from the date of manufacture. I had a hard disk fail once when they had two year warranty on them and could not claim it through Seagate RMA returns as their website said it was no longer within the two years despite a receipt I had saying otherwise. I did (eventually) get it replaced via the PC shop I got it from but it took a LOT of haggling.

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Originally Posted by Lurker

there was a comment of large drive size - what is the current max size without cahce card - I though the Tivo maxed out at around 200GB?

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No. Cachecards have no bearing on maximum drive size. You may be thinking of the old 137GB limitation which has not been applicable for quite a while (years) now since the install images started using LBA48 addressing.

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Originally Posted by Lurker

If you can then get 5400 RPM ATA Drive as 7200 can get a bit noisy and hot.

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It is virtually impossible to buy 5400rpm drives at retail outlets anymore (though large wholesalers keep them for legacy raid replacements).

Noise and heat are not much of an issue with most of the latest generation of 7200rpm drives, some even use less power than the old 5400rpm models.

Peter.

Not saying I would use Seagate for a Tivo (on the other hand not saying I would not...) :D It just so happened that Seagate did the cheapest SATA for my PC (no good for Tivo as SATA) at the time but was making a point regarding Trade prices through Techpac may actually be more costly than retail through direct importers (mumble mumble mutter mutter)

There was a manufacturer a few years ago that did a continuous 24x7 rated drive for streaming media but cannot remember who and, as it was a number of years ago, it probably no longer exists. Thank goodness developments in drives appear to have made more reliable drives recently if the 5 year warranty is anything to go by.

The Samsung I put in my Tivo 4 years ago is still going strong so I cannot complain. Mind you the minute it shows errors I will pull it out because if I lose the last couple of months of recordings of Desperate Houswives, House etc my wife will kill me when she gets back from the UK :rolleyes:

Eventually we will get in trouble as ATA drive go away - interesting that Xbox 360 uses a SATA DVD-ROM for example - but I guess if the 5400 ATA drives have all gone I will be putting a 7200 in my Tivo when my current drive gets too small (probably next week.....)

Chris

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Originally Posted by Lurker

Not saying I would use Seagate for a Tivo (on the other hand not saying I would not...) :D It just so happened that Seagate did the cheapest SATA for my PC (no good for Tivo as SATA) at the time but was making a point regarding Trade prices through Techpac may actually be more costly than retail through direct importers (mumble mumble mutter mutter)

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The Seagate 7200.8 series Is probably the most popular upgrade drive used in TiVo's during the last 12 months. Their quietness and 5 year warranty certainly helped here. But I understand what you mean about retail sometimes being cheaper than wholesale, apart from grey market imports, GST cheating is also rife in the industry.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lurker

There was a manufacturer a few years ago that did a continuous 24x7 rated drive for streaming media but cannot remember who and, as it was a number of years ago, it probably no longer exists. Thank goodness developments in drives appear to have made more reliable drives recently if the 5 year warranty is anything to go by.

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Most manufacturers have DVR rated drives, for Seagate it's their SV35 series which are rated for DVR use 24x7 and a high number of write cycles. But these drives are not easily obtained at the retail level and most people just use PC drives in the 7200.x series. With a 5 year wty it's not much of an issue.

Peter

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Originally Posted by Lurker

Eventually we will get in trouble as ATA drive go away

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I doubt that is going to happen any time in the forseeable future. ATA will remain for quite a while to come. And just like there is a plethora of adaptors for convering other standards to and from one another I am quite confident we will see an ATA-SATA adaptor too when the need arises.

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Originally Posted by Darren King

And just like there is a plethora of adaptors for convering other standards to and from one another I am quite confident we will see an ATA-SATA adaptor too when the need arises.

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They already exist for either direction
ide-to-sata-converter.htm

http://www.cwol.com/serial-ata/images/adsaide-250.gif

sata-ide-converter.htm

http://www.satasite.com/images/ad3300.gif

Peter.

Cool! I'll see if I can get one and try it out in a TiVo. Would be nice to know if they work.

Cheers

Did anyone ever test the ide to sata connector above to see if it would work with sata drives?

Out of the dozens of adapters I have heard about/tested there has only been one reported to work with S1 TiVo's, but I have not been able to track another sample of it down. I think the chances of one of the current adapters working is very slim.

Peter.