Recording to USB - am I missing something

normsky

Well my 800 arrived and I've managed to flash it with Nabilosat Black Hole and Barry Allan 4. Everything is running hunky dory and my 8GB USB stick is all up and running too. Very impressed so far.

Not decided on the harddrive yet so was just pondering on trying to record to the USB. Seem to have hit a hurdle already and can't work out how you do it.

When I try to record it just says no HDD or HDD not initialised yet. Pretty sure from other posts that others have managed to do this but not sure how. I have searched the forum and checked the idiots guide, been through all the DB menus and also had a good google but come up with nothing.

Any advice please?

Cheers,

Phil

kitschcamp

When I was temporarily using a USB hard drive with my 800, I had to telnet into the Dreambox, rename /hdd to /hdd1 and then create a new symbolic link from the USB drive to /hdd

compufunk

On the Enigma1 images, you can set the record location under ....

Blue Panel --> Extras / Setup --> Record.

I'm sure a similar option exists on the Enigma2 images.

You could also go the telnet route and mount the HDD under /media/hdd.

You may need to initialize it. If you do, you'll lose any data it contains.

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normsky

Thanks compufunk. That did the trick. Well it's allowed me to record. Good old telnet.

Unfortunately I just can't playback the files. Not sure if it's an issue with dropped frames or not. Basically I set the recording off and it records to the stick. I hit the video menu and select the file to play but it won't play back. Just sits there doing nothing.

I ftp'd the .ts file to my pc. Oddly enough the lip sync is in advance of the vid by about 15secs. God knows what is goin on. This is on standard definition as well.

Wondering if its something as daft as my recordings are too short but I doubt it. I set one to end automatically after a minute and that doesn't work either.

I'm guessing the files are getting screwed up due to dripped frames. After trying a HD recording the video is getting blocky now and then and there is no sound at all.


:-(

compufunk

It sounds like there is a problem with how quickly (or not) your dreambox can write to the external disk.

Presuming the disk was intilialzed by the dreambox's software in the prefered way, I'm not sure what you can do to improve that other than wait for a software update to fix the problem, or try a different external drive.

normsky

Thats what I'm guessing. It's actually a Sandisk Cruzer 8GB memory stick which is also holding the latest Gemini image. It was prepared by the auto Barry Allen install. I assume that also initialises it. Otherwise I have no idea how/when it was formatted cos I've had it a while now.

Later today I'm going to try to record to a mounted network drive. That should be a laugh. But considering the time I may have to have a few coffees before then.

chavo

Hi mate, i am in a similar situation, i have just ordered an Esata external drive as i could not get a usb stick working, also the stick size would be an issue as HD recordings are massive!

Let me know how you get on and any problems/ solutions you come up with

compufunk

I wouldn't think its advisable to try to record to the USB stick while simultaneously running your image from it.

Have you tried recording to USB Flash whilst the image in the Dreamboxs flash is loaded/running?

normsky

Problem resolved. It's a bandwidth issue. USB stick transfer isn't fast enough. Neither is the 10/100 built in ethernet. I monitored my network with respect to the ethernet and the mpeg data tries to peak at over 1MB/s - fine for standard def though.

Just stuck an esata in it. Worked a treat once initialised and mounted.

So now it's time to move onto cams etc. Deep joy.

chavo

I thought it would be an issue thats why i chose esata, at 3gbps or something in that region it dwarfs usb speed.

great at least that is one good decision i have made so far!!

normsky

Yeah - was a releif when I tried the disk. Records the HD channels perfectly now.

Shame I had to rape my Iomega backup drive to try it out though.