MVision HD200 - How to get an External USB disk working for PVR use.

canvey

Hi guys
Still getting to grips with my new toy MVision HD200 combo. I have recently loaded the latest patch from gxmax which included the PVR software. Question is what PVR and type? Does the PVR have to connect via the USB or another connection? Will any PVR record and play back HD?? Humax 9200T, Topfield TF5800PVR maybe. Dont want to pay out loads for functions not required.
Ta in antish

Robbo

Hi, I was under the impression that the receiver is PVR ready. In which case, all you need to do is to plug a USB HDD into the USB port. Try it with a cheap USB memory stick, if you are not sure.

Robbo

canvey

Doh, thats what it means. You have saved me lots of money me thinx. Put me in the dumbest members bucket. So plug in the usb stick and away you go??

Robbo

Yes, a stick should work straight off. With my receiver according to the manufacturers website (technomate) some procedure has to be followed to format the drive properly. Also that USB powered drives work usually without complications on more occasions than externally powered ones. However, I just bough the cheapest USB self powereed I could get from PC world, and shoved it in and hey presto- a working PVR.

canvey

Hi Robbo and thanx. Yea tried a simple usb stick, its was a bit jittery when recording and couldnt work out how to play back. Maybe the stick didnt have enough memory. There seems to be a lot of HDD around but yea my concern is will it need programming or somthing. Maplins sell a few for about £50 for 300gig or so. I will just bite the bullet and buy one and see what happens.

jimbo

I think the Technomates use FAT32 format. Is this general?

Jimbo

Robbo

Yes, you could do that. I did however do some research on the various forums to find out what was best for my receiver, (i.e USB powered), and the TM is FAT32. It would be a ggod idea for you to look into it a bit further I think, to see what others with the MVision are using. It may save hasssle in the long run.

canvey

Not been able to find much info on MVision and what PVR would be availalbe unfortunately. Anyone know or heard of Freecom HDDs, they seem to get rave reviews and I found a few other forums where people had plugged it in to a technomate and hey presto. The only site i found for MVision was hsmd.tv, not sure whether that is their official site or not but it would be nice to know what they actually recommend.

Robbo

Yes, I have three of the Freecoms at work, two of the USB 160 Gbyte ones and a Network/USB 250Gbyte one. All three have performed faultlessly(when conected to PCs).

Off Topic:
Incidentally the Network one is particularly good as it has both servers for windows, and a built-in FTP server. Which is useful for accessing files from other operating systems such as UNIX,VxWorks,Linux etc.

canvey

So a freecom network hdd maybe the way to go. I might start a thread just to find out whos got an MVisoion and what they use. Ta for all your help Robbo. I see you are based in Kent. Do you have a call out charge , ha

Robbo

Sorry I shouldn't have mentioned that, as I'm not sure it will be any good to you. Best to stick with a USB one as even if you could get it working, it might not be fast enough for live video streaming. All I was saying really is that from my experience the Freecoms are Ok.

LOL, I don't do computer related jobs, computers, I hate them!

canvey

After deliberation and blah di blah i bought a Maxtor One Touch HDD 750GB. I thought i would try my luck and plug it straight in to my receiver and guess what NOTHING. It either says "USB is near full" when I try to record or it does nothing. I have plugged it in to my PC and created an active partition and im in the process of formatting the HDD(seems to take for ever) Is this the right way to go to get it to work?. The file system for the HDD says its NTFS, does it have to be FAT32 to work?. I did try and format on the receiver as there was an option but it didnt seem to do anything. Im sure there must be a way to get it to work. Im thinking now i should have bought a technomate receiver instead of MVision. Any help would be appreciated.

Robbo

Here are the instructions for the technmates, you never know, it might work for the M-Vision.

canvey

Hi and thanks for the link. I think I have sort of got there. I tried my own method of making a partition and it appears that it has to be FAT32 and not NTFS. FAT32 only allows you to format a partition upto about 30GB. The technomate guide looks like its trying to give you the largest partition for your drive and then you format it from your receiver which will only recognise FAT32 and hopefuly give you the full capacity of the HDD. I stumble from Number 11 in the attached guide as I cannot find fat32format.exe file anywhere on my PC to copy. Any advices, otherwise its 30GB max gor a 750GB HDD. 10 mins of HD maybe, LOL

Attached Files

How to format a USB HDD for Technomate HD Models.pdf (28.1 KB, 25 views)

Robbo

The fat32format.exe program is in the link I posted.

But here it is anyway, inside this zip.


Please let us know how it goes though, and then others can benefit if you have success.

Also noticed that 18. and 19. seem to be in disagreement.

Attached Files

189.zip (42.4 KB, 24 views)

canvey

It was just that last bit, of course it was literally copy it to my C drive. DOH. 698GB capacity and working fine. Cant grumble. I agree that others should know, by the looks of it that the "HOW TO" from Technomate seems to work on other receivers, well at least MVision. Me thinks it need to be posted as a guide of how to format a new HDD for receivers so others will benefit. Many thanks for all your assistance on this one Robbo. On to my next conquest of the new Diablo Cam and programmer. Be prepared, HA

Robbo

No problem, glad you got it sorted. I will change the thread title to something that reflects your achievement.