Help Required external HDD write speed too slow or box?

[dankargo]

Hi guys,

Tonight I attempted to record the Eurovision Song Contest feed on 10E using my Openbox V8S receiver. It was 4:2:2 so I gathered I could record and watch back on a PC. Shortly after I started recording the box kept coming up with 'Too slow to record' messages although the recording was still going so I thought I'd wait and see.

When I checked the recording on my PC, its incredibly blocky in both sound and vision - even though the signal was perfectly fine. It looks like it couldn't cope with the 36 Mbps video bitrate and 1920x1080 full HD.

The external hard drive I used was a Transcend 1TB 2.5 inch USB 3.0 (5400rpm) which just plugs into the USB port. I haven't ever had issues with this before, even recording full HD channels. Now, the USB port on the Openbox is only USB 2.0. What would likely be at fault here, the drive or the receiver?

A friend suggested I buy an external hard drive that is powered by the mains supply and is at least 7200rpm, which should give it some more power to write the huge data stream but I worry that I may face the same result and be out of pocket by £60.

 

[Lazarus]

Ten gets one it's the receiver.

I have a couple of Skybox F3s and I had to do a lot of trial and error to get it to work with either HDD or USB.

I finally found a USB stick that it liked.

There's a long Thread about it somewhere in the Openbox/Skybox/Libertview section.

 

[Adam792]

Yeah it'll most likely be struggling because of the high data rate and the fact it's USB, from a set-top box.

If I can get a moment this evening where it's not hammering it down I'm going to try and sort my dishes out so I can record the 10°E ESC feed directly via my PC.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dankargo]

Thanks both.

I've had a quick browse of the thread in question and someone suggested turning PS Record to ON may help it. What exactly is PS Record?

I'm going to buy a mains powered 7200rpm drive today. Whether it will be an improvement or not is a different story but after years of trying to access these feeds and finally being able to, I'm throwing everything at it.

 

[4wd]

Assuming the box is usb 2, that'll be the problem.
See attachments, 2 tb 2,5" 5400 external usb 3, connected to usb 2 then usb 3.

 

[dankargo]

Assuming the box is usb 2, that'll be the problem.
See attachments, 2 tb 2,5" 5400 external usb 3, connected to usb 2 then usb 3.

Thanks for this

If the USB 2 speed is 24MB/sec and the Feed is roughly 42mbps, shouldn't that be about 5.25MB/sec write speed?

Worth pointing out again that the drive I was using had no external power - solely the USB port was powering it.

 

[4wd]

Feed is roughly 42mbps

yes, agree that it should work theoretically on usb 2... Maybe the box cpu\usb driver not coping? Maybe someone knows...

The speed examples were only about what to expect with usb 2, next to nothing to gain with 720o, even a 500 MB\s rated ocz SSD (test attach.) behaves like a 10 year old 5400. So I can't see the 7200 plan helping.

 

[dankargo]

yes, agree that it should work theoretically on usb 2... Maybe the box cpu\usb driver not coping? Maybe someone knows...

The speed examples were only about what to expect with usb 2, next to nothing to gain with 720o, even a 500 MB\s rated ocz SSD (test attach.) behaves like a 10 year old 5400. So I can't see the 7200 plan helping.

I think you may be right.

I'm hoping the additional mains power on this new drive might be the fix. Silly really that I thought the box power alone would be able to cope. I shall test tonight when the feed becomes active again.

 

[mapperuo]

I didn't attempt to record it, but just viewing it was a struggle for my i7 PC. I was piping it to VLC via TSReader and VLC kept moaning about continuity errors. Maybe these high bitrate feeds are a bit much unless you have a professional IRD?

 

[dankargo]

Thanks all for the replies.

To my utter surprise, the Openbox managed to successfully record last nights semi final with absolutely no issues using my new mains powered external hard drive. Bitrate was almost 43 Mbps!

 

[Lazarus]

Excellent news.

 

[4wd]

Great result, persistence and experiments pays off.

Still can't see 7200 or even ssd able to show any relevant speed improvement when on usb 2. So looks like the Openbox was not able to properly deal with (power?) that Transcend 2,5 !? Very unexpected.

Out of interest and research, how does the Transcend behave when recording normal HD channels from the Openbox?

 

[dankargo]

Great result, persistence and experiments pays off.

Still can't see 7200 or even ssd able to show any relevant speed improvement when on usb 2. So looks like the Openbox was not able to properly deal with (power?) that Transcend 2,5 !? Very unexpected.

Out of interest and research, how does the Transcend behave when recording normal HD channels from the Openbox?

I've used the Transcend as my main recording drive for the last 6 months which included recording HD channels on the Openbox. It coped fine with a 27 Mbps BBC feed a few months ago too.

The Eurovision feeds though are well known to have a huge data rate. As well as the 42Mbps video it has three audio tracks at 384kbps each. What I forgot to mention is that for last nights recording, I took some advice mentioned in a thread in the Openbox section which was to turn PS Record on. I've got no idea what PS is but it still produced .TS files and all played fine.

I just think maybe the threshold of power is too low once you hit roughly ~30Mbps or more. The Openbox probably just needed a helping hand in powering whilst it was writing the mammoth amounts of data to disk.

I just hope now that the receiver doesn't blow completely due to the stress

 

[4wd]

Thanks for info, always learning something here. Am searching google for TS PS difference.

for last nights recording, I took some advice mentioned in a thread in the Openbox section which was to turn PS Record on

*curiosity triggered* Could you try the Transcend with that PS setting ?

 

[dankargo]

Thanks for info, always learning something here. Am searching google for TS PS difference.



*curiosity triggered* Could you try the Transcend with that PS setting ?

Yep will do once the feed comes back on