Skybox F3: PVR Compatible USB Sticks

Rolandh

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I've found a bug with External HDDs, don't know if it's present with USB Sticks where it needs to be formatted by the box to ether Fat 32 or NTFS. I found out that a PC Formatted NTFS drive has trouble staying connected to the box or won't connect after the box has been powered on. I've formatted my 8GB External HDD to Fat 32 with the box and everything is working fine even HD Recording and Playback.

Roland
 

PaulR

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Rolandh said:
I've formatted my 8GB External HDD to Fat 32 with the box and everything is working fine even HD Recording and Playback.
Don't forget that FAT32 doesn't support files larger than 4GB.
 

Stew.art

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I'm not sure if the limitations of FAT32 will be a problem as the F3's recordings are made up of parts that are 1GB max in size.
The attached screenshot is of a folder from my FAT32 USB Stick containing a single HD recording (length:74 minutes & Size: 8.81G:cool:.
 

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Boy, those HD recordings don't have eat up drive space.

Rule of thumb seems to be 2GB/hr SD and 4GB/hr HD (I know that's rather simplistic), but your screenshot shows summat like 8gb/hr HD!
 

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Tivù said:
Boy, those HD recordings don't have eat up drive space.

Rule of thumb seems to be 2GB/hr SD and 4GB/hr HD (I know that's rather simplistic), but your screenshot shows summat like 8gb/hr HD!

That's why my Skybox isn't my main box for recording. My Foxsat-HDR has got a 500gb HDD & the meager 80gb USB HDD is only used for recording from you know what channels & tests. Also the 8 event manual timer & single tuner isn't really suited to being a daily use PVR.

Roland

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Bought and have tried high-speed Kingston "Elite" 32GB flash USB stick. It "works" but it has issues - that is the Skybox F3 doesn't usually shut down after a recording which, to me, is essential as I am often out of town and can't afford to risk it being left on eternally. So far everything works flawlessly with high-speed Kingston "Elite" 16GB ones though... As a test I also tried Toshiba HDD 500GB drive with 8MB buffer. Same result, it usually"works" (That is to say it WILL record, but doesn't shut down after a recording.) At least it is better than the Openbox S12 which was eventually bricked by a faulty firmware (even though the machine was not a "clone") was so exasperated with the damn OpenBox S12 almost never shutting itself down after a recording that was almost relieved when it bricked. It was also very, very fussy about what USB flash drives it would work with, nothing larger than 16GB also...
 

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I present, without knowing whether it's good or bad, the following offer which was emailed to me. A 64GB pen drive for £12. The claimed read speed is 18MB/s and the write 8MB/s - would that be fast enough? You can't argue with the price/capacity ratio though.
 

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@ John Lander: Have you Set DVR (Blue Button in the PVR Storage Menu) to Recording only, or have you left TSR enabled too?
 

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I set to "record only" DVR, blue button. Thanks for the tip. Kingston "elite" high speed 32GB seems to be working well now, no shut down problems. Fingers crossed.
 

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Excellent!

And the default Recording length can also be altered by repeated presses of the record button.

Can you please reconfirm after you're totally happy and I'll add it to the list?

Thanks.
 

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Not exactly a USB stick but my old HP laptop died at the weekend so I've removed the 2.5" SATA drive and I've ordered a caddy for it, hopefully the USB socket will be good enough not to need the second plug connected to a PSU and I'll report back on performance.
 

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Vipersan got one to work with just the one USB connection.

I also bought a caddy a week ago to see if my dying drive from SWMBOs Laptop would work as Storage, but although the drive failed quite quickly, the F3 certainly seemed to power it ok.
 

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PaulR said:
I present, without knowing whether it's good or bad, the following offer which was emailed to me. A 64GB pen drive for £12. The claimed read speed is 18MB/s and the write 8MB/s - would that be fast enough? You can't argue with the price/capacity ratio though.
D'ohh, and then I forget to post the link for anyone that's interested.

_http://www.kgbdeals.co.uk/national/deals/126729/attache-64gb-usb-flash-drive---gadgets-n-gears-national
 

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aceb said:
Not exactly a USB stick but my old HP laptop died at the weekend so I've removed the 2.5" SATA drive and I've ordered a caddy for it, hopefully the USB socket will be good enough not to need the second plug connected to a PSU and I'll report back on performance.

I'm using a 2.5in SATA HDD from an old HP laptop in a caddy & I can confirm that the USB port can power an external HDD without a PSU.

Roland

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The caddy arrived this morning and two minutes later it was recording some of the BBC Olympic HD streams, no problems with power either. This is the one I bought from Ebay 180674320719
 

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Yes, same Caddy as I bought. Sadly my HDD is dead!
 

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busbi lite USB Flash Drive - Works

4gb / USB v2.0 / Black rubberised body

Got this recently as a freebie with an order of printer inks. Records and plays back both HD & SD with no problems.
 

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Interesting - I couldn't get any V2.0 sticks to work reliably.

4GB is not going to record much more than an hour or so of HD, though: No good for Films!

In practice, however,I find I use my USB stick almost exclusively for Live Pause.
 

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Just to drag this Topic back to life, briefly: Having ascertained that my V3.0 16GB Stick fundamentally worked without issue some months ago, I've only just actually made my first serious recording.

90 minutes of 3Sat HD so SWMBO can catch up on a couple of "Pop Around The Clock" New Year Concerts

Just whizzed through it at x24 and played a few snatches as well.

Perfect.

No glitches or hitches.

Used 65% of an available 14.7GB in 96 minutes, so it should cope with a full length HD Film or similar with no problem.

V.Happy!
 

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Tivù said:
Used 65% of an available 14.7GB in 96 minutes, so it should cope with a full length HD Film or similar with no problem.

remember though, it was only in 720p HD.
 
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