Skybox F3: PVR Compatible USB Sticks

Lazarus

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All useful info, thankyou.

I have not experienced a single glitch or failure with my FAT32 Verbatim 3.0 16GB since reporting upon it at the beginning of this Topic.

Well pleased.
 

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hairybadger said:
Nail varnish? Turn it into a dimmer purple light... :)
Haha, that gave me a laugh. :-thumb1 Or maybe Goth black nail varnish, to match the errr sleek (some would say cheap plastic) case of the M3.

Initial tests with the Color Turn stick have gone well.
 

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zumtotal said:
Initial tests with the Color Turn stick have gone well.
I spoke too soon! It passes every test recording - seven yesterday - but when I try to record a programme overnight it fails! I can't work out what causes it - it's not speed because it happily recorded HD in the tests, and the 'real' recording was SD. This has happened before with other sicks - test recordings are fine, but overnight it fails. Ghosts? :-wow
 

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zumtotal said:
I spoke too soon! It passes every test recording - seven yesterday - but when I try to record a programme overnight it fails! I can't work out what causes it - it's not speed because it happily recorded HD in the tests, and the 'real' recording was SD. This has happened before with other sicks - test recordings are fine, but overnight it fails. Ghosts? :-wow
Do timed recordings during the day work? Does your box go to sleep at a predetermined time (I've set my Foxsat to turn itself off at 02h00, for example)?
 

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F3 Record Events will bring the Box out of Standby couple of minutes beforehand: I use it a lot that way.
 

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hairybadger said:
Do timed recordings during the day work? Does your box go to sleep at a predetermined time (I've set my Foxsat to turn itself off at 02h00, for example)?
Yes, timed recordings in the daytime work every time with this USB stick. There's no timer set to turn the box off, so it can't be that. Usually when the recording fails, the box has come out of standby to record, but hasn't recorded anything and remains turned on after it should have gone back into standby.

I've tried duplicating the night-time situation - network router turned off, TV turned off at mains - but it records fine during the day.
 

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Tivù said:
F3 Record Events will bring the Box out of Standby couple of minutes beforehand: I use it a lot that way.
Interesting. On my M3 it waits until the exact minute comes up and starts loading only then.
 

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zumtotal said:
Yes, timed recordings in the daytime work every time with this USB stick. There's no timer set to turn the box off, so it can't be that. Usually when the recording fails, the box has come out of standby to record, but hasn't recorded anything and remains turned on after it should have gone back into standby.

I've tried duplicating the night-time situation - network router turned off, TV turned off at mains - but it records fine during the day.
Try recording at 21h00, 22h00, 23h00 etc and see which is the last one you get? Block off the IR receptor in case a stray RC signal is confusing it? Sit up all night with coffee and a shotgun to eliminate the possibility of mice?
 

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zumtotal said:
Interesting. On my M3 it waits until the exact minute comes up and starts loading only then.

Ah, I stand corrected: I always pad my record start and end times by two minutes and use manual timers as a rule - Even if I use the EPG to set a Timer, I edit the start and end times.

Sorry, it's second nature and I'd forgotten the early days when I realised I had to establish this routine.
 

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I'm clutching at straws here, but do you have a water heater or similar that comes on in the small hours, and the power surge is enough to knock out the receiver?
 

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hairybadger said:
I'm clutching at straws here, but do you have a water heater or similar that comes on in the small hours, and the power surge is enough to knock out the receiver?
No, nothing like that happening around the relevant time. As you suggested, I will set up a number of consecutive timers and see which I get.
 

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Ah, I stand corrected: I always pad my record start and end times by two minutes and use manual timers as a rule - Even if I use the EPG to set a Timer, I edit the start and end times.

Sorry, it's second nature and I'd forgotten the early days when I realised I had to establish this routine.
Hi,
Im having the exact same issues as you with recording on my F5, I first started recording with a WD elements HDD (with PSU) and whilst it recorded some things it failed on others, I assumed it was because the drive went to "sleep" and the skybox was unable to "wake it".

So I bought a lexar USB 3.0 32gb drive (http://www.ebuyer.com/399231-lexar-32gb-jumpdrive-s73-usb-flash-drive-ljds73-32gabeu) is it quick enough to record HD streams and most of the time my recordings are made. You mentioned that you throught it was waiting overnight that caused issues, I can sometimes have recording that work fine overnight but not during the day.

On another forum someone mentioned that recordings often fail if they are not item 1 in the recordings timer list - I however have not found that this always causes an issue.

So in short have you found any solutions to this? Is it a USB issue? Is it a firmware issue?

ps: I also edit the timer to allow a few mins each side.
 

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Im using an integral 32gb successfully.
 

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Just a couple of other thoughts:
the usb 3 lexar drive i'm using is fine for HD and keeps up no problem, when recordings are made they are absolutely fine, it is formatted to Fat32
I always extend the time by a few mins each side
I have noticed that if a recording fails the box stays turned on - usually on the correct channel

see below, my software version and timer record screen options - anything amiss?


Here my usual timer record options, I always set from the timer menu rather than through the epg



anyone have any ideas?
 

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On the duration option is that set to turn off at 0200 hrs or did you not set a time
 

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As far as im aware, the duration is in hours and mins - hence above the recording duration will be 2h? is that right?
 

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Don't forget my method of using a SDHC card in a card reader. Now you can add SDXC cards for even more recording space.

The draw from them must be tiny compared to any spinning hard drive.

Prices of solid state HDDs are dropping but not fast enough. They are just big SD cards anyway and you can't use them in the camera or music etc devices so SDHC and SDXC cards are more flexible. Just make sure they are genuinely fast like Sandisk Extreme or Lexar pro.
 

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As far as im aware, the duration is in hours and mins - hence above the recording duration will be 2h? is that right?
I always set end time ie start 1700hrs duration 1730hrs or what ever time the length of recorded programme is never had a problem
 

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I always set end time ie start 1700hrs duration 1730hrs or what ever time the length of recorded programme is never had a problem
Ok, tried this and it came up as an error, so in the firmware I have duration is recording time rather than finish time.

Set three recordings today - first one failed, second ones working fine now??
 
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