Harddrive In Pvr

[alwin]

Can somebody explain the exact function of the harddrive in a pvr except for the function of recording a broadcast.

Is it part of the normal reception process of the pvr and does it function all the time, or does it sit passive untill it is scheduled to record ?

This relates to the improvement of performance mentioned by members who have upgraded their harddrive in the Mediastar PT-920 to a larger one with a bigger buffer.

I have asked this question to the supplier and they do not answer my question or they cannot.

I have the Mediastar 820 and contunually have sound, and sometimes signal, dropouts and was wondering if upgrading the hardrive might solve my problem.

[pgdownload]

Hardrives record the broadcast - that's pretty much it.

Most PVRs also have a continuous buffer (say the last hour)) that they continually record what's on. Some PVRs allow you to turn off the buffer (and hence let the drive spin down). Some PVRs are badly designed and will only spin down when put into standby. Timers, Favourites, etc. are all stored in the PVR system memory.

In reference to your problems they have nothing to do with the harddrive. By the sound of it you have reception issues, possibly try a kingray powered splitter ($80 - 14 day money back no questions asked from Dick Smith)

Regards

Peter Gillespie

PS The drive 'Buffer' or cache has no impact on a PVR (in fact it actually degrades performance slightly - early 'PVR' harddrives were basically normal drives with cache and optiisation routines turned off). These days drives are so fast none of that makes any difference. People install larger drives purely to get more space to record on.

[Zacspeed]

Each PVR I imagine would be different.

But if the HDD isnt in use, in alot of instances it will wind down and go into standby mode.

However I forget which brand it was that mentioned this. If time shift is selected, ie youve set the PVR to record when watching anything so you can pause or rewind Live TV, then the HDD will always be running so there will be a constant hum.

Youre issue doenst sound like its HDD related and upgrading wouldnt fix those problems.

As Peter mentioned, it by in large appears to be a signal strength issue and not necessarily any issue with the STB.

[CameronD]

It is most likely reception, or possibly a faulty tuner.

You could check the latter by starting a recording then switch to viewing another channel.

If you get dropouts on both channels when you are viewing them live then it is not one tuner.

If you only get dropouts on one channel, then you still don't know if it's the station or the tuner. So switch to a 3rd channel and start recording, then stop the recording on the first channel and start recording the second channel, then stop the recording of the 3rd channel and start recording the original one. By now you should have swapped tuners and can watch to see if the same channel drops out (station signal) or the other one (tuner problem).

Of course, if you get through this, Sod's law predicts that they will either both start dropping, or will both work.