AZBox HD Premium HDD

check this out BJ and mamdmadworld

Oh geez, that 'pan' [BEBI] made it right, regardless that conclusion about coolest sat-box:
azbox2modingbybebi.jpg
 
well I finally tried a big recording and well I'm not happy :mad:

Recorded the Sioux Football game....3 hour & 5 minutes and it put the file into 3 segments
2 files that were 3 GB and 1:02:02 long
1 file that was under that and about an hour

If you play it back, after the 1st part it kicks you into the list of files

The Visionsat use to be able to record these games and make them one file with no issues. It took a software update (old software did it in either 90min or 120 min segments)

I didnt have the timeshift on (I know my one DVD recorder has a timeshift and it buffers 3 hours then starts a new file. If timeshift is off it will record endlessly on one file)

Well I guess I'll be using the DVD recorder/hard drive to record most items. Bummer. Hope they fix that soon
 
glad you got to see the game.
i do tests and it will work. but if i want something it fails 8 out of 10. 10 out of 10 if i'm away.
i knew going in that this box was not right but i thought it would do SD recording ok.
if anyone thinks this box is ok. look around there are boxes been around here for years. and look for post for them you are lucky to find a few hundred. and they out number this box a 100 fold.
then look for posts on this one way over 1000 in a few months and counting. we are a game bunch.
 
no worries. I recorded it on my main setup (CS5000 & DVD Recorder/Hard Drive) and it recorded fine. Ready for the hockey game tomorrow

The azbox is for the other stuff (MPEG4, HD, 4:2:2, DVB-S2) :)

I just didnt know if that was normal to have it split up the program into multiple files
 
well I finally tried a big recording and well I'm not happy :mad:

Recorded the Sioux Football game....3 hour & 5 minutes and it put the file into 3 segments
2 files that were 3 GB and 1:02:02 long
1 file that was under that and about an hour

If you play it back, after the 1st part it kicks you into the list of files

The Visionsat use to be able to record these games and make them one file with no issues. It took a software update (old software did it in either 90min or 120 min segments)

I didnt have the timeshift on (I know my one DVD recorder has a timeshift and it buffers 3 hours then starts a new file. If timeshift is off it will record endlessly on one file)

Well I guess I'll be using the DVD recorder/hard drive to record most items. Bummer. Hope they fix that soon

IIRC, this is because it requires you to have a FAT formatted drive instead of a NTFS, so files can't be above a certain size. It's certainly annoying, the CS8100 is the same (but at the AZBox can just have the files dumped to a computer and run from there, I believe).
 
no worries. I recorded it on my main setup (CS5000 & DVD Recorder/Hard Drive) and it recorded fine. Ready for the hockey game tomorrow

The azbox is for the other stuff (MPEG4, HD, 4:2:2, DVB-S2) :)

I just didnt know if that was normal to have it split up the program into multiple files

do you have the hard drive formated to fat 32 or linux ?
it will format to linux from the azbox.
and should be 1 large file with linux.
i was more adding up the time on your files when i first read that.
 
well I finally tried a big recording and well I'm not happy :mad:

Recorded the Sioux Football game....3 hour & 5 minutes and it put the file into 3 segments
2 files that were 3 GB and 1:02:02 long
1 file that was under that and about an hour

If you play it back, after the 1st part it kicks you into the list of files

The Visionsat use to be able to record these games and make them one file with no issues. It took a software update (old software did it in either 90min or 120 min segments)

I didnt have the timeshift on (I know my one DVD recorder has a timeshift and it buffers 3 hours then starts a new file. If timeshift is off it will record endlessly on one file)

Well I guess I'll be using the DVD recorder/hard drive to record most items. Bummer. Hope they fix that soon

Iceberg,

I found out that if you check-mark each segment and press OK, it plays them all in chronological succession.

I made a mistake in deleting the files that were all from the same program so I had to use two recordings (files) from different channels to test if it would play in succession, and it does. However, you detect a "break" or pause between them when you do this.

I am now curious if you record one program all the way through and check mark each of the segments and press OK to play, if the breaks in between the segments will be less noticeable or masked. Do you still have your Sioux Football game recording on your HDD? If you do, check each of the segments and replay them and see what happens.

I am going to try another recording and see what happens here. I wish I had thought to do that before I deleted the files I had to test with, but the signal was experiencing too many dropouts and pixelation so I deleted them.

RADAR
 
do you have the hard drive formated to fat 32 or linux ?
it will format to linux from the azbox.
and should be 1 large file with linux.
its fat32 as that is what the Visionsat did. So if I reformat it from the azbox that should fix the issue?
It will format the drive to linux?
 
OK thats weird. I tried it and now it worked. There is a 2-3 second pause between segments but it worked

Only thing I can think of is yesterday in the list it showed this way
-part 2
-part 0
-part 1

so when I said play part 1 & 2 it played part 1 then stopped. Now today it shows
-part 0
-part 1
-part 2

and it played from 0 to 1 just fine
 
Also I learned something.....dont hit the button in the bottom right corner that says "USB" because it will say "eject usb" on the screen which disables the drive from the azbox. You have to unplug it, then plug it back in to the receiver to make the azbox recognize it

The USB button is like a "safe remove" that the computers have :)
 
well I reformatted it as linux and am recording something just to see if it splits the file or if its one file

I said record for 2 1/2 hours but will check it after an hour or so
 
well I tried it and still has a 3GB max. The minutes fluxuate on channel size.

recorded World Harvest (not the most glamorous thing but hey it was for testing) and the 3GB netted a 48 minute segment and a 38 min segment before I stopped it

oh well...so it still breaks it up
 
Also I learned something.....dont hit the button in the bottom right corner that says "USB" because it will say "eject usb" on the screen which disables the drive from the azbox. You have to unplug it, then plug it back in to the receiver to make the azbox recognize it

The USB button is like a "safe remove" that the computers have :)

Hey, that could be handy!

RADAR
 
OK thats weird. I tried it and now it worked. There is a 2-3 second pause between segments but it worked

Only thing I can think of is yesterday in the list it showed this way
-part 2
-part 0
-part 1

so when I said play part 1 & 2 it played part 1 then stopped. Now today it shows
-part 0
-part 1
-part 2

and it played from 0 to 1 just fine

I noticed this oddity, too. I thought it seemed bizarre that the segments were not laid out in sequence. I wonder if rebooting the receiver causes them to reorder properly? This would be an item for the fix list.

well I tried it and still has a 3GB max. The minutes fluxuate on channel size.

recorded World Harvest (not the most glamorous thing but hey it was for testing) and the 3GB netted a 48 minute segment and a 38 min segment before I stopped it

oh well...so it still breaks it up

Wish there was a way to get around this pause-break, but at least it will play the whole thing without having to manually select the next segment.

If they could use NTFS file format, this would not be a problem. I don't understand why they are opting to use FAT32. All the other receivers that I am familiar with are like this, too. From a small bit of reading this morning, it appears that it is not due to Linux OS, so I wonder if it is a limitation of the processor and peripheral components that they are using? i.e. buss width?

Note: If you format your hard drive using the AZBox it will be formatted in Ext3 Linux format., I am told.

Also, check out the "RESERVE RECORD/PLAY" function in the detail menu. Here you can select to record for up to 24 hours! You can find this feature if you press the menu button to the upper left of the OK button (just under the record button). This feature also allows you to record a channel on a different sat then is currently being viewed as it will drive the motor to the sat where the recording is to take place.

Hmmm?

RADAR
 
Last edited:
The boxes won't do NTFS because it's Microsoft's format system. I imagine they'd have to pay a licensing fee to use NTFS. The same for Apple's HFS+.

As for the size limitation, I think it has more to do with FAT32 being free and Linux formatting flavors not being as commonly used. And then you have to take into account the PVRs that can record to DVD. Since the usual DVD-R is 4.75GB (and DVD+R DL are expensive and not as easily obtained), why make a file that you'll have to break up later if you want on a DVD?

That would be my reasoning on the whole situation, anyway. ;)
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 0, Members: 0, Guests: 0)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)