azbox plus hdd

[Chewie]

Hello Gents
I just got my new toy, i want to buy the internal hard drive for it and looking for some good suggestions on which drive work better with this unit.
thanks you in advance.
Regards
Chewie

 

[pro96]

go internally I have a 1TB in mine.

 

[hd fan]

Mine is an external 500Gb FreeAgent GO that was not working with the CS 8100 but with the new Premium + I bought yesterday it started working fine and even formated it to Linux (ext2) but suddenly after just blind scanning a couple of sats it does not work anymore. It shows it ok on the Storage menu though but if I press record is a no go. At first it recorded fine and played it back but now I have no idea what else to do. The first I did was upgrade to firmware 3877 since I do not see that 3990 you guys talk about on the firmware list. I assume it is a beta firmware only available through azbox website right?

 

[Chewie]

Thank you guys, which brand is the best or most reliable?
Regards
chewie

 

[hd fan]

ok, just rebooted the machine and now it works as intended. like any other computer reboot or power down solves a lot of issues i guess.

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

I'm assuming that the hard drive is a standard desktop sata drive?

 

[pro96]

I'm assuming that the hard drive is a standard desktop sata drive?

yeap got mine at fry's for $49.99 OEM Samsung 1TB Sata 32MB w/3yr warranty.
Works great in the AZb

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

yeap got mine at fry's for $49.99 OEM Samsung 1TB Sata 32MB w/3yr warranty.
Works great in the AZb

I guess I'll give it a try. I'd like to have the PVR/DVR but I've heard that it's problematic for various reasons. I don't think I've seen any posts where a scheduled recording will move the dish.

 

[Chewie]

Hello Gents
I just got my hard drive is a WD 1t, do I use the box to format the drive?
do I format it to EX2 OR EX3, I am not sure what the differance is.
please let me know.
thanks in advance.
chewie

 

[jsattv]

yeap got mine at fry's for $49.99 OEM Samsung 1TB Sata 32MB w/3yr warranty.
Works great in the AZb

They are selling a Western Digital 1 TB for $73.95 and a 2 TB Seagate for $109.95 up here. Does anyone know if one would ever need a 2 TB drive for AZBox ie. is this overkill?

 

[beavs2112]

Hi Chewie1. Welcome to sat guys I would recommend letting the AZ format the drive. That's what i did with mine and it works. I have a 750GB in mine. I'm not sure what you mean by EX2 or EX3? Was this something that showed up on your AZ screen? What type of drive are you using? Internal or external? USB or SATA? I agree with previous posters and recommend going with an internal 3.5" SATA drive.

Hi jsattv. were those prices from Best Buy? if you want to save a few dollars try to find a place like this in your province/city ACER AS55175136 A64 1.6 2GB/160/DVDRW/15.6/W7HP BLUEANT V1 VOICE CONTROLLED BLUETOOTH HEADSET BLUEANT SUPERTOOTH LIIGHT HANDSFREE SPEAKERPHONE BLACKBERRY HS655 BLUETOOTH HEADSET - NEW BLUETOOTH HANDSFREE REARVIEW MIRROR KIT W/HEADSET EMACH. EM250-116
I'm sure you'll find somewhere similar. it's in their computer add-ons section under hard drives. I bought my refurbished 750gb 3.5" SATA drive for half of what BB wants and it comes with a warranty.

 

[jsattv]

Hi Chewie1. Welcome to sat guys I would recommend letting the AZ format the drive. That's what i did with mine and it works. I have a 750GB in mine. I'm not sure what you mean by EX2 or EX3? Was this something that showed up on your AZ screen? What type of drive are you using? Internal or external? USB or SATA? I agree with previous posters and recommend going with an internal 3.5" SATA drive.

Hi jsattv. were those prices from Best Buy? if you want to save a few dollars try to find a place like this in your province/city ACER AS55175136 A64 1.6 2GB/160/DVDRW/15.6/W7HP BLUEANT V1 VOICE CONTROLLED BLUETOOTH HEADSET BLUEANT SUPERTOOTH LIIGHT HANDSFREE SPEAKERPHONE BLACKBERRY HS655 BLUETOOTH HEADSET - NEW BLUETOOTH HANDSFREE REARVIEW MIRROR KIT W/HEADSET EMACH. EM250-116
I'm sure you'll find somewhere similar. it's in their computer add-ons section under hard drives. I bought my refurbished 750gb 3.5" SATA drive for half of what BB wants and it comes with a warranty.

Thanks beavs2112, yes there are a couple of places where I can get a new 3.5 Sata 1 TB Western Digital (5 yr warranty) for $75.00 which are a bit cheaper than BB.

 

[comfrey]

Hi Chewie
If you have a linux machine you can format the disk as ext2 or ext3. I would stick with ext2 as this is what the azbox will do. (I've heard of other people having issues with recording when using ext3) The difference between ext2 and ext3 is that the ext3 file system will use an area on the disk for a journal. The journal keeps track of changes to the file system. When a system is shutdown in an ungraceful way (like just pulling the plug or power outage)There is a potential for the file system(s) to be in an inconsistent state which would normally require a full file system check ( fsck ).
Having an ext3 file system can save time, rather than doing a full file system check on a reboot it will check the journal for any inconsistencies. On large drives a full file system check can take hours.

Hello Gents
I just got my hard drive is a WD 1t, do I use the box to format the drive?
do I format it to EX2 OR EX3, I am not sure what the differance is.
please let me know.
thanks in advance.
chewie

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

I just installed a WD 500 GB drive into my Ultra but the Ultra doesn't see it. Bad drive or did I miss a step somewhere?

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

Turns out that the hard drive is OK. What I found was a loose serial cable on the main board. It's interesting that the Ultra formatted the drive in the Linux ext2 format. Anyway, my recordings aren't going well. The program gets recorded but it won't play back on the Azbox. I get an error message that simply says "unsupported". When I copy the file to my laptop, the file plays with Mplayer but I get an error message of "invalid pixel format". Since I have a USB external drive (formatted FAT) hooked up to the Elite, I tried a recording there and got the same results. Both boxes have the 5020 firmware. Perhaps it's a firmware issue? I guess I'll have to try other firmwares (unless someone knows how to fix this) and hope nothing else gets broken when this is fixed.

 

[AcWxRadar]

Turns out that the hard drive is OK. What I found was a loose serial cable on the main board. It's interesting that the Ultra formatted the drive in the Linux ext2 format. Anyway, my recordings aren't going well. The program gets recorded but it won't play back on the Azbox. I get an error message that simply says "unsupported". When I copy the file to my laptop, the file plays with Mplayer but I get an error message of "invalid pixel format". Since I have a USB external drive (formatted FAT) hooked up to the Elite, I tried a recording there and got the same results. Both boxes have the 5020 firmware. Perhaps it's a firmware issue? I guess I'll have to try other firmwares (unless someone knows how to fix this) and hope nothing else gets broken when this is fixed.

JohnnyNobody

Try using the MENU > RECORDED PROGRAM to replay your recorded items. Put a checkmark (CHECK button) to select which program to replay and then press OK. Do this instead of using the FILE MANAGER option, that doesn't appear to function the way we think it should.

Hope this works for you, it worked for Chewie and I and a few others that I know of.

RADAR

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

JohnnyNobody

Try using the MENU > RECORDED PROGRAM to replay your recorded items. Put a checkmark (CHECK button) to select which program to replay and then press OK. Do this instead of using the FILE MANAGER option, that doesn't appear to function the way we think it should.

Hope this works for you, it worked for Chewie and I and a few others that I know of.

RADAR

Yeah, that works. But, on another issue, I did notice that when I use timeshift on high bit rate transponders that the A/V becomes unstable.

 

[AcWxRadar]

Yeah, that works. But, on another issue, I did notice that when I use timeshift on high bit rate transponders that the A/V becomes unstable.

Yes, this has been an ongoing issue with high bit rate sources.

RADAR

 

[vc2]

I just installed a WD 500 GB drive into my Ultra but the Ultra doesn't see it. Bad drive or did I miss a step somewhere?

I have the same problem with the WD 1TB Caviar Black.

The drive is not recognized on initial power up, but if I select reboot from the remote without recycling power, the drive is recognized after rebooting.

I've reported this bug to AZBox several months ago, but the problem is still not fixed.

 

[vc2]

Turns out that the hard drive is OK. What I found was a loose serial cable on the main board. It's interesting that the Ultra formatted the drive in the Linux ext2 format. Anyway, my recordings aren't going well. The program gets recorded but it won't play back on the Azbox. I get an error message that simply says "unsupported". When I copy the file to my laptop, the file plays with Mplayer but I get an error message of "invalid pixel format". Since I have a USB external drive (formatted FAT) hooked up to the Elite, I tried a recording there and got the same results. Both boxes have the 5020 firmware. Perhaps it's a firmware issue? I guess I'll have to try other firmwares (unless someone knows how to fix this) and hope nothing else gets broken when this is fixed.

Sounds like a player problem. You may not have the proper CODEC.

I'm getting good results with azbox-0.9.5020 firmware. The files are in .ts transport stream format. I've had no problems with playback using VLC on my PC. I'm also using a Popcornhour C-200 networked media player via SMB to play the files over my local network.

Try making recordings from some other (lower bit rate) channels.