My new OTA DVR's on the cheap.

[harshness]

No you missed the point. He spent $26 instead of $70.

You're ignoring the point: $26 for 320GB versus $70 for a warranted 2T drive.

One holds 80 hours and the other holds 500 hours and is more likely to be reliable in a less visually and aurally jarring package.

There's a cut-off in every level of technology below which it is more expensive to try to carry things forward. I once wallowed the mud of trying to reuse really old computers and discovered that it just doesn't pay as everything ends up being a compromise. It wasn't always this way, but as long as Microsoft has been in the hearts and minds of those struggling to get things done, the old hardware just can't economically keep up with the modern demands.

Some of us have to work with what we have.

If you don't put any value on your time, you don't put enough value in yourself.

 

[harshness]

Absolutely. I'm not sure the Dish DTVPal DVR uses the time tick. I think it does, but considering reception interruptions and such, I'm not sure it is as reliable as one might hope.

The DTVPal DTV converter seems to pick up the time just fine. That the networks and stations tinker with starts and stops is a whole other issue.

 

[Comptech]

If you don't put any value on your time, you don't put enough value in yourself.

I guess that is my problem. It must be why I own a little over 10 acres of land with a 2100 sf house and a four car garage. Notice I said own, not mortgaged. Also have 3 vehicles and quite a few toys. All this after a brain tumor put me in the hospital 16 years ago and left me broke, in debt and Deaf. Right back to work and started over again and am now debt free, but not rich. I still have to watch my spending which is why if you have something laying around use it instead of buying something new.

 

[navychop]

My cheapo adapters support several HDDs each, that otherwise would not have been put to use. And they are run so rarely, I am hardly concerned about failures.

WAY cheaper per MB than new

 

[harshness]

And they are run so rarely, I am hardly concerned about failures.

An OTA DVR is not something that is "run rarely" or you probably wouldn't be bothering.

I envision a situation where there is something being recorded each weekday and the users aren't wanting to go through a daily protocol to reconfigure the hardware and having to "get home to feed the chickens".

 

[navychop]

I use them for EHDs. Long term storage.

 

[Comptech]

An OTA DVR is not something that is "run rarely" or you probably wouldn't be bothering.



I find it amazing that you know what people are doing with their equipment and people have money to blow.

 

[harshness]

I use them for EHDs. Long term storage.

This thread is about OTA DVRs. Long-term storage may be part of the deal but OTA is typically not something that one occasionally dabbles in.

I had some old 250GB IDE drives that I used for long term storage and last I looked, some of the drives wouldn't spin up. The older something gets, whether in active use or not, the less likely it is to work like new.

 

[danristheman]

Harshness i didn't buy that ide hard drive i found it for free so i formatted it if works.

 

[harshness]

Harshness i didn't buy that ide hard drive i found it for free so i formatted it if works.

Just because it formats doesn't make it a new drive with the attendant life expectancy. IOW, formatting a drive doesn't reset the Mean Time Between Failures or give you a fresh bad sector replacement table.

The cost of the interfacing hardware (or enclosure, should you choose that route) adds to the cost of even a free drive.

 

[Comptech]

I think since Harshness has money to blow he should send you a 2 TB drive complete with USB interface free of charge just to prove he is right!

 

[danristheman]

I agree put your money where mouth is and send me one with the usb interface I wouldn't mind it at all. One more thing I bought another IDE to usb interface and using with another old IDE 120 GB that I had laying around.

 

[harshness]

So you spent how many dollars to use a 120GB drive? That puts the cost/GB at about $.05 (without enclosure) versus a 2GB at $.035 with an enclosure and a long life expectancy. Seems like free can be a pretty steep price; Having to shuttle stuff off the drive every few weeks to make room may make you weary.

 

[. Raine]

So you spent how many dollars to use a 120GB drive? That puts the cost/GB at about $.05 (without enclosure) versus a 2GB at $.035 with an enclosure and a long life expectancy. Seems like free can be a pretty steep price; Having to shuttle stuff off the drive every few weeks to make room may make you weary.

320 GB drive, not 120, if his picture is correct.

I use a 320 GB drive myself for recording with my 3500 and when it's near full it automatically dumps to a NAS I threw together with a old computer and a bunch of old drives. Works great and cost me squat. I definitely could afford to buy whatever is best out there, but hey, there's no fun in that.

Oops, I see he's using a second drive that's a 120. You're price per mb comparison isn't valid though, he didn't buy the drive, so there's no cost there. For a bigger drive, which he doesn't have, he'd have to shell out more money.

Just because a drive is new doesn't mean it won't fail either, I've had plenty of new drives crap out. For what he's doing, if his drive craps out, he'll lose some recordings. Not the end of the world there, not like he's using his stuff to backup important stuff that would be irreplaceable.

 

[harshness]

You're price per mb comparison isn't valid though, he didn't buy the drive, so there's no cost there.

The cost/GB that I calculated was based on a zero dollar hard drive and a $25 USB adapter cable and power supply pictured in the OP.

Things would be somewhat more favorable with larger capacity and SATA drives.

 

[. Raine]

OK, gotcha on the drive figure. It would've cost him more money though to buy a bigger drive, money he doesn't really have to spend ATM.

Definitely agree with you that SATA and larger capacity would be more favorable and work better, no doubt. A new bigger drive would've just gone beyond his budget.

The point of bigger and better could be argued and applied to everything we all buy, cars, TVs, computers, etc, but we all have to pay attention to what we can realistically afford.

 

[harshness]

OK, gotcha on the drive figure. It would've cost him more money though to buy a bigger drive, money he doesn't really have to spend ATM.

Since the TS has already purchased $50+ worth of adapters to get 440GB of storage, that argument doesn't hold much water.

 

[Hockeynut]

Cheapo OTA recorder on the fly..I bought a homeworx unit a couple years ago for a little over 20 bucks and coupled it with a 80gb hard drive that I yanked out of an old Direck receiver given to me..The homeworx gives an epg for 24hrs at best but records great...Nice on the cheap!...Flip side I bought a Tivo OTA and paid for lifetime and is the mac daddy!...Still the cheapo homeworx setup is a gem for less than 30 bucks!

 

[. Raine]

A bigger brand new hard drive would be $50, 60, maybe more, unless he bought refurbished junk. He still would've had to buy a adapter for it too, so say another $20 there. So minimum $70 to get better.

You do make a valid point, at $70 price break, it probably would be wiser to just save a bit of money weekly or monthly until the better hardware could be bought because if he spent + $50, then we're only talking a difference of $20 - 30 or so to buy better.

 

[danristheman]

I paid $24 overall for the 2 adapters. i would have got a sata but just wanted to use something that worked and was collecting dust.