Openbox S10 Recording Suggestions (USB Stick or HDD?)

[gsatnewb]

I've been trying to get my Openbox S10 to record onto a 1GB USB memory stick with very little success. It will record maybe 5 or 10 minutes in PS, then I get a small that flashes up on the screen saying something like the speed of the USB device is too slow. The screen shows that it is still recording, yet whenever I check, the recording has stopped at the point where that message flashed up on the screen. I have formatted for both FAT32 and NTFS, it doesn't seem to make much difference. I have tried a different 1 GB USB stick, did the same thing.

Is there something different I should be doing with my USB stick? Is 1GB way too small anyway for the S10? I have been reading that the Openboxes are very finicky when it comes to HDDs, and seem to prefer Iomega and Seagate drives of 1TB or less. Can I get away with just buying a cheap 16 GB or 32 GB USB stick, or do I need to fork out a few more bucks for a HDD?

Thanks for your input!

 

[FaT Air]

How big is the PS file after 10 minutes? Maybe the stick is full. Some TP's will consume more megabytes, per minute, if there are multiple channels or alternate audios in the stream. It's been a while but I think around 10 minutes is all I ever got on a 1G stick. Am presently using a 8 G stick. I would buy a 1T drive, IF they get the clock to stay on after the first timer recording so more timed recordings could be made.

Can I get away with just buying a cheap 16 GB or 32 GB USB stick

Most likely, and they don't cost that much.

 

[yankee495]

I just bought a Hitachi SimpleDrive Mini 320GB USB 2.0 2.5" External Hard Drive (google it) for $29.99 with free S&H. It plugs in my laptop and just works. On the S9 it needs the 5V 1A power supply...don't know why...same on the desktop...I went to the thrift store and bought two for a dollar. One had the right voltage and the other had the right plug. It don't come with one...supposed to be not needed which is a load of hooey because on the drive inside it says 1Amp and a USB port is 500Ma (1/2 Amp). But it has two USB plugs to give it one Amp, but the S9 only has one port.

I have a laptop I'm parting out with a 500GB drive, so I took it apart and put the 500 GB in it. It records good.

Now that I have a drive, I can tell you 15 mins of 1080I is 1GB or so. I haven't played with it a lot. Recorded some test clips and 1 movie. Now I'm trying out video editors to cut commercials etc. Google videopad. It's pretty good.

But those 1080I's are giving me a fit. And this is on a Phenom II X4 955 BE 3.2 GHz 8 GB Ram with 2 TB's of storage on a Asrock 890GX PRO3 AM3+ (Bulldozer CPU ready, to be released 9-19-2011).

Finding the right free program, Linux or Win7 is proving troublesome. Videopad for Windows is really good but not for the 1080I. Either I can't play it, get it to import or something on everything I try. But I've only been at it a few days...

I say if you really want to record get a HDD. I had a 8 GB stick in it and it was ok...Didn't record any 1080 stuff but could've, one movie and a few MP3's would fill it up.

A USB stick is gonna cost you X amount and a HDD is not much more. Be aware that Hitachi was cheap...but I had to snap the plastic clips that held it together to open it. Some are still there to hold it together but it was not made to take apart! It runs well on the S9.

Also there is a great program called Mediainfo that will tell you everything you need to know about a clip. Lightworks is a heavy duty editor that just went open source and it rocks but it is very picky about import formats, hence the Mediainfo. It only uses film, cinema and other standard NTSC/PAL formats and frame rates and doesn't do AC3. They are working on codecs for it to keep it free or you can buy some I guess. Youtube has videos of it and one comment said it made them wanna shoot them self in the face. I just walked off! But I'll get it.

I know this is more than you ask but I have been gonna start a thread on recording and see what people are using. Might be better posted in software or whatever section they have here. I haven't looked yet.

Anyway, that is what I have learned in the last 3 days.

 

[Mr Tony]

1GB can be eaten up very quickly on a higher bitrate transponder...like a feed

But if you record something say on 97W that 1GB may get you an hour or so. On the azbox I've seen that many times

record a SD sports feed for 3 hours...9GB
record 6 hours of something on 97W...3GB

 

[Anole]

I liked yankee495's comments above, so here are some more random thoughts:

I don't know about your receiver, but some use a buffer on the drive to allow you to freeze, back up and replay your show.
On older SD receivers, that took several gigabytes all by itself.

I have some older 40gb, 60gb, 80gb portable USB drives that will run fine on the available USB power.
I plug them into computers, FTA receivers, Philips DVD player, and WD media box, without using external power supply.
They use a 2½ inch low power (low performance) laptop harddrive.
External drives based on the larger desktop drives, or modern / larger / higher performance laptop drives may need external power.

Some of the 1080 HD I record is around 7gb per hour, with commercials.
After the commercials are cut out with VideoReDo, the result 42 minute file will fit on a 4.5gb DVD.
That 1080 DVD, which has NOT been re-encoded (so the conversion is fast) plays as-is on a buddy's Samsung BluRay player!
(I serve it up on my LAN to a Western Digital media player box for viewing.)

Yes, MediaInfo is a great (free) program to analyze the video you have recorded, and find out all the specs.

VideoReDo (an editor I've used for 5+ years) has a QuickStreamFix function to resync the video and correct errors in broadcast.
It also lets you trim up your show, cut out commercials, convert/compress, and even make DVDs.
However, but it's not a freebie and may not be something you need.

edit:
Almost forgot the point of my post.
I have given up using the USB thumb drives for anything other than firmware and satellite lists.
For recording, even a small hard drive makes more sense (for me), is cheaper, and offers more room.

 

[Skyscanner]

Gsatnewb,
Your 1 gig stick won't hold 1 gig, some of the 1 gig is used for other functions. Anyway, I would say your stick is full. I have a 16 gig stick that will record around 9 hrs 22 min of video EXCEPT on MYTV, which seems to eat up 3 times the memory of other channels. I just bought a 500 gig hdd at Wal Mart for about what I originally paid for the 16 gig stick, which I don't use anymore. Might want to try that.
SS ><>

 

[Auric]

I recorded the Zenyatta horse race for my wife a while back it used a massive amount of gig's ...I ended up deleting all but just the actual race. I backed up everything on 7 DVD's.

If memory serves me correctly it was around 2 gig for every ten minutes

 

[gsatnewb]

Thanks everybody for your input, its been a big help and has definitely answered my question. Looks like I'm going shopping!

 

[Tron]

It could be that the USB stick is really too slow to keep up with the recording. Many older USB sticks are extremely slow, especially on write speed. I have successfully used higher speed SD cards (such as Class 6 or higher) in a USB SD read/write device connected to my Visionsat to record a high bitrate feed. The older thumb drive I had been trying to use was way too slow to keep up, and the Class 6 SD card worked perfectly.

After all is said and done, however, I would go with a hard drive like many of the members above suggested.

 

[yankee495]

Thanks everybody for your input, its been a big help and has definitely answered my question. Looks like I'm going shopping!

If you have a SATA drive you may be interested in this external case. I have a friend who has one and it is nice. Keeps the drive nice and cool and eSATA for nice speed on the computer. I bought a different one and don't like it, it is flakey. Just ordered one myself.


Use Promo Code EMCKCHB55 for $5 off at checkout.

Rosewill RX355-X2 BK ABS Cover and internal metal shielding 3.5" Black USB2.0 & eSATA External Enclosure

Newegg.com - Rosewill RX355-X2 BK ABS Cover and internal metal shielding 3.5" Black USB2.0 & eSATA External Enclosure

 

[Anole]

As long as we're naming names....

Couple of years back, I got two external USB cases myself.
The Rosewill RX358 series (several models in this line), was the better of the two.
Good cooling, good looks, good price, but above all: quiet !

A similarly priced model from another source was the VERIS MX-1 from Antec.

Both had fans, took SATA drives, plugged into USB or eSATA ports.
But, the Antec was one noisy disappointment.

The down side of building your own, is that often these boxes won't power down when unaccessed.
I have external drives (drive 'n case from single source) which do, so be careful.

 

[Tron]

Seems like Rosewill (Newegg's brand) is always either very good or very bad. I guess it depends on where it is manufactured... They were selling a multi-format memory card reader/writer/USB hub at one time that had a bad tendency to catch fire ...

 

[yankee495]

Seems like Rosewill (Newegg's brand) is always either very good or very bad. I guess it depends on where it is manufactured... They were selling a multi-format memory card reader/writer/USB hub at one time that had a bad tendency to catch fire ...

The one my friend has is a Hornettek Hover:
HORNETTEK - HOVER (HD-308-SSC) 3.5" SATA I/II HDD TO USB 2.0 + eSATA ENCLOSURE

I believe they are the same.