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Portable Hard Drive - for TV

Ted_LeeTed_Lee Posts: 197
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in TV and Home Entertainment Technology #1
Thinking for getting this one

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Slimline-Portable-Hard-Drive/dp/B008PABFX8/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1395329266&sr=1-1&keywords=1tb+hard+drives+external

But the reviews for some of these disk scares me as I am going to be getting a mate to record months of programs for me while I am away. If it stops working I would be screwed!!

:o

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    tim1964tim1964 Posts: 829
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    #2
    As long as you consider this a back up, assuming your friend keeps the "original" files until you've watch them, then it'll be fine.
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    chrisjrchrisjr Posts: 33,282
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    #3
    Ted_Lee wrote: »
    Thinking for getting this one

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Slimline-Portable-Hard-Drive/dp/B008PABFX8/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1395329266&sr=1-1&keywords=1tb+hard+drives+external

    But the reviews for some of these disk scares me as I am going to be getting a mate to record months of programs for me while I am away. If it stops working I would be screwed!!

    :o
    What is he going to be recording the programmes on? Some TVs allow you to plug a drive in the back to record but the recordings are often locked to that TV and won't play on any other, even an identical make and model.

    And on some PVRs the USB socket is for playback only it does not permit either direct recording to the drive or copying from the PVR hard drive to the USB drive.

    At the very least you should do a test, perhaps using a USB flash drive, to check the proposed exchange works. If it works on a flash drive then it should work on a USB hard drive as well.
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    iangradiangrad Posts: 813
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    #4
    chrisjr wrote: »
    What is he going to be recording the programmes on? Some TVs allow you to plug a drive in the back to record but the recordings are often locked to that TV and won't play on any other, even an identical make and model.

    And on some PVRs the USB socket is for playback only it does not permit either direct recording to the drive or copying from the PVR hard drive to the USB drive.

    At the very least you should do a test, perhaps using a USB flash drive, to check the proposed exchange works. If it works on a flash drive then it should work on a USB hard drive as well.

    +1 to above

    I have only once seen a usb recording that was not locked to the original TV ( its was a 15.5" supermarket TV that was truly dire in all other respects but is seemed to record as .avi and could then be read by a PC .
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    koantemplationkoantemplation Posts: 101,293
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    #5
    Ted_Lee wrote: »
    Thinking for getting this one

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Slimline-Portable-Hard-Drive/dp/B008PABFX8/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1395329266&sr=1-1&keywords=1tb+hard+drives+external

    But the reviews for some of these disk scares me as I am going to be getting a mate to record months of programs for me while I am away. If it stops working I would be screwed!!

    :o
    I have that HD, and the 3TB version as well.

    So far no problems but I only use it for archiving video files not for recording from TV.

    If you read the reviews you will find it is the other sizes that have the most problems.

    I assume you are recording from USB? If so that will work the HD harder as it will be working in Real Time. But should be OK for a month.

    Don't forget that if it is a Samsung TV you are using, it will format it in its own format which can not be read on a computer.
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    croftercrofter Posts: 2,976
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    #6
    Ted_Lee wrote: »
    Thinking for getting this one

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Samsung-Slimline-Portable-Hard-Drive/dp/B008PABFX8/ref=sr_1_1?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1395329266&sr=1-1&keywords=1tb+hard+drives+external

    But the reviews for some of these disk scares me as I am going to be getting a mate to record months of programs for me while I am away. If it stops working I would be screwed!!

    :o

    I had that exact hard drive connected to my Samsung plasma for recording from the inbuilt tuner and the data became corrupted twice in about 4 months. It may just have been bad luck but in the end I decided to buy a 1TB PVR to replace my 500GB one simply because all recordings (from the internal tuner) are tied to that TV - so if you want to upgrade or the TV develops a fault you are pretty much snookered anyway.
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    koantemplationkoantemplation Posts: 101,293
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    #7
    crofter wrote: »
    I had that exact hard drive connected to my Samsung plasma for recording from the inbuilt tuner and the data became corrupted twice in about 4 months. It may just have been bad luck but in the end I decided to buy a 1TB PVR to replace my 500GB one simply because all recordings (from the internal tuner) are tied to that TV - so if you want to upgrade or the TV develops a fault you are pretty much snookered anyway.

    Yes I certainly do not archive freeview recordings done from usb.

    I use a 32gb usb stick now just to record freeview on the tv when programmes clash on Freesat.
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