Topfield 7700

[stumac]

Hi Guys,

Anyone recommend a HDD drive to complement my Topfield 7700

Many Thanks:respect-055:

[sparky_dog]

Well... I can recommend one that you shouldn't buy.

I bought a WD Elements external drive, 500GB, to use with the 7700 and it's giving me a load of trouble. The receiver randomly wants to 'verify files and folders', then comes up with a verify error, even when the drive has just been wiped and reformatted. Even when it doesn't come up with an error, record and timeslip buffer don't always work - even thought he front display shows HDD status and I can access files already on the drive.

I can connect the drive to the PC and it works perfectly, if I wipe all the files from the drive it still won't work in the Toppy until it has been reformatted (by the receiver).

This particular drive has a feature which detects when it is disconnected and powers itself down, turning back on when reconnected - it's starting up as the Topfield is booting. I think it might be this that is causing the problems, but I need to find out an old 3.5" caddy to confirm.

It would be interesting to know how reliable other Topfield owners find the PVR function.

My advise would be to buy a basic, simple 3.5" empty caddy and fit whatever drive you fancy. Don't buy a complete unit which does any fancy tricks...

[dxdy]

few tips:

all recorded material move to folders, dont leave in root.....
if receiver cant verify disk, connect disk to computer and delete files from root.... reboot receiver (disconnect power to receiver and disk) and reconnect all
also dont leave hard connected to receiver if you dont use it...

[stumac]

Wow this all sounds a bit complex, am i better off sticking to my DVD (time slip) recorder?

[sparky_dog]

few tips:

all recorded material move to folders, dont leave in root.....
if receiver cant verify disk, connect disk to computer and delete files from root.... reboot receiver (disconnect power to receiver and disk) and reconnect all

I've deleted all files from the root when this happens, disk will still not verify. Only a reformat fixes it, but it can fail again immediately after turning receiver off then on again.

I'm going to try another caddy/HDD as I'm not convinced it's working correctly with the receiver, but I'm getting the impression that the PVR function is not 100% reliable?

[dxdy]

hmm... major problems is if you leave connected HDD all time... dont have problems anyore with verify and loosing data after disconnect disk when not use.... problem with verify i solved few times with deleted files from root....

[sparky_dog]

Having to disconnect it does rather defeat the object of having a timeshift buffer.

I notice that it seems to work okay when I insert a flash memory stick, that's what made me think it was a problem with the drive I have. I'll try another drive, but it looks like Topfield should work on a PVR firmware that's 100% stable.

[dxdy]

i am using Seagate FreeAgent Pro 500GB

[joof]

Having to disconnect it does rather defeat the object of having a timeshift buffer.

I notice that it seems to work okay when I insert a flash memory stick, that's what made me think it was a problem with the drive I have. I'll try another drive, but it looks like Topfield should work on a PVR firmware that's 100% stable.

Here's my experiences to date:-

I originally had a naked 3.5" HDD hung out the back of mine on a cheap USB to IDE transfer cable. This worked 100% reliably, although as the number of Recorded titles increased it seemed to take longer and longer to access the file table on switch-on. However, using this approach the HDD spins continuously and is somewhat audible in the background.

I then thought I would try a fancy external HDD Caddy, in my case a Buffalo Drivestation 250G, which had the advantage(I thought) of automatically powering down when the USB was not active ie when the receiver was switched-off. This has proved problematic to date, sometimes not displaying recorded programs, sometimes OK, so I'm not totally convinced this is a reliable solution.

May try a cheap 'no-frills' Caddy to see if it behaves better.

Oh, and the HDD should be formatted FAT32 I believe, not NTFS.

[sparky_dog]

Cheers joof, good first post.

Tallies with my findings so far.