Toshiba RD-XS35 and other HDD recorders: fan noise and always on?

I have the RD-KX50 which is the RD-XS52 but with only an 80GB hard drive. Two actually. Mine are whisper quiet when turned on. The only way i can tell if one is on is by looking at the front panel. They run cool. And the fan turns off when the units are powered down.

I am not familiar with the XS35 but it looks like some of these models have different attributes.

Hopefully others with with KX50, XS52, XS35 or other models can jump in here and post their experience.

I have the XS35 and it sounds pretty much like a computer when it's on.
Maybe a bit quieter but very similar.

It's annoying if it's in the bedroom but we've gotten used to it.

Toshiba users need to unite on this. I've posted my experience. Is it just the XS35? Perhaps yes. Perhaps not.

I responded in another but it also applied to this thread:




The XS35 has the fan running on standby mode because it does downloads for the TVGOS while the unit is off. I assume that unite without the TVGOS would be less likely to have a standby fan.

Also the standby power usage is quite high. I love my TVGOS, so I don't mind paying for the power, and my fan is fairly quiet.

TG

Thanks - makes perfect sense. The puzzle begins to form.

I've got the orphan - a RD-KX50 (XS 52 but with a 80GB drive) . No fan noise.

Does anybody with a XS 52 experience the same?

Why are the download of TVGOS and the fan tied together? that makes no sense to me. I thought it dl'd the tv guide info into flash memory. I wouldn't think that would get hot, I would only think the fan would need to be on when the hard drive was spun up.

I don't think it matters where the data gets stored. You still need power to perform functions like to receive data. It is receiving, separating, decoding and storing 3 hours of data. I'm sure some kind of processing power is needed for those functions.

TG

hmm, I guess so. I would have thought more of these functions would be hardware based instead of software to use less cpu power. I was thinkin the fan was to expel heat caused by the hdd, maybe it's more for the power supply. I would think the 'cpu' would just have a heat sink.

Does anyone have a picture of the inside of one of these things?

That's probably not the reason. The Panasonic DVD recorders with TVGOS do not have the fan running while on standby. Even if the TVGOS download required cooling the electronics, it could be handled by a temperature control. It does not require the fan to be on 24/7.

The Toshibas seems to have especially noisy fans. I cannot hear the fans on my Panasonic or Pioneer DVD recorders when they are on.

And I can't hear my Toshiba RD-KX50 when it is on. It seems to be dependent on the model. Not the brand.

The fan "noise" for my XS34 is completely acceptable. Remember, 'Stand-by' is not 'Off.' The entire unit is in lower power mode but ready to return to full operation very quickly. TVGOS data is only one portion of this. Just think how annoying it would be to have to wait 90 seconds to turn on your unit. People expect AV equipment to be fully enabled in about the same time as it takes to turn on the TV set.

I second that notation with my Toshiba RD-XS55.The fan is always on weather in stand-by or power on.I literally have to place my ear behide the unit to hear the whisper.

Willy P.

The only way I could tell with the 50 was to place my hand behind the unit to feel the airflow. With the 50 the fan turns off when the unit is powered down - no guide.

I don't mind opening up one of my 50's and making note of the fan being used. It should be an easy fix to replace the stock fan in the 35 with one more quiet.

Hmm...That might just work. If you don't mind opening your 50, please note the fan dimensions, voltage, current draw and plug size and whether or not it has two wires (red and black) or three (red,blue and black). Pics would be great too.

I unplugged the fan in my RDXS35, but this causes the unit to report a fan error on the front display, even when in standby. So they are obviously monitoring the fan to make sure a possible failure doesn't damage other components. Likely they are concerned (or have prior experience) that a fan failure causes the HDD to overheat and fail.

One thing that everyone should keep in mind is that this unit has a standard 160 GB Maxtor IDE HDD in it. When these are in your desktop computer, they are cooled by a constantly running fan. If the HDD is going to be spinning in standby so the unit can download TVGOS to store on HDD, then you shouldn't expect it to turn the fan off because it is needed.

The real question is why is the fan continues to run when TVGOS is not downloading anything (satellite users like myself connected by S-VIDEO only), the unit is in standby and the HDD has been set to spin down when the unit is idle? As has been suggested, maybe it just wasn't worth the extra engineering or cost.

Anyway nextoo, if you can give specs from that fan, maybe a replacement would help the noise. Perhaps I could just order a replacement fan for a 50 and put it in my 35, but I need to know the specs first.

can anyone please tell me if with this toshiba, you can set chapter thumbnails on a recording on the hard drive, and still have them when you copy it to a dvd?? thanks for any help on this?

Manual says you can. Page 126.
Exceptons are titles that contain still pictures, moving chapter marks after setting the thumbnail, recording or editing on other equipment. In any of these cases the chapter thumbnail may return to the top of the chapter.

Best bet if it was recorded on other equipment is to do a rate conversion dub from source to HDD first, do the edits you want, change the thumbnails as you wish and then dub it back to HDD before final dub to DVD. Should work, but I haven't tried it.

BTW, no offense, but an odd quesiton to post under "fan noise and always on?".
Might I suggest posting under a thread that is more closely related to your quesitons or create a new post. You'd probably get your questions answered quicker and with a higher level of accuracy.

tores, i know it was..i was looking for a quick answer..lol...and i wasnt seeming to find a thread that really pertained to the answer i was looking for at the time.....thanks for taking the time to answer for me, i appreciate it!

I've got the RS34 unit. I love it. Does what I want it to do. Luckily I bypass the continuous fan by using an AV timer I've had for years. I don't use the Guide at all as I timer record everything. So when I need to record I set the AV timer also to turn the 34 on. If I need to watch I just turn the AV timer on. Glad I kept it all these years and found a use for it.