I recently changed my ReplayTV hardware configuration and discovered something that may be of interest. Some hard disk drives may be the cause of shows freezing and other intermittent problems users are having with ReplayTVs.
A Little History
When I got my 4504 unit, i also purchased two 160GB drives, and immediately converted it to 4532 functionality. Since then I have had many problems while watching programs. Sometimes the video would freeze for a few seconds, then continue. If this occurred during recording, the recorded show had missing video at the time of the freeze. Sometimes, the video would freeze, and the system would lock up, requiring me to unplug the unit before it would start working again.
Note that I would NEVER have to disconnect power if I was actually recording a program, so i never lost a recorded program, although I did lose portions of shows lasting up to 10 seconds.
I discovered over time that if i deleted some shows i would have fewer problems. After a while i got in the habit of keeping the number of recorded shows below 50% of capacity.
So I decided to do something constructive
I decided I would install an 80GB drive in the unit and use the 2 160GB drives in my new PC (3.06GHz Processor, 1GB Memory, nVidia 8XAGP video .. but i digress) and just download shows i wanted to keep onto my new system, and then figure out how to save them to DVD (still working on that, but i am close).
Things get interesting
So i do a low-level format of an 80GB drive, patch the software, install it into the ReplayTV unit, and ... nothing but problems. First the unit failed to reboot after updating software via net connect .. then it wouldn't boot at all. I re-patched the drive, and everything seemed to work fine -- until i started viewing or recording shows. The unit would freeze up, I would cycle power, ... blah blah blah. And I would hear the drive clicking when problems occurred.
So I give up on the drive thinking it is bad. It works just fine in my computer, so the drive was NOT the problem. OK, it really was, but it should not have been, because I have not had any problems with it and MAXTOR software declares there are no bad blocks on the drive.
I reformat one of the 160GB drives, patch it, and install it in the ReplayTV unit. Since I did this I have not had one single instance of video freeze or other intermittent problems with my unit. I can fill my disk to almost 100% capacity with no problems.
Conclusion:
Some drives just do not work well in my unit. There is probably a timing issue either with the drive, or with the IDE interface on the motherboard. I submit it is a motherboard problem. I say this because the 80GB drive works just fine in two PCs it has been installed in. Actually the timing issue is a combination of both, since some drives apparently work, but the root cause is the motherboard, because if that is fixed, all drives will work.
Have you had a similar experience .. I would like to know.
A Little History
When I got my 4504 unit, i also purchased two 160GB drives, and immediately converted it to 4532 functionality. Since then I have had many problems while watching programs. Sometimes the video would freeze for a few seconds, then continue. If this occurred during recording, the recorded show had missing video at the time of the freeze. Sometimes, the video would freeze, and the system would lock up, requiring me to unplug the unit before it would start working again.
Note that I would NEVER have to disconnect power if I was actually recording a program, so i never lost a recorded program, although I did lose portions of shows lasting up to 10 seconds.
I discovered over time that if i deleted some shows i would have fewer problems. After a while i got in the habit of keeping the number of recorded shows below 50% of capacity.
So I decided to do something constructive
I decided I would install an 80GB drive in the unit and use the 2 160GB drives in my new PC (3.06GHz Processor, 1GB Memory, nVidia 8XAGP video .. but i digress) and just download shows i wanted to keep onto my new system, and then figure out how to save them to DVD (still working on that, but i am close).
Things get interesting
So i do a low-level format of an 80GB drive, patch the software, install it into the ReplayTV unit, and ... nothing but problems. First the unit failed to reboot after updating software via net connect .. then it wouldn't boot at all. I re-patched the drive, and everything seemed to work fine -- until i started viewing or recording shows. The unit would freeze up, I would cycle power, ... blah blah blah. And I would hear the drive clicking when problems occurred.
So I give up on the drive thinking it is bad. It works just fine in my computer, so the drive was NOT the problem. OK, it really was, but it should not have been, because I have not had any problems with it and MAXTOR software declares there are no bad blocks on the drive.
I reformat one of the 160GB drives, patch it, and install it in the ReplayTV unit. Since I did this I have not had one single instance of video freeze or other intermittent problems with my unit. I can fill my disk to almost 100% capacity with no problems.
Conclusion:
Some drives just do not work well in my unit. There is probably a timing issue either with the drive, or with the IDE interface on the motherboard. I submit it is a motherboard problem. I say this because the 80GB drive works just fine in two PCs it has been installed in. Actually the timing issue is a combination of both, since some drives apparently work, but the root cause is the motherboard, because if that is fixed, all drives will work.
Have you had a similar experience .. I would like to know.