[mythtv-users] Recording storage suggestions

[Phill Wiggin]

> 1. It's not going to cost you anything, so if it turns out you need even
> more then you haven't wasted any money. If your not using the drive for
> anything else, you might as well claint he storage for your myth box
> 2. System stability won't be compromised (potential problems with SVN)
>
> At the end of the day, if you've got some storage lying around, use it...
>
> James.
>

I've been using Myth for a while now (since .14-.15ish) and have loved
it.  However, I've had harddrives die, LVMs become unrecoverable, and
run out of space more times than I care to count.

I can't speak to the question of IDE vs. SATA vs. eSATA. I use IDE and
SATA and don't notice a different w/ my backend.

I was in a situation similar to yours, and I bought a new drive and
upgraded to SVN.  My experience has been quite fruitful and I've had
very few issues.

I'd say your best bets would be:

 - Stay with .20 and replace your current 160G w/ a 500G (or 750G).
 - Upgrade to SVN and install your extra 160G for additional storage.

I've convinced a few friends to use Myth (they now love it), and
helped them decide on LVM.  Now that Storage Groups are available,  I
can't recommend LVM for Myth.  I lost a nearly full ~1TB LVM set
because one drive decided to give up the ghost.  My Myth recordings
aren't anything 'high priority', but it's annoying to try to re-record
everything. LVM adds points of failure to your whole recordings
storage area; Storage Groups insulate you against that.

My other pertinent experience is with the HDHR. It freakin' rocks.
But, it sucks up a LOT of HD space; circa 6G/hr for me.  If it was me,
I'd upgrade to SVN and buy a 500G drive both. (you could still use
your 160 until you ran out of space, then buy the 500)

Something else you might want to check on is, when did the HDHR reach
peak-usability?  Does SVN have improvements for the HDHR that .20 or
.20-fixes doesn't have?  (I have no clue.)

Anyway, there are some thoughts. =)

--PhillW