[mythtv-users] 1TB USB $225 US

[Brian Wood]

Anthony R. Baker wrote:
>     Does anyone think this wouldn't work for a standard def. system
> Iomega 1TB Double USB 2.0 Desktop Hard Drive promo price $225.95 
> <http://www.iomega.com/direct/main/home.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=26891273&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=47074111&ASSORTMENT%3C%3East_id=63191&bmUID=1202739229119>

It should work, with caveats.

I've used a couple of different USB external drives with success. I 
never recorded on them, I recorded onto a PATA drive, then copied the 
recordings to a USB drive using myth_archive_job (not to be confused 
with mytharchive).

Where you might get into trouble is if you were making multiple 
recordings, playing back and recording at the same time, running 
commflag or transcode jobs while recording/playing etc.

Obviously a USB drive is slower than an IDE variant, and uses more 
system resources. I've played back SD recordings successfully from a USB 
drive, but I can't recall if I ever did that while recording or running 
other jobs.

I don't think I'd try using it as the main storage device for a system 
with multiple tuners that's going to be heavily used, but for secondary 
storage on a lightly used system it should be OK.

Lots of people use NFS mounts for storage, and that's certainly slower 
than USB.

But, the main question, why not just put those drives in a PC case and 
use them as they were originally intended (PATA or SATA), saving the 
cost of the USB case?

beww