Hard drive recomendations

[smjbh5]

Hi,

This is my first post, I've been a lurker on this forum for quite some time now.

I currently have the 622 and I'm running out of space. I DVR a lot of HD.

I'm not sure which external hard drive I should go with. I don't want to spend too much, but don't want to skimp on the storage also.

What are your recommendation?

Also how much space does 1 hour of HD take up?

Thanks

 

[JimK2]

Ive seen
Western Digital 1TB My Book for $189
Western Digital 500MB My Book for $99
http://www.grassrootscomputers.com/...yBook/WDH1U5000N_RECF/partinfo-id-349072.html

Different shows have dfferent bitrates
MPEG4
Mars Attacts 1:59:00 @ 3696MB
Music and Lyrics 1:46:00 @ 4012MB

Looks like I'll get 75 HD Movies on a 500MB Ext Drive, if it was just MPEG4, probably get over 85 HD Movies. MPEG2 is about twice the size of MPEG4 but MPEG2 HD is going away 9-21-08

 

[smjbh5]

Just curious, how big is the hard drive that's in the 622?

 

[KAB]

I'd suggest staying away from the pre-built, plastic housing drives. Not intended for extensive use. Shop online for WD AAKS series or Seagate Db 35 series INTERNAL drives, designed for DVR use. Then, get a decent, Aluminum housing such as this (I have two).
Newegg.com - Eagle Consus W-Series ET-CSWSIU2-BK 3.5" USB2.0 to IDE + SATA Aluminum External Enclosure - External Enclosures

WD drive (also available in 640GB)
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives

 

[8bitbytes]

KAB is right about the better housing, definitely a good idea.

I am using one of the WD drives he pointed to but in the 640GB size and I have two Seagate 320GB drives that are the DB35.3 model, designed specifically for AV use.

I noticed recently that Seagate now has a drive model SV35.3 specifically designed for surveillance applications where you will be capturing multiple video streams AND under extreme conditions. This drive has 32mb cache and will operate at temps up to 75C!!! Dish DVR drives stutter, crash, and burn at much less than that temp. I can't wait to try one out. I'd love to pop one in my 622 and turn off my external fan to see how it will tolerate the Broadcom furnace chip right underneath it.