Powered HDD or SSD ?

Andy AC124

I have a DVB box with an attached USB only HDD. The DVB box only supports USB 2.0. When I playback recordings it (annoyingly) often stalls and jerks and I need to fast forward a little to continue.

I was therefore going to buy something quicker to hopefully sort this issue but an unsure whether to buy a mains-powered HDD or an SSD ? Your views would be appreciated.

EndlessWaves

Hard drives are far faster than video reads at, it's unlikely to be the cause. What makes you think that's causing the problem?

Andy AC124

Thank you. No solid reason really, just couldn't think of anything else. Can you offer any other possible solutions ?

andy1249

What DVB box?
As above, its unlikely that hard drive speed is the issue , its much more likely that the DVB box processor is too weak to manage the read/write over the USB interface efficiently.

Given the price of SSD,s its a more sensible option to replace the DVB box with one with a better processor that takes an internal hard drive.

Andy AC124

Thank you. It's a zgemma h2s dual core twin tuner sat receiever.

andy1249

There are lots of threads online about this exact issue with that exact box.
It works best with a hard drive connected to the rear USB port only.

It still struggles with simultaneous HD recordings or any situation whereby both tuners are in use whilst recording.
For example , watching one channel in timeshift whilst another is recording.
Some users find it works best with the timeshift feature turned off completely, which suggests a lack of processor power in general.

Its processor is only 750 mhz or so , not really up to the job of multiple HD recordings.
Most boxes that handle that job well are 1.5 ghz usually broadcomm chips.

Summing up, unless you have some strange kind of budget USB hard drive, changing it is not going to help.
For the price of a small volume SSD you can get a much more capable e2 box.

Andy AC124

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

andy1249

If it helps Im using a Tiviar alpha plus, you can get it from world of satellite for 99 quid.
It takes a 2.5 inch laptop hard drive internally, runs the same openatv e2 software as the zgemma and is fast.
Never misses a beat.

Thats cheaper than buying a reasonable size SSD for the zgemma, which most likely wont fix your issue.