VAST video driver v standard hard drive

[lineland]

On the Humax there is $100 difference between a standard hard drive and a video drive. What is the difference between the two?
Only record programs and watch and then delete. Do I really need to buy a video drive or will the standard drive do.

Still deciding on the Humax or UEC PVR. Recomendations over one to the other would be appreciated.
Presently have the standard UEC box.

[maudandken]

standard drive is fine, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX 2.5" 500GB 8MB 5400RPM--$66.00--http://www.ple.com.au/ViewItem.aspx?InventoryItemID=612600&CategoryID=72 6

[fandtm666]

standard drive works and you can also buy the cradle for it to mount in separately

[mtv]

The difference (apart from cost) is that video drives, AKA AV drives, is they are primarily designed for running constantly.

Basically a heavy-duty version.

Standard drives work fine.

[transit]

As mtv says, the av drives are designed for continuous operation. AFAIK the drive in the UEC 4639 never spins down even in standby mode and I assume that this might be true for the Humax also -- so lifetime-wise this might be significant.

AV drives generally have 16 MB cache instead of 8 MB and some claim to implement a wear levelling scheme that prevents some of the problems caused by using a standard drive in an AV application. The blurb I read seemed in indicate that the wear in question was on the platter but I don't understand this because AFAIK the head never touches the platter in normal operation. Perhaps they are talking about the wear on the arm that holds the head.

[mtv]

Motors and bearings in AV drives are also heavier duty.

Common applications for these drives are in CCTV recorders and servers.

[toyboy11]

On the Humax there is $100 difference between a standard hard drive and a video drive. What is the difference between the two?
Only record programs and watch and then delete. Do I really need to buy a video drive or will the standard drive do.

Still deciding on the Humax or UEC PVR. Recomendations over one to the other would be appreciated.
Presently have the standard UEC box.

When you say that you have a standard UEC box is that a 4121 or what If you do have a 4121 you can upgrade it to a PVR for around $50 to $60 and use a Segate external hard drive that way you can configure the drive to spin down from 5 to 15 minutes from memory,if that's what your after.

[SpankedHam]

The primary difference is that the devices are configured to ensure (as much as possible) uninterrupted data transfer.

- infinitely delayed thermal calibration
- 0 retry on read error
- dual port RAM
- optimised read ahead / writeback (usually disabled) strategies

- more finely balanced motor / hub / disc to reduce vibration
- optimised for low power consumption and heat generation
- longer operational life than desktop hard disks, comparable to 'enterprise' grade SATA disc drives.

[lineland]

Will risk the standard drive for $100.00 saving. Won't be using the drive all that much as only record odd show here and there. If the drive fails inside two years will buy a video drive.
Thanks for replies.

[kabammi]

When all's said and done, the drive that Humax are using is a Seagate Video HDD which has a 0.55% AFR and a standard Seagate 7200RPM 2.5" Momentus has 0.5% AFR. So I'm not sure what all the fuss is about to be honest, the failure rate difference is tiny with the Momentus having less chance of failure.

.

The noticeable difference for us is probably power usage (~1W higher for a standard drive over a seagate video).