I have just taken delivery of our first smart TV, an LG. It has/had a
lot to learn, but so far all working and I am very impressed with all
the new facilities I have found in it so far.

It needs some sort of external storage for some of its facilities to
work and it seems that can be a USB stick or a USB HDD. The largest
stick I could find was 1Gb, which the TV rejected as too small, besides
which I have read somewhere that sticks don't last very long in TV type
use due constant write/read - is that true?

I had a spare 2.5 HDD USB powered, in a caddy, bought some 5 years ago,
so I am trialing that. It all works as you would expect, apart from it
not seeming to power down when not in use. When the TV is put to
standby, it powers down, but seems to run when in use or not, despite
enabling it to go to standby in the TV's menu. When the TV is put to
standby, the HDD continues to flash for several seconds after the TV
goes to standby, then goes off with a reassuring clunk as it parks.

On live TV, its LED flashes constantly. When I watch something streamed
from the Internet (BBCi), the LED shows lit steady.

LG's helpdesk, seem to be suggesting that my HDD may not support going
into standby - me, I cannot see how it might decide to go to standby,
with the HDD being constantly accessed, as evidenced by the LED
flashing - but what/why is it accessing the HDD?

On 26/10/2018 07:34, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
I have just taken delivery of our first smart TV, an LG. It has/had a
lot to learn, but so far all working and I am very impressed with all
the new facilities I have found in it so far.


Yes, me too - the WebOS is pretty good. Just wish they'd spent a few
pennies more on a more powerful processor.

It needs some sort of external storage for some of its facilities to
work and it seems that can be a USB stick or a USB HDD. The largest
stick I could find was 1Gb, which the TV rejected as too small, besides
which I have read somewhere that sticks don't last very long in TV type
use due constant write/read - is that true?

I had a spare 2.5 HDD USB powered, in a caddy, bought some 5 years ago,
so I am trialing that. It all works as you would expect, apart from it
not seeming to power down when not in use. When the TV is put to
standby, it powers down, but seems to run when in use or not, despite
enabling it to go to standby in the TV's menu. When the TV is put to
standby, the HDD continues to flash for several seconds after the TV
goes to standby, then goes off with a reassuring clunk as it parks.

On live TV, its LED flashes constantly. When I watch something streamed
from the Internet (BBCi), the LED shows lit steady.

LG's helpdesk, seem to be suggesting that my HDD may not support going
into standby - me, I cannot see how it might decide to go to standby,
with the HDD being constantly accessed, as evidenced by the LED flashing
- but what/why is it accessing the HDD?

I think it's just in 'pensive' state while the TV is on but not
obviously doing anything with the HD. Flipping source to TV would need
the HD to spin up - causing lag? Dunno.

FWIW I put a WD Green 120GB SSD in a cheap USB powered caddy - saves the
minor irritation of mechanical disk clatter.

--
Cheers, Rob

On 26/10/2018 07:34, Harry Bloomfield wrote:

I have just taken delivery of our first smart TV, an LG. It has/had a
lot to learn, but so far all working and I am very impressed with all
the new facilities I have found in it so far.

It needs some sort of external storage for some of its facilities to
work and it seems that can be a USB stick or a USB HDD. The largest
stick I could find was 1Gb, which the TV rejected as too small, besides
which I have read somewhere that sticks don't last very long in TV type
use due constant write/read - is that true?

I can't see lifetime being an issue - modern flash devices have
substatial write cycles, which when combined with over capacity in the
drive, and wear levelling mean you can write the full capacity of the
drive every day for years. Also 16GB drives are almost free with corn
flakes these days, so if it fails, replace it with another.

I had a spare 2.5 HDD USB powered, in a caddy, bought some 5 years ago,
so I am trialing that. It all works as you would expect, apart from it
not seeming to power down when not in use. When the TV is put to
standby, it powers down, but seems to run when in use or not, despite
enabling it to go to standby in the TV's menu. When the TV is put to
standby, the HDD continues to flash for several seconds after the TV
goes to standby, then goes off with a reassuring clunk as it parks.

Yup, that's the main issue with mechanical drives in this application -
you can usually hear them in a quiet room.

On live TV, its LED flashes constantly. When I watch something streamed
from the Internet (BBCi), the LED shows lit steady.

LG's helpdesk, seem to be suggesting that my HDD may not support going
into standby - me, I cannot see how it might decide to go to standby,
with the HDD being constantly accessed, as evidenced by the LED flashing
- but what/why is it accessing the HDD?

Tuck it round the back of the TV and stick some tape over the LED ;-)


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 26/10/2018 07:44, RJH wrote:
On 26/10/2018 07:34, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
I have just taken delivery of our first smart TV, an LG. It has/had a
lot to learn, but so far all working and I am very impressed with all
the new facilities I have found in it so far.


Yes, me too - the WebOS is pretty good. Just wish they'd spent a few
pennies more on a more powerful processor.

Gives em a way to encourage people to buy the higher end sets with more
computational oomph...


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 26/10/2018 07:34, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
I have just taken delivery of our first smart TV, an LG. It has/had a
lot to learn, but so far all working and I am very impressed with all
the new facilities I have found in it so far.

It needs some sort of external storage for some of its facilities to
work and it seems that can be a USB stick or a USB HDD. The largest
stick I could find was 1Gb, which the TV rejected as too small, besides
which I have read somewhere that sticks don't last very long in TV type
use due constant write/read - is that true?

I had a spare 2.5 HDD USB powered, in a caddy, bought some 5 years ago,
so I am trialing that. It all works as you would expect, apart from it
not seeming to power down when not in use. When the TV is put to
standby, it powers down, but seems to run when in use or not, despite
enabling it to go to standby in the TV's menu. When the TV is put to
standby, the HDD continues to flash for several seconds after the TV
goes to standby, then goes off with a reassuring clunk as it parks.

On live TV, its LED flashes constantly. When I watch something streamed
from the Internet (BBCi), the LED shows lit steady.

LG's helpdesk, seem to be suggesting that my HDD may not support going
into standby - me, I cannot see how it might decide to go to standby,
with the HDD being constantly accessed, as evidenced by the LED flashing
- but what/why is it accessing the HDD?

Does your model record whatever broadcast programme you are currently
watching (so you can pause whenever you want, for example, a loo
break)? If it does then the HDD will be in use all the time.

--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

RJH explained :

Yes, me too - the WebOS is pretty good. Just wish they'd spent a few pennies
more on a more powerful processor.

Its a LG 49UJ630V, I have not noticed any processor slowness. I did
have problems with the default audio and vision settings - Its Smart
Sound Mode, was causing the level to vary all over the place. Likewise
vision was set up with far too muh contrast (100%), some scenes far too
dark, others far to bright an washed out. I reduced that to 50% and
increased the brightness to 70%. Overall, I am very impressed and
delighted with it.

Its feet, one at each end of the screen, proved to be far too far apart
to fit the corner unit I built long ago for the a/v equipment, so I
have had it propped in place since it arrived last week. The cantilever
wall bracket I ordered, was delivered yesterday so it is now mounted on
that.

It replaces an ancient 42" 1080p plasma, which weighed 3x as much and
consumed 240w. This one uses 67w, so should quite quickly pay for
itself in saved energy.


I think it's just in 'pensive' state while the TV is on but not obviously
doing anything with the HD. Flipping source to TV would need the HD to spin
up - causing lag? Dunno.

FWIW I put a WD Green 120GB SSD in a cheap USB powered caddy - saves the
minor irritation of mechanical disk clatter.

I have no idea what make/model of HDD it is, but it is inaudible to me.
Just the very slight clunk as it parks as the TV is turned off.

I actually bought the HDD to go with my old sat system. It came with a
very short USB lead and I tried various longer leads and extensions,
but never managed to get it to operate on the sat, or the TV, with any
but that short lead..

Robin has brought this to us :
Does your model record whatever broadcast programme you are currently
watching (so you can pause whenever you want, for example, a loo break)? If
it does then the HDD will be in use all the time.

I have not got my head around everything it does yet, but yes I just
tried it and it pauses whatever you are watching live and even live,
you can rewind 15 somethings (minutes? seconds?).

On the BBC channels you can click green and it will play the live
program from the beginning, if you switched on midway. ITV etc. seem
not to have that facility, or none I have yet found..

John Rumm wrote on 26/10/2018 :
Yup, that's the main issue with mechanical drives in this application - you
can usually hear them in a quiet room.

No, I cannot hear this one at all, unless I put it next to my ear.


Tuck it round the back of the TV and stick some tape over the LED ;-)

That is what I think I will end up doing - its just my 'mechanical
sympathy' concerned at it running constantly and puzzled by the HDD
standby setting in the TV's settings.

On 26/10/2018 07:34, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
I have just taken delivery of our first smart TV, an LG. It has/had a
lot to learn, but so far all working and I am very impressed with all
the new facilities I have found in it so far.

It needs some sort of external storage for some of its facilities to
work and it seems that can be a USB stick or a USB HDD. The largest
stick I could find was 1Gb, which the TV rejected as too small, besides
which I have read somewhere that sticks don't last very long in TV type
use due constant write/read - is that true?

I had a spare 2.5 HDD USB powered, in a caddy, bought some 5 years ago,
so I am trialing that. It all works as you would expect, apart from it
not seeming to power down when not in use. When the TV is put to
standby, it powers down, but seems to run when in use or not, despite
enabling it to go to standby in the TV's menu. When the TV is put to
standby, the HDD continues to flash for several seconds after the TV
goes to standby, then goes off with a reassuring clunk as it parks.

On live TV, its LED flashes constantly. When I watch something streamed
from the Internet (BBCi), the LED shows lit steady.

LG's helpdesk, seem to be suggesting that my HDD may not support going
into standby - me, I cannot see how it might decide to go to standby,
with the HDD being constantly accessed, as evidenced by the LED flashing
- but what/why is it accessing the HDD?

I use a SSD with my LG telly. Yes it records all the time you are
watching live TV in case you want to wind back.

Mike

On 26/10/2018 08:29, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Robin has brought this to us :
Does your model record whatever broadcast programme you are currently
watching (so you can pause whenever you want, for example,* a loo
break)?* If it does then the HDD will be in use all the time.

I have not got my head around everything it does yet, but yes I just
tried it and it pauses whatever you are watching live and even live, you
can rewind 15 somethings (minutes? seconds?).

On the BBC channels you can click green and it will play the live
program from the beginning, if you switched on midway. ITV etc. seem not
to have that facility, or none I have yet found..

Green button on BBC takes you to BBC iPlayer.

Mike

Muddymike wrote on 26/10/2018 :
Green button on BBC takes you to BBC iPlayer.

I see, so it is downloading the content.

On 26/10/2018 08:29, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Robin has brought this to us :
Does your model record whatever broadcast programme you are currently
watching (so you can pause whenever you want, for example,* a loo
break)?* If it does then the HDD will be in use all the time.

I have not got my head around everything it does yet, but yes I just
tried it and it pauses whatever you are watching live and even live, you
can rewind 15 somethings (minutes? seconds?).

They usually record a couple of hours (space permitting). And you may
be able to turn off that functionality altogether. But I don't see why
you'd want to do so: you never know when you might be called out by a
person on business from Porlock

--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

Muddymike wrote:

Green button on BBC takes you to BBC iPlayer.

Does it, I thought pressing green cancelled the annoying "press red" popups?

On 26/10/2018 08:22, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
RJH explained :

Yes, me too - the WebOS is pretty good. Just wish they'd spent a few
pennies more on a more powerful processor.

Its a LG 49UJ630V, I have not noticed any processor slowness. I did have
problems with the default audio and vision settings - Its Smart Sound
Mode, was causing the level to vary all over the place. Likewise vision
was set up with far too muh contrast (100%), some scenes far too dark,
others far to bright an washed out. I reduced that to 50% and increased
the brightness to 70%. Overall, I am very impressed and delighted with it.


Mine's the LG 43UJ670V. It's not dog slow, and some of it could be due
to data grab (although it is connected via fast ethernet). And it has
crashed (out of memory) watching HD Youtubes a couple of times. Anyhoo,
greater hardships :-)

I spent a while sorting various settings - settled on a mild variation
of Expert/Dark Room. The HDR is steadfastly *off* - took me a few
minutes to realise what it was, and that I didn't like it. Sound is just
optical out to a sound box.


Its feet, one at each end of the screen, proved to be far too far apart
to fit the corner unit I built long ago for the a/v equipment, so I have
had it propped in place since it arrived last week. The cantilever wall
bracket I ordered, was delivered yesterday so it is now mounted on that.

It replaces an ancient 42" 1080p plasma, which weighed 3x as much and
consumed 240w. This one uses 67w, so should quite quickly pay for itself
in saved energy.


I think it's just in 'pensive' state while the TV is on but not
obviously doing anything with the HD. Flipping source to TV would need
the HD to spin up - causing lag? Dunno.

FWIW I put a WD Green 120GB SSD in a cheap USB powered caddy - saves
the minor irritation of mechanical disk clatter.

I have no idea what make/model of HDD it is, but it is inaudible to me.
Just the very slight clunk as it parks as the TV is turned off.


That sounds fine then. I only, more or less, used an SSD because I could :-)


--
Cheers, Rob

On 26/10/2018 07:34, Harry Bloomfield wrote:


On live TV, its LED flashes constantly. When I watch something streamed
from the Internet (BBCi), the LED shows lit steady.

Are you sure that on live TV the disk isn't being used for timeshift?
Timeshift is the ability to pause and scroll back, say, a couple of
hours of the programme/channel you are watching. To scroll back a couple
of hours of live TV the channel you are watching has to be recorded in a
(circular) buffer on the hard disk. In this mode the disk will always
be used for recording.

In IPTV mode I would assume that the disk is being used a temporary
buffer storing data as it arrives and then reading it back out at a
slower rate. Perhaps local timeshift is also being applied to IPTV data.

A disk that is constantly being used for timeshift functions cannot go
into standby.

On my STB timeshift operates in two optional ways.
i) the hard disk is only used for recording when the pause key is
operated and subsequent viewing of the delayed programme This means when
not in use it can go to sleep. The disadvantage with this mode of
operation is with live TV you cannot scroll back before the time when
you pressed the pause button.
ii) the disk is always being used to record what you are watching. This
means you can pause a programme and then immediately scroll back a
minute or perhaps a few hours of the live broadcast. Usually this
recording is limited to a few hours with the most historic stuff getting
constantly over-written. This recording buffer is usually cleared/reset
when changing channels

LG may call timeshift "time machine"


--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 26/10/2018 08:29, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Robin has brought this to us :
Does your model record whatever broadcast programme you are currently
watching (so you can pause whenever you want, for example,Â* a loo
break)?Â* If it does then the HDD will be in use all the time.

I have not got my head around everything it does yet, but yes I just
tried it and it pauses whatever you are watching live and even live, you
can rewind 15 somethings (minutes? seconds?).

On the BBC channels you can click green and it will play the live
program from the beginning, if you switched on midway. ITV etc. seem not
to have that facility, or none I have yet found..


Its possibly using iplayer and the internet to do that


--
"Women actually are capable of being far more than the feminists will
let them."

If your set supports instant record, then it has to run all the time as
spinning up and finding its fat etc will take time.
As for sticks. I feel that is poppycock unless you are very unlucky.
We use sticks on a weekly turn around at our talking newspaper and they
seem none the worse for it at all. Most failures are mechanical, like user
or post office mishandling with size 9 boots.

I think you may find 4 gig is about the smallest that you need for that tv
Lots around very much larger than that of course and not that expensive.


Brian

--
----- --
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"Harry Bloomfield" wrote in message
news
I have just taken delivery of our first smart TV, an LG. It has/had a lot
to learn, but so far all working and I am very impressed with all the new
facilities I have found in it so far.

It needs some sort of external storage for some of its facilities to work
and it seems that can be a USB stick or a USB HDD. The largest stick I
could find was 1Gb, which the TV rejected as too small, besides which I
have read somewhere that sticks don't last very long in TV type use due
constant write/read - is that true?

I had a spare 2.5 HDD USB powered, in a caddy, bought some 5 years ago, so
I am trialing that. It all works as you would expect, apart from it not
seeming to power down when not in use. When the TV is put to standby, it
powers down, but seems to run when in use or not, despite enabling it to
go to standby in the TV's menu. When the TV is put to standby, the HDD
continues to flash for several seconds after the TV goes to standby, then
goes off with a reassuring clunk as it parks.

On live TV, its LED flashes constantly. When I watch something streamed
from the Internet (BBCi), the LED shows lit steady.

LG's helpdesk, seem to be suggesting that my HDD may not support going
into standby - me, I cannot see how it might decide to go to standby, with
the HDD being constantly accessed, as evidenced by the LED flashing - but
what/why is it accessing the HDD?

On 26/10/2018 08:45, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
John Rumm wrote on 26/10/2018 :
Yup, that's the main issue with mechanical drives in this application
- you can usually hear them in a quiet room.

No, I cannot hear this one at all, unless I put it next to my ear.

Tuck it round the back of the TV and stick some tape over the LED ;-)

That is what I think I will end up doing - its just my 'mechanical
sympathy' concerned at it running constantly and puzzled by the HDD
standby setting in the TV's settings.

HDDs will run continuously for five or more years without problems.

(I leave my laptop on all the time as sometimes the HDD doesn't boot.
It's been on for 18 months or so now.)

--
Max Demian

On 26/10/2018 11:51, Max Demian wrote:
HDDs will run continuously for five or more years without problems.
No.

They will in general riun AT MOST five to eight yuears without prpblems

Start doing 24x7 massive reads writes and seeks and you will be lucky to
get a year out of them


--
"When one man dies it's a tragedy. When thousands die it's statistics."

Josef Stalin

On 26/10/2018 08:02, John Rumm wrote:
On 26/10/2018 07:44, RJH wrote:
On 26/10/2018 07:34, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
I have just taken delivery of our first smart TV, an LG. It has/had a
lot to learn, but so far all working and I am very impressed with all
the new facilities I have found in it so far.


Yes, me too - the WebOS is pretty good. Just wish they'd spent a few
pennies more on a more powerful processor.

Gives em a way to encourage people to buy the higher end sets with more
computational oomph...


I've no doubt - but it's not a part of the spec they seem to plug.



--
Cheers, Rob

On Friday, 26 October 2018 07:34:56 UTC+1, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
I have just taken delivery of our first smart TV, an LG. It has/had a
lot to learn, but so far all working and I am very impressed with all
the new facilities I have found in it so far.

It needs some sort of external storage for some of its facilities to
work and it seems that can be a USB stick or a USB HDD. The largest
stick I could find was 1Gb, which the TV rejected as too small, besides
which I have read somewhere that sticks don't last very long in TV type
use due constant write/read - is that true?

I have a 43" Smart LG and have used USB sticks I';m not sire if I tried a sub 1GB.


I had a spare 2.5 HDD USB powered, in a caddy, bought some 5 years ago,
so I am trialing that. It all works as you would expect, apart from it
not seeming to power down when not in use. When the TV is put to
standby, it powers down, but seems to run when in use or not, despite
enabling it to go to standby in the TV's menu. When the TV is put to
standby, the HDD continues to flash for several seconds after the TV
goes to standby, then goes off with a reassuring clunk as it parks.

I had a problem with an external HDD, it was unrelaible I think due to using the TV to power it, I tried external power and it was a bit more relible but not much.
After finding out I couldn;t record some channels to USB I haven;t found a use to use it in recroded mode but do use it to watch things using a SD card in a USB adapter.



On live TV, its LED flashes constantly. When I watch something streamed
from the Internet (BBCi), the LED shows lit steady.

LG's helpdesk, seem to be suggesting that my HDD may not support going
into standby - me, I cannot see how it might decide to go to standby,
with the HDD being constantly accessed, as evidenced by the LED
flashing - but what/why is it accessing the HDD?

Perhaps they HDD needs to access itself evey so often.

On 26/10/2018 07:34, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
I have just taken delivery of our first smart TV, an LG. It has/had a
lot to learn, but so far all working and I am very impressed with all
the new facilities I have found in it so far.

It needs some sort of external storage for some of its facilities to
work and it seems that can be a USB stick or a USB HDD. The largest
stick I could find was 1Gb, which the TV rejected as too small, besides
which I have read somewhere that sticks don't last very long in TV type
use due constant write/read - is that true?

I had a spare 2.5 HDD USB powered, in a caddy, bought some 5 years ago,
so I am trialing that. It all works as you would expect, apart from it
not seeming to power down when not in use. When the TV is put to
standby, it powers down, but seems to run when in use or not, despite
enabling it to go to standby in the TV's menu. When the TV is put to
standby, the HDD continues to flash for several seconds after the TV
goes to standby, then goes off with a reassuring clunk as it parks.

On live TV, its LED flashes constantly. When I watch something streamed
from the Internet (BBCi), the LED shows lit steady.

LG's helpdesk, seem to be suggesting that my HDD may not support going
into standby - me, I cannot see how it might decide to go to standby,
with the HDD being constantly accessed, as evidenced by the LED flashing
- but what/why is it accessing the HDD?

I tend to use USB sticks, HDDs can require more power than I'm convinced
the USB ports in our TVs (at least some of them) are designed for.

As a rough guide, allow 1G/hr on record so, even a modest 32G stick will
hold a far bit.

We have an older LG which doesn't record but other TVs which do. Some
use the ts extension from memory but, if you charge it to mp4, you can
play the files on a PC or other TV. The other TV uses a file system (not
just file extension) I can't identify.



--

Smile for the camera ;-)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxyL2_38EsQ

https://www.gov.uk/report-benefit-fraud

https://www.jobcentreguide.org/claim...-benefit-fraud

https://childsworldamerica.org/anima...o-child-abuse/

On 26/10/2018 14:44, RJH wrote:
On 26/10/2018 08:02, John Rumm wrote:
On 26/10/2018 07:44, RJH wrote:
On 26/10/2018 07:34, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
I have just taken delivery of our first smart TV, an LG. It has/had
a lot to learn, but so far all working and I am very impressed with
all the new facilities I have found in it so far.


Yes, me too - the WebOS is pretty good. Just wish they'd spent a few
pennies more on a more powerful processor.

Gives em a way to encourage people to buy the higher end sets with
more computational oomph...


I've no doubt - but it's not a part of the spec they seem to plug.

I suspect they aim for "good enough" on most sets in a hope of not
getting into a needless ****ing contest with other makers.

You only tend to notice the difference on relatively recent sets when
using the web browser since its easy to make comparisons to a PC.


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 26/10/2018 13:29, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
alan_m submitted this idea :
Are you sure that on live TV the disk isn't being used for timeshift?
Timeshift is the ability to pause and scroll back, say, a couple of
hours of the programme/channel you are watching. To scroll back a
couple of hours of live TV the channel you are watching has to be
recorded in a (circular) buffer on the hard disk.* In this mode the
disk will always be used for recording.

I am not sure at the moment of anything at all. The set came new, but
with no instructions. I managed to download 'some' instructions from the
LG site, but they seem to only cover the remote buttons and the use of a
serial data connection to the unit. Nothing detailed for the normal
user, or the spec..

You will probably find it has help built in as one of the preloaded
applications when you push the home button.

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On Fri, 26 Oct 2018 09:18:49 +0100, Robin wrote:

On 26/10/2018 08:29, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Robin has brought this to us :
Does your model record whatever broadcast programme you are currently
watching (so you can pause whenever you want, for example,Â* a loo
break)?Â* If it does then the HDD will be in use all the time.

I have not got my head around everything it does yet, but yes I just
tried it and it pauses whatever you are watching live and even live,
you can rewind 15 somethings (minutes? seconds?).

They usually record a couple of hours (space permitting). And you may
be able to turn off that functionality altogether. But I don't see why
you'd want to do so: you never know when you might be called out by a
person on business from Porlock

A Terry Pratchett reference? No, not really; I was getting Porlock (a
Somerset village) confused with Morpork. Turns out to be a Samuel Taylor
Coleridge reference to an unwelcome visitor from Porlock whom he claimed
had interrupted his writing of the poem "Kubla Khan" (in 1797), only 54
lines long, which was consequently never completed.

Nice to know that there's a literary reference which pre-dates a
phenomena, which those of us in our ignorance would regard as only having
arisen with the advent of wireless broadcasting of radio and television
dramas, by well over a century.

I suppose we could make the literary allusion to having our listening/
viewing pleasure interrupted by unwanted intrusion a little more snappy
by naming it the "Porlock Pest Intrusion" (or PPI for short). :-)

I guess that's the main benefit of using a computer to watch TV
programmes using Kaffeine as a PVR and VLC to watch the resulting media
files after or even during the recording process. Kaffeine has its own
built in 'live viewer' but I rarely use this feature when it's recording,
preferring instead to use a completely independent media player, namely
VLC, to view the resulting *.ts media file(s) as they're being created on
the fly by Kaffeine (there could be as many as six on the go during the
overlapping padding periods whenever I happen to have back to back
programmes being recorded on BBCs ONE, TWO and FOUR)[1].

Such PPIs have long since stopped being the show stopping events they
once were in the bad old days pre-dating the advent of DVB-T and HDD
based DTVR technology (certainly true for the past three years since I
discovered the joy of using Kaffeine as my PVR software of choice after
being forced to ditch win2k and DTVR for a Linux Mint setup on the
upgraded hardware that had effectively relegated win2k to a VM setup).

The only time we (the wife and I) recreate the old fashioned 'Live TV
Viewing Experience' is when we sit down to tea at 6 O'clock to watch
"Eggheads" (currently displaced by the "Letterbox"[2] until the
disruption to the normal BBC2 programme schedules imposed by that
unwanted intrusion known as "Strictly"[3] is mercifully terminated at
this year's end when normality will finally be restored in the new year
until the next 'unpredictable' sporting events begin to take their toll
once more on the Beeb's 'precision planning' of their TV programme
schedules).

Most (but not all) of the scheduled recordings are archived for
posterity into a 20TB 'black hole'[4], aka my NAS4Free server box, for
later viewing at a time of my choosing independent of the time limits
imposed by iPlayer whose servers have effectively become my source of
'half HD quality' programme recordings.

Nowadays I only use Kaffeine to record 5 minute snippets to act as
reminders and provide named place markers for get_iplayer's downloads -
I'm compensating for the profligate wear I'd imposed on the Samsung SSD
last year to keep below the paltry 75TBW warranty limit that would
otherwise trump its 5 year warranty.

There aren't many programmes that only get recorded off-air in full by
Kaffeine to be viewed just the once before being discarded. Notably, I
can name three off the top of my head right now. These are Eggheads
episodes of which all but the ones where the challengers win are
discarded, "The Graham Norton Show" which allows me to skip the musical
performance section and cut to the chase of "The Big Red Chair" of which
only one or two notable episodes from the last two series have made it
into the archive and Sunday's PoV nonsense so I can keep abreast of the
Beeb's latest excuses in response to viewer complaints[5].

Kaffeine might seem a dated application for implementing the
functionality of a PVR compared to the flashy looking "Home Theatre" ten
foot interface driven offerings of NextPVR and their ilk but compared to
the flashy alternatives, it's a joy to schedule recordings with, all the
more so since 'padding and programme conflicts' simply don't exist beyond
that of tuner resource conflicts (which for the Beeb's SD content, simply
don't exist even when only a single DVB-T tuner is available).

When I last tried NextPVR (in its GBPVR guise) on a winXP box that had
been set up in order to make use of my KWorld dual tuner DVB-T PCI
adapter (no win2k drivers) back in the day when I was using DTVR on a
win2k box, I found trying to schedule a whole week's worth of recordings
so excruciatingly ponderous, it made the routine of hand entering the
channel numbers/date/start and run times into DTVR's recording schedule
entry box (even after the mental arithmetic gymnastics required to
capture two or more back to back programmes into a single file for later
slicing and dicing) look slick by comparison.

*THAT'S* how crap such PVR programming efforts were, cursed as they were
with their ten foot interface, not in the least bit helped by that
incompetent programmer's crutch of Dot.NET that they all seemed to rely
upon for their ill conceived offerings. I suspect they're still the same
except you don't notice the performance shortcomings so much by virtue of
the circa 500 fold increase in processing power available since then.

I might seem a bit of a stick in the mud for staying with Kaffeine to
satisfy my PVR requirements but I have good reason to do so, plus, it's a
system I'm entirely familiar with and it gets the job done without
needless fuss over padding/programme conflict resolution strategies.


[NOTES]

[1] JOOI, I once ran a test involving for a change, the use of *both*
tuners in my KWorld DVB-T PCI adapter to record a total of 12 TV channels
to the SSD all of which I could monitor at will with VLC with no
disruption to any of the ongoing recordings. Considering my being able to
record 3 BBC TV channels at once with back to back padding 'conflicts' (6
TV programme streams going to an IDE 250GB 4200rpm laptop drive on my now
13 year old Acer 3600 laptop with single core 1.6GHz clocked Celeron
mobile CPU), this result wasn't in the least surprising - however, it was
impressive nonetheless. :-)

[2] A not so informative/educative 'quiz' based time filler since the
obscure 'famous person' password names were rarely explained as to what
they were supposed to be famous for - a rather serious omission imho.

[3] The rather dubious 'entertainment value' of this programme (which has
always escaped me - it's never been one I'd watch voluntarily) must have
taken a real nose dive since even the missus now has a low opinion of its
merits (I wouldn't have noticed the "drop in quality" otherwise).

[4] The trouble with having near endless storage capacity for TV
recordings is that one tends to "Throw Money At The Problem" of culling
the examples of TV broadcasting less worthy of preservation for posterity
rather than actually trawl through the collection to decide which can
stay and which won't be missed after being sent to the bit bucket.

Since "Procrastination" is virtually my middle name, I've recently
chosen to chuck another 290 quid at the server by way of a Western
Digital 10TB tiddler (the 12 and 14TB options are just a bit too
'Bleeding Edge' for my money, besides which, they're (totally ****ed and
clueless) Seagate Offerings). It's the easy way out and besides, I'll be
needing the extra capacity when I finally get round to setting the system
up for the dual tuner DVB-T2 PCIe adapter purchased last year when I do
my 5 yearly major hardware upgrade and start recording full HD content on
a regular basis.

[5] Thanks to PoV for explaining why the Beeb had moved "Eggheads" into
its temporary weekday slot at 16:45. It's unsettling but I do appreciate
their efforts in immunising it against the "Strictly" induced disruption
that's currently only effecting a low rent "quiz based" placeholder they
call the "Letterbox".

--
Johnny B Good

On Fri, 26 Oct 2018 07:34:52 +0100, Harry Bloomfield
wrote:

I have just taken delivery of our first smart TV, an LG. It has/had a
lot to learn, but so far all working and I am very impressed with all
the new facilities I have found in it so far.

It needs some sort of external storage for some of its facilities to
work and it seems that can be a USB stick or a USB HDD. The largest
stick I could find was 1Gb, which the TV rejected as too small, besides
which I have read somewhere that sticks don't last very long in TV type
use due constant write/read - is that true?

I had a spare 2.5 HDD USB powered, in a caddy, bought some 5 years ago,
so I am trialing that. It all works as you would expect, apart from it
not seeming to power down when not in use. When the TV is put to
standby, it powers down, but seems to run when in use or not, despite
enabling it to go to standby in the TV's menu. When the TV is put to
standby, the HDD continues to flash for several seconds after the TV
goes to standby, then goes off with a reassuring clunk as it parks.

On live TV, its LED flashes constantly. When I watch something streamed
from the Internet (BBCi), the LED shows lit steady.

LG's helpdesk, seem to be suggesting that my HDD may not support going
into standby - me, I cannot see how it might decide to go to standby,
with the HDD being constantly accessed, as evidenced by the LED
flashing - but what/why is it accessing the HDD?

I bought a LG49uj670v TV just before the World Cup and as I wanted to
be able to pause Live Play I had to go the hard disk route as this
feature is not supported by a USB stick. I bought a cheap USB drive
(250Gb for ~£20 from MyMemory) and stuck it on.

It is constantly recording so it is possible to pause and rewind at
any time. However it is also possible to stop this by pressing the
Play button and choosing the 2nd option (Live play or similar it's
called) and this stops the disk access and of course stops the option
to pause play etc though I suspect they reactivate if the buttons are
again pressed.

A tip, if you have not disabled the Live Play then you can rewind and
record from the point you have wound back to. Mine buffers to 1hour.

As far as the flashing light is concerned the drive sits in an empty
tissue box.

I also use the drive as a backup for all my photos and videos. I tend
not to clutter it with recordings and bear in mind that the recordings
cannot be used on any set other than the one they were recorded on
which is a bit of a disappointment.

hth

--
AnthonyL

Brian Gaff wrote

If your set supports instant record, then it has to run all the time as
spinning up and finding its fat etc will take time.

Not enough time to matter.

As for sticks. I feel that is poppycock unless you are very unlucky.
We use sticks on a weekly turn around at our talking newspaper and they
seem none the worse for it at all. Most failures are mechanical, like user
or post office mishandling with size 9 boots.

I think you may find 4 gig is about the smallest that you need for that tv
Lots around very much larger than that of course and not that expensive.

"Harry Bloomfield" wrote in message
news
I have just taken delivery of our first smart TV, an LG. It has/had a lot
to learn, but so far all working and I am very impressed with all the new
facilities I have found in it so far.

It needs some sort of external storage for some of its facilities to work
and it seems that can be a USB stick or a USB HDD. The largest stick I
could find was 1Gb, which the TV rejected as too small, besides which I
have read somewhere that sticks don't last very long in TV type use due
constant write/read - is that true?

I had a spare 2.5 HDD USB powered, in a caddy, bought some 5 years ago,
so I am trialing that. It all works as you would expect, apart from it
not seeming to power down when not in use. When the TV is put to standby,
it powers down, but seems to run when in use or not, despite enabling it
to go to standby in the TV's menu. When the TV is put to standby, the HDD
continues to flash for several seconds after the TV goes to standby, then
goes off with a reassuring clunk as it parks.

On live TV, its LED flashes constantly. When I watch something streamed
from the Internet (BBCi), the LED shows lit steady.

LG's helpdesk, seem to be suggesting that my HDD may not support going
into standby - me, I cannot see how it might decide to go to standby,
with the HDD being constantly accessed, as evidenced by the LED
flashing - but what/why is it accessing the HDD?

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 26/10/2018 11:51, Max Demian wrote:
HDDs will run continuously for five or more years without problems.
No.

They will in general riun AT MOST five to eight yuears without prpblems

Mine have lasted a lot longer than that. Ive only had one failure in a
really old RLL Miniscribe.

John Rumm expressed precisely :
You will probably find it has help built in as one of the preloaded
applications when you push the home button.

Oh, it has, in the form of pop-ups, but very brief none tech.
information.

AnthonyL has brought this to us :
It is constantly recording so it is possible to pause and rewind at
any time. However it is also possible to stop this by pressing the
Play button and choosing the 2nd option (Live play or similar it's
called) and this stops the disk access and of course stops the option
to pause play etc though I suspect they reactivate if the buttons are
again pressed.

Thanks, yes that works - but it still leaves the disk running, but not
Read /Writing.

On 26/10/2018 16:35, Brian Reay wrote:

As a rough guide, allow 1G/hr on record so, even a modest 32G stick will
hold a far bit.

More like 2G/hr for HD. For instance, recordings of Dr Who on BBC1 HD
range in size from 1.4G to 2.4G bytes

--
mailto : news {at} admac {dot} myzen {dot} co {dot} uk

On 26/10/2018 19:18, Harry Bloomfield wrote:
John Rumm expressed precisely :
You will probably find it has help built in as one of the preloaded
applications when you push the home button.

Oh, it has, in the form of pop-ups, but very brief none tech. information.

On mine there is also a quite detailed manual. If you bring up the multi
coloured stripe at the bottom of the screen:

vis [1]:

https://www.cnet.com/news/lg-to-show...v-at-ces-2015/

Scroll along the list, and one should be the full manual... (ISTR its
orange on mine)


[1] Yes I know its an old page, but I just wanted an image of the menu,
and that one came up on the search with a more attractive screen
"border" than many ;-)

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

On 26/10/2018 19:23, alan_m wrote:
On 26/10/2018 16:35, Brian Reay wrote:

As a rough guide, allow 1G/hr on record so, even a modest 32G stick
will hold a far bit.

More like 2G/hr for HD. For instance, recordings of Dr Who on BBC1 HD
range in size from 1.4G to 2.4G bytes

It does seem to vary a bit IME, but its probably not a bad figure to use
for estimating storage requirements. The .ts recordings for the last
three episodes from my setup are coming in at between 1.2, and 1.6 GB


--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

John Rumm formulated the question :
https://www.cnet.com/news/lg-to-show...v-at-ces-2015/

Scroll along the list, and one should be the full manual... (ISTR its orange
on mine)


[1] Yes I know its an old page, but I just wanted an image of the menu, and
that one came up on the search with a more attractive screen "border" than
many ;-)


--

Thanks, yes found it at last - its the same in WebOS 3.5