Does the PVR work on Samsung SMART TVs?

LucianH

I have a Samsung 46" 7000 series LED TV which has a built-in PVR function when you connect a USB HDD. I've not been able to get this to work reliably (with a 500gig WD Elements drive). After a day or two, the hard drive keeps spining when the TV is switched off and then fails to be recognised when the TV is next switched on. I have to switch the HDD off and back on for it to work again.

The drive is within the required spec and passes the "performance test" that the TV does. Samsung technical support says it's the fault of the drive. However, I have seen posts on other forums which mention similar problems.

I would really like to hear from anybody who's got this working reliable and, if they have, I would like to know what drive is being used. I'm prepared to buy a new drive but don't want to risk it until I know whether the drive is really the problem.

Thanks in advance

m5rcc

These 'other' forums don't recommend suitable portable HDs?

LucianH

m5rcc wrote: »

These 'other' forums don't recommend suitable portable HDs?

Unfortunately no - they (and I've only found two) only talk about the issues and nobody's posted to say that they got it working reliably. Hence this thread and the hope that some good Samaritan will post to say he's extremely happy with the reliability of the PVR and let me know what drive they've used.

m5rcc

According to Samsung:

"We recommend using a USB HDD with at least 5,400 rpm, but a USB HDD
of RAID type is not supported. USB memory stick is not compatible."

Is your WD suitable?

LucianH

m5rcc wrote: »

Is your WD suitable?

Yep, I believe so. It's a WD5000C0035 and according the Western Digital's customer support the spec is:

1) USB 2.0
2) Read speed of 5400-7200 RPM (power saving VS full speed)
3) Read and write speed is 60 MB/s max

When it's working (ie, recognised by the TV) , it records and playbacks fine (inc HD content). And as I said in the original post, it passes the performance test.

To me it seems to be a bug in the TV's software which is why I want to get confirmation that someone else has got it working reliably.

m5rcc

And you formatted the HD via the TV?

LucianH

m5rcc wrote: »

And you formatted the HD via the TV?

Yes - through the disk drive management menu if I remember correctly

forgotmyname

Is the drive going to sleep? Power saving mode.

Disable it. I had a similar issue with a Seagate external drive used for a media player.
Switch it all one and it works fine, Switch it all on and dont play a file for some time and the drive enters sleep mode.

LucianH

forgotmyname wrote: »

Is the drive going to sleep? Power saving mode.

Disable it. I had a similar issue with a Seagate external drive used for a media player.
Switch it all one and it works fine, Switch it all on and dont play a file for some time and the drive enters sleep mode.

Thanks, but if is to do with a power saving mode then I can't see how to fix it. I believe there are two types of power saving modes - one controlled by the operating system, and the other hard coded within the drive. Since the TV is the providing the "operating system" then it should manage it correctly and not cause a problem. And if it's hard coded in then you can't do anything about it.

Anyway, I don't think that it is the problem since the TV seems to continuously access the HDD when the TV's switch on. When it works properly then it stops accessing the drive when the TV's switched off. This, however, is where the "bug" enters the system - occasionally the TV continues to access the hard drive after it's switched off and gets into a strange mode where, when the TV's switched back on again, it does not recognise the HDD until the HDD is switched off and back on again (a nerve racking experience since the drive is being accessed at the time and you have a fear that that all data's going to be lost).