Best NTFS cluster size to use with Sage?

[sunray]

What's the best NTFS cluster size for use with Sage for stutter-free rocordings and playback? I've been using 64k clusters up until now.

[geogecko]

Originally Posted by sunray

What's the best NTFS cluster size for use with Sage for stutter-free rocordings and playback? I've been using 64k clusters up until now.

I believe that's still the standard to use with recordings.

[michelkenny]

The bigger is better when you're dealing with multi-gigabyte movie files.

[rfutscher]

Originally Posted by michelkenny

The bigger is better when you're dealing with multi-gigabyte movie files.

I would think that the cluster size has to match the buffer on the tuner/input card. For example, if you have three tuner cards you would have to empty the buffer on card one, then card two, then card three and then back to card one. If the cluster size is two small you would not be able to empty the card buffer efficiently. If the cluster size is too large the card buffer on the input card would not be able to fill the cluster.

I would guess that you also would have to match the play back buffers, especially if you use clients to watch TV. The cluster size would have to work with the buffer for the network card. You would have to fill, but not over run the buffer for one client before moving the hard drive heads for another client or to record the data from the tuner.

[blade]

Originally Posted by rfutscher

I would think that the cluster size has to match the buffer on the tuner/input card. For example, if you have three tuner cards you would have to empty the buffer on card one, then card two, then card three and then back to card one. If the cluster size is two small you would not be able to empty the card buffer efficiently. If the cluster size is too large the card buffer on the input card would not be able to fill the cluster.

I would guess that you also would have to match the play back buffers, especially if you use clients to watch TV. The cluster size would have to work with the buffer for the network card. You would have to fill, but not over run the buffer for one client before moving the hard drive heads for another client or to record the data from the tuner.

No, the larger the cluster the better.

[stevech]

it's as simple as this, isn't it? Bigger clusters = fewer disk I/Os and seeks.

[mayamaniac]

just make sure the drive is only for sagetv recordings. If you install windows into it, it'll take up all the drive space as it contains thousands of small files.