Things I learned about HTPC's

[Fluffdaddy]

As a long time ReplyTV users where 80 gigs was more then enuff HD space for my needs. I have learned that 80 gig hard drive space in a HTPC is NOT 80 gigs of recording space. After windows XP and an Sage and all the other stuff on the HTPC just to get it to work. I seem to be down to less then half 80 gigs to really use as a PVR/DVR. A Newbie mistake on my part. How much space should I go with ? My recording needs are lite to middle of the rode. But because of my job I can go up til a week before finding the time to watch anything that I recorded. so stuff can built-up. Plus I would like to use the EIR feature just to see what kind of stuf Sage would thing I might like What size HD do you guys think I would need after the needed software space is taken. My HTPC Builder has a after sale HD upgrade option so I would like to make sure I do not short change myself again

Thanks

[gplasky]

Depends on your needed recording quality and if that is all you'll use it for. Just built a box with a 60 GB PATA drive for the OS and misc. programs and files. And I have 2 x 160GB SATA in a RAID 0 (64k blks) for video storage-almost 300GB. I ripped a few DVDs there and have placed some music files there but it is mostly for recording TV. Recording at 3.25GB/hr. So most TV movies take 6.5 GB and programs take 3.25GB I record this high so I have the option of buring to DVD and then getting rid of the file. I shrink the 6.5GB movie file down to fit on a DVD and don't really notice any loss of quality.

Gerry

[carlgar]

A little over a year ago when I ordered my system I upgraded my disk from 40GB to 60GB, because I read that editing video could use a lot of disk space.
After I purchased my pvr350 but before I found this site I added a 160GB internal disk to my system. After finding this site I added another 200GB internal disk. I have since added 4 160 GB external disks and I still feel like I am fighting disk space issues. So determining how much disk space is enough can be a difficult question to answer. Granted I am probably an extreme case and I am archiving a lot of shows. BTW: I currently only allow SageTV direct access 123GB of my disk space.

In your case you can probably ignore any space needed by the software because I consider this to be a trival amount. Next you should decide what rate you will be recording at. I think about 2GB per hour would be your min., next think about how many hours of hours you want to keep at any one time. This should give you a good idea of how much disk space you need. You may even want to add 15 or 20 if you think you might need to run a defragmentor on the file system.
If you plan on using a video editor you should think about the largest file you would want to edit and multiply by 2 or 3 and add that to above figure. Hope this helps good luck!

[fidget]

I currently have 120 GB on my main recording PC, with another 80 available on the network. Because I use my system for time shifting, I will be downgrading (yes, downgrading) my main PC to only have 80 GB. This will still give me 24+ hours of programming on the local machine with another 24+ hours on the remote unit. When I want to archive a show, I pull it off onto my main PC for later burning to DVD. Since my main PC will be used as the holding pen, it will be getting the 120 GB drive (still formatted to 64K blocks). Your needs really depends on how you plan on using your PVR. If you want to keep everything online, you will need as much disk space as you can afford. If you are just time shifting, I would recommend having no less than 80 GB of available storage (that way you won't have to be in a big hurry to transfer the files off the HDD).

[aglennon]

To start, I would buy the largest single drive that you can get a good deal on. Something around 200 or 250gb. The 300gb+ drives are still going for top dollar and deals aren't as available. You will always want/need more space.

[AirJunky]

Wow, and I only have a 40 gig for the OS & aps & an 80 gig for recordings. Neither drive gets over 1/2 full very often & we're recording 5 - 10 shows a week. Although, we don't anthing after we watch them.

[falchulk]

fluffdaddy, 40 gigs for the os and pvr software??? Even with 3rd party dvd players, myhtpc, and a dozen other apps you are usually well under 2 gigs including the swap file. Adding games, office and other apps are what adds to the OS partition. But you did not mention that. Anyway, My main htpc has 410 gigs local between 2 drives. 300 gigs of this are dedicated to sage. I also have 2 additonal systems on the network with dedicated HTPC space. One has a 280 gigs and the other 220. One of these is my dedicated server that I ripped my music/dvd/home movies/x10 automation/weather station so its share space is a last resort for sage. I have shows that we taped a few moths ago an never watched so this space is very nice to have available. If you have th time to watch all the shows you record reasonably fast, yo dont really need that much disk space. But hey its cheap and bigger is always better.

[Sailn]

I have an 80 internal partitioned into 5gb for the os and programs, and 75 for sage. Inaddition, I have 3 120gb drives in removeable mounts. Btween sage and hdtv recordings, the space does get used up. I have been recording most regular shows at dvd long, and the cooking show archive is at 1.8 dvd-extra-long. When there is a show that I really want to keep, I record at dvd standard. As was stated before, dvd shrink does a great job at recompressing the dvd files for burning. I can easily get 7-9 30 minute shows (without commercials) on a dvd and the quality is ok when being viewed on a regular tv.