c/p cyberdawg

I'm testing with a Seagate 500 Gig external HHD and these are my findings so far. A smaller USB drive may also be used.

Drive must be formatted to FAT32.

After plugging in the drive the STB will initialize it. If it takes too long to initialize I've found it quicker to power off the HHD and power it back up. Then it should see the drive immediately and be ready for operation.

OK, first I'll start with the Time Shift feature:

Push play then pause and if you have the record indicator on it will begin to flash. If you do not have the record indicator on it will tell you to please wait and then show the Time Shift indicator in the lower right hand corner. At this point you will see 2 numbers the first being the length of time since you hit the play button and the second the amount of time that has been recorded. Push Play or Pause to begin watching where you stopped watching. You may pause as many times as you would like to after you have started the Time Shift feature. To take the Blue timer off the screen hit the INFO button on the remote and the timers will disappear. To bring them back up hit info once again.

Now, we'll go through the steps to record an program using the EPG to schedule a recording:

Push the Guide button, find a program you would like to record that will be on later. Highlight the program using your arrow buttons right, up & down. Press OK ONCE and you will see a small indicator with a play icon in it. In this scenario the channel will change to this station at the correct time just to be viewed. Press OK, TWICE and you will see a red record icon in the program's EPG menu.
In this scenario the program will automatically record at the scheduled time. I have yet to do a full program but I would presume the recording will stop when the program is over.

To record on the run:

Press the record button. If you have the record indicator set to OFF don't forget you're recording as it will continue to record until you press stop.

To Schedule a Recording:

Go into the menu, Configuration, Timer Manager, Add Timer. Here you will see a box that you need to fill out all the parameters of your requirements for your recording pleasure.

Mode, you have 3 choices, Once, Daily or Weekly.

Start Date, Highlight and press OK to change to the date of your choice.

Start Time, Highlight and use your left/right arrows to move from one digit to the next and back. To change from AM to PM any number on the key pad seems to work to change the 'P' to an 'A' or back.

Duration, the only way I could find to change the duration was to use the right arrow button or left if you go too far.

End Time, is grayed out and will fill in once you set the duration.

Channel, press OK to scroll to the channel you want to record using the up/down arrows. In this case I would suggest putting it on the channel you want to record prior to beginning a timed recording. It can take a while to scroll to the channel you may want to record using the up/ down arrows on your remote.
Note* Page up and down will scroll through the channel list as well and a bit faster.

Type, once again you have two choices, play or record.

Power Off, here you have two choices OFF or ON at this time I'm not sure but would presume the OFF function will shut your STB down after the recording. I have not recorded something in it's entirety yet to find out.
*If I find out otherwise I will amend this draft later.

Locating your Recordings:

Press the USB/PVR button at the top of the remote under the red power button. You should find a list of everything you have recorded to date. Highlight a program and press OK to view it. To view the recording without seeing the blue timer bar simply hit the info bar and it will go off the screen. The same applies to all Time Shift recordings.

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If you record a program on the fly, you can watch other channels while the program is recording.
Press the EPG menu button, and you will see other channels that are avaiable to you in "blue" at the time the recording is taking place. Pressing "OK" on the channel will not work; however, typing in the channel number and then pressing "OK" will let you access the channel.

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Please don't PM me with fta related questions, ask them in open forums so others can benefit from them too.