Magic TV™ Owner's Guide

Cabling

Attaching External Hard Disk Drives

Note: To enable the recording function on MTV9000/MTV9100D, an external USB Hard Disk Drive (HDD) will need to be attached via the Magic TV™ USB port.
For MTV9500/MTV9600D, an external disk can be used to seamlessly expand storage space or to export recordings for other Magic TV™ users to view.

You can choose a preferred HDD for recording in Settings ➜ Recording Setup ➜ Preferred Recording HDD and Magic TV™ will use that when possible. If you select ‘Auto’, Magic TV™ will record on the disk with the most available space at the time of recording each programme.

You can Copy and Move recordings from one disk to another and also filter the Recorded Programme List to an individual HDD by pressing the Blue button whilst in the left hand panel.

When selecting HDDs, the list will be displayed as follows:

Your chosen HDD is illustrated with a Ticked

Note: When a Preferred Recording HDD is set and it runs out of space, Magic TV™ will record to the connected HDD with the most available space.
If two programmes are on the same channel and recording times overlap (perhaps because Magic TV™ is set to start recording before the EPG time), both recordings will always be stored on the same HDD.

Formatting a disk for use with Magic TV™

The HDD will need to be formatted either FAT32, NTFS or EXT2. Simply attach the drive and use the Magic TV™ menus to choose Settings ➜ Recording ➜ Advanced Options ➜ Format External Harddisk. This process can take a long time for large disks. Note that all data on the disk will be lost and that the file system will be EXT2, which may not be readable on a PC without third party software.

The recordings stored by Magic TV™ on the disk may be readable and playable via other devices (a Windows PC for example), but care must be taken not to delete or change files on the disk as this could prevent Magic TV™ from reading the disk correctly when re-attached.

If the attached HDD supports the “Auto Power On/Off” function, then Magic TV™ will be able tell the unit to power up and down when needed. Otherwise the HDD may be running constantly.

Notes:

  • When connecting or disconnecting an HDD, ensure that Magic TV™ is in standby.
  • If you are using FAT32 or NTFS and you experience any problems, please try reformetting to EXT2 first.
  • Some 2.5” HDDs that require power via USB may not function correctly.
  • USB thumbdisks, memory cards and microdrives may not have fast enough read and write times to function correctly with Magic TV™ recording.
  • External Hard Disk Drives can now be formatted up to 2TB (2000GB). Please note that ‘Check and Repair HDD’ may not work with disks of this size

Summary of recommendations for best reliability

  • Use a 3.5” HDD with its own separate power supply
  • Format the drive with the EXT2 file system. Magic TV™ can format the disk for you or you can format the disk using third party software on a PC
  • Use a drive with an “Auto Power On/Off” function to allow Magic TV™ to control the power consumption of the HDD