Suitable HDD

[spear47]

Recently purchased the Sony ke48a9bu oled tv and intend ditching virgin tv when the contract comes to an end. I'm looking for a suitable usb hdd for recording the odd program, so not anything too big. Had a look at Sony support regarding hdd and read the recommended requirements. I noticed too that they say that they cannot guarantee that they will work. With this in mind was wondering if anyone who has this tv has purchased a hhd that is suitable that they could recommend.
Thanks

[Mooly01]

Although I haven't that model of TV there is nothing special about the HDD's that can be used. I found an old (from around 2008) USB2 drive worked flawlessly. USB3 types may run much warmer and you might also be stuck with a much shorter connecting lead.

I have also used good quality USB3 Flash Drives (64Gb) but after extensive use do not recommend that option as they seem prone to random failure (they run hot all the time). The old USB 2 traditional drive is perfect.

On my TV (KD43XD8305) the settings for Film Mode and Motion Flow were important. Horizontal movement on the screen was jerky and others also complained of this. It may well be different on newer models but Film Mode to 'High' and Motion Flow to 'Standard' worked perfectly.

https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/android-tv/usb-recordings-are-jerky-when-played-back/td-p/2271707

If you have any drives then just try them. You have to disable YouView to use the USB record feature

Good luck.

[spear47]

Many thanks for the advice, much appreciated👍

[daveyh64]

Any standard HDD is suitable, make sure that it is formatted as either FAT16 (2GB file size limit),

FAT32 (4GB file size limit), exFAT or NTFS no file size limits.

If the TV only has one tuner you can only record the TV programme you are watching at the time.

When the USB HDD has been set up for recording it can only be used with your TV, that means you cannot take it round to 'Daves' so he can see any programmes you have recorded.

If you are looking for a more flexible way to record and view TV recordings you may want to look into

purchasing a PVR (personal video recorder), these have 2 or more tuners so you can view one channel

whilst recording one or more other channels. Look for models from Humax, Manhattan or Panasonic,

there may be others.

Hope you got a decent discount on your KE48A9BU it is a two year old model and Sony are about to

launch their 2022 models, have a look here,

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/tv/t/televisions

[spear47]

You state to switch off youview, have tried to do this but find that this option is not available on this tv (unless I'm missing something).  Seems strange, given that there is a usb port for recording?

[Mooly01]

On mine YouView is accessed as follows. I'm assuming (maybe wrongly) that yours will also have YouView.

To disable YouView

Press [Home] button on the remote control

1: Go to 'Settings'

2: Go to 'Channel Setup'

3: Go to 'YouView Setup'

4: Select 'Disable YouView'

5: Select 'Yes' to confirm

For yours and for general info:

Help Guide | Recording to a USB HDD device (sony.net)

Hope that helps... if not I'll look a little deeper. 

[Mooly01]

YouView if you have it will look something like this when you press 'Guide'.

[spear47]

Hi. Yes, that's route that I took, but under 'channel settings' there's no YouView setup.

I've ordered a hdd so will have to wait until it arrives and to try it out.

I have a 32gb thumb drive and tried that, the tv does recognise it and allows it to be configured for recording. However, when I try to use it, (freeview) it displays 'preparing to record' but then after a few seconds displays message 'recording cannot start'. Could be to smaller capacity.

[spear47]

Yes, it does have YouView as shown in your post.

[Mooly01]

Have you tried pressing 'Home' on the remote and then navigating to settings. On mine the settings are on the top line and represented by a gear symbol.

Try this which describes the process:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HocsIhWPdUY