How many hours of tv will a 16gb flash drive record

barcode72

Distinguished
Jan 4, 2012
4
0
18,510
I've just bought a NEW 32" LCD TV WITH A BUILT-IN FREEVIEW RECEIVER, & it has a usb on the back which it says can be used to record tv shows onto a flash drive, & i was just wondering how many hours of tv my 16gb flash drive will hold, a ball park figure would be brilliant please, Many thanx.
 

jgutz2006

Distinguished
Jul 7, 2009
473
0
18,810
SO like PhiliFrisbie mentioned, bitrate is how its determined and there are different Freeview settings on different devices. Does yours have the SD or HD version of freeview? With freeview HD PlayTV, your looking at 2GB for a half hour or 4GB for 1 hour so about 4 hours of recording time as a worst case scenario guess (Worst case scenario, Or best quality i should say. If you choose a lesser quality, you will get much more recording hours stored). IF you have a Standard Definition you will get more than that. Get us some more information if you want to know the exact numbers otherwise there is no theoretical number that can beat the real thing! Go and just record to your hearts desire and see how large half hour and 1 hour shows are in the various modes, compare the end quality vs file size and you can then determine which is the best for you or you could even record your favorite shows at the highest setting while other shows are at less quality so as to pack more into whatever limited space you have.
 

frazzle247

Reputable
Feb 17, 2014
8
0
4,510
Did a bit of research and a 720p programme lasting an hour should be 1.5GB - 2GB so around 8 hours 720p and 4 hours 1080p. Theoretically.
 

leeb2013

Honorable


impossible to tell without the bit rate.

If you have time, you could do a quick test yourself. Record 5 minutes, see how much it uses. Then divide 16GB by how much it used, then multiply by 5 minutes, there's your answer.