This topic often comes up when there's a deal for a USB Flash Drive.
Basically, what are people's recommendations or experiences with recording to either a USB Flash Drive from a smart tv? I'm not sure how many smart tv's are USB 3.0 compatible, I know mine isn't and it's a 2013 model.
From what I've read, the best thing to do it seems is to buy a portable HDD (as small as I can find) and use that to record due to faster write speeds.
I recently used this function when my PVR was off for repair. Used a 500gb portable. Did the job fine.
However compared to the PVR it was very limited, couldnt do anything else on the TV, couldn't watch another channel, or pre-recorded things while it was recording. And the EPG was so much slower to update.
You'd be best to buy a cheap PVR and get the ability to watch and record different channels.