diff -p -up vdr-1.6.0/recording.c.orig vdr-1.6.0/recording.c
--- vdr-1.6.0/recording.c.orig	2009-07-25 21:30:45.112843113 +0300
+++ vdr-1.6.0/recording.c	2009-07-25 21:31:59.503092789 +0300
@@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ cRemoveDeletedRecordingsThread::cRemoveD
 void cRemoveDeletedRecordingsThread::Action(void)
 {
   SetPriority(19);
+  SetIOPriority(7);
   // Make sure only one instance of VDR does this:
   cLockFile LockFile(VideoDirectory);
   if (LockFile.Lock()) {
diff -p -up vdr-1.6.0/thread.c.orig vdr-1.6.0/thread.c
--- vdr-1.6.0/thread.c.orig	2009-07-25 21:30:45.156843082 +0300
+++ vdr-1.6.0/thread.c	2009-07-25 21:31:59.507092935 +0300
@@ -236,6 +236,12 @@ void cThread::SetPriority(int Priority)
      LOG_ERROR;
 }
 
+void cThread::SetIOPriority(int Priority)
+{
+  if (syscall(SYS_ioprio_set, 1, 0, (Priority & 0xff) | (2 << 13)) < 0) // best effort class
+     LOG_ERROR;
+}
+
 void cThread::SetDescription(const char *Description, ...)
 {
   free(description);
diff -p -up vdr-1.6.0/thread.h.orig vdr-1.6.0/thread.h
--- vdr-1.6.0/thread.h.orig	2009-07-25 21:30:45.163843778 +0300
+++ vdr-1.6.0/thread.h	2009-07-25 21:31:59.513092715 +0300
@@ -88,6 +88,7 @@ private:
 protected:
   int GetPriority(void);
   void SetPriority(int Priority);
+  void SetIOPriority(int Priority);
   void Lock(void) { mutex.Lock(); }
   void Unlock(void) { mutex.Unlock(); }
   virtual void Action(void) = 0;