10 replies to this topic

[PoolBloke]

Hi

Is it possible to record to a netowrked drive in MC? Is it possible some other way?

[logifuse]

Yes, but you really don't want to. It tends to cause numerous issues.

You do it with symbolic links (the mklink command).

What most people do is set up a way to transfer the recordings to a network location as a scheduled job (say at 3am or some time when nothing will be happening).

Justin

[PoolBloke]

Yes, but you really don't want to. It tends to cause numerous issues.

You do it with symbolic links (the mklink command).

What most people do is set up a way to transfer the recordings to a network location as a scheduled job (say at 3am or some time when nothing will be happening).

Justin

Thanks Justin

What do you mean numerous issues?

I am considering whether to purchase a USB external drive to compliment my central SSD or record direct to NAS which I already own. So what are the issues?

[logifuse]

Network connections aren't as solid as you would expect them to be. If you're sleeping/waking, it's possible the connection won't be re-established, so the recording would fail. Minor dips in the network performance lead to glitches in recordings. Timeshift would need to be local (or it would be all over the place), but that being the case, if you chose to record the show you were timeshifting, it would need to transfer the recording to the NAS on the fly.

What it boils down to is that WMC isn't designed with it in mind & is expecting the performance of a local hard drive.

But what about network tuners, how come they work? The network element is happening before WMC, not "within" WMC, so as far as WMC is concerned, it's dealing with a stream off an internal tuner. The network tuners are designed to work around the limitations of the network.

WMC is a standalone PVR with some added network ability (i.e. you can watch recorded TV that is stored elsewhere). Other solutions like Myth, ForTheRecord & MediaPortal (although I don't rate MediaPortals networked TV ability, so I substitute ForTheRecord within it) are designed for network & multiple full clients, so they handle this sort of stuff better.

You can try the network recording & see how you go - the mklink stuff is pretty easy to work out. If it's good enough, you're all set, if not, get the external drive. You could always configure an overnight transfer system & have the best of both worlds.

Justin

[Dean1M]

I tried recording direct to my network drive but there just seemed to be too much going on at once and the image kept freezing or breaking up when replayed. I bought a WD external USB drive and it has been perfect.

I set up wake on LAN for the main HTPC and all the subsidiary units can access it on demand to take material off the USB drive. This seems to work perfectly until the workload for the USB gets ridiculously high(recording 3 and streaming 1)then it gets a bit rough. The only downside is that you need the main HTPC on to replay media stored on it.

I just use my network drive for backups and long term storage of media. All the day to day stuff runs off the USB on the main unit.

I did a fair bit of mucking around to try and get the central recording running smoothly, I ended up with a service(WMPNetworkSvc) absolutely hogging the CPU and creating so much heat. So for me, the issues were, poor image(blocky, pixellated), freezing image, high CPU usage, large amounts of heat. Not saying that you will get any or all of these but as Justin said the end result may not be that great.

Edited by Dean1M, 24 January 2012 - 07:40 PM.

[DDH]

The easiest way I've found is:

1. Map a drive on your MCE machine to your network share (you can do it via UNC if required without a map, I just like this as its easier in batch files, etc)
2. Setup your MCE to record locally (the default) and to also look for recorded TV on the mapped share
3. On the MCE machine setup a task in "Task Scheduler" under Microsoft | Windows | Media Center, have that task run a batch file to move all your recordings to your share, ie usual neat batch fule guff, 'move "C;\Recorded TV\*.wtv" x:\'. Set the triggers to be
a ) On Media Center recording event ID 1
b ) On Media Center recording event ID 3
c ) Daily at some time as a final catch all, ie 2am

All done, and have fun!

Edited by DDH, 25 January 2012 - 04:56 AM.

[Martin24]

If you have a Windows Home Server it provides a MCE Add-In that will (optionally) compress (Zune and other formats) your recordings (after the reconding has completed) and the transfer the result to the WHS

[becje01]

What most people do is set up a way to transfer the recordings to a network location as a scheduled job (say at 3am or some time when nothing will be happening).

+1

I use Drasch Recorded TV Manager - it moves recordings to my network share 5 hours after they finish - the rationale is that if we are going to watch it that day, it's local, otherwise it's stored centrally. The bit that automagically moves the recording is free...

Cheers,
Jeff

[Anthony Thomas]

Help Needed - Please
Hi,
Reading informative posts have often been helpful but (as many will agree) you sometimes just want a quick fix from an expert who has invariably encountered and solved the problem you're having.

To that end; Is there anyone who is a MC Tech willing to troubleshoot/configure MC Rigs on an hourly rate?
If so pls contact me via PM in Adelaide metro area.

Edited by logifuse, 15 May 2012 - 04:15 PM.
Changed email address to PM

[ipguy]

+1

I use Drasch Recorded TV Manager - it moves recordings to my network share 5 hours after they finish - the rationale is that if we are going to watch it that day, it's local, otherwise it's stored centrally. The bit that automagically moves the recording is free...

Cheers,
Jeff

Only problem with this is once moved to the NAS you can't delete the recording with the remote as you can when its local

[davidgol]

Only problem with this is once moved to the NAS you can't delete the recording with the remote as you can when its local

Hmm .. maybe you have a permissions issue? I can delete recordings with the remote after they've been moved to the NAS. No problems there. Same experience as deleting local recordings.

The only thing that doesn't work anymore with this setup is that MC won't automatically delete recordings as per my 'keep until' settings. It doesn't 'see' the recordings anymore, so it doesn't delete them. All I did to get around this was to write a program (that runs automatically each day) and it keeps the latest 'n' episodes (configurable) of each program. Saves my NAS from filling up with episodes of Dora!