[mythtv-users] LiveTV auto recording? Harddrive filling up.

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Mon Mar 6 17:56:35 UTC 2006


On 03/06/2006 12:02 PM, William wrote:
> You people are missing the point. Since my system is a mature system the
> hard drive is always full of recordings so anytime someone watches live tv I
> lose a recording I wanted to keep. Its not a matter of how much free space
> is on the drive. My son often puts on the music channel for 10-12 hours/day
> this routinely deletes 5-8 recordings each time. The file is 20+gigs. I want
> the system to never save live tv which should be an option.
>   

You're completely right.  I am missing the point.  Please explain to me 
how--if your hard drive is always full of recordings--you expect Myth's 
deleting LiveTV recordings immediately /after watching LiveTV/ to allow 
you to watch LiveTV without anything else being deleted?

Let me try to explain to you what actually happens:

Your disk is full.  You've set your "Extra Disk Space (in Gigabytes)" 
(AutoExpireExtraSpace) to 0--meaning Myth has access to all the space in 
the filesystem.  Your son turns on MTV in LiveTV.  At this 
point--because there's no space on the filesystem--it's impossible for 
Myth to show LiveTV without first deleting something (using something 
like xawtv, it would be possible--and you can make a menu item for 
that--search the archives for EXECTV if you're really that bad off for 
space, but note that you're no longer using a PVR at that point).

Therefore, Myth decides to delete something that's marked to allow 
auto-expiring.  Then, Myth begins showing LiveTV.  During LiveTV, all 
recordings are broken up into separate programs according to the 
start/end times in the program listings.  Therefore, if MTV is showing a 
30-minute "reality" program, that will be (at most--depending on when 
your son started/finished watching) a 30-minute recording.  If MTV is 
showing a 20-hour "Music Videos" block--that shows on your listings as a 
single program--it will be (at most) a 20-hour recording (but I don't 
think MTV plays music videos, anymore, anyway, so that's unlikely to 
cause problems ;).

Even if you set your "LiveTV recordings Max Age" 
(AutoExpireLiveTVMaxAge) to zero (which I /do not/ recommend doing), 
Myth won't expire the LiveTV recording until your son stops watching the 
show or until the program ends and the next program begins, so you'd 
have to train your son to frequently exit and re-enter LiveTV to allow 
Myth to expire the LiveTV to prevent old recordings from being expired.

However--*and here's the important part*--even if you set your "LiveTV 
recordings Max Age" to 1 (or 365--the value makes no difference at this 
point because you're short on drive space), if your son stops watching 
the 20-hour music video marathon program (exiting and re-entering 
LiveTV), that portion of the show is *immediately* (assuming there is no 
older LiveTV) the highest-priority recording for auto expiration.  So, 
at this point, Myth can delete the old recording of the first hour of 
music videos while your son continues to watch the second hour.

Notice how it makes *no difference* whether the "LiveTV recordings Max 
Age" is zero (as you have said you want) or 365 (the highest Myth will 
allow you to set it)*.  Either way, to get Myth to expire a portion of 
the LiveTV show before expiring your other recordings, you have to cause 
a break in the LiveTV chain (exit and re-enter LiveTV).  And, /as soon 
as you exit LiveTV/ (or as soon as the program changes according to the 
listings), the LiveTV recording you just watched is eligible for 
auto-expiration and is among the highest (or, if the only LiveTV 
recording on your filesystem, is the highest) priority for 
autoexpiration.  (And, to emphasize, even if your son doesn't exit 
LiveTV, but the program listings show a new program has begun, the old 
program is now eligible for autoexpiration at high-priority.)

Moral of the story:  
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/Category.asp?Category=15 (and don't 
blame this one on Myth--if you don't have enough room for more 
recordings, nothing could make new recordings without deleting old)

Mike

*Before the, "Well, what if I want to keep my LiveTV for more than 365 
days" crowd comes out of the woodwork, you simply need to change the 
recording group for any LiveTV you want to keep to something other than 
LiveTV and it's no longer treated as LiveTV (won't be highest-priority 
for autoexpiring, won't be expired after "LiveTV recordings Max Age", etc.).


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