[mythtv-users] What happens if MythTV can't find the recorded files?

[Michael T. Dean]

On 02/09/2014 10:36 AM, Jon N wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I finally cleared some problems and will be trying to move my MythTV
> frontend/backend to a new machine today.  Unfortunately I didn't get
> this done before the Olympics, so I'm trying to watch several hours of
> recorded coverage while doing this.  This is my plan, please note that
> the drive I record all my MythTV programs to is an external drive that
> I will be moving to the new computer to transfer the current recording
> libraray:
>
> 1) Copy the recorded Olympics program to an internal HD.
> 2) Add that location using mythtv-setup
> 3) Restart the backend (if needed)
> 4) unmount the external drive.
> 5) watch the Olympics from the internal HD
>
> At this point I'm not sure if this will even work at all.  My biggest
> fear is that when MythTV can't find all the missing recorded programs
> it will mark them all as missing and I won't be able to watch them
> through the frontend again later.  So what will it do?
>

The backend must use the same profile name (which, by default, uses the 
host name) as the backend that recorded the shows, and if it does, 
everything will work.  If you change the profile name, the recordings 
won't be found because recordings are always associated with the 
recording host (the host that did the recording, as identified by the 
profile name).  You can specify a profile name that differs from your 
host name in the ~/.mythtv/config.xml as LocalHostName.

However, as long as you use the same profile name, your plan will work 
without problems.  MythTV will happily work without any issues even if 
some recording files aren't available--the only limitation is that you 
won't be able to play back any of the recordings whose files aren't 
there.  And, as soon as you put the files in place, MythTV will find 
them (again, as long as the host name is the same).

If you're just trying to use a local copy of the Olympic recordings 
temporarily for some reason, you can do that /even/ if the host name is 
different by putting the file in the /exact/ same path as it exists on 
the backend.  MythTV notices when a recording file from another 
host/backend exists at the same location on a "local" (or NFS/CIFS) file 
system, and will use the local view, instead.

Mike