DIY TV Archiving the Easy Way

[infocus13]

Guys, I have a question about a DIY TV-archiving technique.

Currently, I used the following method to archive my TV recordings (i.e. move them over to a bigger drive) where they won't be watched/used often:

* I've created a batch file to basically copy all my recorded TV from my normal recorded TV directory to a different HDD. The batch file runs every week and then deletes all of the contents of my recorded TV directory

* Using this method, most of my moved TV shows show up under "Recorded TV" (or Sage TV Recordings) with all of their show info, etc. They also automatically get the "Archived" flag which is awesome.

* The key point here is that **MOST** of my moved shows retain their show info and show up in Recorded TV. Some don't and these shows disappear from Recorded TV completely, which is a pain.

* To solve the above issue I have to manually do a Video Lib rescan (Rescan Import Folders). Given that my TV Archive drive/folder is also setup as a Video Import folder, all of my moved TV shows that disappear after the move, reappear under Recorded TV once I rescan. Problem solved!

My only issue with the above is that it is very manual an inconvenient. What I want to be able to do is the following:

* Create a SageMC menu shortcut called "Archive TV" (or something similar) that will achieve the following:

1. Call my batch file to move all of my Recorded TV to my TV Archive HDD/folder
2. Then, once the move is complete, automatically rescan my import video folders to pickup all of my moved recorded TV to ensure it all comes up under Recorded TV.

I know I can do point (1) using dynamic menus in SageMC, but how do I automatically trigger the video rescan process? I basically want Sage to do actions (1) and (2) in that order with just one menu option.

Any help would be much appreciated. This is the last piece of the puzzle (almost) to make Sage the perfect HTPC media centre.

Thanks guys!

[mickp]

Um... I'm curious as to why this is necessary (not very helpful I know). Wouldn't it be easier to just record to the various drives/shares that you have and let sage manage the free space, balancing and archiving (not deleting) on multiple drives?

Mick.

[infocus13]

Thanks for your response Mick.

I need to record to a particular dirve given that it is a physically standalone HDD - hence recordings are no interrupted by other apps using the drive.

On the other hand, my TV archive drive is a separate partitiion on the same HDD that has my OS. Thats why I am moving the archived TV to that drive - those TV shows would not be watched/accessed frequently, hence they can be on the same drive as the OS.

If anyone has any other suggestions or thoughts, please share with me. Thanks.

[mayamaniac]

This sounds like somthing you need to know studio to do.

But as an alternative, if you are running SageTV as a service, you can schedule it to restart the service after you run the batch file to move the shows. When SageTV service restarts, it automatically rescan the recording directories and update the show info and locations. Of course this would shutdown SageTV for a moment, but if you do it in the middle of the night when nothing is recording, then it should be ok.

commands to stop/start window services:
net stop <service name>
net start <service name>

[infocus13]

Maya, that is genius - brilliant suggestion, I included those commands in my batch file and it works - TV shows that are moved are all in Recorded Tv.

Great solution, simple but it works!

[Tiki]

Just remember that the Sage Service must be running when something is scheduled to record, or it won't record. So, if you try to run you batch file automatically at a set time once per week it is possible it could interfere with a recording if the batch file is stopping and starting the service.

[nyplayer]

you can simply refresh if you use the webserver. Download wget and simply run a batchfile to refresh the library. Then there is no need to stop sageTV. See example below. The line can be added to your batch file.

C:\wget\wget.exe --tries=3 --delete-after --directory-prefix="C:\wget" "http://username:password@servername:8080/sage/GlobalCommand?command=UpdateMediaLibrary"

[mayamaniac]

Originally Posted by Tiki

Just remember that the Sage Service must be running when something is scheduled to record, or it won't record. So, if you try to run you batch file automatically at a set time once per week it is possible it could interfere with a recording if the batch file is stopping and starting the service.

Thats why I suggested to run it in the middle night when he is unlikely to be recording anything. And it only takes a minute.

Originally Posted by nyplayer

you can simply refresh if you use the webserver. Download wget and simply run a batchfile to refresh the library. Then there is no need to stop sageTV. See example below. The line can be added to your batch file.

C:\wget\wget.exe --tries=3 --delete-after --directory-prefix="C:\wget" "http://username:password@servername:8080/sage/GlobalCommand?command=UpdateMediaLibrary"

I thought the force update via webserver also, but didn't know how to make it work via command line, thanks for sharing. Also, does refreshing the library also rescan the recording directories or just the media library only?

[nyplayer]

opps my fault that is for the epg corrected it.

That should take care of recordings too because... Sage will see the recordings in Import and match the ID,