Trying to figure out why Sage deleted a movie

[belleboyd]

I am running SAGEMC

I know about the bug.I have disabled EP's video plugin and used the std compressions. I have set "seeker/clear_partials_and_unwanted_when_ir_off=false" in both the server and the client property files.

I still have the .avi file in my recording directory. But it's not listed anywhere in the recorded shows under SAGE. AGGHHH!!!!!!

I just turned on debug_logging. Tonight after various anime shows are recorded for my kid - I'll try again .

Is there any help? Should I go back a version? When is the new version being released?

[gplasky]

avi files aren't going to show up in the recorded shows. It will show up under imported videos.

Gerry

[belleboyd]

Originally Posted by gplasky

avi files aren't going to show up in the recorded shows. It will show up under imported videos.

Gerry

That doesn't appear to be the case. I compressed a show recorded by Sage from within Sage using the included compression. The file still physically exists ... but the recording information is gone from the show list. Neither recorded shows or imported videos list the title.

I understood that if I made that change to the properties file and used the included standard compression - this bug would be resolved. Guess I need to go back a version. Like some others I just don't have the disk space to play with.

Thanks

[orlandotek]

I am using version 6.0 for evaluation purposes and so far and I
not impressed with it at all.

Not to mention the dropped frames/choppy video quality issues...but
if I go in and schedule a show to record, it will record it until it
finishes and then it deletes the show. Just like that. Poof.

The only thing it does not delete are shows I am watching or
stuff I manually record.

So..is the automatic deletion a feature?

Hmmmm...

I am using the HVR 1600 Hauppauge card under
XP Media Center 2002.
Athlon 2000+ (1.68Ghz) 1.5 GB DDR400 Ram
400GB hard drive

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by orlandotek

I am using version 6.0 for evaluation purposes

Are you sure you are using v6.0? If so, where did you download that? Verison 6.4 is the latest release version available for trial on the SageTV site.

- Andy

[orlandotek]

Ooops. Yes, it's 6.4. I just knew it was version 6. Didn't mean
to put the ".0" after it.

I downloaded it from SageTV.com.

[Opus4]

There are several reasons for a recording to be deleted, including a corrupted recording, live TV files getting cleaned up, making room for new recoridngs, and so on. About the only reason to know exactly why a recording is getting deleted is to enable logging.

- Andy

[gveres]

Originally Posted by mistergq

gveres: welcome to Sage TV.

have you installed Nielm's Web Server plugin? This is a must have, especially for those of us switching from BTV.

Also, for conflict resolution, I recommend changing you "scheduling_lookahead" in properties file to "scheduling_lookahead=1209600000". This will give you 14 days in advance. That way, you will be able to see conflicts pretty far ahead.

As to the WAF, I think it will increase once you get everything set up. My wife never watched live tv with BTV. Now the only thing she uses is STV.

I don't think you can really call me new. I have been using Sage for a year now.

I did the look ahead change to get the 14 days. I don't know why its not supported. There is a couple second pause while it figures things out, but it is quite usable and really the only way to go. 3 days is not useful in my opinion.

As for the WAF, the problem is that after using BTV for 4 years she was quite comfortable with it and how get it to do what she wants. Sage, even with SageMC doesn't come close in our opinion to the usability of BTV. I am getting closer but there are still things that BTV did better.

Mike hooked me up recently with the proper way to add movies to the recording list through SAgeMC and that helped considerably. And that info would have avoided this deleted file issue so we will know better for next time.

BTW, I just filed a bug tonight where Sage was picking the SD version of Boston Legal even though an HD version was being recorded on another channel at the same time. It wasn't an issue of padding either because the SD version went from 1am to 2am and the HD version went from 1:01am to 2am. We'll see what support can tell me.

I finally forced Heroes to record on an HD channel by limiting it to a single HD station. It was the only way I could get it to do the right thing.

Greg

[gveres]

Originally Posted by Opus4

I still suggest contacting support if there are conflicts for what appears to be open recording times. When you check a conflict, the conflict resolution screen should show a grid with the show(s) in conflict. Don't forget that padding can increase the number of conflicts, especialyl when using a single tuner.

- Andy

I found an instance tonight (two actually) where it was going to record the SD version. Bug filed.

BTW, are you saying that if I tell it to use 2 minutes of padding on the front and end of a show, it wont record two back to back shows? Padding is necessary but in a back to back case, it has to automatically eliminate the padding to record the back to back shows. BTV has done this for years.

I guess I am just lucky that the default padding isn't sticking for some other reason and all my shows are being programmed without padding. Hmmm.

[gveres]

Originally Posted by belleboyd

That doesn't appear to be the case. I compressed a show recorded by Sage from within Sage using the included compression. The file still physically exists ... but the recording information is gone from the show list. Neither recorded shows or imported videos list the title.

I understood that if I made that change to the properties file and used the included standard compression - this bug would be resolved. Guess I need to go back a version. Like some others I just don't have the disk space to play with.

Thanks

This shouldn't be the case. I record using the R5000 so I have to run my recordings through a post processing step (VideoReDo's QuickStreamFix does the trick). This step takes the original .ts file and produces a .mpg file. When it does this, SageTV picks up the new file and associates it with the same recording and it is seemless. (almost but I wont go into that here - its not relevant)

Then for my kid's shows, I compress them using EP's plugin. That takes the mpg file and produces an avi file. When that happens, Sage obediantly picks up the new avi file and associates it with the recording data.

You have to make sure you stick with the same filenames and just change the extension. You also have to wait up to 5 minutes for Sage to rescan the recording directory to pick up the new file.

Hope that helps.
Greg

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by gveres

BTW, are you saying that if I tell it to use 2 minutes of padding on the front and end of a show, it wont record two back to back shows? Padding is necessary but in a back to back case, it has to automatically eliminate the padding to record the back to back shows.

Detailed Setup -> Customize -> Remove padding on back to back Favorites on the same channel.

If they aren't on the same channel or are Manual Recordings, the padding won't be removed.

- Andy

[CollinR]

I use SJQ to compress all of my recordings to MPEG4, no problems.

1 or 2 tuners really isn't enough I say minimum of 3 is required. This effects your STB style DVRs as well, 2 tuners pretty well sucks.

Also really look at your EPG data does the show start and end exactly on the hour? Many channels now do not, if it stops at 1:01pm even with no padding you cannot pickup a 1-1:30 recording following it.

[gveres]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Detailed Setup -> Customize -> Remove padding on back to back Favorites on the same channel.

If they aren't on the same channel or are Manual Recordings, the padding won't be removed.

- Andy

That doesn't quite cut it. Why do the shows have to be on the same channel? With BTV I set the padding to be 3 minutes on the start and 3 minutes on the end. This was great since it was long enough to catch any overrun and I was guarenteed to get the beginning of the show.

When BTV scheduled back to back shows, even if they were on different channels, it was smart enough to remove the end padding of the first show and the start padding of the second show so that I recorded both shows. It didn't care if the shows were on the same channel or not, that is irrelevant. The padding is a safety net. Its better to get rid of the safety net to get the shows you said to record.

Greg

[gveres]

Originally Posted by CollinR

I use SJQ to compress all of my recordings to MPEG4, no problems.

1 or 2 tuners really isn't enough I say minimum of 3 is required. This effects your STB style DVRs as well, 2 tuners pretty well sucks.

Also really look at your EPG data does the show start and end exactly on the hour? Many channels now do not, if it stops at 1:01pm even with no padding you cannot pickup a 1-1:30 recording following it.

Everybody's viewing habits are different. Since I don't watch anything live (why watch commercials?) I got away with a single tuner on BTV for over 4 years and only ran into a conflict a couple of times.

Actually I guess it helps that StarChoice broadcasts multiple instances of the same channel from across the country so most shows air 3 times during the evening.

BTW, the details on this one were such that the HD show started 1 minute after the SD show and ended at the same time. The tuner should have picked the HD show. Tech support is looking at it.

Greg

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by gveres

That doesn't quite cut it. Why do the shows have to be on the same channel?

Because that's what SageTV supports in order to be sure the requested padding area gets recorded somewhere. There are supposed to be conflicts when a Favorite can't be recorded & you could adjust the schedule for those specific shows or, since you use a single tuner, you could remove their padding if they are going to consistently conflict because they air on the same day/different channel all the time.

If there are no conflicts, then that is supposed to mean that SageTV managed to find an airing of the show that it could record at a different time, such as this:

Originally Posted by gveres

Actually I guess it helps that StarChoice broadcasts multiple instances of the same channel from across the country so most shows air 3 times during the evening.

With BTV ...

Obviously that's a different program with a different feature set.

I'm a little confused about something: in one of your posts above, you said you also still have BTV running to catch recordings, yet you say you only have a single tuner. I'm not sure how you manage this w/o having them conflict and make the tuner unavailable to the other one at times.

- Andy

[CollinR]

For the record I prefer the way Sage handles this to that of BeyondTV, which I too used for many years before I woke up.

[gveres]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Obviously that's a different program with a different feature set.

I'm a little confused about something: in one of your posts above, you said you also still have BTV running to catch recordings, yet you say you only have a single tuner. I'm not sure how you manage this w/o having them conflict and make the tuner unavailable to the other one at times.

- Andy

Yes a different feature set trying to do much the same thing. But as you say they are different.

I have BTV still running on my PVR 250 with my other set top box because until recently I was constantly missing recordings due to the R5000 program crashing many many times a week. I missed way too many recordings to trust Sage to record the really important stuff like F1 races. So I kept BTV running because it was rock solid and my wife still prefers it.

I can hear you guys saying, just move the PVR 250 under Sage's control and you wouldn't have to worry about conflicts but that's not true. I switched to sage primarily because I wanted to record HD content and the R5000 was my only option. I live too far away from antennas to get OTA HD. So when I don't want back to back shows to be considered conflicts because I want to record almost everything in HD (once you have a taste of HD you just can't go back).

The quality of the R5000 is so much better than anything the PVR250 can achieve even when comparing the same channel on SD. Just the fact that the R5000 isn't re-digitizing the signal means it is going to be worlds better.

Greg