UNC path help

[APillowOfClouds]

I'm sure this is a problem with my setup because other people are running UNC paths and comskip smoothly, but I am having an issue that I wonder if someone can help with.

For several reasons, I tried today to switch my video directories from local drive letters to UNC paths pointing back to the same machine, i.e. what WAS d:\shows2 became \\tvserv\shows2, where "tvserv" is the name of my server.

Sage accepted the change OK but the shows it recorded started having bizarre problems where an hour show would skip to the end after 40 minutes and not allow that last portion to be seen, the show would play but the timeline wouldn't move, etc.

Now, the thing is, originally when I set up Sage I had a similar problem recording to UNC paths but I thought it was due to the fact that one of those paths was on a different machine and that machine has had some network issues. But now the same issue is creeping up on UNC paths that point to the local machine.

Anyone ever seen anything like this? Everything has been working smooth for 3 weeks (since I switched to Sage) using drive letters. I am fairly confident the machine and Windows installation (it's XP running on a machine with 1.5 GB of RAM and a batch of different components that I bought and assembled myself). It seems like if I use the drive letters it's fine - stuff from this morning was fine, stuff from this evening's fine, it's just the stuff that was recorded while the UNC paths were in.

Any help will be appreciated. BTW the only add-ons I'm using are nielm's web server and ComSkip/ComSkip monitor.

Rob

[gplasky]

You still have to create a share. So you would have \\tvserv\share\shows2. Or make the shows2 directory a share.

Gerry

[APillowOfClouds]

Originally Posted by gplasky

You still have to create a share. So you would have \\tvserv\share\shows2. Or make the shows2 directory a share.

Gerry

Yup, shows2 is a share. Sage can apparently access it ok, cause it will record to the share. But it gets all these weird skip problems.

[bjp999]

Are you having a problem with shows that were recorded when using the drive letters? Or are you having the problem with newly recorded shows using the UNC paths? If it is the former, you might want to look here ...

Swithing from drive letters to UNC paths

Otherwise, it might be that your comskip parameters are too aggressive, and it is interpreting part of the show as a commertial. Look at your EDL file and see if it looks right.

[APillowOfClouds]

Originally Posted by bjp999

Are you having a problem with shows that were recorded when using the drive letters? Or are you having the problem with newly recorded shows using the UNC paths? If it is the former, you might want to look here ...

Swithing from drive letters to UNC paths

Otherwise, it might be that your comskip parameters are too aggressive, and it is interpreting part of the show as a commertial. Look at your EDL file and see if it looks right.

I'm having problems with shows being recorded to UNC's. I don't think it was ComSkip, I had disabled it and was still having the issue. I'm gonna try it again when I get a chance to make sure but it's the same issue I had when I first started using Sage, before I had comskip. UNC's=weird skipping (even when pointing to local machine), drive letters=perfect recording. Being a programmer it doesn't make sense as a symptom, but nevertheless that's what I've seen twice.

[APillowOfClouds]

Well, it wasn't the UNC's, I've had them back for a couple of days and no problems. Next I'll re-enable the comskip server but I've had that going before. Maybe it was something with the comskip client, I don't know. i'll report back more when I know.

[tombailey]

I'm using UNC designation on a client and, although Comskip seems to work fine - the playback recognizes comskips appropriately, the Comskip configuration doesn't like the UNC reference in the file.directories entry. When I run the setup, I get the invalid file reference message - "A directory specified in csm.properties "file.directories" attribute is invalid." My UNC definition is like \\servername\sagerecordings. Yet Comskip seems to be working except that I get periodic reminders that Comskip doesn't like the file designation. What gives?
tombailey

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by tombailey

I'm using UNC designation on a client and, although Comskip seems to work fine - the playback recognizes comskips appropriately, the Comskip configuration doesn't like the UNC reference in the file.directories entry. When I run the setup, I get the invalid file reference message - "A directory specified in csm.properties "file.directories" attribute is invalid." My UNC definition is like \\servername\sagerecordings. Yet Comskip seems to be working except that I get periodic reminders that Comskip doesn't like the file designation. What gives?
tombailey

You need to do it like this: \\\\servername\\sagerecordings (It's a java app)

Gerry

[tombailey]

Originally Posted by gplasky

You need to do it like this: \\\\servername\\sagerecordings (It's a java app)

Gerry

Thanks for the feedback, what you indicate is the format in the csm.properties file.

[gplasky]

Then double check the accuracy of the actual path. It should be \\\\servername\\share\\directory. Look at the path in the Network window address bar when you browse to the server.

Gerry

[tombailey]

Originally Posted by gplasky

Then double check the accuracy of the actual path. It should be \\\\servername\\share\\directory. Look at the path in the Network window address bar when you browse to the server.

Gerry

Thanks again for your response. Actually I copied the Explorer address and added the backslashes for the file reference in the properties.csm file. SageTV recognizes the UNC designation as does Explorer. Comskip is the only app that complains (on the client, for the server, no problem). And actually, on the client, since Comskip is running on the server, it seems that I don't need the Comskip service running so I just uninstalled it. Any thoughts?
Thanks.

[gplasky]

You only need it running in one place. If your client complains then that tells me the user ID doesn't have all the permissions it needs to get to that share. It needs to write and delete in that directory too.

Gerry

[tombailey]

Originally Posted by gplasky

You only need it running in one place. If your client complains then that tells me the user ID doesn't have all the permissions it needs to get to that share. It needs to write and delete in that directory too.

Gerry

I checked and the client has write and delete authority. It would be nice if Comskip said which file it had problems with and what problems it had. But, as you say, if Comskip needs to be running in only 1 place then it's basically moot since I don't need to run Comskip on the client.
Thanks for looking at this problem
Tom Bailey