I can't figure out how to restore my recordings list.

[freewheeling]

I had to restore my system from an image, but all of my recordings were on another drive and they're still there. I can open the server in HD200 and can see all of my old recordings in the video browser, but it won't list them as recordings. I've tried the suggestions in the "sticky" message, changing sage.properties, but it still doesn't list my recordings. Is this just a lost cause?

Man this is sure one temperamental setup. You breathe on it the wrong way, and it stops working. But why can't the program see my recordings when it has the correct pathway? Why is this soooo hard to accomplish? Why can't you just tell the program "See, they're right there... just open your eyes!" Sheesh.

[freewheeling]

Why is there no easy way to just tell the program to stop recording a particular show? Seems like I always have to trick it into stopping a recording. Sometimes I can just indicate "I don't like this" and it'll stop, but sometimes it won't. Sometimes I can stop viewing and the recording will stop. but sometimes it won't. There's no simple "stop" or "exit" button anywhere! Quit! Don't do *anything*! Just stop! I don't like to just shut everything down while it's recording, because again this system just seems soooo temperamental that if you breathe on it the wrong way it'll stop working.

[GKusnick]

Regarding your first issue: Recording metadata is stored in Wiz.bin in your Sage installation folder, not in the recording files themselves. If you lose Wiz.bin, or restore it back to an earlier version, metadata will be lost and Sage won't recognize those files as recordings or display any details about those videos. Instead they'll appear as imported videos with minimal info.

If you have a recent backup of Wiz.bin, try using that. You may recover some recordings that way. If you don't have a recent backup, consider setting up a scheduled task to make regular backups.

Regarding your second issue: Stopping a Manual recording is just a matter of choosing Cancel Recording from the popup dialog. (Note that this will delete the partial recording on the assumption that you changed your mind and don't want it anymore.) Stopping Live TV (that's not otherwise scheduled for recording) is just a matter of hitting Stop on your remote.

Skipping a particular episode of a Favorite is trickier. Your best bet is to mark it Watched (rather than Don't Like) so that Sage thinks you've already seen it and won't try to record it again. But remember that Sage is not meant to be a VCR with a simple start/stop recording interface. It's designed for unattended scheduled recording of favorite programs, with an emphasis on recording whole programs rather than random clips.

Regarding your general issue of fragility: Many of us have Sage systems that run reliably for months without attention. A lot depends on the quality of your capture hardware and its drivers. If your HD-PVR is unstable, read some of the many threads on fine-tuning that device and be sure to use the known stable driver versions.

It's also true that those of us with stable, reliable Sage systems generally do not try to use our Sage servers for anything but Sage (and related media-management software).

I understand your frustration, but I'd also respectfully suggest that you resist the urge to turn every post into a rant on what a pain in the neck it is to get things working right. The answers you're looking for are provided by volunteers who do this for the satisfaction of being helpful, so to get their attention you want to present yourself as the kind of person it's a pleasure to help.

[girbim]

I think that you can use the advanced method indicated in this post:
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30697

I had a video that showed up as currently recording and was able to get rid of it using that procedure. I was stupid and saw a channel that I wanted to delete and changed my channel lineup to delete it while the channel was still playing on my extender. At least you should get all recordings that were present when your disc image was made. I am assuming that you recovered the old wiz.bin file.

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

I understand your frustration, but I'd also respectfully suggest that you resist the urge to turn every post into a rant on what a pain in the neck it is to get things working right. The answers you're looking for are provided by volunteers who do this for the satisfaction of being helpful, so to get their attention you want to present yourself as the kind of person it's a pleasure to help.

Yes that's probably true. I hope no one takes it as personal, but I think if I'd known what I was getting into, I wouldn't have gotten into it. Years ago I thought I'd learned the lesson that systems that depend on just two different pieces of computerized hardware that have to work together, often don't. It's worse with three or four pieces of hardware and multiple software. The more complex the system the more fragile it is. Somehow I originally thought that all I needed was the HD-PVR and that would do everything. Then with one bit of soft flesh in the ringer everything else sort of followed on.

[freewheeling]

Originally Posted by girbim

I think that you can use the advanced method indicated in this post:
http://forums.sagetv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=30697

I had a video that showed up as currently recording and was able to get rid of it using that procedure. I was stupid and saw a channel that I wanted to delete and changed my channel lineup to delete it while the channel was still playing on my extender. At least you should get all recordings that were present when your disc image was made. I am assuming that you recovered the old wiz.bin file.

I don't think it's worth the trouble, it just struck me as odd that it wasn't easy (as it is on iTunes, for instance). I'll just watch the stuff and then delete it.

[freewheeling]

I should say that when the system is working it's great. It's a time-saver that allows me to use my time much more effectively, and to catch programming that I'd otherwise miss out on. The recording quality is extremely good. Most of the problems I've had so far (once the computer stopped freezing) had to do with the HD-PVR. That's the "weak link" oddly enough.