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mrb55 · 2014-07-29, 20:59

I don't know if this is already possible but does ServerWMC have the ability to allow the PVR client to be able to see recorded tv files across multiple hard drives? I have my just the Win 7 64bit OS on SSD C: Drive (which I don't put any recordings on). Instead I have two older, larger (non-ssd) SATA drives, each with a recordedtv folder (for windows media center recordings).

Is there a way to create a UNC path in the folders section of ServerWMC that will allow me to see ALL of the recordings with my remote xbmc pvr clients (on my smartphone and raspberry pi in the bedroom)? Right now, it seems as though I can see the correct "number" of recordings for each specific show in the top recorded tv folder on the remote pvr clients. The total combined count for the same show, different episodes, is actually located across both drives.

However, on those same clients when I actually go to the folder containing a particular show the actual listed recordings are only for one of the two drives.

Thanks for your help.

krustyreturns · (This post was last modified: 2014-07-29, 21:43 by krustyreturns.)

This should work out of the box so long as you have added your 'extra' recorded tv folders as watched folders in wmc - but the trick is you have to add them as unc paths in wmc, don't add them as local paths. If you have already done this and its not working, then post your swmc log on pastebin.com and put a link to it in this thread.

mrb55 · 2014-07-29, 21:51

Thanks Krusty for the quick response. I think you may have answered it already in an earlier post:

you have to make the second folder a 'watched' folder in wmc (which I assume you have done already). But for it to be visible on the remote client it needs to be a network share AND you need to specify the watched folder as a network (UNC) path, not a local path. You can either do this from inside of wmc (just delete the locall path to the watched folder and replace it with a network path to the same folder), Or you can do it with regedit
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\Recording\WatchedFolders

I will try that tonight. Thanks again.

mrb55 · 2014-07-30, 05:39

I was able to get the second hard drive to accurately display the listings for each show using the UNC directory method shared media setup within windows media center. However, using Raspbmc on my Raspberry Pi I am unable to actually watch the recordings from that same second drive. All I get is a black screen. If I press pause or fast forward I can see the timer pop up and get the idea that it is trying to display the picture and sound but can't.

On the primary drive that I actually entered manually within ServerWMC, I can watch those recordings with Raspbmc.

Whats strange is that my Android XBMC pvr smartphone client "can" see and watch recorded tv from both drives even though my raspbmc xbmc configuration cannot. Would there be anything within raspbmc that I need to configure to be able to watch recorded tv from that second drive?

Thanks again for your assistance.

krustyreturns · 2014-07-30, 06:13

Is it possible the files on the second drive are mpeg2 and you didn't purchase the mpeg2 decoder for raspbmc?

mrb55 · 2014-07-30, 06:45

I actually do have the mpeg2 decoder installed. Verified it last night via ssh command line.

krustyreturns · 2014-07-30, 07:07

That's really curious, I can't see why the pi would play from one disk but blackscreen on the other. I still wonder if its not the disk at all. As an experiment, try going to the debug tab in serverwmc and turn on 'remux the playback of all recordings' and then restart serverwmc. See if that makes a difference on the pi.

scarecrow420 · 2014-07-30, 07:45

so the additioal drives folder is obviously shared, have you got the credentials set the same on all shared drives (and the default shared primary recorded tv folder) and also have entered the user/pass into ServerWMC and ticked the box to use the credentials?

ben.page · 2014-07-30, 10:30

I have a similar issue: when a show is recorded it records to my C drive, as per standard. I run a script every couple of hours that moves completed recordings to a shared folder on another computer.

When SWMC starts up, it sees all those recordings (and therefore lists them in xbmc). However after time (usually after I've been at work during the day, or in the morning after waking up), it no longer lists those recordings on the server - only the recordings on the c drive (if there are still any).

If I open up SWMC from the taskbar, it will say 'recordings: 0'. If I close it and load it again, it will say 'recordings: 10' (or however many there are) and they will appear again in xbmc.

The path to the recorded tv on the server is *definitely* UNC, and there's no need to input credentials as it's on a domain and the share is accessible to everyone.. and obviously swmc can see the files in the share, because it reads them when I start it up again.

scarecrow420 · 2014-07-30, 11:17

Your problem may be different but just want to point out that clients independently access the recordings using smb so I'm not sure that domain permissions cover that.

ServerWMC gets the recordings list from WMC so if recordings are disappearing it sounds like wmc would also have "lost" them at that point

krustyreturns · 2014-07-31, 01:23

Ben, is it possible that the server (or whatever you are moving recordings too) is going off while the server machine is online?

ben.page · 2014-07-31, 01:26

(2014-07-31, 01:23)krustyreturns Wrote: Ben, is it possible that the server (or whatever you are moving recordings too) is going off while the server machine is online?

whilst it's possible every now and then that the server might reboot due to a patch installation, it certainly doesn't do that during the day, or most evenings.

krustyreturns · 2014-07-31, 01:36

Ok. I tried to setup what you are describing and I can't get it to fail. Try setting the flag Debug_LogGetRecordings to true in the config.xml file. Then next item the items vanish on you, post a link to the serverlog. Actually maybe just restart serverwmc and post the startup log now just so we can see how you have it configured.

When a file gets moved to another directory there is a delay before you see the change in xbmc, but after five minutes or so the recording change should be there.

scarecrow420 · (This post was last modified: 2014-07-31, 01:39 by scarecrow420.)

ben, can you post up yesterday's ServerWMC log file (or another day that you know showed this problem). If that day also didn't include a ServerWMC startup, could you also generate a fresh "startup log" and post that as well?

Thanks

mrb55: as krusty said, you can also troubleshoot by using the "remux all recordings" setting, which means ServerWMC will be remixing to a TS file (stored in the default recorded TV section) and the rpi will play that. Infact I think in general I had read that rpi guys need to use the remux option for all recordings due to the rpi not playing long/large WTV files or something like that?

Another thing to try is adding your extra networked recording storage share to your raspbmc as a regular source under Videos section (using SMB protocol) and see if you can then playback the WTV files?

Dilligaf · 2014-07-31, 03:49

The large WTV file problem on the PI was fixed a while ago. I have a Recorded TV folder on my WMC server and a second Recorded TV folder on my 2012 server that recordings are copied to and I'm able to play from both locations without problems so it is possible.

Try going into XBMC file manager and add the problem location as a source, put in the user/pass and check the box to remember