[EXPERIMENTAL] DVR server on SHIELD Tube, etc

Beta Community DVR Beta
#82

I was trying to move my faulty Shield DVR Server over to my TiVo Stream 4K device, but when I do the restore function using the same external USB HDD connected to the TS4K instead of the Shield, I keep getting those "write permission" errors when I try to select where to save the DVR recordings to. I have tried multiple ways, including this suggestion:

"...then create the folder structure: Android/data/com.getchannels.dvr/DVR...."

.....All to no avail. The only differences I see are as follows:

  1. My USB drive is formatted NTFS, not ExFAT.

  2. In my drive path, it still shows the same file folder path's disc description, i.e. - "/storage/CE9E6EE99E6ECA13/DVR", but I saw a post here sayng it should be in a format like "/storage/XXXX-XXXX/DVR" with the X's being numbers, when using this with an Android device like the Shield Tube or TiVo Stream 4K?

Am I missing something? Is there a special way that these Android devices need to be setup as a DVR Server compared to something like the Shield?

I can't figure this out. I am trying to set this up so I can troubleshoot to see if I have a bad Shield or USB HDD, or something else, since I am having so many issues when using the Shield Pro 2019 as a DVR Server.

#83

Last time I tried the TS4K, there were no restrictions on the folder and you could simply save to /storage/XX/DVR. It's possible that in the recent upgrades something has changed. But in that case, the Android/data/com.getchannels.dvr subdirectory should always work.

Can you submit diagnostics from that DVR?

#84

I already moved it off there and onto my PC again, for troubleshooting purposes, to see if it's the HDD. If it works well on the PC then I at least know the HDD is good. Then I will try to move it back to the TS4K and submit logs if I get the same errors.

I was thinking of formatting the HDD to ExFAT and starting fresh. Do you think that will give me the correct "/storage/XX/DVR" file path and then work properly? What was the "XXXX-XXXX" location someone mentioned? Is that specific to drives hooked up to a Shield Tube or TS4K or other generic Android TV device (not Shield)?

#85

Any drive attached as external storage on android appears under /storage with a random name. Sometimes its in XXX-XXX format, other times its just one long hex string. It's the ID of the HDD or something.

#86

OK that's what I thought. I was grabbing at straws trying to figure out why on God's green earth it kept giving me errors with the DVR path when I double, triple and quadruple checked it and tried every possibility in the book!

The restore worked perfectly, but it kept throwing errors saying I didn't have permission to write to that drive path. :mad:

#87

It is the UUID of the filesystem. FAT-based filesystems use the 4-4 format, while most others use the 8-4-4-4-12 format. blkid and similar tools can show you your devices' IDs.

#88

Thanks @racameron, but to be clear, no matter the UUID, it shouldn't affect what I am doing and the errors I am seeing, right?

#89

It definitely looks like a permissions issue. The fact that you're using NTFS muddies the issue, because that FS treats permissions differently than FAT partitions. (While ExFAT can use ACLs like NTFS, that level of permissions are usually ignored on Linux/Android.)

If you're going to use a drive between different systems/OSs, you really ought to use FAT32 or ExFAT for your drives ... NTFS, ext4, and others will just bring additional issues.

#90

Excellent advice sir, thanks!!! I hear that FAT32 could cause issues with DVRs due to its 2GB limit, so if I continue to have issues I will wipe the drive and reformat using ExFAT.

#91

Actually, it's 4GB. But, still an issue, especially with OTA HD ... expect an average of 5GB/hr with OTA HD. If ExFAT is an option for cross-platform drives, use it.

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#92

Yeah I was wondering how the Shield Tube would even work with not USB port. Not much storage otherwise.

#93

On my Mi Box S it formatted the drive as Fat32 and even though my Win10 computer saw it as 4TB, Android only saw 1.9TB of storage. I reformatted as ExFat and now is shows as 4TB on the Mi Box S.

#94

I wanted to provide an update on my experiment with the Mi Box S. I used a super old Hitachi drive in a portable case I bought on Newegg more than 10 years ago and connected it to my network using this.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07TWGHM99/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

So far it has performed well. I was able to record 4 OTA streams and 4 TVE stream at the same time with no issues. With the network adapter vs Wifi (I have a new Wifi6 NightHawk) playback has been the same. The difference is that skipping seems to be better with the network adapter.

The only issue I have noticed is that if I try to record 8 things and once and use the Mi Box S as a playback device as the same time playback is a little sluggish. The stream plays fine, but interacting with the UI is slow.

Today I picked up a WD My Passport 4TB and formatted it as ExFat and am using it on the UGreen adapter as removable storage. Just transfer the DVR files from the other drive now. Will report back any updates as we start using this regularly.