Recording - Disk Space

Beta Community DVR Beta
#1

Although I have an 8TB disk for recordings, I can foresee running out of disk space in a month or two (primarily as we record a lot of movies).

Are there any plans to add capability of reading a 2nd and/or 3rd disk location for recordings only?

Prior to Channels DVR, I used this capability in SD DVR…one could set up a path for current recordings and also add a 2nd path for additional storage (with a null parameter for current path to recordings). These two paths were then combined in the recordings tab to be able to playback from either location.

#2

or any plans to be able to convert recordings to other formats? I’m all OTA, and h.264 would be far more efficient than MPEG-2.

#3

An Extend will do this already. It transcodes in real time, so no waiting or rewriting or dvr processor used. It works for OTA signals. This is about equivalent to having double the amount of hard drive space on your DVR.

#4

I have a hdhomerun extend for this reason. Works great. Only downside is that plex doesn’t love mpeg 2 h.264 and wants to transcode it. DVR works so well not much incentive to use plex over the dvr for playback.

#5

My pair of HDHRs having been working fine since 2007, so i have no desire to pay $$ for new tuners.

My Mac mini, however, has peppy processors that sit idle, but with SageTV, used to convert all the OTA content i recorded to h.264 after Comskip was finished.

Not to be too snarky, but having transcoding built into the DVR is fairly basic :slight_smile:

#6

Any further thoughts for implementation of secondary storage location by the devs for those of us using a prime CC tuner producing huge mpeg-2 files. Broadcast change from Comcast still has not even been announced for our area.

I stopped using MCEBuddy to reduce file size as it was taking over 3 hours per movie and maxing out my i-7. Channels comm skip with either ATV or Harmony remote is working so well, I also stopped running files through MCE for commercial stripping.

#7

+1

I can easily see the issue coming up fairly quickly. Currently using (in less than 3 months) 3.5tb out of an 8tb usb drive… Don’t want to have to decide whose shows get cleared/deleted first[1]… :open_mouth:

[1] I know I can copy the files to another location and archive them for use with plex if needed… But that defeats the purpose of using the channels interface for the items recorded through channels…

2 Likes
#8

never any comment on this?

honestly, the ability to re-encode OTA MPEG streams is why i switched back to Plex DVR. And unlike cable companies, i cannot see my OTA format changing in the next decade or so :slight_smile:
(ten years any counting w/o paying monthly money to Comcast)

#9

The ability to add multiple drives was added in Additional Storage Locations for Channels DVR Recordings

Some users have scripts which re-encode their recordings, but that’s not something Channels DVR can do automatically yet.

#10

thanks.

when that arrives i will re-evaluate, as the value for $8 a month wasn’t there for me during the months i subscribed to Channels DVR.

Plex DVR was/is more akin to the SageTV experience i am looking to replicate, especially since i spend zero time watching live TV.