What happens when DVR storage is full?

Channels DVR Server
#1

I've been using Channels DVR for a a little while now and I have a dedicated 10TB drive. I moved from YouTubeTV and took the "record everything I watch" approach, and pretty much have every pass set to keep everything. Its been great because especially with kids shows, almost every time I switch to something in the Guide, there is a library version of what's on already.

Now the DVR storage is about 90% full and I need to start thinking about disk management. What happens when the DVR space gets to 100%? Prior DVR systems would start deleting the oldest recordings to make space for new ones. Is that the case with Channels DVR, or is it going to just start failing to record?

If its going to fail, I need to start adjusting passes to free up space. If I take a pass that is set to keep forever and has a couple hundred episodes in the library, if I were to just change the requirements on the pass, will it automatically then move episodes to the trash can?

#2

Channels allows for additional drives. Just search for additional storage. I try to keep 2.5 TB free on my Channels recording drive. Shows and movies that I want to keep are moved (copied) to the other external drives (currently 6). Once set up (I am on a Mac Mini), all the movies and show episodes appear seamlessly. Just like having a 40TB drive!

In my case: curl -XPATCH --data-binary '{"ExtraPaths":"/Volumes/Drive1:/Volumes/Drive2:/Volumes/Drive3/Channels:/Volumes/Drive4/Channels:/Volumes/Drive5/Channels:/Volumes/Drive6"}' http://XX.XX.XX.XXX:8089/dvr

This worked for me in the Mac environment. Note: Drive1 and 2 just have TV and Movies directories at the top level. Drive 3 and 4 have the /Volume/Drive3/Channels/TV and /Volume/Drive3/Channels/Movies directory layout.

#3

I know they implemented "taking out the trash" about 6 months ago which will immediately delete items in the DVR's Trash when available space drops below 20GB. Not sure if they've done anything outside of that, or what would happen if you run out of space while recording/comskipping/guide updating/transcoding/etc.

#4

Did Channels setup that organization or you do it manually?

I probably won’t get another drive now but nice to know it’s an option.

#5

It’s an option that I don’t believe appears in the UI anywhere, you have to send a web call using CURL or similar for it. So, it’s official but complex to set up. To answer your questions, yes Channels will start pruning episodes as soon as you set passes to do so. It won’t be instantaneous, the pruning process runs on an interval, so it may take a few hours before it takes any action. As others have mentioned if the drive get critically low it will empty the trash. So I’d say you should just start setting some pruning options on passes you are willing to get rid of some episodes, and it should take care of the rest.

#6

Yes, additional storage is an official "product." Additional Storage Locations for Channels DVR Recordings

It is a little complex. The "cur"l command is run from the Terminal utility application (in the Mac environment). Extra storage works for me.

#7

Extra storage is great I recently moved my Channels DVR to a Windows 10 I7 from my nas ... I use robocopy to move any shows that I want to keep to the NAS when Channels DVR is not recording or running Comskip.

#8

Looking at Extra Storage now as an option and have a few questions...

  • If I setup a second drive, then I will need to manually move things from /TV and /Movie over, right? Any tips for doing this efficiently?
  • If I move over a TV show directory, then it tries to record another episode of that TV show, is it smart enough to know that episodes exist on the Extra Storage drive, or will I end up with two copies. I assume I'll end up with a folder for that show on both drives.
  • Once setup, if I delete something from the UI, is it smart enough to know which drive the episode is on and correctly delete it?
  • What happens if I manually delete something from the folder... will Channels figure that out and remove it from the Library?

Thanks.

#9

Extra storage is treated the same way as regular storage minus being able to record to it... It will not record extra copies.. You will have to figure out on your own how you want to move recordings.

#10

Correct. You might want to look into rsync, that's basically what its purpose is.

Yes, it knows about both locations. But it will create a new folder for the program in your primary location, because all recordings are only made in the primary storage location.

I believe so, but I don't have experience with this aspect.

You should let Channels manage its own recordings. But if you insist on manually deleting things, there is a "Prune Deleted" option in the DVR that will remove items from its database that no longer have a recording on disk.

#11

Once you move the .meg file to the Extra Storage Drive and delete the original .meg file from your Channels Record Drive, trashing the show episode or movie will delete from the Extra Storage Drive. If you don’t manually delete the .meg file on the Channels Record Drive, you will have an orphan copy on the storage drive. Channels keeps the information about each show episode or movie recorded in its database. Adding extra storage drives into Channels just allows Channels to search the attached drives.

#12

If You move the file why would you have to delete it ... channels will automatically find it. I move the file and all associated EDL JSON to the secondary storage and that is it. Below is my Robocopy Sample ...

ROBOCOPY "R:\ChannelsDVR\TV\Charmed" "\WDMYCLOUDDL2100\ChannelsDVR2\TV\Charmed" /move /COPY:DT /minage:0 /e /R:2 /W:2

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#13

Not sure what you are doing. I am on a Mac Mini with a different OS. If I fail to delete the .meg file on the Channels Record Drive, then that file is found and played by channels. Deleting the file from the Channels Record Drive frees space on that drive.

#14

So you are not moving the file you are just copying it must be a Mac thing that you need to copy instead of moving. In windows it does just that move the file not copy.

#15

Perhaps since there's more than 4 users now interested in Additional Storage Locations they could incorporate it in the web UI and provide a Support Article since there are a lot of permutations to adding it using curl and power shell?

Just thinking out loud.

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#16

I think it will be a lot more then 4 users as time goes by. I have 8tb dedicated and its close to 70% full so I'll be in that boat soon. I tend to keep everything i record.

#17

That would be great, but this doesn't look that bad to setup and you would do it maybe once or twice ever. I would rather see them spend their energy on things that effect the day to day use. It would be nice to have a clean tutorial on it instead of having to wander through the thread to find the instructions.

Not sure if its related, but last night for the first time ever I was having a hard time even watching Channels DVR on one of our Apple TVs. It was taking a long time to switch channels, and couple of the channels were pretty much unwatchable because they were stumbling... play a second, pause for 2, play a second, pause for 2... etc.. Seemed to be worse on TVE channels than OTA. The drive is 94% full and I did prune some passes. It was only recording a couple of shows at the time, when I've seen it do over 10 without missing a beat. I need to get over to Best Buy to pick up another drive.