Recording tv to network storage

[ohdarklord]

I was wondering if there is any one that is currently doing this as i am building a file server in the next few months and i would really like to record directly to it as it will be on 24 hrs a day.

Are there any major problems with doing this?

[Rybber]

Shouldn't be a problem at all.

I record in standard quality, which means that 1 hour = 2 GB file:

2 GB/hour = 33 1/3 MB/minute ~ 0.5 MB/sec

Now even wifi will support this transfer rate, but I'd recommend using cabled ethernet for stability.

100 MBps ethernet has a theoretical transfer rate of 12,5 MB/sec so that should be enough for you.

Lets hear about your real-world tests when you're done.

[ohdarklord]

I decided to make a "prototype" to test things out

I used my main pc (athlon 64 3500 , 1gb ram) to represent the file server

And I used my htpc (athlon 2000 , 512 mb ram)

They were connected using a 100mb/s ethernet (This was allready set up so that I could watch videos i downloaded on the htpc)

Once i had the my recording folder maped as drive R:/ on my htpc i set drive R:/ as the recording loaction.

Im happy to say that it worked

All recordings were stored on the main computer and only 2% - 5% of the bandwidth was being used.

I even tried watching a movie stored on my main pc on the htpc at the same time as recording to the main pcs hard disk and that worked perfect.

Now for the bad part

The time shift buffer is put on the main pc which i caused a slower change of channels and if the file server is turned off the tv is useless.

Some of ther first recordings i done didnt work , when i recorded them i selected record current program (with the time shift turned on this records the program from the begining) and all i ended up with was currupt files.


Tommorow (I have college work to do just now) i will try and work out what happened with the first few recordings and maybe set up a dedicated file server.

[Rybber]

Good...

A few comments:

The idea of having a fileserver is IMO lost if you don't have it up and running 24/7.

About the timeshift/record corruption, then I would think it's a MP bug rather than caused by you using remote storage.

Enjoy the testing...