Timeshift still always on in TV Server? (5 Viewers)

[Hensley]

Hi there,

one quick question. I don't use live TV on my MP machine .. or maybe 30 minutes in one month ... because of commercials. I just record what i would like to see and watch it later the day or the next day/week so i can skip that stuff.

Guess that timeshift (and the noise) should not be a problem in my setup, or does it ? As i understood the recorded stream will be written directly to the HDD where my recording folder is located.

So when i watch the show later the day i only have the normal HDD activity from watching ...

regards _Hensley_

PS: i do use the multi-seat setup ... tv server + mp client on one machine in the living room ... mp client on one machine in the bedroom.

 

[infinite.loop]

I just record what i would like to see and watch it later the day or the next day/week so i can skip that stuff.

Guess that timeshift (and the noise) should not be a problem in my setup,

timeshift is only "active" when watching LiveTV.

it means that what you rae wathcing atm. gets written on the HDD in a "buffer" file.
so you can pause LiveTV and resume it later on, or go gack in the buffer if you want to see a scene again.

when you record a show then this is also written on the HDD, but this has nothing to do with the timeshift feature you get inside MyTV when watching live TV.

So when i watch the show later the day i only have the normal HDD activity from watching ...

correct, since you only play a file

 

[dekkers]

Hi Guys,

I got a ramdisk tool (not very legal, but hey, its for testing purpose) and im planning to test it this week. Im waiting for some answers from frodo on the buffer file settings.

Im planning to make a ramdisk from 1024MB to store the buffer files. But i need to limit the amout of data becouse i can't run over the 1024 MB (i really don't wanna know what's happening if that occurs).

If this is working maybe i'll test how much speed improvements i get when i install mediaportal completely in the ramdisk. Maybe it's an crazy idea but wouldnt it be great if MP can start up in 1 second

 

[Diggen]

Good Idea with the Ramdisk, I've tested it.
Only TS-Buffer at Ramdisk.
Configuration: 896 Ram + 128Mb Graphiccard + 1Gb Ramdisk = 2 GB total
Timeshift Config: 6 min. - 8max. - 120Mb Size (8*120Mb=960Mb enough room for Windows things)

The first to notice is Channelchange-Time goes down to 4-5 sec. from before 8-10 sec.
Jumpback-Time is betwenn 20 and 30 min, more than enough for me.

IHMO it works really well and stable, near perfect. But longterm Testing stands out. (Only probleme is resume from standby when TVE3 was running at shutdown but that was there before, have to test out)

When it works its worse an article in the Wiki because it seems a great enhancement for those with enough Ram

Sorry for my really bad English.

 

[infinite.loop]

The first to notice is Channelchange-Time goes down to 4-5 sec. from before 8-10 sec.

i know that this is now off-topic, but both channel switch times are way too long

 

[Diggen]

i know that this is now off-topic, but both channel switch times are way too long

Maybe because I'm using a Terratec Cinergy 1200 DVB-S with a Diseqc Switch and the weather is also not the best ? The Times are measured when pressing Ch-Up/-Down at my MCE Remote. The Infobar cames up for 2 sec ( with Video and Audio full running) after that it stops, display the green circle and 3 secs later I see the new Channel. When Changing with the Miniguide only the 3seconds with the green Circle are there. But my new Pinnacle 3010ix DVB-T card arrived just when writing the post, so I have to test with it.


But back to Topic. Tv was running stable all the Night.
One more yesterday I forgot to tell that its running with TsFileSource but today I will test TsReader because the Timeshift wrap is fixed.

 

[Crew]

The thing I'm worried about is the delay when chaging channels from an external box. When I change a chan on my ntl box is as it would be but when timeshifting is on theres a one second delay on every menu for the ntl box. Annoying.

I'm planning on getting a compact flash to IDE adapter and 4gb compact flash card just for time shifting. Cheap at around £40 and easy to setup.

 

[Bram]

nevermind...*

 

[Marcusb]

The thing I'm worried about is the delay when chaging channels from an external box. When I change a chan on my ntl box is as it would be but when timeshifting is on theres a one second delay on every menu for the ntl box. Annoying.

I'm planning on getting a compact flash to IDE adapter and 4gb compact flash card just for time shifting. Cheap at around £40 and easy to setup.

Just remember that CF degrades after a certain number of write cycles.
It's such a high number that it won't affect much in normal use, but when timeshifting there is a *lot* of writing so your CF may not last long. Still probably around a year depending on your usage though. this is why RAM is a better option for this use (as well as speed).

Seriously though, it's pretty easy to get virtually silent HDDs and has been for the last few years. The drive is only being used while watching TV so surely it's not that big a deal? As for wear and tear, as long as the drive is spinning then it's wearing out (very slightly). As a test, why not check your drive is set to spin down when idle then just use MP for anything but TV viewing and see if the drive does spin down. Usually with a PC as long as you are actually using it then the spin down time will never be reached.

For power and heat considerations, just use a notebook hdd. You can get pretty quiet ones nowadays as well and they have dropped in price heaps over the past year or two.

 

[Crew]

Thats a good point Marcusb. Good post.