Timeshifting File (1 Viewer)

pepsi_max2k

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December 11, 2005
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Area: Media Portal Program
MP Version: 1.0.3.0
Windows Version: Windows XP Pro SP2
CPU Type: 2500+
Memory: 1.5 GB
Video Card: 9600 Pro
Video Render Type: VMR9
Video Codec Type & Version: Mpeg2Dec Filter
Audio Codec Type & Version: MPEG/AC3/DTS/LPCM Audio Decoder
TV Card: Hauppauge Nova-T 90002
TV Card Type: hardware, DVB-T

Ok, I've tried searching for this and looking through the manual but if it's there, then I've not found it yet :p And it's not so much a problem as a question...

Where does Media Portal store the file for the Timeshifting function? Obviously when you hit pause it's recording the TV stream and storing it somewhere so you can fast forward/rewind through it, but I can't figure out where it's storing the stuff.

I've set the TV card recording folder to "D:\My Documents\My Videos\WinTV", and it puts normal recorded files in there. It's also made a folder called "card1" and when I enable timeshift it creates another file in there about 6k in size, I forget what it's called. And I'd like it to store any timeshift recordings in there too as it's on my largest hard drive partition.

Also, is there a maximum setting for how big the file can get (how much timeshifting can be done) and can you change it?

And err... about the regular recording. The software that came with the card (WinTV2000) records and saves stuff in .mpg (Mpeg 2) files, which makes sense as the card's hardware encoding them and just saving the file directly to disc.
Media Portal's giving me .dvr-ms files which I'm guessing it makes out of the MPEG 2 stream, converting and compressing them before saving them to disc. Is there any way to change that, or any need to? I know I can just convert them to .mpg or whatever within Media Portal, so it's not a big issue.
 

FlipGer

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  • April 27, 2004
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    Hi,

    1) Yes, timeshift folder is the same as the recording folder, so nothing to worry here.
    2) You can set the time in minutes of the timeshift buffer. The size then deppends on the bitrate your DVB-T provider has set. (Setup->Television)
    3) Yes and no. DVR-MS is just another container format for MPEG2, so there is no new compression. Its just another wrapper. The format cannot be changed, in the future it will be transport stream (TS) instead of DVR-MS. As you already said, converting to MPEG2 can easily be done, and it is also very fast, because it is more ore less a copy process. Stripping out the MPEG2 data and saving it in a other container.

    HTH, Flip
     

    pepsi_max2k

    Portal Member
    December 11, 2005
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    thanks for the reply, just wanna make sure about the timeshift thing. should I be seeing any kind of file in the folder other than the 6k "live.tv" one? cos i'm looking in it while fast forwarding/rewinding a timeshift and there's nothing there other than that in the "card1" folder.
     

    dragongc

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    October 11, 2005
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    Poland
    FlipGer said:
    Hi,

    1) Yes, timeshift folder is the same as the recording folder, so nothing to worry here.
    ...


    Are you sure about it ??
    Mine MP stores it in C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Ustawienia lokalne\Temp\ although the recording folder is different (d:\media\nagrania z TV). I dont know how to change it :-(.
     

    Callifo

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  • December 7, 2004
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    Mine also stores in the directory I specified. You can see the timeshift files if you go into folder options and untick "Hide Protected Operating System Files"
     

    pepsi_max2k

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    December 11, 2005
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    aahh, i thought showing hidden files would be enough. didn't know there was other hidden things. anyway, i can see a "TempSBE" folder now with "MSDVRMM_1821544547_262144_48072" and "MSDVRMM_1821544547_262144_48074" both 8k, "SBE4.tmp" 5.4k and "SBE3.tmp" 95.5 MB. i guess the large one's the main file but it's not changing in size at all, when i timeshift or change the timeshift buffer size, but i guess maybe it just grows when it needs to? i've only paused about a minute of tv so far :p

    EDIT: I stand corrected, "SBE3.tmp" is now 191 MB. problem solved 8) time for some wiki updating methinks.

    EDIT 2: "SBE3.tmp" is 236 MB, "SBE4.tmp" 286 MB, and there's a new "SBE5.tmp" which as I type has gone up to 95.5 MB and another "SBE6.tmp" has appeared. hopefully it'll stop when it gets to about 60 mins of data. would be a bad place to have a bug i recon :shock:
     

    FlipGer

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  • April 27, 2004
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    Hi,

    timeshift is a ring buffer. 60 minutes will need aprox 2 GB diskspace. So you will get around ten files, and then MP will return to the first, or deleting the first. So no need to worry. A bug in timeshift would have been noticed already....i hope ;)

    Flip
     

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