I think I have this right, but want to confirm before taking action.
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DVR works this way: Plex asks for TV stream from the HDHR, stream comes in being saved in the Transcoder directory in chunks, once the recording is complete the recording is muxed together, moved to the .grab directory in the final library directory tree, if there is no post processing to be done, it is moved to it’s final destination.
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I have migrated from Sage -> WMC -> Kodi -> Plex. Each of these system stores movies in a slightly different directory structures. As I understand Plex, I can delete everything in a given movie’s directory except the movie itself. PMS stores fanart, info about the movie, etc. in PMS’ server data structure.
Thanks folks
@MalibuDave42 said:
2. I have migrated from Sage → WMC → Kodi → Plex. Each of these system stores movies in a slightly different directory structures. As I understand Plex, I can delete everything in a given movie’s directory except the movie itself. PMS stores fanart, info about the movie, etc. in PMS’ server data structure.
You can, but you don’t have to.
In fact, I recommend you to keep them. They can be still useful.
(Maybe some of the files need to be renamed to be used with Plex. But that is still better than to have to collect every piece of metadata again.)
If you have .nfo files from Kodi, keep them. By default they can at least help Plex to identify the movie.
There are even some 3rd party metadata agents, which enable Plex to use the other metadata from the .nfo files directly.
.nfo importer agents
- You got that right.
A follow on question for #1: For a recording which has a clear start and stop - got it. What about tuning a station, leaving the TV run until I feel like stopping it. When does the file get stopped? Theoretically will run out of disk space?
e.g. I am using a 8gb RAM drive for transcoding (which I thought was enough prior to this “revelation”). I was watching football (2 hours in HD) and ran out of disk space.
Sorry, using a small RAM drive for the transcoder temp folder is not supported, no matter how intense a certain video blogger promotes it.
Live TV files while uncompressed are huge in size. 8gb won’t be enough for sure.
That said, even if you stay tuned in for a while the shows still begin and end. I’m sure when plex gives us the ability to tune a channel without selecting a specific show, the time shifting feature will have a max for how far back you can go to avoid this.
OttoKerner, you say small RAM is not supported. Do you mean a RAM disk of any size is not supported? Or, small is a problem. How about a 24GB RAM disk? I have upgraded the PMS server to 32gb, reserving 8gb for Win10 and Plex. Thoughts?
KarlDag, Hum… do shows start and stop in a HDHR stream environment. Isn’t the stream continuous until told to stop (end of recording or change of channel)? I think you are saying, TODAY time shifting is infinite until a new channel is tuned? And, you anticipate the PMS folks will put a time limit some day.
In my setup I use a NAS for “permanent” storage of all libraries. Therefore, as a stream comes in, it stays in the Transcoder directory (in my case, local to PMS on a RAM disk), the gets muxed and moved to .grab directory (in my case on the NAS), then the file is transferred back and forth between PMS and NAS while the commercials are scanned and removed, then finally moved into the NAS final library location. If this is the case, wow lots of moving of one file.
@MalibuDave42 said:
OttoKerner, you say small RAM is not supported. Do you mean a RAM disk of any size is not supported? Or, small is a problem. How about a 24GB RAM disk? I have upgraded the PMS server to 32gb, reserving 8gb for Win10 and Plex. Thoughts?
PMS is not tested with a RAM disk as the transcoder folder.
There are some mechanisms in place to clean out the old transcoded data while a playback is done, but I don’t know if the same exists yet for DVR ‘timeshift’ data.
If you have more than one tuner, even 24GB may be not enough some time. Particularly if you have several ive tv sessions going on, or some recordings.
In my setup I use a NAS for “permanent” storage of all libraries. Therefore, as a stream comes in, it stays in the Transcoder directory (in my case, local to PMS on a RAM disk), the gets muxed and moved to .grab directory (in my case on the NAS), then the file is transferred back and forth between PMS and NAS while the commercials are scanned and removed, then finally moved into the NAS final library location. If this is the case, wow lots of moving of one file.
In this case you may be better off with assigning your RAM to the OS, so it can be used to cache file reading and writing. And maybe increase RAM in the NAS as well. If you use some kind of RAID, you better have more RAM.
@MalibuDave42 said:
OttoKerner, you say small RAM is not supported. Do you mean a RAM disk of any size is not supported? Or, small is a problem. How about a 24GB RAM disk? I have upgraded the PMS server to 32gb, reserving 8gb for Win10 and Plex. Thoughts?
KarlDag, Hum… do shows start and stop in a HDHR stream environment. Isn’t the stream continuous until told to stop (end of recording or change of channel)? I think you are saying, TODAY time shifting is infinite until a new channel is tuned? And, you anticipate the PMS folks will put a time limit some day.
Im just assuming, don’t know the details. But still, Plex knows when the shows start and end, so they could decide to cut the stream in between (not the playback, just cut the data recording between chunks, keep whatever is needed, erase whatever was before) .
For example they could decide to keep the chunks for the past hour and erase what came before.
And I don’t know if it’s finite or infinite right now, I don’t even know how you tube to a channel using Plex right now… Unless you mean you pick a show and let it run when that show is done?
I barely watch live tv.
Thanks for the great info. As you can imagine, I am trying to create a stable yet highly efficient server. I thought the RAM Disk was a good idea since it’s temp data anyway… good advice.
