Potential bug in "Keep at Most" field in Favorites Manager

[jeremydmiller]

Version Info:
I am a registered user of version 2.1.10.0 of Sage TV. I am hesitant to upgrade to the latest and greatest just yet as it seems to be doing all I need currently (and I am waiting for the bug fixes to version 2.2.7.0).

The Problem:
I believe I have uncovered a new problem not previously mentioned in these forums. I too have enjoyed the ability to prioritize Favorites based on their First Run / Rerun status. I have two Favorites set up for one show, one for First Runs and one for Reruns. The problem I have run into is that because I have two Favorites for the same show, Sage does not seem to differentiate between the two Favorites when polling the "Keep at Most" field. Sage will keep as many shows as I have defined in either Favorite, depending on which was last recorded. If either is set to AutoDelete, it will delete the shows that are in excess of the "Keep at Most" without distinguishing between First Runs and Reruns.

I am positive that Sage is correctly determining the First Run / Rerun status as evidenced by going to "Additional Airings" from within the Favorite. I also tried recreating the Favorites exactly as stated on page 59 of the manual as well as separating them to distinct channels.

How I Believe it Should Work:
The way I believe it should work is there should be some distinction made on the "Sage Recordings" page as far as how the recordings are grouped. It could be based on whether the show is a First Run or Rerun or at least which channel it was recorded from (I know this information is available through the "Recording Details"). This would imply that Sage would need to keep track of extra information that it might not already store about the individual recording. At the very least I think that the Favorites manager should be able to tell the difference between a First Run and Rerun, and keep the respective number of each.

Note: If this behavior is by design then I apologize for taking up your time in reading this. If it has been fixed in a newer version then just say the words. Thanks.

[Opus4]

How exactly do you have these favorites configured, at least for AutoDelete & Keep at Most? What show is it?

I have a few shows set for Reruns as: AutoDelete: No, Keep At Most: 2
and First runs: AutoDelete: Yes, Keep At Most: All

The recordings all end up in the same show title category, with only 2 of the reruns and several of the first runs. So, my settings appear to work. Maybe other settings don't work or something has been fixed in a newer version?

- Andy

[korben_dallas]

It does kinda sound like a bug, but let's eliminate some other possibilities:

1. Are you low on disk space, such that Frey is continually deleting shows to make room for new recordings? This is not abnormal behavior, as I've already chewed threw a new hard drive.
2. Are the 2 Favorites adjacent or near each other in the Favorites listing?
3. Where are the 2 Favorites in terms of Favorite priority?

[jeremydmiller]

The show or rather shows are all from the Law & Order franchise (the original, SVU, CI, and now TBJ). Here is a summary of my favorites:

Abbreviations:
FR - First Run
RR - Rerun
AD - AutoDelete
KaM - Keep at most

1 - 7 other shows etc.
8 - L&O:CI FR AD-no KaM-5
9 - L&O:SVU FR AD-no KaM-5
10 - L&O FR AD-no KaM-5
11 - L&O:TBJ FR AD-no KaM-5
12 - L&O:CI RR AD-yes KaM-5
13 - L&O:SVU RR AD-yes KaM-5
14 - L&O:TBJ RR AD-yes KaM-5
15 - 18 other shows etc.
19 - L&O RR AD-yes KaM-5

I have the original L&O last because of the constant reruns on TNT. I have about half of the 125GB that I have reserved for Television full at the moment. I understand that it can fill up fast given all the reruns that are on etc and that for the autodelete ones it should delete the oldest and record the newest. What seems to happen is that it will delete the oldest recording of the respective L&O no matter whether it is a rerun or first run. In a perfect world I would like to have it save 5 first runs and 5 reruns.

Opus4 - I would can see how your settings would work but I am hesitant to set Keep at Most at All because with all the airings my drive would be done for ;-) (Maybe it's time to up the storage or down the quality)

Upon further pondering of your settings Opus4 it would seem to make sense that they would work, having the First Runs set to Autodelete so that it would delete the reruns if space was an issue but otherwise keep all First Runs and stop recording Reruns after two have been recorded. But is that how it works?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by jeremydmiller

8 - L&O:CI FR AD-no KaM-5
12 - L&O:CI RR AD-yes KaM-5

What should be happening is:

5 FRs get recorded & then it records no more and doesn't delete any FR on its own.

5 RRs get recorded & then it deletes the oldest one to make room for the next RR, always keeping 5.

So, you should end up with 10 L&O:CI shows total... unless there is a bug or unless some shows are being deleted to make room for other recordings, as korben_dallas pointed out. (Or unless I'm forgetting something.) AutoDelete=NO means that SageTV should never delete the show on its own. Those FR favs are getting deleted automatically by SageTV?

I have a couple favs set to recreate this, but I won't know for a while how it turns out. You could always let tech support know, in case they know of something.

Upon further pondering of your settings Opus4 it would seem to make sense that they would work, having the First Runs set to Autodelete so that it would delete the reruns if space was an issue but otherwise keep all First Runs and stop recording Reruns after two have been recorded. But is that how it works?

For the favs I mentioned, the RRs would record 2 & then stop recording any more. I do this to prevent Intelligent Recording from chasing down every last rerun that exists for all my First Run favs. My FRs simply record all episodes. They never get auto-deleted regardless of the setting, since I never let disk space fill up completely.

- Andy

[Opus4]

Update: I found a show with LOTS of recordings, both RRs & FRs. I set their favorites to match how you said yours were set with FR: AD-no & KaM=5; RR: AD-yes & KaM=5.

There were actually only 4 FRs recorded, but lots of RRs. It deleted shows until a total of 9 recordings were left: the 4 FRs + 5 RRs.

- Andy

[jeremydmiller]

I assume you are using the latest 2.2.7 (or are you using 2.2.6 due to the Library Import bug?) Could I get the link to 2.2.6 again I couldn't seem to find it. Thanks

-Jeremy

[glbrown]

Originally Posted by jeremydmiller

I have about half of the 125GB that I have reserved for Television

You need more headroom. The 20 favorites are 40 gig with just one show apiece. Sage is just trying to survive

-gary-

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by jeremydmiller

I assume you are using the latest 2.2.7 (or are you using 2.2.6 due to the Library Import bug?) Could I get the link to 2.2.6 again I couldn't seem to find it.

See this post. I _think_ the biggest issue that beta version had was that UI images w/transparency didn't get displayed with transparency when 3D acceleration was on.

Originally Posted by glbrown

You need more headroom. The 20 favorites are 40 gig with just one show apiece. Sage is just trying to survive

That reminds me... As glbrown & korben_dallas suggest, double check that SageTV is actually set to use as much space as you think it is. With the favs you listed, it could easily be running out of space with only 125GB allocated for it, if that figure is correct. (But is still shouldn't be deleting the ones marked AutoDelete-No, as far as I know.)

- Andy

[jeremydmiller]

My Setup:
186GB Drive
Use Only 125GB for D:\Television
(The rest reserved for MP3's and Downloaded Shows)
Intelligent Recording: Off
Recording Quality: Great (1.87GB per Hour)

Favorites:

Key:
FR – First Runs
RR – Reruns
B – Both First Runs & Reruns

Total Disk Space for One Week’s Worth of Recordings:
1x1 + 1 x.5 + 2x1 + 2x1 + 1x1 + 1 x.5 + 1x1 + 1x1 + 1x1 + 1x1 + 1x1 + 4x1 + 5x1 + 2x1 + 3x1 +3x1 +3x1 + 4x1 + 3x1 = 39 Hours
39 Hours x 1.87GB/Hour = 72.93GB

Total Disk Space for One Month’s Worth of Recordings:
4x(1x1 + 1 x.5 + 2x1 + 2x1 + 1x1 + 1 x.5 + 1x1) + 5x(1x1 + 1x1 + 1x1 + 1x1) + 5x1 + 5x1 + 2x1 + 3x1 +3x1 +3x1 + 5x1 + 3x1 = 81 Hours
81 Hours x 1.87GB/Hour = 151.47GB

Conclusion:
Worst case if I go for a month without watching and deleting anything I am about 27GB over the allocated space. So if I understand correctly those that I have marked as AutoDelete will start being deleted once the threshold is reached starting with the lowest priority favorite and working up. This is my current configuration after some tweaking (I had upped all the L&O’s to Keep at Most 10 so that the First Runs will not get deleted) so I will try it for this next week and see what happens. Thanks for all your quick responses. It was a nice introduction into the community.