WHS -- Archives, Edits, and DVDs... OH MY!

[spoonman1227]

Sorry couldn't resist.... Just a few questions from a newbie. I have been doing quite a bit of searches and such on the forum here, gotten some ideas, and even fixed a few things on my own, so I am now thinking it is time to ask a few questions..


Sage setup:
I have Sage running on an HP MediaSmart server running WHS of course. Per the recommendations of others, my recording drive is not a part of the managed storage pool and this has been VERY stable compared to my original setup with a PC that finally just gave up. Now, I am wanting to get some other features of Sage working and better utilize this cool app.


1. This one is in regards to "archiving" recorded shows. What I would like to find a way to do is to archive my favorite shows for playback later, while just deleting the ones I don't want to keep. What I would LIKE to do is create an "archive" on the managed storage pool, so that as time goes on and I have lots of shows saved and such, that I can just add another drive to the pool and keep going. So the questions become, will there be any playback issues doing it this way?? I know folks said not to use the managed pool for recording, but how about other functions like this? Also, will it keep the program info "attached" to the archived show so I will still have all that info for each show I have archived?

Which leads me to part 2....
2. Editing... For the archiving mentioned above, I would like to edit out commercials and that stuff at the same time. Now, I know there are things like commskip and such, and I have heard mentions about VideoReDo for editing, but there isn't any mentions about how to save the file when you are done. Do you just save it with the same file name, back in the same place as the original whether it is the original recording folder or the newly created "archive" folder?? Does Sage just update the file info accordingly, but keep every thing else like the program info and such?? Also, any recommendations on Mac editing software since my main computer is a Mac. I do have client license and use it on my Mac all the time. I have found a couple of programs to check out, but curious to hear what other folks might be using already.

OK... I think I am almost done typing here..

My last question is in regards to ripped DVDs. I am toying with the idea of ripping my DVDs to put on here for Sage to play back as well. I am having troubles with the mac client, but that appears to be a known issue, but I have found a workaround for now. The question becomes, does anyone have any thoughts/recommendations on how this works if the files are on the managed pool?? I think I read somewhere that it was ok to do this, but confirmation is always nice. Again, it would be nice to be able to just add drives to the pool whenever space starts getting low without having to move files around and all that.

I think that about does it for now. I am sure I might have left something out here, but I hope I have given enough details to at least get a few replies.

Thanks in advance for the help and insight!

-- spoonman1227

[Slipshod]

Archiving and DVD playback from the drive pool should be fine. Read speeds are good with it, it's the writes that really suck and mess up your recordings. You should also be safe from the data corruption bug as long as you don't attempt to edit the files.

I haven't played with commercial cutting yet, so I'm not sure on that one.

[gplasky]

If you had let WHS originally create the drives in the managed pool the clusters will be default, 4k. Which is OK for DVD playback. (That's what I use the 300 GB left over on my WHS server.) But if you're recording HD shows for archiving and later playback on the managed drive you'll probably run into playback issues for those. I don't archive TV recordings. When I do I manage to burn them to a DVD for later viewing. Or buy the series on DVD for viewing from the server.

A good combination for Video editing is VideoRedo Plus (Videoredo TV Suite)and Bob Phoenix's Video Edit plugin. Which allows you to do the editing from within SageTV. Handles all the file name saving for you. When I edit outside there I just rename the original and name the edited file with the original name.

Gerry

[green]

spoonman1227:

Hey -- I have the exact same set up u do. And have been 'backing up' DVD's to HP HMS for abt 2 mths. For the ones I can backup, the SageTV setup work very well. I use Wired Media Extenders to view thruout the house. Sage is strong, the Media extenders loose IP address once in a while, requiring restart of Sage service and Media extenders. That is another topic I am trying to get to the bottom of....

BUT, after reading your post, wanted you to know the one hiccup I run into with having DVDs on Sage (and maybe someone has a fix???...), that usually 1 or 2 times during the movie playback, the screen freezes for abt 10-20 secs. I thought it was due to backups, so rescheduled them later, and found out it had nothing to do with it. SO, not sure why it does this. It does eventually start back up without doing anything manually. And one time the video and sound were off, but that caught up too.

So, go for it. Well worth having the library right on the TV (especially if you have kids).

-Enid

[inlvnv]

I normally encounter screen freezes at midnight and noon, as WHS runs CHKDSK on all pooled drives, or when WHS is running other disk intensive programs. Remoting in to WHS desktop and monitoring through task manager may reveal the culprit. Another possible cause may be fragmented drives. One thing I do in regard to device IP addresses, I set most devices to static IP through my router.


spoonman1227

ripped DVDs work fine from WHS pooled drives and works well streaming to multiple clients, except through Mac Client. As far as archiving recorded tv programs, what I want to keep, I also move them from my non-pooled recording drive to WHS pooled drives, then access them through Sage menu Media Center, Videos option or win media player or with nero showtime. My method doesn't retain show info.

[spoonman1227]

All,

Thanks for the replies, they were all very helpful. Sorry for the late response, I had subscribed to this thread so I would get an email when folks replied, but I only got one email with the first response...

Anyway... I have played with the demo for VideoRedo, I think I am gonna buy it, what a nice little app. The ad detection works really well too. I just need to streamline the process better I think. Here is what I did, if you have any suggestions, please feel free to comment.

Step 1. Copied desired file from Recordings directory on server to local machine.

Step 2. Ran VideoRedo and edited file accordingly. Saved new file without commerials.

Step 3. Deleted original file off of server and copied the new one back with the same file name.

Step 4. Ran SageTV client and watched that episode that I edited. Works fine.

The only thing I noticed is that Sage still sees the episode as 30 minutes, even though it is really only about 20 minutes now. It acts kinda weird if you try to fast forward though it and go past the end of the show. Any thoughts on how to "fix" that??

Also, I am trying to find out how to create and "archive" folder that the shows I want to archive will go into when I check the "archive" box. I would then go and edit that file instead of the one from the regular recording drive.

The only other bug I have had regarding DVD playback is with the mac client, it doesn't like the UNC path to the DVD share. It appears I am not the only one with this trouble so I am sure they will fix it. As a work around, I can just mount the share and play the files with the DVD player on my machine instead of playing them through Sage. I would like to see this fixed as I would like to get a media extender or 2 at some point. I like the idea of having the DVD library out of reach of my 2 yr. old, but still being able to let him watch some movies once in awhile.

I am also kind of curious what advice you have regarding the upcoming push to all digital. Will I not be able to use my tuners any more, or do you think that the cable companies will still push out an analog signal too??