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SageTV Software Discussion related to the SageTV application produced by SageTV. Questions, issues, problems, suggestions, etc. relating to the SageTV software application should be posted here. (Check the descriptions of the other forums; all hardware related questions go in the Hardware Support forum, etc. And, post in the customizations forum instead if any customizations are active.) |
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#1
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Why are my SageTV recordings fragmented?
ALL (repeat ALL) my SageTV recordings are fragmented on my 64k formatted HD.
And the recordings seem to made up of what's close to 1 meg fragments. ie 4.9 GB file has about 4,900 fragments and a 6 GB file has about 6,000 fragments. For the most part these fragmented recordings are playable on my HD extenders, but ah, this can't be a good thing, can it? I'm using the standard SDTV theme, etc. Version 6.3.10.2--700 GB drive w/ 417 GB free. TIM |
#2
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If you record more than one program at a time, they're going to be fragmented, just because of the way disk allocation works. Or if your disk is close to full and it has to delete old programs to make room for new ones, you're probably going to get fragmentation as a result.
Fragmentation isn't necessarily a bad thing. The point of using 64K clusters is so that fragmentation won't matter so much, because the disk has plenty of time to seek to the next fragment while the previous fragment is playing back. (With smaller clusters it would have to seek a lot more often, and there wouldn't be enough time.) Some people have argued that Sage should preallocate files in order to avoid fragmentation. That might help with playback (then again it might not), but it would probably be worse for recording multiple shows at once, because the disk would be seeking all over the place while writing to different files. You really want to minimize seeking during recording, to avoid buffer overruns and damaged recordings.
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-- Greg |
#3
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Thanks Greg for the explanation. Seems to me there should be a "mini-app" included with SageTV that copies, defrags and replaces these files at a user-designated time when SageTV is neither serving or recording.
I've read other threads here where users have automated Videoredo to perform a quickstream fix on their recordings during downtimes. I can't help but wonder whether just a defragging of these recordings is all that's necessary in most cases. TIM Last edited by dotheDVDeed; 04-30-2008 at 02:53 PM. |
#4
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What about what app's like uTorrent does, allows you to allocate a large chunk of disk space at once?
Sage knows how long the TV show is going to be (non-live TV that is), and should be able to guestimate a disk allocation amount. Why not allocate a large chunk @ the beginning, then fill it up as you go, like the uTorrent app does? |
#5
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Quote:
Thomas |
#6
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Ok, so any benefit to setting up 64k clusters on the DVD or Music store disks?
Or does it only benefit the recording drive - why do I ask? Well you see I formatted my DVD storage drives with 4k clusters instead of 64k. Thanks for the help.
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SageTV HD100 Extender SageTV MVP Extender Media Server-WHS - 2GB Ram - 3TB storage - Windows 7 MC - My Movies Plugin for Win7MC "Life is a banquet and most people are starving to death!" |
#7
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Each device has a I/O buffer. When a record buffer becomes full you want to empty it using one cluster. Like wise for a play back buffer. When a play back buffer becomes empty you want to fill it using the data from one cluster. If you have three tuners and three playback devices the heads are constantly moving to service the six buffers. This is why a fragmented file doesn't matter. The heads are always in the wrong place from servicing other buffers.
I would guess that the play back buffer sizes are the same for off air video and DVD playback. Therefore you would want the cluster size to be the same so that one cluster fills the playback buffer. |
#8
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#9
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Quote:
Gerry
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Big Gerr _______ Server - WHS 2011: Sage 7.1.9 - 1 x HD Prime and 2 x HDHomeRun - Intel Atom D525 1.6 GHz, Acer Easystore, RAM 4 GB, 4 x 2TB hotswap drives, 1 x 2TB USB ext Clients: 2 x PC Clients, 1 x HD300, 2 x HD-200, 1 x HD-100 DEV Client: Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit - AMD 64 x2 6000+, Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H MB, RAM 4GB, HD OS:500GB, DATA:1 x 500GB, Pace RGN STB. |
#10
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The small clusters should be OK for fixed-content if the files are not fragmented & you are not reading multiple media files simultaneously from the same drive. If there were 2 clients trying to read from the same drive, that would raise the chance of stuttering playback because the drive would have to keep seeking between the 2 files & seeking to read a small cluster, then seeking to the next small cluster at another location is what the drive can't keep up with at times.
- Andy
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SageTV Open Source v9 is available. - Read the SageTV FAQ. Older PDF User's Guides mostly still apply: SageTV V7.0 & SageTV Studio v7.1. - Hauppauge remote help: 1) Basics/Extending it 2) Replace it 3) Use it w/o needing focus - HD Extenders: A) FAQs B) URC MX-700 remote setup Note: This is a users' forum; see the Rules. For official tech support fill out a Support Request. |
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