Putting Back Video Files

[alijiwani]

Hi All,

I have Sage 4 and I have a question - how to I put back TV shows that I had to remove from the hard drive?

When I had Sage3 I used Cayars18 and saw that it put the media files in a directory with XML files that contained the file location data. When I had to upgrade HDs, I removed some of the saved mpg files to clear space.

Of course, then came Sage4 and the fiasco of it not installing properly over Sage3 - so I have a clean Sage4 install and I found the directory Sage is storing the videos in but adding the video file to there doesnt make it recognize it inside of Sage - what do I need to do?

Thanks.

[flavius]

You can put those files into a media library directory? Is that an option?

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by alijiwani

Of course, then came Sage4 and the fiasco of it not installing properly over Sage3 - so I have a clean Sage4 install and I found the directory Sage is storing the videos in but adding the video file to there doesnt make it recognize it inside of Sage - what do I need to do?

If you don't have your old wiz.bin to use, those old recordings will just be seen as imported videos. You would have to use the old wiz.bin to get those files recognized as recordings.

- Andy

[alijiwani]

I have the old Wiz.bin somewhere else backed up. I also have all the XML files that went along with it. Is the new Wiz.bin file something I can edit to add in those files?

[flavius]

No, you can't. I guess, that's why they called it "wiz(ards).bin" or something.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by alijiwani

I have the old Wiz.bin somewhere else backed up. I also have all the XML files that went along with it. Is the new Wiz.bin file something I can edit to add in those files?

The XML files are not used by SageTV; as far as I know, they are only used by some customizations to display info for imported videos. (If they are used on the SageTV Recordings screen, that is a customization too.)

I forgot to mention before: if you've been using your new wiz.bin for quite a while, then reverting to your old wiz.bin will cause the opposite problem: all of your latest recordings will be missing their info. You should always keep your current wiz.bin file when you install a new version, since that file tracks all of your show data, favs, viewing history, etc.

- Andy

[alijiwani]

well darn.

thanks for the help though, will have to figure something out. Def need to reclaim space on my regular desktop. I have 1TB in there and not even 1GB free!

[alijiwani]

actually now I am a little confused.

I checked the creation date on my wiz.bin file - its dated September - when I had to redo the deal.

However, I noticed 2 things in Sage - 1) there are 6 recordings from August from Sage3 that are listed in the Recordings screen. These recordings are located in the old location in the same directory the XML files are. In fact, I found out that that path is still listed in Sage under "Video Recording Directories." The files I "removed" were just deleted pre-upgrade - did Sage4 scan the directory said oops, not there and delete all reference to the file?

Also, when I checked my media library, it had retained links to a bunch of old networked files that no longer exist - I tried using the "Medica Center Import Directories" to disable them, but said directories are not listed there. I did the "Refresh Imported Media" command but that didnt get rid of those non-working listings. Any idea what I can do?
EDIT - I just went through and manually deleted all the imported media. all with file sizes of 0.0.

[Opus4]

For both issues: if SageTV does not have access to where its database says the files are located, it doesn't get rid of the info because it doesn't know if the files are really there or not. If it can see those directories, it can determine whether the files are where thye are supposed to be & update its database accordingly.

- Andy

[alijiwani]

ok that makes sense to me. thanks for that info - I moved all the old TV shows back to machine and just placed them in a new directory and pointed the import command towards it.

[Garisimo]

I am a little unclear on the concept, so please help me understand. If I installed 4.0 fresh on my newly re-installed computer, then copied over the old recordings to the video folder and then the old wiz.bin file to the SageTV directory, my old recordings will show up? The data directory in wiz.bin doesn't change from the older version of Sage?

Gracias in advance.

-g-

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Garisimo

If I installed 4.0 fresh on my newly re-installed computer, then copied over the old recordings to the video folder and then the old wiz.bin file to the SageTV directory, my old recordings will show up?

Pretty much, yes.

The data directory in wiz.bin doesn't change from the older version of Sage?

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by 'data directory'. For the recordings, you don't have to use the same Recording Directory name, but SageTV has to be able to 'see' the location where the files used to be stored for it to know they aren't there any more & to use the files it finds in the new Recording Dir instead. i.e.: if the recordings were stored on drive E: on the old system, the new system has to be able to see some drive letter E: to know the files aren't there any more. The same goes for UNC network paths.

- Andy