What exactly does KEEP: do?

[bholio]

I'm currently a replayTV user and realize that I need to start planning to move on to something else in the future. For one thing, I'd like to record QAM. GBPVR is the first PC based PVR I've tried.

One of the things I like about the replayTV is that it automatically cleans up old shows. I can tell it to record all episodes of SpongeBob Squarepants, but only keep 5 of them. When it records a 6th episode, it deletes the first. Basically, it can record forever without ever missing new shows due to lack of disk space and without me having to ever delete anything.

Is GBPVR able to do this? I see the 'KEEP:' option when scheduling a recording, but I don't see a description in the documentation.

What is supposed to happen when I tell it to KEEP 2 episodes? Does it record 2, then cancel the recurring recording so it will never record again? Or does it delete the first episode when the 3rd episode appears?

Thanks,

[sub]

It does the same think as you describe for your ReplayTV. ie, If you tell it to keep five, then when it recordings the sixth episode it'll delete the oldest, and so on...

[bholio]

Thanks for the quick reply..

[martint123]

It is setup when season (repeating) recordings are made, I use it a fair bit. Something like keep the latest 10 episodes.

You also have the option (that I don't seem to use) on the play/delete etc menu of KEEPing specific episodes that are already recorded, so they don't get deleted. I don't know if these 'kept' ones count as episodes for the number above or are ignored in teh count.

[sub]

I don't know if these 'kept' ones count as episodes for the number above or are ignored in teh count.

They're not counted.

[martint123]

They're not counted.

Cheers. It's very handy facility that I'll probably be using more.

[bholio]

What if the system is running low on disk space in the recording directory/drive? Will GBPVR delete old (unrelated) shows to make room? In this case, I am not asking about KEEP:.

The recordings drive is full and some new show is supposed to record, but there is not enough space for it. What does GBPVR do?

In this case, my replayTV will delete something else and record the new show. Probably the oldest thing it can find. Usually, as space gets low, the shows in danger of being deleted will get highlighted by replayTV with a warning that they are the first to go as space gets tighter. It is possible to mark shows as undeletable ('keep until I delete' option).

[sub]

What if the system is running low on disk space in the recording directory/drive? Will GBPVR delete old (unrelated) shows to make room?

No it wont.

The recordings drive is full and some new show is supposed to record, but there is not enough space for it. What does GBPVR do?

It'll try to record, and either get a partial recording or fail.

[martint123]

Disk space is basic PC maintainance.

I don't want the PVR software to decide what to keep and what to delete to make space. Some of my oldest recordings are the ones I want to keep most.

The System menu shows what disk space is free, easy enough to check it once in a while

There again, it would be nice for a client PC to show space on the server rather than the local disk (hint)

[replaytv]

check out disklimit.exe from this thread http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?t=7585 . I just use it recently with gmail to receive disk warning. You just need to add the command in UPDATEEPG.bat to check once per day.

Dan L.