Could you explain a little more about the /buffer directory?

[wmarler]

Hi,

I've been running NextPVR on bare metal for some time, and now I'm switching to a Docker container. In doing so I'm learning more about NextPVR. 

I think I understand that the /buffer dir is used to store a temporary (partial) copy of the mpeg stream being sent to the client. I think I understand it is also used to store the mpeg data stream being written as it is being recorded. Once the client is done playing back the buffered copy is destroyed; or when the recording finishes, the file in the buffer directory is written to the /recordings directory. 

... do I have that right? 

I'm asking b/c I'm trying to optimize the mappings of these directories to docker volumes / bind mounts. I currently have /recordings on a spinning-disk array, and I was thinking of putting /buffer onto an SSD, if that would make the experience snappier for clients. I have much more spinning disk space than I have SSD space, not surprisingly. For a machine that might at-most record 2 3-hour-long football games at a time
in 1080i at 15Mbps, and play back to 2 clients at a time, how much space would you think the /buffer dir need?

Thanks in advance

[pkscout]

I have had my buffer and recordings mapped to spinning disk for quite some time, and I don't think I can really see any slow down because of it. The amount of data your are buffering is small relative to the speed even spinning disks give you, so I'm not sure you'd see much, if any, improvement moving the buffer to an SSD.

[wmarler]

Yea sounds good, thanks. I played around with it ... didn't actually see an advantage in practice either.