Move GB-PVR recordings to new disk/dir; plugin exists?

[Braklet]

I am running out of room on my HTPC hard drive, and for a number of reasons do not wish to set up a RAID array.

All I need to do is move a bunch of current recordings to an alternate storage location, preferably without destroying the GB-PVR program database in the process.

I have performed some experiments on my 0.99.12 platform and verified that I can move a recording to a different drive WITHOUT destroying the program info as long as I manually update the corresponding SQLite cell to point directly to the new location.

Obviously I don't want to manually modify some multi-hundred recordings. Does any current plugin come close? If not, I might have to dust off my old Visual Studio skills...

Thanks - B

[sub]

Do an 'export recordings' in the config app, then edit the resulting recordings-dump.xml file and do a 'search and replace' of old path to new path, then move the files, then do an 'import recordings' of the updated file.

[wannabepvr]

2 options?

1. You can export the data base and reimport from the config ulitity. This assumes that the directory path does noty change when you replace the disk. However the export is an xml and you could do a serch and replace on drive letter.

2. There is also an import tool on the Wiki which will look for appropriate file types and import them into the database.

Good luck

[wannabepvr]

Sub is SOoooooo fast!

[sub]

lol

[Braklet]

Thanks guys, for all the suggestions.

I hadn't thought about using recording-dump.xml as an intermediary data source. Up to now, I only use it as a backup archive along with gbpvr.db3.

I regularly use the "MpegImport" utility to pull all my manual recordings into the GB-PVR database. That, coupled with the SQLite Maestro (actually paid for that one made all the difference in the world as far as easy DB manipulation are concerned.

I suppose I could compose a SQL query to do the same cut/paste operation, but it seems so much simpler using recording-dump.xml.

Appreciate all the help!

[Braklet]

Hey folks, I copied my entire video archive to a SimpleTech 500G NAS drive this weekend and found a few things that might be of interest to anybody with a video store separate from the GB-PVR computer.

Editing recording-dump.xml and reimporting did not work. The config tool claims it successfully imported all the entries, but for whatever reason GB-PVR never fully started up with the newly 2x database. I don't know if this was due to entries differing by only the filename or what; once I waited 5 minutes and GB-PVR did not start I abandoned this method.

Tried a number of things but what I got to work was:

1. Export gbpvr.db3 as SQL using a SQLite administrative tool (in my case I own a SQLite Maestro license).

2. Edit resulting SQL file to replace all filename entries with "//NASSERVER/videostore" (or however you have your NAS drive mapped).

3. Use SQLite administrative tool to create a new database from the edited SQL file.

4. Copy new database over old gbpvr.db3.

NOTE: if you try any of this, make SURE you save your original gbpvr.db3 in case something goes wrong! I had to fall back to this a number of times during my experimentation.

Observations with NAS video store:

1. Go ahead and set AutoRemoveMissingRecordings in config.xml to false. NAS drives take a short while to spin up and if this parameter is left to default true, GB-PVR will almost surely wipe out your video database. It happened to me multiple times.

2. If the NAS drive is spun down when you try to Play a video, GB-PVR will lock up on a black screen. When this happens you have to kill the associated GB-PVR.exe process. The only workaround I've found thus far is to use Windows Explorer to browse into the NAS video store to ensure that it is ready to go before trying to play anything.

3. While playing video from the remote NAS store, the 1 minute FF/REW keys work OK, but the 10 second <</>> keys just lock the system up. Have to kill GB-PVR.exe when this happens. Have found no workaround and I may start a new support thread once I get around to experimenting with this further.

4. Do not use a mapped drive letter to access your NAS video store. Just use the direct server notation "//NASSERVER/videostore". Otherwise your remote client access (via GB-PVR client mode or MediaMVP) will break.

Despite the glitches this frees up my video editing drive, so I'm happy.

[stustunz]

what wrongs with using video archive its automatic and moves the files to another location and updates the database to point where its been moved to
seems alot easier to me
is there some reason not to use it that i am missing not to use it?
(if it slows gbpvr down you just disable it once you have moved your files)

[Braklet]

what wrongs with using video archive

It may well be easier and better, but I dug around the forae and wiki, and could never find a definitive statement that "Video Archive Can Move Your Current Videos Elsewhere." All the discussion seems centered on VAs support for extended video information and postprocessing.bat.

Granted, I never bothered to actually ask this question in the VA subforum, but since I am not interested in most of VAs advanced functionality as described by its users, I thought it was easier to roll my own solution.

[Braklet]

Granted, I never bothered to actually ask this question in the VA subforum

Note that I posted this thread long before I bought a NAS drive, asking for advice. Nobody mentioned Video Archive, so I stuck with my own plan.