Can I record to a network drive?

[IanSpringfield]

I've been looking over the wiki and searching some threads and I'm not clear on this. I've read about sharehelper and recording service limitations and using the path rather than the mapped drive, but I'm not sure I understand these options well enough, I'm not sure if they always work but I do know that my attempts have failed.

I'm using W7 64, 3.2.9 across a regular home network to a W8 64 machine. Mapping and sharing works great for all other purposes.

[Graham]

You should be able to record to a network drive. You can use a mapped drive letter in Settings --> Recordings (and I suspect that UNC should work also ... \\server\share). It may be that you have a permissions issue. The Recording Service (and the ndigitalhost processes that it spawns) run using the System user id. You may have to enable the folder on the network machine to Full Control for all users. Plus, you may hit problems if the network machine (or its disk) go to sleep.

http://www.nextpvr.com/nwiki/pmwiki.php?....Recording

[IanSpringfield]

Thanks for responding Graham.

My reading indicates, since the recording service is logged as System, it cannot see mapped drives as drives are mapped under the user. One option seems to be to log the service under the user account (id + password) rather than Local System, but for some reason the machine rejects that idea.

I've then attempted to record using the full path \\server\share, rather than the map, but that failed. The permissions on the server are for everyone/full control. The server never sleeps and I verified the drives are spinning.

I then started to read about sharehelper but got very confused and couldn't make that work. I was kind of hoping that, because this isn't that unique of an idea, that someone, somewhere had fully documented the approach and I just couldn't locate it.

Just to confirm. This machine works great for all other duties. The server has no problem has no problem recording with NPVR on that machine. The server has no connection problems with any of the other computers. This machine has no problem recording to a local drive.

[Graham]

it cannot see mapped drives as drives are mapped under the user.

Ooops! I should have remembered that. I assume that you are using ...

http://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php...post344119

Ignore references to GBPVR (a forerunner of NextPVR). I don't use sharehelper but this is my understanding of the instructions ... create ShareHelper.xml with a single "add drive" line. Put ShareHelper.xml in the Data folder ...

http://www.nextpvr.com/nwiki/pmwiki.php?...alledParts

Put ShareHelper2 in the Program Files folder that already contains the NextPVR executables. Start a Command Prompt (use Run as Administrator) and navigate to the Program Files folder and run ShareHelper2 /I . Re-boot to cause the auto-start of sharehelper service.

In Settings --> Recordings ... set the Recording Folder to the drive letter specified in the "add drive" line of ShareHelper.xml .

[IanSpringfield]

After a couple hours I had given up on sharehelper but with your post, I tried it again. Note: I'm dealing with a restored image so it's as if I'm starting from scratch.

"create ShareHelper.xml with a single "add drive" line"

Here is my xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<!--add drive="R:" share="\\192.168.1.204\PVR" username="xxxxxxx" password="xxxxxxxx" /-->
</appSettings>
</configuration>

NOTE: My xml has my actual username and password. 192.168.1.204 is the address of the server and "PVR" is the share name of drive R:\. On drive "R:\" (PVR) is a folder called "PVR" where the recordings should go (ie, 192.168.1.204\PVR\PVR) . Drive "R:\" on the server is mapped as drive "R:\" on the client.

[COLOR="#FF0000"]"Put ShareHelper.xml in the Data folder ..."
[/COLOR]
This xml file is in C:\users\public\npvr\

"Put ShareHelper2 in the Program Files folder that already contains the NextPVR executables."

The unzipped sharehelper2.exe is located in "C:\Program Files (x86)\NPVR\"
[COLOR="#FF0000"]
"Start a Command Prompt (use Run as Administrator) and navigate to the Program Files folder and run ShareHelper2 /I . Re-boot to cause the auto-start of sharehelper service."[/COLOR]

Followed the instructions. sharehelper service is installed, and according to sevices.msc set to automatic and starts with the computer.

Here is the Sharehelper2.Install.log:

Installing assembly 'C:\Program Files (x86)\NPVR\ShareHelper2.exe'.
Affected parameters are:
assemblypath = C:\Program Files (x86)\NPVR\ShareHelper2.exe
logfile = C:\Program Files (x86)\NPVR\ShareHelper2.InstallLog
logtoconsole =
Installing service ShareHelper...
Service ShareHelper has been successfully installed.
Creating EventLog source ShareHelper in log Application...
Committing assembly 'C:\Program Files (x86)\NPVR\ShareHelper2.exe'.
Affected parameters are:
assemblypath = C:\Program Files (x86)\NPVR\ShareHelper2.exe
logfile = C:\Program Files (x86)\NPVR\ShareHelper2.InstallLog
logtoconsole =

[COLOR="#FF0000"]
"In Settings --> Recordings ... set the Recording Folder to the drive letter specified in the "add drive" line of ShareHelper.xml"
[/COLOR]
Have tried recording paths of both "R:\" and "R:\PVR" and neither one results in the program being recorded. Just to make sure this is clear, if I set the recording path to a local location (ie, D:\), the program records flawlessly.

[mvallevand]

<!--add drive="R:" share="\\192.168.1.204\PVR" username="xxxxxxx" password="xxxxxxxx" /-->

That is an xml comment you need to change it to

Code:

<add drive="R:" share="\\192.168.1.204\PVR" username="xxxxxxx" password="xxxxxxxx" />

Martin

[IanSpringfield]

That is an xml comment you need to change it to

Code:

<add drive="R:" share="\\192.168.1.204\PVR" username="xxxxxxx" password="xxxxxxxx" />

Martin

Wow Martin, thanks very much. I never would have figured that out. The original xml file is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<!--add drive="z:" share="\\192.168.1.2\recordings" username="" password="" /-->
<!--add share="\\192.168.1.101\videos" username="nmt" password="1234" /-->
</appSettings>
</configuration>

I figured I would just pump in my info and go.

For anybody else, who doesn't speak computer language, Martin has told the truth. If you follow Graham's and Martin's directions, it's pretty easy to get recording on a network drive.

[dljones8053]

XML Tip

Inside an xml file if a line starts with <!-- and ends with --> that line is what called in the old days rem out. You have to removes these parameter if you want to activate this part of the XML file.

dj

[TVHelp]

Where do I get the ShareHelper items? The links in this post do not work:

404 Not Found

The requested URL /showthread.php was not found on this server.
Apache/2.2.15 (CentOS) Server at forums.gbpvr.com Port 80

[ReplayHarry]

I'm having the same issue trying to use a NAS drive to record from NextPVR 3.4.8. It works fine to a local hard drive. I can't seem to find "ShareHelper" anywhere. None of the links on this forum work nor do ones I have found when just searching with Google, Any help would be much appreciated.