Disk space is a recurring issue

[Schtele Bunzorz]

Yes, I should have more space available.  But when I don't, I have these issues.

The NextPvr service is hung, or ffprobe is hung.  I have to manually stop them.  Services -- Restart NextPvr or Task Manager - find the right ffprobe or ffmpeg and kill them.

Live buffer - when the disk is full, playback stops.  No notice, just dead.

Frequently, the error message is "transcoder" errored something.

I would recommend some sort of ring buffer for live playback, maybe allocate 1/4 of the free space on the target disk and swap files 1-4 as needed.  If I'm low on space, that's on me.  I have whatever time covers 3/4 of my storage.  

But it should not stop.  There is no excuse for live TV to stop.  

When I hit a commercial, I F5 and have to click/click to allow media playback.

Regarding disk space, I agree with requests to alert on space issues, but I would say that I should not have to restart the service to recover from low space.

[mvallevand]

NextPVR doesn't know the various bit rates needed to determine requirement, I have seen 200MB to 8GB per hour. 

- Live TV doesn't use ffprobe so that indicates a recording space issue.
- Live TV is already a ring buffer 
- for consistency time not space is better indicator for the buffer, otherwise you could end up not knowing how long you can pause or rewind when time shifting.  
- if you have problems managing your disk space reduce the timeshift buffer to something you can guarantee.
- you indicate that the problem is not consistent so a dynamic buffer size won't help if whatever process is "randomly" filling your disk occurs after live TV starts.

In any case this is a long time problem https://forums.nextpvr.com/showthread.php?tid=49496 I actually though sub but in some kind of check to stop filling a disk but I couldn't find a reference, I know I manage my own space better now, big drives are a lot cheaper than a decade ago.

Martin

[gEd]

Yes, I should have more space available.  But when I don't, I have these issues.
yep. I work with a number of enterprise-grade software products (used by some of the largest companies in the world) that don't play nice when they are unable to write to disk (similar to what can happen when that are unable to allocate memory).

I know not everyone is made of money but storage has never been so cheap. Personally, I'd rather Sub (the developer) spent his time on other things (including the work he has to do to put food on the table when not working on this project).

[Schtele Bunzorz]

"NextPVR doesn't know the various bit rates needed to determine requirement, I have seen 200MB to 8GB per hour. "

I don't know how that makes sense. If I get 8GB per hour, it will be small timeframes. But when you reach 1/4 or 1/2 of the free disk space, switch files. This can be dynamic, of course, with other recordings happening or other processes writing.

"Live TV doesn't use ffprobe so that indicates a recording space issue."

Yes, 2 different problems. My disk is full. I cannot delete files because they are in use by ffprobe. ffprobe cannot write to the disk. It hangs, creating the .timings file. Or ffmpeg hangs creating the .thumbnails file. This is on scheduled recordings, not live TV.

"Live TV is already a ring buffer "

I have no evidence of that. It records to a single file until disk space is exhausted, then hangs. When I F5/refresh, disk space by the previous session is cleared. Live TV continues, with no other issue than having had a full disk. I will ask you to explain your answer in more detail.

"if you have problems managing your disk space reduce the timeshift buffer to something you can guarantee."

I don't know what that means.

"for consistency time not space is better indicator for the buffer, otherwise you could end up not knowing how long you can pause or rewind when time shifting."

I don't think I care. If I don't have the space to back up 5 minutes, that's my fault and I live with it. If I only have 5 seconds, I have to adapt. Nothing you can do about that.

"you indicate that the problem is not consistent so a dynamic buffer size won't help if whatever process is "randomly" filling your disk occurs after live TV starts."

It is not consistent in the sense that I cannot give you steps to reproduce. With limited disk space, I may have incomplete recordings, which are of course my fault, or files in use by ffprobe or ffmpeg when they hang creating their respective files.

Live TV disk space exhaustion is a guaranteed stop in frames. No audio, no video, and F5 (refresh) solves the problem.

[Schtele Bunzorz]

Yes, I should have more space available.  But when I don't, I have these issues.
yep. I work with a number of enterprise-grade software products (used by some of the largest companies in the world) that don't play nice when they are unable to write to disk (similar to what can happen when that are unable to allocate memory).

I know not everyone is made of money but storage has never been so cheap. Personally, I'd rather Sub (the developer) spent his time on other things (including the work he has to do to put food on the table when not working on this project).

Put food on the table. But the same product is sold commercially, so I kind of think I am helping Sub by posting feedback and being willing to offer further feedback. I mean, I can't just say this is broke fix it. I have the perfect environment for gathering more information.

The service should not have to be restarted. I think we can all agree on that. If I get a disk space alert and swap out a disk, should the service have crashed?

[mvallevand]

"Live TV is already a ring buffer "

How much disk space do you have?  Go to Settings->General and change 20 to 1 and there will be up to 4 files involved in the circular buffer created ever 30 seconds or so.

Martin

[Schtele Bunzorz]

"Live TV is already a ring buffer "

How much disk space do you have?  Go to Settings->General and change 20 to 1 and there will be up to 4 files involved in the circular buffer created ever 30 seconds or so.

Martin

It's currently 10.
Disk space can be 500MB to at the moment 5.2GB. 600MB is about what I need for 30 minutes, color (ATSC 2).

If I specify 10 and it can't handle 10, that's a software issue.

I will see what happens. It is 1 now.

[Schtele Bunzorz]

"Live TV is already a ring buffer "

How much disk space do you have?  Go to Settings->General and change 20 to 1 and there will be up to 4 files involved in the circular buffer created ever 30 seconds or so.

Martin

It's currently 10.
Disk space can be 500MB to at the moment 5.2GB. 600MB is about what I need for 30 minutes, color (ATSC 2).

If I specify 10 and it can't handle 10, that's a software issue.

I will see what happens. It is 1 now.

I do see 5 files, but when the C: drive filled up, which is unrelated, it hung again. I don't think there is any relation between the target drive and c:\

I have been a c# developer since 2006 so I'm not completely unfamiliar with the problems and challenges. It just doesn't seem to work as expected.

[mvallevand]

Which client? As I posted the web player takes double the space and that space is the same drive as the data directory not the recording.

Martin

[Schtele Bunzorz]

Which client? As I posted the web player takes double the space and that space is the same drive as the data directory not the recording.

Martin

Well, I don't know. I go to localhost and choose a channel. NextPVR client, which I think it is just crashes, and I'm happy to debug that separately. suggests NextPVR.exe does not respond.

Local NextPVR just does nothing. It gets so far along and just stops. NextPVR client has never worked at all for me.