Live TV pause buffer reverting to default

[wgf_bean]

I apologize in advance for asking this because I thought I saw the answer somewhere here, but for the life of me I can't find it now...

I've set my Recorder Storage location to a drive other than the system drive - which is an SSD. This works correctly for Recorded TV. However the Live TV Pause Buffer insists on going to my SSD c: drive.

How do I make both Recorded TV and Live TV Pause Buffer go to my desired drive?

[richard1980]

The live TV buffer only goes to the recorded TV folder. The only way to get it to go anywhere else is to set up a junction in the recorded TV folder.

So what makes you think the live TV buffer is going to a different location?

[wgf_bean]

The Recorded TV clearly goes to my s: drive as I can see the files there.

As far as the Live TV Pause Buffer, on my s: drive is the folder:

S:\Recorded TV\TempRec\TempSBE

which is where we expect the Live TV Pause Buffer to store its files which end in extension sbf. However this folder is empty.

In the mean time on the c: drive at:

C:\Users\Public\Recorded TV\TempRec\TempSBE

There are plenty of .sbf files. If I delete these files then WMC has a hissy fit and I have to exit it, then restart WMC and it makes new files once again on the c: drive.

Now I do recall reading somewhere on this forum that this can happen if at windows startup it doesn't see the specified location of Recorded TV. Instead it defaults back to the c: drive. My s: drive is a 3 TB connected via USB3, so on initial startup of windows it might not see it for several seconds - sometimes as long as a minute, but then after that it's fine.

Additionally when doing Recorded TV I can see the activity light on the USB3 connected drive. However if I'm not recording, but simply watching live there is not activity light on that USB3 drive.

So Recorded TV is going to my s: drive, while the Live TV Pause Buffer is going to my c: drive.

What is the fix?

[adam1991]

The live TV buffer only goes to the recorded TV folder.

hmmmm, I thought it only went to the boot drive.

[wgf_bean]

hmmmm, I thought it only went to the boot drive.

I'm hoping not because it appears to be killing my SSD. It was fine for 2 years, now I have strong evidence that it's messing it up - even though a health check says it's got 9 more years left. It's been having issues with Live and Recorded TV appearing to drop the signal, but when I moved the Recorded TV to a conventional HD the problem went away. I say "appearing" to drop the signal because I don't think there's a tuner issue. My second Win 7 machine has no problems with its WMC. I don't use the 2nd PC that much so it hasn't had a chance to kill that SSD which happens to be only a few months newer but the same model - Crucial M4 CT256M4SSD2 2.5" 256GB SATA III.

The problem on my HTPC has been getting worse as the months go by. Moving it off the SSD stopped the problem for recorded TV. However if I watch live then it is having problems.

[signcarver]

Someone else had this problem and his solution was to make a symlink on c: to point to the new recorded tv folder (I think he did it for both c:\recorded tv and c:\users\public\recorded tv to link to d:\recorded tv... you may need to stop all of the WMC/ehome processes to remove the folder to setup the link)... note that there are requirements for the folder that it records the buffer to in that things must be able to read and write at the same time... this is why flexraid usually fails as a recording folder as there is a "lock" until it moves to the next "cluster" and other tools have also interfered. In some cases the folder/drive simply isn't ready yet (spun down drive, delay in connecting to NAS...)

I usually move my buffer to another drive in a similar manner as it seems to have trouble with 5 extenders on and 12+ programs being recorded if the buffer is on the recording drive (otherwise the drives seem to fail prematurely in a month or two but I may have had a bad string of drives but not one has failed since I did this and the failed ones still work as recording drives as long as the buffer is not on them)

[richard1980]

Now I do recall reading somewhere on this forum that this can happen if at windows startup it doesn't see the specified location of Recorded TV. Instead it defaults back to the c: drive.

It actually happens at the time WMC attepts to create the live TV buffer files, which happens as soon as WMC starts.

What is the fix?

An internal drive would be the best solutino, but in lieu of that I would recommend the solution that signcarver posted. Just keep in mind that if you try to watch live TV and the path is not accessible, WMC will throw an error.

hmmmm, I thought it only went to the boot drive.

There are some files on the OS partition that are used in conjuction with the live TV buffer files (located in %ProgramData%\Microsoft\eHome\SharedSBE), but the actual buffer files are located in the recorded TV folder in the folder \TempRec\TempSBE.

[adam1991]

So, I'm struggling to understand under what conditions WMC would not see the defined Recorded TV location. If the PC is on, and WMC is showing the list of recordings, why would the D: drive not be available for live TV buffer files?

[richard1980]

The OP is storing the recorded TV folder on a USB drive which is not available immediately when Windows starts. One of the first things that WMC does when it starts is pre-allocate the live TV buffer files, and if the USB drive is not available at that time, WMC will use the default location (C:\Users\Public\Recorded TV). Of course, the USB drive becomes available some seconds later, and at that time recorded TV files become acccessible by WMC, but by the time that happens, the live TV buffer has already been assigned to the default location.

[adam1991]

got it. So that would be an important consideration when considering an SSD-equipped NUC plus a USB3 drive.

[RyC]

I never actually ran into that issue when using a USB drive with a NUC, but I can see that happening with slower drives

[wgf_bean]

got it. So that would be an important consideration when considering an SSD-equipped NUC plus a USB3 drive.

I was thinking exactly the same. I was going to go with a NUC for my next HTPC but this creates a problem.

If there were a way to fully stop WMC a few minutes after startup when the USB drive is finally detected, then WMC could be restarted and it would see the correct drive. Is there a clean way to do this?

[richard1980]

IIRC, whenever WMC runs into an issue with the live TV buffer location it changes the registry value DVRDirectory in [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\Video\Tuners\DVR\IO\Writer] to C:\Users\Public\Recorded TV\TempRec, but once the unavailable location becomes available again, WMC doesn't change DVRDirectory back. So once it gets changed, you have to reset it back by hand.

I think the best solution in scenarios where there isn't an option other than wait for the drive to become available is to put a junction at C:\Users\Public\Recorded TV\TempRec pointing to the desired target. The only downside to this approach is live TV won't work until the target drive becomes available.