Overwritten recordings

[Lionel69]

DUO2 Blackhole 3.0.3H

I am using this box for terrestrial TV. I have set up timers for weekly repeat recordings.

I am finding that when the next show is recording it is overwriting the previous version from the last week.

I have searched menus, but so far have not found a way to stop this happening. I can rename the previous file, I suppose, but this does not help if I am away for more than a week, which is my main reason for recording.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Lionel69

 

[AlexWilMac]

I cannot understand how is possible what happened to you: when you set a timer, it doesn't matter, obviously, the recording title because BH includes in the filename (the one you can read, for instance, accessing your recording by FTP) also the date and the time. So you can have multiple recordings with identical names.
So, one thing it's the title you see in the list of recordings, and another is its filename.
Are you sure about this "overwriting"? I've used repeated timers hundreds of times and it has never happened, just because of what I said.

 

[Lionel69]

I cannot understand how is possible what happened to you: when you set a timer, it doesn't matter, obviously, the recording title because BH includes in the filename (the one you can read, for instance, accessing your recording by FTP) also the date and the time. So you can have multiple recordings with identical names.
So, one thing it's the title you see in the list of recordings, and another is its filename.
Are you sure about this "overwriting"? I've used repeated timers hundreds of times and it has never happened, just because of what I said.

Thank you very much for the reply. It is strange, but there is no doubt something has happened to the files already recorded. I am assuming they were overwritten by the new ones, but maybe there is some problem causing them to be deleted.

Since my initial post I have done some more investigation.

My timers were set using the EPG to choose the programs just choosing daily or weekly as appropriate. These were the timers that resulted in missing files as more recordings were made. Since then I have tried using the timer menu so that the day & times of the repeats were input specifically rather than "daily", "weekly" or whatever. Since then no files have been overwritten, so we shall see what happens over the next week or so.

I am new to this, so it is entirely possible that I did something wrong. Will publish further results soon.

Regards,

Lionel69

 

[AlexWilMac]

However you program the timers, each recording is uniquely identified.
The most likely hypothesis is that the timer did not record but if you are sure to have only the last one is really strange. Are you sure you didn't install some plugins to manage series? There was something I used in the past named "Series plugin" or the like.
You can't imagine how many times I have recorded in every possible repeating way (daily, weekly, user defined and so on) having (apparently) many many files with the same name in the list, just because these were not the real filenames.
For instance you'll read (accessing the movie folder from outside)
20170730 2110 - NAME OF THE CHANNEL - Name of the event.ts (as well as many other files with .eit, .ap, .meta and so on)
but also
20170731 2110 - NAME OF THE CHANNEL - Name of the event.ts
one recorded at 21:10 on July, 30 and the other one on July, 31
And all of them will be seen as
Name of the event
in the recording list.

 

[Lionel69]

The only plugin that I installed is Permanent Timeshift, without which the box would be useless for me. This works OK.

You are maybe correct about the timer not recording properly - probably my fault(!). I will keep a close eye on the recordings this week, & it is certainly good to use FTP to access the HDD folders, where the files are very clear to examine, with the titles as you have described.

I'll know more at the end of this week, & will post again then.

Regards,

Lionel69

 

[AlexWilMac]

Could you post a screen grab of the timer that seems to cause this overwriting? Enter the timer and then, from a computer on your lan, open a browser and type the IP address of your box plus "/grab". For instance, if your box's IP is 192.168.1.10 type
192.168.1.10/grab
Save the picture and attach here.

 

[Lionel69]

Thanks very much for your information! I have (& still am) learning a lot about this box from your help.

Here is a JPG of the timer screenshot. This timer will be tested again on Thursday next. All other daily timers seem to be working correctly. I am almost certain your suggestion that the timer did not work was the correct one, & that no actual overwrites occurred.

Regards,

Lionel69

 

[AlexWilMac]

The timer is normal but, actually, it was just a curiosity because I don't see how a timer could affect the next recordings.
And, by the way, did you change the field NAME? Not that this might be considered the cause of your problem, because I've done it many, many times.
It seems, also, that this timer was added starting from the EPG, because I see the description, whom I don't think was yours So, is even odder that you had this problem.
But to be really sure and in control of the situation, I again suggest you to get access by FTP to your box, using a simple client like Filezilla, for instance.
So you can learn how BH or OBH (or also every other images) organise records, the way I wrote some post ago. And this way you can also check the filename of the last event recorded. This "Pulse" was already recorded at least once the 27th July and will be recorded again on 3rd August? If so, you should have within /hdd/movie
20170727 2027 - ABC HD - Pulse.ts
20170727 2027 - ABC HD - Pulse.eit
20170727 2027 - ABC HD - Pulse.ap
and so on. Otherwise let us know.

 

[Lionel69]

I've had a good opportunity during the last week to thoroughly check out recording timers. I am now quite confident that all are working properly, & that the problem with overwritten recordings was due to improperly configured timers due to my inexperience. Also, I identified the "overwritten" recordings incorrectly from the list on the DUO2, which can be misleading as to dates unless you know what you are doing (which I obviously didn't ).

Looking at the recorded files using ftp helped a great deal to assist me to understand what was going on.

Thank you Alexwilmac for your assistance in solving this problem.

Regard,

Lionel69

 

[AlexWilMac]

Very good! I'm still very curious to understand how a "improperly set" timer might affect the file name of recordings. If you understood the exact reason it might be useful to other users.

 

[Mick12334]

If you have set the safeguard, for programs starting early, and finishing late, as providers can't always be trusted, your recordings might have been saved under the name of the previous program, which might explain why the poster thought the files didn't exist.

 

[Lionel69]

I think the relevant recordings (very early in my useage of VU+DUO, so only 2), did not start correctly. I don't think the file names were wrong - more my interpretation of when they were recorded. I did check the timers & reset them, & all was well thereafter. This is why I think it was my mistake initially.

All is well now, though I do have some questions on another topic, for which I will start another thread.

Regards,

Lionel69

 

[AlexWilMac]

Yes, I'm very convinced it was so, as it can never happen two have two filenames, provided the policy of how names are created. Even if you leave the event name blank you won't have any problems.

 

[TBGetto]

Hello.
I have this problem.
I do not understand the solution ???
I set the timer on 05.10.2017.
06.10.2017 Record name: 20171005 1850 - RTL Club HD - Survivor - Tribal Wars.ts
07.10.2017 Record Name: 20171005 1850 - RTL Club HD - Survivor - Tribal Wars.ts
08.10.2017 Record Name: 20171005 1850 - RTL Club HD - Survivor - Tribal Wars.ts
VU+ SOLO2 BlackHole-3.0.4

 

[Mick12334]

First you need to understand how digital recording works.
It's not like a VHS tape, if you remember such things, you can't overwrite recordings.
How have you set your timers?
Which satellite is RTL Club HD on?

 

[AlexWilMac]

Hello.
I have this problem.
I do not understand the solution ???
I set the timer on 05.10.2017.
06.10.2017 Record name: 20171005 1850 - RTL Club HD - Survivor - Tribal Wars.ts
07.10.2017 Record Name: 20171005 1850 - RTL Club HD - Survivor - Tribal Wars.ts
08.10.2017 Record Name: 20171005 1850 - RTL Club HD - Survivor - Tribal Wars.ts
VU+ SOLO2 BlackHole-3.0.4

If so, there's a bug because the filenames should have been
20171006 1850.....
20171007 1850.....
20171008 1850.....

instead, yours are all 20171005 1850. This way the last overwrites the previous for sure. In my experience this has never happened.
Are you sure about the filenames you reported? Did you check them by a FTP connection or, anyway, listing files from media/hdd/movie folder?
I repeat: if so, this is a BUG and must be reported to BH coders.

 

[TBGetto]

I'm 100% sure. I watch FTP every day.
20171005 1850 - RTL Club HD - Survivor - Tribal Wars.ts
BlackHole-3.0.4 before BlackHole-3.0.3.
This is always the fault.

 

[Matrix10]

Perhaps the EPG information constantly wrong
and then recording with the same name ???

Does this happen only on that channel / program?

 

[TBGetto]

5-6 channels are recorded.
This is the fault.

 

[TBGetto]

BH 3.0.2 H IMAGE GOOD.
DO NOT DELETE THE PREVIOUS DAY RECORD.
BH 3.0.3 and 3.0.4 FAILED.