Media Center TV Program Delete And Location

[BeeJ]

Win 7 Pro
Have had MC set to not delete recorded TV until I say so but when I
look at the TV recordings it says some are about to be deleted. How
do I stop this?

At one time I could somehow click on individual TV recording at remove
the delete symbol but I cannot find that menu now.

I checked with MC and it says I have 142 Hours of HD space available
for recording. What's up with that?

Also, I cannot find where the TV recording are actually located. I go
to the drives show in MC but not all of the TV recording are in those
folders. How do I find the location of an individual TV recording?

 

[Paul]

Win 7 Pro
Have had MC set to not delete recorded TV until I say so but when I look
at the TV recordings it says some are about to be deleted. How do I
stop this?

At one time I could somehow click on individual TV recording at remove
the delete symbol but I cannot find that menu now.

I checked with MC and it says I have 142 Hours of HD space available for
recording. What's up with that?

Also, I cannot find where the TV recording are actually located. I go
to the drives show in MC but not all of the TV recording are in those
folders. How do I find the location of an individual TV recording?

There is some info here. Lots of ideas here, for further research.

http://www.missingremote.com/guide/...nge-windows-7-media-center-recording-location

One other thread I was looking at, they suggest that while you can
set up network storage for recordings, it isn't always foolproof.
(At least one path specification method, results in lots of truncated
files on the network storage device. It's not like they made it so
it could tolerate any kind of storage conditions, do retries and the
like. One reason that a local hard drive likely works best, if you
don't like screwing around with settings. Some people actually use
a script, to copy a fresh new recording from the local hard drive,
to network storage, as a means of preserving storage reliability.
Apparently, it's more reliable, to have media center write to local
disk, then "move" the file to network storage. Don't ask me how
Media Center finds the file later...)

I would say, if the TV recordings are going to your C: drive,
the recording space could be competing with the needs of
the System Volume Information folder. There's some setting,
that reserves an amount of space for VSS, and that might prevent
TV recordings from using all available space. So the trick
then, is to figure out what other system functions may be
reserving space for their worst case scenario.

(VSS - example of commands and the like...)

http://features.techworld.com/storage/95/storage-in-the-shadows-with-vss/

(An easier to read example of VSS commands. Try changing the VSS setting
and see if it affects Media Center math, the next time you start up the
Media Center.)

http://www.mydigitallife.info/how-t...rage-space-usage-size-in-vista-with-vssadmin/

VSS features should be similar on Vista/Win7/Win8. The usages for VSS
(all the reasons to use it), might differ from one OS to the next.
(Like the Previous Versions thing.)

*******

This is one of the problems with "smart" software. You practically
need the source code in front of you, to figure out what it is
doing, and what the software is thinking. When it won't use the space
it seems to have available, only detailed documentation would help
to pinpoint the cause.

Paul

 

[J. P. Gilliver (John)]

In message <[email protected]>, BeeJ <[email protected]>
writes:
[]

Also, I cannot find where the TV recording are actually located. I go
to the drives show in MC but not all of the TV recording are in those
folders. How do I find the location of an individual TV recording?

Make a short - five minutes? - recording, then do a search for files
made today over a certain size; it shouldn't be hard to find, as such
files are likely to be bigger than anything else the OS is making (make
sure your search is set to show hidden etc. files). Presumably, the
other files will be somewhere nearby.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

.... back in the olden days ... Britain was entirely made of wood and lit by
one enormous candle, tended by the Queen
- Steven Moffat, Radio Times, 24-30 July 2010

 

[Newsworthy]

Win 7 Pro Have had MC set to not delete recorded TV until I say so but
when I look at the TV recordings it says some are about to be deleted.
How do I stop this?

At one time I could somehow click on individual TV recording at remove
the delete symbol but I cannot find that menu now.

I checked with MC and it says I have 142 Hours of HD space available for
recording. What's up with that?

Also, I cannot find where the TV recording are actually located. I go
to the drives show in MC but not all of the TV recording are in those
folders. How do I find the location of an individual TV recording?

On mine the TV is recorded to C/Users/Public/Recorded TV.
i'm not sure about automatic deletion of files. I have not found any
settings related to this either, I know where they are in Vista but not
the same in 7.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, BeeJ.

Also, I cannot find where the TV recording are actually located.

Ask Media Center where it's putting your recordings.

In Windows Media Canter, click Tasks | Settings | TV | Recorder | Recorder
Storage. The top line says "Record on drive:, and defaults to C:. Click
the big "+" button to choose a different drive. The graphs below will show
you how much space you have on that disk, in hours and GB. When you have
saved at least one clip, open (File) Explorer and look on that drive for the
"Recorded TV" folder. You should find your recordings there.

As usual in Explorer, we have several ways to display the file listing.
(I'm running Win8 Pro w/Media Center, which uses the Ribbon.) Details will
show the Date, Size and other details that we can choose by right-clicking
on the head of a column. The usual file extension is .wtv, but some of mine
are .dvr-ms. If we click on Large Icons we will see a thumbnail picture to
remind us of what is in each file.

when I look at the TV recordings it says some are about to be deleted

Where are you seeing this?

On the Recording Defaults menu, under "Keep:", the default is "Until space
needed", but we can change that to "Until I delete". Are you saying that
you no longer see that option? If we scroll down to "Series Only Recording
Defaults", the last option there is "Keep up to:", with the default "As many
as possible". Could this be the setting you are looking for?

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2012 (Build 16.4.3505.0912) in Win8 Pro


"BeeJ" wrote in message
Win 7 Pro
Have had MC set to not delete recorded TV until I say so but when I
look at the TV recordings it says some are about to be deleted. How
do I stop this?

At one time I could somehow click on individual TV recording at remove
the delete symbol but I cannot find that menu now.

I checked with MC and it says I have 142 Hours of HD space available
for recording. What's up with that?

Also, I cannot find where the TV recording are actually located. I go
to the drives show in MC but not all of the TV recording are in those
folders. How do I find the location of an individual TV recording?

 

[BeeJ]

R. C. White wrote :

Hi, BeeJ.


Ask Media Center where it's putting your recordings.

In Windows Media Canter, click Tasks | Settings | TV | Recorder | Recorder
Storage. The top line says "Record on drive:, and defaults to C:. Click the
big "+" button to choose a different drive. The graphs below will show you
how much space you have on that disk, in hours and GB. When you have saved
at least one clip, open (File) Explorer and look on that drive for the
"Recorded TV" folder. You should find your recordings there.

As usual in Explorer, we have several ways to display the file listing. (I'm
running Win8 Pro w/Media Center, which uses the Ribbon.) Details will show
the Date, Size and other details that we can choose by right-clicking on the
head of a column. The usual file extension is .wtv, but some of mine are
.dvr-ms. If we click on Large Icons we will see a thumbnail picture to
remind us of what is in each file.


Where are you seeing this?

On the Recording Defaults menu, under "Keep:", the default is "Until space
needed", but we can change that to "Until I delete". Are you saying that you
no longer see that option? If we scroll down to "Series Only Recording
Defaults", the last option there is "Keep up to:", with the default "As many
as possible". Could this be the setting you are looking for?

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2012 (Build 16.4.3505.0912) in Win8 Pro


"BeeJ" wrote in message
Win 7 Pro
Have had MC set to not delete recorded TV until I say so but when I
look at the TV recordings it says some are about to be deleted. How
do I stop this?

At one time I could somehow click on individual TV recording at remove
the delete symbol but I cannot find that menu now.

I checked with MC and it says I have 142 Hours of HD space available
for recording. What's up with that?

Also, I cannot find where the TV recording are actually located. I go
to the drives show in MC but not all of the TV recording are in those
folders. How do I find the location of an individual TV recording?

Delete: Two things.
1) previously there was an option at the recoded show icon in WMC to
remove the delete soon. This is now gone.

2) in the setup area there is still the option to set for delete for
space and not to delete. Even if I select not to delete the show icon
still has the warning that it will delete (tomorrow typically).

Folder location
3) if I go into the recording location it does not give me the real
location. I gives me three; including one bogus of just C:. The other
two do not have the current files as shown in WMC.
If I go to network locations I find (as I may have set up a long time
ago) a shared folder that does have all the current shows as is shown
in WMC. But I cannot figure out (1) how to find that real path in WMC
and (2) how to untangle the network share back to the real folder i.e.
right-clicking for a menu on the share folder give me no useful
information.

I am in the process of cut / paste to a NAS to try to make sure I save
the golden shows. But what a pain!

I think I may just write an app to do an automatic copy from the
recording folder to the NAS. but why should I have to?

 

[Paul]

R. C. White wrote :

Delete: Two things.
1) previously there was an option at the recoded show icon in WMC to
remove the delete soon. This is now gone.

2) in the setup area there is still the option to set for delete for
space and not to delete. Even if I select not to delete the show icon
still has the warning that it will delete (tomorrow typically).

Folder location
3) if I go into the recording location it does not give me the real
location. I gives me three; including one bogus of just C:. The other
two do not have the current files as shown in WMC.
If I go to network locations I find (as I may have set up a long time
ago) a shared folder that does have all the current shows as is shown in
WMC. But I cannot figure out (1) how to find that real path in WMC and
(2) how to untangle the network share back to the real folder i.e.
right-clicking for a menu on the share folder give me no useful
information.

I am in the process of cut / paste to a NAS to try to make sure I save
the golden shows. But what a pain!

I think I may just write an app to do an automatic copy from the
recording folder to the NAS. but why should I have to?

Is there any chance the recorded TV shows are in a Windows 7 library ?

In a previous discussion, I mentioned what I found in a quick search,
for library control files. One of the five, should be for TV.

\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries\
Documents.library-ms \
Music.library-ms \___ The four libraries you see in explorer...
Pictures.library-ms /
Videos.library-ms /

\Users\Public\Libraries\RecordedTV.library-ms <--- TV recordings ???

The file type .library-ms is an XML file, and can be
edited in WordPad. You should be able to see the
names of the RecordedTV *folders* in there. The individual
files should not be recorded in that file, only the folders.
The folder names being used for storage, have the word "URL" next
to them/

The tricky part, is being able to open that file. The
file could have the hidden attribute set for example.

There is more in this thread, about playing with that stuff.
Both the XML file and the registry are involved. When the XML file uses
a GUID for a folder name, the GUID is stored in the registry, and you
can find properties like ParentFolder. One poster here had some
library problems, and they were messing around with that stuff.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...r-buttons-open-users-instead-libraries-5.html

So the names of the folders, are stored in a .library-ms file, and
to completely decode the file, a couple of URL fields in
there are GUID type, and you need to use Regedit, to translate
the GUID into a folder path.

Best guess,
Paul

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

R. C. White wrote :

Delete: Two things.
1) previously there was an option at the recoded show icon in WMC to
remove the delete soon. This is now gone.

2) in the setup area there is still the option to set for delete for
space and not to delete. Even if I select not to delete the show icon
still has the warning that it will delete (tomorrow typically).

Folder location
3) if I go into the recording location it does not give me the real
location. I gives me three; including one bogus of just C:. The other
two do not have the current files as shown in WMC.
If I go to network locations I find (as I may have set up a long time
ago) a shared folder that does have all the current shows as is shown
in WMC. But I cannot figure out (1) how to find that real path in WMC
and (2) how to untangle the network share back to the real folder i.e.
right-clicking for a menu on the share folder give me no useful
information.

I am in the process of cut / paste to a NAS to try to make sure I save
the golden shows. But what a pain!

I think I may just write an app to do an automatic copy from the
recording folder to the NAS. but why should I have to?

I have a vague memory that WMC does not by default use the entire
drive's free space, but that it has a setting somewhere to tell it how
much space it is allowed to use.

Sorry, I can't prove this or tell you where to look - it is not just a
vague memory, but it's also pretty old.

IIRC, it was a thread in a video newsgroup involving someone who had a
similar problem to yours, where apparently there was plenty of memory,
but files were still being deleted.

 

[Phantom Post]

Delete: Two things.
1) previously there was an option at the recoded show icon in WMC to
remove the delete soon. This is now gone.

2) in the setup area there is still the option to set for delete for
space and not to delete. Even if I select not to delete the show icon
still has the warning that it will delete (tomorrow typically).

Folder location
3) if I go into the recording location it does not give me the real
location. I gives me three; including one bogus of just C:. The other
two do not have the current files as shown in WMC.
If I go to network locations I find (as I may have set up a long time
ago) a shared folder that does have all the current shows as is shown
in WMC. But I cannot figure out (1) how to find that real path in WMC
and (2) how to untangle the network share back to the real folder i.e.
right-clicking for a menu on the share folder give me no useful
information.

I am in the process of cut / paste to a NAS to try to make sure I save
the golden shows. But what a pain!

I think I may just write an app to do an automatic copy from the
recording folder to the NAS. but why should I have to?

I'm currently using WMC on Win8 Pro 64bit but it doesn't seem to have
changed much from WMC on Win7 Pro x64. In Media Center go to Tasks >
Settings > TV > Recorder > Recorder Storage. This lets you pick which
drive and set how much of the drive to use. Then in Tasks > Settings >
TV > Recorder > Recording Defaults you'll find the setting for how long
to keep the recordings. Choices are "Until space needed", "1 Week",
"Until I Watch", "Until I Delete".

HTH

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, BeeJ.

Maybe I wasn't clear: After I find the recording storage location in WMC, I
use Explorer - NOT WMC - to find the actual files.

I store my recordings in a separate 195 GB partition (R that I've named
that volume "Media Recordings". On that partition, I have several folders
for specific recording groups. One is R:\Recorded TV, and in that folder
are currently 17 items, including, for example:
12/15/2012 08:34 PM 24,299,438,080 College
Football_KxxxDT_2012_10_06_14_28_00.wtv
02/05/2013 10:58 PM 1,639,448,576 Henry Ford- American
Experience_KxxxDT_2013_01_29_19_58_00.wtv

To play one of these recordings, I just click on the file in Explorer; it
starts WMC (if it isn't already running) and plays the recording.

I know very little about networks or shared folders. All these files are on
one of my several internal HDDs. I haven't transferred them to a thumb
drive, but I'm confident that I could; they are "just files". I did use
Windows Movie Maker to create a DVD of at least one recorded TV show. And,
of course, I can easily delete any one or all of them.

In case it matters, I'm running Win8 x64, and WMC | Tasks | Settings |
General |About Windows Media Center | Software Version says:
Windows 8
Version 6.2.9200.16384
with Windows Media Center technologies

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP (2002-2010)
Windows Live Mail 2012 (Build 16.4.3505.0912) in Win8 Pro


"BeeJ" wrote in message
R. C. White wrote :

Hi, BeeJ.


Ask Media Center where it's putting your recordings.

In Windows Media Canter, click Tasks | Settings | TV | Recorder | Recorder
Storage. The top line says "Record on drive:, and defaults to C:. Click
the big "+" button to choose a different drive. The graphs below will
show you how much space you have on that disk, in hours and GB. When you
have saved at least one clip, open (File) Explorer and look on that drive
for the "Recorded TV" folder. You should find your recordings there.

As usual in Explorer, we have several ways to display the file listing.
(I'm running Win8 Pro w/Media Center, which uses the Ribbon.) Details will
show the Date, Size and other details that we can choose by right-clicking
on the head of a column. The usual file extension is .wtv, but some of
mine are .dvr-ms. If we click on Large Icons we will see a thumbnail
picture to remind us of what is in each file.


Where are you seeing this?

On the Recording Defaults menu, under "Keep:", the default is "Until space
needed", but we can change that to "Until I delete". Are you saying that
you no longer see that option? If we scroll down to "Series Only
Recording Defaults", the last option there is "Keep up to:", with the
default "As many as possible". Could this be the setting you are looking
for?

RC


"BeeJ" wrote in message
Win 7 Pro
Have had MC set to not delete recorded TV until I say so but when I
look at the TV recordings it says some are about to be deleted. How
do I stop this?

At one time I could somehow click on individual TV recording at remove
the delete symbol but I cannot find that menu now.

I checked with MC and it says I have 142 Hours of HD space available
for recording. What's up with that?

Also, I cannot find where the TV recording are actually located. I go
to the drives show in MC but not all of the TV recording are in those
folders. How do I find the location of an individual TV recording?

Delete: Two things.
1) previously there was an option at the recoded show icon in WMC to
remove the delete soon. This is now gone.

2) in the setup area there is still the option to set for delete for
space and not to delete. Even if I select not to delete the show icon
still has the warning that it will delete (tomorrow typically).

Folder location
3) if I go into the recording location it does not give me the real
location. I gives me three; including one bogus of just C:. The other
two do not have the current files as shown in WMC.
If I go to network locations I find (as I may have set up a long time
ago) a shared folder that does have all the current shows as is shown
in WMC. But I cannot figure out (1) how to find that real path in WMC
and (2) how to untangle the network share back to the real folder i.e.
right-clicking for a menu on the share folder give me no useful
information.

I am in the process of cut / paste to a NAS to try to make sure I save
the golden shows. But what a pain!

I think I may just write an app to do an automatic copy from the
recording folder to the NAS. but why should I have to?

 

[Char Jackson]

Is there any chance the recorded TV shows are in a Windows 7 library ?

No. There is nothing stored in a Windows 7 Library that isn't also stored in
a non-Library location.

 

[Paul]

No. There is nothing stored in a Windows 7 Library that isn't also stored in
a non-Library location.

This XML file, has a list of folders which make up the library.
(This assumes, that Microsoft stored "recorded TV" in a RecordedTV
named storage facility ) One of the folders is the "default",
and fresh files go there by default if something attempts to store
them in that library. You should also be able to see which folder
is selected as the default folder, in the library GUI.

\Users\Public\Libraries\RecordedTV.library-ms

To understand "where my files went", most of the evidence is going
to be in that file. Since that file keeps track of how the library
is constructed. In addition to folders named in plain English,
a couple of folders are named with GUIDs, in which case, you have
to consult the registry, to translate the GUID into something
humans can use.

All the library is doing for you, is maintaining a list of folders,
and displaying them on demand. And the added service, is when a
file is stored to the library, the library goes to the default
folder, and puts the file in there. There would be strong odds,
that the default folder has some "interesting stuff" in it.

Paul

 

[Char Jackson]

This XML file, has a list of folders which make up the library.
(This assumes, that Microsoft stored "recorded TV" in a RecordedTV
named storage facility ) One of the folders is the "default",
and fresh files go there by default if something attempts to store
them in that library. You should also be able to see which folder
is selected as the default folder, in the library GUI.

\Users\Public\Libraries\RecordedTV.library-ms

To understand "where my files went", most of the evidence is going
to be in that file. Since that file keeps track of how the library
is constructed. In addition to folders named in plain English,
a couple of folders are named with GUIDs, in which case, you have
to consult the registry, to translate the GUID into something
humans can use.

All the library is doing for you, is maintaining a list of folders,
and displaying them on demand. And the added service, is when a
file is stored to the library, the library goes to the default
folder, and puts the file in there. There would be strong odds,
that the default folder has some "interesting stuff" in it.

So like I said, there is nothing stored in a Windows Library that isn't also
stored in a regular folder. You don't need to consult the related xml files.

 

[Wolf K]

BeeJ wrote: [snip BeeJ's tale of woe]
Is there any chance the recorded TV shows are in a Windows 7 library ?

No. There is nothing stored in a Windows 7 Library that isn't also stored in
a non-Library location.

Technical detail: The Library consist of "folders" which are really
lists of pointers to the actual storage location of the files. The
converse is not true: Unless an item is "stored" in a Library, it will
not show up there, but may still be available elsewhere.

You may be able to find the actual storage location by unhiding hidden
and system files and folders, then using a Search. If that doesn't turn
up the shows, then either they no longer exist on your HDD, or DRM has
messed things up. IIRC, the first versions of Media Center were DRM
free, but the latest version(s) (ie, updates) are heavily DRMed.

Good luck.

 

[Char Jackson]

BeeJ wrote: [snip BeeJ's tale of woe]
Is there any chance the recorded TV shows are in a Windows 7 library ?

No. There is nothing stored in a Windows 7 Library that isn't also stored in
a non-Library location.

Technical detail: The Library consist of "folders" which are really
lists of pointers to the actual storage location of the files. The
converse is not true: Unless an item is "stored" in a Library, it will
not show up there, but may still be available elsewhere.

You may be able to find the actual storage location by unhiding hidden
and system files and folders, then using a Search. If that doesn't turn
up the shows, then either they no longer exist on your HDD, or DRM has
messed things up. IIRC, the first versions of Media Center were DRM
free, but the latest version(s) (ie, updates) are heavily DRMed.

Good luck.

I'm not sure why that was directed toward me, but thanks. Hopefully, the
right people will see it.