I'm not sure I have a full understanding of different split-level choices, so I'm looking for guidance to make sure I get intended effect.

The goal is to reduce drive spinup as well as wait time when listing TV shows and movies streamed to ShieldTV.

Folder caching is enabled.

File structure is as follows:

smb share

media_storage\TV Shows\show name\season#\episodes

media_storage\Movies\movie name\movie & metadata files

I would like each TV show and movie to be stored in only one folder, so that no single TV show or movie is split across multiple drives.

Would I choose "split only the top-leve directory" or "split the top two directory levels"?

Thank You!

Edited September 5, 2025Sep 5 by poto2

50 minutes ago, poto2 said:

"split the top two directory levels"

This.

That allows the "TV Shows" and "movies" folders to exist on multiple drives, but not any folders created within them.

Thanks for confirming.

Measure twice, cut once!

Specifically /mnt/user/media_share(1)/tv|movies(2)/Series|Title(3)/Seasons|movie.ext(4)/episode.ext

If you want to keep whole series together, you choose a split level 2 directories as required as itimpi said.

This would in essences create a media_share folder on each disk and then create a movie and tv show folder under each one, then everything below those folders would be kept on the same disk only moving to another disk when the fill allocation is met

Edited September 6, 2025Sep 6 by MowMdown

7 hours ago, MowMdown said:

then everything below those folders would be kept on the same disk only moving to another disk when the fill allocation is met

Not quite right. Since Split Level has absolute priority then if a drive fills up you start getting 'out of space' errors if items that the split level setting means it should be on a drive nut will not fit.