This should seem like an obvious thing but it didn't jump to mind for me right away.  For SageTV, don't set your live TV recording directory to an Unraid share.  I haven't tried using a cache drive for this because I haven't added one yet but when I do I'll report back.  With the write slowness on Unraid without cache trying to record HD to the share led to random stuttering and drops.  Made for a horrible viewing experience. 

 

I imagine this problem is encountered with anyone trying to write a HD video stream to Unraid but I'd be interested in hearing solutions if there is one, besides a cache drive.

A cache drive should help with that.  Trying to write HD to two drives at the same time (which is effectively what the parity drive does) just seems like a tough job. 

 

If you're not using a cache drive, you might try writing to a specific disk as the fuse filesystem that merges the disks tends to use a LOT of CPU and that's overhead you won't have to pay.

 

 

Which version of unRAID have you used?

 

I'd be interested in hearing solutions if there is one, besides a cache drive.

 

Just have one disk outside of the protected array, and let SageTV use that for its recordings.  That's what I do.

I regard the SageTV recordings are something temporary anyway.

And if I want to keep a recording, then I move it to a place on the protcted array, which for SageTV is a video import directory.

 

Purko

 

 

Which version of unRAID have you used?

 

 

4.5-Beta6 as of right now.  Planning on going 4.5final after a couple of 1TB drives arrive in about a week.

Purko, I always forget the drives don't have to be protected.  I just have it writing to the local drive in the SageTV server right now and it's working great.  If I want to save something long term I can move it off to Unraid manually.

 

Still, it would be nice to not have a manual process and it sounds like the cache drive would be the way to go for that.  My next step is reading up on the SSD vs Platter cache drive arguments.  Some of those SSD's have been getting a little more reasonably priced.

I have been writing directly to a sagetv share on my unraid box for 3 months and no problems with it.

I am using a hdpvr. Works great even while playing back a different show. If I delete to many large shows

at the same time then Sage starts whinning and misses a bit. I tried caching that share and did not work at all.

I even have been ripping dvds from the same sage computer (atom 330) to a different drive on Unraid and

still no problem even while playing back a hd stream on a client pc. I also store all my fanart and music on the

same drive as sage recordings.  My unraid is a core2 at 2.9 gig on a ms1 mobo, gig ethernet, and seagate low power drives.

John

jpimlott,

 

Insert Quote

I have been writing directly to a sagetv share on my unraid box for 3 months and no problems with it.

 

How about playing live tv? ie writing and reading the recording at the same time?

 

I haven't been able to do this - writing to a disk share or user share.

 

How much ram do you have?  I wonder if my problem is not enough buffering...  I have 1 GB in my unraid server.

 

I also only have a 100mb network,  but the utilization is < 50% in the case of watching live tv, so I wouldn't think that would be an issue..

I record to a drive in the sagetv server, and then later move the recordings to unraid.  HD Mpeg2 streams seem to overwhelm unraid.

 

 

jpimlott,

 

Insert Quote

I have been writing directly to a sagetv share on my unraid box for 3 months and no problems with it.

 

How about playing live tv? ie writing and reading the recording at the same time?

 

I haven't been able to do this - writing to a disk share or user share.

 

How much ram do you have?   I wonder if my problem is not enough buffering...   I have 1 GB in my unraid server.

 

I also only have a 100mb network,  but the utilization is < 50% in the case of watching live tv, so I wouldn't think that would be an issue..

 

My system has 4 gigs of ram (its cheap)

 

I am using user shares on  4.5 final for unraid.

I have had no problems with playback. I found that the video card was the problem on playback on one of my pcs.

It was a 7200 nvidia. I replaced it with 220 nvidia for 45 bucks from newegg.  My network is gig and runs about 3 % on record or playback. when saving files to the unraid server like hulu files a 1.7 gig files takes  only about a minute to save on to the server. My sage server is not used for playback of hd content as its only an atom . It does playon transcoding  at high . It will play back DVD content fine. Live tv needs to be paused for about 2 secvonds then it works great. It never has worked with out a small about of pausing. I just pause it go the the bathroom or whatever then watch it. Great way to skip commericals too.