/ Register

Does a Series-2 buffer turn off when a recording is already grabbing the same data?

Discussion in 'TiVo Underground' started by jcm011, Mar 5, 2011.

  1. Mar 5, 2011 #1 of 3
    jcm011

    jcm011 New Member

    2
    0
    Mar 5, 2011

    Advertisements

    I just started using my old (prepaid) Series-2 as a security DVR by spoofing a satellite box on the RCA jacks. Any channel from 100 up will get the same camera signal. I set it to record around the clock in 24 1-hour blocks at High quality. That way, it should only FIFO-purge 1 hour at a time, giving me a constant history of at least 36 hours (out of the rated 37.5 hours at the High quality setting). Medium and Basic quality had too many artifacts and Best quality limited recording time to less than 24 hours.

    Getting to my actual question:

    Does the 30-minute live TV buffer use its own separate hard-drive space, or is it just grabbed from the existing hard-drive stream when a recording is in progress? I like the idea of minimal hard-drive activity vs. having the buffer writing in its own space during 24/7 recordings that grab the exact same image.

    I know I probably can't shut off the buffer, nor would I really want to. But I'm thinking that if a recording-in-progress "becomes" the 30-minute buffer, the total High quality recording time might be boosted to 38 hours vs. the stated 37.5 hours. Is that possible?
     
  2. Mar 7, 2011 #2 of 3
    mr.unnatural

    mr.unnatural Well-Known Member

    4,885
    189
    Feb 2, 2006
    Ellicott...
    The actual recording time is not quite that specific but rather an estimate based on average quality and recording parameters. If you actually try to completely fill up the drive it will probably slow your Tivo to a crawl. You should always have at least 10% overhead available on any hard drive or else performance can suffer greatly.

    If you're all that concerned about how much capacity you have then I would suggest you simply install a larger hard drive. With the tools we have at our disposal, creating a backup image and restoring it to a larger drive is quite simple and painless, not to mention also not very expensive.

    The Tivo will always buffer the channel it's tuned to. The buffer only gets wiped when you cnange channels and then it starts filling up again with the new channel data. I believe the Tivo reserves a portion of the drive specifically for buffer recording.
     
  3. Mar 7, 2011 #3 of 3
    classicsat

    classicsat Astute User

    17,877
    0
    Feb 18, 2004
    Ontario Canada.
    When you make a recording, recording goes to a recording in the NPL, instead of the Buffer.

    Watching Live TV of a program being recoded, is watching the recording in progress from the NPL.

    The actual live TV buffer, AFAIK, is reserved space.
     

Share This Page

spam firewall

Advertisements