Missing Shows on Laptop WMC's Library pointed to HTPC WMC's

[JazJon]

-Windows 8 Desktop (This is my main HTPC, Media Center records to local hard drive)

-Windows 8 Laptop, Media Center installed, but it's library is pointed at HTPC's shared Recoded TV folder. (only to watch shows)

Question:
Why is it that sometimes, new shows don't show up on my Laptop's Media Center? (see first photo, I'm missing The Daily Show)
Thumbnails are not always created as well

If new shows are missing, often times they can be found if I scroll to the left. (raw file names listed with underscores) You'll see the Daily Show in it's raw file name form (see second photo)

If I delete the library and re-add it, shows seem to be re-scanned and load properly after a minute or two.

Is there a way to optimize this better or do a quicker refresh not involving removing/re-adding the library?
(an app? a script to delete some kind of index file?)

This new show "delay" behavior occurred on Windows 7, but seems worse on Windows 8

[holidayboy]

Have you manually shared the folder or did you let homegroup did it?


I've had issues when ehvid on the remote machine didn't have write access to the share - ehvid on the laptop will create thumbs for the shows if they haven't been created by the host machine - it might also do something to the .wtv file (like embed the thumb maybe?).

Ehvid on the host machine may not create thumbs for all new shows until you go into recorded tv on it, mine doesn't.



Maybe worth adding 'anonymous logon' to the shared folder permissions for a test?

[holidayboy]

Sorry, I meant to mention the old 1 minute bug too. Do the long filename recordings show as 1 minute long?

[JazJon]

More details.....

My HTPC is a Mac Mini, so I'm using a 3TB USB 3.0 hard drive to store recordings.
I have a folder on D: called Recorded TV.

The share is Recorded TV
The Permissions are:



Oh wow, never heard of the 1 minute bug, what's that all about?

I just looked at the underscore weird recordings (like The_Colbert_Report from last night) and it's showing the Length to be 00:00:00 !
(and viewing them in Media Center from the Laptop's Media Center shows they are 1 minute but play fine full 30 minutes)

Ok so what is causing that file properties corruption and what can I do to make everything work properly?

All shows (even the 00:00:00 ones) look and play normal on my HTPC in media center.








I googled up "1 minute bug" Media Center and found some non-answers. (something about moving .wtv files to another shared folder?) wtf?
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... 031?page=2
http://www.pcmediacenter.com.au/forum/t ... el-number/

There has to be a better "solution"

[JazJon]

Well it's definitely something wrong on the main HTPC. I just re-installed Windows 8 from scratch on my Laptop, and Media Center has the same problems shown above.

Both computers are logged in with the same Windoows 8/Live account (email address)
I added the Live account email address with full control in HTPC Recorded TV share. (didn't help)

If nobody has any ideas, maybe it will work itself out when I do a clean install of Windows 8.1 on the HTPC. I'm not going to put 8.1 Preview on though, I'm waiting for the release.

[holidayboy]

If the laptop is on when the htpc starts to record something then you'll get missing thumbs and metadata as the laptop tries to grab both and fails due to an unfinished (locked?) file.

If the htpc moves finished recordings to different folder, and the laptop just watches this second folder then only finished recordings will be found so you'll get data and thumbs.

I think.

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=5&t=2781

[JazJon]

If the laptop is on when the htpc starts to record something then you'll get missing thumbs and metadata as the laptop tries to grab both and fails due to an unfinished (locked?) file.

If the htpc moves finished recordings to different folder, and the laptop just watches this second folder then only finished recordings will be found so you'll get data and thumbs.

I think.

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=5&t=2781

Ah, that makes sense. I'll give it a try, as long as all my shows and real time recordings look the same on the main HTPC during and after recordings. I'll have to experiment. I predict problems trying to watch a show that is still recording though and it not being moved etc, we'll see what work arounds people suggested. (and if it's worth all the effort)

[JazJon]

Ok so here's where I'm at with this so far.........

My post from http://experts.windows.com/frms/windows ... spx#556803
_____________________________________________________
[quote user="robertus"]

I have been using MCEFilerMover with no problems, with both W7 & W8 (x86 & x64), my current MCE W8 x64 with 5 dual DVB-t (10 tuners) works perfectly. The trick is you must have turned on in "Turn Window's feature on or off" Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5, make sure you tick both sub headings "Windows Communications Foundation HTTP Activation" & Windows Communication Foundation Non-HTTP Activation" as it need 3.5 .NET to work properly. It moves the Recorded TV to Recorded TV2 along with all Meta tags. Just drop MCEFileMover into the "Start Up" folder so it runs at boot up


[/quote]


Windows 8 HTPC, Windows 8 Laptop (MCE pointed at HTPC share) I have the same problem (some shows are listed with underscores and not grouped together) so I posted in TGB.
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=5&t=2781


I'm glad I was referred to this thread, looks promising. Like most everyone else, the script didn't do any thing for me and I followed the instructions carefully.


I'll give MCEFIleMover thing a try since I didn't see the power shell talked about tried or shared by others yet.


When I googled it up MCEFIleMover I could'nt find it just yet, but I found


Recorded TV Manager 4
http://www.fjdrasch.com/v4/v4start.htm


It sounds like it does the same thing maybe? But yeah I can't seem to find MCEFIleMover when I googled around.

_____________________________________________________


Time to tinker

[holidayboy]

I'm sure I have a copy of mcefilemover somewhere, I'll post a link.

[holidayboy]

https://poakkw.dm1.livefilestore.com/y2 ... oad&psid=1

[JazJon]

Thanks I'll try soon. I launched it on my laptop and looks like it will get the job done. The Recorded TV Manager 4 app looks good too, but I'll statt simple and use what's proven first.

[JazJon]

So far so good, noticed some strange minimize/maximize behavior with the MCEFileMover.exe app. I had to use task manager to find the App and right click Maximize, then resize again to reset it's window position/size etc.

I created a shortcut in my startup group to start minimized and as Administrator.

For settings I have it moving from D:\Recorded TV to D:\Recorded TV2
(every 60 seconds it checks for unlocked files ready to move)

I deleted the original Recorded TV share. I then shared Recorded TV2 as "Recorded TV" (the same original share name)

I've only tried it a couple hours, but so far test recordings have shown up on my Laptop's Media Center totally normal.

I've also seen MCEFileMover.exe crash once already too, hope it lasts long term

[JazJon]

Ok so at least my laptop MCE dosen't have the non-grouped names of show problem any more (with underscores to the left of "TODAY")

Shows are showing up where they should, but with no thumbnails.

I can live with no Thumbnails, but any trick to refresh those?
I have thumbnails on the main MCE HTPC, I'm just missing them on new recordings I view on my Laptop via MCE.

What keeps my Laptop from seeing proper thumb nails?
Should I try one of the various refresh scripts? I tried this one, didn't work
http://www.petenetlive.com/KB/Article/0000627.htm

The older recordings all have thumbnails. Only the latest recordings from today are missing thumbnails on my laptop side.

[holidayboy]

Have you seen ehvid.exe taking any CPU on the laptop at all?

Open task manager and get the list of running processes up, then open MC and go to recorded tv.

You could also try deleting the TV thumbnail db file in case it's corrupted and no longer being updated.

It's located at C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\ehome\thmb\TVThumb.db (hidden).

You need to kill the ehome processes, or just reboot in safe mode in order to delete (or move/rename if you prefer) it.

The next time you go into recorded tv, ehvid should fire up and hopefully generate new thumbs.

[JazJon]

I don't see ehvid.exe popping up in task manager at all. (even while I tried the below)

Ok so I stopped the two eh* services.

I deleted TVThumb.db

started both eh* services

fired up media center and wen into TV Recordings.

I saw it rebuild thumbnails for every show up to (but not including) 10PM news and the 5 shows after that.

So now I have thumbs for everything but the latest 5 shows. I wonder what's special about those files?

UPDATE............. (was about to hit submit)

Ah....... so I did the same thing on the main HTPC. (deleted TVThumb.db) Now thumbnails are showing up on BOTH sysytems!

So everything is perfect now. I wonder if it will break again, and what causes thumbnails to get stuck. (since I'm still using MCEFileMover now)

[JazJon]

Ok, I think I traded one problem for another.

What would cause Media Center on my main HTPC to add yellow triangle to be deleted tags for shows that are only hours old?
It seems as if Media Center won't delete shows in D:\Recorded TV2 to make room for new recordings. (that start out in "D:\Recorded TV") Can I fix/automate this? I'd hate to have to manually delete stuff myself every so often just to keep my original problem working. Any more tweak suggestions? As you can see I have quite a bit of "Other Content" now eating up the whole drive)

[JazJon]

Well it looks like MCE File Mover isn't reliable anyway.............

1) You can't restore the windows once it's open. You see it on the task bar but you can't open it. The only way is using task manager, open up one level, right click MCE File Mover, select Maximize, then drag the MCE window a bit and it will snap to a tiny collapsed state. You can then resize that to normal. (see first photo)

Who wrote this app? Can someone touch up the code to work better with Windows 8? Should I try running it in Compatibility mode for Windows XP or 7?

2) It crashes often and won't keep going for more than a few minuets/hours it seems. (see second screen shot)





So yeah who wrote this? Can we ask for an update? (or should I try compatibility mode)?)

[holidayboy]

I remember fixing the 'bug' that messes with the window size and position by editing a couple of values in regedit and then locking down the key so it couldn't be adjusted. I'll look it up.



Sorry, I cant help with the delete problem, we manually delete stuff from a dedicated TV drive.

[holidayboy]

I didn't suffer crashes when I used it, maybe try compatibility mode / run as admin?

[JazJon]

hmmm if Media Center won't auto delete old stuff any more that's a deal breaker. I guess I'll have to deal with the other bug then. I'm going to forget to delete the old stuff and it will build up fast. Oh well it was a fun experiment.

Media Center will be a distant memory once XBMC get's their act together. I keep poking around every few months but it's not nearly interesting enough for me to switch yet.

When I am ready I plan to over lap both XBMC PVR and MCE at the same time for awhile.