This has probably been asked and answered a 1000 times, but using various searches I’ve come up with very little on this topic.

First, let me state I am new to MCE. I have been using SnapStream Beyond TV for some time, but have ended up with an extra PVR250MCE and decided actually use my MSDN subscription and throw together a MCE box.

The interface is clean and usable. I’m very impressed with the intuitive nature of the application. The only tweak I would like to apply is the ability to record to a network share. I have a Windows 2003 Server with a large RAID 5 array. I would love to have my shows stored on this array.

I have figured the following out:

If you map a drive in the system context and then use Media Center Workshop to modify the record location and temp locations to the new drive, it almost works. I get a recording with the right name on the array, but the file won’t playback. In recorded shows, I see two listings for the show record. One of the two is always 1 minute long.

Has anyone had more success?

Thanks,
-bj

You may have trouble doing direct recording to a network drive unless u mess with the I/O settings under the MCE registry settings (but don't, you'll have a dead media center really quick that way).  MCE will give up quickly if it can't get all the bits onto the disk fast enough.

Better way to go is to record your live TV to local disk, and then periodically move it over to your network store, and tell MCE to search both directories for TV content.

An even better idea would be to run a scheduled task to archive all your DVR-MS files to WMV on your server's array.  DVR2WMV works over the network, no problems.  Media Center will refuse to write to a network-mapped drive.

-aseigler

Thanks for the info. This wasn't exactly what I was hoping to hear. Does anyone know why it refuses to write? What kinds of thresholds does the recording engine monitor?

Just FYI: I can successfully record 8Mbps recordings across my network with SnapStream BTV. I have even had multiple recording streams and multiple playback streams all at the same time.

-bj

i'd *assume* that it's just a failsafe built into MCE, as not even external devices such as external hard drives will work for storage of TV. Not sure why, i agree it's sad :-( but thank god for DVR2WMV (thanks Alex & Jeff!)

:-D

a bit off topic but I have had some success with an external disk drive.

I use a LaCie Terabyte drive which support Firewire 800 and USB 2.0

The drive works just fine with either (had to switch to usb2.0 for a while when the firewire 800 card burned up).

One interesting thing that I found in adding the external drive is that when I changed the option to use the external drive MCE still sees all the recorded stuff on the old drive, even when there are recordings of the same series on both drives it sees all of them (quite unexpected but a definite bonus).

 

wayne

 

Media Center 2005 can record directly to a network share. Here is what I have done and all appears to be working correctly, though not sure if all of the items mentioned below are required:

Edited the following registry key  HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\Recording and changed "RecordPath" from "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV" to a UNC path, IE: "\\COMPUTER\SHAREDFOLDER"

Adjusted share permissions and registry a/p aseigler: http://www.thegreenbutton.com/community/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=42&MessageID=63452

Use a batch script called "StartMceShare.bat" by Jason Mehring in Windows startup folder: http://www.thegreenbutton.com/community/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=27&MessageID=30908

Note: It took a reboot or so to get the "RecordPath" key to "stick" and I have not tested what happens when the server is unavailable -- perhaps MCE reverts the "RecordPath" key back to its original location on the C:\ drive?

Thanks to aseigler, Jason Mehring and TGB!

 

 

Thanks for taking the time to post this info.  You've really made my day.  I can't wait to give this a go.

-bj

I've tried the above in every form.

 

Currently, I have tweakUI logging in accounts, the .bat file as descibed, but when I change the reg file, it tries to find the other machine, then reverts to it's original home drive entry.

 

Are there any other tips one can give? 

 

Have others gotten this working?

astro11,

With hope given by sonik, I undertook trying to get recording to a network share working.  It took a combination of things to get it working correctly.  Here's my final setup:

Server: 2.8 GHz P4, 500GB RAID 5 array, Windows Server 2003, Domain Controller
Work Station: 2.4 Celeron, 40 GB ATA, Windows MCE 2005, Workgroup Member
Network: Switched 100Mb full duplex through a Lynksys BEFW11S4

After spending quite a few hours getting tinkering with MCE I discovered that all disk access for recording shows is handled by the Media Center Scheduler Service (ehSched).  When the service starts it checks to see it it cans access all the recording location specified at HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Cneter\Service\Recording\RecrdPath (String Value).  If it can't get to the location specified it resets the recording location to C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV. 

Realizing that the service was doing the check I decided to create a service account.  I created an account named MCE with a password of 12345678.  I then made the account an administrator of the local MCE PC.  Next I opened the local security policy for the MCE PC (it's located in Administrative Tools).

Under Security Settings\Local Policies\User Rights Assignments I added the MCE account to the following:

Act as part of the operating system (I didn't test if this is necessary.)
Log on as a service (I know this is required.)

Next I took advantage of a NT authentication flaw that has been around for years.  If you try to connect a PC that is not on a domain to one that is, the domain PC will authenticate the user as long as the username and password match.  So, I created an account of the domain controller named MCE and gave it the same password of 12345678.

Next I shared the folder I wanted and gave Everyone full access at both the share and file levels of security.  (I used everyone instead of specifying the MCE account for reasons I'll get to shortly).

Finally, I set both MCE services to log on as the MCE account. And then I restarted the services. With all of this done, the services will start and not change the path. 

Unfortunately, we're not done yet.  Apparently parts of MCE will try to access the path with out passing the credentials for the service account it is running as.  To over come this, edit the security policy on the server.  Change Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options\Network access: Let Everyone permissions apply to anonymous users to Enabled.  This is why we set the permissions to everyone earlier.

Now, you can record to the network.  No batch files or scripts required.  If the server is ever unreachable, MCE will default back to the local recording path.

I hope this helps,
-bj

I think I tried everything you outlined with no success.

 

I know this seems foolish in light of earlier posts, but might someone bulid a FAQ?  While your instructions seem complete, I'm obviously missing something in translation.

 

Sentences like "I set both MCE services to log on as MCE account..." seem to make sense, but I'm sure I'm missing a radio button setting somewhere that is preventing a good outcome.