PVR recordings erased themselves

[jellytotz]

Hello all,

I'm having an issue I'm hoping someone can shed some light on. A few days ago, I made some PVR recordings that were saved to Micro SD. I checked the recordings afterwards, and they seemed fine (they played back when you click on them, can fast-forward, etc). Using the Files app, I noticed that the recordings were saved on the Micro SD in the Android/Media directory.

Today, I wanted to transfer the recordings to my desktop. In the PVR, the recordings are still listed, but there is no thumbnail, and when I try to play the files I get a "stream not available" message. I checked the Micro SD, and the "media" directory is no longer there.

Does anybody have an idea of what may be happening, and how I can prevent this issue from occurring again?

Thanks in advance!

[jellytotz]

Here are some more details:

• Recordings were from XC stream
• I'm not sure how the card was formatted. It was previously used in another device, so we did not format the card (using the BuzzTV box) before using it.

[Emporium]

I don't know what happened (and no one will be able to tell for sure).  I have never had an issue with directories vanishing.  However I always completely discourage the use of SD cards for recording purposes on media boxes.  The card itself may be fast enough, but I am not sure (and never saw it in the specs) on what speeds the slot on the box is designed for.  Obviously speed is not the issue here, but not sure what happened.

I would strongly recommend getting a decent quality USB key (USB 3) instead, they are pretty cheap nowadays.  Also formatting it on a PC using exFAT (which ensures you'll be able to properly download files of >4GB) before installing it on the box (and ensure to connect it to the Blue USB3 port, not the black USB2 port).

Just to be more precise, PVR recordings are typically under the Android/media/buzztvxr4000.tv directory.

I have one of these flash drives that I picked up from a local big box store and it works great.  256GB (plenty of space - maybe too much for some, but I find it is the sweet spot for $/GB), and the Tiny form factor means it is not protruding.

https://www.amazon.ca/SanDisk-128GB-Ultra-Flash-Drive/dp/B0BY2TT9TD

 

 

[dishuser]

https://www.factorydirect.ca/search?q=usb%20flash%20drive

no warranty obviously but at these prices it don't matter...lol

[Emporium]

23 minutes ago, dishuser said:

https://www.factorydirect.ca/search?q=usb%20flash%20drive

no warranty obviously but at these prices it don't matter...lol

And their firesale continues..   It was long time in the making.   But this assume the OP is in Ontario, which I have no clue, hence why I left it vague and open ended on purchase location.

 

[dishuser]

33 minutes ago, Emporium said:

And their firesale continues..   It was long time in the making.   But this assume the OP is in Ontario, which I have no clue, hence why I left it vague and open ended on purchase location.

 

ya I just put it here in case op or anyone else is interested

first xscargo and now factory direct

I still have a fan,space heater and saw horses I got from xscargo...lol

[jellytotz]

2 hours ago, Emporium said:

The card itself may be fast enough

But the recordings worked. I was able to play the recordings back when I tested them.

FYI, it's a Samsung EVO+ card. It's a bit older/slower though, has a U1 on it (80MB/s). But it should be fast enough, right?

2 hours ago, Emporium said:

and ensure to connect it to the Blue USB3 port, not the black USB2 port

I put the card in the TF slot in the box.

2 hours ago, Emporium said:

Also formatting it on a PC using exFAT (which ensures you'll be able to properly download files of >4GB) before installing it on the box

OK I will try formatting the card to exFAT.

2 hours ago, Emporium said:

I would strongly recommend getting a decent quality USB key (USB 3) instead, they are pretty cheap nowadays.

OK, will try that, thank you. Will see if the card reformatting has any effect first.

[dishuser]

did you try vlc?

[Emporium]

You can try reformatting it and see if it happens again.  It should not regardless of the formatting, so something did happen.  Yes, the 80MB/s should be enough. 

I don't think the intention of the sd card addition was primarily for this use.  The sd card is helpful for recovery purposes (since it is the easiest way to reflash the box when things go bad).  Hopefully most people do not need it.

But, also be careful if you are using the card for other features, like timeshift (which writes continuously to the card).  sd cards are not designed to be continuously written to, unless they are "high endurance" type.  And not sure how every sd card handles multi-theaded writes (actually more like 2 processes writing to it at the same time - timeshift - and possibly recording).  In the past when I used to try that on older miniPCs, it was a recipe for corrupted filesystems and things hanging/glitching regularly as it would timeout on the writes

 

 

 

[jellytotz]

Hi, this is just a follow-up on the issue.

So the issue seemed to be the card. It's borked. I tried to format the card several times, on different computers, and the card just won't format. I tried running CHKDSK on it, and CHKDSK detects errors, but can't fix those errors.

I happened to receive a new Sandisk Micro SD from Amazon later that day. That card was meant for something else, but I put it in the Buzz box instead. And so far, it works fine (meaning recorded shows aren't self-deleting themselves). But I will replace this with a flash drive, as soon as I can.

Thank you @Emporium and @dishuser for the assistance.

[dishuser]

as Emorium mentioned format it to exfat because default is fat32

especially if you want to download a vod

[jellytotz]

Yup! But the busted card was ExFat (but something's wrong with it, it won't store files). The new micro SD card came preformatted as ExFat, and there's been no issues so far.

Edited March 17 by jellytotz