TLDR: I've posted about this several times in the past and I thought someone indicated the feature was being worked on. I really need it. Any updates?
I need the ability to schedule a series recording and indicate to "Keep at most N shows" where N is a number (e.g. 5). Once n shows are recorded, the next recording would record over the oldest recorded show such that only N are kept on disk. When will that be released? I don't want the last 100+ nightly news recordings, I don't want the DVR to fill up when the local station decides to run a marathon on a show I like, etc. I've had to go on another delete spree today because of this and it's such a simple and convenient feature. Will it ever be released?
DVR Series Recording Limits - Keep at most N shows!
Re: DVR Series Recording Limits - Keep at most N shows!
"Delete after X date" is on our TODO list.
"Keep at most N shows" is not planned as you can have recordings distributed across any number of record engines and we don't track the number of episodes recorded.
"Keep at most N shows" is not planned as you can have recordings distributed across any number of record engines and we don't track the number of episodes recorded.
Re: DVR Series Recording Limits - Keep at most N shows!
Sorry Nick, but I'm not sure how I'd even use that to solve the issue. Can you please share more?
Essentially the desired scenario is that, as a user, you want to essentially manage your disk space. So as a user I know that when I setup to record the evening news I'm just trying to keep only the last 2-3 episodes around, because if I don't watch them by the time the next one starts to record, it's ok to write over the oldest one because I'll never watch it. Same with other things....for example, for me it's good to keep the last 5 episodes of Frazier around in case I get an hour or two and there's nothing else to watch. It's similar with many other things I setup to record (e.g. golf, Seinfeld, etc.). Those decisions are known and made when a user sets up the series recording. A popular DVR I used for decades in the past before switching to the HDHR about 4 years ago, had this feature and I never had to delete shows. Unfortunately I've had the HDHR fill up and stop recording a few times on me, and I've spent hours cleaning up older recordings.
"Delete after X date"
If by date you mean, delete this recording after Februrary 2, 2026 then how can that apply for a series recording? Or if by date you mean, delete this recording after 7 days, then that doesn't satisfy the requirement either as perhaps a new episode of that show might not be available for another month. In other words, as a user I want to record and keep the last N recordings of a show around at all times until I watch them or otherwise dispose of them. Why N? Because that number of episodes is useful to me and I'm willing to dedicate that amount of disk space to keeping them around. Why the last N? Because I always want the latest/freshest episodes.... not the 1st N that may have been recorded a year and a half ago. Why until I watch them or otherwise dispose of them? Because I never know when that moment of free time coincides with "nothing else interesting is available". If that moment came the day after X date but before other fresher episodes were recorded I would be extremely frustrated.
Implementation
As for implementation, there are still options with multiple engines. E.g. support this for only 1 recording engine; or declare that multiple engines may for a time go over the limit and then delete excess recordings after they coordinate across engines to delete the oldest ones that are over the limit; or state that the limit is per recording engine. All of those are acceptable and the 1st and last options require no more code than the simple solution.
Simple Solution
I would simply implement it by counting the number of recordings of show X. If X = N then delete the oldest recording for that show before starting to record the next episode (or in the case of multiple engines, possibly after the engines coordinate). Essentially if you hit http://hdhomerun.local/recorded_files.h ... 4224ENS8XM it shows only the shows for that series (60 Minutes). That's all the ability a recording engine needs, along with sorting by date, in order to implement this. Before recording the next instance of 60 minutes, if the recording engine queried the current recordings of that series (as that API does), and checks the count against N; and if the count is equal to or greater than N, it sorts by date ascending, and deletes all but the last (N-1) recordings then all requirements are met.
Deferred Deletion
And, if you really want to optimize things, you don't have to delete the recordings necessarily. You could mark them for deletion and defer deletion until space is needed.... but then you'd need other features to really give the user the power to take advantage of that....like showing the recordings marked for deletion and allowing "recover" options. I don't think these are necessary though.