R5E50 seems to take a very long time to delete a show after I have watched it. I am comparing this to my last mythtv system which was R5B7.

The new system is on a different motherboard, a slightly faster CPU (700MHz celeron > 900MHz Duron), same physical hard drive, same amount of memory (512MB). One big difference is that I now have an extra DVB card (2 in total).

I think, (have yet to measure it) that it is particularly slow if it is recording at the same time as when I press delete on some other show I have been watching.

Maybe it's normal, but if there's anything I can do to improve it, it would be nice to know. I remember reading discussions about which file systems are fastest for deleting files. I am using whatever R5E50 set up automatically.

There's a "delete slowly" option in the backend. But it's generally a GOOD thing, because it keeps the system from stuttering during playback, while deleting files. Deleting an 8GB file all at once, can be taxing on the system.

OK, I'll check if it is set, thanks.

One thing I didn't mention was that while the delete is taking place, it becomes impossible to navigate around the 'recorded programs' list. It becomes unresponsive to keypresses. But, I agree, that full priority should be given to the recording process(es).

That sounds like "fast" delete. Slow is what you DO want. You can delete a bunch of files in the frontend, watch shows without stuttering, and the space is free a few hours later. That's probably what you want.

Yep, sure sounds like it. I will try this tonight when I get home. Thanks

Works a treat! One more solution found.

I am using EXT3 for my file system now, but I had tried XFS for one install and it was very fast to delete files. Then, I had a hard disk in a LVM fail and I couldn't remove it from the volume and I was forced to start from scratch and went back to EXT3. I'm still thinking that I may use XFS for my next install (when I get around to installing R5E50).

XFS and JFS are very good at handling large files, but be sure to install the tools for those filesystems if you use them. Otherwise you'll eventually run into issues if there's a forced filesystem check.

For MythTV's purpose, I'm a bit surprised that Knoppmyth doesn't use one of these filesystems as the default.

I am brand new to this - have a windows based tuner but want to have the frontend/backend setup!
I have had some linux experience and would like to add to the support for using a filesystem fast with BIG files - there isnt much bigger than HDTV files!
I am about to fire up a RE50 - so hoping all goes well
(love the forum, and have learnt a lot - hope its enough)
regards from aussierob50

I think the default of Knoppmyth, ext3, is OK, with the slow delete feature, but yes, maybe in some future version a change might be in order. I am just happy to have such an easy way to get MythTV up and running.

Good luck!