Keep buffer in RAM

[dhead666]

Feature suggestion:

With regards to #35 I would like to suggest that maybe a setting for keeping the buffer in RAM will be added.

ATM we can use tmpfs as the buffer target but it will grow until no space is left which isn't good idea, so support in the addon for keeping in buffer in RAM should actually keep track of the available free space and will make sure at least X MB of space is left free.

For SD video (~1.6Mbps average bitrate), having the buffer in the RAM is working for me quite nicely on devices with 1GB of RAM (Cubox-i2) and it helps avoid constantly writing into flash memory.

[Jalle19]

It is a good suggestion, the biggest problem is I'm not really sure how to implement it nicely. The same idea (size limiting) needs to be done for the filesystem buffer too.

[falcon03]

Another way to limit the buffer size would be to use its content duration. Let me explain further.

Suppose there is a setting to establish that buffer should keep content up to n minutes. While you're watching TV, the addon should ask itself: "Did we watch TV for more than n minutes"?" OK, lets reduce the buffer size: if we write data for 20 seconds, we delete data corresponding to 20 seconds within the buffer.

But there's one complication. If the user stop playing, then this calculation should be suspended and start again when the user resumes watching the show...

BTW, since a lot of people run Kodi on embedded systems, I am not sure that keeping the buffer in RAM is a good idea, especially considering that it can grow up to very important sizes. What about keeping the buffer on the storage attached to the VBox itself?

[Jalle19]

The buffer must be stored on the client since the VBox has no concept of timeshifting on its own.

[phunkyfish]

If you were to use tempfs what happens when the buffer fills up. Does it wrap back around or simply stop recording.

Does the buffer file ever decrease back down in size?

R.

[Jalle19]

@phunkyfish the buffer file gets deleted every time you switch channels.

[phunkyfish]

So we tend to just switch off the TV which will pause live tv. Hence it's filling up the disk. I could just create a separate disk and time shift buffer to that location. That would limit the size of the buffer and stop the guide issue from happening. Should that work? R.

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On 22 Mar 2017, at 06:20, Sam Stenvall ***@***.***> wrote: @phunkyfish the buffer file gets deleted every time you switch channels. — You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or mute the thread.

[Jalle19]

Yeah that should work, let me know if it doesn't.