Recordings and storage

A recording is the broadcast itself, saved on your server. Watching it later does not change that file.

Where they go

In Docker and on Unraid the folder is the one you mount at /config/work/recordings. Settings, Recordings folder, shows the path. To keep them on another disk, mount that disk there, or point BROADWAVE_RECORDINGS at it. Outside Docker, -recordings does the same. Recordings already made stay where they are.

Each recording is one MPEG-TS file, filed by show in the layout Plex and Jellyfin read:

TV/Harbor Watch/Season 01/Harbor Watch - S01E02 - The Lighthouse.ts
TV/Evening News/Evening News - 2026-10-05 - Storm Coverage.ts
Movies/Night Flight (1999)/Night Flight (1999).ts

A season folder is used when the guide has both a season and an episode number. Otherwise the file stays in the show folder, named with the date and the episode name, or the start time when it has none. A movie gets the year when the guide has it.

The picture and the first sound track are copied, not re-encoded. A clear ATSC 3.0 channel with AC-4 sound keeps the program's own packets, so every sound track and the captions stay as the tuner sent them.

When the recording ends, a .json file with the same name sits beside it, with the title and the times. Commercial breaks, when any are found, go in a matching .edl. The Docker image includes comskip, which runs after the file is closed, along with Broadwave's own scan for black frames, scene cuts, and silence. A server without comskip still runs that scan.

Turn on "Write .nfo files for Plex, Jellyfin, and Kodi" and a finished recording also gets an .nfo beside it. The switch is off until you turn it on.

What you can record

Record this airing, record the series, or record every game for a team you follow.

A series pass can be one channel or any channel, new episodes only, certain days, and a time of day. Padding is minutes before the listing and after it. While you set a pass up, the schedule shows what it would record in the next two weeks. Passes higher in the list win when two shows overlap and a tuner is short. The schedule offers a later airing when one fits.

A game that is matched to a live score keeps recording until the game is over, in ten-minute steps, and stops eight minutes after it ends. Turning live scores off means a game is not extended as it runs. A sports listing that is not matched to a score records for an hour past the guide.

A show that is already on can still be recorded from its beginning, when the channel has been tuned and the buffer still holds the start. Settings, Keep for recording from the start, is how long that buffer is. The choices are Off, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, and 4 hours. One hour is the usual choice.

A pass claims its tuner 90 seconds before the listing. Padding starts it earlier only when that padding is longer than 90 seconds. Watching inside that window asks first only when the tune would leave a recording without a tuner. With a spare tuner the channel plays and Broadwave does not ask. The recording still takes the tuner when it starts. A tuner that is already recording is left alone.

Disk space

Settings, Keep this much free, is the reserve. It is 10 GB unless you change it. Zero turns it off.

A new recording is refused while free space is under that reserve. The message names the free space and the reserve. A show that is already recording keeps going.

Settings, When space runs low, is "Skip new recordings" unless you change it. "Delete the oldest watched" deletes watched recordings, the one watched longest ago first, when free space is under the reserve. It checks once an hour and before a new recording would be skipped. If deleting all of them would still leave the disk under the reserve, it deletes none. It does not delete an unwatched recording, one still recording, or one you marked Keep forever.

Settings, Delete watched recordings, deletes a recording a number of days after it was watched. It is off unless you pick a number. Both of these count a recording as watched once it was played to the last 15 seconds or marked watched. Stopping earlier does not, even through 90% of a long recording. One you played in the last 6 hours stays.

Playing and deleting

Open a recording from Recordings or from Home. It starts again where you left off. While it is still recording, you watch the file as it grows. Download, on the web, appears after the recording has finished and saves the MPEG-TS.

Delete removes the recording and the files beside it inside the recordings folder. Stop it first if it is still recording. A file that was moved or deleted outside Broadwave stays in the list. The line is the channel number, then "The file is gone. It was moved or deleted outside Broadwave." The web library and the Apple apps use that same line. When the recording is damaged and the episode has a name, Record it again records the next airing. Remove from the list drops that row. There is no file left to delete.

The folder layout, pass rules, rename, and the .edl format are in How recordings are stored.