Change the length of the live TV buffer



The default settings in Windows 7 allow for a 40-45 minute live TV buffer. You can easily change this by editing a few registry values. Open the registry editor and navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\Video\Tuners\DVR\

Modify the following values to suit your needs: Tips:
 * BackingStoreMaxNumBackingFiles - The maximum number of buffer files to use for the current channel.
 * BackingStoreMaxExistingBackingFiles - The maximum number of buffer files to use for all channels.
 * BackingStoreEachFileDurationSeconds - The length, in seconds, for each buffer file.
 * 1) The values in BackingStoreMaxNumBackingFiles and BackingStoreMaxExistingBackingFiles do not include the file WMC is currently buffering. So if those two values are 8, a 9th file is used as a "current" buffer file, while the other 8 are "previous" buffer files.
 * 2) The minimum allowed value for ﻿BackingStoreMaxNumBackingFiles and BackingStoreMaxExistingBackingFiles is 4. The minimum allowed value for BackingStoreEachFileDurationSeconds is 5.