Can I copy recordings from DTR-T2000

[arjem]

I am about to return DTR-T2000 to supplier. Is there a way to copy existing recordings from the hard drive to external USB drive or a computer? I used to be able to do this on my Fox-T2.

 

[MontysEvilTwin]

If it is like the DTR-T1000 the answer is yes, with caveats. High def. content is encrypted and won't play on another device. Standard def. is unencrypted. However you will need to open the case as the hard drive needs to be connected to a PC to access the partition containing the recordings: the easiest way is to use a powered SATA to USB adapter. Also the partition is in XFS format so is unreadable in Windows without extra software: I don't know of free software to do this. If you have a PC with a Linux based OS it is straightforward: I use Ubuntu. I don't have a dedicated Linux PC; I boot from a USB drive into Ubuntu. If you do a search it is easy to find instructions to do this.

 

[Deleted member 473]

ext2fsd allows reading and writing ext partitions within Windoze. Even W8.1.

 

[MontysEvilTwin]

The partition containing the 'My Video' folder on the DTR-T1000 is in XFS format not Ext. Is isn't accessible in Windows using the Ext2FSD program.

 

[Deleted member 473]

Ah, sorry.

 

[arjem]

Thanks for the information. I am a Windows and Apple man so I will need to get grips with Linux. Why did Humax not provide the same facility as on Fox-T2 which allows copying to external hard drive via the USB socket. Thanks again.

 

[Black Hole]

I prefer to run Lubuntu as a live boot from CD - it is less resource-hungry than Ubuntu, the latest roll outs of Ubuntu expect 3D graphics and run incredibly slowly if the graphics card isn't up to it.

 

[MontysEvilTwin]

To add to information provided by Colonel Panic here, in addition to the main TS files each recording on the DTR-T1000 has HMT and NTS sidecar files. The format is different to HDR-FOX: if you copy the sidecars over with the TS file the recording is not visible and thus unplayable. The lone TS file (standard definition) is visible and playable. If anyone wants to examine the HMT files I have attached examples below:

 

[Deleted member 473]

If you can't access recordings easily on these boxes, because of non-standard or exotic file systems, is it still possible to take a whole disk image? I am guessing not, because of encryption, but then if you were just replacing a drive in a box then it might work, assuming the encryption key is determined by the box and not box+disk.

This is a major fault of these systems: return the unit for repair/replacement and you risk losing any recordings you haven't yet watched.

 

[MontysEvilTwin]

XFS is exotic for Windows, it came from IRIX and is standard in most flavours of Linux. I'm sure I have seen Windows software that can copy data from an XFS partition, it is just that it is not free. Using an Ubuntu 'Live USB' is easy with a Windows PC. Instructions for creating this are here. Once you are done all you have to do is plug the USB stick into a slot on a Windows PC, switch on, press whatever function key you need to change the boot order to USB first and it will boot. You get two options, one to install Ubuntu on your hard drive, the other to boot from the USB stick to try it out. Select the try out option and it will load a basic version of Ubuntu. Then you can mount the unencrypted partitions and copy data to the internal hard drive or an NTFS formatted USB drive (use the send to function).
If you did want to clone the drive, Acronis True Image for Windows, for example, will probably do the trick. It will do a sector by sector copy so it should be able to copy the encrypted partitions too, but this will be quite slow. I haven't tried it myself though with an encrypted partition. You can take a drive from a DTR-T1000 and use it in another unit. If it does not boot properly you can always do a maintenance mode factory reset and opt to keep the recordings. High def. recordings won't play, but the standard def. stuff will be fine.

Edit. I was a bit hasty by suggesting that Acronis will copy the encrypted partitions, it might not. It can be done though with Ubuntu: see here, but it looks like a faff.

 

[Deleted member 473]

Yes, but will the cloned drive work with a replacement box? No, according to you, so the problem remains.

 

[MontysEvilTwin]

I don't know if a cloned drive will work in a different box (I tried formatting a drive in one box and using it in another, with a DTR-T1000, but ended up doing another factory reset anyway): it depends on whether the new box is just looking for the correct drive/ partition structure or if, on formatting, a drive is somehow tied to the original unit. As copying the recordings from one drive to another is straightforward, that is what I would do. Since there is no way of copying the recordings without opening the box and breaking the warranty seal, as far as I am aware, it might not be practical to save the recordings,

 

[MontysEvilTwin]

Here is a link (Sourceforge so it should be free of bloat and malware) to a Windows program called FSproxy. I have not tested it, but it should give at least read access to XFS partitions in Windows. This should allow recordings to be copied off a YouView drive to an NTFS one. The standard def. recordings will play on PCs and the HDR-FOX, for example, if you remove the sidecar files. YouView file nomenclature uses dots in place of spaces in file names and this might cause problems in Windows.

 

[MontysEvilTwin]

I copied some recordings from a YouView box by booting a Windows PC into Ubuntu (Ubuntu liveUSB): this is very easy and quick. When connected, the unencrypted partitions mount automatically and can be accessed using Nautilus (the file manager program). I copied the files to an NTFS formatted USB drive. I have since tried to copy some recordings back to the YouView disk but this failed: the YouView partitions are mounted with read only permissions by default. After some digging I found a way around this. If you open a terminal window and type the following:

gksudo nautilus

a new file manager window opens and the mounted partitions are now available within this window with root permissions, allowing you to copy files to, and delete files from the YouView partitions.

 

[MontysEvilTwin]

I have found that recordings copied into the My Video folder are automatically deleted by the YouView box. It must keep a catalogue of recordings and delete anything that is not in that catalogue. So currently there is no known way of copying recordings from one YouView box to another.

 

[Black Hole]

It might be done by file ownership properties in the file system. You adopted root privilege to write files into the file system, but those files are not owned by the YouView process.

 

[MontysEvilTwin]

I ran a test to explore the file deletion mentioned in my above post (#15). I recorded two approx. 10 minute sections of different programmes and copied them to another disk drive. I turned the YouView box back on and deleted one of the two recordings with the remote control. I then remounted the drive on the PC and deleted the second programme (and emptied the 'Trash' to ensure full deletion). I then copied both recordings into the 'My Video' folder from the backup on the second drive. On booting the DTR-T1000, the recording deleted using the remote control was not listed, but the one deleted using the PC was there and was playable. This suggests that the unit keeps a catalogue of the recordings and deletes anything that is not listed.

 

[colinobj]

I just bought a Humax DTR-T2000 Youview box - to replace my Toppy 5810 which seems to be on the blink. Its not to be confused with the similar-sounding HDR-2000T!!!!

I can see no software options in the DTR-T2000 for downloading program files to USB or via Ethernet, so I'm guessing that the standard firmware doesn't provide for this. Am I right? Is there a custom version that can do it?

I've seen references to using FTP to access the Humax DTR-T2000 file structure - but I'm not sure they really apply to the DTR-T2000 and they may be be assumptions that its the same as DTR-T1010 (which mine isn't!). So I worked out the IP address of the DTR-T2000, opened a command prompt in windows and typed in "ftp 192.168.1.65" - it came back with "Connection refused". I'm not an expert in using ftp, so can anyone offer me a noddy guide into how I do this, or confirm whether the DTR-T2000 is capable of FTP access?

In case its helpful, my DTRT2000 is:
Variant: 84B07000
Manufacturer Software: 26.40.0
Component Software: 3.0.47
Platform Configuration: 3034
ISP Configuration: 186

 

[Black Hole]

The "connection refused" status is a good hint - it wasn't just "command invalid" or "server not found".

I suspect you will find that these kind of things are not enabled on a YouView box. The implementation is defined by YouView, not Humax, and you can expect the box to be thoroughly locked down (IIRC even the file system is encrypted).

PS: I have now skimmed the discussion in this topic to refresh my memory, and the reason people are experimenting with accessing the HDD removed from the unit is simply because there is no other means to access the files.

 

[Boyd MacIntosh]

If you can't access recordings easily on these boxes, because of non-standard or exotic file systems, is it still possible to take a whole disk image? I am guessing not, because of encryption, but then if you were just replacing a drive in a box then it might work, assuming the encryption key is determined by the box and not box+disk.

This is a major fault of these systems: return the unit for repair/replacement and you risk losing any recordings you haven't yet watched.

If you can't access recordings easily on these boxes, because of non-standard or exotic file systems, is it still possible to take a whole disk image? I am guessing not, because of encryption, but then if you were just replacing a drive in a box then it might work, assuming the encryption key is determined by the box and not box+disk.

This is a major fault of these systems: return the unit for repair/replacement and you risk losing any recordings you haven't yet watched.

Regarding the question of copying recordings to an other hard drive from the Drive of a Fox T2 using Acronis, I used Acronis to copy a drive from one to put in a second machine and Acronis made the copy and I put it in the second machine after setting it up I looked at the list of recordings and it looked identical to the original , but on trying the recordings they did not play, there were the titles and the times etc listed as they should but there were no indication that the actual recordings were there.
The other point I would make is that in my case anyway Acronis would not allow a copy to be made from a disk of a smaller size than the target disk (500GB to a 1TB) and ihave tried several times with different drives, I have found the disk had to be the same size. But I am not an expert so maybe I did not set it up properly.