Copying un-watched recorded data from a dead DTR-T2100 to a newer DTR-T4000

[paulm]

I've had an old DTR-T2100 youview box for a while. A month or so ago, it failed. Wouldn't power on, even though the plug pack was was functional. I managed to get a secondhand DTR-T4000 unit to replace it, which is working fine.

There was quite a bit of recorded data on the old unit. I've checked the hard drive, which is fine, and I could copy the recordings to my media server for viewing. Trouble is, that would lose the metadata with series grouping and other useful information. I was wondering if there would be any problems in transferring the recordings to the newer box? I run Linux, and have no problems with the XFS file system, but I'm uncertain as to whether this sort of transfer would cause any problems with new recordings?

I've already removed the drive from the old box, and wouldn't have too much trouble pulling the drive from the newer box. Just wanted to check for potential problems before I started pulling the new box apart...

 

[Black Hole]

Just wanted to check for potential problems

Encryption!

As you have the old drive and a Linux system, connect it up and have a look around. You should find the actual recording files without too much trouble, but if they won't play (using eg VLC) that will be because they have been encrypted using a key unique to the original box.

If that's the case, they are of no use to you without the original machine. Metadata is the least of your worries.

 

[Luke]

There was quite a bit of recorded data on the old unit. I've checked the hard drive, which is fine, and I could copy the recordings to my media server for viewing. Trouble is, that would lose the metadata with series grouping and other useful information. I was wondering if there would be any problems in transferring the recordings to the newer box?

The HD records are encrypted and therefore even if transferred with nothing else amiss will not play.

The youview box contains a database with metadata for its recordings in another partition (possibly sda6). If a youview box comes across a recoding which is missing from its database it will delete that recording.

I've already removed the drive from the old box, and wouldn't have too much trouble pulling the drive from the newer box. Just wanted to check for potential problems before I started pulling the new box apart...

It may partially work (HD recordings definitely won't work), or it may decide to wipe the drive. Although the other details of what I mentioned are available by searching this site, I'm not sure if this has been covered, but in your position I would look around for previous posts using both the forum search, and a site specific google search or similar.

 

[paulm]

Encryption!

As you have the old drive and a Linux system, connect it up and have a look around. You should find the actual recording files without too much trouble, but if they won't play (using eg VLC) that will be because they have been encrypted using a key unique to the original box.

If that's the case, they are of no use to you without the original machine. Metadata is the least of your worries.

Thanks. So far as I'm aware, only HD recordings are encrypted. I've had a look at the main data partition, and can play any of the recordings I've checked so far. I don't think I had any HD recordings on the old box, so that should be fine. As it stands, I could copy the video files to my media server and stream them from there. But the organisation of the files on the Youview box isn't too encouraging - all the videos are lumped in a single "My Video" directory, and other than the fact that they have date and time as part of the title, there is no indication as to where they belong. I had a couple of full series of NCIS on the old box which I hadn't got round to watching, and I'm much too lazy to want to have to sort them out and create a directory structure to put them in the correct places. Which is why I was hoping I might be able to copy them to the new box and let it sort thing out...

I see that as well as the <name><date-time>.ts files, there are two other files associated with each video file. I was hoping that they would provide the structure that the box doesn't. I guess I'll have to see.

 

[paulm]

The HD records are encrypted and therefore even if transferred with nothing else amiss will not play.

The youview box contains a database with metadata for its recordings in another partition (possibly sda6). If a youview box comes across a recoding which is missing from its database it will delete that recording.

I've had a look at the disk structure from the old disk, which is quite complex. So far, I've not found any explanations. The old box is MBR partitioned, with a small EXT2 partition, plus several others which are shown as Linux style, but my laptop doesn't understand the file system, so I don't know what is on them. There are 4 logical partitions in the extended partition, two of which I show as unknown (even though they are marked as Linux type), and two of which are XFS partitions. The smaller of the two (4.1 GB) has three directories - metadata, nickel-linear-source, and Tsr. The latter is the only one which seems to have any data, looks as though it might be whatever I had been watching before the box failed.

It may partially work (HD recordings definitely won't work), or it may decide to wipe the drive. Although the other details of what I mentioned are available by searching this site, I'm not sure if this has been covered, but in your position I would look around for previous posts using both the forum search, and a site specific google search or similar.

I'm not worried about HD recordings - I don't think there were any on the box at the time of the failure. But I am concerned about wiping the drive. I have a number of fresh recordings on the replacement box and don't want to lose them until I've watched them.

Looks as though your search suggestions are my best starting point. I'm not all that keen on pulling a working device apart to get the new hard drive out (spend too much time pulling other people's computers apart to want to do that on my own time...), so if I don't find anything with a bit more information, I may just give in and copy the video files to the media server and sort the structure out there. Just hoping I don't have to go that route - I'm too lazy to want to have to put that much effort into it if there is an easier way.

There doesn't seem to be very much information on the data structure used by the Youview boxes. A couple of general searches I've done haven't turned up very much, so I have no idea what is in the 4 partitions that I can't currently mount and check.

 

[xyz321]

This post shows the disk layout for a DTR-T1000. I think the T2100 has a similar layout but perhaps with different partition sizes. The encrypted partitions use the luks system which can be decrypted using the cryptsetup command if you have the correct key. I don't think anyone has yet been able to find the key so you may be out of luck with those partitions.

 

[prpr]

all the videos are lumped in a single "My Video" directory, and other than the fact that they have date and time as part of the title, there is no indication as to where they belong

I wrote a utility to extract metadata from the .ts file. It relies on having the PAT, PMT and EIT packets in the recording. e.g. from a few weeks ago

Service: 17537
Name: "BBC News"
Date: "2023/05/01"
Time: "00:50:00"
Duration: "04:10:00"
CRID: "/m/VO5N"
Description: "BBC One joins the BBC's rolling news channel for a night of news. [S] [HD]"

there are two other files associated with each video file

What are their extensions?