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Failed Recording of New BBC Four HD Channel

Greecian said:
I've had the only two recordings I've tried on BBC 4 HD fail last night. Patisserie & Balmoral. According to the box they failed because 'Recordings (less than 30secs) may not be stored' . We're on the Crystal Palace transmitter.

BBC screwed up?

Edit: No problems with any picture break up...Signal strength currently 82%, Quality 100%
Click to expand...

I too had no success recording BBC4 HD tonight. I recorded an hour's programme of nothing of any interest to me but for experimental purposed. There was nothing in the media list showing a recording one could access after the the start and nothing appeared here until it finished and then the banner said zero second recorded and hence nothing.
What a waste of my re-tune today to get these extra HD channels and then the tedious deletion of all those unwanted Freeview channels.

As above, in previous posts, manual recordings seem to work but not time/scheduled ones.
 
Anyone know if the YouView based DTR-T1000 has the same BBC3/4 HD recording problem? I have one of those as well as an HDR Fox T2, but I rarely use the YouView box since a software update caused its HDMI to stop talking to my TV (six months later and no sign of a fix for that, sigh).
 
We have been recording things from BBC4 HD since the new HD channels went live and have had no failed recordings, just the odd picture breakup.

We do not use AR only padding.
 
Having had some spare time today I've looked at the possibility of re-generating an nts file on the Humax.
Unfortunately on my test HD recording, running ffprobe crashed the Humax (and I tried several times).
Running it on an SD file took 25 mins for a 17 minute recording.

I wouldn't think it would be too difficult to automate the current workaround in a custom firmware package
i.e. If the recording is completed and .nts file is zero bytes
1. Decrypt file if necessary (where its not configured for auto decrypt)
2. Delete all sidecar files (.nts, .hmt, .thm)

The recording would then at least play.
 
jxp said:
Having had some spare time today I've looked at the possibility of re-generating an nts file on the Humax.
Unfortunately on my test HD recording, running ffprobe crashed the Humax (and I tried several times).
Running it on an SD file took 25 mins for a 17 minute recording.

I wouldn't think it would be too difficult to automate the current workaround in a custom firmware package
i.e. If the recording is completed and .nts file is zero bytes
1. Decrypt file if necessary (where its not configured for auto decrypt)
2. Delete all sidecar files (.nts, .hmt, .thm)

The recording would then at least play.
Click to expand...

Except that it can't be decrypted if there is no second drive (USB or internal partition) to decrypt it to. The package would have to fail gracefully in this case.
 
Black Hole said:
We know.


The problem was your misleading use of the word "dangerous". Nobody claimed it is dangerous to record BBC3/4HD, and it is not dangerous - but if the recording fails as it seems to the consequences are inconvenient (how inconvenient depends on the user). We like accurate use of language for best communication.
Click to expand...

My technical knowledge in these forums is so limited that I can't contribute much other than questions. I gratefully benefit from the input of others. The occasional pedant in me can however comment here. Owen Smith's use of the term "dangerous" is accurate. The definition of danger does include risk. I suggest the issue here is not one of accurate use of language, but rather of preciion. (Accuracy and precision are not of course synonymous - it is, for instance, possible to be extremely precise while also being entirely inaccurate.....but this is another matter). "Dangerous" seems rather disproportionate in the context and I agree that it would seem better to state that when recoding these channels there may be some risk that the results will be compromised.

And once more - thanks to all those here whose knowledge and suggestions I have benefited from.
 
The way I see it, the only danger involved might be the aftermath if an SWMBO's favourite programme does not get recorded properly.:frantic:
 
Are BBC3/4 showing up in HD on iPlayer now the BBC have HD broadcast channels for them? That would at least mitigate some faulty recordings.
 
I have been scheduling recordings on BBC3HD and BBC4HD daily, where possible, on my HD and HDR since 15/12. Initially there were the zero-length .nts files but since 20/12 for the HD and 18/12 for the HDR (inclusive) all the recordings have been successfully.

As I said in #155, I am currently series recording Family Guy and The Bridge. The only problem I've encountered so far with these is that the Family Guy episodes are a mixture of series-linked and single episodes, so no programmes were recorded in the early hours of 26/12 and last night. Next recording is scheduled for 28/12. I'll see if the two day pause upsets my boxes' BBC3HD recording.

Martin
 
Strangely, last night I picked an hour's programme at random from the BBC4 HD listings (Christmas Call Centre) and it recorded alright as a timed recording, however, another on BBC3 HD failed to record.
 
The apparent randomness of the problem is a bit annoying. On Boxing Day I set my Fox to record Bluestone 42 (both at 22:00 and 2:25 just in case one failed) from BBC3HD and Never Mind The Baubles at 22:00 on BBC4HD. Both Bluestone 42s recorded, Never Mind The Baubles had the zero length problem (and what's more annoying, it's not scheduled to be repeated so I ended up watching it on iPlayer instead).

Is there a way to delete the sidecar files from within the webif or is the only way to do this via USB transfer or telnet?
 
Fmrl said:
Is there a way to delete the sidecar files from within the webif or is the only way to do this via USB transfer or telnet?
Click to expand...

I believe base on other posters you have to decrypt the recording first before deleting the sidecar files, otherwise it won't be playable.
 
Owen Smith said:
I believe base on other posters you have to decrypt the recording first before deleting the sidecar files, otherwise it won't be playable.
Click to expand...
This is correct. The .hmt file contains the flags necessary for the HDR-FOX to handle an encrypted .ts, and it is necessary to delete both .nts and .hmt to make the .ts playable, therefore the .ts must be decrypted before deleting the .hmt.

Currently the options to play one of these faulty recordings appear to be:

1. Use a networked HD-FOX or HDR-FOX to access and play the recording by DLNA with DTCP (Media >> Storage (blue) >> Network); or

2. (Non-CF) Use Foxy to decrypt the .ts (see Things Every... section 5 for details), then delete the .nts and .hmt files from the USB drive before copying the decrypted recording back onto the HDR-FOX (or play the recording from the USB drive having deleted the sidecars); or

3. Use CF to decrypt the .ts (see Things Every... section 5 for details), then either use FTP to delete the .hmt and .nts (to make the .ts playable on the HDR-FOX) or transfer the .ts to a PC (or something) to play with a media player (eg VLC); or

4. Use the CF auto-unprotect package to make the .ts playable by DLNA (without DTCP) from any media player (that is DLNA and HiDef TS capable) - auto-unprotect defeats the content delivery protection that would otherwise prevent a HiDef recording from being played this way.
 
Black Hole said:
This is correct. The .hmt file contains the flags necessary for the HDR-FOX to handle an encrypted .ts, and it is necessary to delete both .nts and .hmt to make the .ts playable, therefore the .ts must be decrypted before deleting the .hmt.

Currently the options to play one of these faulty recordings appear to be:

1. Use a networked HD-FOX or HDR-FOX to access and play the recording by DLNA with DTCP (Media >> Storage (blue) >> Network); or

2. (Non-CF) Use Foxy to decrypt the .ts (see Things Every... section 5 for details), then delete the .nts and .hmt files from the USB drive before copying the decrypted recording back onto the HDR-FOX (or play the recording from the USB drive having deleted the sidecars); or

3. Use CF to decrypt the .ts (see Things Every... section 5 for details), then either use FTP to delete the .hmt and .nts (to make the .ts playable on the HDR-FOX) or transfer the .ts to a PC (or something) to play with a media player (eg VLC); or

4. Use the CF auto-unprotect package to make the .ts playable by DLNA (without DTCP) from any media player (that is DLNA and HiDef TS capable) - auto-unprotect defeats the content delivery protection that would otherwise prevent a HiDef recording from being played this way.
Click to expand...

A slight variant on option 3 (it may already be covered elsewhere here) is : with CF installed and auto-unprotect, copy the recording to external USB drive, then connect USB drive to computer (worked for me on a mac) and delete .hmt and .nts and the .ts will then play on the HDR-FOX when the USB is reconnected to it. This takes longer than using FTP, but may better suit those who have issues with FTP or anyway want to archive recordings to an external drive for whatever reason (I have done so with a number of films over Christmas).
 
catnap said:
A slight variant on option 3 (it may already be covered elsewhere here) is : with CF installed and auto-unprotect, copy the recording to external USB drive, then connect USB drive to computer (worked for me on a mac) and delete .hmt and .nts and the .ts will then play on the HDR-FOX when the USB is reconnected to it. This takes longer than using FTP, but may better suit those who have issues with FTP or anyway want to archive recordings to an external drive for whatever reason (I have done so with a number of films over Christmas).
Click to expand...
That's essentially the same as the Foxy method (2).
 
Owen Smith said:
Are BBC3/4 showing up in HD on iPlayer now the BBC have HD broadcast channels for them? That would at least mitigate some faulty recordings.
Click to expand...

Yes in the main and if you upgrade to the latest software with the latest BBC iPlayer you default it to play HD if available in settings so you no longer need to page to the HD version of programmes which are available in SD or HD, it just plays the HD one if available.
 
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