Help corrupted recordings?

BenB

Member
I've just got back in from a weekend away and a recording I was halfway through now plays as a black screen showing 'this channel is scrambled or not available'. So I try other files and lots of others do too. In fact I'm lucky if any play, though some do. Brand new recordings that happened in the last few days don't even play for one second, though they display their correct time in the media list.

Has my hard drive become corrupted? Or just some database of media?

Any help,?! Thanks
 
I've had a look at the diagnostic section of the webif system and it does show one problem :
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel -O---K 55 045 043 045 Old_age Always FAILING_NOW
 
There is a working hypothesis to account for this, that the HDR forgets its encryption key and they will be refreshed by a restart or a cold boot.

The consequence of this is that anything recorded after the key was corrupted will only play until the key is refreshed; anything recorded prior to the corruption will not play until the key is refreshed, and anything recorded after the key is refreshed will be fine.

Are you able to identify a consistent period in the duration of your recordings which conforms to this hypothesis? I expect that all recordings in that period will be corrupt with no examples of non-corrupt recordings simultaneous with it.

If the hypothesis is correct, there is nothing that can be done to recover the corrupt recordings, since we are unable to recreate the state of the key during the encryption.
 
I've just realised the predictive keyboard on my phone made the thread 'hello corrupted recordings' not 'help' lol

II tried several things in webif, diagnostics etc, but nothing helped. Finally I cleared the delay database and now they've come back to life! Phew! Any recent recordings though are still zero seconds long
 
Just saw your reply Blackhole thanks. I did try rebooting several times, leaving it 5 minutes before turning back on. It took a delay database to fix it. Didn't try turning it completely off from the wall.
The box never turns off. Perhaps that was the downfall?
 
For "delay database" should we read "DLNA index"?

We do not regard continuous on as a good way of working, there is no need after all - it is perfectly capable of booting and recording at the required time from standby. People have reported problems so perhaps this accounts for it.

It does not sound like we can confirm or deny the hypothesis in this case, as the OP contaminated the evidence.
 
I've had a look at the diagnostic section of the webif system and it does show one problem :
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel -O---K 55 045 043 045 Old_age Always FAILING_NOW
Just a quick By-The-Way, the hard disk Humax uses does not report line 190 correctly, (line 194 is supported), so all data displayed for line 190 should be disregarded.
 
Good evening all,

Earlier today I encountered the 'this channel is scrambled or not available' error on a recording made this morning.

I recorded 'Batman : Brave and the Bold' (season finale no less) and we started watching it about half way through on chase record. We watched the whole episode. Then about half an hour later, son number 2 wanted to see it so selected it from the library and got the error message. I have tried copying it to USB drive, via FTP to PC and streaming to no avail.

I have just read the above fix obtained by clearing the DNLA database so will try that once the box is available and report back.

I am running the custom firmware.

Is there anything else to try?
 
OK - as expected, the DNLA reset didn't make any difference :(

I have recorded all three seasons of this and only the finale has failed!!! Why oh why Humax box?
 
My 1Tb box has progressively become more flaky over the past couple of months: slow-to-respond remote control, delayed reaction to commands, "Channel Scrambled" message, inability to record a channel and play back a previous recording at the same time. Disk was about 2/3 full. Some furious disk access sounds have also been heard.

After several recent recordings had missing minutes (e.g. a one hour recording only had 53 minutes), and another one failed at 38 minutes due to "power failure", I tried a long recording. I recorded the Eurovision Song Contest which eventually lasted 3.5 hours (the BBC added 15 mins on the fly). As it was recording, I noticed that the BBC News Channel ticker tape was very glitchy. Video seemed to momentarily stall and speed up again, almost like an old movie.

The Eurovision recording managed to get truncated from 3.5 hours to 3 hours. Playback was halted at the mid-point by the HDR T2 resetting itself. Subsequent playback seemed okay with some blocking / "No signal" message.

I decided to reformat the disk, reset to defaults and deleted and manually rescanned for channels. So far, the machine has performed perfectly. I imagine that the disk must have had some major fragmentation of files. The programmes lost are not of much value; they'll likely be rebroadcast another time.

What does annoy me is that large disk sizes appear to offer no benefit over smaller ones: what is the point of a 1Tb disk if only half of it can be used, and using any more than half causes progressive failure?
 
I'm not a big fan of the 1TB version of the HDR because however big the drive is, sooner or later you must find time to watch the stored recordings, you only need a hard disk large enough to record while you are away from the Humax and 500GB is big enough for me to do that. Having said all that the 1TB version is designed for it all to be usable and under normal circumstances you can use it all. If you get this problem again I would suggest running the built-in disk check routine, or even better install the Custom Firmware and run a fix-disk from Maintenance Mode, that way you stand a very good chance of retaining all of your recordings
 
I imagine that the disk must have had some major fragmentation of files.
I think it is much more likely that the disk had one or more marginal sectors. As Ezra says these can be mapped out non destructively with the custom firmware.
What does annoy me is that large disk sizes appear to offer no benefit over smaller ones: what is the point of a 1Tb disk if only half of it can be used, and using any more than half causes progressive failure?
Our 1TB disk has been two thirds full for some time without problem.
 
Well I do have the customised firmware installed, but cannot use it (no internet access, no router).

The built-in standard disk checker is rather inconsistent in operation. Sometimes it checks the disk inside a couple of minutes and reports that no faults were found; other times taking longer and freezing (the dimmed disk utility background seems to time out, disappear and locks the box).

After the reformat and reset, I tried recording a few programmes. Most seemed to play back fine. One of them I stepped through pretty quickly by stabbing the 30 second advance button. At around 9 mins into it, the picture became a scattering of disjointed squares against a black background. Rewinding / forwarding had little effect. However, stopping playback and restarting the file seemed to work normally, with no evidence of recording errors.
 
Well I do have the customised firmware installed, but cannot use it (no internet access, no router).
You only need Telnet access to your Humax, this can be done by connecting a laptop/ P.C. directly to your Humax via a cross over LAN cable (some computer interfaces with auto negotiation can also use a standard LAN cable). Both your computer and Humax must be manually set up (Not DHCP) to be on the same network e.g. using 192.168.1.10 and 192.168.1.12 Then follow the Maintenance notes in #13
 
I am a 'user' and most certainly not a 'technician' of any kind. All I can say was that I began to get the "Channel scrambled" message on virtually every recording. The message excepted, the screen would go blank for a time (a few seconds to quite a number of them), with the recording restarting eventually - with a gap in the recording which was enough to be annoying. Replaying the offending section would simply reproduce the problem. I eventually decided to take all my recordings off the Hummy, reformat the disk and put my recordings back. The old recordings now simply 'jump' at what I assume is a "Channel scrambled" point, with a few seconds loss of recording. My post-reformat recordings are fine. Problem seemingly solved, with what I assume was some kind of bad sector problem removed by the reformat. David.
 
If you had the Custom Firmware installed, it is very likely that your problem would have been fixed without having to re-format the hard disk by running the fix-disk option in Maintenance Mode
 
Thanks for the input, Ezra. Yes, I think I was aware of that when I was searching threads, to see how to deal with my problem. But, as a scared technophobe, I have (so far) steered clear of deserting the official software. Perhaps one day... David.
 
The official firmware remains present and continues to control all the normal functionality. The custom stuff is add-on goodies.
 
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