HMT file format

MagratG

New Member
I'm sorry if this is the wrong forum to post this but I'm wondering if anyone knows what the format of the .hmt files is that the HDR-Fox saves. It seems to contain details of the associated .ts program.
I've just moved from a Digistream recorder that had a .pif file that contained all the program information as a simple text file. I'd written a program to extract program title, series, and episode number (if present) to rename the .ts file to help when it came to editing the video. I'd like to do the same for the HDR-Fox.
 
Take a look on the wiki and in the Custom Firmware section of the forum - you are very late to this particular party and there is no need to re-invent the wheel. The functionality you are looking for is available using token replacement with the sweeper package, and other packages even try to call in programme details from on-line databases.


The hmt command (accessible at the Telnet or Web Shell command prompt) provides a decode of the .hmt file and the means to alter some fields manually (or as part of a script). sweeper provides scripted automation. For one-off tweaks, the GUI editing interface available via the WebIF media browser is probably sufficient.

Even editing is available by setting bookmarks at the beginning and end of each section you want to keep, then using the WebIF crop option. Advert breaks can be identified with bookmarks using the detectads package, and auto-cropped if desired.

This is just scratching the surface! Welcome aboard.
 
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Many thanks for the prompt reply. Yes, I'm very new here and still finding my way around the forums/wiki/etc. I just received my HDR yesterday and after checking it put the latest modded firmware on it. Absolutely love it! However, coming from Digistream there were a few things I miss. The Digistream put all of an individual programs files in a directory, which was nice, and there was a progress bar when copy/moving files to an external hard-drive.
As you can probably tell, I'm very excited about all the new possibilities the HDR provides.
 
The Digistream put all of an individual programs files in a directory
We can probably do that, but I don't understand what you mean.

Edit: do you mean each recording has an individual directory containing just that recording's suite of files? As the HD/HDR-FOX has a file set where only the extension differs, this doesn't seem necessary to me - and would be a pain if implemented because playing a recording would mean going into that folder and then selecting and playing the recording. I recommend you get used to the way this is - I see no particular disadvantage.

after checking it
How well? Commissioning an HDR-FOX (click)
 
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We can probably do that, but I don't understand what you mean.

Edit: do you mean each recording has an individual directory containing just that recording's suite of files? As the HD/HDR-FOX has a file set where only the extension differs, this doesn't seem necessary to me - and would be a pain if implemented because playing a recording would mean going into that folder and then selecting and playing the recording. I recommend you get used to the way this is - I see no particular disadvantage.


How well? Commissioning an HDR-FOX (click)

Yes I followed all the tests in the "Commissioning......" and it passed!

On the Digistream the 'Media' screen shows directories containing Series or the programme name for 'singly' recorded programs. Much like the HDR-Fox does. However when I copied the programmes to an external drive each of the programmes was contained in it's own directory (named after the enclosed .ts file but without the '.ts') along with other internal files linked to that programme. Series had the series name as a top directory name and contained the individual episodes as described above. Each programme directory contained four files, possibly similar to the HDR files. No great hardship, just a bit tidier!
 
The Humax sidecar files are of no use except for playback with HD/HDR-FOX, so it makes no difference.
 
Quite! All I used to use was the 'Description' line from the .pif~ file, which was pure text and contained all the programme information that was (i presume) sent over the air. As I said, I'd written a Visual Basic program that scanned the directory of copied program files and renamed the .ts files to contain series/episode/title information as well as writing this info out to another text file for easy perusal.
I've attached an example. I had to change the extension from .pif~ to .txt to upload it!
 

Attachments

  • recording.txt
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Take a look on the wiki and in the Custom Firmware section of the forum - you are very late to this particular party and there is no need to re-invent the wheel. The functionality you are looking for is available using token replacement with the sweeper package, and other packages even try to call in programme details from on-line databases.

Coming even later to the party (are there any of those nibbles left?) is the source for the hmt(1) command available anywhere. I keep "moving" all the files to
my computer then realise I would like to decode the .hmt files (so I need to move these back ...bit silly really)
 
I keep "moving" all the files to my computer then realise I would like to decode the .hmt files
Depending on the value of 'computer' or rather 'operating system', there is probably a pre-built version of the hmt utility which will do what you want, albeit not built from the latest source, but that's mostly just a matter of where to put the result rather than anything else.
 
OK, now I'm a bit confused.


I built the code, I needed to add hummypkg/libxconv ...and spent a while messing around with building static & shared library flavours, it "ran" as in getting usage Ok, but blew up on the 1st hurdle reading a real .hmt file (the magic number was zero , not 0x1701 .... so I checked the .hmt file itself and indeed it looked nothing like the one in wiki.hummy.tv wiki/HMT_File_Format . However on my Humax the "hmt(1)" command works just fine. ..... Then I noticed something:

On my Humax:

Code:
Humax2/mnt/hd3/Video# hmt
Humax HMT Tool v2.5, by af123, 2012.
Modified for Foxsat HDR by adrianf36 2012 and MofTot 2018-20.

Syntax: hmt [command] <filename> [filename] ...

Whereas on my Debian box:



Code:
graeme@real:~$ hmt
Humax HMT Tool v2.0.11, by af123, 2011-2022.

Syntax: hmt [command] <filename> [filename] ...
  Commands:

Going back through the repo (sorry I'm not allowed to post a URL it seems) looks like it goes back to 2.0.10 ?


So I have a working command (on humax) and not working code (on Debian) the versions are totally different and the file format differs .

This feels like I'm looking at the "wrong" code ... I have a foxsat (freesat) running:



Custom Firmware :v 4.1.3
Web Interface :v 2.89


Possibly this is freeview version I'm looking at?


ABTW, I have some patches for this code which somebody may want to consider
 
Ahh, I have it, there are (at least) 2 branches ... grabbed the foxsat one, that builds pretty straightforwardly . Just cleaned up the lint because I like clean compiles. Seems to run OK too.
 
Possibly this is freeview version I'm looking at?
What the f* did you expect if posting in the (non-customised as well) HDR-Fox T2 Freeview Recorder section of the forum?
Is it that difficult to read the titles?
 
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