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Playing back recordings - "scrambled or unavailable"

I

Ian Manning

Member
I just tried playing back a few recordings from the last couple of days and they appeared to be blank - when I tried to play back each the screen went blank for a couple of seconds then the playback terminated. One recording appeared fine, but then the screen went blank and I got a message saying that the channel was scrambled or unavailable. When I power cycled the box things appeared to go back to normal - the same recordings were playable.
Has anyone else seen this sort of behaviour?
 
Ian Manning said:
I just tried playing back a few recordings from the last couple of days and they appeared to be blank - when I tried to play back each the screen went blank for a couple of seconds then the playback terminated. One recording appeared fine, but then the screen went blank and I got a message saying that the channel was scrambled or unavailable. When I power cycled the box things appeared to go back to normal - the same recordings were playable.
Has anyone else seen this sort of behaviour?
Click to expand...
Yes it is not uncommon. I see it once or twice a year. The speculation is that the Humax has got confused about its encryption keys. Perhaps af123's latest discoveries will shed some light on this problem.
 
Yes, this has been reported before. Any recordings made while the box was in this state are usually not playable after reboot either. We've always thought that this is the box corrupting or losing its encryption key but never managed to analyse one in that state.
 
af123 said:
Any recordings made while the box was in this state are usually not playable after reboot either.
Click to expand...
If you do have any unplayable recordings - they may now be recoverable using the new utility with a null key so don't delete them!
 
It would be useful to inspect a recording made while it was in that state: it would be playable when previous recordings are not, and become unplayable on reboot.
 
Black Hole said:
It would be useful to inspect a recording made while it was in that state: it would be playable when previous recordings are not, and become unplayable on reboot.
Click to expand...
It would also be interesting, before rebooting, to see what is shown as the Serial Number and Encryption key in the System Information box on the Diagnostics page of the webif. Also the MAC number on the RS settings page.
 
MymsMan said:
It would also be interesting, before rebooting, to see what is shown as the Serial Number and Encryption key in the System Information box on the Diagnostics page of the webif. Also the MAC number on the RS settings page.
Click to expand...
And a dump of the recording buffer control structure : )
 
af123 said:
And a dump of the recording buffer control structure : )
Click to expand...
How?
It would be nice to have a set of instructions of how to capture all the relevant data, and possibly a Diag procedure, ready to go so that the next person to encounter this problem can be told quickly what to do before they reboot.

Often there is strong family pressure to fix the problem Now and they dont have time to wait for suggestions to trickle in on the forum.
 
MymsMan said:
Often there is strong family pressure to fix the problem Now and they dont have time to wait for suggestions to trickle in on the forum.
Click to expand...
...and in any case, somebody with an interest in this forum is probably already auto-decrypting, and destroying the evidence. Maybe somebody with multiple machines (er...) needs to dedicate one to the task of catching this event.
 
MymsMan said:
It would be nice to have a set of instructions of how to capture all the relevant data
Click to expand...
So a first draft...

What to do if you experience problems playing back recordings - "scrambled or unavailable"
  1. Don't reboot your system (yet)
  2. Don't delete the affected recordings
  3. Take a note of what is shown as the Serial Number and Encryption key in the System Information box on the Diagnostics page of the webif (version 1.4.3 and above)
  4. Take a note of what is shown as the MAC address on the RS settings page.
  5. Issue the following commands in a command window (Telnet or Command line on Diag page)
    Code: 
    nugget dump 0xdadc00 0x19c
nugget dump 0xdadd9c 0x19c
nugget dump 0xdadf38 0x19c
nugget dump 0x0dadd58 0x10

  6. Post the results of the above (3-5) to this forum thread
  7. Create a short (1-2 min) test recording of any TV channel
  8. Reboot your system
  9. Playback of old recordings should now be restored, except for the test recording and others created during the problem period
  10. Attempt to decrypt test recording using the off-line decryption utility with key from step 3
  11. Attempt to play decrypted test recording
  12. Report results of decryption and playback attempt on the forum
  13. If recordings remain unplayable, FTP samples to hummy.tv, anonymous login and place into the upload/ directory.
 
I'm confused.
My HDR-T2 says it is on webif 1.4.2-16. I cannot see any option to update it.
Should I be able to find 1.4.3?
 
dandnsmith said:
I'm confused.
My HDR-T2 says it is on webif 1.4.2-16. I cannot see any option to update it.
Should I be able to find 1.4.3?
Click to expand...
1.4.3 is currently in beta test along with he offline decryption utility and includes the display of serial number and key. It is not really needed, the last nugget dump command in the list will also print out your encryption key
 
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