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Recordings cut short

Thanks Phil

That time agrees with the Humax and VLC if I load the exported video file itself.

I've had these failed recordings across all channels, BBC, main commercials and 'the rest'. It doesn't always happen, I thought the problem was gone after trying a factory reset but now I've had a number of cut-offs.

When it fails the recording always starts on time but stops apparently at random, I've seen as little as ~10mins up to most of the scheduled time.

I haven't thought to try a manual recording like that - I have set a manual timer for this evening eg. by setting channel, date and times rather than selecting from the guide so I'll see what that does and I'll try I direct recording as well.

Thanks again
Will
 
Right

Follow-up to my last post (no. 41).

24th July: Manual timer set for BBC2 9pm to 10pm - 34mins of the 60 recorded, the recording plays normally up to that point.

25th July: Trying a 'direct' recording with the REC button. BBC1 on screen approaching 11-30am, press REC when the info banner changes to "Great Food Guys". The recording is reported on screen and the front indicator changes from blue to red, return at 12pm and confirm the prog ends on time and the red light changes back to blue. Media list shows 26mins and no thumbnail though no other error indications - this file fast plays to the 26mins loosing the end of the prog but now has a thumbnail image.

It's looking as if this behavior is now permanent rather then intermittent as it started - is there anywhere that repairs these boxes? I could swap a hard drive if I can prove it's that but I don't think any other assemblies will be easily available.

Any further ideas?
Will
 
Telleadict said:
Any further ideas?
Click to expand...
The symptoms are unusual but my best guess is that the file system and perhaps the hard drive are having problems. I suggest you extract the hard drive, connect it to a PC and use something like the free Crystal Diskinfo to get the SMART data. Post it here and we can give you a sensible opinion.
 
Has anyone suggested that the hard disk drive may simply be full?, i.e. the recording stops due to a lack of space?
 
Ezra Pound said:
Has anyone suggested that the hard disk drive may simply be full?, i.e. the recording stops due to a lack of space?
Click to expand...
I don't think they have. It was such an obvious point - and I did think of it, honest - I didn't bother saying it.
If a full disk was the problem I'd have hoped that location 0x0290 in the .hmt file would be 0x01 (Disk was Full).
 
EEPhil said:
If a full disk was the problem I'd have hoped that location 0x0290 in the .hmt file would be 0x01 (Disk was Full).
Click to expand...
0x0290 is the location in a HDR-Fox T2 hmt file, is the layout of a 2000T hmt file the same?, I would expect the error code to be (13: Incomplete: the disk was full) rather than (Disk was Full)
 
Hello

Disk free space: The Humax Media list indicates IRC 44% free so unless that is telling porkies there should be enough for the test recs I have made.

Disk analysis: I am inclined now to treat myself to a largish USB drive (they're not dear now) and copy off the unwatched material that I would like to keep in case I mess up the file system. Is there anything to beware of before buying eg. any size limit, will USB 3 work, any brands or models better than others for the job?

Meanwhile, I'll look into Chrystal Diskinfo and how to use it.

Thanks
Will
 
Telleadict said:
Disk analysis: I am inclined now to treat myself to a largish USB drive (they're not dear now) and copy off the unwatched material that I would like to keep in case I mess up the file system. Is there anything to beware of before buying eg. any size limit, will USB 3 work, any brands or models better than others for the job?
Click to expand...
USB3 will work but it will be at USB2 speed. The maximum power supplied by the Humax is 800mA so either the drive power requirements needs to be less than 800mA or it needs to have a n external power supply. The only file systems that you can use for copying from the box are FAT32 (limited to 4GB) and Ext3 so if you have HD recordings there is a good chance some will be longer than 4GB and Ext3 will be needed. The partition style MUST be MBR not GPT. I don't have any specific recommendations but I would expect most devices will work but you may well need to reformat them.
 
Ezra Pound said:
0x0290 is the location in a HDR-Fox T2 hmt file, is the layout of a 2000T hmt file the same?, I would expect the error code to be (13: Incomplete: the disk was full) rather than (Disk was Full)
Click to expand...
The start of the hmt file for the 2000T is the same. There is some difference in the way EPG information is stored.
Strange, I've got error code 13 recorded as something else. I'll need to double check that. In any case, as the OP says the code is 0 it doesn't matter.
Edit: Found the problem - you meant thirteen and I was looking at 0x13. :roflmao:
 
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MartinLiddle said:
The only file systems that you can use for copying from the box are FAT32 (limited to 4GB) and Ext3 so if you have HD recordings there is a good chance some will be longer than 4GB and Ext3 will be needed.
Click to expand...
Assuming that I understood Telleadict correctly and the idea is to copy from the Humax's internal HDD to an external USB drive, that can't be right. I've got NTFS formatted USB drives and they work perfectly well for this purpose.
 
EEPhil said:
I've got NTFS formatted USB drives and they work perfectly well for this purpose.
Click to expand...
Fair enough; I was looking at page 33 of the HDR-2000T manual which says:
"Supported features according to USB file system
ext3: Read, Copy (Digital TV/Radio, MP3, JPEG, XviD)
FAT: Read, Copy (Digital TV/Radio, MP3, JPEG, XviD)
NTFS: Read (MP3, JPEG, XviD)"
 
Telleadict said:
Disk analysis: I am inclined now to treat myself to a largish USB drive (they're not dear now) and copy off the unwatched material that I would like to keep in case I mess up the file system.
Click to expand...
Whatever the pros and cons of formatting, be prepared for it to take a looooong time.
 
MartinLiddle said:
Fair enough; I was looking at page 33 of the HDR-2000T manual which says:
"Supported features according to USB file system
....
NTFS: Read (MP3, JPEG, XviD)"
Click to expand...
Interesting. Good job I didn't check the manual first then. :roflmao:

I can confirm that it is possible to copy to an NTFS formatted USB device. (2TB drive, 500GB USB powered, various 16GB/32GB flash drives).
If you switch to the external drive (Media List, Blue Button [Storage]), it is indexed just like the internal disk. Recordings will play.
I've got MP4 files on an NTFS drive which play perfectly well also.
 
Hello

Things get really weird.

My new flash drive has arrived so I've tried to copy some stuff off the Humax. Select a handful of recordings and Copy > to USB come back some time later to see how its going, find it seems to be done but on the USB one good copy, one file cut short and no sign of the rest. Try again, just selecting one file just a few mins copy. Try once more, delete failiors, unplug and reinsert USB and get about 30mins of the same file. On the box these short copies show a filename eg. xxxxxxxxx.ts not the programme title. The good copy was of about 11/2hr, the fails shorter - about 1hr.

Back on my PC the failed copy has a sidecar with the extension .hmi not .hmt. looking at this with Ghex the first lines indicate "Humax Media Info"

Could my new USB be faulty?

It is a Kingston "Data Traveler G4" 64GB advertised. Gparted reports 125.62MB unallocated and 57.67GB fat 32 partition.

As a test I tried copying a 924MB AVI file I had on my PC to it. This took just over a minute. I then ran a checksum on both the orrigional file and the copy on the DataTraveler, these did not match. Should I try returning it to Amazon as faulty?

Thanks again
Will
 
.hmi files are usually found on the Humax if you've copied .mp4, .avi, or .mpg files TO the Humax. When you play them, the .hmi file is created and, if I remember correctly, a bookmark is saved if you stop the playback. Without testing I'm not sure a) whether a lone .ts file (missing the sidecar files) would do this, and b) whether copying the file (lone .ts or mp4,avi,mpg) from the Humax to USB also copies the .hmi.
That doesn't indicate a faulty USB device.
With your USB device formatted as FAT32 your maximum file size is 4GB, so if you've been copying files larger than that there will be a problem. You may need to experiment with other formats. If your PC supports ext3 try reformatting the USB drive to that. If ext3 crashes your PC (it does mine, even with the correct device driver) you could try NTFS - although as Martin says this is not fully supported (but works for me).
The mismatch of checksums is odd.

Edit: But perhaps not. If your PC has an NTFS formatted disk there is extra information often stored with the file. FAT32 discards that information. Could that be the cause of the difference in checksums? I need to do a test to confirm that.
Edit2: Did a test and cannot confirm that theory.
 
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