Recordings going AWOL

MymsMan

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I was very surprised to receive a failed recordings email this morning listing a number of recordings made back in 2014
Code:
Device: HDR-Fox T2 (Humax - dc:d3:21:57:a5:f3)
At least one failed recording has been detected in your
media library. The following recording(s) failed:

        /ABC/Misc saves/Dave Allen_ The Immaculate Selection_20140825_2200
        /ABC/Music/Jake Bugg & Bombay Bicycle Club @____20140823_2101-1409049430
        /ABC/Dexter/s1e3_12 - Popping Cherry
        /ABC/Dexter/s1e4_12 - Let's Give the Boy a Hand
        /ABC/Dexter/s1e2_12 - Crocodile
        /ABC/Dexter/s1e5_12 - Love American Style
        /ABC/Dexter/s1e6_12 - Return to Sender
        /ABC/Movies/Good Will Hunting_20140814_2238
Only the .hmt file has been left behind, whilst the recordings (except hmt) are in the Dustbin
Humax HDR Fox T2 (Humax) - Mozilla Firefox 10052016 145623.jpg
Code:
 ls "/mnt/hd2/My Video/[Deleted Items]/ABC/Dexter"
total 4506484
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root       4096 May  9 18:02 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root       4096 May 10 00:02 ..
-rw-rw-rw- 1 root root        276 May 10 00:02 .series
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    3122272 May  9 17:44 s1e2_12 - Crocodile.nts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      43680 May  9 17:44 s1e2_12 - Crocodile.thm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  917653632 May  9 17:44 s1e2_12 - Crocodile.ts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    2628992 May  9 17:44 s1e3_12 - Popping Cherry.nts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      43680 May  9 17:44 s1e3_12 - Popping Cherry.thm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  863766144 May  9 17:44 s1e3_12 - Popping Cherry.ts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    3353312 May  9 17:44 s1e4_12 - Let's Give the Boy a Hand.nts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      43680 May  9 17:44 s1e4_12 - Let's Give the Boy a Hand.thm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1026254976 May  9 17:44 s1e4_12 - Let's Give the Boy a Hand.ts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    2868512 May  9 17:44 s1e5_12 - Love American Style.nts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      43680 May  9 17:44 s1e5_12 - Love American Style.thm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  891152256 May  9 17:44 s1e5_12 - Love American Style.ts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    3112992 May  9 17:44 s1e6_12 - Return to Sender.nts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root      43680 May  9 17:44 s1e6_12 - Return to Sender.thm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root  895933632 May  9 17:44 s1e6_12 - Return to Sender.ts
I did not delete the recordings so what did? It is fortunate that what ever binned them didn't delete the hmt files otherwise I would probably not have noticed anything was amiss until the long after they had expired from the bin.

Obviously I can recover the files from the bin but I would like to know what moved them in the first place, I can find no entries in any log file and I wouldn't want it happen when I am on holiday and don't have access to the machine.
 
I think this may be due to the Auto Delete setting on the Humax Settings Recording sub menu.

I had thought this setting controlled the deletion of empty series folder but now I can't recall where I acquired this (mis?)information, it doesn't appear in the Humax manual (I occasionally RTFM :) )

I can find very little information on this setting other than this thread on another forum which says:
It was introduced at 1.02.07 after the last revision of the manual. the release notes say"Auto Delete function - oldest files will be removed; Lock files so they are not Auto Deleted.
- Auto Delete is switched OFF as Default
- To enable Auto Delete go to Menu > Preferences > Recording > Auto Delete". So it will automatically free up space by deleting existing recordings on an oldest first basis.
There is no information as to when auto-delete kicks in, by age or disk fullness, but I would guess, from my experience. that it happens when the free space drops below 10%
 
If you've got the Humax auto-delete turned on (why???), that will be it. No, it doesn't tidy up empty folders. prpr was offering a package to do that, but now I think it's something sweeper can do. Turn it off! Use the CF expire facility.
 
I have now turned it off,
Why it was turned in the first place is lost in the mists of time - it hadn't bitten me often in the past since I don't normally run short of space.

Before the advent of FlatView I used to use Flatten which eliminated all the unwanted series Folders.
I
 
I still use flatten. flatview is a very good reason to have tidy-folders, which I saw little point in before.
 
Having restored the recordings from the Dustbin I find that they cant be played on the TV, I get a message box
This file has been deleted by the Auto Delete function.
Do you want to delete the ghost file now?
YES NO

Obviously the process has set a flag somewhere in the .hmt file but does anyone know at what offset?
The hmt utility doesn't report this flag and I dont see it in the wiki hmt file format page
I would like to zap the blighter to restore the recordings to usability.

I can play the file if I delete the hmt file (and could recreate with sidecar) but in doing so I would lose a lot of information including Bookmarks
 
My suspicion is the flag byte at 0x028E
Code:
0x028E    1 byte    0x00            Flags byte.
    bit 0    00000001        On-Disk Encrypted flag. 1 = Encrypted. 0 = Decrypted
    bit 1    00000010        Thumbnail exists flag. 1 = Yes. 0 =  No
I appear to have an extra bit set 0A though I have yet to experiment with zapping it out- often Humax have multiple flags for the same thing
 

Attachments

  • s1e2_12 - Crocodile.zip
    664 bytes · Views: 1
My suspicion is the flag byte at 0x028E
Code:
0x028E    1 byte    0x00            Flags byte.
    bit 0    00000001        On-Disk Encrypted flag. 1 = Encrypted. 0 = Decrypted
    bit 1    00000010        Thumbnail exists flag. 1 = Yes. 0 =  No
I appear to have an extra bit set 0A though I have yet to experiment with zapping it out- often Humax have multiple flags for the same thing
I think that is it - setting the byte to 02 allowed the file to be played :)

I will check again tomorrow when I have freedom to play with Humax and update the wiki page to document the flag.

It is probably not worth updating the hmt utility since I am obviously the only person stupid enough to have set the Auto Delete option on!
 
Updated hmt wiki to include
Code:
0x028E    1 byte    0x00            Flags byte.
    bit 0    00000001        On-Disk Encrypted flag. 1 = Encrypted. 0 = Decrypted
    bit 1    00000010        Thumbnail exists flag. 1 = Yes. 0 =  No
    bit 2    00000100        1 = Recording failed, Loss of Power (not set by firmware(?) uses 0x28C=01 instead)
    bit 3    00001000        1 = Recording deleted by Auto Delete
 
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