Rescuing an encrypted .ts file without sidecar files

[fishingcat]

Hi there,

I wonder if anyone would be able to help with my dilemma...

I have the custom firmware installed on my HDR-T2, and some years back had copied some standard def .ts files across onto my desktop PC using FTP. I now want to edit and use these files, but neither VideoReDo or VLC Player will open the transport stream, which leads me to conclude that these are still encrypted.

Unfortunately I only copied across the .ts files, not any of the other sidecar files such as the .hmt file. These were evidently copied back in the day when I was still getting to grips with how the custom firmware worked! The original files are no longer on the Humax either.

Is there any way I can rescue these files? I've already tried to run them through AV2HDR, but it gives the error "Packet does not contain a valid PAT table ID", presumably because they're still encrypted... but I can't decrypt them without the .hmt file, can I?

Any advice that you can provide would be much appreciated!

Cheers

 

[af123]

You can regenerate the missing sidecar (.hmt & .nts) files using raydon's excellent sidecar package.
Copy the .ts files back to the Humax and use the web interface to find them, then click OPT+ and select Sidecar files.
(make sure you have installed sidecar and updated all packages first).

See: http://hummy.tv/forum/threads/sidecar-plug-in-for-the-hdr-hd-fox-t2.5801/

Once you have rebuilt the sidecars, reboot to get the files into the media server database, then decrypt through OPT+.

 

[fishingcat]

Lovely, thanks so much af123, I'll go and try this now.

I think this is my first official post, but I'm a long time lurker and read the forums when I can. Just want to thank you for all the excellent work - I have a number of HDR-T2's all customised, and the functionality within the custom firmware, WebIf and RS is excellent and makes my digital life so much easier . It really is much appreciated, along with everyone's useful posts here and on the Wiki.

 

[fishingcat]

Hmm, I've installed the sidecar package correctly, and FTP'd the files back onto the original Humax. I can see them in WebIf, but when I go through "Sidecar File Generation" it gives me the following error message, "Read PMT Error: Could not find Program Map Table. Recording encrypted ?"

It looks like I'm in catch 22... I can't decrypt without recreating the sidecar files, and I can't recreate these without the recording is decrypted!

Any more thoughts?

 

[Trev]

Are they back on the original T2 (else 'hiding to nothing' springs to , and do they play?

 

[prpr]

It looks like I'm in catch 22... I can't decrypt without recreating the sidecar files, and I can't recreate these without the recording is decrypted!

Any more thoughts?

You need to fabricate a temporary .hmt file so it can be decrypted. I believe (I haven't actually done it) that you can copy one from an existing recording and rename it to match your .ts file. You will need to twiddle the flags with the hmt utility if it came from an already decrypted recording, to mark it as not decrypted (you may be able to do this bit by running the fixencflags diagnostic instead).

 

[fishingcat]

prpr, you are an absolute genius!

I copied the .hmt and .nts files from another recording, and renamed them to have the same filename as the .ts file I'm trying to rescue. Refreshed the WebIf and could now see the full options under +OPT, albeit with the wrong EPG information (which I don't need anyway). Telnetted into the T2 and changed the flag on the .hmt to Encrypted, then back on the WebIf and used +OPT > Decrypt to properly decrypt it this time. FTP'd back into the T2, copied the decrypted .ts file across... and it plays back perfectly

Thanks so much for your help prpr, Trev and af123!

 

[Black Hole]

You can regenerate the missing sidecar (.hmt & .nts) files using raydon's excellent sidecar package.
Copy the .ts files back to the Humax and use the web interface to find them, then click OPT+ and select Sidecar files.
(make sure you have installed sidecar and updated all packages first).

See: http://hummy.tv/forum/threads/sidecar-plug-in-for-the-hdr-hd-fox-t2.5801/

Once you have rebuilt the sidecars, reboot to get the files into the media server database, then decrypt through OPT+.

Is it possible to create a dummy .hmt that is sufficient for decryption, as a prelude to running sidecar? This may be sufficient in some cases, no need to run sidecar at all.

 

[af123]

It looks like I'm in catch 22... I can't decrypt without recreating the sidecar files, and I can't recreate these without the recording is decrypted!

Ah - I thought that sidecar could re-create the hmt file for an encrypted recording too but was wrong.

Glad you've got it sorted! Now that it is decrypted, you could generate the sidecars again if you want it to be a full native recording (and it would even fix the EPG information if the recording isn't stripped)

 

[prpr]

How about a Webif option to create a fake .hmt if one doesn't exist for the .ts file?

 

[fishingcat]

No, unfortunately sidecar wasn't going to play ball unless it was a decrypted file!

I've just tried regenerating the sidecar files again through WebIf on the decrypted version, and this works perfectly - I thought the EPG info was stored in the .hmt file, I didn't realise it was embedded in the .ts file too. It's managed to generate EPG data from a recording I made in October 2012!

Oh and prpr you're right, using the fixencflags diagnostic also works fine too, so I needn't have bothered going through the Telnet process!

 

[prpr]

I thought the EPG info was stored in the .hmt file, I didn't realise it was embedded in the .ts file too.

No, the only stuff that gets transmitted over the air is the stuff in the .ts file. The Humax software generates the .hmt and .nts files from the transmitted data as it records. This is why it is possible to recreate them given the .ts file (and the original machine they were recorded on if still encrypted).

 

[Black Hole]

To add to the above posts, Raydon has since updated the Sidecar package so that if the ts file is encrypted, the package will create a dummy hmt to allow the file to be decrypted. The procedure is as follows:
Use Sidecar to create the dummy hmt file only,
Once indexed by the DLNA server the recording will be decrypted automatically if your system is set up to do this, if not you will be able to manually decrypt ('opt' in Web-If),
Once decrypted, delete the hmt file (and run Sidecar again to create hmt and nts files for full transport controls on the HDR-FOX: not needed if you just want to copy them back to your PC).