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'Sidecar' plug-in for the HDR/HD Fox T2

I'm just posting to report my first (and successful) use of sidecar.

I have one of my HDRs configured for proper MP3 extraction, so any radio recordings I make that I then want to transfer to the car for listening on journeys get copied/moved to the relevant HDR and auto-audio set on the folder.

On the latest set, two of the recordings were failing to process, and when I looked into it their .hmt files had gone AWOL. I'm not sure why that upset auto-audio, the files must have been decrypted otherwise they would have been useless when moved to this HDR, but nonetheless recreating the .hmt using the sidecar utility solved the problem.

Thanks.
 
I have just converted some NTSC video (MPEG format as VOB files) to m2ts with TSMuxer GUI and created hmt and nts files with the sidecar package. I was not sure if NTSC video is supported on the HDR-FOX. I can report that it is, and sidecar worked too. I can now play the video with full transport controls. I noticed that the bug in sidecar that causes pixellation when MPEG video is searched backwards (particularly at x4 speed) was not observed with this recording. Is this related to the frame rate (30 fps for NTSC compared to 25 fps for PAL)? I've attached an nts file incase anyone is interested.
 

Attachments

Your .nts still has the (acknowledged) problem of non-monotonically increasing timestamps.
It also has (like most others generated by sidecar) what I believe to be incorrect framecounts (I think the analysis is wrong, having observed several original and sidecar generated .nts files). How significant this is to the Humax software is open to debate.
Fixed (IMHO) version attached.
 

Attachments

Last edited:
prpr said:
Your .nts still has the (acknowledged) problem of non-monotonically increasing timestamps.
It also has (like all others generated by sidecar) what I believe to be incorrect framecounts (I think the analysis is wrong, having observed several original and sidecar generated .nts files). How significant this is to the Humax software is open to debate.
Fixed (IMHO) version attached.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info. I forgot to say that the nts file from the full programme was too large to upload to the forum, so I used nicesplice to crop a 5 minute section and posted the nts from that.
The issue is most noticeable (PAL MPEG video) at x4, and also at x2 backwards search. My presumption is that the HDR-FOX does not use all lines of the nts when searching, and skips more of the lines as the search speed increases, so the bug only causes problems at certain speeds. The fact that transport controls are flawless with NTSC video makes me think that because of the extra 5 lines per second in the nts file due to the higher frame rate, the HDR-FOX just happens to miss the lines with the 'negative' timestamps at the lower search speeds.
Do you have a tool for patching these nts files automatically?
 
prpr - at you convenience could I try out your nts fixing tool? I had to recreate an nts file and and the transport controls are just horrible. Even on 2x forward there are artefacts. Does the tool work with both MPEG2 and H264 recordings? Does it run on the HDR-FOX itself? The transport controls seem better with sidecar-generated nts files and H264 (smoother playback at x2 speed and above) but I have seen some odd behaviour with ffmpeg remuxed recordings and I think it is related to the nts file. I had hoped that raydon would eventually update the sidecar package to fix the problem but as he has not posted on this forum since September 2016, this is looking increasingly unlikely.
 
MontysEvilTwin said:
prpr - at you convenience could I try out your nts fixing tool?
Click to expand...
Yes. I can't remember what state it's in after my attempt at tidying, so I'll have to check. I'm away next week, although with remote access to my systems, but limited time, so it might be the week after.
Does the tool work with both MPEG2 and H264 recordings? Does it run on the HDR-FOX itself?
Click to expand...
Yes and yes, but it is cross-platform code so I can generate executables that runs on Ubuntu/Mint and on Windows easily as well.
 
prpr said:
Yes. I can't remember what state it's in after my attempt at tidying, so I'll have to check. I'm away next week, although with remote access to my systems, but limited time, so it might be the week after.

Yes and yes, but it is cross-platform code so I can generate executables that runs on Ubuntu/Mint and on Windows easily as well.
Click to expand...
When you are back and have more time is fine. A file that can be installed and run on the HDR-FOX would be good. Thank you.
 
I've got a whole bunch of .ts files from my old Foxsat HDR that I'd like to watch on my T2. They're currently on a LAN share (on a Lubuntu host), which I've got configured using [mod-settings]/Virtual USB on the T2. I've got the sidecar plug-in installed, but don't see the relevant option on the Opt+ menu for any of the files. Is that because they're not stored locally on the T2?
 
It's the bottom line of Opt+ for the .ts file. If it isn't there, have you tried a reboot? (not sure if that should make any difference)
 
Yes I've rebooted a couple of times. I do see the sidecar menu option for some of the files on the T2's hard drive, but not for any on the Foxsat disc in the Lubuntu file server.
 
Ian Manning said:
Is that because they're not stored locally on the T2?
Click to expand...
Yes.

Note that "T2" may well distinguish between a satellite box and a terrestrial one, but it doesn't help readers on the forum know what unit you are talking about. Outside the Foxsat sections, "HDR" will be understood to mean HDR-FOX T2 (as opposed to HD-FOX T2).
 
If you had been following Ian around in his plethora of not so disparate posts (which I know you have), you would know that he is talking about a Fox HDR T2.:roflmao: However, you are of course correct regarding correct nomenclature to save confusion for later readers.
But why he doesn't just stick to one thread with all his questions beats the hell out of me.
 
I've been having a few problems with sidecar initiated from the web-if where it appears to hang.
It appears that it doesn't like an ampersand in the filename.
Not a problem now that I know what te problem is as I can just remove the ampersand before processing the video with sidecar but I thought I'd mention it in case anyone else has the same problem in the future.
Diagnostics shows that the filename is truncated at the ampersand causing a file not found error.
 
I think the ampersand issue extends beyond the sidecar package.

I recorded Thelma & Louise on the Sony Movie channel, which annoying splits the programme into two parts.

I actually recorded it twice accidenally, on different boxes. Neither version would join.

On reading phit03's experience, I realised what the problem is..

Now joining as expected.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
 
There is a long history of "special" characters embedded in file names or other strings disrupting CF processing - the problem being that they generally mean something in the scripting languages used, and have to be specifically handled. One minute we think we've found all the bugs, then another one shows up, or a new package is introduced which still needs debugging.

I have the same problem in a bit of simple Windows .bat scripting: if the file name passed into the script as a parameter contains a space, the command line fails because the string before the space gets treated as one parameter and after the space as another (when it should be all one). I have not found a solution (in this case the space character is being incorrectly recognised as a separator between command line tokens)!
 
Does not the usual Windows method of putting it all in quotes work? Or do the quotes raise their own problems?
 
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