|
||||||||
Can Sony PVR recordings be decrypted? |
![]() |
|
|
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
|
|
#1 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 211
|
Can Sony PVR recordings be decrypted?
It seems Sony have made it impossible to archive off any recording from the PVR and watch or edit on a PC.
If anybody knows of any proven decryption method I would be very grateful. |
|
|
|
|
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
|
|
|
#2 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: North Derbyshire
Posts: 41,794
|
Quote:
It seems Sony have made it impossible to archive off any recording from the PVR and watch or edit on a PC.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#3 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 211
|
So why is it that ,I understand, there are recorders out there that do not encrypt the recordings made from public broadcasting.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#4 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redditch Worcs
Posts: 17,296
|
Quote:
So why is it that ,I understand, there are recorders out there that do not encrypt the recordings made from public broadcasting.
Loads of them, HD recordings are encrypted in the box, no reason why SD ones need to be. Off the cuff list of some boxes that allow archiving of SD recordings to a usb port that are playable on other devices. Freeview Topfield 5800, Humax 9200, Humax HDR FOX T2 Satellite Humax Foxsat-HDR. |
|
|
|
|
|
#5 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Reading
Posts: 27,923
|
Quote:
So why is it that ,I understand, there are recorders out there that do not encrypt the recordings made from public broadcasting.
However copying said recording to some other medium to keep for repeated viewing as part of a collection is illegal without the express permission of the copyright holder. http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-o...-timeshift.htm |
|
|
|
|
|
#6 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redditch Worcs
Posts: 17,296
|
Quote:
Copyright law forbids the recording of broadcast TV programmes. There is an exemption for timeshifting, ie making a recording in order to watch it at a later time.
However copying said recording to some other medium to keep for repeated viewing as part of a collection is illegal without the express permission of the copyright holder. http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/copy/c-o...-timeshift.htm
|
|
|
|
|
|
#7 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 211
|
I think you have proved my point that the whole thing is utter nonsense.
I still believe, contrary to what one contributor believes, that it is possible and not illegal to circumvent the ridiculous encryption imposed by Sony. |
|
|
|
|
|
#8 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Suffolk
Posts: 960
|
Quote:
I still believe, contrary to what one contributor believes, that it is possible and not illegal to circumvent the ridiculous encryption imposed by Sony. |
|
|
|
|
|
#9 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: North Derbyshire
Posts: 41,794
|
Quote:
I still believe, contrary to what one contributor believes, that it is possible and not illegal to circumvent the ridiculous encryption imposed by Sony.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#10 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: North Devon
Posts: 1,568
|
It's about time the copyright holders gave up with this nonsense. We've been recording tv onto tape since the seventies and that wasn't just for timeshifting. I'm sure everyone has a tape of something that was broadcast in their possession. So we're all lawbreakers. Ridiculous situation.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#11 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 11
|
The format used by most Sony PVR units is linux based, if it is one of the more recent models (SVRHDT Series) then the best approach is to back-up onto an external hard-drive which the PVR will format, once you have completed this use one of the many linux live boot iso`s to boot a PC with linux and then connect the external hard-drive which will now be visible. Finally copy the required recordings across to a drive or partition that you can access later with windows. A little long winded, but does work! Good luck Andrew Quote:
It seems Sony have made it impossible to archive off any recording from the PVR and watch or edit on a PC.
If anybody knows of any proven decryption method I would be very grateful. |
|
|
|
|
|
#12 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 211
|
Thanks for the suggestion. I am sure, a long time ago, I tried just that method. I do have a Linux system as well as Windows 7. What you are saying is that by doing that the recordings magically become visible? I will try and if it works I will report back findings.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#13 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Witham, Essex.
Posts: 266
|
My Digital Stream PVR allows me to transfer programmes to an external HDD.
The SD TV and Radio are not encrypted. I have successfully copied them to my PC (using Kubuntu) and I can watch/listen or edit them. The HD programmes are encrypted so I can only watch them on the DS. |
|
|
|
|
|
#14 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 211
|
I am a bit puzzled because I tried to copy off an SD recording onto a USB hard drive and then open in Ubuntu. Complete failure! Am I missing a step here? Ubuntu sees the files (4) but will not open in either the generic Movie player or VLC.
Any thoughts? |
|
|
|
|
|
#15 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 11
|
Quote:
I am a bit puzzled because I tried to copy off an SD recording onto a USB hard drive and then open in Ubuntu. Complete failure! Am I missing a step here? Ubuntu sees the files (4) but will not open in either the generic Movie player or VLC.
Any thoughts? Good luck Andrew |
|
|
|
|
|
#16 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redditch Worcs
Posts: 17,296
|
Quote:
Make sure you copy the files across to a fat32 windows partition, then boot into widows (I use Win 7 x64) and content should be available even through windows media player with appropriate codecs installed.
Good luck Andrew . A PC will transfer data between any drives it has a driver for. NTFS should be just fine, all the versions of Linux I have work with NTFS (Slax, Ubuntu). If the pvr drive has a linux filesystem then installing EXT2FSD should allow read/write access within windows without booting into linux.http://www.ext2fsd.com/?page_id=16 |
|
|
|
|
|
#17 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 103
|
Quote:
It's about time the copyright holders gave up with this nonsense. We've been recording tv onto tape since the seventies and that wasn't just for timeshifting. I'm sure everyone has a tape of something that was broadcast in their possession. So we're all lawbreakers. Ridiculous situation.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#18 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Sep 2004
Posts: 8,213
|
Quote:
I think you have proved my point that the whole thing is utter nonsense.
I still believe, contrary to what one contributor believes, that it is possible and not illegal to circumvent the ridiculous encryption imposed by Sony. |
|
|
|
|
|
#19 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redditch Worcs
Posts: 17,296
|
Quote:
You can believe what you like, but it is plainly illegal, and in some cases is a bone-fide criminal office with a prison sentence (rather than just a civil tort you can be sued for) as the maximum punishment.
. It's an offence to reverse engineer an encryption algorithm. If there isn't one and there is no reason for SD content to be decrypted it's perfectly legal to record it.. The content is broadcast without encryption. Not suggesting you flog them down the car boot, that would be illegal. Basically you are saying if your Auntie Nelly is on the Telly and you recordd it and keep the copy and show it more than once to your family it's a criminal offence ![]() Get a sense of perspective for heavens sake ![]() By your definition Panasonic UK is aiding and abetting a criminal practice by allowing a single copy of HD content to a blu-ray disc. Ridicolous argument. |
|
|
|
|
|
#20 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Witham, Essex.
Posts: 266
|
Quote:
I am a bit puzzled because I tried to copy off an SD recording onto a USB hard drive and then open in Ubuntu. Complete failure! Am I missing a step here? Ubuntu sees the files (4) but will not open in either the generic Movie player or VLC.
Any thoughts? You could try changing the file extension you get on the Sony PVR. I hope this helps. |
|
|
|
|
|
#21 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: DAVEVILLE, Daveshire DA1 1VE
Posts: 33,621
|
Quote:
You can believe what you like, but it is plainly illegal, and in some cases is a bone-fide criminal office with a prison sentence (rather than just a civil tort you can be sued for) as the maximum punishment.
Technically it is illegal to do anything other than timeshifting, however no one in the UK, not one person, has ever been prosecuted or sued for archiving stuff for their own use. Even if they did, it is a civil offence, but it is something the authorities turn a blind eye to. Just the same as copying a CD to an MP3 player, again technically illegal but you wont be sued for it as long as it is for your own personal use and not distributed. Only commercial copyright infringement is a criminal offence. There are a number of Freeview PVRs that allow archiving of SD content to an external HDD, including the Humax HDR Fox T2 and Digitalstream HD PVRs. The Humax can be fooled into decrypting HD recordings too but it's a bit long winded as it involves copying the files off and on again and custom firmware/application. The filesystem used by the Digitalstream and Sony Freeview HD PVRs is XFS not Ext2/3 (the Sony and Digitalstream machines are based on the same platform so are almost identical under the hood, with Sony adding some customisations to support Bravia Sync). No XFS drivers exist for Windows but there is ONE program that can read an XFS drive on Windows, UFS File Explorer but it isn't free. The cheapest way is to either use the Samba Mod created by DaveGU over at AVForums ( that adds Samba sharing to the Digitalstream, this allows you to copy files on and off the machine, stream to the PC and other media devices that can see Samba shares via your home network ) or use a Linux boot disc. However, Dave's Samba mod doesn't support the Sony simply because Sony haven't amended the firmware to allow user modifications to run which Digitalstream did do at the request of users. |
|
|
|
|
|
#22 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 211
|
Update.....I have tried to copy from my Sony HD PVR onto a USB drive, formatted by the unit, a number of SD recordings. I can see that the drive is XFS format. Trying to open in VLC or the generic Ubuntu media player does nothing. Each recording seems to have four files associated with it.
I think I will sell the Sony and get a DigitalStream or a Humax. Either has to better than the c**p Sony! Never again. |
|
|
|
|
|
#23 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: North Derbyshire
Posts: 41,794
|
Quote:
Update.....I have tried to copy from my Sony HD PVR onto a USB drive, formatted by the unit, a number of SD recordings. I can see that the drive is XFS format. Trying to open in VLC or the generic Ubuntu media player does nothing. Each recording seems to have four files associated with it.
I think I will sell the Sony and get a DigitalStream or a Humax. Either has to better than the c**p Sony! Never again.
|
|
|
|
|
|
#24 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Witham, Essex.
Posts: 266
|
Quote:
Update.....I have tried to copy from my Sony HD PVR onto a USB drive, formatted by the unit, a number of SD recordings. I can see that the drive is XFS format. Trying to open in VLC or the generic Ubuntu media player does nothing. Each recording seems to have four files associated with it.
. If you change the file extension of the largest file to say .mpg you may be able to play it using VLC. |
|
|
|
|
|
#25 |
|
Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: DAVEVILLE, Daveshire DA1 1VE
Posts: 33,621
|
Quote:
Update.....I have tried to copy from my Sony HD PVR onto a USB drive, formatted by the unit, a number of SD recordings. I can see that the drive is XFS format. Trying to open in VLC or the generic Ubuntu media player does nothing. Each recording seems to have four files associated with it.
I think I will sell the Sony and get a DigitalStream or a Humax. Either has to better than the c**p Sony! Never again. I certainly have no problems playing the TRP files in VLC on Windows 7. I use DaveGU's Samba mod to copy the files to my PC via the network, and then just play them. However, you will ONLY be able to play SD files. The HD files are encrypted, so even though you can copy them to a PC you cannot play them. Are you sure you are not trying to play HD encrypted files?. However, it could well be that the Sony encrypts all files including SD (for some reason some PVRs do even though they are not required to do so), which would certainly explain why you cannot play anything on your PC. |
|
|
|
![]() |
|
All times are GMT. The time now is 17:21.



. A PC will transfer data between any drives it has a driver for. NTFS should be just fine, all the versions of Linux I have work with NTFS (Slax, Ubuntu). If the pvr drive has a linux filesystem then installing EXT2FSD should allow read/write access within windows without booting into linux.
. It's an offence to reverse engineer an encryption algorithm. If there isn't one and there is no reason for SD content to be decrypted it's perfectly legal to record it.. The content is broadcast without encryption.