I haven't seen any posts on this so was wondering if anyone else has had a poke around the PVR hard disk. i had the drive from my PVR160 hooked up to my PC yesterday. Here's what I found:

It's formatted with standard linux partitions.
The first partition is 204mb and has 2 folders - "cabot" and "lost+found".

The "cabot" folder has a bunch of .inf and .adf files in (which seem to contain data like the program info for each recording. There's also a "storage" folder in there which is empty.

The second partition is the remaining size of the drive and looks to be used for recordings. Each recording has its own folder and some files in the root directory - an example from mine is "~dvr2007011313300701.rec" there's also a folder for timeslip data called "~dvr-timeslip-00.rec" There are lots of files related to each recording and the video data looks to be broken down into a set of files each of (if i remember right) 180000 bytes... i couldn't extract them because of their size but i will get round to it soon

Hi.

I've been interested in downloading files from a PVR80 for some time, and have posted threads requesting others endevours to do the same. You seem to be the first one I have seen which has posatively made progress as to the nature of the file system etc. I recently spoke to a very helpful technician from Vestel-Uk, who said he would try to get some information from his counterpart in Turkey. Hopefully this will be of some help. In the mean time, I was going to try some file recovery software to help identify file types etc. Could you possably let me know what tools you are using to get as far as you have, which would be of great help. Argos said the files were stored in AVI format, but this doesn't seem to be very correct from what you have found. I guesse the same system will apply to the Dual from Asda, and other clones/copies. I hope there won't be much difference between the PVR160 and 80, other than the size of the partitions etc.

Anyway, I will be very glad to know how you get on and if you manage to download any usable files. In the meantime I can have a try myself. Thank you once again for your efforts!

Tim.

topfield use a .rec extension iirc

Oh, just found this. Dont know if it will work

Last edited by obvious : 15-02-2007 at 23:42

A bit of digging turned up the latest version of "ProjectX" (with installer). It's at http://rs28.rapidshare.com/files/133...4_with_JRE.zip

If your ISP doesn't like rapidshare then just use anonymouse.org or something like that
Last edited by obvious : 16-02-2007 at 00:02

Hi
I used a trial version of a program called UFS Explorer because it handles all kinds of filesystems. The reason I haven't downloaded any video data is that the trial software only lets you save files under 16k....

Now I know that it uses native linux format I can try some more specific (and free) programs to extract data. The one I was going to try next is Ext2FS.

Interesting post about the Topfield file format. I've got ProjectX and have used it to convert video data from my Digifusion. I'm not sure about the bit under point 5 where it produces an .m1v file - surely that's mpeg1 but you'd expect mpeg2 (.m2v). Also, it looks like we'd have to add a step to join the .rec files for a recording into a single file.

I'm swamped this weekend but if i get a chance i'll do some more work on this. Glad to hear others are interested too.

i had a go at extracting data using the fusion file reader but had no luck , it was a long shot that the file formats would be the same as the digifusion boxes, but if its in a linux format it looks promising , keep us informed if you manage to extract and burn the data

Just thinking out loud, but you could of course connect your drive up to a dual boot PC (if you have one) and read it from within linux itself. Or, perhaps even try using one of the many available 'live CDs' to boot linux without actually installing it on your PC.

If it is a Linux supported FS, then why not mount it on a Linux box and see if you can read the .rec files?

because only geeks use linux

seriously though, you're right, it will mount under linux without any problems.

Did you, by any chance, see the firmware .bin file for 5.3? My Dual is currently on 4.9 and there doesn't seem a scheduled update for 5.3. (The zip file for the dual record firmware only contains 4.9.) It would be great if someone could pull this off the hard disk.

Thanks

The Toppy's .rec file are actually transport streams (.ts). I would assume the Digihome saves the files in .ts format too.

VLC media player is available for Linux and can play these files with ease. Set up a Linux box and see how you get on...

ok
I've now got some video off the drive and converted it to a standard MPEG-2 (.m2p).

The video files on the PVR drive are actually .TRP files and are split into chunks of 188,000 kb (183mb). They are indeed (as son_t says) TS streams (generic PES container) and they run through ProjectX using the same settings as for my Digifusion. (I have an ini file that does the setup).

I ran one 183mb chunk through and it took a few seconds to dump out a good .m2p file. This can be converted to DVD or whatever else you like using your favourite app. The great thing about ProjectX is that you can add multiple files to be processed from the PVR and it will produce a single .m2p - no need to join them first.

Sorry advb69, there's nothing on there that looks like firmware - no revert.bin like the Digifusion, Thomson etc....

Regarding the two partitions on the drive, the first is 0.19gb and the second is the remaining drive space. There's something odd about partition 2 though as only UFS Explorer (see my first post) will allow me to access it (under windows) - has anyone running linux tried yet?

That's probably all i'll do now until after the weekend - got to put the PVR back under the TV now
Last edited by fishears : 16-02-2007 at 18:03

fishears , what application did you use to read the files?

I used a fully registered version of UFS Explorer (linked in my earlier post). If you can find a free app that works then please post details here.
Last edited by fishears : 17-02-2007 at 22:55

I have also obtained a copy of UFS Explorer since it gave the impression of being able to deal with unknown file systems. Likewise, I also obtained a copy of WinHex, which I know is not free, but was used by karleccleson when investigating the file system on the Digifusion boxes. He did say it took him about a year to do so though!

After reading threads from both the Digifusion and Humax posts on this site, it is apparent that it was quite easy to be led astray into thinking that the file systems had roots within Linux/Unix (probably because of the diverse systems Linux can recognise), but infact were custom systems both had used in order to solve the problem of recording vast amounts of video data quickly and easily. It could well be Linux inspired (I don't have any specific knowledge of either Linux or Unix), but it could well be worth bearing in mind that it might just be specific to this box.

I have just managed to set up a machine for just dealing with video editing etc, and hence hope to wip the cover off all three PVRs (I am fortunate enough to also have a Humax and Fusion box) very soon. then I will try some recovery software as well. As well as the two already mentioned, there is Restore2000 and some Freeware programs which just might be of help (Disk Investigator, Hex Editor XVI32, ADRC Investigation Tools and dd for windows). Because I am somewhat disabled, I have alot of time on my hands, and I am only really limited by my health allowing. Thus I will do the best I can. My knowledge of storage systems is quite limited at the moment though.

Kind regards to you all!

Tim.

I have also used UFS Explorer to examine the drive of a PVR80. As with the 160 drives, there are two partitions, the first is only 204MB (ie the 0.19GB already mentioned), and the second is thus 74.33GB out of a total of 74.53GB. Yes, there appears to be something odd about the second partition. Firstly, all software used seems to think that it is a standard Linux Ext2 partition. WinHex promptly told me my licence wasn't good enough for full Ext2 support, and I couldn't diplay any files. However, this is probably due to lack of time in using the software - I will try again. I therefore resorted firstly to UFS to download one of the .trp files to my PC hard drive. Neither Nero's Showtime, nor VLC Player could handle the pure .trp video (although Nero said it could!), and hence I will have to try and ProjectX the files as well (If at all possible, could you guide me to a source for the .inf file used with ProjectX, and let me know if the .ifo and .idx files need to be included). By the way, the true file name (as opposed to the lengthy one downloaded) is stored in the ...bkup.inf file of the same file number on partition 1 (ie, contains details of channel, program title, etc). The interesting thing about partition 2 is it's unwillingness to be recognised by Linux it'self. I tried the program suggested (Ext2FS) under Windows, which was then able to recognise the first partition as a seperate drive (I labelled G). It opened and read the files in a file-explorer window as per usual. However, partition 2 it also treated as a seperate drive (H on my machine) which it labelled as 'local' and promptly asked me if I wanted to format it (to which I said no!). It refused to view any files/directories, and insisted the drive was blank and of an unknown file system. This having failed, I then tried a 'Live' version of Linux (Urbuntu), which likewise recognised the first partition, but not the second. I don't have a full version of Linux, but do have an old machine on which I could try to install a full version. It might be worth trying. In the meantime though, I will explore some more avenues which might give an idea as to what is happening. However, if it is already possible to download and ProjectX all the .rec files together, this might be sufficient until a small extraction utillity can be written.

Anyway, after a little housework, back to slaving over a rather hot PVR drive!

Tim.

I have just viewed the troubleshooting page of the Ext2FS site, and noted that there is a tool for drives not mounted which was my problem. The tool mountdiag.exe can be downloaded from

http://www.fs-driver.org/troubleshoot.html

I will try the program again.

Tim.

the ini file used in ProjectX is here

Just place it in the ProjectX directory. You'll need to change the output directory when you next use ProjectX but apart from that its ready to go.

Steps to convert from PVR are:
1. run projectX
2. go to File menu, click Add and select any (or all) of the .TRP files in the directory from your PVR (you'll need to change the filetype filter to ALL)
3. back at the main projectX screen click Quickstart
4. Wait a while until done and there'll be an .M2P file of your PVR video in the output directory
5. do whatever conversion you need (i usually use Win2AVI to turn stuff into DivX)

If you want to trim the start and end of the recording before encoding you can do this as a step 2a but i'm not much of a tutorial writer - i prefer the exciting stuff.
Last edited by fishears : 20-02-2007 at 07:32

Thank you fishears for your help - I will try it very shortly. I'm suprised though that the .trp files cannot be played straight from their raw state. I don't know much about Transport Streams, but will look again on the internet for more info. They appear very much alike a .vob structure, ie multiple files, all bellow 1GB in size.

Anyway, once again thank you very much. This afternoon I'll try Ext2FS again and a couple of other similar programs found off the internet last night.

Regards,

Tim.

Transport Stream: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_stream

VLC media player can play .ts files: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

Hi.

Thank you son_t for those Links.

I had an email today from Cabot software who develop the firmware on behalf of Vestel, saying unfortunately that they would be unable to discuss the internal workings of the box and that the current box doesn't support archiving (which is obvious). However, they did say that the next version of the box would support archiving, albeit through another Scart socket! - something to look forward to.

In the meantime, the investigative work goes on!

Thanks once again. Regards,

Tim.

(Incidently, the 'Cabot' folder found on the drives first partition seems therefore to be something to do with error reporting or similar perhaps for Cabot software troubleshooting ?)

If you want a more permanent solution to retrieving recordings off your PVR, take a look at this cable modification: http://humaxdisk.wikispaces.com/Disk+Cabling+and+Mods

This is the work I've done for the Humax 9200T and at the very bottom there are modifications for the Digifusion boxes too.

Did you ask them why they don't use the twin record capabilities of the box?

No - unfortunately I didn't. It's been difficult enough to get any response from them at all. It was a helpful technician at Vestel-UK that let me know Cabot did some development work, but I think the majority is still done in Turkey. The technician said he would try and help me further by contacting the Turkey technical support group ( something which he said was very difficult even for Vestel-UK!) and get back to me. If he does, I will ask him ....

Thank you again son_t for your help. There are quite a few different modifications for various PVRs out there, and realising that continualy disconnecting the Digighome HDD was not really a very good idea, so I had ideas of using one of three IDE to USB converters purchased from Maplins. They were alot more than £9.99, but do come with their own power supply. This will allow the HDD to be powered independantly of the Digihomes own supply and hence the need to have the unit plugged in, but fit rather snuggly into the existing case, along with the adaptor. The problem I have found is in locating the 40-pin male IDE plug strip for a ribbon cables. There are plenty of IDE cables available in Nottingham, but only with the female 40-pin sockets. As this is absolutely essential, and the only cable I have is too short, I am extremely grateful for the location of a supplier for the correct strip connector. Hopefully I will get on the site in a few minutes to order! The other end of the USB cable from the adaptor I thought could fit through the currently available spare 'door' at the front of the Digihome, whcih doesn't do alot at present.

Thanks once again. Regards to all.

Tim.

The current 32Mb boxes out there are simply not suited to the twin record software, due to there not being enough RAM (e.g. 2 day EPG, teletext services not working, etc). Maybe the software can be optimised though. That said, I even noticed that my single record box has difficulty keeping the full 8 day EPG. From this I'm guessing the single record software is already using the full 32Mb RAM, and therefore the extra memory required for the twin record software is more than enough to tip things over the edge. The twin record software works much nicer on a box with 64Mb RAM, although I'm still having problems with "stuttering" recordings which I'm sure are not signal related. I've no idea if any 64Mb boxes are being sold in the UK yet though, and don't ask how I came to have one I would hope that new stock is all 64Mb, but Argos probably have loads of old Digihome stock still, although this is more likely just wishful thinking. Not sure if anybody has found the twin record software to work better on the Asda Dual PVR, or maybe their manual says 32Mb too???