Here's my little contribution to the Replay world. I have updated extract_rtv5 to output the show descriptions and recording date correctly for Replay 4500's and 5000's. I have also added for the verbose output to include the episode name, actors, guests, director, and producer.

This coupled with RTVExplorer makes an easy way to recover your Replay shows from the hard drive into DVArchive or WiRNS. This should now work better with RTVExplorer with the show desciption corrections.

I would really like to add all the extra show description information into RTVExplorer's ability to produce the necessary XML files, but I haven't been able to locate the source for RTVExplorer. In the mean time, this version should improve RTVExplorer's current capability...

Since I could only experiment with a couple of hard drive images that I have, I would certainly like to hear any feedback using this program...

Which brings me to needing a place to store the executible and source. Where would be a good location?

Henry

Here's my little contribution to the Replay world. I have updated extract_rtv5 to output the show descriptions and recording date correctly for Replay 4500's and 5000's. I have also added for the verbose output to include the episode name, actors, guests, director, and producer.Thanks!

...Which brings me to needing a place to store the executible and source. Where would be a good location?
ReplayTV Upgrade Patch Page on SourceForge.Net (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=17245)
.
If you don't wish to use SourceForge.Net just yet (still testing - waiting for feedback), create a new thread and ATTACH the code in a ZIP file, such as these folks: > > > ReplayTV Software Accessories & Add-Ons < < < (http://archive2.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=5011882#post5011882)

Mikeyboy retired hosting the complete set of RTV model images, and unless anything has changed 'ghoul' now hosts them. He doesn't post so it's hard to know for sure. You could ask Mikeyboy.

It might be nice seeing it hosted on the extract_RTV site. don't know how that works.

l8er hosts an eleborate site dedicated to ReplayTVs:
http://www.replaytvupgrade.com/
He can be found at planetreplay.com but not here on AVSForums

jleavens is the owner of planetreplay.com. He might be interested in hosting it.


those are the first that come to my mind.

Thanks for the replies! I have already been in touch with l8tr and that is a good option. I have posted this same message on PlanetReplay, so we'll see if Justin or anyone else has any other suggestions. In the mean time, I am trying to get permissions to be able to post this updated code to SourceForge. But, I agree that it might be nice to start another location somewhere else more Replay oriented. Since the only place I've found so far that has the complete set of these tools is SourceForge, it seems like it wouldn't be a very good idea for me to put only this updated extarct_rtv5 someone else, especially since the companion application, RTVExplorer, is downloaded from SourceForge. But, maybe someone else will feel like hosting the entire RTV Patch/Extract Applications, in which case I would love to post my update there...

Thanks,
Henry

Where was this lovely application a month ago when my RTV OS partition died? I guess it would not have helped, what with the fact that the show descriptoins are in that partition.

Oh, I have plenty of hosting space and bandwidth available too...
http://www.host-my-site.com

John

Where was this lovely application a month ago when my RTV OS partition died? I guess it would not have helped, what with the fact that the show descriptoins are in that partition.

Oh, I have plenty of hosting space and bandwidth available too...
http://www.host-my-site.com

John

Actually, the project already existed on SourceForge for over a year, but I fixed a couple of bugs that I found when I recently recovered my failed Replay hard drive.

Funny, but that just proves my point that finding this type application is very difficult (it certainly was for me), and hosting it on SourceForge doesn't give any value in finding it.

Thanks for the offer and I will keep you in mind! :)

Henry

I have removed all the garbage from this thread, please continue in a civilized manner now. "Clear To Land", consider yourself warned!

The new extract_rtv5 version 54 is available at: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=17245. Please try it out and give me your feedback...

I am hoping that this whole project and others will also be hosted by l8er as well...

Henry

WooHoo! :D Learned some new stuff and added muti-part information to the verbose description output. So be sure and pick up version 55...

Henry

Isn't it nice to have your thread back? :)

Isn't it nice to have your thread back? :)

I dunno... The Amoebae were probably more entertaining than my announcement! ;)

Thanks for cleaning it up!

Henry

Even though the post is gone, I'd like icecow to know that FlipFlop decided that we should update the extract_rtv source code rather than branching it. He first updated it with the updates that Alex had made for extract_rtv5, and then I updated it with my changes. So, the nice thing is that the latest source code is now available at SourceForge...

Henry

Very cool. I was too chicken to directly send you to him. I wanted him to have the luxury of finding you.

Sanity has been restored again.

All right! Now this is really cool! :cool: In addition to fixing the recording time and duration to include padding, I added a -dx option to create the XML files necessary to make DVArchive or WiRNS use the extracted files right away after extracting them! :eek: Here's an example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="US-ASCII"?>
<DVARCHIVE_SHOW>
<REPLAY_CATEGORY ID="0" NAME="Uncategorized" PUBLIC="TRUE" READ_ONLY="FALSE">
<COMMENT/>
<REPLAY_CHANNEL ID="0" NAME="Downloaded Shows" PUBLIC="TRUE" READ_ONLY="FALSE">
<COMMENT/>
<REPLAY_SHOW EPISODE="The Fisher King" ID="1147309197" MEDIA_TYPE="MPEG_RTV50" TITLE="Criminal Minds">
<EPISODE_SUMMARY>Team members become pawns of a psychopathic killer.</EPISODE_SUMMARY>
<ACTORS>Mandy Patinkin, Thomas Gibson, Shemar Moore</ACTORS>
<GUEST_STARS>Meredith Monroe, Charles Haid, Amanda Bernero</GUEST_STARS>
<PRODUCERS/>
<DIRECTOR/>
<RECORDING_INFO DURATION_IN_SECONDS="3595" GOP_COUNT="7189" IS_GUARANTEED="TRUE" IS_MANUALLY_RECORDED="FALSE" IS_PPV="FALSE" IS_REPEAT="FALSE" RECORDED_AT="20:00" RECORDED_ON="2006/05/10" RECORD_QUALITY="MEDIUM" TV_CHANNEL_NUM="5" TV_CHANNEL_STATION_ID="KENS" TV_CHANNEL_STATION_NAME="KENS"/>
<MULTI_PART IS_MULTI_PART="TRUE" THIS_PART_NUM="1" TOTAL_PART_COUNT="2"/>
<TV_RATINGS TV_RATING="TV-14" TV_SUB_RATING="V,L"/>
<MOVIE_INFO IS_MOVIE="FALSE"/>
<LOCAL_SHOW_INFO BASE_FILENAME="1147309197" IS_FILENAME_CUSTOM="TRUE" IS_PUBLIC="TRUE" IS_READ_ONLY="FALSE" MPEG_FILE_SIZE="0">
<COMMENT/>
</LOCAL_SHOW_INFO>
</REPLAY_SHOW>
</REPLAY_CHANNEL>
</REPLAY_CATEGORY>
</DVARCHIVE_SHOW>

So, check out version 56 of extract_rtv5 on SourceForge!

And, I would really like to get some feedback from others. In particular, if anyone wants to test extracting movies from their Replay hard drive...

Henry

Version 57 of extract_rtv5 is available at SourceForge! :D

This version supports the extra information used by WiRNS... :cool:

Henry

Awhile I'm cerebrealy inebreated from caffeine I'd like to point out the feedback you will get will not reflect the usefullness of your efforts. I'm impressed and greatful, but it's clear what you are doing and I somehow have nothing to add or say. Imagine how the others feel, and the lurkers, and people who use it and know nothing about this forum.

I haven't even tried the program, and I have no desire to pull out a harddrive, but I know I will be using the program multiple times in the future.

So please don't let the seemingly silence and lack of participation discourage you. This is definately an 'if you build it they will come' scenerio.

Yeah, but I had two pulled hard drives sitting around from the Replay failing to boot, and one of them had several season fanalies from May (which I could have downloaded from Poopli, but damn it, I was going to retrieve those shows somehow). So, I was hoping that others had pulled hard drives laying around that they had been hoping to pull the shows from as well. Since I have read a lot of threads in both AVSForum and PlanetReplay of people trying to accomplish this, but failing either due to not figuring out that they needed to use extract_rtv5 instead of extract_rtv, of other problems with trying to use RTVExplorer, I was hoping that some of those people, like BigJohns, for example, might take a crack at trying to retrieve some shows just to try it out.

If it wasn't for the fact that I got tired of replacing drives and losing all my shows, I wouldn't have bothered to try to update this software in the first place. But, now I have retrieved 88 shows from both those hard drives and have them all available online to view at my leasure! ;)

Henry

Amazing. Other than the initial upgrade, I have never had to replace a drive.

Not so amazing, other than replacing for upgrades, never had a drive fail on 9 Replays over a 6 year period. Six of them still on the original drives. And the removed drives were pressed into duty as replacements for PC HDs and are still happily humming along. Most of them Maxtors, a few Seagates, and a couple of WDs.

Not amazing for me, I meant I was amazed at the number of people who say they're on their 3rd drive or whatever. But in this case Henry's bad luck worked out! :)

Not so amazing, other than replacing for upgrades, never had a drive fail on 9 Replays over a 6 year period. Six of them still on the original drives. And the removed drives were pressed into duty as replacements for PC HDs and are still happily humming along. Most of them Maxtors, a few Seagates, and a couple of WDs.

You run your computer(s) off of 3 six year old 40 gig HDs? or did you get 5016's and are run them off of 6 six year old 80 gig HDs?

How are you running 'a few seagates' and 'a couple of WDs' when 6 of your 9 replaytvs have their original drives? You running dual drives? You're running 6 with stock drives and others with dual drives?

fishy... very fishy

I think this is going to be the last one. Version 58 is posted at SourceForge. I added to tag the XML files as Replay 4500's when appropriate and cleaned up a few things...

Let me know if anyone finds any problems...

Henry

By special request, version 60 of extract_rtv5 is posted at SourceForge with a new option, -dr, to output the recording descriptions from a Replay hard drive or image. This will make it easier to reprogram your recordings when you replace your hard drive if you don't already have them in hard copy from some other means...

Here are some examples:
Channel: "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation"
Single show-based recording: "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation"
Episode: Hollywood Brass
Description: Capt. Brass seeks the assistance of a former colleague.
Actors: William Petersen, Marg Helgenberger, Gary Dourdan
Guests: Nick Searcy, Teal Redman, Lindsay Beamish
Producer:
Director:
Station: 5 KENS (KENS)
Record: Wed Feb 22 2006 3:05AM - Wed Feb 22 2006 4:05AM, with 5 minutes before start and 55 minutes after end
Keep: This episode, not guaranteed at medium quality

Channel: "Heist"
Repeat show-based recording: "Heist"
Station: 3 WOAI (WOAI (formerly KMOL))
Record: 9:00PM - 10:00PM every day, with 1 minute before start
Keep: 1 episode, guaranteed at medium quality

Channel: "Heist"
Theme recording: title is "Heist"
Keep: 1 hour, not guaranteed at low quality

Channel: "Thursday"
Repeat manual recording
Station: 3 WOAI (WOAI (formerly KMOL))
Record: 7:00PM - 8:00PM every Thu
Keep: 1 episode, guaranteed at low quality

It will also output the Zone number for Zone recordings, but I don't have any, so I couldn't test it. If anyone has some interesting programmed recordings that it doesn't output correctly or fully, please let me know...

Henry

By special request, version 60 of extract_rtv5 is posted at SourceForge with a new option...

http://www.yonkis.com/mediaflash/unmillon.htm

http://www.yonkis.com/mediaflash/unmillon.htm

Is there a flash presentation for a million "you're welcomes"? :D By the way, every time you click "enough", it cheats and skips ahead a hundred or so... :p

Woke up early this morning because I have a bunch of ideas to help out with recovering deleted shows, so stay tuned! ;)

Henry

Version 62 is posted at SourceForge. It has many new options for extracting deleted shows and descriptions:

Added -ur option to look for and restore unlinked files.
Added -ud option to look for and show unlinked program descriptions (brief).
Added -udv option to look for and show unlinked program descriptions (verbose).
Added -uda option to look for and show ALL (incl. deleted) unlinked descriptions (brief).
Added -udd option to look for and show ALL (incl. deleted) unlinked descriptions (verbose).
Added -udx option to look for and ouput unlinked descriptions as XML files.

Only the -ur option has been tested by me. I am still waiting on verification of the -ud options from the requester...

Henry

I posted version 63 of extract_rtv5 at SourceForge.net. I added for it to show all the category, programming, and recording descriptions from the snapshot file. The features added are:

-ds option to show program snapshot descriptions
-dsv option to show program snapshot descriptions (verbose)
-dsa option to show ALL (incl. deleted) snapshot descriptions (brief)
-dsd option to show ALL (incl. deleted) snapshot descriptions (verbose)
-dsx option to output snapshot descriptions as XML files
Added category name/number to recording descriptions

Unfortunately, all my shows are in the "All Shows" category, so I couldn't test the new category features...

Henry

Posted version 64 at SourceForge. I added for the -ur option to skip already restored files. And, I added a whole bunch more -ud options to get the descriptions from deleted description files:

-udr option to look for and show program recording descriptions
-uds option to look for and show program snapshot descriptions
-udsv option to look for and show program snapshot descriptions (verbose)
-udsa option to look for and show ALL snapshot descriptions (brief)
-udsd option to look for and show ALL snapshot descriptions (verbose)
-udsx option to look for and output snapshot descriptions as XML files

I actually had a deleted snapshot file, so I was able to test all the -uds option variations. But, I didn't have any deleted ReplayChannelSet files to test the -udr option...

Henry

Hey, first off, thank you very much for this tool. I was out last evening and I guess there were about 10 mini power outages (out for 1 min. then back on) and without me being home or even knowing that was happing...one of my Replay drives finially had enough.

I was about to begin the time consuming process of finding the clusters and extraxting them....then came across your new tool.......so

THANK YOU!!!

I do have a question to go along with my praise...I am currently running -ur to look for and restore (which I assume is the same as extract cuz it is extracting all the files to the hard drive I am using to run extract_rtv)...

As I am watching it work it says "valid incode (xxx) found at cluster xxx (xxx.mpg) "skipping not first cluster"...it says that for a few files, then it does extract something but of a different name...

does this mean it is skipping certain files at certain clusters or is this working as it should?

Also, if I read this thread correctly, after I am done with the -ur, I can run a -dx and it will extract (or create) the XLM files necessary so all my files I just extracted with -ur can work instantly in DVArchive?????????? Is that really TRUE?

Thanks for your praise! Yes, it is normal for it to say "skipping not first cluster". I added that in the last release of extract_rtv5. FlipFlop commented that he thought that files show up twice because they are stored on two systems for backup (he is the originator of extract_rtv and deserves all the praise). After I added the -ur option, I realized that it was causing a problem with extracting the deleted files twice. When I worked on figuring out how to only extract them once, I noticed that only one is marked as being the first cluster. So, I'm not so sure if the reason there is two is due to their being two systems or because the files are large enough to take up more than one cluster...

If you are having to use the -ur option to recover deleted shows, then it seems likely that the show descriptions would have been deleted as well. You can use the -dv to check the current show descriptions and see if they include your deleted shows. If that has the shows you need, then you would use the -dx option to create the DVArchive XML files for those shows. Or, you may need to use the -udv option to look for deleted show descriptions. If you need to use -udv to get the show descriptions for the deleted shows, then you'll use the -udx option to create the DVArchive XML files for the deleted shows as well. You can also try using -udsv option to see if you can find any deleted snapshot files with the deleted show's descriptions, in which case you would then use -udsx to create the DVArchive XML files for those shows. Anyway, hopefully between using -dx, -udx, or -usdx you will find one of them that can create all your show descriptions files. And, if you can get one of those options to work, then YES, IT IS TRUE that the shows will be instantly accessible by DVArchive! :cool: But, you need to make sure that all 4 files that are created when you are done (there needs to be a .mpg, ,ndx, .evt, and .xml file for each show) are in a directory that DVArchive is configured for...

By the way, you may also be able to either use the -dr, -ds, -udr, or -uds option to display your previous show programming to help you reprogram the Replay back the way it was...

Best of luck!

Henry

P.S. You didn't need to edit your message in order to subscribe to the thread. There is a thread tool on the thread page that allows you just to subscribe or unsubscribe to the thread...

Well, I can't tell you how amazing this little program is. When I realized the crash had happened, I dreaded having to pull the shows off 1 by 1 like I have done in the past when a drive fails......so, like the other guys said, 1,000,000 thank you's!

As it seemed like you knew...the -dv, -udv and -udsv were not fruitful for me.

As a side note do you have a command that will tell you how many GB of data there is to be extracted from the Replay? I have been spending my time making more room as it keeps finding more and more shows....if I knew how many GB there was, I can just make sure the drive is clear and not babysit as much as I have....

either way, this thing has saved me a TON of time so thanks again!

Running -u will show you all the files names. Maybe you could make a good guess on how big a typical show was and guess at the total file size? I basically figured that my hard drive were fairly full and just assumed that the hard drive capacity (40 GB or 80 GB) was how much space I needed on my PC, and that was pretty close. I could also add for the -u option to display the file size in addition to the file name, but you would still have to manually add them all up (unless I also added a totals line at the end). That might be a nice addition if I get around to it...

Were you running anything else that might have your show information? Either WiRNS or MyReplayTV.com would be helpful. If you were running WiRNS, I wrote a little program that will convert the WiRNS file into DVArchive files to get you back running. Or, if you were using MyReplayTV.com, you might at least be able to print out all your show information and then you could import the shows into DVArchive...

Henry

I guess I am just getting a bit nervous with disk space because accordig to myreplaytv.com I had 100 hours at medium quality....which I think should require 204 GB of space...but I have already extracted 249gb of stuff, and the drive capacity is almost gone but it keeps extracting (they are both 300gb original drives)...

Well, if it hadn't already been so late on Friday afternoon, I would have added for the -u option to show the file sizes and total file sizes. I looked at it briefly, and it looks real easy to add. But, then I have to release it on SourceForge and check it into CVS and write up release notes, etc. Anyway, I can add it on Monday, but it won't do you much good by then...

By the way, MyReplayTV.com is going to have the show information from the shows that you still had on the Replay before the "accident". Using the -u option, you are going to recover all of your deleted shows, even the ones that were deleted before the "accident", which may explain the difference in your storage calculations and actual usage...

As far as importing into DVArchive, I looked up this thread where Gerry told me the easiest, fastest way to do it: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8444631. At least if you have MyReplayTV.com, you can print it out with the episode information (and the recording information). The file names (.mpg, .evt, and .ndx) are the time that the show was recorded. Some UNIXes have an option on date to enter a decimal number and have it output the date and time in text (date -s number). Once you have the date and time of the show, then you can find it in your MyReplayTV.com information and know what show it is. Or, just from knowing the date and time of the recording, you probably can guess what show was on at that time...

Good luck!

Henry

Hey Henry, that is very kind of you....but no worries...I know it can't be larger then the HD itself (or it is extracting things twice)....I did totally forget that it will be getting shows deleted before the crash, so that explains it.....

It should be close to done.........and thanks for that tip from Gerry......that should help out a lot on the next step tomorrow!

Okay, it has now extracted 301GB off of the 300GB drive............I must say I am now concerned as to what is happening....

Bummer........well, it extracted 310GB of data and I wasn't expecting that....i tried to offload more but didn't win the battle........it ened with "error writing file xxx.mpg (disk full)....the prompt is k:\^Ac

Any thoughts on how I restart it from where I left off after I offload some more stuff....and any thoughts on how it is extracting more then the drive capacity?

Just a bit more information for you...not sure if it goes in order of the clusters....but when I run a -u the last cluster is 2765 (the program just hangs there, it doesn't bring me back to a prompt)...

....the last cluster that -ur was working on when it ran out of disk space was 2599....if I count the number of .mpg files (not duplicates) that are left I am left with 20 shows....they might be 30 min. shows or 2 hour movies....regardless...with 310GB already extrated from a 300 gb drive with 20 mpg;'s to go? Something seems fishy?

I was going to say something about how the drive capacity is in billions of bytes, not gigabytes, but that only accounts for 2.4% difference. Then I was going to say something about the cluster size on the Replay versus the cluster size on your PC. but that probably wouldn't account for much difference with large files, either. So, what I think is happening, just like with your PC, when a file is deleted, all of the space it used is freed back to the operating system. That space can be reallocated by new files. So, what I think is happening is that while you still have the descriptors of the deleted files, the space allocated by those files has been reused by new shows and then deleted again. So, you are getting several shows recovering the same disk space as being used by that show back when they were recorded. I'm not sure if that is the answer, and FlipFlop would know a lot more about it. But, I don't think that extract_rtv checks that the space of the deleted file has ever been reused (that might not be possible). Just like if you delete a file from Windows, it can only be recovered if you try to undelete it very quickly before the space gets reused. But, if it gets reused and then deleted again, there wouldn't be any way to tell that when you tried to undelete the original file that the recovered data had already been overwritten by another file. At least I think that is what is going on in your case...

You can hope that the newest files (with the largest numbers) are the most current shows that just got deleted from the "crash". So, hopefully those shows are intact...

And, you can't restart recovering unlinked files from where you left off. Before I started enhancing extract_rtv, it only had the -u option and the -r option. The -u option would tell you the file names and the cluster numbers and once you decided what files you wanted to recover, you used the -r option to recover those clusters. Someone mentioned about having to make a batch file to recover all the files, so I added the -ur option to do it automatically. But, you could take a page from him and use the -u option to generate a file of all the cluster numbers (use the redirect feature i.e. "extract_rtv5 -p1 -u >filename"). Then you could edit that file to run extract_rtv5 -r with each cluster number starting from where you last left off...

Henry

Okay, did all the remaining clusters this morning and ended up with 340GB of data off what is marked a 300GB drive...I will check the size of the HD when I reformat and repatch.

Thanks again for your awesome program and all the help, feel free to tidy up this thread :)

Okay, here is my final report.

I ended up recovering all 180gb of Shows that were actually on the drive...in addition, there was 160GB of "junk" on the drive...meaing .mpg's that it recovered that were just pieces of other shows I recorded and some deleted shows...but the majority of the "junk" was bits and pieces of current shows....meaning, 30 min. of something I recorded on Fox followed by 30 min. of something recorded on ABC...

So, I am not sure what causes all of those odd files, but, none the less, job well done!

Posted version 65 at SourceForge with the following enhancements:

Added for -u to display the file size
Added for -u to display the total number of files and bytes
Added for -l to display the total number of files and bytes

Henry

<bump for new guy>

PS: This program was great the first time around, now it's even better. Thanks Henry.

You're welcome! There haven't been any more feature requests for awhile, so I guess that'll be it for awhile...

Henry

One test I've been meaning to run on extractRTV5, but haven't had the time to rip my 2k appart to do it, is to see if extractRTV5 works with the older units and if the XML file generation routine is compatable with the arrays used by the older units.

One test I've been meaning to run on extractRTV5, but haven't had the time to rip my 2k appart to do it, is to see if extractRTV5 works with the older units and if the XML file generation routine is compatable with the arrays used by the older units.

Sorry, but it doesn't. In fact, it will simply either ignore the option or give an error that it can't find the appropriate files...

When I fixed extract_rtv5 to provide proper show descriptions for the 5000, I completely re-did it and made all new structures. The person before did it by modifying the existing structures and tried to make it all work together. I ended up writing all new subroutines with the new structures. So, I didn't bother to make new structures and subroutines for the older units. But, since all the code is there, and all the structures are in the TWIKI (which is where I got them from), it should be pretty easy to add for it to run the older units. Since I had no way to test that, there wasn't a lot of point in my writing the code...

Henry

Sorry, but it doesn't. In fact, it will simply either ignore the option or give an error that it can't find the appropriate files...

When I fixed extract_rtv5 to provide proper show descriptions for the 5000, I completely re-did it and made all new structures. The person before did it by modifying the existing structures and tried to make it all work together. I ended up writing all new subroutines with the new structures. So, I didn't bother to make new structures and subroutines for the older units. But, since all the code is there, and all the structures are in the TWIKI (which is where I got them from), it should be pretty easy to add for it to run the older units. Since I had no way to test that, there wasn't a lot of point in my writing the code...

Henry

Ok.

So, just so I understand clearly - are you saying that extractRTV5 is only for use with 4k/5k units and that the original extractRTV by flipflop (not to be confused with the original release of extractRTV5 which you have now taken over) is what should be used for the older drives? Or, just that extractRTV5 doesn't provide show descriptions when used with the older units.

The primary idea behind my thought for that test should be fairly obvious: If upgrading out of an older unit, or just offloading shows, one can pull the drive, extractRTV5 it, auto generate the XML files, then shove the extracted shows through the appropriate tools and programs to deal with the differences in audio sample rates, MPEG size/formats, and RTV index files and then on into DVArchive.

If you had wanted to add the features, but didn't soley because of the lack of older format disks to test with - I have a few 4GB-10GB disks lying around that I can stuff into my RTV-2004 and fill up with shows, then pull them and mail 'em to you if want.

Ok.

So, just so I understand clearly - are you saying that extractRTV5 is only for use with 4k/5k units and that the original extractRTV by flipflop (not to be confused with the original release of extractRTV5 which you have now taken over) is what should be used for the older drives? Or, just that extractRTV5 doesn't provide show descriptions when used with the older units.

The primary idea behind my thought for that test should be fairly obvious: If upgrading out of an older unit, or just offloading shows, one can pull the drive, extractRTV5 it, auto generate the XML files, then shove the extracted shows through the appropriate tools and programs to deal with the differences in audio sample rates, MPEG size/formats, and RTV index files and then on into DVArchive.

If you had wanted to add the features, but didn't soley because of the lack of older format disks to test with - I have a few 4GB-10GB disks lying around that I can stuff into my RTV-2004 and fill up with shows, then pull them and mail 'em to you if want.

To be perfectly clear, extract_rtv didn't (and doesn't) support 5000 (and I think also 4500) units. Alex took on the task of adding 5000 support by improving extract_rtv to include the newer information, and he called it extract_rtv5. It was and is extract_rtv with 5000 additions. He also created RTV Explorer to provide a GUI interface to extract_rtv5, which also would generate rudimetary DVArchive XML files.

I found that RTV Explorer didn't create the show descriptions properly and only provided the basic DVArchive information. So, I decided to fix the show descriptions and see if I couldn't enhance the DVArchive information at the same time. Alex had simply added to the original extract_rtv by modifying the existing routines to include the 5000 series. I started out trying to correct his enhancements to fix the problems in it. But, I couldn't figure out how he had come up with the changes he had made because they didn't match the TWIKI. The problem was that even the original code didn't match the TWIKI and FlipFlop didn't exactly explain to me why that was. I figured the best way to fix the problems with the 5000 support was to re-do all that code using the TWIKI instead. So, I completely rewrote all new routines and structures to deal with the newer series file format. But, I was very careful to leave all the original code intact.

The only options that I added which are 5000 specific are the -dx, -dr, and -ds. That also includes all the -ud options. So, for example, my enhancement to recover all delete files, -ur, is model independent. As is my enhancment to display the number and total size of files with -u and -l.

If you look at the CVS history of extract_rtv5 at http://rtvpatch.cvs.sourceforge.net/rtvpatch/extract_rtv/extract_rtv.c?view=log you will see the progression of extract_rtv to extract_rtv5 starting with CVS version 1.16.

As far as my wanting to add the same features for the older units, since I had the TWIKI information to take a stab at it, I was originally considering it. But, without any images to test with, I couldn't have been sure that I wouldn't have broken something. As I said, I was very careful to leave the original code intact (even though you could always download extract_rtv instead of extract_rtv5 to run on the older units). The idea was that extract_rtv5 is a follow on of extract_rtv, which is why there isn't any distiction in the CVS repository.

So, if you wanted to send me some older unit images to test with, I could certainly improve it further to include the new options for the older units. But, I would probably want an image of each older unit model to make sure I did them all correctly. Or, you could look at the changes I made yourself and improve extract_rtv5 yourself. After all, that all I did was to simply download the source code from SourceForge and start figuring it out! ;) And, while all I cared was to get the shows from my 5000 extracted into DVArchive (actually, into WiRNS), I would have been happy to have made the same additions for the older units if it had been more straight forward...

Henry

By the way, I just have to add that from this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=677209), you clearly know more about this history than most anybody. In fact, I found that post when I was looking into trying to retrieve the shows from my 5000 when it wouldn't boot. And, then FlipFlop pointed out to me that the source for extract_rtv5 was right there on SourceForge. So, it was your post about extract_rtv5 that got me started in the first place!

Henry

If you had wanted to add the features, but didn't soley because of the lack of older format disks to test with - I have a few 4GB-10GB disks lying around that I can stuff into my RTV-2004 and fill up with shows, then pull them and mail 'em to you if want.

Hmmm... I've been looking into this a bit more and have some questions. Maybe you or FlipFlop can answer them. The information in the TWIKI starts with version 4 firmware (4.1, 4.3, 4.5, and 5.0). The structure in extract_rtv doesn't quite match up with even the version 4.1 structure definitions. So, what version firmware runs on those older Replays? And, what model Replay does version 4.1 run on?

I am also wondering is if extract_rtv works properly even on older models if they have newer firmware installed?

Anyway, if you want to send me an image of an older Replay harddrive (I only need the first partition, which can be extracted with RTVPatch's "Backup Source Drive" and zipped up), I can see if I can use the modern firmware definitions to try to figure out the older file format...

In order to add the create XML files, I had to be able to get more information from the show descriptions files than was defined in extract_rtv. So, unless I can figure out the same extra information about the older Replay models, I won't be able to create very good XML files...

Henry

Well, with all the recent explanations of how to use RTVPatch, I was looking at the documentation and ran across this neat documentation of the details of the ReplayTV file system: http://rtvpatch.sourceforge.net/omfs.html. So, using this document, I added for extract_rtv5 to display the file dates when using the -l and -u options. This might help make it easier to figure out which files to extract since you will be able to see the dates of the files. Pick up version 66 at SourceForge.net! :cool:

Henry

Wow, I am almost looking forward to my next crash! Nice work!

Wow, I am almost looking forward to my next crash! Nice work!

:)
I've never used hdonzis's improve-ware, but that's basicly been my mindset since he did it :)

Is there an updated version of extract_rtv5 for Mac OS X?

Thanks in advance! :)

I didn't compile it for any other platform but Windows. But, since the entire source and Makefile are available for download, you are more than welcome to compile it on Mac OS X and let me know if you have any problems. I'm not sure that it has been compiled on any other Unix platform but Linux, so I'm not sure if the compile switches will work properly under Mac OS X. I'm also not sure if the scan for Replay hard drives will work properly under Mac OS X, but you should be able to follow the directions for running RTVPatch under Mac OS X to specify the Replay hard drive path. I don't see any source posted for the Mac OS X version of RTVPatch, so I don't know what all was required to be modified to make that work...

Henry

You've done a great job, Henry. I did an extraction for the first time tonight and it worked flawlessly. I really liked being able to write the verbose descriptions and recording descriptions to files for convenient reference.

Thank you!

Tim

You've done a great job, Henry. I did an extraction for the first time tonight and it worked flawlessly. I really liked being able to write the verbose descriptions and recording descriptions to files for convenient reference.

Thank you!

Tim

Glad you like it! Yeah, I really like being able to write the descriptions to files, too. Although, I can't take credit for the fact that you can redirect screen output to a file. But, I have made text files of all of my verbose descriptions and recording descriptions from all of the hard drive that I have pulled and find it very useful as well.

Henry

Sorry for what may be some noobie questions, but this is my first time with a hard drive crash and I am trying to rescue the recordings.

Will Extract_rtv5 work on a drive connected through the USB port?
I do not have any IDE controllers and would like to use an external usb enclosure to connect the RTV Drive.

Does RTVExplorer work with extract_rtv5?

Do I just D/L them and put them in the same directory?

Will Extract_rtv5 work on a drive connected through the USB port?

I do not have any IDE controllers and would like to use an external usb enclosure to connect the RTV Drive.


Some USB boxes work with Replay drives, others do not. There is no authoratative list. It can't hurt to try.

As long as Windows properly recognizes the drive, then it should work fine. Many people have used it that way, but there have been a few problem reports...

Henry

I am using an External USB enclosure in attempting to read my RTV drive.

I am able to figure out which physical drive it is and I execute the following commands with the following results:

C:\Extract RTV>extract_rtv5.exe -l
This looks like a ReplayTV 4000 or 5000 series drive!
Enabling the byte-reversing code
ReplayTV drive detected: \\.\PhysicalDrive2
Partition Type Start Length
1 0x4d 2 1024000
2 0x4d 1024002 157109400
3 0x4d 158133402 1953126
4 0x00 0 0

Select partition: 2
Cluster read error: Permission denied

C:\Extract RTV>

I get the same "Permission denied" message if I try:
extract_rtv5.exe \\.\PhysicalDrive2 -p2 -dr

Am I doing something wrong or is my drive too hosed to get any of my recording off of it?

I am using an External USB enclosure in attempting to read my RTV drive.

I am able to figure out which physical drive it is and I execute the following commands with the following results:

C:\Extract RTV>extract_rtv5.exe -l
This looks like a ReplayTV 4000 or 5000 series drive!
Enabling the byte-reversing code
ReplayTV drive detected: \\.\PhysicalDrive2
Partition Type Start Length
1 0x4d 2 1024000
2 0x4d 1024002 157109400
3 0x4d 158133402 1953126
4 0x00 0 0

Select partition: 2
Cluster read error: Permission denied

C:\Extract RTV>

I get the same "Permission denied" message if I try:
extract_rtv5.exe \\.\PhysicalDrive2 -p2 -dr

Am I doing something wrong or is my drive too hosed to get any of my recording off of it?

Well, it looks like at least the partition table of your drive is OK, so it must be able to read from it. I wonder if it is some kind of access problem because you are using the USB connection.

By the way, when you ran it with "-p2 -dr", you should have seen a message that it overrode your partition setting and was using the first partition (which is where the recording information is stored). So, in effect, you attempted to read from both the first and second partitions unsuccessfully.

It would be nice if FlipFlop could comment here because I'm not exactly sure why you would be able to access the partition table of that hard drive but not the other sectors. Maybe you should make sure that you are administrator when you are running extract_rtv5. You could also try hooking up the hard drive internally by swapping it with your CD/DVD drive and see if that makes a difference (I'd love to know).

I also could make a more diagnostic version of extract_rtv5 to see if we could figure out why it is having problems. I'm not sure where we'd get with that, but it might at least be nice to find out. Hopefully the error is exactly what it says and you just don't have permission to be accessing the drive because you aren't administrator...

Henry

One more thing, assuming you downloaded version 68 of extract_rtv5 from SourceForge.net, please try download version 66 and see if that makes any difference.

Henry

I posted version 69 of extract_rtv5 at SourceForge.net. This version has slightly improved error messages.

Henry

Hmmm... One more idea... Can you try running RTVPatch on the drive and see if you can backup the system?

Henry

Tried 69 and got this slightly different error message:


C:\Extract RTV>extract_rtv5.exe -dr
This looks like a ReplayTV 4000 or 5000 series drive!
Enabling the byte-reversing code
ReplayTV drive detected: \\.\PhysicalDrive2
Cluster 3 (offset 13312) read error: Permission denied

Tried 69 and got this slightly different error message:


C:\Extract RTV>extract_rtv5.exe -dr
This looks like a ReplayTV 4000 or 5000 series drive!
Enabling the byte-reversing code
ReplayTV drive detected: \\.\PhysicalDrive2
Cluster 3 (offset 13312) read error: Permission denied

OK, that got an error pretty much at the begining of the hard drive, and there is nothing strange with the offset it calculated (LSN 26). So, it doesn't look like a program error. It still might be nice to check version 66 to see if it has the same problem. And, you should double check that you are running as administrator...

And, you should try using RTVPatch to backup the system to see if it has the same problem or not. If it has the same problem, then it is likely it is something about connecting it up through the USB. In that case, I would definitely try hooking the drive up internally by using the CD/DVD IDE connector and power cable...

Henry

I ran version 66. Got the same error.

I do not have IDE capability on my motherboard so I cannot hook it up that way. All drives (including my opticals) are SATA.

Please try running RTVPatch and see if you can backup the source system...

And, have you double checked that you are running as administrator?

Most SATA motherboards still have a regular IDE (not enhanced) connector to support an old style CD/DVD drive. If you can find that you have a 40-pin connector on your mother board somewhere, you can use the ribbon cable out of your Replay to hook up the hard drive and try it out internally...

Henry

I am running as an administrator.

The motherboard does not support IDE. The only other connector besides the SATA is the floppy drive and that is a 34 pin connector not 40.

To use RTVPatch I need a completely new drive to backup to don't I? (So I would have to connect 2 IDE Devices to the system) or can I back up the RTV drive to a directory on one of my SATA hard drives (With the rest of the data on the SATA drive remaining intact).

I am running as an administrator.

The motherboard does not support IDE. The only other connector besides the SATA is the floppy drive and that is a 34 pin connector not 40.

To use RTVPatch I need a completely new drive to backup to don't I? (So I would have to connect 2 IDE Devices to the system) or can I back up the RTV drive to a directory on one of my SATA hard drives (With the rest of the data on the SATA drive remaining intact).

No, Backup creates a 500MB file on your local hard drive, and opens the normal create file dialog box to create the file on your system (normally a .rtv file). Copy is the function that goes from one Replay hard drive to another Replay hard drive...

Henry

Well I ran RTVPatch and got no better results:

0) WDC WD1600ADFD-75NLR1 - (160 GB) - May be PC Disk
1) WDC WD1600ADFD-75NLR1 - (160 GB) - May be PC Disk
2) Unknown - (81 GB) - ReplayTV 4xxx/5xxx Disk

Source: 2) Unknown - ( 81GB ) - ReplayTV Disk
Target: Select a drive from the list and click 'Set'

RTVPatch version 2.5.3, built on Mar 2 2005, 18:56:07
\\.\PhysicalDrive0 (WDC WD1600ADFD-75NLR1) : Used WinXP drive size detection
\\.\PhysicalDrive0 (WDC WD1600ADFD-75NLR1) : Detected size = 312500000 sectors
\\.\PhysicalDrive1 (WDC WD1600ADFD-75NLR1) : Used WinXP drive size detection
\\.\PhysicalDrive1 (WDC WD1600ADFD-75NLR1) : Detected size = 312500000 sectors
\\.\PhysicalDrive2 : DFP_GET_VERSION failed (not a hard drive?)
\\.\PhysicalDrive2 (Unknown) : Used WinXP drive size detection
\\.\PhysicalDrive2 (Unknown) : Detected size = 160086528 sectors
Copy from source '\\.\PhysicalDrive2' at offset 0
Copy to destination 'D:\old5080.rtv' at offset 0
Copying 1024002 blocks (500MB)
ERROR: Failed to read block 0 from source - retry 1
ERROR: Failed to read block 0 from source - retry 2
ERROR: Failed to read block 0 from source - retry 3
ERROR: Failed to read block 0 from source - retry 4
ERROR: Failed to read block 0 from source - retry 5
ERROR: Failed to read block 16 from source - retry 1
ERROR: Failed to read block 16 from source - retry 2
ERROR: Failed to read block 16 from source - retry 3
ERROR: Failed to read block 16 from source - retry 4
ERROR: Failed to read block 16 from source - retry 5
ERROR: Failed to read block 16 from source - retry 6
ERROR: Failed to read block 24 from source - retry 1
ERROR: Failed to read block 24 from source - retry 2
ERROR: Failed to read block 24 from source - retry 3
ERROR: Failed to read block 24 from source - retry 4
ERROR: Failed to read block 24 from source - retry 5
ERROR: Failed to read block 24 from source - retry 6
ERROR: Failed to read block 24 from source - retry 7
ERROR: Failed to read block 24 from source - retry 8
ERROR: Failed to read block 26 from source - retry 1
ERROR: Failed to read block 26 from source - retry 2
ERROR: Failed to read block 26 from source - retry 3
ERROR: Failed to read block 26 from source - retry 4
ERROR: Failed to read block 26 from source - retry 5
ERROR: Failed to read block 26 from source - retry 6
ERROR: Failed to read block 26 from source - retry 7
ERROR: Failed to read block 26 from source - retry 8
ERROR: Failed to read block 26 from source - retry 9
ERROR: Failed to read block 26 from source - skipping this block

This continued for many MANY more lines and finally got this:

ERROR: Failed to read block 119240 from source - reached failure limit - aborting copy!!!
*** Backup complete

I think you're going to have to try either a different PC, or a different USB adapter. The fact that RTVPatch can't even read the drive identification doesn't seem good. Maybe it is something about the USB driver, but it doesn't seem to be working correctly. I have read (in this forum) about a simple USB adapter that just plugs into the loose drive, and has a power adapter as well, and people reported it working. You'd have to serach through this forum to find it, or maybe someone who had success with it will post a link to it again. Otherwise, see if you can't find some PC with an IDE connector to use instead...

Henry

I posted version 70 at SourceForge.net. There is no change in the program for Windows, but I posted a Mac OS X universal binary as well with this version...

Henry

Thanks to KenL, extract_rtv5 version 71 is posted at SourceForge. This version fixes to properly output movie show information, which has been broken since version 60. It also restores functionallity with RTVExplorer, which quit working with version 66 when I added for the -l option to output the file creation date. I added a -lv option to use instead to output the file creation date and the total number of files and bytes listed...

Henry

Hi Folks, I am trying to use RTV explorer & when I use extract rtv 5 in "dos" mode It has no problems finding the drive. However on RTV Explorer I get the following message :

CreateProcessFailed!
C:\prog files\rtvtoolbox\extract rtv 5.exe -l
Error: 2

The drive is in a external usb case at the moment.

Any ideas ?

Thanks

Hi Folks, I am trying to use RTV explorer & when I use extract rtv 5 in "dos" mode It has no problems finding the drive. However on RTV Explorer I get the following message :

CreateProcessFailed!
C:\prog files\rtvtoolbox\extract rtv 5.exe -l
Error: 2

The drive is in a external usb case at the moment.

Any ideas ?

Thanks

I looks like your configuration in RTVExplorer for extract_rtv is set incorrectly (looks like "extract rtv 5.exe" with spaces in it). In RTVExplorer under "Settings->More Setting ands Tools" in "Program Settings" there is a field entry for "extract_rtv.exe" which should have the name of the application to run extract_rtv5.exe. I'm not sure what you did to put version 71 instead of the version 53 that comes with RTVExplorer, but usually the easist thing to do is to simply overwrite the version 53 with version 71. Anyway, if you happened to name the version 71 application "extract rtv 5.exe", then you need to put quotes around the file name into the RTVExplorer setting because the command line cannot handle spaces inside a file name. Or, you completely entered the information incorrectly, I don't know. But, the field should be the name of the application to run, usually extract_rtv5.exe...

Henry

*UPDATE* I just tried renaming extract_rtv5.exe as "extract rtv 5.exe" and entered that application name into RTVExplorer WITHOUT quotes, and it worked just fine. So, I have to assume that the problem is that you entered the name of extract_rtv5 version 71 incorrectly into RTVExplorer, or you didn't install it in the same directory as RTVExploerer...

Thanks to odie34 and Mike Menard (Mikeyboy), extract_rtv5 version 72 is posted at SourceForge.net. This version adds full support for Replay 4000's and 4500's. Previous versions of extract_rtv5 do NOT support the Replay 4500 as advertised.

In addition, I fixed for the -dx, -dsx, -udx, and -udsx options not to include deleted shows. And, I changed for the -dsx and -udsx options to not display snapshot information.

I would like to add that in testing creating XML files, I find that using the -dx and -dsx options can create different results. For example, the -dx option may include shows that were recording when the Replay crashed. And, I have also found that the -dsx option may include shows not included using the -dx option. Since most applications (like DVArchive and WiRNS) use the snapshot file, I would recommend that using the -dsx option would be the most accurate...

Henry

May I have a drum roll please... With HUGE help from Mike Menard (Mikeyboy), I'm very pleased to announce the posting of extract_rtv5 version 73 at SourceForge.net! This version adds full support for ReplayTVs and ShowStoppers with version 3.x software (2000/3000 models). This allows extract_rtv5 to be used in combination with RTVExplorer for GUI access to 2000/3000 hard drives (since Extract GUI is unavailable).

Extract_rtv5 version 73 does NOT allow creating XML files from version 3.x shows, but it DOES add full show information using any of the verbose description options. It also corrects problems with outputting show and theme information which contain special ANSI characters (such as single quote).

In addition, it adds basic version 2.x support for outputting recording descriptions for the PV-SS2710 (but NOT show information). But, this was only tested on an image with a single show recording. So, if anyone else has any 2710 hard drives with shows on them, I would LOVE to get system partition image files so I could add further support for the 2710.

So, check out version 73 at SourceForge.net and give a BIG thank you to Mike Menard!

Henry

In addition, it adds basic version 2.x support for outputting recording descriptions for the PV-SS2710 (but NOT show information). But, this was only tested on an image with a single show recording. So, if anyone else has any 2710 hard drives with shows on them, I would LOVE to get system partition image files so I could add further support for the 2710.

icecow has an SS-2710 (or at least he used to)

Thank you Henry! It is people like you that gave their time and energy to create the tools we use to tinker with our Replaytv's. We're lucky to have you:)

Thank you Henry! It is people like you that gave their time and energy to create the tools we use to tinker with our Replaytv's. We're lucky to have you:)

Aw, shucks! Thanks! I enjoy tinkering with the old images. But, hats off to YOU for doing all the testing that I asked for. I want everyone to know that Mikeyboy sent me several different images over several days with all kinds of different recordings and shows that I requested from him. I really felt bad asking him to keep changing things and then having to take the hard drive back in and out all the time. So, it was Mikeyboy's help that made this all possible!

Henry

I can get hdonzis a 2710 image, but it might take me forever.

Hdonzis, will you still be interested in the image if it takes me two months?

The unit is at someone else's house and my life is backlogged right now.

It's entirely possible (but less probable) that I can rotate it in within a few weeks.

In other words I have no clue when, but I intend to get that too you.

I can get hdonzis a 2710 image, but it might take me forever.

Hdonzis, will you still be interested in the image if it takes me two months?

The unit is at someone else's house and my life is backlogged right now.

It's entirely possible (but less probable) that I can rotate it in within a few weeks.

In other words I have no clue when, but I intend to get that too you.

You can call me Henry! It doesn't matter to me how long it takes. I would just like to get the information somewhere before it gets lost. I thought that there used to be a ShowStopper technical information page, but I can't find anything like the information available on the 4000/5000. And, it appears to me that the 2710 is unique in that it has 3 line inputs instead of the standard 2 line inputs, so that makes its code unique (maybe just a little bit). On all the other Replays I have seen, the tuner is device 3, whereas on the 2710 it is device 4...

I hope you don't mind leaving it open to run a bunch of experiments. Mike Menard took the drive in and out of his ShowStopper about half a dozen times to provide me with the information that I needed. Although, maybe knowing to just set up every different kind of recording will be enough to try to get all the information in just one or two times.

What I was hoping was that maybe you had an old hard drive that you had pulled which still had show information on it. That would be good for starters...

Henry

You can call me Henry! It doesn't matter to me how long it takes. I would just like to get the information somewhere before it gets lost. I thought that there used to be a ShowStopper technical information page, but I can't find anything like the information available on the 4000/5000. And, it appears to me that the 2710 is unique in that it has 3 line inputs instead of the standard 2 line inputs, so that makes its code unique (maybe just a little bit). On all the other Replays I have seen, the tuner is device 3, whereas on the 2710 it is device 4...


It also only runs RTV-O/S v2.0. It was never upgraded to V-3.02

PS: you do know about the SS2710 image here? right?
http://serenity.rgb.cc:2866/replaytv/images/panasonic/PanSS-2710comboV2.0.zip

It also only runs RTV-O/S v2.0. It was never upgraded to V-3.02

Yep:

In addition, it adds basic version 2.x support for outputting recording descriptions for the PV-SS2710

I wouldn't be surprised if the reason has something to do with the 2710 having three line inputs instead of two...

PS: you do know about the SS2710 image here? right?
http://serenity.rgb.cc:2866/replaytv/images/panasonic/PanSS-2710comboV2.0.zip

Yep:

But, this was only tested on an image with a single show recording.

That was the image that I used. It has a single show recording of "As the World Turns"...

Henry

I wouldn't be surprised if the reason has something to do with the 2710 having three line inputs instead of two...

My guess is that plus that it was kind of a flop in the sales department. V2.0 works on it. No point spending money on developing an upgrade for a product very few people wanted and even less actually purchased.

That was the image that I used. It has a single show recording of "As the World Turns"...


Oh joy....

My guess is that plus that it was kind of a flop in the sales department. V2.0 works on it. No point spending money on developing an upgrade for a product very few people wanted and even less actually purchased.

But, if it hadn't been different, then it would have just worked with newer firmware/software. I'm not sure what goes wrong if you use V3.x on it, but I might assume that it would try to record from Input 3 instead of the tuner as one problem...

Henry

But, if it hadn't been different, then it would have just worked with newer firmware/software. I'm not sure what goes wrong if you use V3.x on it, but I might assume that it would try to record from Input 3 instead of the tuner as one problem...

Henry

Might also fry it.

IIRC, it's more than just an extra input, there's some different hardware in there.

Might also fry it.

IIRC, it's more than just an extra input, there's some different hardware in there.

Could be. The spec's didn't look all that different than a ShowStopper. And, you wouldn't think that they'd want to spend much on development for that single product. Although, I don't understand why it has three inputs instead of two. They could have had only one in the back (with S-Video) and one in the front so that it might could have used the same hardware and software...

Henry

Could be. The spec's didn't look all that different than a ShowStopper. And, you wouldn't think that they'd want to spend much on development for that single product. Although, I don't understand why it has three inputs instead of two. They could have had only one in the back (with S-Video) and one in the front so that it might could have used the same hardware and software...

Henry

That would have been too simple.

Henry,

I have a PV-SS2710 that I can pull the drive on and image. What would you like me to use to create the image? And did I hear correctly that someone figured out how to get these 2710's up to version 3? Something about linux involved is all I remember hearing, lol. I'll obviously have to search the threads. I knew I should have bookmarked that! I can provide pics of the inputs but if I recall correctly, one input is referenced just for s-video with the audio tied to the other input. Then there is the third set of composite RCA's; but these are outputs so you can use the 'save to vcr' feature.

Edit: Ahh, yeah, the Line3 inputs on the FRONT. duh!

Henry,

I have a PV-SS2710 that I can pull the drive on and image. What would you like me to use to create the image? And did I hear correctly that someone figured out how to get these 2710's up to version 3? Something about linux involved is all I remember hearing, lol. I'll obviously have to search the threads. I knew I should have bookmarked that! I can provide pics of the inputs but if I recall correctly, one input is referenced just for s-video with the audio tied to the other input. Then there is the third set of composite RCA's; but these are outputs so you can use the 'save to vcr' feature.

Edit: Ahh, yeah, the Line3 inputs on the FRONT. duh!

First, people have posted frequently (even in this thread) that you can't update a 2710 to verison 3. I can certainly see in the fact that it has 3 video inputs that it couldn't use any of the current software. Obviously there was a special build of the software to support the 2710 being different, and they never updated that special build (that is, they never made a special build out of the newer software to support the 2710)...

Second, getting the image is quite easy. You use RTVPatch to create a backup of the system partition, then ZIP that file that it creates, then upload it to me (I'll give you the upload address). But, what I REALLY need is for you to setup a bunch of recordings on the 2710 before you remove the hard drive and make me the image. I basically need one of every kind of recording. So, I need a one-time show recording and a repeat show recording and a manual recording and a theme recording. And, to fully support the video inputs, I would like a recording setup for video 1, 2, and 3. And, of course I would need some guaranteed and some non-guaranteed recordings. So, if you could program all of these different recordings before removing the drive, that is how I would get the information necessary. And, of course, I would also need some recorded shows to be already on the hard drive as well. I don't really need a bunch of different recorded shows, although having a recorded movie would be nice. And, then I would need to know what all the recordings were that you setup so I could match the hard drive data with how you programmed the recordings...

Does that sound like a problem?

Henry

P.S. I'm very excited!

I have a PV-SS2710 (...) And did I hear correctly that someone figured out how to get these 2710's up to version 3? Something about linux involved is all I remember hearing, lol. I'll obviously have to search the threads. I knew I should have bookmarked that!

I think you might be thinking of the Linux Boot disk method of running RTV_Patch.

As far as anyone knows, there never was an RTV-O/S v3.x for the SS2710.

If it did exist, your SS2710 would have already downladed it via modem on a nightly guide update.

If you try to install RTV-O/S v3.02 for the RTV-3k/PVHS ShowStopper on your SS2710, you run the risk of perminately damaging some of the hardware (eprom, controler chips, etc) on first boot up. If this were to happen then your SS2710 would only be useful as a doorstop from then on, no matter what OS you put on the disk.

So, I need a one-time show recording and a repeat show recording and a manual recording and a theme recording. And, to fully support the video inputs, I would like a recording setup for video 1, 2, and 3. And, of course I would need some guaranteed and some non-guaranteed recordings.

Do you want one of every type for each of the inputs, or could I do one of every flavor just for the RF modulated input and then manual records for the composite inputs? If you need all flavors for each input I would have to change my input settings to a cable STB, right? I don't have a cable STB, so I could try spitting some video out of a DVD and have my Replay think there is a STB there (if you even need the scheduled event to actually record the content.) Do the scheduled events need to actually have recorded when I complete the image using RTVPatch? And you mentioned just the system partition? Sorry, I want to make sure I have this right.

Program these recordings: (Please trim or expand the list as needed in your reply)
future guaranteed one-time RF
future guaranteed repeat RF
future guaranteed manual RF
future guaranteed theme RF
future non-guaranteed one-time RF
future non-guaranteed repeat RF
future non-guaranteed manual RF
future non-guaranteed theme RF
completed guaranteed one-time RF
completed guaranteed repeat RF
completed guaranteed manual RF
completed guaranteed theme RF
completed non-guaranteed one-time RF
completed non-guaranteed repeat RF
completed non-guaranteed manual RF
completed non-guaranteed theme RF
…repeat for each succeeding input?


With all of the ReplayTV lovers out there, tell me again why we didn't get together and buy the IP and software from SONICblue when D&M did, or for that matter recently when DNNA sold it?

Do you want one of every type for each of the inputs, or could I do one of every flavor just for the RF modulated input and then manual records for the composite inputs? If you need all flavors for each input I would have to change my input settings to a cable STB, right? I don't have a cable STB, so I could try spitting some video out of a DVD and have my Replay think there is a STB there (if you even need the scheduled event to actually record the content.) Do the scheduled events need to actually have recorded when I complete the image using RTVPatch? And you mentioned just the system partition? Sorry, I want to make sure I have this right.

Yeah, I really don't need different types for different inputs. I just need to be able to see all the differences. So, setting up all kinds of recordings for the RF input would be great. Then, if you setup the video inputs as manual recordings, then that should make things easier. Assuming that the 2710 works like newer Replays, just setup Video 1, 2, and 3 as other devices. Then simply program manual recordings since it won't have any channel guide. If you could be sure and mix a repeat manual recording and a one time manual recording, and mix a guaranteed manual recording and a non-guaranteed manual recording, any way you like just so that they are different, that would be great. Just to let you know, the Replay doesn't know if you actually have what you say connected or not. So, if you wanted to tell it that you had a cable box on video 1 and a satellite on video 2 and an other device (VCR) on video 3, then it would simply download channel guide info for the cable box and satellite. Since I only need scheduled recordings and not actual recordings, then it doesn't matter if it is really working or not...

I need for NONE of the scheduled events to have recorded so that I can see the schedule programming. But, I also need some recorded shows so that I can see how that is stored as well. The 2710's scheduled recordings appear to be quite similar to other Replays, but the recorded show information seems to be quite different. So, if I could also have a bunch of different recorded shows (guaranteed, non-guaranteed, one time, repeat, theme, etc.) that would be great.

And, yes, I only need the system partition. In RTVPatch there is a button for "Backup Source Drive". That will allow you to create a file which will save the system partition image. Then you can ZIP that file to make it smaller and send upload that to me. Oh, and it would be nice if you had some deleted shows on the image as well, which probably would be true already, but it would be nice if they were freshly deleted so that they would still be deleted on the image rather than reused for one of your experiments...

Thanks!

Henry

Hi Henry,

Ok, that clears it up for me. Thanks. I'll set this all up and let you know.

Oh, and for everyone reading, this question was not rhetorical. :-)

With all of the ReplayTV lovers out there, tell me again why we didn't get together and buy the IP and software from SONICblue when D&M did, or for that matter recently when DNNA sold it?

With all of the ReplayTV lovers out there, tell me again why we didn't get together and buy the IP and software from SONICblue when D&M did, or for that matter recently when DNNA sold it?

because we didn't set our e-bay autobid ammount high enough.

Now that Extract GUI has been revived and posted at SourceForge, I have posted version 74 of extract_rtv5 at SourceForge which supports running under Extract GUI as well as RTVExplorer!:cool:

In order to accomplish this, the -dv option has been restored to its original output format. And, new options, -df, -dl, -dsf, -dsl, -udf, -udl, -udsf, and -udsl, have been added to output the full show information previously added to the verbose output options.

In order to use it with Extract GUI, you will need to overwrite the extract_rtv.exe in the same folder containing extract.exe with this new version of extract_rtv5.exe being sure to rename it extract_rtv.exe rather than extract_rtv5.exe...

Henry

P.S. In addition, this version also includes the source fix that allows it to compile properly on newer variants of Linux.

P.P.S. I'm still waiting to get images from anyone's PV-SS2710!:rolleyes:

Version 75 is posted at SourceForge.net. This version displays the file date format when using -d and -x year/month/day in the hopes that it would cause RTVExplorer to generate it correctly in the XML file. And, while it did NOT change how RTVExplorer generates the XML file, it does cause the date column to sort much better.

However, I also added for the -dx and -udx options to allow a DVArchive XML version number, like 43, 45, or 50, to set the Replay show type (i.e. -dx50). This allows creating DVArchive XML files even from ShowStopper hard drives.

Finally, I added some changes to allow compiling on 64-bit Linux variants.

Henry

Thanks for the work. Great tools for saving the drive info.

Version 76 is posted at SourceForge.net. This version combines features from Guide2XML and GuideParser5 where when using the -ds options it now takes advantage of having access to the show's channel information. That is, for example, when using the -dsx option, the generated XML files will now containe the show's category, channel ID, and channel name. I also added for the -ds option to output the number of categories, channels, and shows contained in the snapshot.

I also added for extracting using the -dx option to fill in the XML file's channel ID with the current time so that all of the shows extracted will be grouped together. I had also noticed that using a channel ID of zero would sometimes cause problems, so using the current time works more like DVArchive downloading.

Henry

I was watching a show and my Replay 5040 freaked out. I had to unplug it and after it came back I had to input personal settings again. (This leads me to think it messed up the system files) I then noticed there were no shows - my recorded shows were all gone. Nothing really new - So, I've used extract_rt5 to copy over all the ("unlinked") shows to my computer. However, it doesn't seem to find the show descriptions I need in order to make the respective XML files. I've tried all the options I know to try and looked everywhere I know to answer this question. If nothing works, I'll run an integrety scan, as is, and put everything back together. I just wanted to see if there was something else I could do prior.


Please offer any help, if possible.

Thanks.

Hello people of earth. this is my first post.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM :
2 years ago i sent my Replay TV to someone who upgraded my 5040 to 80G. it worked fine until 2 weeks ago when the problems began. i had filled it up, and got messages saying to take some shows off if i wanted to add new ones. i did this for a few days, then it began long delays between remote commands and action. finally, it began skipping during replay (like a broken record) and would re-boot. in the end it said to do a "quick setup". but when i tried, it always came back with errors, and that was all it would do. no access to recorded shows, no channel guide. just "do a quick setup" (kaput).

i got another Replay TV (complete box) from eBay, so i'm back to skipping commercials. but on the defunct unit were some manual recordings i had made from VHS tapes of my dad, who is now gone. foolishly i had not burned them to DVD when i could have. So it is important to me to try to recover at least these, what do i call them, files? recordings?

WHAT TO DO ?
so i began reading Replay TV forums etc., in earnest to try to retrieve them. i have been at it for days. I have downloaded RTVPatch_2.5.3.exe, DVArchive 3.2, RTV Explorer (apparently a newer version of 1.6 because it talks about having addressed some glitches in 1.6 and is copyrighted 2005 by Amreplay (Alex), and Extract_rtv_76 which containes extract_rtv5.exe. I am running XP on aP4 2.6G 74G machine.

I have come to these conclusions :

DVArchive.jar is to be used if i am connected from my computer to a Replay TV box thru my router :
RTVPatch is to be used (in conjunction with a Replay TV HD image) for upgrading or copying an existing Replay TV HD to a new one.
Extract_rtv5.exe is a DOS program used to copy or move Mpeg files from a Replay TV HD to another HD, like a computer's.
RTV Explorer is a graphical user interface for Extract_rtv5.exe, for those of us who have forgotten much about DOS (or don't like it).

Before i go on to explain what i have tried and what the results have been, i better ask, have i exceeded some yakking limit ? or can i go on ?

Blockwall, I recommend that you continue with your story. You have come to the right place for advice. You will get some good advice and the more info you provide on what you have done so far, the better. I am no guru on what to do next but you will receive the straight scoop from some real experts on this forum. I can tell you that DVArchive is a super program for transferring files from Replaytv's that are connected on a LAN. It just may be possible that you could access the recorded programs on your failing unit and possibly transfer them to a PC on your LAN. But I'll leave the advice for those in the know. Welcome, and please continue.

So far you are on the right track. You have correctly identified the different application's purposes...

I need to add that RTVExplorer can only provide its GUI interface if the hard drive contains show information. If the ReplayGuide is blank, as you explained, then RTVExplorer will not be able to provide any kind of interface. In this case, you have no choice but to dig into the command prompt extract_rtv5 which can at a minimum at least allow you to extract your recorded shows, like the manual recordings. Since extract_rtv5 is a command prompt application, it doesn't depend on any information being available (other than being able to read the Replay hard drive). So, if you don't have luck with RTVExplorer because the drive's guide information isn't available, then you can probably still use extract_rtv5 to at least extract your recordings. If you at least know the date of the manual recordings, then you can probably find them pretty easily (using the "-p2 -lv" option)...

In addition, if you read through this thread, extract_rtv5 has command line options which will try to find previously deleted show information files. Because you attempted to startup the Replay so many time the show information files may be long gone. However, only using the command prompt application, extract_rtv5, can you attempt to locate the deleted show information files (-u options, specifically -uds and -ud with -uds being preferred if it works and then using -ud)...

Anyway, you don't need the show information in order to actually extract the recorded shows from the hard drive. You can use the "-p2 -e" option to extract all the shows and then go through them to try to figure out what they are, or you can use the "-p2 -lv" option to try to identify the shows that you want by their size and date and then only extract the recordings that you think you want and then check them out. If you have the space, using the "-p2 -e" option to simply extract all the shows is best and then you can go through them to see what they are. You can use DVArchive to allow you to play them back through your working Replay so you can see what they really are. You can import the shows into DVArchive by just making up a title for the show, like Show1, Show2, etc., and then as you watch them use DVArchive to edit the show title to more correctly reflect the show...

Feel free to post more of your story and details of your problems...

Henry

THANKS FOLKS, HERE GOES
I pulled the HD from the defunct unit. strangely it is a 160G maxtor, but i only got 80 hrs. worth. i set the jumper to slave and put it on the IDE 1 cable (with my system HD as master, on the same cable). when i go into setup during the boot process, it shows them correctly (maxtor 120g (windows HD) primary IDE master & maxtor 160G primary IDE slave).

it boots fine. windows explorer sees drive C, but not the Replay TV HD. i understand from various forum threads that this is normal. I am the administrator. in administrative tools : computer management : disk management it shows both HD's, with the system disk as disk 0, and disk 1 unknown 152.66G un-allocated.

when i start RTVPatch (i was learning what it was for), it shows both HD's - a "maxtor 120 may be PC disk" and a "maxtor 160 Replay TV 4xxx/5xxx disk".
in the log box it shows the physical drive 1 detected size = 320173056 sectors. that was a relief, at least something saw the drive.

when i ran Extract_rtv5.exe -lv in a DOS window i got
THIS LOOKS LIKE A REPLAY TV SERIES 4000 OR 5000 DRIVE
ENABLING THE BYTE-REVERSING CODE
REPLAYTV DRIVE DETECTED: \\.\PHYSICAL DRIVE 1
PARTITION TYPE START LENGTH
1 0x4d 2 1024000
2 0x4d 1024002 319147006
3 0x4d 320171008 2048
4 0x00 0 0
SELECT PARTITION :

if i select partition 1 it scrolls thru hundreds of lines (and i can't remember how to make it scroll by the screen)

if i select partition 2 i get
12/31/1969 19:00 <DIR> ./tmp
0 FILES, 0 BYTES

if i select partition 3 i get
12/31/1969 19:00 <DIR> ./tmp
06/02/2004 22:49 <DIR> ./photo
0 FILES, 0 BYTES

if i select partition 4 i get
INVALID PARTITION SELECTION


when i ran Extract_rtv5.exe -dr in a DOS window i got
THIS LOOKS LIKE A REPLAY TV SERIES 4000 OR 5000 DRIVE
ENABLING THE BYTE-REVERSING CODE
REPLAYTV DRIVE DETECTED: \\.\PHYSICAL DRIVE 1
REPLAYCHANNELS v.5

when i put in other appendages (-udsdr etc.) i don't get anything useful (like the Mpeg files dir), or at least i can't see it.

So, i have tried RTV Explorer. it opens. i make sure (under settings) that it is aimed at the correct working folder (where extract_rtv5.exe is) and that i inserted the 5 in extract_rtv.exe and saved it. then in the disk and partitions pulldown i refresh the partitions, and in a pop up box it says "this looks like a Replay TV series 4000 or 5000 drive! enabling the byte-reversing code ReplayTV drive detected: \\.\ physicaldrive1"
then from the disk and patitions pulldown i pick read directory from ReplayTV.
after 5-10 seconds it shows 3 folders : tmp, sys2, user

whether i use an appendage or not (in the settings) it's the same 3.
tmp is empty (at least nothing is displayed)
sys2 has a bunch of stuff in it (tmp, schemes, smoked glass, etc.)
user has a bunch of stuff in it (outbox, setup, user messages, etc.)

but i don't see my recordings !

I hope that my long winded description is useful to anyone interested in helping me. I sure would appreciate some advice.

I just read the responses from jweinel & hdonzis. but i had already written the above, so i'll send it along. about copying everything - my target drives are smaller than 160G. but supposedly i only had 80 hrs., so i don't know how much space i actually would need.

Hours is dependent on the default recording quality you have the Replay configured. 160GB is 80 hours at Medium quality. It is 160 hours at Standard quality, and around 53 hours at High quality. So, assuming that your default recording quality is Medium, then 80 hours would be correct...

The recordings are on the second partition. It certainly looks like all your files got erased. Fortunately, extract_rtv5 can find deleted files. So, what you want to do is run "extract_rtv5 -p2 -u" to get a listing of your deleted shows. You can use "extract_rtv5 -p2 -u >deleted.txt" so that you can then run notepad on deleted.txt ("start deleted.txt" in the command prompt) to review the file. Now, that is going to show ALL the deleted recordings, including the ones that you manually deleted or got deleted for space. So, what you'll want to do is look at the dates of the files to see if you kind file files with the appropriate dates of the manual recordings you are looking for. In addition, you can run "extract_rtv5 -ud" and "extract_rtv5 -uds" to see if extract_rtv5 can find any deleted show information files to help with determining what the recording files are. If you have any luck with finding deleted show information files, then that will make a big difference in trying to recover you deleted recordings...

Henry

I recently used RTVExplorer w/ extract_rtv to recover shows from a hard drive which was starting to act flaky. Great tools!!!!

However, I had some strange behavior using RTVExplorer. Since I don't have all the details, you can take this info with a grain of salt, but I just wanted to mention it.

Since the RTVExplorer I had installed originally (don't even remember how long ago I installed it, the .exe has a timestamp of 2005) did not recover the XML files, I found that if I were to update the extract_rtv version, I could get the XML files. (Perhaps I was the one who put an older extract_rtv version there.)

However, when I used RTVExplorer to recover the shows (with extract_rtv version 76), for some reason, all the episode names had simply "1" in the XML files, even though I could see the episode names in RTVExplorer.

I went to an earlier version and still had problems with RTVExplorer creating the XML files. I found I could use the RTVExplorer recovered files with the extract_rtv -dx recovered XML files with no problems.

Sorry, but I did not bother to do any trouble shooting to find out what was potentially causing this, such as if it was simply I had an old RTVExplorer version or whatever.

I just wanted to throw this out there just in case someone else sees the same result (of a "1" in he episode name), they aren't the only one.

thanks henry. i did as you said and sure enough i was able to print out in note pad 8 pages of deleted files. they all end in either .evt, .ndx or .mpg. hooray! mpg's at last.
now, i says to myself, these be .mpg's that are on a HD that windows doesn't see, and i don't know how to direct DOS to that HD, and if i did, how do i tell it to pick a file and copy it to another HD.
or is now the time that RTVPatch comes into play ?

I recently used RTVExplorer w/ extract_rtv to recover shows from a hard drive which was starting to act flaky. Great tools!!!!

However, I had some strange behavior using RTVExplorer. Since I don't have all the details, you can take this info with a grain of salt, but I just wanted to mention it.

Since the RTVExplorer I had installed originally (don't even remember how long ago I installed it, the .exe has a timestamp of 2005) did not recover the XML files, I found that if I were to update the extract_rtv version, I could get the XML files. (Perhaps I was the one who put an older extract_rtv version there.)

However, when I used RTVExplorer to recover the shows (with extract_rtv version 76), for some reason, all the episode names had simply "1" in the XML files, even though I could see the episode names in RTVExplorer.

I went to an earlier version and still had problems with RTVExplorer creating the XML files. I found I could use the RTVExplorer recovered files with the extract_rtv -dx recovered XML files with no problems.

Sorry, but I did not bother to do any trouble shooting to find out what was potentially causing this, such as if it was simply I had an old RTVExplorer version or whatever.

I just wanted to throw this out there just in case someone else sees the same result (of a "1" in he episode name), they aren't the only one.

Thanks for the feedback! I'm sure the original author would do something about it if he ever visited this forum!:D

When I first started playing with the RTVExplorer/extract_rtv5 combination, I didn't even know that it made XML files. I was having a hard time getting it to work at all (probably because it configures the extract_rtv5.exe name incorrectly) so I gave up. Since the source for extract_rtv5 was available, I picked it up and added the XML generate into there (the -dx option). I had no idea that RTVExplorer could even generate XML files at that time. I finally figured out about configuring RTVExplorer correctly and then saw that it generated pretty poor XML files, but at least they were something. However, if I had known that it did that, I might not have added it into extract_rtv5 instead...

Unfortunately, I haven't ever found the source to RTVExplorer and have never been able to contact the author. I have tried to change extract_rtv5 to feed RTVExplorer different information in the hopes that I could fix some of the things that don't seem to work correctly in RTVExplorer. For example, in a recent update of extract_rtv5 I tried changing the date format because I saw that RTVExplorer was displaying the dates incorrectly. I figured if I changed the format that I fed it, then they would come out correctly. However, changing the format that I fed it didn't make any difference at all with it displaying them incorrectly, so I have to assume that the problem is internal. Anyway, I hadn't notice about it not generating the XML files correct, however I never really played with that part of it much once I got extract_rtv5 generating XML files with the -dx option. extract_rtv5 generates much more complete XML files than RTVExplorer, anyways. But, it's good that you posted this info for others who want to use the GUI interface to recover their shows...

And, FYI, I guess another difference is that RTVExplorer only generates the XML files for the files you select to extract, whereas extract_rtv5 only has the option to generate ALL the XML files for all the shows that it knows about. However, you can use Guide2XML (http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=203400) instead on the extracted snapshot file as it has the capability of only creating XML files for the specified shows. You have to put up with it being another command prompt application, but it will generate complete XML files just like extract_rtv5. I guess it depends on whether you want to have to go through all your XML files with extract_rtv5's -dsx option and delete the XML files that you don't care about...

Henry

thanks henry. i did as you said and sure enough i was able to print out in note pad 8 pages of deleted files. they all end in either .evt, .ndx or .mpg. hooray! mpg's at last.
now, i says to myself, these be .mpg's that are on a HD that windows doesn't see, and i don't know how to direct DOS to that HD, and if i did, how do i tell it to pick a file and copy it to another HD.
or is now the time that RTVPatch comes into play ?

Nope, DOS and RTVPatch have nothing to do with that. By the way, extract_rtv5 runs on many operating systems, so it really has nothing to do with DOS or Windows other than being able to run on those operating systems...

So, you can do one of two things. Looking at that listing, it should tell you the total size of the deleted files. If you have enough space, you can run "extract_rt5v -ur" to copy ALL of the deleted files from the Replay HD to the current directory you are executing the command prompt from...

If you don't have enough space, then you can use your listing to determine which files are candidates for recovering. You can then use "extract_rtv5 -r #" where you copy and paste the cluster number from the listing into the command prompt for the shows you want to recover. If you want to be able to use the shows with a Replay (like via DVArchive), you need to get all three files per show, .mpg, .ndx, and .evt. You could also use your listing to create a batch file to do it all for you automatically, or you can simply run it one file at a time manually...

Henry

i had tried to use the -r option before i replied, but foolishly was typing in the word "cluster" before the number.
i don't have enough room, so i used the -r 7, and it said
extracting file circular.mpg from inode 7
100%

now that is progress, i think.
if i could, i would rather bring the .mpg files onto my windows HD to play them, save the ones i want and burn them to DVD with Nero.

so, two questions. is that 100% restored .mpg file a file i can run in a player (like nero or windows media player) ?
and how do i get it moved ?

i had tried to use the -r option before i replied, but foolishly was typing in the word "cluster" before the number.
i don't have enough room, so i used the -r 7, and it said
extracting file circular.mpg from inode 7
100%

now that is progress, i think.
if i could, i would rather bring the .mpg files onto my windows HD to play them, save the ones i want and burn them to DVD with Nero.

so, two questions. is that 100% restored .mpg file a file i can run in a player (like nero or windows media player) ?
and how do i get it moved ?

Congratulations! You successfully extracted the Replay live TV buffer!:D

#1, you can view the .mpg file with just about any player that supports MPEG-2. I don't think that you'll have much luck with WMP, but you could use Apple's QuickTime with the MPEG-2 plugin. Lots of people use the free VLC player from vlc.org...

#2, HUH?:confused: It's just a file sitting on your Windows hard drive. You move it like any other file sitting on your Windows hard drive. You can simply burn it to DVD and many modern DVD players would just play it. You would have to manipulated it like any video file if you wanted to make it into a "real" DVD...

Henry

well, i have to laugh at myself. i assumed the extracted file was still on the replay tv HD.
when i looked in the folder that holds extract_rtv5.exe, sure enough, it was sitting there, and it played.
so now i am happily extracting, viewing and renaming.
I can't thank you enough henry. may the road rise up to meet you.
pat

well, i have to laugh at myself. i assumed the extracted file was still on the replay tv HD.
when i looked in the folder that holds extract_rtv5.exe, sure enough, it was sitting there, and it played.
so now i am happily extracting, viewing and renaming.
I can't thank you enough henry. may the road rise up to meet you.

Well, I have to laugh as well because I don't know how I could have been any clearer:

If you have enough space, you can run "extract_rt5v -ur" to copy ALL of the deleted files from the Replay HD to the current directory you are executing the command prompt from...

And, we certainly had a few discussions about your having enough space on your PC to hold the extracted shows...

Anyway, glad you finally got it all figured out and are getting your shows back. I sure hope that you are able to recover the "important" shows that you are after!

Henry

By the way, reading through this thread and other threads you will see that one of the big problems of these tools is that you CAN'T put shows back on your ReplayTV. Not even deleted shows...

Henry -
I went thru all of partition 2, and got about 1/3 of my recordings back (all of the .mpg files shown in the printout were successfully extracted).
i looked in the other partitions for the other .mpg files, but found none.

any thoughts about recovering more ?

i should have added that it showed clusters 7 thru 320, then said
cluster 322 (offset 608699904) read error: permission denied

eventually I was able to get about 90% of the files off. the rest appear to be corrupted.

All of the recordings are on partition 2. There's nowhere else to look for MPEG files...

Did you ever try running BOTH "extract_rtv5 -ud" AND "extact_rtv5 -uds" to see if extract_rtv5 could find any deleted show information files? If either one of those works, then it will help you figure out the show names that go with each recovered file and which ones are worth recovering...

Henry

i should have added that it showed clusters 7 thru 320, then said
cluster 322 (offset 608699904) read error: permission denied

eventually I was able to get about 90% of the files off. the rest appear to be corrupted.

This is a common problem that people have reported. I added outputting the error in the hopes of determining what the problems is. However, getting a "permission denied" error after successfully reading many, many sectors just doesn't make any sense. There isn't anything magic about that offset, so it really doesn't make a lot of sense...

However, it seems like that isn't very far into you MPEG partition, so I suspect there has to be a lot of shows beyond that point. Since I can't reproduce the problem here, I would be willing to email you an experimental extract_rtv5 to see if it helps. You can PM me your email address if you're up to it...

Henry

Version 77 of extract_rtv5 has been posted at SourceForge.net. This version changes the method of accessing the ReplayTV hard drive on the Windows operating systems in the hopes that it will avoid the errors reported by Windows when accessing the hard drive...

In addition, it adds for the -df options to output if the show recordings are guaranteed or not...

Henry

henry -

although i couldn't get extract to list beyond the error point, i input every cluster number by hand up to about 900. from about 700 on up i got a repeating mismatch error. between 320 and about 700 is where i was able to extract most of the other recordings, and also saw what looked like corrupted files.

so i'm being philosophical about it. what i didn't get back, well, karma.

what i would like to know now is, is the HD bad, or did i precipitate the problem by filling the HD completely too often.

i have been googling for HD test programs, but i'm wondering if i use one of these windows based programs to check the HD, will it taint the ReplayTV HD (if it turns out to still be a good HD).

what are your thoughts ?

pat

Pat,
Did you try the new extract_rtv5 that I posted? I wanted you to experiment with that first, but you never got back to me. I am hoping that it will allow you to scan the entire drive without giving you that permissions error...

Having Windows tell you something about the drive isn't very informative. I don't think that you should be gleaning any information from what you are seeing. Deleted file space is reused for whatever, so as with almost any operating system, deleted files can only be recovered very quickly after they are deleted, before the space is reused for other purposes...

Finding the drive tools should be quite easy if you know the brand drive. Drive tools for Maxtor and Seagate drives are available here (http://www.replaytvupgrade.com/replaytvdownloads.htm). It won't hurt anything for you to use these tools just to verify the drive and they really don't run under Windows (probably run under DOS). Just be sure you don't run any of the tests which write or erase the drive...

Henry

henry -
i tried v77, but may not be using it the way you have in mind.

when i try the -u option (and select partition 2), it scrolls to cluster 322, and gives me an offset read error 23 (as it did before) and stops there.

when i use the -ud option, it goes thru the usual, looks like a replay tv drive, byte reversing, physical drive 1, and the next line says scan, and hundreds or thousands of something is read on that same line. it doesn't scroll so i can't really tell what it is looking at. finally the scan line changes to "cluster 12431 offset 50918912) read error : 23"

when i use -udf, the same thing happens. i can briefly see "smoked glass, setup, mirror," etc., ending with the same cluster line.

when i use the -df, it gives me "the looks like a replay tv drive, byte reversing, physical drive 1", then thinks awhile, then gives me "replaytv replaychannels v.5", and thats it.

as i say, maybe i'm not using the new one correctly (i am using it from a new location that never contained the old version), or it still can't get past that offset error. but i am encouraged that it found 12431 clusters.

i have not tried checking the hard drive yet. i will hold off until you get me sorted out, or give up on retrieving more (i didn't get back the important recordings).
thanks
pat

Pat, you are confusing scanning two different partitions. You ran -u on the second partition (MPEG partition) and still had got an error at cluster 322. When you are using the different -ud options, then you are scanning the first partition (system partition), which seems to have the problem at a much larger cluster number...

If you want to see if you are recovering any show information, try running "extract_rtv5 -udf >info.txt" and then "start info.txt" to see if it found any show information. With everything scrolling by so fast, you can't see if it found anything meaningful or not. And, what would be even better would be to run "extract_rtv5 -uds >snapshot.txt" and then "start snapshot.txt" to get the best show information that would be available. If you get anything in info.txt or snapshot.txt, then you will be able to determine more show information...

That's too bad that the version 77 extract_rtv5 didn't help scanning the drive. I can tell that you are running the new version because it gave an error number instead of an error string as it did before. I would have to look up the error number, but wouldn't be surprised if it is the same error indication as before. I am still baffled by the error, but don't know what else to do about it. I could be that Windows just doesn't handle drive errors very well or something about the way that extract_rtv5 accesses the drive....

At this point, if you want to use the manufacture's tools to see if they have any problems reading the drive, that might give you some useful information. However, I don't know if it would help you recover any more shows or not. Another idea would be to copy the drive to another drive using RTVPatch or some kind of raw drive mirroring, like "dd". Then, maybe you could run extract_rtv5 on the new drive to see if it would have better luck retrieving the information...

Henry

ok. i will certainly use the infotext & snapshot option and see.
depending on what happens there, i may try the copying or mirroring.

i didn't expect the HD check program to help me recover anything, it was more of a, well the rest is gone, let me see if this HD is useable for re-imaging.

thanks for sticking with me on this. i will keep you posted.

i tried both, and notepad pops up a blank.
i tried inserting -p2 also (because udf & uds appear to be looking a partition 1), but no luck.

up to cluster 322, -p2 -u has worked best. is there a way to tell it to start looking at, say cluster 323 ?

i tried both, and notepad pops up a blank.
i tried inserting -p2 also (because udf & uds appear to be looking a partition 1), but no luck.

That's a shame! I guess there isn't any show information to be found, then...

As, I've explained, the show information is on the first partition. There isn't any show information on the second partition to be found, so there's no point in using the -p2 option...

up to cluster 322, -p2 -u has worked best. is there a way to tell it to start looking at, say cluster 323 ?

That's an interesting idea! Since I didn't get to work with you on the v77, I didn't get to consider other options. Now that you have reported back that it doesn't work any better (which would have been nice to have done in private experiment) I was considering my next option as being to try to allow extract_rtv5 to continue scanning the drive even after it gets a read error. However, allowing the -u option to accept a cluster number to start at has merit as well. So, maybe I will try putting both things in. I won't be able to get to it for a little while, so you'll have to hang tight. It's too bad you weren't available to experiment with it when I was working on it a few days ago...

Henry

henry -

that's what happens to me when i re-read Shogun (about every 2 years), everything else takes a back seat.

while this recovery process has been going on, i bought 2 other ReplayTV units on ebay, and have been playing with one of them. i took out it's HD and put it in my machine that had the crash problem. it seemed to work fine. i recorded a few shows, then hooked the HD up to my computer and looked at it with RTVExplorer. it worked fine.

i am tempted to just say the heck with it and re-image the problem hard drive, after testing it. that way i can close my 2 open boxes and have 3 functional ReplayTV's. then on to learning how to network them and use DVArchive.

but, i am not pressed for time, and if there is even a slight chance of still recovering more, i can wait. any idea how long before you will have a chance to noodle over it ?

If you want to continue this in PM that's fine with me.

pat

Pat,
Let me see what I can do this next week. I was hoping to get to the bottom of why Windows gives those strange errors in the first place, but since it doesn't happen to me, it's kind of hard to track down. However, I'm thinking that being able to skip over read errors might be interesting, but I'd like to work with you privately to make sure it is worthwhile. I also think that being able to start at a cluster number makes some sense, although I'm not sure how someone that wasn't having problems would pick a cluster number to start with. If I fix extract_rtv5 not to stop, then you would have a cluster number to want to resume at...

Henry

Version 78 of extract_rtv5 is posted at SourceForge.net! The change for Windows in the previous version, 77, resulted in much better error reporting when scanning the Replay hard drive. This version adds to skip clusters that can't be read instead of aborting extract_rtv5. In addition, this version adds to display the cluster number while scanning for unlinked (deleted) files so as to not appear as if the application is hung.

Henry

I downloaded what I believe is the latest version of the Mac extract_rtv5 (78).

However, it doesn't appear to be an executable or even more likely I am trying to start it incorrectly. Any help would be appreciated.

I've used the windows version previously, so I would likely be OK if I could only execute it. Thanks in advance.

I downloaded what I believe is the latest version of the Mac extract_rtv5 (78).

However, it doesn't appear to be an executable or even more likely I am trying to start it incorrectly. Any help would be appreciated.

I've used the windows version previously, so I would likely be OK if I could only execute it. Thanks in advance.

Do you understand that it is a command prompt application which can be run in something like a Terminal session?

So, you would unzip the file somewhere on your hard drive, then you would open a terminal session, then you would "cd" to the directory where you extracted the application (just to make things easy), and then you would run something like "./extract_rtv5 -p1 -v" to perform some operation, like verifying the system partition. This is pretty much the same as how you run it under Windows (except that you don't need "./" in Windows)...

Henry

Thanks. I forgot the "./". It's always the little things one forgets.

Thanks. I forgot the "./". It's always the little things one forgets.

That's what happens when you live in the Windows/DOS world too long!:rolleyes: And, it's not like you can't set "." in your PATH under UNIX operating systems, it's just that it's not very common unless you live in the Windows/DOS world too long!:D

Henry

Version 79 of extract_rtv5 is posted at SourceForge.net! This version adds extracting files larger than 4GB on Windows with an NTFS file system. Running on a FAT32 file system will still extract files larger than 4GB in 4GB file chunks.

Henry

I've just had a drive crash on me. I'm trying to use extract_rtv5 v79 and I'm getting an error message that it can't find a replaytv drive. I get a different error when running extract_rtv5 v65. Yet RTVPatch sees it as \\.\PhysicalDrive1 (ST3160023A). Here's what I see when I run the various extract_rtv5 v79 commands:

extract_rtv5 -d
Didn't detect any ReplayTV drives connected to the system

extract_rtv5 \\.\PhysicalDrive1 -v
Unable to open drive image file: No error

When I run the same commands on extract_rtv5 v65, I get:
extract_rtv5 -d
Didn't detect any ReplayTV drives connected to the system

extract_rtv5 \\.\PhysicalDrive1 -v
Unable to open drive image file: Permission denied

Just want to know if this is a bug, or my drive is just too far gone for extract_rtv to see?

Thanks!

I've just had a drive crash on me. I'm trying to use extract_rtv5 v79 and I'm getting an error message that it can't find a replaytv drive. I get a different error when running extract_rtv5 v65. Yet RTVPatch sees it as \\.\PhysicalDrive1 (ST3160023A). Here's what I see when I run the various extract_rtv5 v79 commands:

extract_rtv5 -d
Didn't detect any ReplayTV drives connected to the system

extract_rtv5 \\.\PhysicalDrive1 -v
Unable to open drive image file: No error

When I run the same commands on extract_rtv5 v65, I get:
extract_rtv5 -d
Didn't detect any ReplayTV drives connected to the system

extract_rtv5 \\.\PhysicalDrive1 -v
Unable to open drive image file: Permission denied

Just want to know if this is a bug, or my drive is just too far gone for extract_rtv to see?

Thanks!

Well, I can see your point about getting a different error, but obviously the result is the same. If you read the post about version 77 of extract_rtv5, you will read that starting with that version I used a better method of accessing the drive through Windows by using Windows calls instead so as to provide better error messages. However, obviously "No error" isn't much of an error message!:rolleyes:

Can you actually "do" anything with RTVPatch? For example, can you backup the source drive? If RTVPatch can access the drive just fine then I can look into what's going on with extract_rtv5. But, it may be that RTVPatch can't access the drive either and extract_rtv5 is just looking deeper into drive right off the bat and giving an error when RTVPatch isn't...

As far as the Windows error message, it may be that I need to use a much more complicated Windows call in order to display the actual error message. I was trying to avoid that because it looked like a royal pain in the butt and I thought the normal error display was going to be adequate...

Henry

Can you actually "do" anything with RTVPatch? For example, can you backup the source drive? If RTVPatch can access the drive just fine then I can look into what's going on with extract_rtv5. But, it may be that RTVPatch can't access the drive either and extract_rtv5 is just looking deeper into drive right off the bat and giving an error when RTVPatch isn't...


RTVPatch does access the drive fine and allowed me to make a backup image (came out to be the usual 500MB). Of course after I made the image, I used extract_rtv5 to verify the image I just made. It verified partition 1 fine, but p2 to 4 all gave an error saying Error Reading Cluster 0. So confirming what I knew that the software is corrupt on the drive. But I thought the replay software itself was always on partition 1. Guess not. The drive itself however according to the seagate utilities appears fine. So unless there's some option I'm missing, i think it's likely I'll have to reimage the drive again when i have time.

Luckily I had the original 40GB drive, and stuck that in the replay to give me time to work on this bad drive. And thanks to Poopli, I'm getting most of the shows I had on that drive. So worst case, I'd say this would be doing a little fall cleaning of the drive. :)


As far as the Windows error message, it may be that I need to use a much more complicated Windows call in order to display the actual error message. I was trying to avoid that because it looked like a royal pain in the butt and I thought the normal error display was going to be adequate...


I wouldn't bother, the software works for most and diving down deeper into the Windows api wouldn't provide any more satisfaction besides a better error message. The shows still won't be recoverable, which is what the users of the program are trying to do.

Thanks for your hard work on the software! Even though it didn't help me this time, it's helped many other and your work is much appreciated!

RTVPatch does access the drive fine and allowed me to make a backup image (came out to be the usual 500MB). Of course after I made the image, I used extract_rtv5 to verify the image I just made. It verified partition 1 fine, but p2 to 4 all gave an error saying Error Reading Cluster 0. So confirming what I knew that the software is corrupt on the drive. But I thought the replay software itself was always on partition 1. Guess not. The drive itself however according to the seagate utilities appears fine. So unless there's some option I'm missing, i think it's likely I'll have to reimage the drive again when i have time.

The backup image is only p1, so that's why you get errors trying to access p2 to 4 (4 doesn't actually exist, 1 is system, 2 is MPEGs, and 3 is Photos), not because of any kind of corruption...

Did RTVPatch have to retry reading any sectors making the backup image?

Did you run extract_rtv5 <image file name> -v to verify the image, and did it show any problems?

What is the problem with the hard drive in the first place?

I wouldn't bother, the software works for most and diving down deeper into the Windows api wouldn't provide any more satisfaction besides a better error message. The shows still won't be recoverable, which is what the users of the program are trying to do.

This sounds like a different kind of problem, however. If RTVPatch can access the drive just fine and extract_rtv5 can't, then I would want to try to fix it if I could. Of course, RTVPatch is a Windows application and extract_rtv5 isn't exactly. But, extract_rtv5 is using the Windows open function and that is what is failing (saying no error), so I'd kind of like to get to the bottom of it...

I think your shows are there, then. So, if I could get extract_rtv5 to work, you could get your shows back, which is pretty much the purpose of extract_rtv5. So, if you could keep things around for a little while, I can see if I can figure out anything about why extract_rtv5 isn't able to open the hard drive...

Are you using an external USB enclosure? Does your device manager show the hard drive model number and such? Be sure not to run Windows Management on the drive! But, you can look at the device manager and see if it shows the hard drive properly...

Thanks for your hard work on the software! Even though it didn't help me this time, it's helped many other and your work is much appreciated!

Yeah, but this is what it is supposed to do. If it isn't helping you out, then I need to figure out why. Maybe it's the way you are hooking up the drive or something like that, but I would at least like to get to the bottom of why Windows says that you can't open the drive...

Are you logged in as an administrator? I assume you are running RTVPatch and extract_rtv5 from the same login?

I'll look again at how RTVPatch opens the drive under Windows. I think when I changed things back in version 77 that I used the same way as RTVPatch, but maybe there's something subtle different...

Henry

Hmmm... I just ran some experiments with different drive specifications just to see what errors I could get. When I ran "extract_rtv5 \\.\PhysicalDrive2", I get: "Cluster 0 (offset 0) read error: 21" (Drive not ready). However, when I run "extract_rtv5 \\.\PhysicalDrive5" or "extract_rtv5 \\.\Physical", I get your same error: "Unable to open drive image file: No error", so it seems like that error is more like file not found. So, maybe checking with the device manager to see if the drive is showing properly?

Also, in a command prompt, try running "dir \\.\PhysicalDrive1" and see what you get. Also try running "dir \\.\Physical" and see what you get...

Maybe we can get to the bottom of what is going on with your system...

Henry

OK, I found a little script that can let you run a nice experiment with the RTV hard drive connected. Open a command prompt and enter "notepad test.vbs" and enter Yes to create the file. Then paste in the following script code:strComputer = "."
Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")

Set colDiskDrives = objWMIService.ExecQuery("SELECT * FROM Win32_DiskDrive")

For Each objDrive In colDiskDrives
Wscript.Echo "Physical Disk: " & objDrive.Caption & " -- " & objDrive.DeviceID
strDeviceID = Replace(objDrive.DeviceID, "\", "\\")
Set colPartitions = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
("ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_DiskDrive.DeviceID=""" & _
strDeviceID & """} WHERE AssocClass = " & _
"Win32_DiskDriveToDiskPartition")

For Each objPartition In colPartitions
Wscript.Echo "Disk Partition: " & objPartition.DeviceID
Set colLogicalDisks = objWMIService.ExecQuery _
("ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_DiskPartition.DeviceID=""" & _
objPartition.DeviceID & """} WHERE AssocClass = " & _
"Win32_LogicalDiskToPartition")

For Each objLogicalDisk In colLogicalDisks
Wscript.Echo "Logical Disk: " & objLogicalDisk.DeviceID
Next
Wscript.Echo
Next
Wscript.Echo
NextAnd save the file. Now, in the command prompt, enter: "cscript test.vbs" and post a reply with the output...

Thanks,
Henry

The backup image is only p1, so that's why you get errors trying to access p2 to 4 (4 doesn't actually exist, 1 is system, 2 is MPEGs, and 3 is Photos), not because of any kind of corruption...

Did RTVPatch have to retry reading any sectors making the backup image?

Did you run extract_rtv5 <image file name> -v to verify the image, and did it show any problems?

What is the problem with the hard drive in the first place?


RTVPatch had no problems making the backup image. I did run extract_rtv5 against the image. Here's what it showed:

D:\Joe\extract_rtv_79>extract_rtv5 d:\joe\bedroombasic.rtv -v
This looks like a ReplayTV 4000 or 5000 series drive!
Enabling the byte-reversing code
Partition Type Start Length
1 0x4d 2 1024000
2 0x4d 1024002 311555758
3 0x4d 312579760 2048
4 0x00 0 0

Select partition: 1
Scan: ./sys1/Platform/Plymouth/ROM/rom.bin
Filesystem integrity check complete.

D:\Joe\extract_rtv_79>extract_rtv5 d:\joe\bedroombasic.rtv -v
This looks like a ReplayTV 4000 or 5000 series drive!
Enabling the byte-reversing code
Partition Type Start Length
1 0x4d 2 1024000
2 0x4d 1024002 311555758
3 0x4d 312579760 2048
4 0x00 0 0

Select partition: 2
EOF reading cluster 0

D:\Joe\extract_rtv_79>extract_rtv5 d:\joe\bedroombasic.rtv -v
This looks like a ReplayTV 4000 or 5000 series drive!
Enabling the byte-reversing code
Partition Type Start Length
1 0x4d 2 1024000
2 0x4d 1024002 311555758
3 0x4d 312579760 2048
4 0x00 0 0

Select partition: 3
EOF reading cluster 0

D:\Joe\extract_rtv_79>extract_rtv5 d:\joe\bedroombasic.rtv -v
This looks like a ReplayTV 4000 or 5000 series drive!
Enabling the byte-reversing code
Partition Type Start Length
1 0x4d 2 1024000
2 0x4d 1024002 311555758
3 0x4d 312579760 2048
4 0x00 0 0

Select partition: 4
Invalid partition selection.

I'm guessing the "EOF reading cluster 0" error is the problem.



Are you using an external USB enclosure? Does your device manager show the hard drive model number and such?

No internal connector. Device manager shows the drive fine. Ran Seagate tools and those verified the drive integrity as well.

OK, I just want to post that I borrowed a Vista laptop and was able to run a couple of experiments. I was able to get the current release of extract_rtv5 to run just fine on Vista if I opened a command prompt run as administrator. This was quite simply accomplished by going into the programs, accessories, right clicking on Command Prompt and choosing Run as administrator. You may have to give permission to run the command prompt as administrator, but when I ran extract_rtv5 in this command prompt, it found the RTV hard drive just fine and it ran on it just fine...

I will probably still post a new version of extract_rtv5 for Windows which doesn't say "no error". And, I will see if I can figure out how to make extract_rtv5 run properly under Vista without having to run the command prompt specially. Although, since you have to open a command prompt anyways, I'm not sure that this is really such a big hardship...

Henry

Switch of UAC and see if you still have to "run as admin"

Switch of UAC and see if you still have to "run as admin"

Off? Sorry, I already gave back the laptop. But, I'm assuming that would work just as well. I just didn't want to offer that as a solution unless it was worst case. Since it's so easy to run a command prompt as administrator, I didn't see the point in trying it with UAC turned off...

Henry

Version 80 of extract_rtv5 is posted on SourceForge.net. In addition to correcting to output errors on Windows, this version fixes to properly XML encode show's channel name.

Henry

Version 81 of extract_rtv5 is posted on SourceForge.net. This version adds to not abort extracting all files when a read error occurs. It also adds to output show conflict priority levels.

Henry