Extract_rtv5k and RTVExplorer  

Breaking this discussion out from this thread: Help with dead 5040 (upgraded) <OP: pin-head>
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In the original thread I made mention of two programs that I had once stumbled aross over at sourceforge: extract_rtv5k and RTVExplorer

ClearToLand immediately picked up on the fact that those two programs were kind of "unknowns" and his archive searches seem to be confirming this by comming up empty handed.

So, here goes....

__________________
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-Frank Zappa

RTV Explorer - readme

RTV Explorer

Idea of the RTV Explorer based on original extract_rtv by flipflop7146@yahoo.com and GUI for extract_rtv by bmwhitetx@yahoo.com

Main reason to do it - I'm learning vxWorks operation system and exploration of the file system is very interesting for me. Also - because the extract_rtv v. 1.6 does not correctly recognize ReplayChannel structures for new systems (45xx and above) GUI for extract_rtv also does not work.

Note: Overwriting a file on the ReplayTV drive is VERY RISKY! I'm not responsible for any damages of your file system. Please make sure, that you have fresh backup of your ReplayTV disk.

For backup of your drive you can use RTVPatch Windows.

Note - I never tested it on W95/W98 computers.

Version History:
02/25/2005 -added support for DVArchive XML-description for video files copied from RTV Partition;
02/23/2005 - fixed problem with finding ReplayChannel for 4500 & 5000 system. extract_rtv now is extract_rtv5, because RTV explorer will not work correctly with old v 1.6;
02/18/2005 - extract_rtv v. 1.6 combined for development under MS Visual Studio .NET 2003. Project renamed to extract_rtv5;
02/17/2007 - first run of working app.





Disclaimer: that this program for educational purposes only! It not intended for any violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act! Use it at your own risk.

(c) Copyright 2005, by AmReplay (Alex) (amreplay@yahoo.com)


_____________________
Let's not be too tough on our own ignorance. It's the thing that makes America great.
If America weren't incomparably ignorant, how could we have tolerated the last six years?

extract_rtv5k appears to be amreplay's modification of flipflop's code for extract_rtv to handle the different ReplayChannels file location and array values used by 5k's

(no readme - here's the changelog) red line indicates division between when flipflop finalized the program and amreplay began development

/************************************************************ **************
*
* extract_rtv.c Read/write files on a ReplayTV hard drive
*
* Release history:
* v1.0 12/12/2000 Original release
* v2.0 12/15/2000 Added faster extraction by walking down the
* directory tree
* Added command line option to select partition number
* Added ability to extract just a subdirectory
* Added ability to overwrite an existing file
* v3.0 12/16/2000 Changed reads/writes toF always be multiples of 512
* for WinNT direct drive access compatibility
*
* v4.0 2/16/2001 Autodetect ReplayTV drives, add support for 2-drive systems
*
* v5.0 5/11/2001 Add code to insert system header and program stream map
* into extracted mpeg files. (fix provided by Rod Hewitt)
*
* v6. 05/17/2001 Add -r NNNN option to extract file from inode (possibly unlinked)
* Add -db option to show brief program descriptions
* Add -dv option to show ALL program descriptions (including deleted)
* (patches provided by Shahed Ameer)
*
* v7.0 7/30/2001 Use larger i/o buffer when extracting files - to improve speed
* Defaults to 128 sectors, but can be set with -b blocks option
* (Thanks to Rod Hewitt for the suggestion)
*
* v8.0 11/23/2001 After reaching the 4GB file size limit, overflow to a second file
* Correctly handle files with > 31 fragments
* (which overflow to another cluster)
*
* v9 First attempt at ReplayTV 4000 compatibility
* v10 Fix some bugs in version 9 program description listing
* v11 1/14/2002 Fix seek to beginning of photo partition on RTV4000 drives
* Don't add headers to .mpg files extracted from RTV4000
*
* v12 1/26/2002 Change drive autoscan code to use Windows CreateFile/ReadFile functions
* Hopefully this will avoid the reported drive corruption issues in WinXP
*
* v13 5/9/2002 Fix extent table checking for continuation inodes
* v14 10/24/2002 Add support for running on big endian machines
* v15 11/30/2002 Fix (again) extent table checking for continuation inodes
* v15b 12/16/2002 Ignore some errors in extent table checking for continuation inodes
* v16 3/29/2002 Allow extent table counts up to 34 (was 32, but that was too low)
* -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
* v50 2/18/2005 Converting project to MS Visual Studio .NET 2003 (AmReplay@yahoo.com)
* v50 2/19/2005 Partially add support for ReplayTV 4500 & 5000 - "user/ReplayChannels/5/ReplayChannels" (AmReplay@yahoo.com)
* add output string "ReplayTV ReplayChannels v. 5"
* v51 2/23/2005 Add (partially) support for new format of FiledArray
* I have not enough knolege about some fields in FiledArray: unknown1-unknown19
* I add Win32 debug output of unknown1-unknown19 using OutputDebugString, so in _DEBUG version
* you can capture them using DebugView (by Mark Russinovich - www.sysinternals.com)
*
* v53 2/24/2005 For nevest vesrion of ReplayChannels, v.5 and above, the output format for listing changed to fixed column:
* From Len FieldName
* 1 20 FileName
* 22 19 RecordDate
* 42 8 Duration "min"
* 51 1 Quality
* 53 8 ChannelLabel
* 62 40 Title
* 102 240 Description (Normally suppressed, use -x option)
* for ReplayChannels below v.5 output format not changed
*
* v53 2/25/2005 Add -x (long string) option to force program descriptions output in brief list (-d).
* (AmReplay@yahoo.com)
*/

Command line switches are the same as extract_rtv, with the addition of "-x"
Command line format is identical to that of extract_rtv


--begin
extract_rtv version 53 built on Feb 25 2005 11:19:23

USAGE: extract_rtv5 <devicename> <options>
-l directory listing
-d show program descriptions (brief)
-dv show program descriptions (verbose)
-da show ALL (incl. deleted) descriptions (brief)
-dd show ALL (incl. deleted) descriptions (verbose)
-e extract all files
-e filename extract single file or subdirectory
-b NNNN set read buffer size (default=128)
-p device file is a partition
-pN use partition N (N=1,2,3,4)
-r cluster# restore unlinked/lost file at this cluster
-s force on the RTV4000 byteswapping
-u look for unlinked (deleted) files
-v verify drive integrity
-w filename localfile overwrite filename with localfile
-x force program descriptions output in brief list


If you omit <devicename>, extract_rtv will attempt to
autodetect the ReplayTV device connected to your system.


---end

________________________
I'll do the stupid thing first and then you shy people follow...

extract_rtv5k:
-My past experience with extract_rtv5k is that it's stable and reliable.
-It's a modification of flipflop's original code to take into account the new location of the replaychannelslist file and the differences in the array.
-Project has been converted to Micorsoft Visual Studio, so no linux version at the present time.


---------------------

RTV_Explorer:
- GUI frontend for extract_rtv5k (it installs extract_rtv5k into the same directory as itself)
- Displays in a tree format similar to that of windows explorer.
- Able to read both RTV disks and RTV-image files created by RTVPatch.
- Stability is fair. It's a beta-1, don't ever forget that when using it. I've had a number of inexplicable program crashes.
- On the brighter side of the issue of crashes, it's never corrupted an RTV drive or image when it crashes - program goes *plonk*, you say "$HIT!", you restart program and you go back to work.
- Has a few other neat tricks up it's sleve, but not all of them are fully developed so using those is an iffy proposition.
- Has a good logfile creation function. Logfiles of directory listings and operations are easy to understand and follow.

______________________
Jazz is not dead...it just smells funny.

Clairifications on program names:
(copied & pasted from one of my comments in a different thread)

There is extract_rtv (aka: extractRTV) which is FlipFlop's original program - it's command line driven & very mature and stable - it just can't pull show descriptions on the 4k's & 5k's (which includes 45xx and 55xx's) because the ReplayChannels file was both relocated and had it's array format changed in v.4 of the O/S

Extract is an old gui front end for extractRTV - it doesn't work with 4k or 5k drives at all, it never did and probably never will. Because it can't read the ReplayChannels list it errors and reports that it can't find the drive.

extractRTV5k is an update to extract_rtv. Like it's predecessor, it too is command line based. It can read the ReplayChannels files on 4k's & 5k's. It was not written by FlipFlop - I can't recall the author's name offhand.

RTVExplorer is a gui version of extractRTV5k by the same author.

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<bump for new members & update>

Old news now, but in regards to Ace987's comment above about saving show descriptions -hdonzis's improved version of extract_RTV5 can auto generate XML files for use with DVArchive as it extracts the shows.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=705974