[JoeKustra]



Quote:
Originally Posted by oldmanjoe /forum/post/19173213


Joe, would you be able to send me or post the product info on the above item. You guys are way over my head, but I think I could figure out a good hook up.


One more thing, the problem unit is connected through a surge protector-could be the problem. I haven't had to time to play with the stuff yet!


Thanks!!

Yes, lose the surge supressor for RF or CAT5. The Shack splitter is 15-2506 selling for 49.49 at the moment. Add some 90 degree adapters if it's up high. Do not expect to see any display changes if watching a digital channel. It is digital after all. I don't use it for the gain, just for the organizational ability.

 

[JoeKustra]



Quote:
Originally Posted by 234 /forum/post/19173342


Sorry but I cannot keep myself following thread because this thread is very popular and fast moving. Like a long sentence chatting!

If somebody find any important description that I missed pick up, please let me know. (ioi)

Dear 234,


It is hard to keep up with a popular thread. You have a popular device. If you would keep us informed about future changes that would be nice. Be happy.


Joe

 

[JoeKustra]



Quote:
Originally Posted by wajo /forum/post/19173389


Sounds like a new surge protector for the electrical plug-ins is in order, too!?

While entering a reply to #9 I had a 6 second power outage. I am also doing a RTD of this summer's Burn Notice. I know since my lights went out. I love my UPS. All I need to do is reset the clock on my microwave. Just another day.

 

[oldmanjoe]



Quote:
Originally Posted by wajo /forum/post/19173389


Sounds like a new surge protector for the electrical plug-ins is in order, too!?

Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeKustra /forum/post/19173394


Yes, lose the surge supressor for RF or CAT5. The Shack splitter is 15-2506 selling for 49.49 at the moment. Add some 90 degree adapters if it's up high. Do not expect to see any display changes if watching a digital channel. It is digital after all. I don't use it for the gain, just for the organizational ability.

Thanks to you both-I will have fun playing with this!

 

[JimLely]



Quote:
Originally Posted by wajo /forum/post/19173276


If you mean the coax is running thru a surge protector, get it off!

Hi Wajo,


Why?

 

[7558037]



Quote:
Originally Posted by JimLely /forum/post/19176091


Hi Wajo,


Why?

Surge suppressors with coax connection have caused problems for a few users that clear up when the coax is run directly. Not sure of the tech. reason except it must have something to do with the suppressor circuit on that connection? Problems have been related to PQ, I believe, and maybe also signal strength, so it must add some "noise" which can affect not only PQ but also this DVDR's amp'd coax circuit???

 

[7558037]

Intriguing review on walmart.com?


The most recent anonymous reviewer says this:


"... For those of you having issues taping more than one show with comcast .....this is what you do

1. press info and look for setup VCR or recording

2 highlight the " R " and you are done

3 set the recorder to record from external source making sure you can see the Tv show thats being played thru the unit.

4. Set the time on the recorder and you are done"


Not having Comcast, I'm curious if this is an "epiphany" or a "fuggedaboutit" moment!?

 

[gastrof]

Wajo-


We've sort of talked about this already. Not all the Comcast boxes, not even the full sized ones, can do this.


Some CAN be set to work with a VCR/recorder, but many can't. Depends on the model you have.


I forget what model number was recommended.

Gotta go now. BACK TO THE FUTURE PART TWO is on, and I want to see what life in the U.S. will be like in the distant future year of 2015.

 

[7558037]



DVD-to-PC, HDD-to-HDD, Title Recovery

Junp to:
DVD-to-PC
HDD-to-HDD
Title Recovery

DVD-to-PC

Following are some posts on DVD-to-PC title copying and PC tools for handling them.
 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelson  /t/940657/magnavox-537-535-533-515-513-2160a-2160-2080-philips-3576-3575/24630#post_23983032

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by greg28  /t/940657/magnavox-537-535-533-515-513-2160a-2160-2080-philips-3576-3575/24600_100#post_23982063


At the end of the day, I have to be able to convert to PC storage. I'd prefer both DVD and PC copies. I thought I could record to the HDD and then make a DVD from it as well as transfer from the HDD to the PC. But apparently that's not quite the case.

Well, DVD and PC copies are pretty much the same from a data perspective. It's more a matter of the container and the time involved to get stuff off a DVD recorder. You would make the digital transfer of the VHS tape using the DVD recorder. As noted, the only way to get the transfer out of the DVD recorder is to burn it off onto DVD-R. If you choose, you can edit it on the DVDR before burning to make a finished DVD -- or just burn the "raw" footage to a DVD-RW and edit it on the PC before authoring a compilation to a DVD-R or BD-R. The format of the burned DVD-R/RW is DVD Video. You just put that disk in your PC and there are any number of programs available that will let you extract the individual titles from the disk and save them into any of the standard video containers -- .mpg, .m2ts, MKV, etc. As long as you leave the video format as MPEG-2, there is no re-encoding which means there is no loss in video quality since all you are doing is changing container format -- it's a very fast process that could take a minute or less per SD title -- it takes me ~2 min to save a 5GB HDTV recording as an .m2ts or .mpg file. All these standard containers can be played by almost any PC program like WMP or VLC. You could make compilations of any combination and author them to DVD at any time you needed -- it's all just a matter of some simple software.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelson  /t/940657/magnavox-537-535-533-515-513-2160a-2160-2080-philips-3576-3575/24630#post_23984356

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by CitiBear  /t/940657/magnavox-537-535-533-515-513-2160a-2160-2080-philips-3576-3575/24600_100#post_23983437


In my experience, once these are digitized to DVD, any attempt to extract them as standalone files results in a further degradation of quality- even a so called "lossless MPEG" extraction.

I'm sorry but that is simply not the case. There is no degradation. The .VOB files of a DVD Video are simply containers that hold the MPEG-2 video stream and the audio streams. When you extract a title from a multi-title .VOB you simply pull the streams out of the .VOB container and mux them into a new container format. The streams are bit-image replicas of the originals. There is no change to the actual video data -- as long as you are not recoding to either change the codec or shrink the size of the stream.


It's the same as if someone hands you a bag containing two sandwiches, closed with a twist-tie. You open the twist tie, remove one of the sandwiches and put it in a ziplock bag. You have not changed the sandwich in any way, it will still taste the same. You only put it in a new bag.

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelson  /t/940657/magnavox-537-535-533-515-513-2160a-2160-2080-philips-3576-3575/24630#post_23984384

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by greg28  /t/940657/magnavox-537-535-533-515-513-2160a-2160-2080-philips-3576-3575/24600_100#post_23983463


I primarily want backup sources before the VHS tapes eventually deteriorate. As long as I can rip them from the DVD to a computer in any playable format, I am fine with that.

That is the case. There is no great mystery here. You can play a DVD on a PC, right. In the simplest case you use a program like ImgBurn to rip the full DVD to an .iso file (disk image). Just about every PC player will play a DVD.iso image file as if it were the disk in the DVD drive.


Everything is digitally convertible to everything -- as long as you don't recode, there is no loss and the copies are bit-image replicas of the A/V streams.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelson  /t/940657/magnavox-537-535-533-515-513-2160a-2160-2080-philips-3576-3575/24780#post_24065142

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by greg28  /t/940657/magnavox-537-535-533-515-513-2160a-2160-2080-philips-3576-3575/24700_100#post_24065005


What's the recommended way to rip to a PC for archival storage? I obviously don't want any data loss but are there different options that result in different file type sizes?

The absolute simplest way to rip a home-made DVD to PC for archival storage is to use ImgBurn and rip it as a DVD.iso file. VLC and most PC media players will play a DVD.iso perfectly with full DVD menu support as if you were playing the original disk in a DVD player. On top of that, DVD.iso is an image format so you can use ImgBurn any time you want to burn that DVD.iso back to a DVD-R for whatever reason. And of course, since DVD.iso is an image format there is absolutely no loss of video quality -- it is a bit-image copy of the original disk.


I have over 600 TV show DVD's stored on my servers for whole-house streaming and every one is stored as DVD.iso.

Go back to List. ...... Go to main list of help files.

HDD-to-HDD

 

Several ways to get titles from one DVDR HDD to another.
 

File-to-File - Best method I've seen for possible copying of FILES directly between DVDR HDDs is  described by Pikey  for his Philips 3455 as:

"The only way I had of recovering the videos was to download a "live" version of Ubuntu. I then booted up into that OS, and was able to mount the old hard disk, and copy the files from it. I had to remove the new hard disk from the recorder and mount that as well, and copy the files over but, once done, my old videos were on the new replacement hard disk."

 

Here's another post on cloning a HDD with a Linux Ubuntu system that might be interesting to someone, someday?

Quote:
Originally Posted by brianko  /t/1303511/official-moxi-hard-drive-replacement-thread/420#post_24234506

 

So, the cloning process went well...got another WD Green drive, installed both drives in my Linux machine, booted with an old Ubuntu 6.06 Live CD I had lying around, and then used the following command from the terminal window to clone:

 

sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=4096 conv=noerror,notrunc

 

(Note:  If you use two identical hard drives you will have to figure out which is which, because you don't want to accidentally write over your good disk!  Here's what I did:  I copied the first 4096 bytes to temporary files, then looked at them with a binary editor.  The "good" drive will have the revision embedded in the first 4K bytes.  Something like this will work:

 

dd if=/dev/sda bs=4096 count=1 of=/tmp/sda.tmp

dd if=/dev/sdb bs=4096 count=1 of=/tmp/sdb.tmp

vim -b /tmp/sda.tmp (If you see "6.11" embedded in the output, it's the "good" drive...exit with ESC-:q)

vim -b /tmp/sdb.tmp (double check)

 

It took about 3 hours for the copy to finish.  Something new I learned:  You can send a USR1 signal to the dd process and it will return the progress of the copy.)

 

So the cloned drive was tested first, booted right up.

 

The "good" drive?  Not so lucky...just the MOXI logo.  Did all the normal things, couldn't get it to boot. Damn.

 

Another AVS search suggested pulling all the cables (except power and HDMI of course) and then rebooting.  Success!  Plugged the SDV USB cable, network cable, and coax back in, everything came back.

 

Wish I had known this before shelling out $300 to Arris for refurb units...live and learn I guess.

 

Single-Title Sneakernet - You can real-time copy/dub one or more titles from one DVDR HDD to DVD-RW or DVD+RW discs (however many will fit on the DVD), then copy them to a new DVDR HDD... make sure you wear sneakers while running between machines

 

Bulk-Title HDD-to-HDD - Two methods for real-time "bulk" copying of DVDR titles direct from the HDD of one DVDR to the HDD of another DVDR with DVDs as "dummy" targets:

 

1. From One PhilMag DVDR to Other DVDR or PC with Video/Audio Input Card.


Only way I've found to "batch" copy titles from one of our DVDRs to another unit's HDD w/o teardown is to set up a dub list of 6-hours worth of titles and dub that w/internal drives to a RW disc at SLP rec mode (select SLP in dub menu), while simultaneously copying to the HDD of the other machine via the analog I/O (normal external copying). Repeat for all desired titles in 6-hour increments. No single title can be over 4:59:59 for a SLP dub. This has to be a RTD to get normal output of what's being dubbed, i.e., can't use HSD.

 

If totally unattended, each title will have the "Writing to disc" stuff a normal dub adds at the end, but this can be  deleted in edit  on the other machine. If you babysit the copying, you could come back for the end of each title and press PAUSE on the copying machine and wait for start of the next title to continue REC.

The picture coming from the outputs of the playing machine will not be in SLP quality, it'll be in the quality of the original titles on the playing machine.

 

Since THIS has suddenly become a point of contention from our resident "argumentarian" (who doesn't have this DVDR), you can test this yourself as follows:

 

1. Record short section of live TV at 2-hr-SP with text as part of pic, like an ESPN talk show. Notice normal "2-hr-quality appearance" while it's playing... this is what your 2nd recorder/HDD will see and record.

2. Dub that to a disc in real-time at 6-hr-SLP, while noticing the SAME "2-hr-SP-quality appearance" during the RTD.

3. Play disc copy and notice the obvious quality difference, especially edges of text. Talking heads on ESPN should look GREAT but they'll look exactly like 6-hr-SLP quality, cuz it is on the disc!

 

This test will show that what you see, and what gets passed thru to the other HDD, during a RTD is the original quality of the recorded title(s), even tho you may be dubbing it at a much lower quality at the time..

2. From Pioneer, Panasonic or Other DVDR with "Playlist" Feature to PhilMag DVDR.


If the titles you want to get on this DVDR's HDD are on a Panasonic, Pioneer or other recorder with auto-play, program-play, Play-Mode menu (Pioneers) or Playlist menu (Panasonic), you can set it to play titles from its HDD to the HDD of this DVDR. (Also works for DVD titles if the machine can program-play them as well.)


Set a play program in the other DVDR, up to 12-hours worth of titles in the order you want (or any order since you'll be separating the titles on the Mag HDD later). Start the titles playing, press REC on this DVDR, and this DVDR will record continuously for 12 hours (11:59:59 to be exact).

 

Note: Don't activate any menus on the playing machine since those will most likely get recorded as part of the video (whatever you see on screen you will record).


Before recording, you can pre-set this DVDR's Recording > Auto Chapter menu to 30- or 60-minute interval to make finding title breaks easier. Then, in the Edit menu, use the NEXT button to make big single moves that should get you close to the ends of typical titles. Use SKIP and REPLAY to make smaller single moves, then FF/REW as usual.

 

Once a batch of titles is on this DVDR's HDD, use the Scene Delete and Divide features  in the Edit menu  to clean transitions and separate into titles on this DVDR's HDD.


(This DVDR can't auto-play titles from the HDD, only from DVDs, so you can't reverse this HDD>HDD procedure.)

Go back to List. ...... Go to main list of help files.

Title Recovery


When you delete a Title from the HDD, it isn't really deleted, just the Title info, which is the pointer to the actual files on the disc like the filename in our computers. As long as deleted titles aren't overwritten by future use, those titles may be recoverable.

 

One app used successfuly is Recuva . It might take a while for a HDD with many files, so you might want to start with a normal scan instead of the "Deep Scan" option available, which can be tried later if the files you want aren't captured on first try.

 

Here's a post on recovering files to an uncorrupted drive as a disk image that you can "attack" with Recuva or any other app without fear.

 

Here's a recent (Nov 2012) post by a user who recovered files from a 2005 Panasonic EH50 HDD using hex editor Winhex and mpeg reader Mpeg2Cut2. Simple process that might work for HDDs from other machines, like ours?

 

Ken.F found a way to recover titles deleted from a DVD, as described here.

A Lite-On DVDR user posted on a simple way to find and recover files on a video HDD, using a "simple file recovery app" then changing the file extensions to .mpg. He even recovered previously DELETED files!


Stapler1234 posted on a program called Spinrite, here.

 

I've always wondered if an app called CDRoller might be able to read and "recover" files on our HDDs. jam-h has used it successfully on a Mag DVD, but I hadn't heard of anyone trying to use it on a HDD. So, I emailed and got a confirmation that they had tested it on a camcorder HDD attached via USB.


Here's that confirmation with more info for anyone who wants to try it with an external HDD system:

 

Thanks for your attention to CDRoller. We have already assisted some users to retrieve the lost video from HDD built in camcorders. However, please keep in mind, each camcorder was connected to PCs via USB port and had a separate letter in the Windows Computer. We did not test the work with Magnavox HDD connected via Sata to PC. At first, please try the newest trial version at http://www.cdroller.com/htm/download.html . Also, if you need a temporary license key to complete the tests, just let me know.


A couple of common words how to use CDRoller.

1. Connect you recorder to PC and make sure it has a letter in the Windows My Computer.

2. Run CDRoller. By default, the program works in CD/DVD data recovery mode. Please switch CDRoller into the Flash data recovery mode selecting the 'Flash data recovery' in the 'View'\\'Program mode'.

3. Restart CDRoller. Does the program recognize your recorder in the Flash data recovery mode? If yes, what info do you see in the File System column?


Paul Goldenberg

CDRoller Development & Support Dept

Digital Atlantic Corp.
[email protected]
http://www.cdroller.com

Go back to List. ...... Go to main list of help files.

 

[artwire]



Quote:
Originally Posted by wajo /forum/post/19176233


Intriguing review on walmart.com?


The most recent anonymous reviewer says this:


"... For those of you having issues taping more than one show with comcast .....this is what you do

1. press info and look for setup VCR or recording

2 highlight the " R " and you are done

3 set the recorder to record from external source making sure you can see the Tv show thats being played thru the unit.

4. Set the time on the recorder and you are done"


Not having Comcast, I'm curious if this is an "epiphany" or a "fuggedaboutit" moment!?

Well, it might be an epiphany for that poster, but being able to program channel changes is old news for the rest of the gang. Downside is (at least on my motorola) it persists in sending out messages that it's about to change the channel, or about to record (ta da!!!!!!) and you can't disable them, so it ruins the recordings unless you set it to start a few mins early and end a few mins late. That works fine, as long as I'm not trying to do back to back recordings from different channels. Not all cable boxes have this, and it took me awhile to find it since it's hiding in the channel lineup and accessed by one of the indecipherable little icons -this one is labeled VCR recording! You set the channel changes on the STB telling it to "record" that particular program, even though it can't, then set the maggie to record from Line In that is receiving the cable box output and hope it remembers to change the channel. Most of the time it does. You have to set it up to "record' in both places ... the STB indicates the program (and you have to do each one separately, but it does take multiple changes), and the 2160 is set to record Line input at a particular time. On my stb, you can't just set the box to change channels, you HAVE to use the program guide to set the timer to change the program.


(I'm using a Moto DCH3200)


When I was trying to get a second box, the customer "service" guy couldn't promise me that I'd get a box with this function, though I specifically requested it, as well as HDMI and component and svideo out... no idea what they're giving out nowadays, but not all of them can do it (be programmed to timer-change channels). I decided to not play the lottery and cancelled my order for STB #2.

 

[7558037]

Artwire, thanks for that info, and it appears to be the same as ylou already posted here , which I point to in the Tips section of the Rec to HDD help file .

Except there, I say the 3200 has a "Reminder" feature, which seems to be NOT the right word? Is this where the other guy just "highlights the R"?


Another question I think you said above: the 3200 dows allow you to select multiple programs to "Record"?

 

[dare2be]



Quote:
Originally Posted by gastrof /forum/post/19176641

Gotta go now. BACK TO THE FUTURE PART TWO is on, and I want to see what life in the U.S. will be like in the distant future year of 2015.

All I know is we have less than 5 years to invent hoverboards...

 

[artwire]

Let me look again.....



you click the program in the guide, then you click icon with "R" on it which is subtitled "Set or Cancel a VCR recording" (confusing!), then you click "R" again to Record to VCR, and to set the timer to start earlier/later than the exact time of the show you click "View Recording Settings for this program" (a wrench icon), which gives you choice to set it to record once (or daily, weekly, m-f), to start on time (or toggle for 5 mins early, 15 mins late,etc), end time , then you hit R again to "record with these settings or the cancel icon to not record. Then.... you're ready to fiddle with the actual recorder!

You can set several programs, and schedule repeat programs as well ( though I haven't tried that), I've never tested the maximum but have set three or four different programs at a time.


The REMINDER feature has a bell icon... different function. " Set or cancel a reminder" and when you click the choices are Remind, dont remind and (wrench) view reminder settings.... (same options as the recorder, but ... I dont think REMINDER actually changes channels, just tells you a show is coming up. I used to fiddle with reminder to set the time early so as to NOT interfere with recordings that I'd already set up, but otherwise generally dont use it. There's no way to turn it off, as far as I can tell, and the reminder comes on if you set the recorder. Pretty convoluted process!

 

[7558037]

Artwire, thanks for the details. I'll add your post to the help file for people to see "the detailed procedure" if they're interested.

 

[gastrof]



Quote:
Originally Posted by wajo /forum/post/19176664


Can do what?

What you were talking about.

1. press info and look for setup VCR or recording

2 highlight the " R " and you are done

3 set the recorder to record from external source making sure you can see the Tv show thats being played thru the unit.

4. Set the time on the recorder and you are done

Quote:
Originally Posted by wajo /forum/post/19176664


What box is he talking about and what is it he can do by just "highlighting the R and you're done"?

As mentioned, I don't recall which cable box model this works with.


I did say that.

Quote:
Originally Posted by wajo /forum/post/19176664


Is he highlighting the R in a guide or other menu?

1. press info and look for setup VCR or recording

2 highlight the " R " and you are done


If you've pressed "info" and there's something you can then look for, it sounds like a change of onscreen info or controls to me!

 

[Dartman]

The 3200 works with the record function and so does the 700 or whatever the crappy cable box they give you for free along with your twp DTA boxes.

I know becuase I've had both and they do the exact same thing as far as record to VCR goes.

Nice thing is the DCH-3200 also outputs whatever your watching in SD through the Svideo cable so I can at least record the HD version to my 3575 in SD and analog sound even if I'm watching the HD channel.

Bad part is the damned reminder screen and it wont turn itself on to record like a VCR or DVD recorder does so you have to leave it on to record anything.

 

[7558037]



?

Copy One HDD to Another?

On Videohelp.com, vbdani has two Philips 3455's and successfully copied a "bad" HDD to a new one using the Linux dd command. His drives were FAT32.


He started his copy project by following some advice to partition the "bad" HDD, but that didn't work. His "good" drive had NO partitions, suggesting our drives also might be FAT32 wtihout partitions? I've seen several other refs to FAT32 for USB memory sticks, etc.

 

[Ken.F]



Quote:
Originally Posted by wajo /forum/post/19179422

?

Copy One HDD to Another?

On Videohelp.com, vbdani has two Philips 3455's and successfully copied a "bad" HDD to a new one using the Linux dd command. His drives were FAT32.


He started his copy project by following some advice to partition the "bad" HDD, but that didn't work. His "good" drive had NO partitions, suggesting our drives also might be FAT32 wtihout partitions? I've seen several other refs to FAT32 for USB memory sticks, etc.


Assuming Philips/Funai used the same Linux file system in our original 357x and follow-on 2160/513, could this be the holy grail we've been looking for?

?

What I got from it was that he removed the HDD from both of his 3455s and put them in a PC. He used a Linux CD to boot the PC, then copied the contents of the working recorder's drive to the non-working recorder's drive with the dd command. He then removed the drives from the PC and re-installed them back into their original places. The non-working recorder then worked again and it had a copy of all of the recordings from the other machine.


He said:

"someone said you need to partition a drive as fat32, then load the firmware via cd. tried it, didn't work for me. when i boot with linux cd and look at both drives (we will just call them good and bad), the good drive shows no partitions and the bad drive shows a fat32 partition. that makes me wonder if a fat32 partition will really work with this dvdr."


I think that means his 3455 did not work with a FAT32 partition. When he copied the working drive to the non working drive with dd I believe the FAT32 partition was removed in the process.

 

[Ken.F]



Quote:
Originally Posted by wajo /forum/post/19179422


...suggesting our drives also might be FAT32 wtihout partitions?

Isn't FAT32 a type of partition?

 

[artwire]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Ken.F /forum/post/19179671


Isn't FAT32 a type of partition?

it's my understanding that when you format a drive and create partition(s), the volume(s) can be set to use the FAT32 file allocation structure or another file structure. Technically an 'unpartitioned' drive that is formatted already has one volume (itself), but I generally use the term when I want to make multiple partitions on a drive ( each partition can boot or at least be mounted separately)


So, ... not exactly equal, but if you've formatted it as a FAT32 partition, the end result is the same . On my mac drives, for example, I use the GUID Partition Table , but if I wanted to use windows on that drive, as well, I could use bootcamp to create a FAT32 partition. I generally only use FAT32 on removable media (usb sticks, for example) so, hardly an expert on this topic!

However, I think maximum file size limit on a FAT32 volume is just under 4 GB. For larger file transfers, don't people use NTFS ?

Maybe that's why the nonFAT32("good drive") in the above example worked?