Viewing Recordings from Hard Drive

Grats · 16-01-2014 9:03pm #1

I have a Seagate hard drive connected to a Walker STB. My PC won't allow me view the recordings. A message pops up regarding ADF not being supported. Any solution out there please?

rurs · 17-01-2014 1:47am

What capacity is the Seagate, and which OS and media player are you using?

Grats · 17-01-2014 10:18am

rurs wrote: »

What capacity is the Seagate, and which OS and media player are you using?

Many thanks for reply. Seagate is 500gb. Windows Vista is the OS. Media Player I've downloaded various ones over the years - should I use a particular one? Forgive my ignorance!

Gerry Wicklow · 17-01-2014 10:27am

VLC is free and copes with most file formats.

rurs · 17-01-2014 3:42pm

Can you see the files in Windows explorer, or does the error message pop up as soon as you plug the drive in? If you can see the files, what extension do they have?

If the error pops up as soon as the drive is plugged in, the ADF message could refer to Advanced Format. There may be a utility available from Seagate to realign the clusters.

If ADF is the file extension, try a few different media players. VLC is definitely worth a shot, I also managed to play files from a STB with Gom Player which wouldn't play with anything else, although that was a while ago.

Grats · 18-01-2014 1:28pm

rurs wrote: »

Can you see the files in Windows explorer, or does the error message pop up as soon as you plug the drive in? If you can see the files, what extension do they have?

If the error pops up as soon as the drive is plugged in, the ADF message could refer to Advanced Format. There may be a utility available from Seagate to realign the clusters.

If ADF is the file extension, try a few different media players. VLC is definitely worth a shot, I also managed to play files from a STB with Gom Player which wouldn't play with anything else, although that was a while ago.

Many thanks for all suggestions. I have downloaded various media players but no luck. I have emailed Seagate to see if they can help. Will let ye know outcome.

Johnboy1951 · 19-01-2014 12:18pm

I do not have a "Walker STB" ....... but some STBs record the video in a proprietary format to prevent them from being played by other means.
Is it possible this Walker is one such STB?

Grats · 19-01-2014 7:39pm

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

I do not have a "Walker STB" ....... but some STBs record the video in a proprietary format to prevent them from being played by other means.
Is it possible this Walker is one such STB?

I actually wondered that myself. Any knowledgeable poster have any idea? Does anybody else with a Walker STB try viewing recordings on a computer?

White Heart Loon · 19-01-2014 7:46pm

Grats wrote: »

Many thanks for all suggestions. I have downloaded various media players but no luck. I have emailed Seagate to see if they can help. Will let ye know outcome.

If VLC don't play it I wouldn't give it much hope, I've only ever seen it fail on proprietary formats

Gerry Wicklow · 19-01-2014 9:36pm

Can't say about the Walker, but some official FreeSat/FreeView boxes encrypt the file so it only plays on the original box.

wil · 20-01-2014 11:55pm

Grats wrote: »

I actually wondered that myself. Any knowledgeable poster have any idea? Does anybody else with a Walker STB try viewing recordings on a computer?

Don't have a Walker but a few other makes - some recordings are easily viewed, some encrypted and some just difficult.
I find Gomplayer to be more successful at viewing stb files than vlc. Give it a try.

Grats · 21-01-2014 12:23am

wil wrote: »

Don't have a Walker but a few other makes - some recordings are easily viewed, some encrypted and some just difficult.
I find Gomplayer to be more successful at viewing stb files than vlc. Give it a try.

Thanks for that. Will try that.

elvis23 · 21-01-2014 4:16pm

TSDoctor may help also if still stuck

Grats · 21-01-2014 5:00pm

elvis23 wrote: »

TSDoctor may help also if still stuck

Yes, whether it"s the Walker, the pc, the seagate drive or ME, I don't know. So I'll try everything and anything. My old set up, before saorview, was perfect for recording and copying into dvds. Was hoping to use the seagate drive to copy stuff onto dvds as before. But can't even play them pc.

Thanks.

STB · 21-01-2014 5:15pm

Grats wrote: »

Yes, whether it"s the Walker, the pc, the seagate drive or ME, I don't know. So I'll try everything and anything. My old set up, before saorview, was perfect for recording and copying into dvds. Was hoping to use the seagate drive to copy stuff onto dvds as before. But can't even play them pc.

Thanks.

What does it say whe you try to play them ?

Rename them to .TS.

Failing that run them through TSDoctor PMT needs to be missing. If you get a PCR error get onto Walker as its copy protection which is not in the Saorview Spec afaik!

Grats · 21-01-2014 8:32pm

STB wrote: »

What does it say whe you try to play them ?

Rename them to .TS.

Failing that run them through TSDoctor PMT needs to be missing. If you get a PCR error get onto Walker as its copy protection which is not in the Saorview Spec afaik!

STB, many thanks for your post.

When I connect the seagate drive to the pc a folder pops up named DVR.

When I click on DVR I get 3 more folders RECS, RECSINFO, STORAGE.

When I click on RECS I get FILEFOLDER ( which contains chunk.1 etc.), and 3 files for each recording.
The 3 files read - GOM Media Files IKB, NAV File 5033KB, and KEYINFO File 1KB.
When I click on any of these 3 files I get a message Find Codec. When I click on this a message - Codec could not be found - comes up.

Hope to god I'm not confusing you.

fat-tony · 21-01-2014 8:35pm

Those file sizes are too small to contain video or TS data.
What's in the STORAGE folder?

Grats · 21-01-2014 8:43pm

fat-tony wrote: »

Those file sizes are too small to contain video or TS data.
What's in the STORAGE folder?

Nothing!!!!!!

Just to say - when I play the recordings on the Walker box/tv there is no problem. All the recordings are on the seagate and play perfectly.

fat-tony · 21-01-2014 9:59pm

There must be files which are several 100's of MB in size on the disk.

STB · 21-01-2014 10:05pm

Grats wrote: »

STB, many thanks for your post.

When I connect the seagate drive to the pc a folder pops up named DVR.

When I click on DVR I get 3 more folders RECS, RECSINFO, STORAGE.

When I click on RECS I get FILEFOLDER ( which contains chunk.1 etc.), and 3 files for each recording.
The 3 files read - GOM Media Files IKB, NAV File 5033KB, and KEYINFO File 1KB.
When I click on any of these 3 files I get a message Find Codec. When I click on this a message - Codec could not be found - comes up.

Hope to god I'm not confusing you.

The Chunk files are the data. Its called chunk concatenation. All these chunks form the eventual file. They have employed DRM ? Why is the question. DRM is not part of the Saorview the last time I checked. It is for Freeview HD content, but thats in the UK.

Try joining them together in DOS. copy /b chunk.1+chunk.2+ (etc) joinedfile.ts If it doesnt play then its protected.

fat-tony · 22-01-2014 12:34am

Normally, the reason files are split like that would be due to filesystem constraints - eg FAT32 2GB limit, but as the OP hadn't called out any large files I had thought they were hidden in some other directory.
I don't think the OP would be into command line concatenation of files seeing as it took this long to get any analysis of what the actual data files looked like. What's surprising me is that no one has raised this issue before - would have thought that there would be a reasonable number of Walker owners about.

Grats · 22-01-2014 12:59am

STB wrote: »

The Chunk files are the data. Its called chunk concatenation. All these chunks form the eventual file. They have employed DRM ? Why is the question. DRM is not part of the Saorview the last time I checked. It is for Freeview HD content, but thats in the UK.

Try joining them together in DOS. copy /b chunk.1+chunk.2+ (etc) joinedfile.ts If it doesnt play then its protected.

Will have a go at that tomorrow. When you say - protected - are you referring to the Walker STB? If that were to be the case would contacting Walker be my best bet?

STB · 22-01-2014 1:24am

fat-tony wrote: »

Normally, the reason files are split like that would be due to filesystem constraints - eg FAT32 2GB limit, but as the OP hadn't called out any large files I had thought they were hidden in some other directory.
I don't think the OP would be into command line concatenation of files seeing as it took this long to get any analysis of what the actual data files looked like. What's surprising me is that no one has raised this issue before - would have thought that there would be a reasonable number of Walker owners about.

Hi Tony. Its not file system constraints. Its either a mechanism for employing DRM on HD content making it only viewable on the box or DVR file splitting nuisance. Either way it means people have to go to great lengths to get non protected streams off them also if they want to view them using VLC or burn them to disc. The files are broken down in 64 meg chunks. To view them outside the box you either write a batch file to merge them to a single TS file or pay for expensive software like DVR Studio 3 to do it for you.

If you had loads of recordings you would have directories full of chunk files. The index file (Nav) and the (keydata) file are the text programme links to the data for OSD on the box.

Exists on some Vestel products some of which are branded under Xoro, Telestar, Wisi, Atevio, Techwood, Triax-Hirschmann and Megasat.

Grats wrote: »

Will have a go at that tomorrow. When you say - protected - are you referring to the Walker STB? If that were to be the case would contacting Walker be my best bet?

Saorview broadcasts are not encrypted with DRM. If you merge the chunk files to a single TS they will play on your PC. Its just hassle to have to do this, when most boxes produce a single .TS file.

fat-tony · 22-01-2014 2:16pm

I've had several satellite receivers over the years (not Walker or Vestel though). I'm familiar with split recordings (because of the 2GB FAT32 limit) where you need to concatenate. I'm also familiar with DRM on HD recordings (on the Foxsat HDR for example) where the transmission is in the clear but the device encrypts the data stream on disk. The Foxsat T2 Freeview HD box does similar, but this form of DRM was done as a condition of Freesat/Freeview licensing to inhibit widespread distribution of HD material. There are workarounds for the DRM on both of these boxes as you are aware.

What is surprising me slightly is that there is not a readily available PC-based player for these Walker/Vestel clone file formats if they are not actually encrypting the file data and that more people haven't raised the issue seeing as the Walker brand would be fairly popular in the Saorview reception area.

Grats · 27-01-2014 11:17am

Thanks to all for your help with this. After trying everything I just had to admit defeat. To my frustration I read the related item below on a website just now!!!

If VLC Media Player & Pot Player Don't Work?
There are some cases however that certain boxes produce recordings that are ONLY playable back on the box itself. In this case, there is nothing you can do really as the recorded file is neither playable on a PC or is not convertable into a format that could be played either. An example of this would be the Walker WP645TS-HD Saorview Combo

STB · 27-01-2014 11:38am

Did you try joining all the chunk files together ? using the command above chunk.1+chunk.2+chunk.3 and so on ?

They should be playable once you do that as the streams on Saorview do not have DRM.

Even if you rename say chunk.4 to chunk.ts it should play, albeit a 30 sec snip of the entire file. Just remember to name it back to .4 afterwards or the box wont recognise it.

Grats · 27-01-2014 12:01pm

Let's say I had a go at joining the chunks but lost track of where I was and gave it up in frustration. What I will do is to record something short, say few minutes, and have a go. I definitely will do it as I really want to be able to view the recordings on the PC. I have two Walker boxes, sold to me on the understanding that it would do what I wanted it to do. I have no other option now but to make your suggestion work or buy some new equipment.

Johnboy1951 · 27-01-2014 1:24pm

Grats wrote: »

Let's say I had a go at joining the chunks but lost track of where I was and gave it up in frustration. What I will do is to record something short, say few minutes, and have a go. I definitely will do it as I really want to be able to view the recordings on the PC. I have two Walker boxes, sold to me on the understanding that it would do what I wanted it to do. I have no other option now but to make your suggestion work or buy some new equipment.

If you record something short you might be able to make it available for others to look at with a view to providing an answer?

Grats · 27-01-2014 5:42pm

Right - I started from scratch again - I recorded a 5 minute, or so, piece - connected the drive to the pc - changed one of the chunks from chunk.6 to chunk.ts - downloaded VLC - managed to get the chunk.ts into the playlist - but it just won't play.

Am I defeated? Is what I posted earlier a fact? ---- If VLC Media Player & Pot Player Don't Work?
There are some cases however that certain boxes produce recordings that are ONLY playable back on the box itself. In this case, there is nothing you can do really as the recorded file is neither playable on a PC or is not convertable into a format that could be played either. An example of this would be the Walker WP645TS-HD Saorview Combo

STB · 27-01-2014 5:56pm

Grats wrote: »

Right - I started from scratch again - I recorded a 5 minute, or so, piece - connected the drive to the pc - changed one of the chunks from chunk.6 to chunk.ts - downloaded VLC - managed to get the chunk.ts into the playlist - but it just won't play.

Am I defeated? Is what I posted earlier a fact? ---- If VLC Media Player & Pot Player Don't Work?
There are some cases however that certain boxes produce recordings that are ONLY playable back on the box itself. In this case, there is nothing you can do really as the recorded file is neither playable on a PC or is not convertable into a format that could be played either. An example of this would be the Walker WP645TS-HD Saorview Combo

Yes I saw your quote which is from Dave at TVtrade. No you are not necessarily defeated.

Joining the chunks should form the ts file from the 6 Chunk files you have. (first off rename the one you had renamed .ts back to .6 or it will defeat the next step)

Copy the 6 files to the root of your c:\ drive.

1. run cmd prompt. (type cmd in search program files). Double click cmd.exe it will open a black screen with c:\users\name\

2. type cd\

3. now type copy /B chunk.1+chunk.2+chunk.3+chunk.4+chunk.5+chunk.6 recording.ts

See if that file (recording.ts) plays.

If that doesnt work upload the files to some free file sharing site and I can take a look.

rurs · 27-01-2014 5:58pm

Did you try Gom Player?

Grats · 27-01-2014 6:21pm

rurs wrote: »

Did you try Gom Player?

I did, thank you, but no luck.

STB · 27-01-2014 11:53pm

rurs wrote: »

Did you try Gom Player?

Do not install this on your PC or you will be rogered with crap. PUP installers all over it, I have seen this crap before, so I didnt install it. (Malwarebytes safe mode to clear)

@ Grats I have had a look at the files sent to me via TS Doctor. If the Chunk.0 header IFO Key InFO and REC Nav files dont help then I will be suggesting you contact Walker to ask the genius who implemented this in Vestel for a solution other than the costly DVR Studio 3!

Viewing Recordings from Hard Drive

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