T3 questions

nylonnet · Post by **nylonnet** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 15:56

It's like Christmas! So many questions for Santa...

- will the T3 support multiple T3 units in the same room, with the remote control able to select a unit to control? (Currently I have a piece of cardboard connected to a length of string that lowers/raises a flap to block one or other of my stacked DP-S1 units!)
- I didn't see "Freeview" anywhere. I trust it's not Freeview. That would be a dealbreaker.
- what's the mini keyboard option for? Internet apps?
- no mention of a Blu-ray (or any other optical disk) drive. No chance of that as an option later?
- are the codecs updated to accommodate more modern audio/video formats?

snuke · Post by **snuke** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 21:12

nylonnet wrote:- no mention of a Blu-ray (or any other optical disk) drive. No chance of that as an option later?

After the complete disaster that was the S1 DVD player I can't see them ever contemplating an optical drive again.

nylonnet · Post by **nylonnet** » Fri Mar 14, 2014 22:23

I hadn't heard of such disaster. My S1's DVD works, I suppose, but I've only used it once in 6 years (and that was just to test that it worked.)

What happened to other people's drives?

snuke wrote:
nylonnet wrote:- no mention of a Blu-ray (or any other optical disk) drive. No chance of that as an option later?
After the complete disaster that was the S1 DVD player I can't see them ever contemplating an optical drive again.

prl · Post by **prl** » Sun Mar 16, 2014 10:14

nylonnet wrote:...
What happened to other people's drives?
...

When the S1 was released, you couldn't play a DVD and record at the same time. The situation improved over time, but DVD playback was always a little unreliable for me. The DVD player on my S1 couldn't play (wouldn't even recognise) about 10% of the CDs in our collection. I eventually gave up and bought a < $60 Toshiba DVD player, which works just fine.

ajw · Post by **ajw** » Sun Mar 16, 2014 10:50

I have external HDD connected by USB to my P2, with lots of movies stored.

Will I be able to read these files if I get a T3?

ajw

prl · Post by **prl** » Sun Mar 16, 2014 11:16

ajw wrote:I have external HDD connected by USB to my P2, with lots of movies stored.

Will I be able to read these files if I get a T3?

ajw

The T3 can read and write most common file system formats (including NTFS and FAT32), so, yes, it will be able to read the files.

Playing them is a different question. There's no support in the T3 for playing DP series native .tvwiz format recordings, so if the movies are just recordings copied off the DP-P2 using the P2's File Player copy function, than no, the T3 won't be able to play them. Convert them to single .ts files, then yes, they should play, but if they're movies and bigger than 4GB, you'll need to do a double shuffle, convert them onto an NTFS drive on a PC, reformat the P2's external FAT32 drive as NTFS, and then copy them back. But now the P2 won't be able to copy to that drive, though it will be able to read it.

ajw · Post by **ajw** » Sun Mar 16, 2014 17:28

Thanks Peter. The external HDD units contain files moved across from the P2 using the file/move command, and I imagine they're all quite large. I've got 3 Western Digital external HDDs filled with movies. All up about 3 terabytes. It's a shame the new unit doesn't maintain some backwards capability to read these files. I'm not really interested in any time consuming process to covert these to another format. Not a major drama I suppose, most are readily available by download now.

Cheers,

ajw

prl · Post by **prl** » Sun Mar 16, 2014 17:35

Hi, Allan.

There's no re-encoding necessary. If the movies are unedited, you just need to join all the numbered files together in order into a single file.

On U*ix just:
cat [0-9]* > /other/disk/moviename.ts
will do it.

There's an option on Windows cmd shell "copy" command that will do the same.

If the files are edited (or if you don't want to mess about with command line interfaces), both WizFX and YARDWiz are able to do the same thing.

Henk · Post by **Henk** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 05:21

Does the eSata port allow you to daisy chain external SATA drives,
i.e. does the T3 motherboard have a multiplier build-in (port multiplier compatible)?

If a SATA multiplier is present, can you read from one eSATA drive. process the data (i.e convert P2 to format to T3 format), and write the data to a second external eSATA drive. Can this task be scheduled for night time?

Link to suitable dual bay, eSata connected unit:

http://www.startech.com/HDD/Enclosures/ ... SAT3540U2E

Can transfer of data to a NAS be scheduled overnight (CRON jobs)?

Can you check (through the menu) storage left on any internal and external drive?

Has the power supply been built with quality in mind, and has it been oversized by design allowing for lower operating temperatures?

What quantity (volume) of air is being displaced by the fan at its maximum speed, generating how many decibels (dBa) of noise?

Where is the fan intake, and does it allow for a duct to be bolted to the T3, pulling air in from outside "the cabinet" area?

Are there any T3 component which might be at risk of outdating the unit before its life span is reached (Gigabit network speeds, prematurely failing power supply?)

Can you read the subtitles when viewing at 2x or 4x, or are they not displayed?

Can the T3 be woken via LAN?

Thanks,

Henk

Edited (18-3-2014 23.50h AEDT), added URL to suitable hardware

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 09:20

Henk wrote:Does the eSata port allow you to daisy chain external SATA drives,
i.e. does the T3 motherboard have a multiplier build-in (port multiplier compatible)?

As far as I know, yes the hardware supports port multiplier. I would assume that the corresponding Linux Kernel 3.6.0 drivers would too. So, in theory, it should be possible to use a port multiplier and an external enclosure. I'm not aware of anyone testing that config. I certainly don't have the gear to do so.

If a SATA multiplier is present, can you read from one eSATA drive. process the data (i.e convert P2 to format to T3 format), and write the data to a second external eSATA drive. Can this task be scheduled for night time?

I don't see a reason why those things could not be achieved. If you are asking whether there is a standard GUI to do that already; the answer is no.

Can transfer of data to a NAS be scheduled overnight (CRON jobs)?

Yes, crond is installed and runs by default. There is no standard GUI for scheduling any sort of jobs other than recording, viewing or power management timers. Some jobs, like formatting a disk, can be put into background. I guess it would be possible to add other classes of jobs, such as copy to the scheduler. However, if you want your shows recorded to the NAS, you don't have to copy them there - you can just set the recoding path directly to your NAS.

Can you check (through the menu) storage left on any internal and external drive?

Yes, the file manager will show you disk usage for each volume.

Has the power supply been built with quality in mind, and has it been oversized by design allowing for lower operating temperatures?

We don't know for sure. There has been some feedback from the testers on the power supply and case designs, suggesting improvements. From what I hear, some of this feedback has been taken on board and the units that came out of the factory will be different to what we have been testing with.

What quantity (volume) of air is being displaced by the fan at its maximum speed, generating how many decibels (dBa) of noise?

Those figures are not available / published. I don't think you'll get any of the testers to take readings for you, because we don't have the gear necessary. But, let me re-iterate that the fan is very quiet in comparison with every single piece of equipment I have; and I am very picky about fan noise. I've got a pretty quiet 2.5" laptop drive in the T3 and it makes more noise than the fan. My guess would be that this puts the fan noise at 20dBA or lower in it's default auto setting.

Where is the fan intake, and does it allow for a duct to be bolted to the T3, pulling air in from outside "the cabinet" area?

There has been some debate about the airflow design of the case. The fan is located at the back, behind the power supply and to the right of the HDD mount. The top of the case has numerous perforations for passive cooling. Some testers don't like this design because they feel the effectiveness of the fan is reduced by having vents to the outside so close to the fan. I, on the other hand, think that not relying on the fan to do all the cooling, but having enough vents and heat sinks to passively cool the device is a better approach. The good news is, that if you have very specific cooling / airflow requirements, it should be relatively easy to make modifications to suit you. You can program the fan to be always on, set the desired speed and put gaffer tape over some of the vents, to direct the airflow over the HDD and through the power supply. Judging by the main board design, the barebones T3 could probably operate fanless.

Are there any T3 component which might be at risk of outdating the unit before its life span is reached (Gigabit network speeds, prematurely failing power supply?)

Who knows.

The network is 10/100 and is as fast as it can/needs to be. USB2 is not the fastest available, but it's plenty fast for most devices and you have eSATA to transfer data in bulk. Power supply? That tends to vary. There are DP-S1s out there that have 7+ year old power supplies that still work fine, yet others had theirs rebuilt a couple of times. Time will tell and warranty will take care of any truly premature failures.

Can you read the subtitles when viewing at 2x or 4x, or are they not displayed?

Just tested with Formula 1 on ONE, with time shift and the subtitling was there at 2x, 4x and 8x - good luck keeping up at the higher speeds.

Can the T3 be woken via LAN?

I think so, but I have not tested. I have seen an extension that can send WOL to other devices.

Henk · Post by **Henk** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 17:26

Where is the fan intake, and does it allow for a duct to be bolted to the T3, pulling air in from outside "the cabinet" area?
There has been some debate about the airflow design of the case.
The fan is located at the back, behind the power supply and to the right of the HDD mount.
The top of the case has numerous perforations for passive cooling.

Some testers don't like this design because they feel the effectiveness of the fan is reduced by having vents to the outside so close to the fan. I, on the other hand, think that not relying on the fan to do all the cooling, but having enough vents and heat sinks to passively cool the device is a better approach.

The good news is, that if you have very specific cooling / airflow requirements, it should be relatively easy to make modifications to suit you. You can program the fan to be always on, set the desired speed and put gaffer tape over some of the vents, to direct the airflow over the HDD and through the power supply. Judging by the main board design, the barebones T3 could probably operate fanless.

Thank you Peter for your concise answers.

Some supplementary questions arising from the above quote:

- Does the motherboard have any temperature sensors, and if so are the readings available to have the fan adjust its fanspeed along a temperature-driven curve?

- Are the USB 2.0 ports addressable individually, i.e. can they be activated (powered up) under program control, to turn on/off 5V case fans, hooked up externally. (This assumes enough headroom in the on-board power supply.)

- Does the rear of the T3 have enough real estate left to provide a female IEC socket, which is looped through from the mains 240V, and is energised when the T3 is in a non-off state? (E.g. to power up a set of external SATA drives, antenna splitter etc).

And something new:

Can at recording time the final destination folder be specified (per group of programs)?

Can whole folders be pass-worded to prevent accidental deletion, i.e. read-only, without interfering with the setting of bookmarks inside this folder for particular recordings.

Can bookmarks be set per viewer. I.e. at View-As facility with predefined user list. The users can then flag if they are happy for a recording to be deleted.

The user list would contain a parental access flag as well per user.

Can the time shift buffer be defined in a time length?

Can there be multiple time shift buffers running simultaneously (as long as there are spare recording slots)?

Can a time shift buffer be automatically saved (viewer is watching program with a slight delay, e.g. 30 seconds), and the program is switched over to view another channel. When switching back to the previous channel, viewing is resumed where you left off.

Thank you,

Henk

Edited once (18-3-2014 23.10h AEDT), to clarify "buffer" ==> "time shift buffer" & 1 typo

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 20:19

Henk wrote:Does the motherboard have any temperature sensors

I don't know.

are the readings available to have the fan adjust its fanspeed along a temperature-driven curve?

I haven't seen anything like this exposed in the /proc interface. The fan settings seem to be grouped under the front panel API, so it's possible that this is driven by the front panel MCU. There may or may not be a public API for that.

Are the USB 2.0 ports addressable individually, i.e. can they be activated (powered up) under program control, to turn on/off 5V case fans, hooked up externally. (This assumes enough headroom in the on-board power supply.)

USB uses the standard Linux OHCI and UHCI APIs.

Does the rear of the T3 have enough real estate left to provide a female IEC socket, which is looped through from the mains 240V, and is energised when the T3 is in a non-off state? (E.g. to power up a set of external SATA drives, antenna splitter etc).

Have a look at the pictures at http://shop.beyonwiz.com.au

Can at recording time the final destination folder be specified (per group of programs)?

Yes. For example, you can create an auto-timer that looks for "bachelor" and places all those recordings in a folder named "The Bachelor"

Can whole folders be pass-worded to prevent accidental deletion, i.e. read-only, without interfering with the setting of bookmarks inside this folder for particular recordings.

I don't think so.

Can bookmarks be set per viewer. I.e. at View-As facility with predefined user list. The users can then flag if they are happy for a recording to be deleted.

The user list would contain a parental access flag as well per user.

There is no multi-user concept in the GUI. I seriously doubt that anyone would want a PVR where they need to "log in" just to watch TV!

Can the buffer be defined in a time length?
Can there be multiple buffers running simultaneously (as long as there are spare recording slots)?
Can a buffer be automatically saved (viewer is watching program with a slight delay, e.g. 30 seconds), and the program is switched over to view another channel. When switching back to the previous channel, viewing is ressumed where you left off.

I assume you are talking about timeshift. It's handled in a very different way to the DP series and it is likely to see some more changes, based on the feedback we're giving. There is no fixed timeshift length. It seems to be split on an event basis, so if you have a 3 hours Winter Olympics program, then the current timeshift buffer will grow to 3 hours, if required. The timeshift user interface will need improving, initially I thought that the timeshift buffer was lost when a new event has started, but that's actually not the case, you can still record the previous event, as long as it was in the timeshift. You can configure what happens when you do something that would cause the timeshift buffer to be lost, including a prompt where you can select what to do. Some settings suggest that you can have multiple timeshift buffers at the same time, as you channel surf, but I haven't got my head around the user interface for that - yet!

cartman · Post by **cartman** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 22:05

What about that most elusive - and some say mythical - creature: The PiPasaurus?

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 22:14

Sorry about the poor quality screenshot, it's all I had to hand right now.

: T3 PiP; PiP.jpeg (32.48 KiB) Viewed 7577 times

cartman · Post by **cartman** » Mon Mar 17, 2014 22:26

What the?! I was joking - can't believe it actually has it!
Is it printed on the remote?

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 00:24

cartman wrote:What the?! I was joking - can't believe it actually has it!
Is it printed on the remote?

Yes it is. A whole button dedicated to (what I consider) a useless gimmick.

T3_Remote.jpg: T3 Remote; (18.66 KiB) Downloaded 742 times

prl · Post by **prl** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 07:55

cartman wrote:... Is it printed on the remote?

It is.

There are some restrictions on HD PIP. You can have SD PIP in SD, SD PIP in HD, but not HD in HD. You can have HD PIP in SD, but it doesn't seem to work properly. I only just noticed that last one. The PIP area can be moved around on the screen and resized.

[Added] I think that the problem I'm seeing with HD PIP in SD main screen is that the PIP should only ever be SD. I think that the bug here is that it allows me to set a HD PIP in an SD main screen in the first place.

But I'm not sure. I've posted about this in the beta forum.

Roger · Post by **Roger** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 17:45

Ok I've jumped in on a wing and a prayer and ordered - but if there isn't IceTV and DP file compatibility pretty soon after release I'm going to be trying to answer some awkward questions from my better half - ever the optimist.

glow · Post by **glow** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 18:36

peteru wrote:Some settings suggest that you can have multiple timeshift buffers at the same time, as you channel surf, but I haven't got my head around the user interface for that - yet!

I think it would really good if you could have simultaneous automatic timeshift buffers on a prioritised list of services provided tuners were available.
Imagine I've surfed to a channel, found it was half way through an interesting show and then I can just rewind to the beginning. Seems the best reason to have a PVR which can record 8 services simultaneously - just use spare tuners to automatically buffer all my favourite services during primetime.

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 21:36

glow wrote:Seems the best reason to have a PVR which can record 8 services simultaneously - just use spare tuners to automatically buffer all my favourite services during primetime.

Like TVSN, SpreeTV, TV4ME, Fresh Ideas TV, EXTRA, EXTRA2 and the like?

Henk · Post by **Henk** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 22:07

peteru wrote:
cartman wrote:What the?! I was joking - can't believe it actually has it!
Is it printed on the remote?
Yes it is. A whole button dedicated to (what I consider) a useless gimmick.

T3_Remote.jpg

Nice photo, I hope the printing on the buttons is durable, the 1 button looks a bit blemished!?

Peter, would you be able to upload a photo showing the BR-02 remote on the same picture,
maybe even a scale ruler? To replace the original HD photo in the post.

Thanks,

Henk

prl · Post by **prl** » Tue Mar 18, 2014 22:17

Henk wrote:...
Nice photo, I hope the printing on the buttons is durable, the 1 button looks a bit blemished!?
...

The screenprint beside the '1' has symbols for space, period, colon. They're not blemishes

craigh · Post by **craigh** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 06:41

peteru wrote:
cartman wrote:What the?! I was joking - can't believe it actually has it!
Is it printed on the remote?
Yes it is. A whole button dedicated to (what I consider) a useless gimmick.

T3_Remote.jpg

Given the T3 needs to be successful as a consumer product to ensure its ongoing existence, things like PIP are needed as consumers work in a tick box mode for this sort of stuff.

We have to all remember that its not us that keep these products on the market, its the general user so much of we ask for is irrelevant to them as well.

Number 1 the T3 needs to produce a high quality picture, ease of use and be reliable for the general market, beyond that is all good but without the basics it wont go far without general consumer purchase through normal stores etc.

mister_bimbo · Post by **mister_bimbo** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 20:01

Hi Peter,

prl wrote:...

There's no re-encoding necessary. If the movies are unedited, you just need to join all the numbered files together in order into a single file.

On U*ix just:
cat [0-9]* > /other/disk/moviename.ts
will do it.
....

While I've used the above command with generally good results, I was curious about your comment on edited movies ... does the above not work on edited files..?

I've got an extensive library of files that I have built up over the years ... hoarding recorded shows on my NAS. I've not yet found a recursive way to issue these commands, which means I've got to do it recording by recording. I did try my hand a writing a (Linux) batch file that I could run overnight on my NAS, but that was a dismal failure

Suggestions here are welcome!

Finally a few more questions on the T3 and file playing:
1. If you have a T3 and a P1/P2 on the network, is the T3 able to play back the files from the P1/P2 (i.e. recordings on the local P1/P2 drive)..? I know that the manner of playing these files is different to when I copy these same files to my NAS.
2. Can the P1/P2 play recorded files from the T3...?
3. Can multiple T3's on the one network play files back from each other at the same time..? I know this sounds dumb, but there are a number of occasions in my house where I want to play records from BW "A" on TV "B" and BW "B" on TV "A" at the same time and this just doesn't work with my P1/P2.
4. In fact with the P1/P2, you can't really watch anything via the BW that is being played from the network (e.g. the NAS) if someone else is watching a recording that is stored on the local P1/P2 drive ... so I'm curious as to whether the T3 has been able to remove that limitation..?

Thanks again (as always) for the information.

Cheers,
David

peterkay · Post by **peterkay** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 20:39

What is USB copy speed. DPS1 struggles to copy at >1MB/s so a 1GB movie takes 20 minutes to copy.

I often download movies from DPS1 using it WiFi port. WiFi appears to be missing on T3.
Is the only way I can see T3 on network is via hard wired Ethernet?

I assume internet access is available is better than the absolutely hopeless WizTV on S1.
Can I use a bluetooth mouse/keyboard?

EPG
Can EPG selected recording automatically add 10 minutes to length?
When viewing EPG does actual timer length get displayed i.e. show scheduled time start and stop time even it extends into next program. Problem occurs with S1 if weekly recording is selected and next weeks program starts 10 minutes later. A screen shot of T3 would be valuable.

Ad skipping
I assume you can program buttons to skip forward/back by 3 mins or 30 seconds etc.

prl · Post by **prl** » Wed Mar 19, 2014 21:37

mister_bimbo wrote:Hi Peter,

prl wrote:...

There's no re-encoding necessary. If the movies are unedited, you just need to join all the numbered files together in order into a single file.

On U*ix just:
cat [0-9]* > /other/disk/moviename.ts
will do it.
....
While I've used the above command with generally good results, I was curious about your comment on edited movies ... does the above not work on edited files..?

In edited files, the editing is only reflected accurately if the trunc header file is used to reconstruct a single file from the chunks that are left. If you just concatenate the file, everywhere where there was a cut longer than the data for a single file, there will be data files missing. They'll just be reassembled with no continuity of the data flow. It will be up to how robust the codec is when it gets played back whether it will work or not.

mister_bimbo wrote:I've got an extensive library of files that I have built up over the years ... hoarding recorded shows on my NAS. I've not yet found a recursive way to issue these commands, which means I've got to do it recording by recording. I did try my hand a writing a (Linux) batch file that I could run overnight on my NAS, but that was a dismal failure Suggestions here are welcome!

It shouldn't be too hard. It's a bit late now. I'll post something tomorrow. I think that starting off with something like:

Code: Select all

for rec in `find _root_of_movie_folders -type d -name '*.tvwiz'`; do
    (
        cd $rec && cat [0-9]* > ../`basename $rec .tvwiz`.ts
    )
done

would be a place to start. You'd need to be a bit careful quoting the expanded variables if the file names have spaces and shell metacharacters in them.

Finally a few more questions on the T3 and file playing:

mister_bimbo wrote:1. If you have a T3 and a P1/P2 on the network, is the T3 able to play back the files from the P1/P2 (i.e. recordings on the local P1/P2 drive)..? I know that the manner of playing these files is different to when I copy these same files to my NAS.

No.

mister_bimbo wrote:2. Can the P1/P2 play recorded files from the T3...?

The T3 can be a Windows Sharing server, and the recordings are monolithic .ts files, so probably yes. I haven't tried it, though.

mister_bimbo wrote:3. Can multiple T3's on the one network play files back from each other at the same time..? I know this sounds dumb, but there are a number of occasions in my house where I want to play records from BW "A" on TV "B" and BW "B" on TV "A" at the same time and this just doesn't work with my P1/P2.

They can be both DLNA server and client, so yes, probably. Again, I haven't tried it.

mister_bimbo wrote:4. In fact with the P1/P2, you can't really watch anything via the BW that is being played from the network (e.g. the NAS) if someone else is watching a recording that is stored on the local P1/P2 drive ... so I'm curious as to whether the T3 has been able to remove that limitation..?

The T3 seems to be able to drive a 100Mb/s link full speed and not impact its other functions. Peteru has don some experimenting with this.

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 01:29

peterkay wrote:What is USB copy speed.

I haven't tested the performance of USB HDDs, but there is always eSATA if you want real speed.

WiFi appears to be missing on T3.

Supported via a USB dongle. I think the Beyonwiz store lists one as a purchase option.

I did some brief testing with an 802.11n dongle and it appeared to work fine.

Is the only way I can see T3 on network is via hard wired Ethernet?

No

I assume internet access is available is better than the absolutely hopeless WizTV on S1.

There is a browser. I have not tested it at all, besides loading up Google search, entering a search term and clicking on the first link.

Browsing the internet using a set top box and an infra red remote is something I have always found too frustrating to do when there is a perfectly good computer only a few steps away.

Can I use a bluetooth mouse/keyboard?

Probably. You will need a USB bluetooth dongle.

It works pretty well with standard USB wireless input devices, such as Logitech K400.

Can EPG selected recording automatically add 10 minutes to length?

Yes. Padding can be specified for both start and end. You can specify custom padding on autotimers.

When viewing EPG does actual timer length get displayed i.e. show scheduled time start and stop time even it extends into next program. Problem occurs with S1 if weekly recording is selected and next weeks program starts 10 minutes later. A screen shot of T3 would be valuable.

No, just the entry you selected is highlighted. There are little markers in the adjacent cells if there is some overlap. Recordings with overlaps are handled fine, so you don't have the same issues that the DP series had.

I assume you can program buttons to skip forward/back by 3 mins or 30 seconds etc.

Yes, 3 pairs of buttons are available and the skip amount for each pair is configurable.

BTW: You can add tags to your autotimers and perform IMDb searches on EPG entries.

Henk · Post by **Henk** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 05:54

- When recording to an external eSATA drive, will this drive have to be formatted ext4 as well?

- Will the T3 format the external drive?

- Is there a maximum size for the external drive?

- Will something like this ( http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/8 ... Drive.html ) suffice? I.e. a 5400 rpm unit?

Thanks,

Henk

prl · Post by **prl** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 07:13

prl wrote:
mister_bimbo wrote:I've got an extensive library of files that I have built up over the years ... hoarding recorded shows on my NAS. I've not yet found a recursive way to issue these commands, which means I've got to do it recording by recording. I did try my hand a writing a (Linux) batch file that I could run overnight on my NAS, but that was a dismal failure Suggestions here are welcome!
It shouldn't be too hard. It's a bit late now. I'll post something tomorrow. I think that starting off with something like:
Code: Select all
for rec in `find _root_of_movie_folders -type d -name '*.tvwiz'`; do
    (
        cd $rec && cat [0-9]* > ../`basename $rec .tvwiz`.ts
    )
done
would be a place to start. You'd need to be a bit careful quoting the expanded variables if the file names have spaces and shell metacharacters in them.
...

As I suspected, handling recording names with spaces was a bit trickier than I thought when I whipped up that instant script.

This should work better (using cat to join the files):

Code: Select all

find root_of_movie_folders -type d -name '*.tvwiz' |
while read rec; do
    (
        echo $rec:
        cd "$rec" && cat [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9] > ../`basename "$rec" .tvwiz`.ts
    )
done

If you appreciate a good, incomprehensible, one-liner, this should do the same job:

Code: Select all

find root_of_movie_folders -type d -name '*.tvwiz' -exec sh -c 'echo "{}"; cd "{}" && cat [0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9] > ../`basename "{}" .tvwiz`.ts' \;

If you want to preserve edits, then you need to use getWizPnP.

This one will convert all the recordings to .ts in one batch, but they'll all end up in the same directory/folder, which may not be what you want:

Code: Select all

getWizPnP --copy --all --ts --indir="root_of_movie_folders" --outDir="root_of_movie_folders" --verbose ''

The '' at the end of the getWizPnP command is two single quotes, not a single double quote.

If you want to use getWizPnP and still preserve your folder structure, then this should do the job:

Code: Select all

find . -type d -name '*.tvwiz' | sed 's,/[^/]*$,,' | sort -u |
while read recs; do
    (
        echo $recs:
        cd "$recs"
        getWizPnP --copy --ts --indir="$recs" --outDir="$recs" --verbose ''
    )
done

The find/sed/sort pipeline finds all the directories that contain .tvwiz recording directories. Again, two single quotes at the end of the getWizPnP command.

mister_bimbo · Post by **mister_bimbo** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 20:12

Thanks Peter,

The below suggestion looks like the one for me - I will just have to get WizPNP (and learn how to use it) ... most of my files have edits (effectively everything that I have recorded from channels other than the ABC), so I may as well go to the trouble of preserving it properly.

prl wrote:
prl wrote: ...

If you want to use getWizPnP and still preserve your folder structure, then this should do the job:
Code: Select all
find . -type d -name '*.tvwiz' | sed 's,/[^/]*$,,' | sort -u |
while read recs; do
    (
        echo $recs:
        cd "$recs"
        getWizPnP --copy --ts --indir="$recs" --outDir="$recs" --verbose ''
    )
done
The find/sed/sort pipeline finds all the directories that contain .tvwiz recording directories. Again, two single quotes at the end of the getWizPnP command.

I have seen the notes on this forum before about WizPNP ... I've not really bothered with them, so I'll have to go through them all now

BTW, I think that above you may have missed the point in my Question 3: I wasn't asking about whether two 2 T3's would support it as the P1/P2 I have will already let you do this ... the issue is that the result isn't watchable as the network link chokes ... or rather the device's ability to manage network traffic does not stretch to this. I'm guessing that it would work (given what I've read about the ability of the network link), but I was wondering whether it had been tried.

I found that watching HD recordings over the network very quickly brings the problem into focus (in the scenario that I'm talking of).

Cheers,
David

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 20:38

David,

I still have no idea what your questions is, but I'll take a guess and answer what I think you may be asking.

I've had the T3 showing ONE on it's screen while streaming live GO! and ABC1 to two VLC clients on a computer. It all worked really well, with no stuttering, dropouts or any other hiccups.

Gully · Post by **Gully** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 20:41

mister_bimbo wrote:BTW, I think that above you may have missed the point in my Question 3: I wasn't asking about whether two 2 T3's would support it as the P1/P2 I have will already let you do this ... the issue is that the result isn't watchable as the network link chokes ... or rather the device's ability to manage network traffic does not stretch to this. I'm guessing that it would work (given what I've read about the ability of the network link), but I was wondering whether it had been tried.

I found that watching HD recordings over the network very quickly brings the problem into focus (in the scenario that I'm talking of).

I thought PeterU covered it in his response. The network ports in the T3 are a lot faster so I wouldn't expect a problem but it is untested.

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 20:44

Gully wrote:The network ports in the T3 are a lot faster so I wouldn't expect a problem but it is untested.

I beg to differ.

I is good at testings!

Gully · Post by **Gully** » Thu Mar 20, 2014 21:12

peteru wrote:
Gully wrote:The network ports in the T3 are a lot faster so I wouldn't expect a problem but it is untested.
I beg to differ.

I is good at testings!

Sorry didn't mean the speed was untested but I didn't think anyone had tested watching T3 files over the network on another T3.

Of course I could be wrong about that.

And again I was casting no aspersions on Peter's thorough testing.

mister_bimbo · Post by **mister_bimbo** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 06:50

Sorry Peter,

I should be more specific on the question

peteru wrote:David,

I still have no idea what your questions is, but I'll take a guess and answer what I think you may be asking.

...

The proposed setup that I am asking about would be:
A. T3(A) & TV(A)
B. T3(B) & TV(B)

Suppose I am (A) ... watching TV(A), with T3(A) playing a file that is stored on T3(B). My partner (B) is watching TV(B), with T3(B) playing a file that is stored on T3(A). I am wondering whether this would work (i.e. would it be watchable)..? And to raise the bar a little higher, would be it possible with both T3's playing back HD recordings..?

In this scenario, my existing P1/P2 configuration (i.e. P1 being setup (A) and P2 being setup (B)) won't successfully play recordings even when we are both watching standard definition recordings. Images on both devices start stuttering and jerking and are unwatchable: if I pause the play on one of the two, the image on the un-paused device becomes watchable.

And to elaborate slightly further, this same issue happens with my NAS and either the P1/P2: that is, should the P1 be playing a video from my NAS, and the P2 starts playing an video that is stored on the local drive of the P1, both videos (the one on the P1 and the one on the P2) become unwatchable. I have noticed that low resolution (small) videos from the NAS seem to avoid this problem ... so it seems to me an ability of the BW to handle a large amount of network data.

By way of background, both BW's are connected via a wire to a 10/100/1000Mbps switch, so I don't believe that network bandwidth (on my network) is an issue.

Anyway, as I said earlier, it does appear from comments earlier that the T3 is much better at handling this kind of load... now I'm looking forward to hearing that IceTV is supported and I'm off shopping

Peter - thanks again for always being so helpful

Cheers,
David

gra · Post by **gra** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 11:41

mister_bimbo wrote:Sorry Peter,

I should be more specific on the question

peteru wrote:David,

I still have no idea what your questions is, but I'll take a guess and answer what I think you may be asking.

...
And to elaborate slightly further, this same issue happens with my NAS and either the P1/P2: that is, should the P1 be playing a video from my NAS, and the P2 starts playing an video that is stored on the local drive of the P1, both videos (the one on the P1 and the one on the P2) become unwatchable. I have noticed that low resolution (small) videos from the NAS seem to avoid this problem ... so it seems to me an ability of the BW to handle a large amount of network data.

By way of background, both BW's are connected via a wire to a 10/100/1000Mbps switch, so I don't believe that network bandwidth (on my network) is an issue.

what is the make and model of your NAS?

prl · Post by **prl** » Fri Mar 21, 2014 12:25

mister_bimbo wrote:...
The below suggestion looks like the one for me - I will just have to get WizPNP (and learn how to use it) ... most of my files have edits (effectively everything that I have recorded from channels other than the ABC), so I may as well go to the trouble of preserving it properly.
...

GetWizPnP is normally available from the Software page on http://www.openwiz.org, but it's not accessible at the moment. Here's a link to a ready-to-run Linux version: getWizPnP-0.5.4-Compiled-Linux.zip.

There's HTML documentation in the html directory inside the package, and plain text documentation in the doc directory.

BTW, when you've converted everything, you can clean out the old recordings with

Code: Select all

find root_of_movie_folders -type d -name '*.tvwiz' -exec rm -r {} +

BigbobOz · Post by **BigbobOz** » Mon Mar 31, 2014 21:47

peteru wrote: Yes it is. A whole button dedicated to (what I consider) a useless gimmick.

Yeah I remember my TF5000 with PIP, thought it was the best until I got used just recording everything and the PIP became pointless!

Still, a 4x4 picture wall would be awesome on the big screen

That would be real cool just because you can! Feature request? Understand if it's way down on priority...

mister_bimbo · Post by **mister_bimbo** » Sat Apr 12, 2014 14:14

Hi Peter,

I've had a busy time of late ... but set aside this weekend to understand getWizPnP ... downloaded the ready-to-run version ... but no luck.

I tried to run it on my NAS (QNAP TS410 that runs Linux 3.4.6), but no joy - it gives me the error "-sh: /usr/bin/getWizPnP: cannot execute binary file" when I try running it. I've set the file to executable, and as you can see, its in my /usr/bin directory (which is part of my $PATH settings).

I'm guessing that there is some mis-match between the compiled version and my OS, so I had a hunt around for where I could download it from ... but the half dozen odd places that looked promising are all no longer available.

Unless there is a easy fix that you're able to advise, I'll have to resort to the simpler option of not straightforward OS level commands

Cheers,
David

prl · Post by **prl** » Sat Apr 12, 2014 14:28

Hi, David.

It doesn't surprise me all that much that the canned Linux getWizPnP doesn't run on your NAS.

Unfortunately, I'm still having problems with the DNS for the OpenWiz Wiki. You can pick up the latest Perl source for getWizPnP from http://ubuntuone.com/4DL9BpluAy87WzRD0CWWzq

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