Topfield satellite receivers, especially TF7700HSCI

[wjano]

Hey guys,

I own a Topfield TF7700HSCI satellite receiver. As you can see on the details page, it can record anything after flashing the firmware, including FullHD broadcasts. I have several troubles making it to work, you can read those clicking on the link.

So, my main question is, how can you make it to play any content? When I record something, it creates a rec file with the video, audio and subtitle streams (GSpot says it is a TS file), an ifo file and a file I cannot recall. The receiver supports many codecs, as you can see on the specification (MPEG2, MPEG4, H264, AC3, DTS). The rec file was playable on PC.

So I tried to play various media contents. Nor avi, neither mkv files were accepted. I found a very useful tool, the tsMukeR, and converted my mkv files to ts files. Was not played, either, even not after renaming it to rec. I didn't find a way to create the ifo and the other file, since the ifo was not the same, as used on DVDs.

So, how can we fake media contents, to make the receiver beleive, it was previously recorded by itself, so wouldn't refuse to play it back? (On the weekends I'll be able to attach some of those files.)

[xbox360]

Did you read the manual ?

[wjano]

Of course I did. You can do so also, after clicking on this link, and downloading the manual.

It does not support playback, so we have to figure out a way to fake the content, to make it beleieve, it was recorded by itself. Oh, I didn't mention, the bugreport, that was previusly linked from my blog, was sent to the Topfield support team, but still no answer...

[Blue_MiSfit]

Heh... good luck.

You might try something really simple, like 8mbps CBR MPEG-2 and AC3 audio in a TS, and see if that will play. It's probably pretty close to what actually comes down on the transport streams from the satellite transponders. Then work your way up to something more robust.

~MiSfit

[Guest]

Probably the IFO file specifies the transport PIDs, and without those nothing will work.

[wjano]

avi and mkv files (and almost every file) is displayed in the directory list, but gives a warning message, when trying to execute. When renaming to rec, was still displayed, but couldn't play also. When I placed the other files in the same folder with random data, the rec file was hidden. No way to play it in this case.

I could ask for the file types: it is a rec file with main data, and there are 3 more metadata files: an ifo, an idx and an add. Samples will be attached on the weekend, I hope we'll be able to get started then

See attached a screenshot from filesizes - don't know if useful... The recordings (5 different) were from completely different sources. I'll run an MD5 check on same file sizes (ifo and add) to detect difference...

[wjano]

What a *******! I've updated to lates firmware, and it refuses to play shows recorded with the previous version. When restoring the old one, that plays it... That suuucks. Thank god, I didn't have any shows I would keep, since the whole recording thing is buggy as hell. Last week I could record on the pendrive, but hardly on the HDD, now none of them works. After stopping the recording process, the file list won't be updated - to be correct, it does once out of 10, but randomly. Shame.

So, now I can attach the files I promised. They are the same as on the image above. Metadata (idx, ifo and add) is attached to the post. MD5 check shows they are different. Video data (4 of 5, to fit 100MB) can be downloaded from here.

Let's focus on the question: which program can open and edit the metadata files? Are the rec files average TS files? How can I convert and fake mkv files, to make the player believe it was recorded by itself, and does not refuse to play? Thanks.

[SeeMoreDigital]

It would seem that the "Rec" files are indeed "Transport Streams" without the required embedded PID infomation.

Using DGMPGIndex (for the MPEG-2 sources) or DGAVCIndex (for the MPEG-4 AVC sources) it's possible to de-mux the audio and video streams. Then with TSremuxer, it's possible to re-mux them into a viable .TS file complete with PIDs.

EDIT: It is also possible to drag and drop the .rec sources straight into TSremux_v0.21.2 and re-mux them into viable .TS files complete with PIDs.


Cheers