Mfs_Ftp: extract, archive, restore & transfer recordings

[zodiacal]

the dox for mfs-ftp say that the .tmf are for "streaming from one tivo to another tivo / pc". does that mean i can stream .tmf from my tivo to my pc? or does that mean that i *use* a pc to stream from one tivo to another tivo. i want to watch my tivo shows on my windows pc with out downloading them first.

[mikertx]

What I really want to do is store my collection
of tmf's on my RAID-5 linux fileserver and
stream them back to the tivo. I want them
to appear in the "Now Showing" list on the
tivo and stream back when selected from
the tivo menu.

Seems to me that the crucial missing piece
is whatever it takes to initiate the transfer
from the Tivo side when the show is selected.

I'm betting that Riley has this working now

Thoughts,
--
mikertx

[rc3105]

Re: streaming FROM pc

all you need is a tivo osd ftp client for browing a remote server (mfs_ftp or regular ftp either) and initiating the server->tivo transfer

anybody feel like whipping one up? (mine is SO ugly... )

[Will]

Originally posted by rd001
which Windoze FTP clients are working... this thread is so huge and so varied it's pretty hard to find things in here.

Kind of a moving target. In an appropriate distribution of labor here, I say keep the project manager moving forward, and we'll all pitch in on some of the administrative details like keeping track and sorting through the thread for info. Not unreasonable to ask of users who are getting an _extremely_ useful piece of custom software!

Originally posted by rd001
to make sure that I have your latest binaries.

Always in the first message, right?

Originally posted by rd001
Any progress on better compatibility for all FTP clients?

Again, why take time away from time spent on functionality to deal with something that's easy enough for the users to deal with on a trial & error basis? That's the kind of detail you clean up after the whole thing is done.

Originally posted by rd001
especially the Mac clients.

Well that's easy enough. Fetch works nearly perfectly. It screws up a filename now & then (drops digits from the number*) so use the OSX command-line ftp client to pick those files up. Do a directory, edit-copy the filename, edit-paste for your source and destination.

* edit: for anyone interested, Fetch's problem is clearly related to the cycle of the moon in that programs recorded early in the month can't be downloaded while those mid/late month download fine. Now some might say it's simply a question of field length and position, that when the total length of the date field includes only one digit for the day (e.g. 4/1/03) the first digit of the filename shifts to the left and gets clipped off, while with a date of 4/11/03 the filename shifts over to the right by one digit (where it belongs) and the filename begins where expected and everything is fine. I prefer superstition: it's the moon. Among other things it prevents me from worrying about what's going to happen when we get into the late Fall with 2 digit months.

[geowar]

I've found transmit to be the best:

<http://www.panic.com/transmit/>

--
Enjoy,
George Warner,
Schizophrenic Optimization Scientist
Apple Developer Technical Support (DTS)

[Will]

Originally posted by geowar
I've found transmit to be the best

I never had any luck with Transmit and mfs_ftp. Gives me a valid-looking list of files, but the download starts going into an endless sequence of empty subdirectories and then Transmit quits after a few seconds.

Could you describe what you do to make it work for you?

[geowar]

Other than run it on port 3105 (because I already run tivoftpd on port 21 (23?) I don't do anything special. I didn't do any extensive testing thou since I normally use vserver and the mfs_streams, mfs_extract, etc. tools.

Looks like I can see the /Recordings/NowShowingByClassic listings ok.

[MyKroFt]

Getright is a web download manager - not a straight FTP client. Granted - yes it can get ftp files from off the web. But it does the standard %20 converting thingie for spaces in the filenames. I dont think MFS_FTP understands that.

I have been using FlashFXP very sucessfully. From extracting .ty files to inserting a .tmf from one tivo to another.....

L8r
Myk

Originally posted by zodiacal
how come getright (a 3rd party download manager application)can't download ty files from mfs-ftp server? it seems like it doesn't understand that there are spaces in the file names and tries to download "ty\FSID" and doesn't download the whole file name. it just errors out. any ideas?

[John Silver]

Riley,
Thank you for a great product!

All,
I installed mfs_ftp recently on my two DTivo's (T-60 and a Hughes). Both machines have xPlusz 3.1 over 25xtreme, both are legal subs with locals, etc. xPlusz telnet, web, and ftp work fine. I'm using static IPs.

I am using SmartFTP and can download *.tmf files from either machine to the other (FXP works fine), or to any PC without problems. Transfer rate is between 1 and 1.2 gig Tivo <-> Tivo, Tivo <-> PC, and there are no errors. Am I correct in assuming that the only file needed to be copied is the tmf?

I have been waiting for the transfer to complete before trying to play it back. When I go to the destination Tivo to playback the new mfs entry, it shows up fine in Now Playing, gives a good synopsis, and when selected, prompts me to delete, and I get the following message:

"The Recorder was not able to record this program because there was no video signal on the channel... etc."

I searched everywhere in the forum, and the only reference I could find was related to scramble/no scramble incompatibilities. Both machines are definitely using the default scramble.

Anyone have any ideas on what I'm doing wrong?

[SR712]

I don't believe that you can exchange streams of scrambled video between TiVos... Hence the word scrambled. The common denominator, is that both systems must be running NoScramble, and the stream must be likewise.

[John Silver]

SR, right you are. I unscrambled both machines, recorded, and copied. Worked like a million. Thank you.

[willieb]

Riley,
Question. Make that 2 questions. I have my setup working really well with mfs-ftp but I have changed file paths etc because I don't like writing files to my c drive (small partition) and every time I upgrade it means changing all that again plus refiddling with smartftp (for some reason it never works right out of the box for me).

The new mfs_ftp sounds like a good improvement if I am reading you right, but I want to check this before I upgrade. I think I am reading that the new tmf2ty extracts the ty file from the tmf and then adds the xml data from the tmf to the end of the ty file. This allows tystudio/tytool to process the ty file directly and just exit when they reach the "crap" that is the xml data at the end of the file. Also, the ty's with the xml data appended to the end can now be reinserted to the Tivo with mfs_ftp 1.2.6. Sooooo.... does the new mfs_ftp output these ty files directly, thus saving me the step of converting my tmf to a ty before processing? Also, should I just convert my library of tmfs to this ty format, delete the tmfs and, if mfs_ftp can do this, only extract in the new ty+ format. Or is there something better about the tmf format that will be taken advantage of in the future. Thanks

Willie

[rc3105]

yep, tmf2ty just extracts the parts & appends the xml data to the end, HOWEVER, it also appends 512 #'s before and after the xml text making it possible to easily identify/locate/retrieve the xml. if you just cat the xml onto the end of a ty w/o the #'s it WILL NOT be restored on insert by 1.2.6b

tystudio/tytool/mplayer/vlc all handle extra junk at the end of a file automatically so mfs_ftp actually produces ty+ when you extract ty. recordings are available with both suffixes for sorting convenience if you extract ty with other utils

thanks to cwingert's ty enabled mplayer & mythtivo we can watch ty+ recordings w/o any conversion.

extract, archive, & restore as ty+ works nicely. tmf allways be more usefull for tivo->tivo or pc->tivo streamviewing (think hmo) because the xml is stored at the beginning of the file instead of the tail end

[bjarne]

First, this is great stuff, I have been using it for a while with really good results. Thanks RC3105.

Now for my question: In the past I have tried with success to insert tmf files, and also transfer directly from one of my DTiVos to the other, not that I needed to, but it was fun !!!

When I did the insertion, the show would show up in Now Playing after transferring a little bit, and I could start watching almost immediately. When I do the insertion with the new ty format, it does not show up untill the whole file has been transferred. Is this a limitation of the new format, where the xml data is at the end?

It is really not a problem for me, just wanted to understand it.

It really was cool, though, to start watching the show while it was still being transferred.

Bjarne

[SirTrini]

I let it stream for about a minute then go to the now showing... it shows up as a "yellow" item.

RC3105 this program is awesome and is the only program I use for extraction. I love the idea of having one program on the Tivo performing multiple functions. Thanks for creating this!!!

I do have a couple of questions for you though...

1. are you planning to incorporate some more of the show information into the insert? i.e. the show description or is this for cross compatibility reasons?

2. I had mentioned a while back about streaming programs and when you "catch up" to the green bar the Tivo asks you to delete the program. i.e. while watching the show (say... after a minute into the streaming) the show will report itself as 10 minutes when it is really 30... the duration of the show does not change to reflect what is really on the Tivo at the current time. Is this something you still think you can fix?

3. I had my friend directly connect his Tivo to his DSL modem in an attempt for me to download a ty file from him.... this did not work... we got a timeout from the server.... When I ask him to go into FTP from his lan MFS_FTP works.... is there a timeout value set somewhere?

Thanks for your time.... I appreciate all you hard work!

Mike