Mfs_Ftp: extract, archive, restore & transfer recordings

[Wes]

I tried to read through 20+ pages of the skicky thread and it's almost half way. That's quite a bit to read up there.

Anyway, so far I still haven't find why my upload is soooo slow yet other than setting the priority for the Mfs_Ftp higher.

I have a newly cleared DTivo1 and it has nothing in the to-do and nothing at all. I've tried to upload shows into this one and another DTivo that has tons of shows in there. The download speed is great in the 1-2Mbit range but my upload is only like 100-300K range into either DTivo.

Since I just started trying Mfs_Ftp and installed the latest Mfs_Ftp into both DTivo just last night, I'm wondering if there is something obvious that people have experienced may cause this extreme slow upload problem.

TIA.

[osetivo]

Wes:

a couple of things that I did (all from Riley's suggestions), you may have to do a bit more research for specifics, but I get 1MB inserts (WinXP SP1, Linksys BEFSX41 router)

EDIT: Active vs Passive FTP (big difference)

1. Boot parameters: root=/dev/hda4 runideturbo=false
2. checked my Maxtor HD with "hdparm -i /dev/hda"
Found MaxMultSect=16 and MultSect=off
rc.sysinit "hdparm -m16 /dev/hda"
Now the MultSect=16
3. used mbm's mfs_import (think it's at alt.org) and renamed it as mfs_stdinsert (EDIT: I assume this is now part of DL package, I haven't updated mfs_ftp for the last couple of versions)

4. Installed "setpri"
5. Set ithrottle at 0
6. Set insert_priority at 10

Originally posted by rc3105

speed issues - the biggie

here I thought it was something complex & it was just the !@#$% ideturbo module, figures. thanks mbm!

to check your tivo boot parms issue this command from bash

bootpage -q /dev/hda

you should get roughly this


IP address: 192.168.0.2
Primary boot partition: 3
Alternate boot partition: 6
Hostname: unnamed
Net boot kernel name: linux.px
Boot parameters: root=/dev/hda4 runideturbo=false
MAC address: bd:ca:43:47:75:90
RF channel: 0
Standby: 109
1


if the "Boot paramters:" line DOES NOT include "runideturbo=false" then you need to add it

note whatever your root parms are. "root=/dev/hda4" or "root=/dev/hda7"

and update your parms by issuing this command

bootpage -P "your_current_root_parms runideturbo=false" /dev/hda

on my boxes it's

bootpage -P "root=/dev/hda4 runideturbo=false" /dev/hda

reboot, try an insert. should be MUCH faster [/B]

[Wes]

osetivo, thanks for the tips. I've made all of the changes except setting the priority for ithrottle and insert_priority. I'm getting about 500MB/s when i have the unit in standby mode. How do you use the setpri to set those priority ?

[osetivo]

Originally posted by Wes
osetivo, thanks for the tips. I've made all of the changes except setting the priority for ithrottle and insert_priority. I'm getting about 500MB/s when i have the unit in standby mode. How do you use the setpri to set those priority ?

They are in first couple of lines in mfs_ftp.tcl. (FYI im still using version 1.2.8f)

To be honest, I made the suggested changes to my TiVo back in July and went from 200 to 600-700KB inserts, and sort of settled on that as the best I could do, which was fine since I rarely insert TYs. However, the other day I inserted a file and it was flying (1MB/sec) I don't recall any other efforts (Since July) to increase speeds nor have I done any other changes to the Tivo since then, so I speculate the latest speed bump was probably something on the WinXP/PC side of the equation.

I did recently reinstall the OS and got the latest version of SmartFTP, and may have changed firmware of the router, other than that I really don't know how I got it from 600 to 1MB, sorry.

[Will]

Originally posted by osetivo
the other day I inserted a file and it was flying (1MB/sec). I don't recall any other efforts to increase speeds

An increase from your normal 0.7 to 1MB is not totally out of the range of random variation. I'm normally around 0.82 and peak a little above 1MB from time to time. Without changing anything else I can go to a line command ftp client and vary from 0.8-1.7 MB. There are _lots_ of variables in this equation! Seemingly random. And they mislead you into seeing patterns that frequently aren't really there.

[osetivo]

Originally posted by Will
An increase from your normal 0.7 to 1MB is not totally out of the range of random variation. I'm normally around 0.82 and peak a little above 1MB from time to time. Without changing anything else I can go to a line command ftp client and vary from 0.8-1.7 MB. There are _lots_ of variables in this equation! Seemingly random. And they mislead you into seeing patterns that frequently aren't really there.

my 1MB was average sustained for the entire insert via SmartFTP

[mikey]

One more question, for now

How do I rename a show with mfs_ftp?
Thanks
Mikey

[rc3105]

you don't. use tivoweb before extracting the recording

edit: to answer the ? in the next post

really doesn't matter except for 1 thing. if the last line of your rc.sysinit is "exec < /dev/ttyS3 >& /dev/ttyS3; bash --login" without a trailing "&" then it needs to loaded before that

[mikey]

Thanks Riley.
I tried changing the name using tivoweb and after updating some tivoweb modules it does change the name, BUT on a gxcebotd runnng software version 3.01 xtreme via xupgrade, when you sort the NowPlaying list alphabetically the show is still sorted by its original name no biggie. I was just wongering if there was another way using mfs_ftp.

Thanks,
Mikey

P.S.
Where in rc.sysinit would you insert hdparm -m16 /dev/hda ?
the beginng, middle, end, or just above/ below something else...
Not really wanting to screw up my tivo on something simple

Thanks again.

[cojonesdetoro]

I know you must hear this a lot but I just can't help myself. This is by far the most rockin' tivo hack ever! It is freekin' AWSOME!!!!

It was because of mfs_ftp that I got another Tivo from Ebay and slapped a NIC and a coupla 129GB drives in it. Anyway.. that's all I had to say.. thanks.

[Dank]

Is it possible to have this program also have MPEG available? (Sorry if this has already been asked, this thead is gigantic...) It seems that TyStudio just tags some header info onto the TY file to convert to mpeg; could this do that as well dynamically? Would be great to get rid of one extra step.

[cojonesdetoro]

Originally posted by Dank
Would be great to get rid of one extra step.

There are other Tivo hacks that already do that pretty well. The strength of mfs_ftp is that you can use a regular ftp client to extract a recording as well as INSERT a recording. Right now, it's the only way to move recordings between Tivos. The fact that is uses FTP means that you can easily develop your own front end.

I believe tystudio can go direct to MPG in one step but I'm not sure that tystudio is still actively developed.

What would be sweeter is if we had a process whereby we go straight to a ready-to-burn DVD directory structure. Though, We're pretty close to that already with tytool. I think there's a 5 step process that can have you burn an already extracted recording in less than 1 hour.

[Dank]

Originally posted by cojonesdetoro
There are other Tivo hacks that already do that pretty well. The strength of mfs_ftp is that you can use a regular ftp client to extract a recording as well as INSERT a recording.

That is definitely a stength of this, but in my mind (and my usage) the strength of this program is that it brings the tivo closer to being a true internet multimedia device. By using FTP instead of TyTool or TyStudio, just about any computer that can access the network my tivo is on can grab the files with no additional software necessary. But since most computers cannot play TY files, they need additional software installed to either convert it to MPEG (using TySyudio or TyTool) or to install MPlayer or the DirectShow plugin in order to watch the video.

If the files could just be grabbed by FTP and then watched via any random DVD player program, with no extra steps required, it would be awesome.

[cojonesdetoro]

Originally posted by Dank
If the files could just be grabbed by FTP and then watched via any random DVD player program, with no extra steps required, it would be awesome.

The closest you can get right now is to watch a direct stream from mplayer. Mplayer will play a file without even copying it. I think it will stream and play right from the Tivo. I haven't read the details but I believe they have it working. I think it still doesn't support random access (FF/Rew/skip,etc ), it just plays the stream as it gets it.

There is an mplayer version on the Xbox that supposedly works in this manner.

[Dank]

Originally posted by cojonesdetoro
The closest you can get right now is to watch a direct stream from mplayer. Mplayer will play a file without even copying it. I think it will stream and play right from the Tivo.

Yes, there is such an mplayer. I use it. But it is nothing close to what I am asking for for this software...

Why are you so against having the mpeg header put on the front of the file? Do you not see the benefit of being able to use generic, non-tivo, software to be able to extract and watch the tivo? Why are you against this seemingly simple feature??