Mfs_Ftp: extract, archive, restore & transfer recordings

[dave868]

I'm curious how you are playing it back, when you say you got 30 min? Are you playing it on the PC or sending it back to the TIVO to play??
Reason I ask, is that I just observed some similar behavior. I had a TMF file that I downloaded with mfs_ftp, and converted to .ty. This file is an NFL football game. Before I converted the tmf to ty, I copied it, and it took a LONG time to copy. The progress bar moved across to 100% in a normal amount of time, then stayed there, and the time till completion went up to something like 181,000 minutes! After a few minutes like this, the progress went to 0%, then the progress bar went across to 100%, and the copy was complete. Weird, but just like what happened when I downloaded this from the TIVO. After I converted it to a .ty, I played the file with VLC. It was playing OK, but I pulled the slide bar to make sure that it made it to the end of the game.
Interestingly, I could only pull it to the end of the 1st quarter. Ie it looked like I only had about 30 or 40 minutes of the recording. However, I put the thing in fast forward, and it kept going, ie the progress bar wasn't indicative of the true progress into the file. Ie the whole game was there, but by pulling the slide bar, it only looked like I had about 1/4th of the game.
This is really weird, and it sounds somewhat similar to what you were experiencing. I don't know if it is something to do with the length of the program or what. I've previously downloaded 1 to 2 hour programs, and didn't have a problem, however the football game was about a 3 1/2 hour long recording. This is also one of the first times I've tried playing back the .ty file directly. Previously, I've either uploaded such files back to the TIVO, or converted them into an mpg file.
Anyway, this is all very strange, and I don't have an explanation, but it seems related to what you were seeing, so I thought I'd post my observations.
So again, I'm curious how you were playing the file to only see 1/2 hour, and did it stop on it's own or did you try jumping to the end?

I am using WMP with the tyshow filters. Now I don't know if I am not getting the whole file or if I am just not playing the whole file. I suspect the latter in that the 1 hour shows are 1.2 gig... I have a DTIVO and the size seems proper.

Any suggestions for a viewer?

[wejones]

I am using WMP with the tyshow filters. Now I don't know if I am not getting the whole file or if I am just not playing the whole file. I suspect the latter in that the 1 hour shows are 1.2 gig... I have a DTIVO and the size seems proper.

Any suggestions for a viewer?

I generally use VLC ( http://www.videolan.org ) mainly because it is the main link between two other pieces of media hardware I use that require it (ie VLC can stream over network and play from streams), but also because it seems to play more types of files than any other player I've tried. As I said, it plays my big .ty files OK, although it definately seems to choke a bit with respect to the scroll bar on the bottom. I definately recommend VLC if you haven't tried it.
For a relatively quick check to see if your file is all there, you might feed it into TyStudio. I just did that to my big football game file, and it was all there, and TyStudio turned it into an MPG file. TyStudio did choke at the very end with one of those run out of input errors, but that usually doesn't seem to affect the resultant mpg file. I fed the mpg file into VLC, and it played fine, and the scrollbar took me all the way to the end.
So the bottom line is that the entire file was downloaded fine, but there were certainly some strange things going on on the PC when it was a .ty file.

[dave868]

I generally use VLC ( http://www.videolan.org ) mainly because it is the main link between two other pieces of media hardware I use that require it (ie VLC can stream over network and play from streams), but also because it seems to play more types of files than any other player I've tried. As I said, it plays my big .ty files OK, although it definately seems to choke a bit with respect to the scroll bar on the bottom. I definately recommend VLC if you haven't tried it.
For a relatively quick check to see if your file is all there, you might feed it into TyStudio. I just did that to my big football game file, and it was all there, and TyStudio turned it into an MPG file. TyStudio did choke at the very end with one of those run out of input errors, but that usually doesn't seem to affect the resultant mpg file. I fed the mpg file into VLC, and it played fine, and the scrollbar took me all the way to the end.
So the bottom line is that the entire file was downloaded fine, but there were certainly some strange things going on on the PC when it was a .ty file.

I tried VLC and tystudio. The entire 1 hour is indeed there...however if I try to convert to mpg with tystudio or view with vlc, its very blocky and distorted. If I use tytools to convert to mpg it looks great but only partial. When I convert a 1 hour (1.2 gig) ty file it converts it to a 30 minute (540 meg) mpg... As watch the log the speed increases greatly at 540meg and the mpg file stops growing in size.... is there perhaps some EOF marker in the ty that could be to blame?

[wejones]

I tried VLC and tystudio. The entire 1 hour is indeed there...however if I try to convert to mpg with tystudio or view with vlc, its very blocky and distorted. If I use tytools to convert to mpg it looks great but only partial. When I convert a 1 hour (1.2 gig) ty file it converts it to a 30 minute (540 meg) mpg... As watch the log the speed increases greatly at 540meg and the mpg file stops growing in size.... is there perhaps some EOF marker in the ty that could be to blame?

I was hoping someone with more knowledge would have some ideas, cause both your symptoms and mine are really strange to me, and I'm about out of ideas. I did do some sucessful transfers on my other tivo yesterday which didn't have any of these problems. Only difference was that the TIVO that worked was running Ver 2.51, and the TIVO that gave me all the problems was running version 3 firmware, although the recordings were done while the TIVO still had 2.51 on it. In case it's a factor, I have Win2K with NTFS drives. A while back I had a problem similar to yours when I was trying to transfer to a FAT32 drive. I think the FAT32 drives have a 4 GIG limit, and I think there are some OS limitations that might be down in the 2 GIG region, but I don't see why you'd have problems with a 1.2 gig file.
I'd suggest that you just use TyStudio or TyTools to download the ty file, except I've found mfs_ftp to generally be more reliable. With the other programs, I often get half way through a file, and it just quits.... perhaps the same problem, but it doesn't keep going???
Anyway, hopefully someone else has an idea. Other than corrupt files, I'm out of ideas.

[dave868]

I was hoping someone with more knowledge would have some ideas, cause both your symptoms and mine are really strange to me, and I'm about out of ideas. I did do some sucessful transfers on my other tivo yesterday which didn't have any of these problems. Only difference was that the TIVO that worked was running Ver 2.51, and the TIVO that gave me all the problems was running version 3 firmware, although the recordings were done while the TIVO still had 2.51 on it. In case it's a factor, I have Win2K with NTFS drives. A while back I had a problem similar to yours when I was trying to transfer to a FAT32 drive. I think the FAT32 drives have a 4 GIG limit, and I think there are some OS limitations that might be down in the 2 GIG region, but I don't see why you'd have problems with a 1.2 gig file.
I'd suggest that you just use TyStudio or TyTools to download the ty file, except I've found mfs_ftp to generally be more reliable. With the other programs, I often get half way through a file, and it just quits.... perhaps the same problem, but it doesn't keep going???
Anyway, hopefully someone else has an idea. Other than corrupt files, I'm out of ideas.

I don't know why I am having this issue with ty & ty+ files. However when I download the tmf I am able to use tytools to save it as an mpg and I have the whole thing and looks perfect. I still don't understand the problem, but I have a work around and I am happy... thanks for all your help.

[cheer]

I don't know why I am having this issue with ty & ty+ files. However when I download the tmf I am able to use tytools to save it as an mpg and I have the whole thing and looks perfect. I still don't understand the problem, but I have a work around and I am happy... thanks for all your help.

FYI if TyTool is the tool you're using to process to mpg, you should probably use tserver instead of mfs_ftp. Not saying that mfs_ftp won't work, but tserver is written specifically for TyTool. Jdliner has explained what the difference is, but for the most part it was way over my head.

You don't need to leave it running -- I start tserver from within TyTool, and shut it down when I'm done.

[dave868]

FYI if TyTool is the tool you're using to process to mpg, you should probably use tserver instead of mfs_ftp. Not saying that mfs_ftp won't work, but tserver is written specifically for TyTool. Jdliner has explained what the difference is, but for the most part it was way over my head.

You don't need to leave it running -- I start tserver from within TyTool, and shut it down when I'm done.

I actually started with tserver before mfs_ftp... I was never able to get it working. I always got the message unabele to retrieve now showing list.

I fired up mfs_ftp and had no trouble downloading, just playing.... however i seem to have a work around. Is tserver faster than mfs_ftp?

Thanks for your help....

[cheer]

I actually started with tserver before mfs_ftp... I was never able to get it working. I always got the message unabele to retrieve now showing list.

I fired up mfs_ftp and had no trouble downloading, just playing.... however i seem to have a work around. Is tserver faster than mfs_ftp?

Dunno about faster. Were you using the tserver from this package? Also, if the now showing list won't come over, try switching to single socket mode and see if it makes a difference. (If it does, we at least know where to begin troubleshooting.)

[tas3086]

I actually started with tserver before mfs_ftp... I was never able to get it working. I always got the message unabele to retrieve now showing list.

I fired up mfs_ftp and had no trouble downloading, just playing.... however i seem to have a work around. Is tserver faster than mfs_ftp?

Thanks for your help....

If you are using an old version of MFS_FTP you may also need to run the UNCRC and UNPRIORITY .exe files against your files before trying to use them. The most frequent indication of need to do this is Video output files are only 5xx meg. These 2 utilities remove corruptions that somehow got into files. (latest MFS_FTP utils do not have these errors anymore) .... give tytools a chance. It is much easier, and the most user friendly program that I have worked with, and has recently gotten much better, now that we have user documentation available ! And it is fairly flawless.

[wejones]

If you are using an old version of MFS_FTP you may also need to run the UNCRC and UNPRIORITY .exe files against your files before trying to use them. The most frequent indication of need to do this is Video output files are only 5xx meg. These 2 utilities remove corruptions that somehow got into files. (latest MFS_FTP utils do not have these errors anymore) .... give tytools a chance. It is much easier, and the most user friendly program that I have worked with, and has recently gotten much better, now that we have user documentation available ! And it is fairly flawless.

Thanks for the suggestions re UNCRC and UNPRIORITY.
Re using latest version of MFS_FTP, I think you are right. I have 2 TIVOs, one with the newest version, and one with a slightly older version, and I think it was the older version that was giving the problems.
Re use of tytools vs mfs_ftp, of course the decision on the use of tytools vs mfs_ftp vs tystudio, is primarily dependent on what you intend to do with the file once you have it down on the PC. I have used all three, and find each better at some things. The main reason for using mfs_ftp is because of the ability to re-insert files back onto the TIVO. Last time I tried tytools, it didn't have this capability, so if that is still the case, then the next question is, assuming that tytools might be better at extraction, can a .ty file extracted with tytools be re-inserted with mfs_ftp??? Ie I know that files extracted with mfs_ftp can be processed with other programs, but I wasn't sure if the reverse was true? I guess it's easy enough for me to try, but I just thought I'd ask rather than trying it.

[rc3105]

mfs_ftp can insert shows extracted via tytool but there's one big problem and one potentially huge problem


1) all the extended info like series/episode/date/time/actors is lost

2) the "junk between the cracks" present in some tyfiles (a normal function of the way mfs operates) can look enough like the start of a new fsid to cause serious problems like permenant gsod during insertion.

*had to disable the bounds checking to support inserting hd streams and haven't had time to really overhaul those procedures yet. as far as I know tytool doesn't filter those out during extract (allthough jamie's tserver build might) so importing tytool ty isn't recommended

[wejones]

I know the subject isn't clear, but I've been using mfs_ftp to download videos in .tmf format, and have been untarring them to .ty files and converting the .ty files to .mpg files with tystudio to play with vlc. This has been working well (at least with the tivo running the most recent mfs_ftp), but I recently was having problems with my TIVO, and decided that I better get off all the recordings before the HD dies. So to speed things up, I switched to downloading with mfs_ftp in the .ty mode directly instead of .tmf. The problem is, that when I then convert the .ty file to an mpg, that the audio sync is WAY OFF. Strange thing is, that when I play the .ty file directly with vlc, that the audio sync is fine. I've tried every output combination in tystudio, and all give the same results. This is very strange. I know it sounds like a tystudio problem, however as I said, it worked fine when I was working with the .ty files I got from .tmf downloads. Unfortunately, I've already deleted the file that has been giving me problems, but I'll try to experiment more with other files. But in meantime, I was curious whether there was any possible explanation for what I am seeing? Or perhaps my HD is already dead, and the files are corrupt?
thanks

EDIT: I did some more testing, and I think I was wrong in thinking that this was an mfs_ftp issue, with respect to a difference in the .ty files packaged in the .tmf. Instead, I think that I must have just had corrupted files somehow.
I went back and un-deleted one of the "problem" files on my TIVO, and downloaded it in .tmf format like I had been doing before, and it also had the out of sync audio problem. I thought it was just too much of a coincidence that I had been sucessful using the tmf downloads, then switch to .ty downloads, and ran into problems, however it does seem to be a coincidence.
I am going to try processing the .ty with tytools to see if that makes a difference, but I'm suspecting that I just have corrupted files, perhaps due to my failing HD, because this had been working fine up to this week.
But I am still really confused as to why the .ty files play fine with VLC, but the files converted to mpg are out of sync.

thanks.

[gr0k]

I'm having trouble with linux command line ftp... as soon as I login and do anything, mfs_ftp crashes. Just doing a dir causes a crash:

ftp tivo 3105
Connected to tivo.
220 Mfs_Ftp ver 1.2.9p - {sock24} from "192.168.0.100:33012"
Name (tivo:root):
502 Command not implemented "AUTH SSL"
SSL not available
331 User name okay, need password.
Password:
230 Running in TiVo Mode.
Remote system type is UNIX.
ftp> dir
421 Service not available, remote server has closed connection
ftp>

Here's the mfs_ftp log:

10:14:33:PM - 220 Mfs_Ftp ver 1.2.9p - {sock24} from "192.168.0.100:33012"
10:14:43:PM - 502 Command not implemented "AUTH SSL"
10:14:43:PM - 331 User name okay, need password.
10:14:49:PM - 230 Running in TiVo Mode.
10:14:49:PM - 215 UNIX
bgerror invoked with error

 " couldn't open socket: connection refused "

re-initializing mfs_ftp

close the current ftp connection and simply open another

"core dump" :p

info(version): 1.2.9p
info(tswv): 4.0.1b-02-2-240
info(dbl): 0
info(ithrottle): 2
info(insert_priority): 10
info(multithreaded): 0
info(saveuntil): suggestion
info(name_detail): 5
info(bjuggle): 0
info(active): 0
info(ac_interval): 1800
info(gatewayip): 127.0.0.1
info(gatewayport): 3105


catch close lastsock val "can not find channel named "sock24""

When I ftp using OSX's command line ftp, it works fine... I also tried turning off auto login and SSL AUTH with this command: ftp -n -z nossl tivo 3105, but I get the same error.

[w2kr]

The very first post in this thread mentions a tool "tmf2ty_cfg.exe" to convert a tmf file to a ty file. Unfortunately the link doesn't work. Can someone please help me with a link to this utility or suggest an alternative?

[wejones]

The very first post in this thread mentions a tool "tmf2ty_cfg.exe" to convert a tmf file to a ty file. Unfortunately the link doesn't work. Can someone please help me with a link to this utility or suggest an alternative?

Try the url at
http://www.dealdatabase.com/forum/sh...tmf2ty_cfg.exe

Works for me.

Also, an alternative for files that aren't too big is to rename the .tmf to .tar. Then Winzip, or any tar utility will work. However I just found out that this method seems to bomb on big files.