fossil1503559605 Posted September 15, 2004 Posted September 15, 2004 Hi.... I have just backed up a DVD I have to the Toppy. I used DVD shrink to strip the DVD and then latest Project X to make the TS and add the header at the same time. And Alex's topfHDRead/write to copy from the HDD to the Toppy drive....The whole process took less than 2 hours....i will report times more exactly with the next one, assuming the 1st one is not a fluke...stay tuned The end result was perfect.... I am about to try it on another DVD I have. The A3 sound came across as well. foss
djOS Posted September 15, 2004 Posted September 15, 2004 foss, does topfHDRead/write replace Altair for transferring files to and from the toppy?
tonymy01 Posted September 15, 2004 Posted September 15, 2004 topfHDRead/Write reads/writes the raw HDD on a PC (i.e. mounted in some fashion to the PC, either firewire, USB, USB2, IDE), which means you need to have a creative setup in order to achieve this. OFFA (onefirmwareforall) DVD player owners have used a number of different techniques for this (OFFA was a firmware I helped to develop based on a firmware for an American machine with a CF slot that hung on the IDE bus, so people got creative and started applying the firmware to many ESS4318 chipset players and hung HDDs off the IDE instead), but generally it involves hanging the IDE and power cable out the case and then swapping the IDE cable between the DVD player and a USB->IDE adapter (such as an external HDD case). The advantage: No frustration with sub-USB2 speeds and reliability that Altair has. The disadvantage: Your Toppy starts to look like Frankenstien with bits hanging out everywhere.... (not to mention the warranty voiding to open up the case). Regards
fossil1503559605 Posted September 15, 2004 Author Posted September 15, 2004 As Tony says...If you do what I have done your warrantee is voided, but so much fun can be had....and now of course I have this new project to keep me happy. If you get a setup like mine, you would need the TopfHDRead/write which has not been released, however i have authority to give it only to those who need it and will take their own responsibilities for it. Altair will never be replaced probably...I still use it for taps etc, but for data file transfers, for me with a slower laptop, my transfer speed for 1 gig is 2 minutes, which is about ten minutes for a DVD foss
djOS Posted September 15, 2004 Posted September 15, 2004 Bummer, I really wish Topfield would improve the reliability & transfer speed of altair, surely there would be a way of bypassing the decoders and transferring files at full USB2 speeds? *looks wishfull*
stevearm Posted September 15, 2004 Posted September 15, 2004 Well ring them and complain. I have and the more the better. 1300 889 803 it's free!! The squeeky wheel gets oiled first. A few last tweeks and the toppy is finished.
fossil1503559605 Posted September 15, 2004 Author Posted September 15, 2004 Steve....please keep your campaign away from this thread I started....its purpose is not to discuss USB speeds......it's meant to be a happy thread about more things the Toppy is capable of as I discovered the hard way this morning after much fiddling. If I did not have my setup I would be happily transferring the processed files via the Toppy's USB connection and my homemade 10 meter cables, with no trouble at all, as could most Toppy purchasers....I would just allow more time. fossil
tonygib Posted September 15, 2004 Posted September 15, 2004 I've just tested this a bit myself as well. Interesting to see that it more or less works, guess you took a little long peter But, seriously, peter's tool is still needed. Sometimes, depending on what your converting, the audio stream doesn't get picked up correctly. In this case, peter's tool lets you easily select the correct PID for Audio. One more thing, that ppl may have a problem with and this applies to both "converters", in the case of DVD's, they tend to only have AC3 sound. So unless you have audio out on your toppy to an AC3 decoder for your sound, then the converted DVD's will seam silent. The only solution to this, is to demux using projectx, and re-encode the ac3 to mp2 using something like Besweet and then re-mux and convert before uploading to the toppy.
fossil1503559605 Posted September 15, 2004 Author Posted September 15, 2004 Yeah Tony...well, I'm not trying to create a competition... Its just that I was looking for a way to do it and it worked this morning....I was not involved in any testing. I was under the impression that the files had to be changed into transport stream files for PeterU's program, so while it is being done by project X, a Toppy header can be added....however my latest exploits have come across a snag in decrypting 1 vob out of 5 and I am wondering if it is deliberate by the DVD makers...hmmm...I have tried all types of rippers...no luck and the drive is fine...rarely used, and the disc is new....I have all of the necessary files except one....pees me off and returns me to earth!!! foss
Koops Posted September 15, 2004 Posted September 15, 2004 So the add TS header in projectx works now? I remember trying this ages ago to try and get divx/xvid/misc video files converted for playback on the toppy. Oh well, i've got a zensonic 330 dedicated for playing these back now anyway. Less headache and at only $130 I didn't need to think about it Still, my ideal entertainment stb will be one that does dtv (SD and HD) with divx/xvid/mov support with a network adapter and Hard drive that I can save/stream stuff to and from a pc/unix machine. Yes, this is a HTPC, but a stb version of this should make usability/stability much better. I hope the new topfield has enough grunt to be able to do something like this!
tonymy01 Posted September 15, 2004 Posted September 15, 2004 Yep, it works now because there are TWO choices in that menu, "Add TF4000 header to TS" "Add TF5000 header to TS" Thus I guess the orig projectX only added 4000 headers. This current version will also read a raw Topfield drive, although gives errors for my 80G Topfield USB drive (probably the same errors that Alex's TopfHDRead/Write utility originally gave on the Aussie TF5000PVRt HDDs) Regards
fossil1503559605 Posted September 16, 2004 Author Posted September 16, 2004 Hi...Works fine for me...I have just backed up another disk and written a header to it with Project X and copied the resultant .REC file to a Toppy drive and i am watching it now....beautiful quality...probably better than my DVD player...at the moment of course I can only play the file...the other options I can watch from the DVD...This is basically a test to get it done...when PeterU gets his done, I will see if I can add a header to a TS foss
tonygib Posted September 16, 2004 Posted September 16, 2004 Yeah, before now projectx only had "Add TF4000 header to TS", which of course didn't work for us. The TF5000 one does. foss, I have yet to come across a DVD I could not rip, tho some are much easier then others. If DVDDecrypter doesn't work, then vstrip will, its just more complex to work ones way around all the streams and branches, etc.
fossil1503559605 Posted September 16, 2004 Author Posted September 16, 2004 Hi...I have refined my processing methods and the process is now faultless. The Picture Quality is stunning, and the Toppy handles it just like any file....(perfectly as you would expect) Of course, the DVDs I am fiddling with have no copyright involved, but I would imagine that copyright would not be too difficult for such programs as DVD Decrypter. The sound is Dolby and fantastic. The whole process of 1/ stripping 2/converting and adding the header with Project X, and 3/ Transferring to The Toppy drive , for a 2 hour file takes about 2-2.5 hours depending on PC speed etc foss
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