Using True Visions Hd Set-Top Box As Pvr With Esata Harddisk

[chrgrims]

invadeit.

[rixalex]

invadeit.

Cool.

Thanks.

Take it you have successfully ordered from these chaps previously?

Will you be able to run power for it from the True box, or will it take its power independently?

Edited September 29, 2012 by rixalex

[chrgrims]

i have ordered a lot from invadeit, np there. im not sure about the power question. i will let you know when i install it, hopefully in 3-4 days.

[rixalex]

i have ordered a lot from invadeit, np there. im not sure about the power question. i will let you know when i install it, hopefully in 3-4 days.

Thanks. The power issue seems to be quite an important one.

[chrgrims]

got the hd today. installed it and called truevision. i have bought a set top box. they say i cannot use pvr with a bought box, it must be rented.

[rixalex]

got the hd today. installed it and called truevision. i have bought a set top box. they say i cannot use pvr with a bought box, it must be rented.

That's weird. Sorry to hear that. Did you buy the set top box from True?

What are you going to do?

[stoneyboy]

got the hd today. installed it and called truevision. i have bought a set top box. they say i cannot use pvr with a bought box, it must be rented.

That's weird. Sorry to hear that. Did you buy the set top box from True?

What are you going to do?

That's how they operate I'm afraid,I've had similar problems in the past where by they told me that because I hadn't subscribed for 3 months to the gold package due to being overseas,that I couldn't subscribe anymore,what nonsense,that is the reason I brought my own equipment so I am not bound buy any lengthy contracts.

[rixalex]

got the hd today. installed it and called truevision. i have bought a set top box. they say i cannot use pvr with a bought box, it must be rented.

That's weird. Sorry to hear that. Did you buy the set top box from True?

What are you going to do?

That's how they operate I'm afraid,I've had similar problems in the past where by they told me that because I hadn't subscribed for 3 months to the gold package due to being overseas,that I couldn't subscribe anymore,what nonsense,that is the reason I brought my own equipment so I am not bound buy any lengthy contracts.

What do you mean, you hadn't subscribed for three months? Do you mean you froze your account for three months, and they wouldn't let you unfreeze it?

[chrgrims]

got the hd today. installed it and called truevision. i have bought a set top box. they say i cannot use pvr with a bought box, it must be rented.

That's weird. Sorry to hear that. Did you buy the set top box from True?

What are you going to do?

its a true set top box, yes. i dont think there is much to do. except use the hd for something else.

[stoneyboy]

got the hd today. installed it and called truevision. i have bought a set top box. they say i cannot use pvr with a bought box, it must be rented.

That's weird. Sorry to hear that. Did you buy the set top box from True?

What are you going to do?

That's how they operate I'm afraid,I've had similar problems in the past where by they told me that because I hadn't subscribed for 3 months to the gold package due to being overseas,that I couldn't subscribe anymore,what nonsense,that is the reason I brought my own equipment so I am not bound buy any lengthy contracts.

What do you mean, you hadn't subscribed for three months? Do you mean you froze your account for three months, and they wouldn't let you unfreeze it?

I mean as the equipment belongs to me I can buy the gold package or any other package for that matter as and when I want to,I usually dump it when the premier league football breaks for the summer or we travel over seas to the UK for extended periods,I am under no obligation to buy any package for any period of time and that's what they don't like.

[rixalex]

That's how they operate I'm afraid,I've had similar problems in the past where by they told me that because I hadn't subscribed for 3 months to the gold package due to being overseas,that I couldn't subscribe anymore,what nonsense,that is the reason I brought my own equipment so I am not bound buy any lengthy contracts.

What do you mean, you hadn't subscribed for three months? Do you mean you froze your account for three months, and they wouldn't let you unfreeze it?

I mean as the equipment belongs to me I can buy the gold package or any other package for that matter as and when I want to,I usually dump it when the premier league football breaks for the summer or we travel over seas to the UK for extended periods,I am under no obligation to buy any package for any period of time and that's what they don't like.

Still not sure what you mean. When you say "dump it", do you mean you cancel your contract? If so, perhaps you are going about it the wrong way. In the past, like when my home was flooded, i called them and they were happy to freeze my account. They restarted it when i moved back in. I believe they usually have a reconnecting fee for that, although in the case of the floods, they waived it. Why don't you just freeze your account when you travel overseas?

[stoneyboy]

That's how they operate I'm afraid,I've had similar problems in the past where by they told me that because I hadn't subscribed for 3 months to the gold package due to being overseas,that I couldn't subscribe anymore,what nonsense,that is the reason I brought my own equipment so I am not bound buy any lengthy contracts.

What do you mean, you hadn't subscribed for three months? Do you mean you froze your account for three months, and they wouldn't let you unfreeze it?

I mean as the equipment belongs to me I can buy the gold package or any other package for that matter as and when I want to,I usually dump it when the premier league football breaks for the summer or we travel over seas to the UK for extended periods,I am under no obligation to buy any package for any period of time and that's what they don't like.

Still not sure what you mean. When you say "dump it", do you mean you cancel your contract? If so, perhaps you are going about it the wrong way. In the past, like when my home was flooded, i called them and they were happy to freeze my account. They restarted it when i moved back in. I believe they usually have a reconnecting fee for that, although in the case of the floods, they waived it. Why don't you just freeze your account when you travel overseas?

PM if you feel you need to discuss my True Visions package any further as I don't wish to derail this thread about HD and PVR any more cheers.

[rixalex]

PM if you feel you need to discuss my True Visions package any further as I don't wish to derail this thread about HD and PVR any more cheers.

Not a case of having a need, just trying to figure out what you were saying and perhaps offer a suggestion that might help. Anyway, never mind. Off-topic as you say.

[smurph]

Thinking about setting this up. However, don't see any ports at the back of the STB where an External HDD would connect. No Esata port or USB port. Do I need to order a different STB from True? Don't want to invest in HDD if can't even connect. Anyone have this issue.

[Ragnarok]

I guess you don't have the PVR then.

[F1Canuck]

Good morning all,

Is there a way to extract the content in the PVR and convert to play on a PC?

[Frozen]

Good morning all,

Is there a way to extract the content in the PVR and convert to play on a PC?

You can copy but not play. None of the different approaches I tried lead to any success.

[Frozen]

Did anyone try to switch between hard disks? One of mine is almost full and I am scared that my recorded movies might be unreadable afterwards.

[astral]

Pure speculation!!

I would guess there is a standard encryption based on your account

so if you copy all the data on the disk to a larger one, you will still be able to view.

At your own risk of course, but worth a try?

[Frozen]

I would guess there is a standard encryption based on your account

so if you copy all the data on the disk to a larger one, you will still be able to view.

I suppose this should work. Though I would prefer to have two separate disks and switch between them, as eventually the larger disk would be full also and I would face the same problem again.

I am now trying to remove some recordings which I will propably not rewatch and try to buy some time this way. Maybe there will be a positive answer here soon

[Frozen]

I just want to share the reply from Truevisions Customer Service to my problem here:

"You can buy second hard disk drive and switch between them. However, please do not connect the hard disk drive to your computer because doing so will format your hard disk and delete all the programs recorded in it.

If you have any question, please e-mail or call us at 0-2725-2525 between 08:00 – 22:00 hours."

So it seems it should not be a problem to switch between several hard disks. Maybe I will try it then soon myself.

Connecting the hard drive to the computer is no problem either, as long as you are not stupid enough to answer yes when it wants to format the disk Linux can read the contents easily but not play it. So it is of no use anyway.

[kuma]

Hi all, so a new wrinkle in the true external drive saga.

I did get set up last year and it worked perfect with my lg tv.

I switched my service back to bkk this year and they collected the box from my other place and then a new team installed one at the bkk room. But it seems to be a different style of box, it's a h150 (pic attached) and the connections do not fit...not even a place for them. I suspect they brought me the wrong box. In addition the hdmi cable does not fit the hdmi slot on the Sony tv I have in bkk...which I bought the same day as the lg a few years ago.

So wondering if anyone has any advice. Do true have multiple hd boxes, or did they change completely and the set up I have is no longer good? And as for Sony, are there hdmi ports in some way proprietary, because the cable will not plug in, but with the lg perfect.

Getting started on this now so I have a few months to get it ironed out before football season...can't believe I am saying that but figure it may take that long.

Thanks in advance for any hints. Pics attached.

So have to update on this subject

Again thanks to everyone who offered help earlier.

I did get over the fact I tried twice and ended up short.

I went again to Pantip and again tried multiple places with no luck. Then I tried just one more spot - on the 3rd floor - JIB, one of the many shops called JIB in that floor.

But the sales guy here was fantastic - very rare. HE said he had a hard drive I could use, just needed to step out and get a external ESATA box. I told him how impossible that was and he promptly came with me and we walked through the whole place with me and pressed everyone to find out where there was a box. We covered three floors, and finally..yes, we finally found one place with one box left. I could not believe it.

To top it off he did the install for me (I do not have the small tools nor the inclination) and good thing because once we opened the box it became obvious the cable was not ESATA only SATA. So again I thought I was done for but he insisted it was an ESATA box and again we went out and searched (easier this time) for an ESATA cable.

Long story short - it is installed and works a dream and I am watching GB v Seattle now......

[kuma]

Bump

Hi all, so a new wrinkle in the true external drive saga.

I did get set up last year and it worked perfect with my lg tv.

I switched my service back to bkk this year and they collected the box from my other place and then a new team installed one at the bkk room. But it seems to be a different style of box, it's a h150 (pic attached) and the connections do not fit...not even a place for them. I suspect they brought me the wrong box. In addition the hdmi cable does not fit the hdmi slot on the Sony tv I have in bkk...which I bought the same day as the lg a few years ago.

So wondering if anyone has any advice. Do true have multiple hd boxes, or did they change completely and the set up I have is no longer good? And as for Sony, are there hdmi ports in some way proprietary, because the cable will not plug in, but with the lg perfect.

Getting started on this now so I have a few months to get it ironed out before football season...can't believe I am saying that but figure it may take that long.

Thanks in advance for any hints. Pics attached.

So have to update on this subject

Again thanks to everyone who offered help earlier.

I did get over the fact I tried twice and ended up short.

I went again to Pantip and again tried multiple places with no luck. Then I tried just one more spot - on the 3rd floor - JIB, one of the many shops called JIB in that floor.

But the sales guy here was fantastic - very rare. HE said he had a hard drive I could use, just needed to step out and get a external ESATA box. I told him how impossible that was and he promptly came with me and we walked through the whole place with me and pressed everyone to find out where there was a box. We covered three floors, and finally..yes, we finally found one place with one box left. I could not believe it.

To top it off he did the install for me (I do not have the small tools nor the inclination) and good thing because once we opened the box it became obvious the cable was not ESATA only SATA. So again I thought I was done for but he insisted it was an ESATA box and again we went out and searched (easier this time) for an ESATA cable.

Long story short - it is installed and works a dream and I am watching GB v Seattle now......

image.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpgimage.jpg

[Chicog]

Good morning all,

Is there a way to extract the content in the PVR and convert to play on a PC?

You can copy but not play. None of the different approaches I tried lead to any success.

What format are they in?

[IMHO]

Good morning all,

Is there a way to extract the content in the PVR and convert to play on a PC?

You can copy but not play. None of the different approaches I tried lead to any success.

What format are they in?

Makes no difference if you can't decrypt them.. if you can do that though, any decent video player on PC/Mac will be able to read the video container headers and figure out how to play them, so the format is almost moot.

[funlovinkid]

I just got off the phone with True Visions, and their customer service rep tells me that the hard disk I use with their set-top box must:

- connect to the set-top box for data purposes via eSATA;
- be powered via the designated "eSATA Power" connection on the set-top box;
- be a 2.5" drive. She expressly said that customers are having problems with their 3.5" drives;
- be anywhere between 500GB and 1TB capacity.

Being somewhat of a techie myself, I can't help but wonder at some of these instructions. For example:

- it doesn't make sense that the set-top box won't support hard drives with capacities greater than 1TB, unless for some reason its address space reference capacity is limited to this amount.
- I doubt if the source of power to the hard drive matters at all, but maybe the set-top box won't deliver data to the eSATA port if nothing is plugged into the "eSATA Power" connector?
- What's the deal with the 2.5" form factor? Do 3.5" drives have higher throughput speeds which overrun the buffers in the set-top box?

After snooping around a little, I think I figured out which set-top box I happen to be using. Although of course it has a True Visions label on the front, I'm almost positive it's a Samsung SMT-S5260. I've attached the brochure for this below, in PDF form. Nowhere online (including the Samsung website) can I find any user manuals for this box, most likely because the cable or satellite operators which buy these boxes in bulk from Samsung don't want their customers knowing much about how to use them!

One thing I have definitively discovered however, via information provided by email from True Visions, is that the disk file system format is XTVFS. Along with whatever proprietary encryption True Visions probably uses, this might explain why people can't read the saved video files on their PC's.

Anyway, if anyone happens to know anything else about this that might be helpful, it would be much appreciated. I'm perfectly happy to buy the necessary hardware goodies to make the PVR functional, but getting accurate details about how the set-top box works is a different matter entirely!

Samsung Set-Top Box Specs.pdf

[funlovinkid]

Well, FWIW, after reading all the information herein, I decided to just give it a shot. So, I bought a docking station (550 Baht) which will accommodate the insertion of any SATA hard drive (either a 2.5" or 3.5" size) - and yeah, as someone mentioned above, the docking station looks like a small toaster. In my case, this thing only has one slot, although you can get them with more than one slot, if you want. This particular docking station has an eSATA connector on the back (which is why I bought it), and I bought the longest eSATA cable I could find (1.5 meters - 90 Baht) to connect the docking station to the True Visions set-top box eSATA connection in the back. Into the docking station, I inserted a newly bought 2 terabyte Western Digital hard drive (3.5" size) which cost me 2,820 Baht. Plugged in everything, called True Visions to get them to (instantly) switch on my PVR service for 99 Baht/month, and off I went. Upon pressing the "PVR" button on the remote, and powering up the hard drive, I received a message on the TV asking if I wanted to format the hard drive, and I said yes. That was about the extent of the difficulty of setting it up. Thereafter, it was reporting that I have over 500 hours of recording capacity. Not sure if this figure is based on the recording of regular or HD shows, but it's large enough that I don't care.

I have subsequently recorded and played back a variety of shows, with very little problems. As others have reported above, occasionally during playback, the TV screen goes black for a few seconds, and when the picture recovers, I notice that the show has fast-forwarded maybe 5 minutes from where it had been. But I can usually rewind back to where I last was watching, and resume the show, so I don't think these "black-outs" are usually the result of any lost data. Other than that, I haven't had any problems. True Visions tells their customers to purchase ONLY 2.5" size hard drives (not 3.5"), and to be sure to power the hard drive using the "eSATA Power" connection on the back of their set-top box. But as mentioned above, I'm using a 3.5" hard drive, and my docking station is powered directly from a household electrical outlet, so I'm not sure why True Visions tells people this.

One other observation: since the hard drive is essentially running 24x7, I think it's worthwhile to get a hard drive which runs quietly. In my case, I luckily bought a WD Green hard drive, which I discovered later is designed for this purpose. I know that other people in this thread have mentioned that they turn their HD on and off as needed, but I happen to like the fact that the PVR service is automatically recording any show that you happen to be watching (regardless of whether or not you've decided to record it), which means that you can pause or rewind live TV. I've already gotten spoiled by this feature, in which I regularly rewind something of interest while watching a show. And if you happen to pause the live TV long enough, you can always fast-forward through the annoying commercials after you've started watching the show again. None of this would be possible if your hard drive were powered off.

I've been wanting PVR functionality for literally years now. My friends and family in the States have had this pleasure for 8-10 years, and True Visions has finally reached a point where it's not only cost-effective, but relatively reliable as well. I tried to buy a PVR box from them back in 2009, which didn't work at all, but luckily they returned my 9K Baht purchase price so that I wasn't out of pocket. Disappointed that it took them this long to enter the 21st century, but glad it's finally here. Unfortunately, all of this gives me even more of a reason to hit the couch lately than ever before. Hmm.

[Frozen]

One other observation: since the hard drive is essentially running 24x7, I think it's worthwhile to get a hard drive which runs quietly. In my case, I luckily bought a WD Green hard drive, which I discovered later is designed for this purpose.

Actually, the Green version is not designed for 24x7 use, the Red version is. So be a bit careful if you have any recordings you do not want to lose.

I myself have a similar setup, but turn the hard drive off when not in use, which is easy to do when you have a docking station (contrary to the True solution). Before turning off the power you should go to Menu->Setup->Remove external drives first though. Give your drive some hard-earned rest at least during the night or when you are out of the house