m2p support on DM500 / Dreambox / nGrab

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › m2p support on DM500 / Dreambox / nGrab

o0steveo0o

25 posts

Geek

#16887 2-Nov-2007 11:10

Hi all, im running latest Gemini image on a DM500 and have setup nGrab. All working sweet but nGrab saves the files as m2p format. In filemode on the DM i cant see these files, if i rename the m2p's to mpg's its all good but renaming is a hassle. Do you know of anyway to get DM/Gemini to support m2p files in filemode or get nGrab to save the files with .mpg extension rather than .m2p?

Rentakill

82 posts

Master Geek

#93532 2-Nov-2007 20:09

Hi Stevo.

Have you tried configuring your Dream to mount your PC HDD using CIFS ?.
Been using CIFS for years here, all recordings are stored as original Transport streams on your PC HDD, and can be
played back via File mode no probs.
Backing up to DVD for later use is pretty straight forward aswell.
No, loss, just original .TS extension.

Basically just create a shared partition or Directory on your Networked PC HDD, and your away.

Cheers:

o0steveo0o

25 posts

Geek

#93768 5-Nov-2007 10:37

Yer thats how ive got it setup but for some reason file mode wont show the .m2p files on the PC. If i rename them to mpg they show up. Strange.

NickMack

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#96200 21-Nov-2007 11:16

Rentakill: Hi Stevo.

Have you tried configuring your Dream to mount your PC HDD using CIFS ?.
Been using CIFS for years here, all recordings are stored as original Transport streams on your PC HDD, and can be
played back via File mode no probs.
Backing up to DVD for later use is pretty straight forward aswell.
No, loss, just original .TS extension.

Basically just create a shared partition or Directory on your Networked PC HDD, and your away.

Cheers:

Running the risk of being told to RTFM (and I have done a fair bit of searching), does anyone have some steps on how to successfully set this up to record to a Windows Share? I have a 2003 Server and would like to record directly to it. Any help would be appreciated.

Nick

https://nick.mackechnie.co.nz | NZ ISP latency monitoring - https://smokeping.thenet.gen.nz

Rentakill

82 posts

Master Geek

#96203 21-Nov-2007 11:44

Hi Nick Mack

Not good to hear your having problems with setting up your Network Share under a 2003 platform.
I'm not familiar with 2003 Server,
I started years ago myself under Win98, then moved over to WinXp, and now have it running under Vista.
Out of them All i found Vista to be quite cumbersome to setup.
In the end, Vista had some security measures that i had to disable to allow the dream access to my Drive Partition.

From what is quite a simple config for some, can be a problem for others.

For many that i have helped out, I find that most stuff up with just the Config on the Dreambox itself.
If you wish, i can send you some screen shots of my Mounts on the Dream.

Let me know where exactly you are at, and i'll try help you out.

Cheers:

o0steveo0o

25 posts

Geek

#96206 21-Nov-2007 12:08

NickMack:
Rentakill: Hi Stevo.

Have you tried configuring your Dream to mount your PC HDD using CIFS ?.
Been using CIFS for years here, all recordings are stored as original Transport streams on your PC HDD, and can be
played back via File mode no probs.
Backing up to DVD for later use is pretty straight forward aswell.
No, loss, just original .TS extension.

Basically just create a shared partition or Directory on your Networked PC HDD, and your away.

Cheers:

Running the risk of being told to RTFM (and I have done a fair bit of searching), does anyone have some steps on how to successfully set this up to record to a Windows Share? I have a 2003 Server and would like to record directly to it. Any help would be appreciated.

Nick

Hi Nick, you need to install and setup nGrab on your 2003 server. Then, you need to tell nGrab on your DM where your 2003 server/nGrab server is (IP Address). This is to record from your DM to your PC. To play the files from your pc you need to create a share on your server to the folder you setup in nGrab (PC) then setup your DM to connect to that share via CIFS, note, i think? this is only avaliable in non standard images. Im at work at the mo but will post some doco i have at home on how to do this.

EDIT: Check this out, was posted by garb over at www.sat-industry.net

What I must do to have dreambox records on my PC?Thank you!

M8.. here's how...

Download and install Ngrab on your PC (at http://www.dbox2.info/download.php?catid=5)

On the PC
Run the Ngrab software
Right click on the program icon (in the windows tray)
Select Einstellungen
Then select dBox Einstellungen, enter IP address you have given to your Dreambox
Select "Dateisystem Einstellungen" and select directory where you want your recordings to go.

On the Dreambox
Select Menu, Expert Menu, Ngrab streaming setup
Enter IP address of your PC, press blue to detect your PCs network cad MAC address
Then save (green button)

Recording
To record from your Dreambox to the PC, on the Dreambox select "Start Ngrab". On the SF DreamBox firmware image you do this by pressing the yellow button, to call up the plugins menu, this may vary with different firemware images.

A message box will stay onscreen, this won't get recorded. Don't quit as this will stop it working.

At the PC end if you call up the NGrab main screen you should see data streaming across to your hard disk, showing that its recording.

To stop recording, select the "Stop NGrab recording" option. My Dreambox always restarts when I do this!

The advantage of using Ngrab is that it produces M2P files which can be imported into software like TMPEnc DVD Author and written directly to DVD without any framerate, resolution, or other changes!

HTH
Garble

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#96216 21-Nov-2007 13:49

nGrab and CIFS/SAMBA/NFS mounts are mutually exclusive technologies.

nGrab streams over the network and the nGrab server just records the stream to disk.

Cifs/samba/nfs mounts has the DM recording the stream directly to a TS file on the DM share under /mnt/hdd or wherever you have mounted the directory from on your DM.

You can then setup your "yellow" button to either PVR Record via nGrab or via Mounted filesystem (CIFS/SAMBA/NFS) by reprogramming that key in the Blue Panel.

Good quality DM500's should be able to record onto a CIFS/SAMBA/NFS share over the network without having any choppy recordings. nGrab is more reliable as there is less overhead on the nGrab protocol over CIFS/NFS.

You can also stream via http://ip:31338/vpid&apid of the channel you want, then record that stream using VLC or something similar.

The dodgy quality DM500's do have an issue with recording (as I have had one DM500S with this problem)... and there is pretty much no chance that you will be able to fix it.

Lastly seen reports that older versions of Gemini work better (3.2-3.4) than the newer releases with the dodgy quality DM500S's.

NickMack

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#96241 21-Nov-2007 16:45

o0steveo0o:
NickMack:
Rentakill: Hi Stevo.

Have you tried configuring your Dream to mount your PC HDD using CIFS ?.
Been using CIFS for years here, all recordings are stored as original Transport streams on your PC HDD, and can be
played back via File mode no probs.
Backing up to DVD for later use is pretty straight forward aswell.
No, loss, just original .TS extension.

Basically just create a shared partition or Directory on your Networked PC HDD, and your away.

Cheers:

Running the risk of being told to RTFM (and I have done a fair bit of searching), does anyone have some steps on how to successfully set this up to record to a Windows Share? I have a 2003 Server and would like to record directly to it. Any help would be appreciated.

Nick

Hi Nick, you need to install and setup nGrab on your 2003 server. Then, you need to tell nGrab on your DM where your 2003 server/nGrab server is (IP Address). This is to record from your DM to your PC. To play the files from your pc you need to create a share on your server to the folder you setup in nGrab (PC) then setup your DM to connect to that share via CIFS, note, i think? this is only avaliable in non standard images. Im at work at the mo but will post some doco i have at home on how to do this.

EDIT: Check this out, was posted by garb over at www.sat-industry.net

What I must do to have dreambox records on my PC?Thank you!

M8.. here's how...

Download and install Ngrab on your PC (at http://www.dbox2.info/download.php?catid=5)

On the PC
Run the Ngrab software
Right click on the program icon (in the windows tray)
Select Einstellungen
Then select dBox Einstellungen, enter IP address you have given to your Dreambox
Select "Dateisystem Einstellungen" and select directory where you want your recordings to go.

On the Dreambox
Select Menu, Expert Menu, Ngrab streaming setup
Enter IP address of your PC, press blue to detect your PCs network cad MAC address
Then save (green button)

Recording
To record from your Dreambox to the PC, on the Dreambox select "Start Ngrab". On the SF DreamBox firmware image you do this by pressing the yellow button, to call up the plugins menu, this may vary with different firemware images.

A message box will stay onscreen, this won't get recorded. Don't quit as this will stop it working.

At the PC end if you call up the NGrab main screen you should see data streaming across to your hard disk, showing that its recording.

To stop recording, select the "Stop NGrab recording" option. My Dreambox always restarts when I do this!

The advantage of using Ngrab is that it produces M2P files which can be imported into software like TMPEnc DVD Author and written directly to DVD without any framerate, resolution, or other changes!

HTH
Garble

Hey there,

Thanks for the replay, I've got ngrab working sweet, also wanted to get mounting of drives working :-)

Nick.

https://nick.mackechnie.co.nz | NZ ISP latency monitoring - https://smokeping.thenet.gen.nz

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NickMack

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#96524 23-Nov-2007 09:07

Hi All,

The config I ended up getting to work for mounting a DM500 to a Windows Server 2003 share was as follows:

Creating a user called dream with password dream on network (set flags for user password doesn't expire, or cannot be changed)

Creating a Share on Server called dreambox and gave the above user full control share and acl permissions.
Created directory in dreambox share called Movie (this is required and where the recording are stored/retrieved from)

Then connect to dreambox via http://ipaddressofdreambox and logon (default username root and pw is dreambox), click on config, and select mount manager.

Click Add and configure as the following:

Description: (name of server for example)
Filesystem: 1 (CIFS)
Selected tickbox for Automount
Client Directory; /var/mnt/hdd
Server Directory: dreambox
IP: (ip address of Windows Server)
UserName: dream
password: dream
Options: rsize=8192,wsize=8192

and select tickbox options on the right hand side nolock and rw.

Select Save.
Select Mount.

Nick.

https://nick.mackechnie.co.nz | NZ ISP latency monitoring - https://smokeping.thenet.gen.nz

o0steveo0o

25 posts

Geek

#96539 23-Nov-2007 10:54

Sweet :), good to hear you got it sorted. How are you finding the quality of the recordings?

NickMack

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#96549 23-Nov-2007 12:30

o0steveo0o: Sweet :), good to hear you got it sorted. How are you finding the quality of the recordings?

Excellent - size is a challenge... im assuming there is no option for compression :-)

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BarTender

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#96552 23-Nov-2007 12:45

NickMack: Excellent - size is a challenge... im assuming there is no option for compression :-)

Nope... you don't expect much from a 250Mhz (350MIPS) CPU do you :)... some TV's these days have higher spec CPU's than what the DM has in it.

It only streams / records it as a raw MPEG2 stream. Then you can use tools like Virutaldub etc to recompress them. However if you want to burn the stream to a DVD then it's all ready to go, use Nero, add a few menus if you like...... something I personally find quite helpful.

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#97090 27-Nov-2007 09:45

Just written up a blog entry on how to do recording, includes screenshots on the GUI side... not from the Web UI side, if people what that as well I can add them...

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/BarTender/4149

From my experience it's best if you kick off the recording via the remote (or schedule it) and not touch the web interface at all during the recording... otherwise you can end up with choppy recordings, as the web UI refreshes every 10 seconds or so... and the network interface doesn't seem to like refreshing the web UI and recording at the same time.