Tag Archives: Recovery

DVD Hard disc recorder recovery on PC

So you recorded tv shows on the (Philips) DVD hard disk recorder. But how to get those to a pc without burning to disk?

What we do know is that:

  • The operating system on the hard drive seems to be fixed, that’s why putting in a new drive into the recorder fails, it cannot recognize the formatted drive.
  • Jumper needs to be set to Master, standard on Cable select
  • OS seems to be VXworks, filesystem vxext, other indication is OS20?
  • Several attempts have been done to extract raw data via Hex editing, via Hex Workshop.
  • Search for an offset, copy that to pc and rename to .ts or .mpeg.
  • No files are encrypted, just raw mpeg files are on the drive, because the recorder needs to access the files fast.
  • Another option is to copy over the whole drive to a larger drive with Hex Workshop and then extract this .bin file with ISO buster. But this is very time consuming and does not deliver the MPEG files we are after.
  • Merging of  the files is needed since they are fragmented.
  • Some dvd recorders store in .VRO format or .TS. Philips recorders leave .mpeg files.
  • I have done some investigation with Nucleus JFS Kernel but this has failed due to hard drive loss of power.
  • Ubuntu live image did not recognize the drive, shows as empty and unformatted.

Let me know if you have further information regarding dvd hard disc recorder recovery.