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Wintal PVR-X10 to PC Transfer


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Hi all,

Thanks to the German forums, some new German software GDRGuy69 mentioned above, along with a some trial and error, I've finally figured out how to connect the Wintal PVR-X10 hard drive to my PC and transfer video recordings digitally! I've spent the last couple of days writing a thorough guide on how to do it, in plain English. If are experienced in the removal and adding of hard drives, print it out and try it. You can find it here: http://users.bigpond.net.au/PCPro

I thought I would start a new thread for this very exciting development that PC Pro has brought together from various sources to give us an EXCELLENT English guide.

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Fantastic!!!! that's all I can say – I'm totally gob smacked. I read this only 90 minutes ago and I have followed PC Pro's guide - BRILLIANT GUIDE – I should say – to the word and it WORKS. Yes even a dullard like me could follow it and made it work first try.

The only thing I had to do differently was use my USB HDD case as I only have a laptop. However, windows didn’t complain one bit about the Wintal drive.

I have put everything back together again and it all still works – and guess what – I didn’t have the usual screw remaining on the table top looking for a home.

I will have to stop gushing. I did the experiment on the film “The Last Starfighter” and it looks great on the laptop.

WELL DONE PC PRO !

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Thanks for the positive feedback guys. Glad to have made a contribution.

Once day I'd like to find out how to add a larger hard drive to the Wintal unit. However, now that we can transfer footage digitally to the PC from the Wintal, there isn't a pressing need to keep recorded TV shows on the Wintal hard drive for extended periods of time. Therefore a larger hard drive than the 80Gb supplied is not as high a necessity as before. What do you guys think?

Also, there is a good chance that my guide would also work for other PVR models newly released to the market which are based on the same Digenius operating system. Now that there is a way to transfer footage digitally from the PVR to a PC (and then ultimately to DVD), it adds further value to the PVR products.

Now if only Wintal would hurry Digenius up and have them release a new firmware which hopefully fixes the niggly bugs with the Wintal unit.

Happy recording peoples,

PC Pro

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Hi PC Pro - I think it would still be worthwhile pursuing how to add a larger drive. I know that apparently the current firmware allows a 160gb drive from the same manufacturer (WD1600BB – I know bobster05 has bought one and is waiting to install it). The method of backing up the hard drive to PC is great but still a little invasive and something I would prefer to do only once a month (or longer depending of whether I had something to backup). A 160gb would allow me to delay the transfer process longer. I guess my concern is with the connectors on the Wintal degrading. I am guessing your guide will be just as useful for people getting the Digicrystal PVR too.

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Hi PC Pro - I think it would still be worthwhile pursuing how to add a larger drive. I know that apparently the current firmware allows a 160gb drive from the same manufacturer (WD1600BB – I know bobster05 has bought one and is waiting to install it). The method of backing up the hard drive to PC is great but still a little invasive and something I would prefer to do only once a month (or longer depending of whether I had something to backup). A 160gb would allow me to delay the transfer process longer. I guess my concern is with the connectors on the Wintal degrading. I am guessing your guide will be just as useful for people getting the Digicrystal PVR too.

I would think it possible using Norton Ghost or Acronis Trueimage which allow you to back the 80g up to the 160g and at the same time expand the partition to include the full disk capacity.

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I would think it possible using Norton Ghost or Acronis Trueimage which allow you to back the 80g up to the 160g and at the same time expand the partition to include the full disk capacity.

Would that not depend on Ghost etc recognising the file system used by the Wintal's OS?

Actualy, have any of you who've been transferring files from the HDD figured out what FS is being used?

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Hi all,

Thanks to the German forums, some new German software GDRGuy69 mentioned above, along with a some trial and error, I've finally figured out how to connect the Wintal PVR-X10 hard drive to my PC and transfer video recordings digitally! I've spent the last couple of days writing a thorough guide on how to do it, in plain English. If are experienced in the removal and adding of hard drives, print it out and try it. You can find it here: http://users.bigpond.net.au/PCPro

I thought I would start a new thread for this very exciting development that PC Pro has brought together from various sources to give us an EXCELLENT English guide.

yes would have to also say great job pc pro:) excellent guide will be giving it a go on the weekend. Havent had a chance to try putting the 160 gig drive in my pvr-x10 as I dont have a copy of norton ghost atm.

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Fantastic!!!! that's all I can say – I'm totally gob smacked. I read this only 90 minutes ago and I have followed PC Pro's guide - BRILLIANT GUIDE – I should say – to the word and it WORKS. Yes even a dullard like me could follow it and made it work first try.

The only thing I had to do differently was use my USB HDD case as I only have a laptop. However, windows didn’t complain one bit about the Wintal drive.

I have put everything back together again and it all still works – and guess what – I didn’t have the usual screw remaining on the table top looking for a home.

I will have to stop gushing. I did the experiment on the film “The Last Starfighter” and it looks great on the laptop.

WELL DONE PC PRO !

Not having any expertise in this but just a thought - if this method also worked with a USB-HDD cradle, then would it also work patching in an IDE to USB cable adaptor inside the Wintal box? This could possibly allow taking the USB cable out from the back of the box and doing the file transfers without disassembly. Only concern is whether the presence of the adaptor would upset normal operation of the Wintal.

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I decided to give it a go and followed pc pro's guide to the letter but when I run digeniusdisk it reads the wintal hd and after it finished the output is nothing like in pc pro's screenshot. got a dumb question...how do u attach a pic? is different to other forums I have been on:(

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Not having any expertise in this but just a thought - if this method also worked with a USB-HDD cradle, then would it also work patching in an IDE to USB cable adaptor inside the Wintal box? This could possibly allow taking the USB cable out from the back of the box and doing the file transfers without disassembly. Only concern is whether the presence of the adaptor would upset normal operation of the Wintal.

Im planning to do the same with the Digicrystal PVR, I would think if you had only one device powered up at a time (The PVR or the IDE/USB) there should no conflict.

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Thanks for the positive feedback guys. Glad to have made a contribution.

Once day I'd like to find out how to add a larger hard drive to the Wintal unit. However, now that we can transfer footage digitally to the PC from the Wintal, there isn't a pressing need to keep recorded TV shows on the Wintal hard drive for extended periods of time. Therefore a larger hard drive than the 80Gb supplied is not as high a necessity as before. What do you guys think?

Also, there is a good chance that my guide would also work for other PVR models newly released to the market which are based on the same Digenius operating system. Now that there is a way to transfer footage digitally from the PVR to a PC (and then ultimately to DVD), it adds further value to the PVR products.

Now if only Wintal would hurry Digenius up and have them release a new firmware which hopefully fixes the niggly bugs with the Wintal unit.

Happy recording peoples,

PC Pro

Nice one! I'm new to the forum and not qualified really to pass an opinion - but here goes with a dumb question: The new Foxtel IQ PVR box. I hear it to has it's own OS. Haven't seen anyone comment on the FS type. Is there any possibility that the IQ is using this Digenius operating system? I know this is very much a no-no, but do you think any of the techniques used with the Wintal are transalable to the IQ?

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Even if it was your next problem is that the files are encrypted and can currently only be decrypted by a foxtel card. I'm not aware if anyone have managed to crack their current encryption for digital.

Although if you could get a different firmware onto the IQ you may be able to make unencrypted copies on the IQ then copy them off...apparently the Sat version of the Toppy overseas lets you do this if you have a decoder card in the CI slots the older toppy had in the front. They later removed them for Aus as we don't need them.

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To help answer KABmadcow's question about the Foxtel unit, if the Foxtel's on-screen menu system doesn't look similar to the Digenius on-screen look, an example of which can be seen here: http://www.digenius.de/SS_MenueKonf_en , then it is most likely that the Foxtel unit is not using the Digenius operating system.

In regards to Bobster05's comments about trying Norton Ghost to read and image the Wintal's hard drive to a 160Gb hard drive, there would be an element of risk in trying this. Mainly because no one really knows what file system Digenius is using, or whether Ghost "might" corrupt the Wintal hard drive when trying to read it at the sector level. However if you still want to try Ghost, a good article about how Ghost handles various file systems can be read here: http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost...e6?OpenDocument

Also for Bobster05's mentioned troubles using my Wintal to PC transfer guide, your brief description of the problem is not conclusive as to what point it has failed on you. Unfortunately this forum does not allow file attachments.

In regards to Speedorhaste's suggestion about using an IDE-to-USB cable inside the Wintal unit to avoid removing the hard drive to transfer files to PC, I don't believe an IDE-to-USB cable exists. Only external IDE-to-USB hard drive casings exist which contain special electronics to do the conversion properly. This is what Squarei used, as mentioned above.

Finally, one last tid-bit with the Wintal unit I bet you didn't know about is a hidden advanced settings menu. I don't suggest changing any of its settings, but it is curious to know that it exists. Go into the Main Menu, select Edit Settings, then highlight "Save Settings", and then press the Menu button on the remote to reveal the hidden advanced settings menu, which even scrolls down into a second screen. Interesting.

- PC Pro

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Well there you go, I'm surprised I didn't run across this menu accidentally, what with all my experimental button-pushing :blink:

The hidden advanced settings menu largely contains technical adjustments that seem related to the way the receiver deals with the incoming signal, but there are a few things there that might be of interest to people.

For one, there are settings for horizontal video position (handy if your TV has a slightly off-centre picture due to overscan) and horizontal OSD position. There's a setting to change the "swap timeout" - how long you need to sit on a channel you change to before it's "remembered" as the alternate channel for the "swap" button. The default of 3 seconds seems to work smoothly enough, so I can't see any need to change that. There's a setting to enable or disable the "12v/6v switch on pin 8 of the SCART connector", which I presume is for SCART-SCART connections where the display device automatically switches to the Wintal when it's turned on. There's a setting to turn LCNs (Logical Channel Numbers) off (!!!) as well.

Then there'a a setting to enable or disable borders on teletext subtitles. The online help implies this defaults to on, but in my unit it was already turned off.

And finally - and potentially most interesting, given those who've wondered if it's possible to have two of these units in the one setup and control them seperately - there's a setting called "ruwido RC", which is described thus: "Allows the control of the receiver with a different remote control". The default is set to "2", whatever that means :P But it does look like it IS possible to have two X10s running in the same place and use different remotes. Just where you'd get that different remote from - well, that's the big question :P

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Here is a (German to English translated) link to the official Digenius website that talks about the settings within the hidden advanced menu:

http://www.worldlingo.com/wl/translate?wl_...de%2FExtMenu_de

The links on the lower left side of that website also seem to talk about other undocumented stuff, not available in the English pages. The Digenius site has more info if you browse its German pages instead of it's English pages. Obviously you'll need a website translator such as http://www.worldlingo.com/en/websites/url_translator.html to do this.

Hidden extra menus are like having DVD "Easter Eggs" on a set top box. Weird but cool.

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In regards to Speedorhaste's suggestion about using an IDE-to-USB cable inside the Wintal unit to avoid removing the hard drive to transfer files to PC, I don't believe an IDE-to-USB cable exists. Only external IDE-to-USB hard drive casings exist which contain special electronics to do the conversion properly. This is what Squarei used, as mentioned above.

- PC Pro

Here's what I saw that sparked my comment about installing an adapter. They sell on e-bay for arounf $US10 plus p+p.

USB to IDE adapter

I have never used one. They seem to the same job as a cradle just without the box. To be able to install inside a Wintel, you would need to be able to crimp a male header onto the existing IDE cable, or get a replacement IDE cable with both a male and female header, or worse, a male to male IDE gender bender. Even then, I don't know whether electronically there would be interference as such a set up would rely on the HDD still being powered up by Wintel box.

Anyway, well done to you, PC Pro for getting everyone this opportunity.

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Im trying this dvb transfer method with the 80Gb drive from a Digicrystal PVR. At this point using a USB external drive case connected to a notebook, digenius is unable to read the drive contents. This is the result of its search.....

C:\Digicrystal>digeniusdisk list

Keine Festplatte mit der Identifikaltin "digenius hd V1.02" vorhanden!

Diagnose der vorhanden Festplatten

Divice 0

00000000 33 C0 8E D0 BC 00 7C FB 50 07 50 1F FC BE 1B 7C

00000010 BF 1B 06 50 57 B9 E5 01 F3 A4 CB BD BE 07 B1 04

Divice 1

00000000 33 C0 8E D0 BC 00 7C FB 50 07 50 1F FC BE 1B 7C

00000010 BF 1B 06 50 57 B9 E5 01 F3 A4 CB BD BE 07 B1 04

Divice 2

00000000 33 C0 8E D0 BC 00 7C FB 50 07 50 1F FC BE 1B 7C

00000010 BF 1B 06 50 57 B9 E5 01 F3 A4 CB BD BE 07 B1 04

Divice 3

00000000 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

00000010 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................

Divice 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 nicht vorhanden!

C:\ NTFS 446346CF

Ive tried all jumper locations on the WD drive, XP detects the drive as a usb mass storage device ok, but no presence as a drive in My Computer.

I'll try the same USB drive case connected to a desktop PC, then failing that, connect direct to the PC via an IDE cable :blink:

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I have been having computer problems for most of this week but everything is back to normal now. Anyway I have uploaded the screen capture I did when I ran the digenius list command to my yahoo storage so if pc pro or someone can take a look and maybe give me any pointers it would be appreciated:)

http://www.geocities.com/dvdkingaustech/di...usdisk_list.JPG

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I got the same thing Bobster , just hit ctrl C to break the process straight after it starts showing the info on screen, then scroll up and you'll see your programs and numbers.

A problem i have is when i transfer say a 3 hour program , it only transfers an hour or so. This only happens now and then luckily.

I have a game of footy i wanna back up off the PVR and it will only transfer about 35 mins of it off the drive. By the way i am not out of hard drive space on the PC

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A problem i have is when i transfer say a 3 hour program , it only transfers an hour or so. This only happens now and then luckily.

I have a game of footy i wanna back up off the PVR and it will only transfer about 35 mins of it off the drive. By the way i am not out of hard drive space on the PC

I wonder if that's related to the "playback stops at random point midway through a recording" problem I and others have been experiencing...

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