Page 2 of 2

Re: Issues after NZ Sky HDi software update?

PostPosted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 10:12 am
by c3rn
Hi there, just registered to let everyone know that I installed a 1TB HDD into my MySkyHDI box. All seems to be going great so far. Just hoping for no software updates. Although considering the new product MySky+ comes with a 1TB HDD i'm hopeful nothing will go wrong in the future.

Re: Issues after NZ Sky HDi software update?

PostPosted: Thu Jul 14, 2011 11:19 pm
by kwacka
c3rn wrote:Hi there, just registered to let everyone know that I installed a 1TB HDD into my MySkyHDI box. All seems to be going great so far. Just hoping for no software updates. Although considering the new product MySky+ comes with a 1TB HDD i'm hopeful nothing will go wrong in the future.


Hi there

What software do you have on your MySky box?. See system info something like this:

Pace
Software 92.2.5.7.2.145
C021017
Epg U_1.7.1d

Thanks

Re: Issues after NZ Sky HDi software update?

PostPosted: Sat Jul 16, 2011 6:22 am
by c3rn
kwacka wrote:
Pace
Software 92.2.5.7.2.145
C021017
Epg U_1.7.1d

Thanks


Exactly the same as you.

Re: Issues after NZ Sky HDi software update?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 20, 2012 5:04 pm
by dansmitherson
I seem to be adding yearly to this thread :) Wondering if anyones has tried putting in a 2TB drive into their Pace Sky HD+ box in NZ? i am considering trying need more space for upcoming Olympics recording!!

Re: Issues after NZ Sky HDi software update?

PostPosted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 5:16 am
by ParanoidMarvin
dansmitherson wrote:I seem to be adding yearly to this thread :) Wondering if anyones has tried putting in a 2TB drive into their Pace Sky HD+ box in NZ? i am considering trying need more space for upcoming Olympics recording!!

Like you, I want more disk capacity for the Olympics. I'm trying to put a 1.5TB Seagate drive into my Pace TDS850NNZ and getting no-where fast. I can't get Copy+ to read the programmes from original disk, much less actually get them onto the new drive. Copy+ doesn't seem to find any programmes on the disk at all but I'm sure they're there. I put the disk back in the decoder and it works fine. I've tried 2 different computers, one on Windows 7 and one on XP, and get the same result on both. So, I guess either I'm doing something wrong or Sky's latest software has introduced something quirky that the current version of Copy+ doesn't like.

That said, I tried Extract+ and that could see the programmes fine.

For the record:

Manufacturer Pace
Hardware Version TDS850NNZ.45.2
Software Version 92.2.5.7.2.145
Operating System Version CO21017
EPG Software Version U_1.7.1d

I'm not precious about copying my old programmes onto the new hard disk but it would be good to get the new disk in and working. I tried just installing it and the decoded started up OK but would recognise the new disk and I couldn't figure out how to format it. I haven't been able to figure out how to do Full System Reset on an NZ decoder. The instructions I found for other countries decoders doesn'y seem to work on the NZ model.

All advice grafefully received.

Re: Issues after NZ Sky HDi software update?

PostPosted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 6:53 am
by dansmitherson
Are you able to prepare the 1.5TB drive for installation as a new drive? You can try copying existing programs later, you want to see if the box will use a new 1.5TB drive.
You still have to connect your old drive and new drive and use Sky Copy+ you cant just put it into the Sky box and make it work.

To get to the installer menu try the following. Go to Menu, Active, System set up, System setting.Type in 0759 then press select, you should see the installer menu.

Re: Issues after NZ Sky HDi software update?

PostPosted: Sun Jul 22, 2012 7:51 am
by ParanoidMarvin
Thanks for the advice. I got into the installation menu, which is a step further than I've managed previously. I'll swap in the 1.5TB drive and do an FSR and see what that does. Will let you know. Presuming that works OK, can I swap between the old and new drives OK without the decoder getting confused?

Re: Issues after NZ Sky HDi software update?

PostPosted: Mon Jul 23, 2012 6:34 am
by dansmitherson
Yes I have just tried it now, put in a temp 2TB Seagate Barracuda XT drive and performed a FSR. The Sky box came up fine and I could record to the drive fine etc There is no real way to tell how much space you have until you being to fill it up. So I connected it up to the PC and disk manager is reporting a size of 1861GB so it has been formatted by the Sky box to the full 2TB capacity. It remains to be seen if it can use the entire 2TB.

And I have the same issue as you with Copy+ not seeing any recordings on the original drive, and on the new 2TB drive, it recognises the drive as a Sky HD NZ drive but no recordings can be seen.
Originally I connected the original Sky 1TB source drive and my new 2TB destination drive and windows saw them fine, I made sure the 2TB drive was initialised and had no partitions etc
Started up Sky Copy+ and it saw the source 1TB drive but couldn't see any recordings, however it would not see the destination 2TB, all it had in the drop down was image file, browse etc no drives.

So as it stands I don't even need to use Copy+ if you want to install a new 2TB drive in your Sky HD decoder.

I was wondering can you use Extract+ to copy the recordings to a image file, then use Copy+ and use the image as a source drive, and pick the 2TB as destination.
I don't know how cause I couldn't even get Copy+ to detect my 2TB destination drive.
Also I see a few posts about licence issues in the Extract+ forums with no answers so am not willing to purchase it until those are resolved!..

Re: Issues after NZ Sky HDi software update?

PostPosted: Mon Jul 23, 2012 9:05 am
by ParanoidMarvin
Thanks for trying that. I'm pleased that you got similar results with Copy+. Means I'm not going mad :-). I've just put my 1.5TB drive into the decoder and given it an FSR. Seems to have done the job. It's the quickest format I've ever seen for a TB+ disk drive! Regardless though, it seems to be working. Recording now.

If I can get the programmes off the old drive using Extract+ and get them into a portable format (avi, mp4, etc) or just to DVD then I'll be happy.

Re: Issues after NZ Sky HDi software update?

PostPosted: Tue Jul 24, 2012 12:52 pm
by ParanoidMarvin
OK, 2 steps forward, 1 step back. The 1.5TB is installed and seems to be working fine. Only recorded 1 thing on it so far so too early to say how much of the available capacity it's actually willing to use. Not doing so well with extracting the programmes from the old disk though. +Extract can see the recordings on the disk fine and extracts them to stream files fine. It can;t convert the str's to mpg's though. Neither can ProjectX or a couple of other open-source utilities I tried. I guess Sky must have adopted a new streaming file format?

Re: Issues after NZ Sky HDi software update?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 4:05 pm
by pcbbc
No - Sky will be using standard MPEG2 for SD and MPEG4 for HD, just like they always have for the DVB-S platform. Changing encoding format would require hardware changes in every STB - They are NOT like PCs where you can just download a new codec and change formats.

Most likely the recordings are encrypted. Observe the padlock (locked and red) for encrypted recordings, or green and open for in the clear.
Only channels which broadcast in the clear can be extracted and transcoded with ProjectX.
Encrypted recordings can ONLY be decoded by the box and with use of the supplied viewing card.

Re: Issues after NZ Sky HDi software update?

PostPosted: Fri Jul 27, 2012 10:56 pm
by ParanoidMarvin
Thanks for clarifying that. Bugger!

So, I guess if extracting and decoding the recorded programmes outside of the STB isn't possible then I need to look at copying the encoded files from the old disk to the new disk. Is that possible?

Re: Issues after NZ Sky HDi software update?

PostPosted: Sun Jul 29, 2012 11:47 pm
by buzzlightyear123
ParanoidMarvin wrote:Thanks for clarifying that. Bugger!

So, I guess if extracting and decoding the recorded programmes outside of the STB isn't possible then I need to look at copying the encoded files from the old disk to the new disk. Is that possible?


If I don't care about the old recordings, can I simply plonk a new 1tb harddrive into the mysky hdi box? I've changed PC harddrives many times, I suppose it is the same thing, just take out the old drive and put the sata/power into the new drive.

Then, access the install menu and intialise the drive ?

Re: Issues after NZ Sky HDi software update?

PostPosted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 12:13 am
by c3rn
buzzlightyear123 wrote:
If I don't care about the old recordings, can I simply plonk a new 1tb harddrive into the mysky hdi box? I've changed PC harddrives many times, I suppose it is the same thing, just take out the old drive and put the sata/power into the new drive.

Then, access the install menu and intialise the drive ?


That's what I did a year ago and it worked fine.

On a side note, I closed my sky account and opened a new one (to take advantage of a promo) which meant a new STB and new sky card. When I took my 1TB HDD out of the old STB and put it into the new one it wouldn't allow me to play free-to-air recordings. Wasn't really a major though.