Transfer Sky+ recordings to pre-Darwin box?

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Transfer Sky+ recordings to pre-Darwin box?

Postby imprator » Mon Feb 07, 2011 5:23 am

Hi.

I have:
- A Sky+ box with recordings I want to keep
- An old Sky HD box (Thomson) running pre-Darwin software
- A Sky HD box (Samsung), running Darwin software, to which I would like to transfer my Sky+ recordings.

Does anyone knoe if the following procedure would work?
1/ Use Copy+ to transfer my Sky+ recordings to a 1Tb disc.
2/ Place the disc in the Thomson HD (pre-Darwin) box.
3/ Do a forced software download on the Thomson HD box to (hopefully) update it to the latest (Darwin) software.
4/ Move the 1Tb disc from the Thomson box to the Samsung HD (Darwin) box and enjoy all my recordings (well, hoprfully!).

If this works, will I need to call Sky to pair the Sky+ card with the Thomson HD box before carrying out step 3 as listed above? Or can I omit this and just pair the card with the Samsung box after step 4 has been completed?

If this procedure will work I will only be able to do it once, so I am keen to get everything right before trying it. Is there a flaw in my cunning plan?

Thanks.
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Re: Transfer Sky+ recordings to pre-Darwin box?

Postby imprator » Tue Feb 08, 2011 9:59 pm

It worked!

With this technique I was able to transfer my Sky+ 80Gb disc contents to a 1Tb disc on my Samsung HD box running Darwin software.

My exact steps were;
1/ I copied Sky+ disc contents to a blank 1Tb disc using Copy+.
2/ Temporarily installed the 1Tb disc into an old Thomson HD box.
3/ Placed card from Sky+ box into the Thomson HD box (I suspect this step was not actually necessary).
4/ Having checked that my recordings were present, I did a forced software download on the Thomson HD box. (This step might also be unnecessary.)
5/ I installed the 1Tb disc in the Samsung HD box, and placed the card from the Sky+ box in the Samsung box.

When I started the Samsung HD box it displayed an on-screen message that my box had been updated with the latest software. I exited this message, and confirmed that all my recordings were present. I called Sky to pair the card with the new machine, and all was well.

Some observations –
- The Samsung HD box was definitely running Darwin software. I had previously tried to do a direct transfer of the Sky+ disc contents to the Samsung box using Copy+. The copy process was successful, but when the disc was installed into the Samsung HD box it showed a blank Planner. (It was only then that I became aware of the Darwin software issue). The System Details screen confirmed the presence of Darwin software (the “SYSF” tag was present).
- The above process seems to be a method (the only method?) by which Sky+ recordings can be transferred to an HD box running Darwin software.
- Thomson boxes are not yet updated to Darwin software (and some reports indicate that they never will run Darwin software). As long as this remains the case it is possible that this process will work even with a Thomson box which has been updated to the latest software, and that the same box can be used repeatedly for this task.
- After completing step 4 as shown above I connected the 1Tb drive to my PC to check whether the recordings were still visible in Copy+. They were, and I received no Darwin warning from Copy+.

Assuming this technique works using Thomson HD boxes which have already been updated to the latest software (my box hadn’t had its software updated for at least eighteen months) it would seem to offer a method by which others can transfer their Sky+ recordings to Darwin-equipped HD boxes. Of course, you need to have a spare Thomson HD box lying around. Alternatively, you could buy one from Ebay (they are quite cheap) and sell it on once it has completed it’s purpose.

I haven’t seen this approach posted elsewhere; the only posts I have seen have stated that it is now impossible to transfer Sky+ recordings to a Darwin HD box. However, I am no expert. If I have misunderstood, or if this approach is already known, I apologise for posting it.
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Re: Transfer Sky+ recordings to pre-Darwin box?

Postby pcbbc » Sun Feb 13, 2011 3:21 pm

Hi,

Thanks for your observations - they confirm what I would expect and hopefully will be useful to others.


The reason this works, as I suspect you may have realised, is because of the way the Sky software is able to upgrade the planner databases between different EPG releases:

1. Originally the SD and HD boxes (when they were first launched) shared a common planner database format. These versions were obviously compatible for migrations between SD and HD.

2. Subsequently the HD box has received several software updates, however for each update the box needs to be able to convert the legacy planner format to the new format when it deployed to users boxes to maintain forward compatibility and allow them to keep their recordings.
This conversion actually happens each time the box re-boots (which happens following a firmware upgrade), so if you put a back level disk in the box it will be automatically converted to the new format the box software is currently using.

3. Sky obviously only need to maintain the backward compatibility and ability to upgrade from legacy planner formats for so many releases. After this they can remove support for conversions on the assumption that all systems out there will should have received the previous version by now (or be so old that people do not care about their old recordings).
With the Darwin upgrade it seems Sky have removed the legacy conversion support from the original shared SD/HD planner mentioned in point 1 above.
Therefore it is no longer possible to go directly from SD to HD. However an intermediate conversion via step 2 on a Thomson HD box without Darwin is still possible.


Once again than you for taking the time to post your observations. I will link to this thread from the Darwin FAQ I have just posted.
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