Importing recordings from linux VDR

[Nzbaxterman]

Hello

I have been using VDR (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_Disk_Recorder) for about 20 years, with DVB-C/CI DVB-T (ATSC) and DVB-S in the UK and the USA and now in New Zealand.

For the past 10 years I've just used it for FTA over DVB-S - but am now switching to a NextPVR back-end and Kodi front end.  FTA channels are only in SD over DVB-S, and I can get them in HD via .m3u8 and iptv.

So far (3 days in) NextPVR looks great, although after 20 years with VDR it's a bit of a change.

Question - I have hundreds of VDR recordings which I'd like to import into NextPVR.  

The VDR recording metadata is stored in individual recording directories such as:
../Tipping_Point/2023-09-27.14.58.1-0.rec/

Within the directories are ts files, info files and index files.

I think everything NPVR will need for metadata can be derived from the directory name (which includes date and time) and what's in the info file.  For instance:
C S160.0E-47-22-1035 TVNZ 1
E 85 1695780000 3600 4E 16
T Tipping Point
D G Fantastic quiz show in which four players take on a machine in the hopes of winning its 10,000 pounds jackpot. Only one can win!
G 70
R 9
X 2 03 eng
X 2 03 ita
X 3 03 eng
F 25
P 50
L 99
@ <epgsearch><channel>1 - TVNZ 1</channel><update>0</update><eventid>85</eventid><bstart>120</bstart><bstop>600</bstop></epgsearch><pin-plugin><protected>no</protected></pin-plugin>


If I create a script which creates the xml file for NPVR for each recording, any suggestions on how I import this?



From the wiki/help:
ts files:
AUDIO/VIDEO DATA
The files 00001.ts...65535.ts are the actual recorded data files. In  order  to  keep  the
size  of  an  individual  file  below a given limit, a recording may be split into several
files. The contents of these files is Transport Stream (TS) and contains data packets that
are  each  188  byte  long and start with 0x47. Data is stored exactly as it is broadcast,
with a generated PAT/PMT inserted right before every independent frame.

info file (optional - but useful)
INFO
The file info (if present  in  a  recording  directory)  contains  a  description  of  the
recording,  derived  from the EPG data at recording time (if such data was available). The
Aux field of the corresponding timer (if given) is copied into this file,  using  the  '@'
tag.  This is a plain ASCII file and contains tagged lines like the EPG DATA file (see the
description of the epg.data file). Note that the lowercase tags ('c'  and  'e')  will  not
appear  in  an  info  file.  Lines tagged with '#' are ignored and can be used by external
tools to store arbitrary information.

In addition to the tags used in the  epg.data  file,  the  following  tag  characters  are
defined:

F  <frame rate>
L  <lifetime>
P  <priority>
@  <auxiliary data>

index (optional)
INDEX
The file index (if present in a recording directory) contains the (binary) index data into
each of the the recording files 00001.ts...65535.ts. It is used during replay to determinethe current position within the recording, and to implement skipping and fast forward/back
functions.  See  the  definition  of  the  cIndexFile  class for details about the actual
contents of this file.

[mvallevand]

Zip up a few info files with the metadata and I'll probably be able to add them to NextTool. It already imports from many other backends

It would be nice to do a recursive ls listing on a recording director.

I used VDR with mvpmc a long time ago I always liked it more than MythTV. Plus it worked well on my old MVP devices

Martin

[Nzbaxterman]

Thanks Martin.

Here's a txt of the file structure and a zip of all the info files from within the files.

[Nzbaxterman]

And the file structure added as an attachment

[mvallevand]

Give this a shot, using the installation instructions on the wiki https://github.com/sub3/NextPVR/wiki/NextTool

The parameters will be

--vdr {filespec}

The filespec will be the full path the source folder, you can go as high as you want, it recursively looks for ts files that have a .rec folder above it.  You have a few folders with more than the single 00001.ts  and so you will have the 00002 etc as the subtitle. 

If there are troubles send the zipped logs.

Martin

[Nzbaxterman]

I'm getting an abort error.  Looks like a problem with Sqlite?

[mvallevand]

Are you sure you followed the instructions on the wiki? It doesn't look like you created the symbolic link.

Also technically the parameter I gave was --vdr not vdr but vdr and -vdr also work since many people were ignoring the syntax.

Martin

[Nzbaxterman]

Ah yes - sorry.

Script seems to run fine - will do some more tests and let you know if anything didn't work:

root@ubuntu2020:/opt/nextpvr/system# sudo -u nextpvr /opt/dotnet/dotnet /opt/nextpvr/system/NextTool.dll --vdr /srv/vdr/video/Star_Trek/Star_Trek#3A_Strange_New_Worlds/
NEXTPVR_INSTALLDIR /opt/nextpvr/system/
NEXTPVR_DATADIR /opt/nextpvr/system/data/
NEXTPVR_DATADIR_USERDATA /var/opt/nextpvr/
Folder: Star_Trek#3A_Strange_New_Worlds
Folder: 2023-09-10.13.18.3-0.rec
Folder: 2023-09-24.13.13.3-0.rec
Folder: 2023-09-17.13.13.3-0.rec
Folder: 2023-08-27.13.13.3-0.rec
Folder: 2023-08-20.13.23.3-0.rec
Folder: 2023-10-01.13.18.3-0.rec
Folder: 2023-09-03.13.13.3-0.rec

[mvallevand]

Great. Note that you can run this multiple times at various directory levels, it won't duplicate filenames that exist.

The web player might take a bit of time to load recordings the first time as there may be a lot of art to collect.

Martin

[Nzbaxterman]

Sorry Martin - having more problems.

I've ran it against a Doctor Who directory, and it only imports one of the episodes.

Similarly ran it against a Flipping Bangers directory, which only has one episode, and it says it's succeeded but the recording doesn't show up.

Logs in the attached