Extracting Recorded Shows From Dish Network Dvr


project86

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Some of you might remember discussing this a while back in another similar thread I started. I was inquiring about the possibility of connecting the 2X to a dish DVR unit thru USB, and grabbing some of my recordings for later watching. At the time, all I could find out was that the files seemed to be the proper format, and dish sells their own line of PVP units (rebadged Archos units with changed firmware).

Since the idea still intrigues me, I've done some further digging. I found that the Dish DVR's use some type of DRM to protect the content you have stored, so even if you remove the hard drive and plug it into your PC, it won't be recognized. I also found out that there is a program called PvrExplorerPro that can be used to get around this problem. I was excited about this until I saw the system requirements:

System requirements:
OS: Microsoft Windows, 2K / XP (home or Pro), 2003, Vista.
Apple MAC OS X 10.2 or greater.
Linux KDE environment kernel 2.6.4 or greater.

RAM: 256MB min, recommended 512.
HDD: Application requires ~500K, but it is recommended that you
have >20GB of free space to hold and edit you mpeg files outputted by
PvrExplorerPro.

I don't know what version of Linux the 2X runs, but the RAM requirement seems to be the biggest problem. I was hoping someone would be able to port this program and then we would be in business, but now I doubt it.

The thing is, the Dish DVR supposedly runs Linux, and I'm sure the rebadged Archos units that they sell (called PocketDish) don't have that much RAM. It seems to me that it would just be a matter of tricking the Dish DVR into "seeing" my 2X as a PocketDish.

When I hook up my 2X to the DVR using a USB cable, and put my 2X into USB mode, the DVR actually recognizes that something IS in fact plugged in. The menu changes and I am presented with the option of uploading or downloading files. However when I pick either option, I get an error message that says "this function is not available" or something like that. There must be some type of handshake going on between the 2 units, that I am missing by using a 2X.

I don't know if anyone else is even remotely interested in this at all. I have found very limited resources on yahoo groups regarding ripping the files to PC, but nobody there uses GP2X. I know the 2X community is small, and the Dish modding community is also rather small, but it seems like SOMEONE might fall into both categories and figure this out.
 
Well, I either posted this in the wrong area, or else nobody else is interested. Either way, here's another update.

I joined some of the Yahoo groups about modding your Dish DVR. Here are a few of the replies I got when I posted about this:



as it has been said before..
> the firmware in both the 522 and 625,
> ONLY recognize certain USB hookups,
> and it has to respond USB wise as if
> it was a pocket dish.. doubt you can emulate it..
> As the HARDWARE has to handshake before any
> data is exchanged.

Then someone else replied with this:

"Actually I would say that is probably possible. Most likely the dish
receivers are looking at the vendor and device id's reported by the
PocketDish. If this is the case, any linux platform with a client usb
port may "emulate" the PocketDish utilizing the linux kernel usb
gadget support. The usb gadget support can emulate a usb mass storage
device and you can change the source code to have it report any vendor
and device id's you wish.

In fact the PocketDish uses a linux kernel and thus may utilize the
same linux usb gadget support in its normal operations.

The GP2X is also linux based; however, I have no knowledge regarding
how to install a customized kernel on this device. I'm sure there are
some GP2X hacking sites which could help."

So that sounds slightly promising. Anybody have any ideas?
 
I don't know about any of that. But I have a DishNetwork DVR, so it would be nice for me if something comes of this.

Is there currently no way to get the files off the DVR with a PC? I'll nose around a little.
 
Your first step is probably to figure out what the Pocket Dish identifies itself as and then modify the client-side USB module to identify itself as the same device (which shouldn't be too hard, a couple lines of code to change and a kernel rebuild, though I don't know how to install the kernel to the GP2X after you're done recompiling).
 
I don't know about any of that. But I have a DishNetwork DVR, so it would be nice for me if something comes of this.

Is there currently no way to get the files off the DVR with a PC? I'll nose around a little.

I'm sure there would be a bunch of people that would benefit from this.

Like I mentioned, there is a program called PvrExplorerPro that you can use on your Windows/Linux PC or Mac to extract the files. But from what I've read, it doesn't work for everyone. And as far as I can tell based on the system requirements, it probably won't be able to be "ported" to the 2X. I wonder though if that is even the best direction for us to go, or if the suggestion made by ravuya would be better.


Your first step is probably to figure out what the Pocket Dish identifies itself as and then modify the client-side USB module to identify itself as the same device (which shouldn't be too hard, a couple lines of code to change and a kernel rebuild, though I don't know how to install the kernel to the GP2X after you're done recompiling).

That sounds great, hopefully someone else can do this (I know very very little about Linux). Anybody interested? If someone figured it out, this surely would become a must have program for a lot of people. I would certainly donate to the person who does it.
 
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It's probable that the "PVR Explorer" software is doing the exact same thing. It's open source -- that should contain all of the handshake information, which you could then adapt to your GP2X application.

The system requirements provided are probably rough estimates, though the file storage space will be a concern unless you want to re-encode and compress the native MPEG as it comes off the wire. RAM is most likely a rough estimate.
 
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