DVD Recorder

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Hi, I know this is an old thread, hoping someone can still reply.
I have the RH399H hard drive recorder.
I want to get what I have taped onto the hard drive off.
Unfortunately the DVD writer is no longer working too well, and when I opened it to look to replace it, I see it has a different type of plug/fitting.
The DVD player has never really worked well, sometimes refusing to even play brand new DVDs.
My next thought was to capture the movies into my video capture card, but that was taking forever, and the generated files were huge.
So, I am thinking that maybe I can slave the HD into my computer, and just copy the files off?
Looking in the manual, I see it uses Mpeg2 compression.
Has anyone ever tried this? I'm afraid that by plugging it into my computer, Windows might write files (e.g. cache type) to it, thereby messing it up.
 
ShamusVW said:
Unfortunately the DVD writer is no longer working too well, and when I opened it to look to replace it, I see it has a different type of plug/fitting.
The DVD player has never really worked well, sometimes refusing to even play brand new DVDs.
So, I am thinking that maybe I can slave the HD into my computer, and just copy the files off?
Looking in the manual, I see it uses Mpeg2 compression.
Has anyone ever tried this? I'm afraid that by plugging it into my computer, Windows might write files (e.g. cache type) to it, thereby messing it up.
Click to expand...

Yes, you can do this - I've done it many times from my RH1999H recorder.
Remove the HDD and hook it up to your PC - I think the HDD in the RH399 is a SATA drive, so you shouldn't have the master/slave issue like the IDE drives.
The PC won't change the file structure of the LG HDD at all.
All the recordings are MPEG2, but LG use their own filename extension format. All I did was copy all the large recorded files to my PC HDD, then renamed all the file extensions to MPG or MPEG - they should play fine in Windows with media player or whichever player you use.

From what I remember, the recorded files are all stored in a seperate folder, and not in the HDD root folder, but just look for the largest files in the folders you have on the drive and you can't go wrong!

NOTE: Once all the clips are transferred and you've checked that you can play them on your PC, pop the HDD back in the LG and do a full format - you will loose everything on the HDD, but it'll be clean!. You can also consider upgrading the HDD size if you want to - my RH199H currently went from a the standard 250GB IDE to a 500GB IDE... twice the recording space! ;)

Shout if you get stuck.

Unfortunately the DVD writer is no longer working too well, and when I opened it to look to replace it, I see it has a different type of plug/fitting
Click to expand...
The optical drive is housed in a proprietary case for that specific model, but should be either an IDE or a SATA connection in the casing. If you buy a replacement from the LG Service Center, it should come with the casing, and it's a simple case of unplugging the old and plugging in the new...
 
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Thanks for replying so quick.
I'm going to test out tonight!
Unfortunately a while back it showed the menu structure, but only played a couple of seconds of each movie.
Eventually we reformatted the drive at great distress to my wife.
It might have been the drive was too full, not sure.
Would have been great knowing this back then, as I doubt every single movie was messed, it probably just had the file structure messed a bit.

Regarding the DVD writer, if this works with copying the files directly to the computer, I won't bother with the extra expense/effort to replace it.
I will then just write direct from my computer to the DVD.
Thank you...
 
You're most welcome ShamusVW - let us know how it goes.

I also had a few clips that did that, and it was also a case of my drive was full - another thing you can try is to edit each clip on the LG, removing any unwanted segments, e.g. adverts, bumpf before and after the actual program - I found it a lot easier to do this on the LG before transferring the clips to the PC, but you can also edit these on the PC if needed at a later stage...

Makes sense re not to replace the DVD drive if you don't have to, as it's waaaay overpriced from LG - the last quote I got was around R800 early this year!
 
I don't seem to be coming right.
Got the drive out and hooked into my computer, it is IDE.
Unfortunately I can't get Windows 7 to recognise it.
The only option I have is to delete the partition. I can't assign letters or anything.
Knowing it would want me to confirm deletion, I said to delete the partition, and the response was that the existing partition wasn't created by Windows, and that it might have info on. I then canceled the operation.
Any idea how I can access the drive?
 
Keep in mind that you cannot hot-swap an IDE drive like SATA, so it needs to be connected whilst the PC is powered off.
Are you connecting it on the Master or the Slave IDE cable connector - try using the Master connector, then it should be recognised, as the drive is set to Master (single drive setup) by default. Depending on your PC system, the Master connector can be either the 1st or the 2nd connector on the IDE cable, counting from where it connects to the motherboard - in most cases, it should be the 2nd connector.
Is the motherboard IDE connector enabled in the BIOS - if not, it won't let Windows recognise the drive correctly (if at all) - if you need assistance with this setting, send me the make/model of you motherboard.

If none of these work, then try looking on the LG HDD itself and see if there is a jumper bridge to select Master, Slave or Cable Select - should look like this, and the setting listed on the HDD sticker:
ide-hdd.jpg


If prompted to delete partitions - always select NO
 
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I had to reconnect the drive back into the recorder, as we needed to tape 'House' tonight, so I was pleased that it all still worked, all old taped movies still working.
I will only be able to check after work again tomorrow.
Just to say, I briefly looked at the jumper, it didn't appear to be in master position, but I could be wrong.
Also, I can't remember if I used the first or second connector.
What is strange though is that I can see the partition, I just can't assign drive letters.
Also, I didn't check when I first booted up again whether the BIOS recognised the drive or not, something to check tomorrow as well.
Thanks so far.
Shaun
 
Failing coming right tonight, I have been thinking about using a data recovery tool to try extract the info from the drive.
One I have come across is TestDisk.
The home page says it can find lost partions on the following file systems:
BeFS ( BeOS )
BSD disklabel ( FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD )
CramFS, Compressed File System
DOS/Windows FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32
Windows exFAT
HFS, HFS+ and HFSX, Hierarchical File System
JFS, IBM's Journaled File System
Linux ext2, ext3 and ext4
Linux LUKS encrypted partition
Linux RAID md 0.9/1.0/1.1/1.2 RAID 1: mirroring
RAID 4: striped array with parity device
RAID 5: striped array with distributed parity information
RAID 6: striped array with distributed dual redundancy information

Linux Swap (versions 1 and 2)
LVM and LVM2, Linux Logical Volume Manager
Mac partition map
Novell Storage Services NSS
NTFS ( Windows NT/2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7 )
ReiserFS 3.5, 3.6 and 4
Sun Solaris i386 disklabel
Unix File System UFS and UFS2 (Sun/BSD/...)
XFS, SGI's Journaled File System

This will be my last resort, since if Windows can automatically detect the files, this will be easiest.
My reason for looking into this is that when I initially tested the "delete partition" option, it mentioned that the partition might have been creatd with a different operating system (other than Windows), and might have data on (which is what I'm obviously after).
A different OS would possibly mean a different file system.

Your thoughts?
 
Hi.
Been awhile since I last updated to this thread. (Exams...!_
Eventually I managed to test my hard-drive again from my Windows 7 computer.
Again, Windows Management sees the drive, but can't mount it and assign a drive letter, as it isn't FAT, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS.
I came across 2 different programs, both written by the same person, the one as a follow on to the other, Explore2fs & Virtual Volumes.
Unfortunately neither of these programs detected the drive having ext2 or ext3 files.
Can anyone suggest what my next course of action can be?
Is there a program that will mount the drive and tell me what file system is being used?
 
Poor sound fom some recordings

I have a LG RH399H, about a year old and have been very happy with it. I have noticed every now and again that a program I've recorded has poor sound especially in the quite patches. It is not there for all the recordings and I have not managed to link it to anything. I have a suspition that it might be when I have edited the program, trimmed the begining. Has anyone else picked this up or is my unit faulty?
 
KingRat1 said:
I have a LG RH399H, about a year old and have been very happy with it. I have noticed every now and again that a program I've recorded has poor sound especially in the quite patches. It is not there for all the recordings and I have not managed to link it to anything. I have a suspition that it might be when I have edited the program, trimmed the begining. Has anyone else picked this up or is my unit faulty?
Click to expand...

Can you define the "poor sound" a bit more - are there crackles or does it sound like a hum that get's louder the longer the quiet patches are?

The editing of the file/program on the RH399H should not cause this - what are you recording, and from what source (e.g. DSTV decoder, VHS, etc.). How is this source connected (e.g. RCA cables, RF cable, etc.)
 
To get your recordings on to your computer use this program - from HDD_LG_TO_PC
http://ifndef.altervista.org/index_eng.html
I did and it worked. Unfortunately, after I did this I formatted my LG drive by mistake (had too many drives plugged in) and now it won't work, impossible to find firmware
 
andyjay - thanks for this link.
Re your drive; try deleting all partitions on the LG drive (if you format it on Windows the unit won't recognise the partition), then plug it back in the unit and initialise/format it from the unit.
 
Just in case anyone got sucked into this reanimated ancient thread because of the title, it is of course true now that a DVD recorder like the much-discussed LG model is now pretty impossible to find -- no longer marketed.

However I did find an easy solution to replace it: an old laptop (which has a DVD-recording drive) plus a USB audio & video capture dongle. Connect your decoder to the dongle to record the movie etc. to the laptop's HDD, and then burn a DVD. The resulting disc is in fact more compatible than those produced by a standalone recorder, which can generally only be played back on a domestic DVD player and not on a computer.
 
Can you please see me the details on how to obtain that ISO file to make my RH399H region free, I would greatly appreciate it.
 
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