Panasonic DMR-HWT130 External HDD Content Catalogue or List

[computertronics]

I have a Panasonic DMR-HWT130 along with a DMR-PWT420 and a DMR-HW120.

Each have external HDDs connected to move content from the internal HDD.

I've been moving content to the external HDDs for some years now, so have multiple external HDDs and now multiple TBs of content.

Forgetfully I know I've recorded the same content more than once, so I know there will be duplicates lurking on those external HDDs.

My question is can I catalogue the content of the external HDDs by connecting to a PC?

I'm not wanting to copy the actual content or defeat the DRM in any way. I just want to create an electronic list of what is on the HDD and search for duplicates. The Panasonic listing from the box is rather primitive, to say the least.

I have stopped short of attaching the external HDDs to a PC to see what happens, in case there is any corruption of the Panasonic proprietary formatting.

 

[Gavtech]

I very much doubt you would have any kind of success pursuing that route, and there are obvious associated risks in attempting it.

I know both the HW120 and 130 have both client and server DLNA facilities. I assume the 420 is the same.
You probably stand a much better chance of getting content listed if you network the units to your PC using these facilities.

 

[computertronics]

Thanks Gavtech. That was an excellent suggestion to use the DLNA route. I tried many DLNA clients (including Windows Media Player) and some will list the content as file lists or playlists, but none (except for one) support export to other than one of the playlist standards (e.g WPL or M3U). The exception is MediaMonkey (MediaMonkey » Free Media Jukebox, Music Manager, CD Ripper & Converter). MediaMonkey supports export of the file list as xls and some other formats. It is almost a perfect solution, as MediaMonkey will list and export the top-level / single file entries, but won't in the same export include the grouped listings that are in a sub-folder. If you record a series, the Panasonic boxes file the series entries in a sub-folder it seems. Listing the top-level items is good enough for my purposes, as it is the duplicate movies that I'm trying to identify.