I noticed that my Foxsat HDR is now allowing me to transfer HD programmes to an external drive in freesat mode - great!

I formatted a drive to EXT3 and connected it up and was able to copy HD content to it, however when I try to play it back off the USB drive it breaks up (I assume the data rate isn't high enough) but when copied back to the internal hard drive plays fine.

The file seems to remain encrypted as it won't play back on a PC.

Anyone else tried this?

Hi gerrya welcome to the forum yes it's been possible to do this for a few months now as the BBC removed some of it's restrictions on HD files. The files are copy once protected still although if you make a copy to an ext hdd that file can be copied back to the original foxsat hdd that created it in the first place.

Thanks. I had read about the lifting of restrictions on the BBC Blog but had thought that was in relation to burning to blueray.

Its a pity that the HD files won't play directly from the external drive via the Foxsat rather than having to copy them back, but at least its progress.

yes you're right it was also covering blueray burning infact it covers any form of file duplication I think.

The biggest problem with moving the files to and from one hdd to another is the length of time it takes.:sleep::sleep:

If you record BBC HD in non-freesat mode (enter non-freesat switch off and on again), the recordings are not encrypted and will happily play back from USB. It's the decryption overhead that causes choppy playback.