I want to copy a recording to a USB attached 1GB stick . The stick has connected correctly and has been used to copy music and pictures OK into the HDR. However when I select an internal video or radio recording, even of very short length, the green 'copy' button in the file manager is not green, and when selected results in a 'stop' sign. .

What are the rules for copying recordings ? Is there a copyright restriction ? or is there a minimum size of USB attached device ?

Second ascpect of this is what file format would be archived ? Is it MPEG ? is there software which could convert the format on a PC ?

Hi, welcome to the forums

When you open up File Manager, with the USB connected, navigate to the right pane (USB), and press OK on the root partition folder (sda or something like that) to open it, navigate back to left pane and find your file, it will then enable copy with Green.

The video file extension is .ts, it will play in VLC Media player.

But you won't get much on a 1GB stick


Rgds.


Les.

If you create a folder on the USB stick too, that might help, my HDR doesn't like dumping files into the root of the memory stick!

I have an Iomega external 320Gb USB drive (2.5" self powered) attached but I have formatted it with Linux (ext3). My HDR has absolutely no problems copying files to the root of the drive... Perhaps the formatting is the problem? Is your memory stick still FAT/FAT32?

Thanks for the advice. I have now made a test transfer OK.
It looks like I need about 30Mb per minute of video (SD), and about 2 MB for radio. So I can now select an HDD of a useful size.

There is of course an alternative I could use for SD, which is to play the analogue video out via the SCART and record it with my DVD recorder. I wonder how much quality I would lose by the Digital >Analogue> Digital conversions this implies ?

Slightly off topic. Now that BBC HD allows copy once , can you shift BBC HD off the humax onto a HD then play on a PC?

Yes, it's fat32, once I create a folder, it will happily copy files to the folder, but in the root it won't let me copy anything. Not a big deal tbh.

Not currently.

You can copy it off, but because the encryption key is specific to each HDR, you have to copy it back to that HDR to play. You also cannot play it on the HDR from the USB HDD, because USB is not quick enough to cope with the decryption on-the-fly.

Unless you record it from BBC HD in non-freesat mode, which is unencrypted.

Rgds.

Les.

Has the new firmware changed the position with this at all or do you still have to record in non freesat mode in you want to play back on your PC?

Also, on a related point is the non freesat mode reliable and practical enough to record a lot of recordings - in my case I am looking for something to record all of the Olympics while I am away on holiday.

Whilst you can only play an encrypted file on the HDR which was used to make the original recording, you don't have to copy it back to the HDR - mine works fine from my external hard disk. The problem is that all the encrypted files are HD and so probably more than 4Gb, above the size limit of FAT32-formatted USB sticks and external HDD's. I've formatted mine in ext3 to overcome this problem. The Windows NTFS format is not recognised by the Foxsat HDR.

The encrypted recordings aren't the choice of Humax, it's a broadcaster restriction, so they are still encrypted, yes.

Do you really want to watch all of the Olympics on your PC? If you do want to do this then you'd be much, much better off heading to a site like http://www.thebox.bz

You can't set timers in non-freesat mode so what you want to do is pretty much impossible.

Just to confirm that the pre-Christmas software upgrade sorted this problem, and it's now possible to play both (encrypted) HD & (unencrypted) SD files back direct from the USB HDD (through the HDR itself of course). It's a great way to archive recordings, and free up space on the main HDR HDD.

Indeed and I can separately confirm that...

Before you go out and buy a new drive for archiving you should bear in mind that you cannot copy a file larger than 4gb to a FAT32 drive, regardless of how big that drive is. This has been a constant problem for me as about 50% of SD films creep just over 4gb. I have looked into the various solutions in these forums, but it seems that it involves using formatting other than FAT32, perhaps via Linux and various other things I don't understand.

I'm not a computer expert, just a TV watcher ! so I pretty much gave up. This 4GB limit severely reduces the benefit of having a USB out...

As far as I am aware you can't schedule recordings in non freesat mode,..you can only record things manually as they are playing as I understand it. So I don't think this is the solution if you are wanting to record while you are away.

I might stand to be corrected on this one.....

You are correct you have to start the recording manually but you can select a recording duration so you don't have to be there to stop it

Generic fta pvr ready boxes will automatically split up large files into 4GB chunks so will work with a FAT32 drive. A hdr requires an EXT3 formatted partition to handle files larger than 4GB. Actually the limit is one byte less than 4GB for FAT32.

Don't despair, I'm not a computer expert either, but I found it easy enough to format a drive in ext 3.
1. Google "gparted live cd" and download the "iso" file that is on the site.
2. Google "iso burner" and install one of the free ones on the various sites (takes a few seconds).
3. Burn the gparted CD using your iso burner program.
4. Leave the CD in the drive and reboot your PC. It should load gparted instead of Windows, but if it doesn't then reboot & press the F key that is written on the screen during the first few seconds of the boot sequence. Somewhere in the menu you will find "boot sequence" - make sure your CD is the first in the boot list.
5. Choose all the defaults in gparted and follow the onscreen instructions - and you'll have your formatted disc!

And if it's any help..

My measured usage for SD..
Fireworks etc New Years Eve works out as 32Meg/min..
AND
for all of the Kiddies progs like
Noddy..Oggy..etc
the usage is only 15Megs/min

Stan

Thanks Graham, I know you are trying to assist. But I have no idea what a 'Generic fta pvr ready box' is. Like I say, I am just a TV watcher. My experience extends as far as TV and VHS and nothing in that tells me what a Generic fta PVR is as opposed to a banana.

Seriously though, thanks for help.

Thanks, this seems easy enough to follow. I'll keep a note of it for the next time I get any energy to try to sort this out.

Regards,