Unfortunately not
A particular file can be referenced either way as the Video directory is a symlink (and I managed to find a file that didn't contain a space, so got rid of that red herring!):
# ls -l /media
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 14 Jan 1 2000 Music -> /mnt/hd4/Music
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 14 Jan 1 2000 Photo -> /mnt/hd4/Photo
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 14 Jan 1 2000 Video -> /mnt/hd3/Video
# ls -l /mnt/hd3/Video/Priceless_20110109_2201.ts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2860915200 Jan 9 23:40 /mnt/hd3/Video/Priceless_20110109_2201.ts
# ls -l /media/Video/Priceless_20110109_2201.ts
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2860915200 Jan 9 23:40 /media/Video/Priceless_20110109_2201.ts
I can "get" a file by using the absolute path on the Humax (calling it foo.ts on my Mac):
ftp> get /mnt/hd3/Video/Priceless_20110109_2201.ts foo.ts
local: foo.ts remote: /mnt/hd3/Video/Priceless_20110109_2201.ts
502 Command not implemented.
200 Port command successful
150 Opening data connection for directory list
11896 KiB 3.87 MiB/s
However, the usual way of referencing it doesn't work, I've tried at least:
ftp://HumaxFTP:0000@192.168.1.82//mn...110109_2201.ts
ftp://HumaxFTP:0000@192.168.1.82/mnt...110109_2201.ts
ftp://HumaxFTP:0000@192.168.1.82//me...110109_2201.ts
ftp://HumaxFTP:0000@192.168.1.82/med...110109_2201.ts
ftp://HumaxFTP:0000@192.168.1.82/Vid...110109_2201.ts
Looks to me like the conversation between VLC and the FTP server doesn't go according to plan,
access_ftp debug: ftp_SendCommand:"SIZE /mnt/hd3/Video/Priceless_20110109_2201.ts"
access_ftp debug: answer=500 Syntax error, command unrecognized.
access_ftp debug: cannot get file size
access_ftp debug: will try to get directory contents
access_ftp debug: ftp_SendCommand:"CWD /mnt/hd3/Video/Priceless_20110109_2201.ts"
access_ftp debug: answer=530 Requested action not taken.
access_ftp error: file or directory doesn't exist
main debug: no access module matching "ftp" could be loaded
main debug: TIMER module_need() : 54.461 ms - Total 54.461 ms / 1 intvls (Avg 54.461 ms)
main debug: waitpipe: object killed
To me above it looks like the SIZE command hasn't been implemented in the FTP server on the Humax, this is when I am using a normal FTP client:
ftp> size
(remote-file) /mnt/hd3/Video/Priceless_20110109_2201.ts
500 Syntax error, command unrecognized.
That would not appear to be fatal for the communication, however the use of the CWD command by VLC would appear to be ("CWD /mnt/hd3/Video/Priceless_20110109_2201.ts") and confuses me:
ftp> cd /mnt/hd3/Video/Priceless_20110109_2201.ts
530 Requested action not taken.
ftp> cd /mnt/hd3/Video/
250 File action is successful. Proceed.
That would point more to a problem with VLC...
Anyway that's it from me for now, interesting stuff anyway

...!