Downloading and Watching Offline on a Mac

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Downloading and Watching Offline on a Mac

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emodb

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I hope that somebody on these forums can help me.

I have a Humax 5000T. My computer is a Mac (currently running High Sierra if that is in any way relevant).

What I want to be able to do is to download recordings from my Humax, save them to my computer and watch them away from home.

None of the recordings are HD. I can categorically state that they are all SD.

I have set up the Humax so I can see it in my Finder window and I can see all the files that are on there. I have downloaded one recording (the .TS file, not all the other files that came with it). My Finder window tells me that the recording has downloaded and takes up 2.17GB.

I have tried opening the downloaded file in VLC and it will open but it will not play. Nothing happens when I try to hit Play. And in the playlist it says it has 00:00 duration.

I can access the existing (undownloaded) recordings on the Humax via VLC using Universal Plug'n'Play to view the local network. However I can't download them using that. I need to be able to watch some of this stuff away from home so the network is not really much use to me.

If the answer to this has been posted elsewhere then please send a link. I have tried searching but nothing I have found has referred to Macs (only to PCs) or else not to the 5000T.

| Thu 24 Oct 2019 21:41:49 #1 |
Martin Liddle

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emodb - 14 hours ago »
My computer is a Mac (currently running High Sierra if that is in any way relevant).

Yes that is very relavent.

What I want to be able to do is to download recordings from my Humax, save them to my computer and watch them away from home.
None of the recordings are HD. I can categorically state that they are all SD.
I have set up the Humax so I can see it in my Finder window and I can see all the files that are on there. I have downloaded one recording (the .TS file, not all the other files that came with it). My Finder window tells me that the recording has downloaded and takes up 2.17GB.

Sorry I am not familiar with Finder; will that be using SAMBA for the connection. If so I wouldn't expect content to be decrypted. With Windows 8 and upwards a mechanism is used that allows the content to be decrypted whilst downloading. I am busy for the rest of the day but will try and research exactly what is going on and post an answer when I have. Once you know the mechanism it is then a case of finding a suitable client. Unless of course another Mac user already knows the answer?

A temporary workaround would be to copy content from the Humax to a USB memory stick or a USB hard drive which will decrypt the content.

| Fri 25 Oct 2019 12:00:18 #2 |
emodb

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Thanks for your help and I look forward to hearing more.

In the meantime, just to assist, the Finder Window is like the Windows explorer pane: it shows all files and folders on the computer and on any network it is attached to.

| Fri 25 Oct 2019 15:19:10 #3 |
aldaweb

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You may find these FAQ's helpful.
how-to-archive-recordings-to-usb-hdd
file-transfer

You may find a third party SMB client will give better results.
See smbup-mac-os-x-smb-fix/
Note: I have not tried it myself so use at your own risk.

| Fri 25 Oct 2019 19:16:39 #4 |
Martin Liddle

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emodb - 8 hours ago »
In the meantime, just to assist, the Finder Window is like the Windows explorer pane: it shows all files and folders on the computer and on any network it is attached to.

I understood that much already; what I am asking is HOW it interacts with other networks (and I simply do not believe that it interacts with "any network").

| Fri 25 Oct 2019 23:43:33 #5 |
GrahamRHK

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I have tried to replicate this problem. However I used FTP download of an SD recording rather than SMB. The same for me - VLC opens the file but says 0 length. However I can confirm that VLC on a firestick will play SD recordings over DLNA. I am going to try the copy to USB function when I have a moment and try that on a Mac.

| Sat 26 Oct 2019 10:13:17 #6 |
emodb

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<I am going to try the copy to USB function when I have a moment and try that on a Mac.

The problem for me in using a USB is that the HDD has to be formatted in a way that Macs can't write to (some of the methods can be read). All my HDDs are formatted for Mac OS. It's not insurmountable as I guess I can partition and reformat part or all of an HDD but it does put that out of use for other purposes. If I can avoid using an HDD via USB then that would be best.

| Sat 26 Oct 2019 16:32:09 #7 |
emodb

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(Going slightly off topic) I do find it immensely frustrating when coming up against software clashes/incompatibilities which I thought had been largely overcome now that Macs are no longer a minority interest. I feel like I'm back 20 years ago.

| Sat 26 Oct 2019 16:34:25 #8 |
Martin Liddle

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emodb - 1 hour ago »
(Going slightly off topic) I do find it immensely frustrating when coming up against software clashes/incompatibilities which I thought had been largely overcome now that Macs are no longer a minority interest.

The statistics don't support your claim of "No longer a minority interest". the first statistics for sales I found said that sales in 2018 were 259 million Windows PCs and 18 million Mac PCs. I agree that 18 million is a sizeable number of users but it is a minority.

| Sat 26 Oct 2019 17:48:45 #9 |
Martin Liddle

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emodb - 1 day ago »
Thanks for your help and I look forward to hearing more.

I am stuck on this because currently I can't see the FVP in Windows Explorer. This happened to me when I first investigated the functionality and after doing nothing it showed up a few days later.

One other suggestion that you might want to pursue there are some clients around written in Java for the HDR-FOX T2 or HDR-2000T that will grab the DLNA stream and save it to file as decrypted content eg https://github.com/Moosemorals/media-browser NB ignore the HD capability as it needs to remove the protection on HD recordings and the method used is not applicable to a FVP. I am fairly sure there are others but I haven't the time to ferret them out.

| Sat 26 Oct 2019 18:10:06 #10 |