Recorded TV to Computer

DougJones · Post by **DougJones** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:50 am

I have purchased a Freeview tv for our Kitchen/dining area which records programs via a WD passport portable hard drive through a usb port on the tv.
This works fine, as it is also capable of downloading mp3 files from my computer to play back through the tv sound system.
My question is, how do you view recorded tv programs on the hard drive back through my computer, there must be some sort of software which I haven't got, because when I "explore" the hard through the computer, it appears the the drive is empty

Anyone got any ideas please?

Hoovie · Post by **Hoovie** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:55 am

what make of Box is it? did the box reformat the WD Passport drive of just use it as is?

DougJones · Post by **DougJones** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:04 pm

Hoovie,
The TV is a Humax LCD 22" and the hard drive connected to the TV through a USB port is a Western Digital 80gb portable hard drive, exactly as you would purchase as a computer external hard drive.
The TV originally asked to reformat the drive which I did, but nothing since that time of setting up the TV - channel scan etc.

Hoovie · Post by **Hoovie** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:26 pm

aha - you have a few possible options then .....Depending how techie you want to get :)

Assuming the drive is formatted the same way as the Humax 9200T PVR, it is not directly visible to Windows, so appears empty.
(I see the manual says "This TV provides best performance with the supplied hard disk drive. If you connect the other hard disk drive to your TV, the TV will format it" )
You can run some s/w called "9200ReadFiles" (get from here) and that will then show you all the files in the drives (probably with the extension .stb) in a GUI Window and you can then select the files you want as source and then define destination, clik the ok and it copies over.

I have not used this via a USB connection though - only by taking the Hard Drive OUT of the PVR and plugging it directly into a PC IDE connection - I am not sure it will work via USB.
The 9200T PVR could be connected to the PC via USB and a program called eLinker by Humax used to upload MP3s and photos to the PVR and download recorded TV programs to the PC, but was slow and unreliable -
Is there any mention of eLinker in the user guide?
Although I did find it 100 times quicker to take the PVR apart, move the hard drive, copy the progs with 9200Files and then put everything back together as it was then to use eLinker

It maybe worth having a look at hummy.org.uk to see if anyone has already done what you want to and have direct experience with your specific unit.

Once you have got the programs over, you will find the usual software like Media Player and Real Player will not understand the video format. You will need to use VLC Player (http://www.videolan.org/vlc) which will play the video without a problem

Good Luck

DougJones · Post by **DougJones** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:30 pm

Cheers for your help Hoovie I'll start trying out some of your suggestions and see what happens.
Cheers
Doug

Hoovie · Post by **Hoovie** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 12:42 pm

Enjoy!

PS - It appears that your 22" TV is same as my 17" Humax TV in that you can't actually turn it off! just put it in Standby.

Now they may have improved the firmware in it by now (mine is 3 years old) but I found over time the TV controls started to get a bit 'odd' and to resolve that I had to unplug the Power, just like you would have to reboot a PC occasionally.
Plus of course, you are wasting power leaving it on Standby.

I fixed this by getting a "bye bye standby" starter kit for it - 3 plug in controllers and a remote for £15 - not sure if you should do this when it is working as a PVR though

you'll stop the recordings working

DougJones · Post by **DougJones** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 2:03 pm

Yes ours is the same, stays on standby or off at the socket.
All of our other freeview boxes and Skybox are all the same, otherwise they take some time to update the program guide or miss software upgrades that are downloaded at night

as you say a total waste of power!
I downloaded the 9200 files but it did not recognize the hard drive

For the time being I'm downloading the program I wanted onto a DVD recorder and the going from there, slow work though.
I've looked at the hummy site and saved it for viewing at my leisure at a later date.
Cheers for all your help and "pointers" - much appreciated

Doug

Hoovie · Post by **Hoovie** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 2:28 pm

No Probs.

PS (PPS?) - . the Humax uses about 2GB per Hour for recordings as you will know, but it is very easy to change the Hard Drive to a larger one if you need more capacity.
I swapped my 160GB HD in the 9200T to a 320GB jobby - just need to swap it over with the old one and then either the unit will see a new one and reformat it, or you will have a menu option to reformat.
In fact - being External, it would probably be very easy to just plug in a new external unit (PC World had a very good offer on the WD Worldbook - 1TB (1,000GB) for about £110)

DougJones · Post by **DougJones** » Mon Oct 20, 2008 3:18 pm

Cheers Hoovie,
Already been looking at that and might well consider it, will see how full the drive gets.
Already have in addition, 2 freeview boxes with HDD and Sky plus also - total of 160hrs. The wife wanted enough recording time to replace the video tapes

Still use the DVD recorder sometimes, but the HDDs are so convenient to use and easy enough for her to record to her hearts content!