Any Humax users out there?

It will depend on which box you have, this thread may help

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk...thread.php?t=1961010

Many thanks for the link, it does seem that, as I suspected, the process is much more complicated than one would assume.

Assuming that Humax haven't changed their file format since my current box was produced, so copied files will play on a current machine, I'm tempted to connect a formatted external HD, cross my fingers, and hope for the best!  

Agreed, I do recall doing this on a old Foxsat-HDR but the transfer was v. slow & the box was fussy about the flash drives

You've highlighted a fundamental issue with any type of HD recorder which is that there's no redundancy of any kind

There's more than one way to skin a cat in this regard (RAID1?) but I guess it all comes down to cost in the end (notwithstanding any built in obsolescence!)

Yes, we all take great care to back up our music files, but it doesn't seem to register, (well, it didn't with me) to do the same with treasured video files. 

I'll probably try to back up to a USB HD, as above, and if the recorder finally gives up the ghost, prise the HD out and take things from there.

The fun just never stops.

You don't specify the model no. but this might be a handy link. All you ever need to know about Humax's.

https://hummy.tv/forum/

I've just tested a copy from HDD to USB stick on my HDR-2000T 500GB. It plays perfectly well on my laptop using VLC media player. A half hour program is around 1Gb. If you have another model then look through the hummy forums. I've recently also modded the firmware on an older T2 model and you can do all sorts of weird and wonderful things with it.

Note: this was a BBC standard recording. I think HD recordings may be encrypted.

Again, thanks for the Humax link, I'll have a study on there.

Virtually all the recordings I want to save are in HD, and, as you say, they may well be encrypted, not in itself a problem, as I don't want to use them on, for example, my laptop, but am hoping that I'll be able to view them on the replacement Humax straight off the external HD.

Fingers crossed. 

Any HD recordings are tied to the box they were recorded on as they are encrypted, SD recordings are not protected and can be freely copied..

You can back them up and say if the hard drive was replaced on your current box you could copy them back over on to the new disk in the same box and they would play OK.

If you have the Foxsat-HDR there is unsupported firmware available which removes this restriction and adds a DNLA server but I am not sure if you can do this with the freeview boxes.

Richard

Hi,

My current box is an HDR-FOX T2, and I've narrowed my search down to the relevant pages on the hummy/tv forum mentioned by Redmires above.

I'll back the files up for now, and see whether the problems are with the Humax hard drive or something else.