Recording to usb device

i want to record programmes from my tv which records in vfat onto a usb but when I go to play it on my  Avtex tv in the van it says device needs formatting so do that but it erases all recordings,go back to tv and it says the device needs formatting again seem to be going around in circles any advice would be appreciated

I think Nora [Traficlady] has the same issue with her TV.
Does it work if you use a different file format? - .avi, .mov . mp4 etc...

Frank

I had same problem with music I put on a usb. The Avtex needed different format but I simply changed the download to MP3 format off my laptop (not tried recording of tv.). Can you change the download format off your TV?

We can only record from the TV we will be watching on. Formatting will erase everything. 

Nora

Generally in situations like this, it's not the format of the file - it's the filesystem itself. The filesystem defines the rules on how data is laid out on the memory device - it doesn't place any limit on the types of file you can store on it (though it may place limits on the filename).

Typically the solution is to find a filesystem that both TV's can work with. More often than not, FAT32 will work, but it depends on the make and model of each TV. The specs (as shown in the owner's manual) will usually say what filesystems are supported.

If you can't find that info, I would start by formatting the USB stick to FAT32 and see if that works. Obviously, as Nora says, you will lose everything on it each time you format it.

Following on from what Mojo has said.
Try copying a program, or part of one from your TV to a usb stick, then plug your usb stick into a PC and take note the file format of the recorded program.
Convert the programme you want to watch to the same format using  WinFF  or similar.
Copy the converted file to the usb stick and see if it will play in the TV.

IMPORTANT BIT - let us know if it works.

Frank

Haven’t been able to try this as not tech savvy,thought I might try recording to a usb stick in the television that’s in the van whilst on the drive outside my house ,setting the programmes on the television programme guide to record.

Pauljeff: After much trying, that is exactly how we record TV programmes to USB, using the Avtex TV in the van on the drive, using the programme guide. I have tried to record to USB on our home TV and on a Humax PVR but the Avtex can’t read the recorded files.
Stevet

Stevet wrote:Pauljeff: After much trying, that is exactly how we record TV programmes to USB, using the Avtex TV in the van on the drive, using the programme guide. I have tried to record to USB on our home TV and on a Humax PVR but the Avtex can’t read the recorded files.
Stevet

That's interesting, because we have a Humax Foxsat HDR which records to .ts files, and our 2017 Avtex 188DRS reads them with no problems, as well as mostly everything else I've thrown at it.

What format does the Avtex record in?

Frank

Never tried it Frank.

The issue is probably as mojo says, that the individual TVs are expecting to format the USB device themselves when used as PVRs.

They will then happily read USB sticks that are formatted as standard FAT32 and contain files produced with various codecs/containers, but they don't like the quirky formatting that the other TV uses.

FAT32 should be a standard, but I often find that specific devices will only work properly when they are able to format the card or stick themselves.

EDIT: Another issue may be that DRM is dictating that HD recordings can only be played back on the device that recorded them, and this might mean that other devices won't be able to read USB sticks used as PVR storage.

Right:

My 2016 Samsung TV insists on formatting any USB device to VFAT for use as a PVR device.

Once used to record, even SD content, the video files have .srf suffixes, and are encrypted.

There are 'ways'   to get around this but, basically, they are not viewable on another TV or even on my Linux applications as they stand.

The issue here is that DRM (Digital Rights Management) requires that HD recordings are encrypted, to protect the copyright owner.

I'll check the Avtex and get back to you with that one...

Okay:

The Avtex 188DRS TV formats the USB device as FAT32 and records both HD and SD programmes as unencrypted MPEG2 .ts files.

They play back in any video player on my laptop, which surprises me, as I thought that DRM would be a requirement that Avtex would have to comply with.

Meanchris,this issue I have with my human freest +device is that it does not record to a usb device. I contacted Humax tech support and they checked it out and you cannot use this device to record to usb devices you can save programmes from your usb to the Humax hard drive but not record to a usb device

Pauljeff wrote:Meanchris,this issue I have with my human freest +device is that it does not record to a usb device. I contacted Humax tech support and they checked it out  and you cannot use this device to record to usb devices you can save programmes from your usb to the Humax hard drive but not record to a usb device

Which Humax machine/model do you have exactly?


Some of them, like the Foxsat HDR and at least one of the Freeview models have a 'custom firmware' written by a fella called Raydon, which allows all sorts of jiggery pokery.

Even so, ours can't record to USB, I have to transfer the recordings via WiFi to my laptop using the custom firmware interface, then to USB.

EDIT: There appear to be three units that can have the Custom Firmware installed:

1. Foxsat HDR Satellite Recorder

2. HD-Fox T2 Freeview

3. HDR-Fox T2 Freeview Recorder

Hi

This reminds me of an expensive lesson I learnt a while ago, always read the instruction book before buying.

I had a bog standard  Humax HDR FOX T2. and you while you can’t actually record to USB you can copy a recording to a USB stick. SD recordings are playable but HD recordings are encrypted.

I made the bad mistake of replacing it with a modern small and neat Panasonic recorder and found that the hardware would not copy recordings to an external USB stick. You can use an external USB drive but recordings are locked to the unit they were recorded on.

There is a warning in the instruction book to the effect that you can transfer recordings from an external USB drive to the unit but you can never get them off again. This was a showstopper for me because I wanted to use the unit as a backup for my own video recordings.

I searched for a modern unit that would do what I wanted it to do i.e. allow me to transfer my own recordings and take them off again if I needed to. It seems that the Freeview software licensing prohibits this, essentially because the Humax encryption system was  “cracked” with the custom firmware .

I ended up confining the nice new Panasonic to the loft and buying another second hand Humax HDR Fox T2.

You can get a USB TV tuner for a PC that will allow recording but because they can’t use the licensed software the EPG doesn’t work properly and the channel assignment is random.  That said  once you’ve worked out what’s on what channel they work OK.

Brod

If you're persistent Paul, there will be ways to to what you want to do but, as Brod says above, new systems are designed to prevent you from sharing copyrighted material.

Shshshsh, don't tell anyone, but the Avtex TV doesn't seem to do this.

As far as I can tell, all the PVR recordings to USB are playable anywhere.

Maybe the idea of recording stuff from the Avtex, to USB, while it's on the drive is the best one?