5000T - How to copy playable mp3 files over wifi!

Victoria

New Member
OK, so I can see my 5000T on my laptop and can drag/drop, copy/paste recordings to my laptop, (via samba). But I cannot play them.

I can't play the mp3 radio recordings in vlc or audacity or windows media. What on earth am I doing wrong?! Surely these aren't encoded? It's not as if these are HD .ts files......?

I seem to be able to drag/drop a tv (mpeg) recordings which open and play both the sound and video in vlc.

I'll see if I can copy the mp3 to usb and then see if they open on my laptop - haven't tried this yet - but surely i should be able to copy the mp3 over wifi?

I'm not liking this trying to figure out how to do things with the FVP-5000T. The novelty of that has worn off! I must get round to putting a new hard drive into my old T2. Even though it isn't wifi enabled. At least I know what I'm doing with it!
 
Sorry, used the wrong word.

But concerning the fvp-5000T...
Why can I copy and play the sd video files but not audio files over wifi?

I can copy both sd video and audio files (.ts files) via usb to my portable hard drive from my T2 and Foxsat. No issues.

These files seem to be converted to mpeg and mp3 when copying from FVP-5000T to laptop over wifi. Why can't I play the mp3 files on my laptop? Do they not get decrypted in the transfer?
Oh, my laptop is windows 10.

I have no problems with using the T2 or foxsat. My problem is the FVP-5000T.

Can I copy audio (radio) files to my laptop/external storage and play them on some other device than the FVP-5000T?
 
I can copy both sd video and audio files (.ts files) via usb to my portable hard drive from my T2 and Foxsat. No issues.
Via USB, yes. If you understand the HDR-FOX you know that a USB copy decrypts the recording, but direct access via FTP or SMB (using custom firmware for the latter) does not.

Why can I copy and play the sd video files but not audio files over wifi?
Ah, okay, there was some confusion in your first post:
OK, so I can see my 5000T on my laptop and can drag/drop, copy/paste recordings to my laptop, (via samba). But I cannot play them.

Right, fair enough, you've established recordings are not encrypted by the time they get to your PC.

The problem with these "MP3" files may be that they are not really MP3. The audio stream in UK broadcast TS is either AAC (for HiDef) or MP2 (StDef and radio). Some media players won't mind about that, but not all. The process of creating "proper" MP3 from the TS audio required re-encoding, which is a lengthy process and I doubt it would be performed in the process of transferring the files.
 
So, knowing that my video files are SD, then they get converted alright in the transfer or should I expect that some of them might go wonky occasionally? (I generally don't record in HD)

I would have thought VLC could handle AAC or MP2... but is it a case that it all just gets garbled in the transfer? Any that I open in audacity just sound like noise. I don't think I have found any audio files that play - Radio 3, Radio 4, Radio 4 Extra, Classic FM.

I would have thought it was a bit more er complicated to convert video&audio than just audio?

And why bother converting to mp3 in the transfer if it doesn't work? Why not let it copy the ts file? Or is that just a case of it being way too big to transfer like this?

I tried copying an audio file to my portable hard drive but I have no idea where it disappeared to. Obviously I need to read up on how to copy via usb! This is what I don't like about the FVP-5000T, it just does not seem to be obvious how to do things. Though, it did seem to take a very very long time to copy the file and hide it. Much longer than it would from the T2 (which also lets you select a number of files/folders to copy at once), and even longer than the foxsat (which only lets you copy one thing at a time).

Thanks for your information @Black Hole So much to learn!
 
AH-HA!

Thanks to grahamlthompson and @Black Hole

Simply changing the extension to .mp2 seems to let the audio play, at least in VLC and windows media player. (The files are actually mpeg 1 layer 2 )
(I haven't put the mp2 onto, say my phone, so I don't know if it works on my other devices. But hopefully....)

In audacity - can't drag and drop the file, be it the transferred mp3 or the changed extension mp2. Need to IMPORT the transferred mp3 file. Importing it as mp2 just gives noise. Then EXPORT AUDIO to save the new file in whatever format.

(Now, do I really need to know how to transfer via usb...?!)
 
And why bother converting to mp3 in the transfer if it doesn't work? Why not let it copy the ts file? Or is that just a case of it being way too big to transfer like this?
Who knows why Humax do anything. They obviously thought it was a good idea at the time.

Now, do I really need to know how to transfer via usb...?!
Apparently not.

So much to learn!
We've been learning about the HDR-FOX since 2010! It is this kind of sharing observations from exploration that became our knowledge base.

FVP-5000T is relatively new on the block, so don't expect miracles overnight. Somebody (with a specific interest) needs to take a lead in correlating and refining the observations into a knowledge base for the 5000T.
 
And why bother converting to mp3 in the transfer if it doesn't work? Why not let it copy the ts file? Or is that just a case of it being way too big to transfer like this?
There is no conversion to MP3. All the recordings on the Humax FVP are ecrypted not just HD. Downloads of SD and radio recordings will decrypt when copying via USB, or using Samba the way Humax 'intended'. Unfortunately when using Samba radio recording are misleading labelled MP3. The MP3 labelling is fine if your player doesn't trust the extension and checks the contents but some players don't do that.

Now, do I really need to know how to transfer via usb...?!
No, as you have Samba working with your Windows 10 laptop. I can't recall seeing anyone post that they have managed to decrypt SD or radio when using Samba but not Windows 10.
 
Hmm.... ok, so today I can't get the copied across mp3 files to import into audacity - it is just noise.

I don't know how/why it worked when I last posted! I'm sure I tested it with 3 or 4 different mp3 files and they worked then. Now.....none. Don't know what has changed or what I am doing differently!

Win10 update? I know that changed that my zip files played rather than giving me the option to extract them. So I don't know if it changed other things and I can't remember if the win10 update was after my last post.

So today's method is:
* change the extension from mp3 to mp2
* Use VLC to convert to proper mp3
* Then either drag/drop new mp3 into audacity or import it.

Of course this is only needed if you need to edit the recording.
I've just updated to the latest version of audacity 2.2.2 and still no joy with importing of the initial mp3.
 
I would swear that I had managed to open these audio files in audacity!

Still no luck now. Doesn't matter if it is the original 'mp3' or whether I change the extension to mp2 or back again.

I have no idea what I am doing differently! Have also tried mp3DirectCut but also no success.

From my brief reading, audacity should be able to import file.

*shrug*
 
Sorry for all the posts! Don't know if these are helpful to anyone else!

Anyway, I have now tried changing the extension to .ts and that opens in audacity. I have tried this with 3 different audio files.

Now to see if this works tomorrow!

So,
to play the copied audio file - change the extension to .mp2
to import/open/drag&drop in audacity - change the extension to .ts
 
Oh, so the "mp3" files exported by the FVP-5000T are actually TS containers with MP2 audio streams. Very helpful (not)!

That's no different from the HDR-FOX's native .ts radio recordings (except they stay as .ts).
 
Seems so. Give me another few days to see if it still works like this!

If this is consistent, then it is at least quicker getting the files off the FVP-5000T than the HDR-FOX T2 or FOXSAT.
 
Further update on the using audacity to edit

Audacity will import the 'mp3'
1. File menu > Import > Audio
2. Select "FFmpeg compatible files" as the file type filter
3. Select the file and click OK.
Need to have installed FFmpeg for Audacity.

Perhaps I had 'accidently' clicked on the FFmpeg compatible files and thats why audacity imported the files for me, and why the drag/drop didn't works.

Changing the extension to .ts and drag&drop still works too.

I had a test file that someone on the audacity forum checked out. Here's the basic info:
It is MPEG-2 encoded (more accurately it is "MPEG-1 Audio Layer II") but not quite 'normal' mp2.
2 min 53 seconds of audio at 160 kbps should have a file size of (120 + 53) x (160 / 8) = 3460 kB = 3.46 Mb.
The actual file size is 19.6 Mb, indicating a lot of other "stuff" in the file that is not proper audio.

Hope that helps others.
 
The extra size is due to the recording capturing too much of the EPG details. The same happens on the HDR-FOX T2, which is why the custom firmware for the HDR-FOX T2 has the 'Shrink' package.
Without the custom firmware it is very easy to clean up and top and tail at the same time just using ffmpeg directly.

ffmpeg -ss 0:01:11 -y -i "infile.ts" -vn -acodec copy -t 0:28:13 "outfile.mpg"

Where
-ss 0:01:11.5 will skip the first 1 minute 11.5 seconds
-y will overwrite the output file if it already exists
-vn will ensure that any video is dropped
-t 0:28:13 will copy 28 minutes 13 seconds of the recording from the end of the skipped section

If you have a windows or Linux machine and don't like using commend lines then there is a front end which is very simple to use for simple stuff like this called winff. https://www.biggmatt.com/winff/
 
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