Thanks for all the guidance, suggestions and pointers. Clearly my problem accessing webif has not a simple resolution and finding out about Telnet is a sledgehammer to crack a nut for me.
This is where I am up to.
1) Latest CF installed a number of times - all as per hummy.tv instructions. (perhaps in the vain hope something blocking webif would clear - obviously not)
2) Webif installed, though mention of download failures noted at bottom of list. Webif not accessible by entering Humax ip address in ANY browser. No ftp:// prefix added by browsers. - It requests username and password.
I have no record in my original installation notes of setting anything, so I`m unsure what causes this.
3) At the start of my journey to copy Back To The Future, it had "ENC" and the dvd with red cross symbol in its media listing. many other HD files had the "ENC", but none had the disc protection one.
4) During my playing around to access webif to load the un-protect package (which I definitely haven`t installed), I noticed ALL "ENC" markers AND the DVD with red cross have disappeared from the files list.
5) Now, using simple drag and drop of the files onto my desktop pc, I had been able to copy Back to The Future, together with any other known, but not flagged HD files onto the pc and play them back with full lip sync sound.
I have no idea why I had the problems, nor why things now seem to be working as I wanted them in the first place, but they seem to be.
The only thing still to do is make another HD recording and see if/how the "ENC" notice can be made to disappear before copying to the pc for checking.
Thanks again.
Goodbye
Briag