Playing Humax HD TS files on a tablet WITHOUT any conversion

L

LostKahuna

New Member
Let me share some information with you which some of you may find useful. The only time I get to watch TV programmes is on the train during my daily commuting! Hence, playing recorded programmes on an Android tablet is very important to me. I used Freemake Video Converter before to covert decrypted HD TS files from my Humax HD T2 to play on my M6 tablet. This solution works but the conversion takes time even on powerful PCs. I know that there are other converters that will convert faster but lose quality. I always fancied playing HD TS files without any conversion.

Recently I discovered that the following combination works well:
Software: MX Player [v1.7.26 ARMv7 NEON] in H/W mode
Tablet: ONN M6 [Android 4.1, Rockchip RK3066 1.6GHz Dual Core, GPU: Mali 400 Quad Core, RAM: 1GB]
HD TS File [e.g. Codec: H264, Resolution: 1920x1080, Frame rate: 50, MPEG AAC Audio]

Obviously, if you have a better tablet, you might be able to run these files in S/W mode (i.e. using CPUs only without involving multimedia chipsets). However, my M6 struggles in S/W mode and the audio goes slightly out of sync. Having said that, M6 has no issues in playing MP4 files downloaded by get_iplayer or SD TS files from the Humax box.


Unfortunately, any TV programme going beyond ~1h30min will produce a file larger than 4GB. The FAT32 partition on my tablet cannot handle these files. I have tried to split them with SmartCutter and TSDoctor [Raw Cutter]. The result so far has been very uncertain. I mean, I managed to produce some files compatible with my M6 by shifting the split point. But I don’t like this trial and error process.

Does anyone know of any software that can reliably split a HD TS file? TS Doctor has many options. Perhaps, a combination of them could solve my problem.
 
The Nexus 7 (2013) used to be able to play HD/HDR-FOX HD files flawlessly with MX Player in software mode. I found hardware mode to be a bit unstable on the same device, funnily enough. Unfortunately, the KitKat 'upgrade' has caused problems with playback of HD video which haven't been fixed yet.
With the custom firmware, there is a function available in Web-If to split programmes into 45 minute portions, specifically to overcome the 4GB limit issue: highlight the programme and select 'Opt+' to get the option.
 
It's been a while since I used it but I think tsMuxeR will do what you want.

Also BSplayer handles Humax hd ts files fine on my Nexus 7 - even after kitkat.
 
I suggest you try TSSplitter (videohelp.com.tools.tssplitter) version 1.2
It's free and I've used it numerous times to split large Humax TS files.
 
Very impressed to hear that the Web-If interface can split large HD files. Tried that on a 2-hour programme and it worked. The VLC player on one of my PCs could play all three parts – no problem.

Unfortunately, the MX Player on my M6 can play the first and last parts in H/W mode but not the middle one! The middle part can be played in S/W mode but on this particular hardware, the audio goes out-of-sync with the video for HD TS files. I have seen exactly the same issue when I split at 2GB boundaries in TS Doctor. So, 3 parts are not good for my M6. However, I have managed to create two parts (say, 3GB + 2GB) by trial and error which are MX Player H/W compatible.

I am really interested to raise this issue with the MX Player developers why their software refuses to use multimedia chipsets to play one particular portion of a file but not others!


I will try BSplayer and TSSplitter as suggested.
 
BSPlayer looks very promising but its hardware based rendering is NOT compatible with M6. Some disturbance appears at the top of the screen. In S/W mode, the picture is perfect but the audio goes very much out of sync.

I have just been told that TSSplitter can split TS files but individual segments cannot be played except the first one. This is mainly for fitting large files in CDs and DVDs.
 
LostKahuna said:
I have just been told that TSSplitter can split TS files but individual segments cannot be played except the first one. This is mainly for fitting large files in CDs and DVDs.
Click to expand...
I just split a HD recording (the BBC test card) into two using TSSplitter.
Both parts then played fine on Splash Lite on my PC.

I suggest you give it a try yourself, it's more reliable than hearsay.
TSSplitter is pretty quick compared with many video tools.
 
In the past I have used TSSplitter to split large HD files then put them on a USB memory stick and, after renaming to .mts, played both parts successfully on a Sony TV.
For some reason Sony don't recognise .ts files only .mts and .m2t but happy after simple rename of file extension!!!
 
I take this back:
"I have just been told that TSSplitter can split TS files but individual segments cannot be played except the first one. This is mainly for fitting large files in CDs and DVDs."

My friend probably used an earlier version of TSSplitter. I just tried it myself and guess what - the MX Player on my M6 happily played two halves of a 5GB HD TS file in H/W mode! In TSSplitter, I just selected the number of segments = 2 and nothing else. It calculated the split point roughly at the middle.
 
You could also try using the custom firmware crop function: this is a useful tool for trimming the start and end off programmes and for removing advert breaks. For use on a tablet though, don't crop out the adverts as this function only fixes the file length in the appropriate sidecar file not the TS itself.

Here's how to do it. Decrypt the file and play it on your HD-Fox. Using the remote find where you want the programme to start and, while playing, insert a bookmark. Ffwd or skip to roughly halfway through the file and insert a second bookmark at a convenient point. Stop playing and exit from media. Using Web-If, browse to the file, select 'Opt+' and then 'Crop' - the graphic will show you which portion of the file is to be saved. Click OK. When complete a new file will be generated with the same film name as the original but with a string of numbers appended. Edit the filename: I would call it something like 'Programme X-1'. This file contains the first half of the programme as defined by the bookmarks. The source file is now in /media/Video/_Original. Move this file up a level to /Video and play again. Use the 'go to bookmark button' to jump to the first bookmark and press the bookmark button to remove it. Press the 'go to bookmark' button again to jump to the second bookmark: keep this one. Then ffwd or skip to the end of the programme. Insert a second bookmark at the end. Stop and exit media and then crop. This time you will get the second part of the programme saved. Rename the file. You now have your programme split into two parts.
 
Excellent – I’ll definitely try this.

I am tempted to say that we have established more than one way to skin a cat in this thread but I won’t in case I offend some cat lovers!


MontysEvilTwin, I have noticed the other files with HMT, THM and NTS extensions. Never felt entirely comfortable ditching them and just picking the TS file thinking that some information must be lost in this process. One of them must be the “sidecar” file you mentioned. Do you know how these files are used by Humax?
 
They are all the sidecar files. The .thm is just the thumbnail graphic, .hmt contains flags for decryption etc, and .nts indexes the key frames etc so that 2x playback speed (etc) works. Only the Humax can use these files, they are of no interest to any other media player (provided the .ts has been decrypted).
 
I have just randomly come across this topic again, and it strikes me as odd that it should be in the vanilla HD-FOX section. If the OP really is using a HD-FOX (not a HDR-FOX), it will be entirely dependent on CF to get to the state where recordings can be exported to a tablet in the first place, and even if he is the subject is equally applicable to HDR-FOX recordings.
 
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