.TAC files when using File Explorer on Windows 8.1

solpuerto

New Member
I recently upgraded, I think, to Win 8.1 and have just upgrade to the latest Radon's custom software. The Radon upgrade has all gone fine and via the Web Interface I can see all my recordings as .ts files. I was on Win 7 before the 8.1 upgrade and on my network I could see the .ts files and play them on my PC. Since the Win 8.1 upgrade I have not looked at my Hummy files on my network but now they are all .TAC files and they will not play on VLC or Media Player.

I do not think this is due to the Radon upgrade but rather a problem with 8.1 or my knowledge of either.

Any help would be most welcome.
 
Raydon! Radon is a radioactive gas!

It sounds like you have an incorrect file association for .ts files. You have filename extensions visible, right? (View, then Filename Extensions should be ticked.)

I have been using W8 and 8.1 for around two years with no problems seeing .ts files. Right click a "tac" file and choose to open with VLC or another player, possibly making it your default.
 
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I don't understand that clause.
What I am trying to say is that since I upgraded to win8.1 I had no reason to look at the files on the Foxsat HDD. After upgrading Raydons custom app I wanted to download some of the files to my portable and that was when I noticed each recording file was made up of several files all ending with .tac.
 
Raydon! Radon is a radioactive gas!

It sounds like you have an incorrect file association for .ts files. You have filename extensions visible, right? (View, then Filename Extensions should be ticked.)

I have been using W8 and 8.1 for around two years with no problems seeing .ts files. Right click a "tac" file and choose to open with VLC or another player, possibly making it your default.

Thanks for the spelling correction. As I have said I can see all the recording files ending .ts within Raydons Browse Media Files but when I use the network on my PC they are listed with the correct names but will not play on VLC or Media Player and if I open any of the recorded files they are split into about 6/7 .tac files. If I right click and select to play via VLC , the app is opened but nothing happens.
 
How about using FTP rather than drive mapping ? Filezilla should work on Win 8.1.

I have downloaded Filezilla, both client and server, but it is all new to me. I am not able to find my HDR using it.

I have also tried the link you sent me about file extensions and I have been trying for some time to change the extensions I see. The Control Panel in Win 8.1 does not have the same control panel however I did open Personalisation and within that there is Tools containing Folder Options. This allows extensions to be hidden or not. Did not make any difference to my problem.

Thanks to all responses I have had.

As I can download the .ts files from Raydons App I will have to do it that way for the moment. There would be little point in me cping and pasting a file that does not work on my portable.
 
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What I am trying to say is that since I upgraded to win8.1 I had no reason to look at the files on the Foxsat HDD. After upgrading Raydons custom app I wanted to download some of the files to my portable and that was when I noticed each recording file was made up of several files all ending with .tac.
So what you are saying is that the result of downloading a recording is this .tac, but you have not checked what the file system sees on the Foxsat HDD? I expect you will find they are .ts as normal, and Win8.1 does something weird in the process of downloading. It may be that Win8.1 splits up a large download into smaller bits that should then be reassembled on completion.
 
So what you are saying is that the result of downloading a recording is this .tac, but you have not checked what the file system sees on the Foxsat HDD? I expect you will find they are .ts as normal, and Win8.1 does something weird in the process of downloading. It may be that Win8.1 splits up a large download into smaller bits that should then be reassembled on completion.

Thanks for response. As I have said the files on the Foxsat are shown as .ts but that is on the Web Interface but not when viewed via Win 8.1 file manager as it shows .tac files. The .tac files are each 22k and there are 8 of them. It is not a result of downloading. What is a .tac file?
 
No idea. I have googled, but found nothing useful. It's got to be some kind of redirection thing.

Just underlines why I have no desire to go Win8!
 
Using Filezilla. Make sure you have a ftp package installed on the Foxsat.

Using Site Manager add your Foxsat using it's ip address as the host. password is 0000.

Once connected locate the folder you want to copy to or from on your PC and open it, simply drag and drop .ts files to the folder
 

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After a lot of trial and error I have made some progress. Before I go any further I was using both VLC and Media Player and had the same problem on both of them.
Twonky was installed in the HDR and in my computer and I decide to remove Twonky and try MediaTomb. After that I could use Media Player as it saw the recorded files as .ts but VLC still saw them as .tac, I decided to remove and reinstall VLC but even after this it still saw them as .tac files.
Very confused!
 
Using Filezilla. Make sure you have a ftp package installed on the Foxsat.

Using Site Manager add your Foxsat using it's ip address as the host. password is 0000.

Once connected locate the folder you want to copy to or from on your PC and open it, simply drag and drop .ts files to the folder

Many thanks Graham I will give that a try now, the screen shots are very helpful.
 
Win8.1 does something weird in the process of downloading. It may be that Win8.1 splits up a large download into smaller bits that should then be reassembled on completion.

I never see TAC files on W8.1. If the files appear to be TAC Files in Windows Explorer, that is a file association problem, and can only be cured by removing the faulty association of .ts files as TAC files.

Right click on a .ts file and choose Properties, then go to Opens With: and click Change. See what program is associated with these files and let us know, then click on More Options and choose the file to use.
 
Using Filezilla. Make sure you have a ftp package installed on the Foxsat.

Using Site Manager add your Foxsat using it's ip address as the host. password is 0000.

Once connected locate the folder you want to copy to or from on your PC and open it, simply drag and drop .ts files to the folder

Thank you again, the screenshots and the ftp package done the trick and I now have Filezilla working.
 
I never see TAC files on W8.1. If the files appear to be TAC Files in Windows Explorer, that is a file association problem, and can only be cured by removing the faulty association of .ts files as TAC files.

Right click on a .ts file and choose Properties, then go to Opens With: and click Change. See what program is associated with these files and let us know, then click on More Options and choose the file to use.

Mike, thank you for the interest in this. I have been trying to do what you suggested since I first came across the problem and several times after I made my first post here. The only option it displays on these files is VLC, and that was one reason I removed VLC and then no sign of .tac files.
I am now able to view and run the ts files with Media Player, but when I reinstalled VLC the .tac files were back under VLC with the same problem but not now with Media Player. VLC works fine with ts files I have on a portable HD as well as a few I have on my PC. Interestingly I have the options you refer to when I open these files with VLC but not when I use it on the .tac files that are somehow generated on the HDR files.
That is why I am confused. However I can at least achieve what I want to do but ?????
 
I think you have inadvertently created a default association for .tac files with the VLC player application when attempting to access your recordings via Windows Explorer. You probably also have "Hide extensions for known file types" checked in Explorer's Folder options which would hide the .ts file extension for the actual video.

There is nothing mysterious about the .tac files, it simply means (t)humbnail (a)t (c)hapter. They are created by the 3am housekeeping task in a hidden sub folder beneath the one containing the actual recording. This sub folder will have the same name as the recording but preceded by a dot. (which makes it hidden on linux systems) and will contain exactly eight .tac files. These are named according to the duration of the recording in seconds, divided by eight. First one being 0.tac, and so on. When you select the recording in the Foxsat's media browser you will see at the bottom of the pane, the eight selectable 'chapter' thumbnails corresponding to that chapters position in the video.
 
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A storm in a TeACup then? But read the OP carefully:

on my network I could see the .ts files and play them on my PC. Since the Win 8.1 upgrade I have not looked at my Hummy files on my network but now they are all .TAC files and they will not play on VLC or Media Player.

So, he was saying there were no .ts files, only TAC files. Also, post #4 gave instructions on making extensions visible and resetting file associations in W8.
 
What he is seeing is the tac files that have always been there in the similarly named folder, but now not seeing the associated .ts file on his W8 machine, and as he hasn't mentioned .hmt or .nts files either, I suspect he is looking in the wrong place.
In the HDR's video folder, for each recording there should be three identically named FILES with the extensions .ts. hmt and nts. Also there should be an almost identically named FOLDER which contains the 8 .tac files. I say almost identical for the folder name as it is identical other than it starts with a '.'
 
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