A few years ago, my husband and I bought a Humax HDR FOX T2 PVR. Its a very nice device, but its only got a 1TB hard disk. Since format shifting is legal in the UK (I think, I’m not an expert). I wrote some software to make it easier to copy videos off the PVR.
Download the latest version of the software (from github) and run it. You will need a copy of Java installed, at least version 1.7.
There is an executable jar file, that should run anywhere with Java, and also a Windows exe file (which is the same software, but with a wrapper that offers to install Java if it’s not already installed).
The software is standalone and doesn’t need to be installed.
Run it, and you’ll get a window with a vertical split. Assuming that your PVR is switched on, and connected to the same network as your computer, the left hand side will fill with a map of the contents of the PVR.
Choose a download directory. When files are queued, they’ll remember the currently chosen download directory, so you can set a download directory, queue up a series, set another directory, queue up another series, and so on.
Browse around the files on the PVR, and drag files you want to download over to the right hand side. Due to the limitations of the PVR, you can only download standard definition files this way. (The software won’t let you queue up high definition videos).
Once you’ve built up your download queue, click the “Start downloading” button, and wait for the downloads to finish. Click “Stop downloading” to pause, and drag files up and down the queue to re-order.
You can right click on high definition files in the left hand panel and unlock them, and then use the PVR’s interface to copy to a USB drive. But read the warning below first.
The PVR records standard and high definition broadcast TV from (in the UK) Freeview. The video files can be accessed in three ways (ignoring watching them through the TV).
First, the PVR acts as a DLNA media server. Second, you can copy files onto a USB stick, and third, the PVR has a built in FTP server.
Downloading standard definition videos is easy. Just connect to the DLNA service and “stream” video to a file on another computer. Exporting high definition videos is a little harder, as the PVR encrypts the video files.
You can copy the encrypted videos through FTP or USB, and copy them back to the PVR and play them fine (I’m told, I’ve never bothered trying). But that’s no help if I want to watch the video on my laptop.
Luckily, other people have already done the research, and it is possible to use the FTP server to “unlock” high definition video. The video files still need to be copied off via USB (which can take a long time), but it does allow the user to store more than 1TB worth of high definition video.
Downloading standard definition video via DLNA is (almost certainly) safe.
Unlocking high definition video uses undocumented and reverse engineered information that, occasional, corrupts recordings.
I’ve lost at least one movie using this program. The more you use it, the higher the chance that you’ll loose something too.
It is possible that using this software is illegal where you are. (It is possible that writing this software was illegal). If you are unsure of your local laws regarding removal of copy protection, please consult an expert.
The source code for the parts of the software I wrote is available on Github, licensed under a very permissive MIT licence. Contributions are welcome, from bug reports up to full-on re-writes.
This site and the software is Copyright (c) 2016 Osric Wilkinson osric@fluffypeople.com.
The software is distributed under an MIT licence, except that it includes bundled libraries that have their own licences.
