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A friend’s HDR1100S has suddenly lost its connection to the 500GB HDD – probably the standard CPU melting off the motherboard – for which the temporary “cure” might be attacking it with a hot air gun.
I’m not keen on trying this straight away, as it can kill the device.
The HDD checks out fine under Linux on a PC, and all the recordings in “My Video” appear intact.
I have copied some of them to a USB HDD, and connected this to the HDR1100S, but it refuses to recognise them, though iit quite happly plays any .MP4 files I put on there – the USB is formatted NTFS rather than ext3.
All the recordings are .HTS format – probably HD, but can’t be sure, simply renaming the .HTS files to .MP4 does not fool the HDR1100S – it sees them, but fails to play them.
Any ideas how I could rescue these recordings for my friend?
Simply renaming a .hts file to .mp4 won’t work because the file format itself won’t change, but its easy to use ffmpeg to convert the files and you can do it in batch.
however the .hts files might be encrypted?. Try one and see.
You can use copilot or similar, just ask it to write the conversion script.
I had the following chat with Copilot:
“write an ffmpeg script to convert Humax .hts files to .mp4
Absolutely, here’s a basic FFmpeg script that should help you convert Humax .hts files to .mp4. FFmpeg is a powerful multimedia framework that can decode, encode, transcode, mux, demux, stream, filter, and play almost anything that humans and machines have created. Here’s a command you can use:
ffmpeg -i input.hts -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -strict experimental output.mp4″
So I downloaded the Windows port of ffmpeg, and tried to use it on one of the recordings:
PS
UpdatesVideoutilitiesffmpegffmpeg-7.1-full_buildbin> .ffmpeg -i “d:tempOnly Connect_ Champion of____20250103_2000.hts” -c:v libx264 -c:a aac -strict experimental “d:tempOnly Connect_ Champion of____20250103_2000.mp4”ffmpeg version 7.1-full_build-www.gyan.dev Copyright (c) 2000-2024 the FFmpeg developers
built with gcc 14.2.0 (Rev1, Built by MSYS2 project)
configuration: –enable-gpl –enable-version3 –enable-static –disable-w32threads –disable-autodetect –enable-fontconfig –enable-iconv –enable-gnutls –enable-libxml2 –enable-gmp –enable-bzlib –enable-lzma –enable-libsnappy –enable-zlib –enable-librist –enable-libsrt –enable-libssh –enable-libzmq –enable-avisynth –enable-libbluray –enable-libcaca –enable-sdl2 –enable-libaribb24 –enable-libaribcaption –enable-libdav1d –enable-libdavs2 –enable-libopenjpeg –enable-libquirc –enable-libuavs3d –enable-libxevd –enable-libzvbi –enable-libqrencode –enable-librav1e –enable-libsvtav1 –enable-libvvenc –enable-libwebp –enable-libx264 –enable-libx265 –enable-libxavs2 –enable-libxeve –enable-libxvid –enable-libaom –enable-libjxl –enable-libvpx –enable-mediafoundation –enable-libass –enable-frei0r –enable-libfreetype –enable-libfribidi –enable-libharfbuzz –enable-liblensfun –enable-libvidstab –enable-libvmaf –enable-libzimg –enable-amf –enable-cuda-llvm –enable-cuvid –enable-dxva2 –enable-d3d11va –enable-d3d12va –enable-ffnvcodec –enable-libvpl –enable-nvdec –enable-nvenc –enable-vaapi –enable-libshaderc –enable-vulkan –enable-libplacebo –enable-opencl –enable-libcdio –enable-libgme –enable-libmodplug –enable-libopenmpt –enable-libopencore-amrwb –enable-libmp3lame –enable-libshine –enable-libtheora –enable-libtwolame –enable-libvo-amrwbenc –enable-libcodec2 –enable-libilbc –enable-libgsm –enable-liblc3 –enable-libopencore-amrnb –enable-libopus –enable-libspeex –enable-libvorbis –enable-ladspa –enable-libbs2b –enable-libflite –enable-libmysofa –enable-librubberband –enable-libsoxr –enable-chromaprint
libavutil 59. 39.100 / 59. 39.100
libavcodec 61. 19.100 / 61. 19.100
libavformat 61. 7.100 / 61. 7.100
libavdevice 61. 3.100 / 61. 3.100
libavfilter 10. 4.100 / 10. 4.100
libswscale 8. 3.100 / 8. 3.100
libswresample 5. 3.100 / 5. 3.100
libpostproc 58. 3.100 / 58. 3.100
[in#0/mpegts @ 0000025c0a251080] could not find codec parameters
Error opening input file d:tempOnly Connect_ Champion of____20250103_2000.hts.
Error opening input files: End of file
I assume the “could not find codec parameters” means it does not know about .HTS files – or am I doing something wrong?
I have never come across .hts files before so I don’t know the answer but maybe they are encrypted. or maybe ffmpeg doesn’t support that type of file yet.
See if you can play .hts files in VLC, if so you can use VLC to convert to mp4
Open VLC and go to Media > Convert/Save.
Add your .hts file and click Convert/Save.
Choose MP4 as the output format and start the conversion.
ps. if you don’t have any luck you could upload one of the hts files to google drive or similar so I can download it to see if I can play it or convert it.
I couldn’t find a single sample .hts file on the internet. They are very elusive.
.HTS files are Humax proprietary – and are encrypted to the system they are recorded on – ffmpeg and VLC don’t recognise them – hence my original question.
On further research it looks like the humax only encrypts the hd files so you should be able to play the sd videos?.
As they are not marked as hd or sd in the file name the only way you can find if they are sd or hd videos is by the file size or maybe look at the video properties in windows or linux. I know the hd videos can be fixed so you can play them on any device and there exists some software called foxy but i’m not sure if it will work. I haven’t tried it as I don’t have any hts files to try other than removing my internal drive to extract one.
On my foxsat with custom firmware installed there was a plugin to unencrypt the hd videos which allowed them to be played over the network with vlc on windows or on any device providing it has the correct codec installed. but they were .ts I dont know what the difference is between .ts and .hts, just testing some .ts files with ffmpeg I was able to convert them to mp4 and they play ok. A bit more digging you may be able to resolve this.
dd500 – 5 hours ago »
I know the hd videos can be fixed so you can play them on any device and there exists some software called foxy but i’m not sure if it will work.
Foxy is for the HDR-FOX T2 Freeview box and won’t work with other boxes. I will be interested to hear how encrypted “HD videos can be fixed so you can play them on any device”?
Martin Liddle – 34 mins ago »
dd500 – 5 hours ago »
I know the hd videos can be fixed so you can play them on any device and there exists some software called foxy but i’m not sure if it will work.
Foxy is for the HDR-FOX T2 Freeview box and won’t work with other boxes. I will be interested to hear how encrypted “HD videos can be fixed so you can play them on any device”?
It can be done with foxsat .ts files and on the T2 with .hmt files, it could probably be done with .hts files too. I’m guessing someone has already done it. It’s just a matter of digging a bit or maybe modifying what is already available.
dd500 – 40 mins ago »
It can be done with foxsat .ts files and on the T2 with .hmt files, it could probably be done with .hts files too. I’m guessing someone has already done it. It’s just a matter of digging a bit or maybe modifying what is already available.
The encryption on the more recent boxes is stronger than the early boxes; I am not aware of anyone removing encryption from an HDR-1100S but it isn’t impossible. Interested to hear what your digging finds.
Just an update – I’ve scanned through the .HJM files from my friend’s HDR1100S and unfortunately the recordings are all from HD channels – therefore encrypted, and only playable on her machine.
Looks like the only option is to get out the hot air gun, or send it off to one of the repair services.
Has anyone here had good (or bad) experiences with these, and any recommendations?
GeoffKurth – 1 hour ago »
Just an update – I’ve scanned through the .HJM files from my friend’s HDR1100S and unfortunately the recordings are all from HD channels – therefore encrypted, and only playable on her machine.
Looks like the only option is to get out the hot air gun, or send it off to one of the repair services.
Based only on reports here, I would say try the hot air gun.
It appears that both sd and hd videos are encrypted and no amount of digging has found how to decrypt them.
Make sure the contacts on the sata connector on the motherboard and on the hd are clean. Spray them with electrical cleaner. I found the connector to be a bit flimsy.
I have previously fixed TV boards and computer motherboards by putting them in the oven for a short time. Also hot air might just do the trick.
GeoffKurth – 6 hours ago »
Looks like the only option is to get out the hot air gun, or send it off to one of the repair services.
I finally found the thread about using a heat gun; see https://myhumax.org/forum/topic/humax-hdr-1000s-not-recognising-hard-drive about using a heat gun to resuscitate faulty boxes with a heat gun. In my view the explanation of “resets the hard drive overload in the humax chip” makes no sense but for several people the heat gun does seem to have been beneficial.
Just as an update, having decided that the files could not be made readable on another system, we took the chance on the heat gun technique.
As there are not many details on how to do this about, here's my method:
1. Remove the circuit board from the case – just open the top by unscrewing the middle screw at the back, and ease open the five grey plastic tabs holding the top on from underneath, remove the HDD by taking the four screws out of the bottom, and the bracket on the top, unplug the Wi=Fi card from the PCB, remove remaining three scews retaining the PCB, and lift out.
2 Remove the Heatsink by unscrewing the three screws on the top and gently twisting off. Clean the (probably dried-out) heat conducting compound from the CPU Chip and the heatsink (Alcohol is good for this).
3. Place the board face-up on a non-conductive, heat resistant surface, and heat the green CPU from above for about 30 seconds – I used a standard paint-stripper hot air gun set at LOW (375 Degrees Celsius) held about 2 in (5cm) above the CPU pointing down.
4. Let it cool completely, then re-assemble the heatsink applying a small blob of heatsink compound – ensure that the screw mounts are parallel with the ridges on the heatsink before assembling, as they can foul and reduce the flexing action of the springs in the screws.
5. Re-assemble the HDR-1100S in reverse order, connect-up and switch on with fingers crossed.
It ran a 12-hour continuous playback test with no problems, though the heatsink temperature rose to 70 degrees Celsius – rather close to the chip rating of 85 degrees Celsius. Humax should really have designed better airflow – perhaps slots above the heatsing to allow heat to escape.
Will try to report how long it lasts…..
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