Posted on 03/17/2017 7:43:57 AM PDT by lafroste
I am currently in the process of ditching Dish satellite cable and switching to all online. Part of my motivation is to defund CNN et al. and part because it is really expensive. My Dish DVR has a lot of movies on it I would like to save. They are (apparently) in Linux format. I can transfer the movies to a flash drive OK, but then I cannot read the flash drive on any other computer (all Windows).
Can anyone tell me how I can save these movies so I can watch them in the future? My online search only talked about text files, not movie files.
Note to Jim: My $10.00 vanity donation is on the way.
Wouldn’t that be stealing? Does the contract with Dish allow you to copy the movies out of their licensed devices?
set up a linux partition on your computer?
The USB is likely formatted to a file system version that windows doesn’t read. Try formatting the USB to FAT32 and copying over the data again.
What are the filenames -- in particular, the filename extensions -- you think are "Linux format"?
Just play the movies and record to a dvd via a dvd recorder.
Be advised the FAT32 doesn’t support files bigger than 4GB. If your video file is larger than that it won’t transfer.
Maybe, if the Dish DVR did the formatting itself, but I think that is unlikely... but I don't know.
I suspect it's not actually the format of the flash drive (filesystem), but the format of the video files themselves, that is the problem.
Can’t be done. The movies stored on your drive are encrypted in some Dish format and you can’t play them unless they are connected to a Dish receiver. I’ve been through it. Maybe FBI could do it with tremendous allocation of resources, but short of that, can’t be done.
Good point. Maybe when the movies go on the DVR, it copy protects them?
The Dish DVR DOES reformat the flash drive before copying.
They are very likely encrypted. I don’t know how strong of encryption but it will require more than just copying the files. I had the same problem with getting files from my Time Warner DVR. I can see the files on the network and copy them to my computer. I just can’t use them for anything yet.
That is a great idea!
Ah, well, my post was “almost there”. :-)
The DVR is likely using a Linux OS File System. A USB drive must have the proper File System for a particular OS to read and write on it.
File System Formats that both Linux and Windows can read are limited. My suggestion would be to make sure the USB’s File System is FAT32, which can be read by Linux and Windows. As I stated in my posts, there is a limitation of 4GB per file. There is a format called exFAT that allows for larger file sizes, but the Linux System must have FUSE for it to read it. As we don’t know the details of the DVR’s OS, that may not work.
Then again, there might be encryption AND copy protection. If I was Dish....
AHA! My new fact for the day. Thanks!
I can go back to sleep now...
Have you tried installing and using VLC media player on your windows machine? That will play pretty much any format. If that does not work, then the files probably have some DRM installed on them so they can only be played by authorized players.
It likely reformats if it can’t read or write to the file system. Most Systems prompt you to reformat if it detects a drive but can’t read or write to it.
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