I've just had an email from Ross technical support concerning timer
recordings on the Ross HD Satellite Receiver (B&Q/Homebase).

Although marketed as an HD box with "live" recording through the USB,
the receiver has 8 timers and limited PVR functionality. Ross now
confirm that the timers use low-level systems which remain active when
the box is in standby. However, the calendar is a high-level function
which requires the full chip-set to be powered up.

Consequently, a timer which is set to start a recording with the box in
the low-power standby mode will only work on the same day, because the
calendar isn't being updated at midnight.

The work-around is to use the normal standby mode, with the low-power
option turned off. The oddity here is that two timers are then needed -
the first to power-on the box and the second for the recording duration.
Without using the "every day" and "every week" options, this reduces the
number of timer slots to four.

I've had one failed recording with this method, after cold-booting the
box with it tuned to 3DsatTV. The box took the time from the clock on
this channel, which was more than two hours in error...

Apart from the built-in player, I've found that recordings from the Ross
can be played back on a PC with Windows Media Player, simply by changing
the file extension from *.ts to *.mpg. They can be played "as is" using
"Media Player Classic".

The Ross can also be persuaded to record the Freesat EPG, which can then
browsed on a PC.

--
John Legon

On Friday, July 9th, 2010 at 20:45:27h +0100, John Legon wrote:

I've found that recordings from the Ross can be played back on a PC
with Windows Media Player, simply by changing the file extension from
*.ts to *.mpg. They can be played "as is" using "Media Player Classic".

If you use VLC you will not need to rename them.

"J G anti-free-speech Moron" wrote in message
...
On Friday, July 9th, 2010 at 20:45:27h +0100, John Legon wrote:

I've found that recordings from the Ross can be played back on a PC
with Windows Media Player, simply by changing the file extension from
*.ts to *.mpg. They can be played "as is" using "Media Player Classic".

If you use VLC you will not need to rename them.

Nontheless, MPEG-TS (transport stream) is sub-optimal for playback on a PC. You
should convert them to MPEG-PS (programme stream) using VideoReDo Plus, or
similar software.
Transport streams include error correction and other features for maintaining
received signal integrity, which are not required when the programme is stored
on disk.

At 19:57:21 Fri, 9 Jul 2010, J G Miller wrote:
On Friday, July 9th, 2010 at 20:45:27h +0100, John Legon wrote:

I've found that recordings from the Ross can be played back on a PC
with Windows Media Player, simply by changing the file extension from
*.ts to *.mpg. They can be played "as is" using "Media Player Classic".

If you use VLC you will not need to rename them.

I don't need to rename the files when using "Media Player Classic".
For editing and for conversion to programme stream if necessary, I use
MPEG_Streamclip.

BTW, long recordings are segmented by the Ross into 2-GB chunks, with
extensions in the form *.ts.001 . This is recognised by MPEG_Streamclip
which automatically joins the files.

--
John Legon

"J G Miller" wrote in message
...
On Friday, July 9th, 2010 at 20:45:27h +0100, John Legon wrote:

I've found that recordings from the Ross can be played back on a PC
with Windows Media Player, simply by changing the file extension from
*.ts to *.mpg. They can be played "as is" using "Media Player Classic".

If you use VLC you will not need to rename them.

It turns out that VLC won't play the Ross *.ts files straight off, but only
after
processing by some other app. such as MPEG_Streamclip.

"John Legon" wrote in message
...

BTW, long recordings are segmented by the Ross into 2-GB chunks, with
extensions in the form *.ts.001 . This is recognised by MPEG_Streamclip
which automatically joins the files.

Video chopped into 2 Gb chunks used to be Win98 thing, max file size the
operating system could handle. I thought that with Win NT and later Win XP
that limitation was a thing of the past.
Ross box using a Win98 operating system, say it isn't so !

At 12:49:15 Tue, 13 Jul 2010, Roger R .
uk wrote in article :

"John Legon" wrote in message
...

BTW, long recordings are segmented by the Ross into 2-GB chunks, with
extensions in the form *.ts.001 . This is recognised by MPEG_Streamclip
which automatically joins the files.

Video chopped into 2 Gb chunks used to be Win98 thing, max file size the
operating system could handle. I thought that with Win NT and later Win XP
that limitation was a thing of the past.
Ross box using a Win98 operating system, say it isn't so !

I still sometimes use a machine running Win98 on a 4 GB drive, which was
more than enough storage space at one time. I think it's primarily a
FAT32 thing rather than Win98 as such, and was introduced with Win95.

From poking around in the code, however, it seems that the Ross is based
on the Linux OS. It certainly ain't Win98! In any case, DVDs use 1 GB
chunks, and I think 2 GB chunks are common with recording STBs.

--
John Legon

"John Legon" wrote in message
...
Ross box using a Win98 operating system, say it isn't so !

I still sometimes use a machine running Win98 on a 4 GB drive, which was
more than enough storage space at one time. I think it's primarily a
FAT32 thing rather than Win98 as such, and was introduced with Win95.


Yes that was it, the FAT32 limitation.

"Roger R" wrote in message
...

"John Legon" wrote in message
...
Ross box using a Win98 operating system, say it isn't so !

I still sometimes use a machine running Win98 on a 4 GB drive, which was
more than enough storage space at one time. I think it's primarily a
FAT32 thing rather than Win98 as such, and was introduced with Win95.


Yes that was it, the FAT32 limitation.

Indeed. All Windows XP (and above) systems can support (but do not always use)
NTFS, which removes this limitation. However, most removable USB drives are
still formatted to FAT32 for compatibility, so the 2GB filesize limit remains.
Many USB-enabled (linux-based or otherwise) do not support NTFS, so you're stuck
with .ts files split into 2GB chunks I'm afraid.

j r powell wrote:

All Windows XP (and above) systems can support [...] NTFS

Err, make that all versions above Windows NT 3.1