Transfer owned movies to Hopper?

[tsutton002]

I want to do the reverse of what many people here ask about. I have an extensive home movie collection on my home network that I'd like to be able to watch through the Hopper. I'm tired of explaining to the family how to run Kodi or Plex from the TV OS or Firesticks. Is there a way I can plug in a EHD, let the Hopper format it, and then transfer MP4/MKV/etc. files to it using a Linux or Windows machine? I have plenty of tools to recode the movies to another format if that's what it takes.

I know I'm probably SOL but I thought I'd at least ask.

Thanks.

 

[TheKrell]

I want to do the reverse of what many people here ask about. I have an extensive home movie collection on my home network that I'd like to be able to watch through the Hopper. I'm tired of explaining to the family how to run Kodi or Plex from the TV OS or Firesticks. Is there a way I can plug in a EHD, let the Hopper format it, and then transfer MP4/MKV/etc. files to it using a Linux or Windows machine? I have plenty of tools to recode the movies to another format if that's what it takes.

I love this question, since it's one I've had for years dating back to my VIP days. So far as I can tell, we don't know what format the movies should take in order to make them work with a Hopper. Even unencrypted OTA broadcasts, when transferred to an EHD, are encrypted.

At minimum, one would have to add 2 text files in the appropriate format and rename your movies from mpg to... Ah... Memory is hazy on this point, but I think the actual program stream has a filename extension of ps. Or maybe it was ts (for transport stream). Or maybe it had no extension.

If you ever want to pursue this, plug your EHD into a Linux box and see what you find. Each recorded program should appear in an inscrutably-named folder along with the aforementioned text files.

I will also add that I was formerly able to play mpg videos from DVDs using the Hopper Media Player. (May not be it's actual name.) But that Media Player went away IIRC.

 

[tsutton002]

I love this question, since it's one I've had for years dating back to my VIP days. So far as I can tell, we don't know what format the movies should take in order to make them work with a Hopper. Even unencrypted OTA broadcasts, when transferred to an EHD, are encrypted.

At minimum, one would have to add 2 text files in the appropriate format and rename your movies from mpg to... Ah... Memory is hazy on this point, but I think the actual program stream has a filename extension of ps. Or maybe it was ts (for transport stream). Or maybe it had no extension.

If you ever want to pursue this, plug your EHD into a Linux box and see what you find. Each recorded program should appear in an inscrutably-named folder along with the aforementioned text files.

I will also add that I was formerly able to play mpg videos from DVDs using the Hopper Media Player. (May not be it's actual name.) But that Media Player went away IIRC.

I used the media player on occasion. It was terrible but would work in a pinch if you didn't want to pause/ff/rw much. It disappeared a while back.

I may have to visit some dark places on the internet to figure it out. I'm sure it is possible, just not sure how much time I want to waste on it.

 

[TheKrell]

I may have to visit some dark places on the internet to figure it out. I'm sure it is possible, just not sure how much time I want to waste on it.

I wouldn't do that until I tried looking at those unencrypted text files and trying to duplicate the program using your own owned movies. I think this would work with the big "but" being whether the Hopper will require all program streams to be encrypted with the Dish scheme.

 

[navychop]

The only input into a Hopper is the satellite feed. You won’t input any movies that way. And the chances of breaking encryption used on the hard drives- very low. And possibly a DMCA or other violation.

Dish paid enough to get at least half decent encryption this time around.

 

[llokey]

I'm tired of explaining to the family how to run Kodi or Plex from the TV OS or Firesticks.

May I suggest that you try VLC on the Firestick? I have pretty well given up on Kodi because of VLC. It will read a network drive or a drive directly connected to the Firestick. x265 10 bit color files play with no problem. It is relatively easy to use. My senior citizen wife has no problems at all with it.

 

[Jim5506]

IIRC my H3 can see certain movies and videos on my Windows 10 PC through my local network. I have watched video files recorded on my Canon HD camcorders putting them in the appropriate folder. I don't remember exactly how I accessed them I'll look it up when I get home Monday. I believe I got it to work by installing a version of Windows Media Player.

 

[bookworm370]

IIRC my H3 can see certain movies and videos on my Windows 10 PC through my local network. I have watched video files recorded on my Canon HD camcorders putting them in the appropriate folder. I don't remember exactly how I accessed them I'll look it up when I get home Monday. I believe I got it to work by installing a version of Windows Media Player.

Take another look, Dish took away the Home Media app around 3 releases back or so.