I've contacted the Topfield support in order to get some more informations. The first problem is, that I'm no expert concerning video streams and codecs and the second one the 1st level support ...
According to my request I got the answer,
that I would have to install a proper codec to get vlc playing the stream.
As I mentioned, that vlc already provides all necessary codecs the support said,
that I will need an H264 Codec in order to view HD-Recordings with vlc and that the header is in the index file (.idx). I should use vlc only with the .rec file, themselves were able to play recordings using vlc.
First of all if I remember correctly vlc can play H264 without using an extra codec, furthermore my recordings were simple SD-recordings.
Second, if the header is only in the .idx file, why do I have such problems playing the .rec files?
But you would also have to know when the file has problematic header and when not.
What do you think when saying "problematic header". Is the Topfield-header repeated continuously during the TS-Stream or available only once at the beginning of a recording? Perhaps anyone can clarify the problem a little bit for me
Supposing the proprietary Topfield header is in the idx-file as mentioned by the TF support. What are the problems when trying to play rec-files using vlc, the mplayer seems not to have that problems? Are there proprietary informations in the rec file, too?
Perhaps anyone of the programmes expert could precise what informations would be helpful under the viewpoint that Topfield will not give all detailed specs to public. Is there an abstract layer which TF could provide the vlc developers in order to safe their "know how" AND to help fixing the reported problems playing .rec files?
At the moment I've got the problem that I would like to help the topfield community (rec-file support in vlc) and the vlc community (improving vlc) but I don't know where to start with my point of knowledge.