OK, looked through the usual help guides, done a forum search, not turned up anything helpful here.
Using the Portal on my Humax is not top priority, but it would be nice to grab the occasional iPlayer programme or something (given that my PC apps for such stopped working a long time ago), look up Youtube videos to show to people instead of hunting them out on the computer, using Flickr/Picasa as electronic wallpaper and the like.
However, I have never yet seen it working / been able to make it work. EVER.
Before installing the custom firmware, pushing the Portal button was the kiss of death - it cancelled whatever else the box was doing at that point (other than showing the picture for the current channel and carrying out programmed recordings), it just showed a line of Fastext-like colour bars along the bottom of the screen, dimmed the video, and then became completely unresponsive to the remote. The only way I was able to exit from it was by power cycling, either by the front panel standby button, or in extreme cases pulling the AC plug.
Since installing it, things are a little better - I can, by mashing various Exit / Back / Menu / etc buttons eventually convince it to go away and return me to what I was previously doing (usually a file rename op, which is my main reason for battering away at the numpad with gay abandon), which usually then falls on its arse and has to be restarted. It also tends to do a number on the timeshift buffer, but at least I don't have to power cycle and lose the current recordings too. Also when I press the colour buttons, each one pops up a numbered submenu with various options. However, thus far, none of them have responded or appeared selectable in any way, not even the "utilities", either by number or by cursor, and I'm yet to work out what button the "Menu" block is meant to be accessed with (it's denoted with a = sign, which doesn't match any of the remote buttons).
Is this like the decrypter / DNLA issue, and there's something head-slappingly simple that needs to be enabled (or un-disabled) in order to bring it to life? Again, I've looked it up best I can myself and can't work it out. The machine is physically networked to a reliable router and has definitely got a high-speed connection to the outside world, as it finds and downloads packages and updates from the internet servers plenty fast.
I have seen from others' comments that it maybe needs some kind of connection to the Humax company servers themselves in order to work, and they operate on a tart's drawers basis... is there a particular time of day when they're more likely to be working than not? Is there a mini site anywhere or URL I can access to check if they're live? Or just someone who uses the portal a lot who I can ping and ask if it's working before attempting it myself? Do I need to register with them somehow (the serial number of the box itself not being enough?), or can it be possible that the previous owner of this second-hand PVR did something to get themselves banned / never went through that registration step?
FWIW the last time I tried this - accidentally! - was a couple days ago. Went for "7" whilst retitling a file, got the portal button instead. Still dead.
Similarly, something that may be related - I can't get any of the "streaming" freeview channels to work (Motors, Community, so on and so forth... all those out in the 180 ~ 600-and-some wilderness beyond the Adult zone)... I'm not even 100% sure what they are or how they're meant to operate, but I presume the main data stream is sent over the internet, and the freeview channel itself just delivers a URL and a decryption code or the like? In any case, I tune in, and just get the digital teletext holding screen with no useful information on how to actually access that station. Their programmes sometimes crop up in the EPG, though. Any clues?
Thanks
Using the Portal on my Humax is not top priority, but it would be nice to grab the occasional iPlayer programme or something (given that my PC apps for such stopped working a long time ago), look up Youtube videos to show to people instead of hunting them out on the computer, using Flickr/Picasa as electronic wallpaper and the like.
However, I have never yet seen it working / been able to make it work. EVER.
Before installing the custom firmware, pushing the Portal button was the kiss of death - it cancelled whatever else the box was doing at that point (other than showing the picture for the current channel and carrying out programmed recordings), it just showed a line of Fastext-like colour bars along the bottom of the screen, dimmed the video, and then became completely unresponsive to the remote. The only way I was able to exit from it was by power cycling, either by the front panel standby button, or in extreme cases pulling the AC plug.
Since installing it, things are a little better - I can, by mashing various Exit / Back / Menu / etc buttons eventually convince it to go away and return me to what I was previously doing (usually a file rename op, which is my main reason for battering away at the numpad with gay abandon), which usually then falls on its arse and has to be restarted. It also tends to do a number on the timeshift buffer, but at least I don't have to power cycle and lose the current recordings too. Also when I press the colour buttons, each one pops up a numbered submenu with various options. However, thus far, none of them have responded or appeared selectable in any way, not even the "utilities", either by number or by cursor, and I'm yet to work out what button the "Menu" block is meant to be accessed with (it's denoted with a = sign, which doesn't match any of the remote buttons).
Is this like the decrypter / DNLA issue, and there's something head-slappingly simple that needs to be enabled (or un-disabled) in order to bring it to life? Again, I've looked it up best I can myself and can't work it out. The machine is physically networked to a reliable router and has definitely got a high-speed connection to the outside world, as it finds and downloads packages and updates from the internet servers plenty fast.
I have seen from others' comments that it maybe needs some kind of connection to the Humax company servers themselves in order to work, and they operate on a tart's drawers basis... is there a particular time of day when they're more likely to be working than not? Is there a mini site anywhere or URL I can access to check if they're live? Or just someone who uses the portal a lot who I can ping and ask if it's working before attempting it myself? Do I need to register with them somehow (the serial number of the box itself not being enough?), or can it be possible that the previous owner of this second-hand PVR did something to get themselves banned / never went through that registration step?
FWIW the last time I tried this - accidentally! - was a couple days ago. Went for "7" whilst retitling a file, got the portal button instead. Still dead.
Similarly, something that may be related - I can't get any of the "streaming" freeview channels to work (Motors, Community, so on and so forth... all those out in the 180 ~ 600-and-some wilderness beyond the Adult zone)... I'm not even 100% sure what they are or how they're meant to operate, but I presume the main data stream is sent over the internet, and the freeview channel itself just delivers a URL and a decryption code or the like? In any case, I tune in, and just get the digital teletext holding screen with no useful information on how to actually access that station. Their programmes sometimes crop up in the EPG, though. Any clues?
Thanks
