Connecting T2 to a PC

[The Bogeyman]

Hi, all. Please be patient with me and assume that I’m as knowledgeable about Linux etc as a a fish is about quantum physics.

I’m getting a PC arriving tomorrow running Win11. It’s one of those tiny ones but it has a Ryzen 5 CPU and even some graphics capability that YouTube tells me will be sufficient to run older games but obviously nothing too intensive.

The reason I’m getting it is to use it as the base for a media server and also because sometimes I find that my ancient Mac can’t get the software to do certain things any more. I love my Mac and it still works really well, but, well. That’s irrelevant.

I’m wondering if there’s a way to connect the T2 to the new PC. It has (for some reason) dual Ethernet, onboard WiFi, USB3, USB2 and USB-C connections. The T2 has a WiFi dongle plugged into the rear USB for its network access.

What I want is a way to read the files in the T2, run, copy etc to and from the PC. I won’t need to get the T2 to run files from the PC as the PC will have an HDMI connection (it has 3 for some reason) to the TV I plan to watch everything from.

Is that even possible? And is it done by Ethernet? Neither Ethernet on the T2 or on the PC are being used (yet. There’s 2 and I plan to build a NAS drive in the future).

Or is there something in the Customised Firmware that I can use to do this? I know that I can use VLC on my bedroom TV to access the T2 box’s files, so I’m guessing it’s possible. I just don’t know how.

Apologies for the noob question and the really long post. If it’s something obvious that has been answered a million times, please accept my apology and the admin can delete my post without getting attitude from me.

Thanks.

 

[/df]

Obviously what you want to do is possible, but there will be some issues to overcome. These hints should help to focus the forum (etc) searches that you ought to have made before posting.

• If you can reasonably connect the Humax to your LAN with an Ethernet (-ish but not really these days) cable, you will get better performance and avoid loading your wifi (it should be "to your LAN", because the Humax will only use one LAN interface - Ethernet and wifi disable each other).
• With no CF you will be able to access media on the Humax from the new media server just as you can with VLC (using the DNLA protocol), but that doesn't include file-level operations, though VLC has a stream-to-file function that would be a bit like copying from the Humax.
• With CF you get the ability to manage the files on the Humax (and also the rest of its functionality) from a web browser on any machine attached to your LAN.
• With CF and the samba package you can add the Humax to the Windows Network, so that you can manage and copy files on the Humax from any Windows or other client on your LAN, but ...
  • you'll have to enable an old version of SMB (the Windows file server protocol) on the new PC
  • you 'll need to understand how "recordings" are stored, each as a media file with ancillary index and metadata files
  • you'll need to ensure that any encrypted media files to be played on other machines are decrypted before transfer.

Also:

• the 2 Ethernet interfaces in the new PC would allow it to act as a gateway between separate networks: you probably don't need that, although you may be able to pair the interfaces for increased performance and resilience
• the 3 HDMI interfaces would help if you wanted to spread your display across 3 screens, as some s/w developers and many financial traders like to do
• and obviously, there's no need for Windows 11 in all this, unless the new PC has devices that are not supported on older Windows versions, or you intend to connect it to the outside world, and no need for Windows at all unless your preferred media server requires it.

 

[The Bogeyman]

Thank you for your speedy reply. I’m gonna go with the Samba option. I’ve been running a T2 for ages so I do understand how the files are “recorded”. As there’s only me in the house, I don’t mind too much about taxing the network itself. It’s rarely doing very much anyway I’ve got the autodecrypt package running already so I can stream to my bedroom TV.

Thank you!

 

[Black Hole]

Why are you even worrying ahead of trying it? Do you think that's not the sort of thing many of us are doing all the time?

As long as you can get the WebIF on your browser, as a last resort there is the "download" option on the OPT+ menu.