custom firmware and xbmc

IJ36

Member
Hi,

Will the custom firmware enable me to stream video through to my humax from xbmc.

Thanks
 
Yes and no. XMBC is perfectly able to stream StDef recordings from the HDR-FOX by DLNA without any help from the CF - you need to enable content sharing: Menu >> Settings >> System >> Internet Setting >> Content Share = On (it needs time to initialise before any actual content will become available).

The CF makes it possible to stream HiDef recordings by clearing the protection flags (for that you need the package auto-unprotect installed), however I don't believe XBMC is capable of playing HiDef recordings. VLC will do both.
 
I can stream both standard and high definition recordings from my Humax to XBMC.

You will need to install the custom firmware to remove the protection flag from HD recordings and to decrypt both SD and HD recordings. You will also need to install the Samba package so that you can set up the Humax video folder as a source within XBMC (Add videos > Browse > Windows Network (SMB) > Humax > Media >My Videos).
 
Not sure why you'd want to do that. You can mount remote drives onto the Humax if you're wanting to play movies using the Humax off a drive on another machine on your network, but unlike XBMC, which will play just about anything you throw at it, the Humax is limited with regard to what type of video file - you can't play .mkvs on it for example.

The easiest way to have an XBMC-like user interface in two places is to run two instances of XBMC and point them to the same sources, but of course you need two computers to do that. I have tried a raspberry pi as a cheap alternative but it's paint-dryingly slow even with all the tweaks. Laptops (even netbooks), Android tablets and iPads work very well. You can use uPnP to share libraries between XBMC instances (video here). You can also set up a mySQL server to synchronise all your XBMC nodes (so you can watch half a movie downstairs and carry on from the same point upstairs for example).

Best way to find out more is to visit the XBMC user forum or check out the Wiki.

Apologies to the mods if this is going off-topic.
 
Can I stream the other way round- from xmbc down to the humax?
Yes, XBMC adds a DNLA server to the PC.

I can stream both standard and high definition recordings from my Humax to XBMC.

You will need to install the custom firmware to remove the protection flag from HD recordings and to decrypt both SD and HD recordings. You will also need to install the Samba package so that you can set up the Humax video folder as a source within XBMC (Add videos > Browse > Windows Network (SMB) > Humax > Media >My Videos).
It is not necessary to decrypt if streamed by DLNA rather than played by network access. I didn't realise XBMC was able to cope with HiDef .TS at all - is it only by direct access, or does it work with DLNA as well?
 
Movies won't play for me in XBMC unless I decrypt them. That's presumably because I'm accessing them directly from the hard drive on the Humax via Samba rather than over DLNA. Ergo, can't answer your DLNA question as I've never tried it.

I will give it a try...

edit: tried it - HiDef files play fine in XBMC over DLNA.
 
it's not much use unless your media files are in a format that the Humax will play.
Obviously, but that does not negate the facility. Streaming in either direction by DLNA is available regardless of custom firmware being installed.

tried it - HiDef files play fine in XBMC over DNLA.
That's good news, thanks. (For other readers: this is only possible for HiDef recordings if the Custom Firmware and the auto-unprotect optional package are installed.)
 
The Humax does play some MKVs, It depends what is contained within it

Ah, OK thanks - mine are x264 encodes containing MPEG4 video and AC3 audio.

There is talk of a video transcoder facility being added to the XBMC uPnP server, that might do the trick. At the moment, at least as far as my experiments go, the Humax won't even see a .mkv file over DLNA , even if it's renamed to .mp4
 
Great advice on this forum. Just started using XMBC, so now going to install CF and give it all a go.
 
@selectortone

That combo of audio and video tracks would play on the humax if in the mp4 container rather than mkv (dont ask me why :rolleyes: )

But just renaming wont do - it would need to be repackaged...

The humax can actually do this on the box with the following command

Code:
ffmpeg -i input.mkv -c:v copy -c:a copy -sn output.mp4

Note that the tracks are not recoded - just repackaged - so the conversion from mkv to mp4 container takes no time at all.

I'm sure handbrake or similar will be able to do the same thing if you would rather keep the files on your pc.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2
 
Thanks very much for that Kev_w. It's not something I need to do as I have a HTPC running XBMC as my main movie viewing medium, but it's handy to have the knowledge. I use handbrake on an almost daily basis - it's great for converting and compressing .ts files off the Humax. Might give it a try out of interest.
 
Thought that may be the case.

Its useful for me because I use my humax to download torrents occasionally using the custom firmware torrent client and so my video files are stored on my HDR anyway.

Any files the hummy won't play i have to stream from the humax to my laptop which I then plug into the TV - so the more files the hummy plays locally the better.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2
 
Sorry back again.
Installation of the CF shown as successful, but no success when entering the IP address into the address bar of the web browser. With google and internet explorer.
 
Ha, thanks. Don't know about fun.
Installing some packages now, but no doubt I will be back to pester you all for more help.
Just know this, this member is so grateful.
 
Back
Top