<sigh>
The following applies to HD-FOX as well as HDR-FOX. It is all (mostly) documented elsewhere, such as the first post in this topic!
As standard, the HDR-FOX wakes up at 0430 every day to search for an OTA firmware update, or (if already on) goes off-line for a period while it does unless you cancel the operation when prompted. If the unit is located in a bedroom, you might prefer it didn't do that and
disable-ota removes the item in the schedule that makes it happen (and the search gets added to the schedule periodically if/when the Humax firmware spots it is missing). Removal can only occur at boot, so if there is no boot between the search being added to the schedule and the scheduled time for the search, the wake-up will happen regardless of having
disable-ota installed. Note that the search item is not listed on-screen when the schedule is displayed, so cannot be removed manually.
A scheduled reminder spanning 0430 can be used to prevent an OTA search occurring, although admittedly that makes the unit wake up too. This defends against the circumstance that an OTA search slips through despite
disable-ota being installed, as described in the previous paragraph. The consequence of an unwanted OTA search is that if it finds a firmware update it could over-write the custom firmware.
If there are certain to be no further OTA updates, this fall-back defence is not necessary.
Enabling
RTS (Real-Time Scheduling) makes it possible for
disable-ota to remove the OTA search from the schedule
without a boot. This makes it very unlikely that a search will slip through the defences, the unit won't wake up, and a fall-back defensive reminder schedule is not necessary (even if there were OTA updates pending).
Scheduled reminders have other defensive functions in ensuring the EPG is maintained up-to-date for the circumstances of (a) multi-region tuning (see
https://hummy.tv/forum/threads/advice-for-tuning-multiple-regions.3429/); and (b) a unit that is left on and idle for long periods or off with no events scheduled in the next week (and prior to a firmware update, using AR for recordings also left the EPG to go stale).
For HDR-FOXes that are kept mostly turned on, the
epgfix package enforces a channel change (and back again) at a selectable time of day. This is to overcome a Humax bug that allows the EPG to go stale if left idle.
To absolutely ensure the EPG is maintained (which is essential for scheduled recordings to occur correctly) under
all possible circumstances, the HDR-FOX must be woken regularly (if not already awake), and change channels regularly (if not asleep). This can be achieved by setting a daily reminder (for a time that does not inconvenience other use) in combination with
epgfix, or using a pair of reminders.
Wake-ups intended to update the EPG must be 20 minutes duration minimum, to ensure the entire EPG broadcast cycle is captured. It is convenient to time these reminders to cover the 0430 OTA search, although they do mean the unit will wake up and make a noise so another time could be used (in combination with
disable-ota + RTS).
As standard, when Freeview announces a tuning change (including LCN shuffles), the Humax firmware inserts an auto-retune event into the schedule. Auto-retunes summarily delete the user's recording schedule, and may result in the non-preferred TV region being selected (if more than one is available).
disable-dso removes the auto-retune event from the schedule, subject to the same limitations as
disable-ota and the same improvement available by enabling RTS. Unlike
disable-ota, there is no fall-back defence available.
auto-schedule-restore can re-create the user's recording schedule following a retune event, by detecting an empty schedule and replacing it with the most recent backup copy (suitably modified for the new tuning), but only at boot time. If there is no boot between a retune and the time the user was expecting a recording to be made, the recording won't happen. Without
auto-schedule-restore, the recording wouldn't happen anyway.
After a retune, the user typically wants to delete a number of unwanted services and may want to reorganise the LCN allocation of services. This can be achieved automatically by providing
tunefix with a definition file and simply rebooting after each retune event.
However, by installing
tunefix-update (confusingly, nothing to do with the
tunefix package), pre-announced Freeview tuning changes can be incorporated into the HDR-FOX tuning database in such a way that
a retune is not necessary, thereby sidestepping the troublesome consequences of performing a retune. Thus, when using
tunefix-update, it is desirable that auto-retunes are actively prevented - ie use of
disable-dso is strongly recommended (otherwise
tunefix-update is less effective than it could be).
The
tunefix-update package must, itself, be kept up-to-date to be able to do its job, and includes a self-updater independent of the general
auto-update package from version 1.0.35 onwards (this is reliant on the HDR-FOX having an active Internet connection). If your installed
tunefix-update package is previous to version 1.0.35, you need to update it.
OK?
)
