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FOXSAT HDR AND HDR-FOX T2 SHARED EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE?

B

bobspark

New Member
I have a Foxsat HDR but with only a 320gb hard disk was always filling up quickly. So I have just bought a Freeview Fox t2 HDR 1TB to give me more capacity. They work in one room alongside each other, something I found useful when ITV failed on satellite the other day
My question is I would like to purchase an external hard disk to serve both machines to archive HD Prom concerts in 5.1 sound.
If I format the ext hard disk with the Fox t2 HDR in Ext3 will this be sufficient for the Foxsat to save to?
Will I be able to swap recording back and fourth between the machines.
Ideally I would like to upgrade the hard disk in the Foxsat to 1 TB, something I’m just about capable of doing it myself.
Apologies if my question is a bit elementary ,but as a newcomer to this forum I’m never going to be up to the level of the bright young things that frequent these pages.
Thanking you in anticipation
 
bobspark said:
I would like to purchase an external hard disk to serve both machines to archive HD Prom concerts in 5.1 sound.
If I format the ext hard disk with the Fox t2 HDR in Ext3 will this be sufficient for the Foxsat to save to?
Click to expand...
Yes, I think that should be OK for both machines.
bobspark said:
Will I be able to swap recording back and fourth between the machines.
Click to expand...
Recordings made on the Foxsat HDR won't play on the HDR Fox T2 (unless you copy the .ts file only to the external HDD) as the sidecar files are different. Likewise, recordings made on the HDR Fox T2 will not play on the Foxsat HDR for the same reason. Also the Foxsat HDR does not support the AAC audio streams created by the T2. I would recommend you keep your recordings under a separate folder for each box, and not browse any folder via the Humax GUI which isn't associated with the box you are currently using. Otherwise there is the possibility of corrupting the .hmt files.
 
bobspark said:
I have a Foxsat HDR but with only a 320gb hard disk was always filling up quickly. So I have just bought a Freeview Fox t2 HDR 1TB to give me more capacity. They work in one room alongside each other, something I found useful when ITV failed on satellite the other day
My question is I would like to purchase an external hard disk to serve both machines to archive HD Prom concerts in 5.1 sound.
If I format the ext hard disk with the Fox t2 HDR in Ext3 will this be sufficient for the Foxsat to save to?
Will I be able to swap recording back and fourth between the machines.
Ideally I would like to upgrade the hard disk in the Foxsat to 1 TB, something I’m just about capable of doing it myself.
Apologies if my question is a bit elementary ,but as a newcomer to this forum I’m never going to be up to the level of the bright young things that frequent these pages.
Thanking you in anticipation
Click to expand...

Both machines will save recordings to a EXT3 formatted HD and they will play back on the box that recorded it without problems.

Swapping recordings is a bit more difficult. In both cases you need to arrange that HD recordings have the encryption removed. For both machines you need to install the Custom Firmwares. (Or use Raydons Foxy for the HDR FOX T2 copies to usb)

In the case of the HDR FOX T2 you can then arrange that existing HD files copied to usb are decrypted. In the case of the Foxsat-hdr you cannot do anything with existing HD files other than copy them to the USB drive and replay them on the Foxsat from usb. There is a patch to the Humax settop app that will mean that future recordings will not be encrypted. These can be copied to usb or even viewed directly on the HDR FOX T2 if both are networked. The HDR FOX T2 has a built in DLNA client (and server), the CF creates a DLNA server on the Foxsat.

Playing HD recordings made on the HDR FOX T2 is a little more complicated. The fly in the ointment is that the audio used on Freeview-HD uses the advanced audio codec (AAC) which is not used on satellite so the Foxsat-HDR does not work with AAC audio. Using a PC it's not very difficult to convert the audio to AC3 (Dolby Digital) which both boxes understand.

In addition you need to create the sidecar files used on the Foxsat, Raydons AV2HDR will create these.

As both are in the same room there seems little point in converting the HDR FOX T2 files (The .TS files from the Foxsat will play OK on the HDR FOX T2)

Make sure that the 1TB drive to be installed in the Foxsat is a AV specced design. A drive designed for a PC will work initially but over a period will cause problems due to the inbuilt error checking which as the drive wears will cause the drive to have problems. Unlike a PC the PVR has no buffer to allow for delayed transfers due to the drive inbuilt error checks.

A new drive is likely to need jumpers fitting to make it compatible with the original spec drives used in the Foxsat

I ain't no bright young thing :oops:, if only, I am 69 next birthday, :)

EDIT

I see Raydon has responded.
 
Yes thank you for your replies .I think I will start with an external hard disk to back up the Foxsat,and take it slowly from there.
Thanks from one dull old thing!
 
Following advice given I experimented with my computer back up 500gb external hard drive, trying it with both boxes. It worked well with both and as quite rightly advised archived HD recordings will only play back on the box that made it.
I formatted it with the Fox T2 HDR without problem ,not sure going by the manual what format options you would get , and it seems the only one is EXT3 which is fine.(Fox T2 owners are probably not aware that the Foxsat HDR does not have the ability to format external hard disks.)
I decided to use this drive to back up the Foxsat,as I proved it worked, and as it has its own power supply it cant put any strain on the Foxsat HDRs power supply.
I transferred everything from the Foxsat to the external hard drive ,and then used the secret menu to reduce the photo storage to its minimum option, giving me even more video recording space
I bought a new back up external hard drive for my computer.
The plan is to use the Fox T2 HDR for everyday use ,as it much easier and slicker to use than the Foxsat ,but anything that I want to archive, such as concerts I will record on the Foxsat
So for the time being my recording needs are all covered.
Thanks again.
 
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