Humax HDR-Fox T2 moved from UK to Australia

[Brian Burch]

"select" isn't the right word. I "inherited" them from a successful auto-scan when in Brisbane. Having returned home to the Sunshine Coast I did not realise their significance for EPG data, so I left the existing (Brisbane) values alone while hacking channels.db to get the video and sound to work properly.

Only now am I sufficiently confident to work on the EPG. In other words, my current channels.db EPG data (whatever that might be) does not match dvbsnoop because the current values correspond to Brisbane, while my dvbsnoop data corresponds to the desired region of Sunshine Coast and are taken by dvbsnoop from the aerial.

I need to discover which fields in which tables to hack, given that my proposed ETI/EPG values are available from the aerial, according to the dvbsnoop ETI data for the five multiplexes.

Success! I was back in Brisbane at the weekend and so used dvbsnoop to capture the EPGs on all 5 multiplexes. I then compared the values with those from the Sunshine Coast.

I replaced the usTsId and usOrgNetId values in TBL_TS. I then replaced the usTsId and usOnId values in TBL_SVC. I now have the crummy Australian EPG working as well as expected. It can only render the EPG for the currently-tuned multiplex, so I have too switch channel group to populate another network's EPG and then the previous network's EPG immediately disappears. (Incidentally, some more modern Australian-market TVs and PVRs appear to cache the EPG from each multiplex, but I never expected my humax to do that kind of thing because of the earlier post about England/Wales border transmissions).

 

[Brian Burch]

It can only render the EPG for the currently-tuned multiplex, so I have too switch channel group to populate another network's EPG and then the previous network's EPG immediately disappears.

There is another small quirk to investigate. My hidden menu time zone is UTC+10 with no daylight saving. (Queensland voters have a semi-religious belief their curtains would fade in the summer if the state were to adopt standard East coast time.) When viewing any channel, the "info" on-screen display shows me the correct Queensland local time. However, the EPG for any channel shows me the current and scheduled times to be one hour later, i.e. Eastern Standard time. I have scheduled a couple of recordings tonight using the EPG entries, so it will be interesting to see whether I get the whole program content.

I think I remember a dvbsnoop comment elsewhere about the network time being transmitted, so perhaps there is yet another pid I need to identify and patch into channel.db?

 

[Black Hole]

I never expected my humax to do that kind of thing because of the earlier post about England/Wales border transmissions).

Just for accuracy (and anyone else reading this), member "Border" is posting about UK/Ireland border transmissions. There is no issue at all with the coexistence of England/Wales services in the EPG (but it will confuse the Accurate Recording system).

 

[Black Hole]

@Brian Burch: a Google search result indicated the following might be of interest to you, but when I tried to follow it I got "You have been permanently banned from this board. Please contact the Board Administrator for more information. A ban has been issued on your IP address."!!!

Never been there before in my life.

 

[Owen Smith]

@Brian Burch: a Google search result indicated the following might be of interest to you, but when I tried to follow it I got "You have been permanently banned from this board. Please contact the Board Administrator for more information. A ban has been issued on your IP address."!!!

Never been there before in my life.

But if you are on Dynamic IP for your broadband then someone else previously using your IP might have been there. Or if you are on Carrier Grade NAT someone you are sharing a worldwide IP address with might have been banned.

 

[Black Hole]

Exactly. The banning system on that site is obviously too strict.

 

[Owen Smith]

Exactly. The banning system on that site is obviously too strict.

There's no way round it. If they ban by username then the banned user can create a new username and carry on posting until banned again ad infinitum. Only an IP address block will prevent that, until Dynamic IP changes their IP address.

EDIT: of course this problem goes away with IPv6 since no more dynamic IP or Carrier Grade NAT.

 

[Trev]

I'm with Orange and get a new IP every time I disconnect then reconnect. Have you tried that?

 

[Owen Smith]

I'm with Orange and get a new IP every time I disconnect then reconnect. Have you tried that?

I suppose the same happens when I use Three on my iPad, the mobile scenario hadn't occured to me. However, it is possible to get SIMs with a fixed IP address, they're just not cheap (Andrews &Arnold sell them). And the mobile operators are being very slow rolling out IPv6 for mobile use, despite LTE being designed for it from the ground up.

I agree blocking your IP address is draconian. They probably did it to prevent whack-a-mole as a nasty user kept creating new userids - what else could they do in that situation? I'm trying to see it from both sides here.

 

[Black Hole]

Yes, if I really want to read that board I could use my mobile connection, but another surprise is that it blocked reading the board as a guest - I could understand it stopping me trying to register or post.

 

[Brian Burch]

@Brian Burch: a Google search result indicated the following might be of interest to you, but when I tried to follow it I got "You have been permanently banned from this board. Please contact the Board Administrator for more information. A ban has been issued on your IP address."!!!

Never been there before in my life.

I don't understand this at all. I can (still) successfully sign on to the forum. I even added some location data to my forum account. When I went to the link referenced by Black Hole, that took me to my own account and showed me the changes I had just made. Unless someone has just kindly "unbanned" me, there doesn't seem to be a problem!

For information to those who made further comments, I've now had three different broadband suppliers in Australia, and each seems to associate a (different) static IPv4 address to my router. I presume the aussies still have a surfeit of IPv4 addresses and like to make life easy for the spooks to track individual users, but perhaps I'm just paranoid. I access the forum from a tethered connection via my phone, so that means I would also appear via dynamic addresses once in a while.

 

[Owen Smith]

Having a static IPv4 address only makes you marginally easier to track. I deliberately pay for a static IPv4 in the UK. The great benefit is internet protocols work as intended, you have an end to end connection (except your local NAT in the router but you control that), you can run servers at home (I do) etc. I can VPN in when I'm away from home, and I don't need Dynamic DNS or other complications.

 

[Black Hole]

I don't understand this at all. I can (still) successfully sign on to the forum. I even added some location data to my forum account. When I went to the link referenced by Black Hole, that took me to my own account and showed me the changes I had just made. Unless someone has just kindly "unbanned" me, there doesn't seem to be a problem!

It wasn't you who was banned, it was me! I didn't realise I was pointing you at your own posts on another forum.

 

[raeshaw]

Hi,

I'm seeking some assistance on an issue I'm experiencing with applying a modified channel.db.

I have a HDR-fox-t2 running the latest modified software - with a 4tb internal disk.

I have for several years been running this unit in Australia ( using the German setup) and more recently with a modified channel.db to pickup regional channels as described in this thread.
Last week I decided to add two further HD channels in the same manner as I had successfully used previously -

I copied channel.db ,rsv.db and setup.db to a usb drive via the hidden menu option - edited with SQLite and reapplied via the hidden option and then performed a reboot.

On my latest update - I can see the channel.db has been updated via Webif once applied via the hidden menu - however after a reboot it now reverts to a subset - WIN tv channels.


Before Reboot :- new channel.db with two added entries ( not shown in snapshot of TBL_SVC)








After Reboot:







I have tried an alternative method - copied (CP) the updated channel.db directly to /var/lib/humaxtv directory - and again prior to reboot I can see via Webif it has updated.
I then ran the "sync" and "reboot" commands suggested by prpr

I have also reset the unit to factory settings and reapplied modified software - but this did not help. I have reset cache and DRM via hidden menu....It seems the channel.db information is stored elsewhere and after a reboot takes place overwrites /var/lib/humaxtv /channel.db.

Lastly I tried to reapply my original channel.db I have been using for the last two years - this now fails to apply as above -

My thoughts -

I have not tried this process since I updated to the 4tb internal disk
I had an earlier Modified software version applied when I was last successful with this process
Previous attempts had been successful using only the hidden menu options and a physical reboot.
Why does it default to the WinTV LCN

Any help would be appreciated -
Regards

 

[prpr]

I copied channel.db ,rsv.db and setup.db to a usb drive via the hidden menu option - edited with SQLite and reapplied via the hidden option and then performed a reboot.

The only one of interest is channel.db
What data (exactly) are you editing in and where did you get it from?
The Humax software is very picky and will just delete things it doesn't like (not the correct format).

I have tried an alternative method - copied (CP) the updated channel.db directly to /var/lib/humaxtv directory - and again prior to reboot I can see via Webif it has updated.
I then ran the "sync" and "reboot" commands suggested by prpr

That won't work, and those commands are irrelevant to the problem. What the WebIf sees is not what the running Humax software sees when you have modified stuff behind its back.

I have also reset the unit to factory settings and reapplied modified software - but this did not help. I have reset cache and DRM via hidden menu....

All irrelevant.

It seems the channel.db information is stored elsewhere and after a reboot takes place overwrites /var/lib/humaxtv /channel.db.

It isn't, and doesn't.

I have not tried this process since I updated to the 4tb internal disk

Irrelevant.

I had an earlier Modified software version applied when I was last successful with this process
Previous attempts had been successful using only the hidden menu options and a physical reboot.
Why does it default to the WinTV LCN

No idea without any specific info.

 

[raeshaw]

The only one of interest is channel.db
What data (exactly) are you editing in and where did you get it from?
The Humax software is very picky and will just delete things it doesn't like (not the correct format).

Thanks for response

All data for the channel.db has been sourced from a HUMAX 7100T - The Australian version of the HDR-fox T2.

The new channels (SBS VICELAND HD - & ABC HD) are both MPEG4 - can the HDR-FOX T2 support MPEG4?


Putting the revised channel.db to one side it would be good to understand the process of updating the channel.db and why I'm experiencing difficulties reapplying the original channel.db to the HDR-fox T2.

I tested the same original channel.db on a old HD-fox using the hidden menu process. I reset the HD-fox so it didn't have any channel info and the applied the channel.db - it was successful on the first attempt.

Regards

 

[Black Hole]

Putting the revised channel.db to one side it would be good to understand the process of updating the channel.db and why I'm experiencing difficulties reapplying the original channel.db to the HDR-fox T2.

I tested the same original channel.db on a old HD-fox using the hidden menu process. I reset the HD-fox so it didn't have any channel info and the applied the channel.db - it was successful on the first attempt.

When I was playing with that kind of thing a long time ago, I found the process unreliable.

The new channels (SBS VICELAND HD - & ABC HD) are both MPEG4 - can the HDR-FOX T2 support MPEG4?

Do you mean they are not broadcast using the TS container format?