Humax TV Portal.

the highest 720p resolution
youtube-dl is configured to download the best resolution not greater than 1080. If you want to restrict it to no more than 720 you need -f "best[height<=?720]". The resolution you get from iPlayer depends whether you have "SD" or "HD" currently selected.
 
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I thought that the highest resolution on bbc iplayer was 720.

as here:
Shows will now automatically start playing in HD (high definition) quality. But you can switch to SD (standard definition) if you prefer.

BBC's version of HD for laptops and smartphones is 1280 x 720 video resolution (720p for short) - which is closer to what we'd classify as HD Ready.

The iPlayer drops the picture down to standard quality definition when there's low bandwidth or patchy wi-fi, so you'll need a robust connection and a decent smartphone, tablet or laptop for the best HD picture quality.
 
my post #22 still stands after your revision.

meaning you just cannot dl a 1080 from the iplayer
 
meaning you just cannot dl a 1080 from the iplayer
Ah, I think you mean 1080 resolution files are not available from iPlayer. Gotcha. Then it remains unexplained why the built-in portal iPlayer mechanism fetches stuff faster than youtube-dl. Personally, my network/Internet is so flakey I need the resume capability of youtube-dl (or get-iplayer).
 
Remember that youtube-dl is running in Python and using ffmpeg to perform the HLS download. It has to download all the video segments, all the audio segments and then merge those into a single H.264+AAC MP4 file. It's hardly surprising that this might be faster in the Humax iPlayer streamer.

HLS-capable iPlayer versions select the video quality depending on the network conditions (apparently may vary during the download), unless you specifically ask for SD.

If you only have the choice of HD/SD, as I understand the BBC documentation, iPlayer isn't using HLS and so it's downloadstreaming an already prepared entire media file (unless perhaps it can merge separate audio and video files). In this case, I suppose that iPlayer picks a quality suitable for the network conditions at the start of the downloadstream from the available HD and SD, or SD only if the user wanted, streams. That might be faster than even a native HLS implementation.

The iPlayer TV Application Layer device characteristics don't appear to distinguish between HD and HDR Fox T2, so the existence of the Streamer_down_file file on the HDR disk must be a feature of the download code in the Humax HDR TV binary (where the filename is mentioned).
 
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The long delay while python loads is one reason the portal can be faster but for me the ability to simply paste URls into the qload panel and have a number of downloads process in the background while I am watching something else on the TV is much better than having the TV stuck on the portal screen whilst having to monitor downloads via the webif
 
my usage only happens on the very rare occasion some episode does not record in a series and then I copy it from the iplayer at the rate of about 15min per hour of programme when i'm not recording anything ( in case it crashes)
 
I just tried the TV "Portal again". When I press the button the service still starts but nothing changes on the screen All the buttons do nothing apart from the EXIT button which brings up the HUMAX TV Portal has ended message. Should I reinstall the latest version of custom firmware and try again?
 
The Humax TV portal is a standard 'Humax' feature and is not part of the Custom FirmWare, the CFW did add some enhancements to it but these haven't been of any use for a long time. The Humax TV Portal (even when it isn't crashing), is increasingly becomming redundant and is effectively being phased out on the HDR-Fox T2 due to both software and hardware restrictions
 
The Humax TV portal is a standard 'Humax' feature and is not part of the Custom FirmWare, the CFW did add some enhancements to it but these haven't been of any use for a long time. The Humax TV Portal (even when it isn't crashing), is increasingly becomming redundant and is effectively being phased out on the HDR-Fox T2 due to both software and hardware restrictions

OK, thanks for the heads up on the situation. If I want to archive stuff via catch up, I'll have to do it using the PC and whatever apps are available.
 
There is a custom firmware package called youtube-dl that can download Youtube and BBC-Iplayer content directly to the Humax's hard drive, the big different from the portal is the way you find the content to download as there is no look-up facility, however a link to the Youtube / Iplayer file can be copied from the toolbar of a computer and fed into a telnet window connected to your Humax
 
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Unless OP is being specifically blocked by Humax, the TV Portal should still be accessible, despite only being useful as way of getting to BBC iPlayer TV. No BBC Radio, thanks to the BBC moving that to another app, or series of them, that were never ported to the HD/Rs; no 'rewind live TV' as that's not been implemented for the HD/R app; the YouTube app no longer works thanks to pointless forced https-isation of the site that isn't supported by the OpenSSL 1.0 API assumed by portal apps.

The HDR that I'm looking at now has the new-portal package installed and I can certainly launch that Portal and from there the original Humax Portal, which also offers BBC Sport and News apps (if you accept the Humax Privacy Policy) for the next 2 months until they are withdrawn. Other apps are tumbleweed with the exception of "Internet Radio": I just had a blast of Elmore James from a Mexican blues station, but BBC stations are available in case anyone wants local radio that isn't on Freeview -- until some idiot decides that a trackable app is required.

One reason for the Portal failing is that the HD/R can't access the Internet, but that would also cause (eg) package updates to fail. OP could try posting the result of the Webif diagnostic cpdiag.

Discussion of Webif, its diagnostics, new-portal and youtube-dl really belongs in the CF forum, but doesn't conflict with OP's setup.
 
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Unless OP is being specifically blocked by Humax, the TV Portal should still be accessible, despite only being useful as way of getting to BBC iPlayer TV. No BBC Radio, thanks to the BBC moving that to another app, or series of them, that were never ported to the HD/Rs; no 'rewind live TV' as that's not been implemented for the HD/R app; the YouTube app no longer works thanks to pointless forced https-isation of the site that isn't supported by the OpenSSL 1.0 API assumed by portal apps.

The HDR that I'm looking at now has the new-portal package installed and I can certainly launch that Portal and from there the original Humax Portal, which also offers BBC Sport and News apps (if you accept the Humax Privacy Policy) for the next 2 months until they are withdrawn. Other apps are tumbleweed with the exception of "Internet Radio": I just had a blast of Elmore James from a Mexican blues station, but BBC stations are available in case anyone wants local radio that isn't on Freeview -- until some idiot decides that a trackable app is required.

One reason for the Portal failing is that the HD/R can't access the Internet, but that would also cause (eg) package updates to fail. OP could try posting the result of the Webif diagnostic cpdiag.

Discussion of Webif, its diagnostics, new-portal and youtube-dl really belongs in the CF forum, but doesn't conflict with OP's setup.

Thanks, I shall give that a try.
 
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