Hi Delftblue. I loaded the CF via USB ok, also tried installing some packages, the one that is working is the auto-unprotect, I can see that the ENC marker has gone from HD recordings and I can view/edit files off-box. My question is, how can I tell if other packages have taken effect?. Is there some kind of menu/interface to be loaded other than WebIF that allows package management?. Redring would be useful, but only seems useable through this. Sorry if these questions seem a little dumb, but I'm new to all this malarkey!.
Hi ukayjohn - no worries - I'm relatively new to this malarkey myself and your questions aren't dumb, they are entirely logical - when you load via USB, you don't have the Web-interface to rely on so its more a matter of trust that it's happened correctly.
As far as I know, there is no TV screen interface for package management/settings controls. And obviously, without internet connection, later updates will only occur if you do them yourself via the USB method. (Edited to say: As Ezra has explained, even if you don't have internet connection to the HDR box, if you can connect it to a PC, you can 'see' into the box, use Telnet etc. If you install the custom software via USB onto the box and you have a local network connection from box to computer, then you should be able to use 90% of the Web-IF functionality via your computer screen.)
However if you have no connection of any kind from the box to a computer, and are installing by USB and interacting purely via remote control/TV screen, then you only know the packages have taken effect by the visible signs of them in various places.
e.g. Redring should now usefully show a red ring when its recording but the box is in standby - which is different to the standard behaviour. As far as I know, you don't have access to the multiplicity of further Redring settings which you would have via Web-IF.
I had Redring installed, but it wasn't vital to me and I recently removed it due to the thread on here, which suggested it could interfere with recording schedules if a box were put into standby during a recording - I didn't need Redring enough to warrant even a mild risk of upsetting recordings.
Other signs of changes if installing via USB:
The version of the
official Humax firmware is visible via the MENU options
The version of the
Hummy custom firmware should roll across the orange screen on the front at start-up.
auto-unprotect: the ENC marker disappears as you've seen. HD files now play when copied off the box.
disable-dso: no visible sign (other than unexpected retunes don't occur)
disable-ota: no visible sign (other than over-the-air updates don't happen - in theory, though strangely my box updated to the .28 version, despite having this installed, so I re-installed .20 as that works nicely for me)
nice-splice-magic-folders: a folder called *edit appears at the top of the media list, with folders inside called cut, join and copy, which have further subfolders inside.
(My initial mistake was to move files into the top subfolder inside 'cut' which did nothing - you have to move your bookmarked files onto the cut folder itself, not any of its sub folders, then it works lovely! Conversely for join, you do have to move the two parts you want to merge into the subfolders of the 'join' folder.)
ntfs-3g & virtual-disk: When in the media list, pressing the blue button shows other available storage places.
With 'virtual-disk', if you click on USB storage, you will now have an option named 'virtual' that you can copy files to and from.
(Just like copying to USB memory stick decrypts files, copying to 'virtual' will decrypt files so they'll play on other devices. Useful if you want to decrypt a lot of files at once, as its a lot quicker than slowly copying bit by bit to USB stick and decrypting as you go)
If you have USB connected an NTFS format external hard drive
without ntfs-3g installed, it will show up as
'External' and you can read from it only (though an advantage is that 'External' will show memory used and space available at top right)
With ntfs-3g installed, the drive will show up as
'usb1' (or 'usb2' if two are connected at the same time) and you will be able to copy to it, as well as read from it. Very useful if you run out of memory on the box, or if you want to take recordings away to watch elsewhere on a PC. (However unfortunately 'usb1' doesn't show a pie chart of memory used or a count of space left)
seriesfiler: no visible sign at first, just visible if used.
(When you first get a new box it's not clear why you'd want seriesfiler, but after a month or so when you have media list full of folders, and are fed up of scrolling through them, then series filer suddenly seems much needed!)
(For anyone still puzzled: If you move a series folder from the top level to a subfolder, it will stay there and all new recordings will appear there, and not revert to the top level. So you can set up a folder called 'KIDS' or one called 'SOAPS' and move folders of Bob, Sam, Pat, Thomas et al or Corrie, 'Enders etc into them, where they will stay. Tidies things up nicely!)
(I very much appreciate all the hard work that's gone into developing the custom software and all the guides and instructions and notes - but I have to admit that, not being a techy, I didn't fully understand how it all worked - and everyone's knowledge level and home/gadget set-up is different - so I've written some stuff here as if I was explaining it to my 8-months-ago self.
![Confused :confused: :confused:](/forum/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/confused.png)
Hope this helps someone else too
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