New user of custom CW (but old user of HDR-FOX T2)

Watt Tyler

Member
Hi,

I've finally bitten the bullet and installed the custom FW having struggled on without it for 3 years or so! I seem to to got it working more or less to my satisfaction, but there are a few things to which I can't readily find answers. [Forgive me if I'm missing something obvious].

Firstly, I've created an account on https://rs.hpkg.tv to let me perform remote scheduling. [That will be useful when we're away from home and SWMBO says "I wanted to record so and so but forgot to program it"!] My understanding is that it requires two boot cycles (one of which can be added to the schedule command) for the change to take effect. This can be achieved when the box turns itself on in the early hours each day to check for firmware updates. But, if I allow it to check for firmware updates, doesn't this mean that the custom FW could get replaced by a later version of the standard stuff? And if I disable auto update checks (which I have currently done), doesn't this mean that it won't turn itself on each morning, and won't thus update the schedule? Hopefully, I'm missing something, and there's a simple answer to this dilemma?

Secondly, I'm trying to get my head round the best way of transferring recordings (particularly HD) to my PC for viewing on that on on my Android tablet. In the past, I have followed the rather laborious process of FTP-ing the HMT file to my PC and back in order to process it with 'Foxy', then using the remote control on the box to copy the file to a USB memory stick, and then FTP-ing it from memory stick to computer. Even then, it was in .ts format - so not as universally useful as it would be in MP4 format. I have set up the custom FW to apply decryption recursively to the entire 'My Video' folder - so that does away with the need to use Foxy or to copy files via USB. If I browse media files in the Web Interface, the OPT+ button gives me the option of extracting SD recordings to MPG - which can then be transferred to my PC and played in Windows Media Player, etc., which works fine. However, for HD recordings, the extract to MPG option is greyed out. So I'm stuck with .ts files - which I can play with programs such as VLC - but this seems to result in a lot of frozen video and pixelation while the sound carries on, even though the files are ok if viewed directly on a TV. Is there a way of getting the Humax to extract HD recordings to MPG/MP4 or, failing that, is there anything better than VLC that will display .ts files properly on a Windows 7 PC?

Finally, is there anywhere where I can find a detailed description of each of the optional 'packages' which come with the custom FW? The brief descriptions in Package Management give the general idea, but don't always tell you exactly what it does, why you might want it, and how it manifests itself once installed.

Many thanks for reading all this!
WT
 
Info about packages: search the forum for the package name, restricting the search to topic titles.

Firmware updates: you need to suppress them, but the action of suppressing them also provides a sync opportunity. See Preventing External Events from Disturbing the CF (click).

Tablet: there are apps which will download and play .ts directly. Search the forum for the relevant topic.
 
After a lot of experimentation I found that MX Player seems to be the most reliable for playing video from the Humax on my Android tablet. I connect to the network drive and play the .ts files directly which seems to work better than using the web interface and also works on HD files if you have decrypted them first. I tend to avoid HD though as the network struggles to keep up and my nexus 7 doesn't have enough grunt to play without stuttering (though my nexus 5 is fine).
 
Playing the HD .TS files on PC from my Humax T2 often gives dodgy results, so my first step is to use the option QuickStreamFix in VideoRedo on my PC.
I found VideoRedo to be the quickest at fixing the files which can come with plenty of audio errors.
Alternatively I recode them to a much more accepted format of DivX using AviDeMux but at the same time I reduce their resolution or the files end up way too huge.
 
Watt Tyler : However, for HD recordings, the extract to MPG option is greyed out.
Standard Def. TS files are already in MP2 format so conversion is easy for the Humax, High Def. files however are not, the Humax wouldn't cope well converting a High Def. TS file to MPG
 
Ever since I installed the Custom FW, the HDR has been crashing a lot more. Is this a "feature"?

According to the crash log it crashes at about 03:20 every day - at around the time when it turns itself on to avoid OTA updates - which doesn't really matter. But it often crashes just after being turned on for an evening's viewing - which is rather annoying. After it then re-boots itself, it is usually ok for the rest of the evening.

Actually, it didn't crash this morning, but what it DID do was to stay on rather than returning to Standby, after doing its early morning stuff. [I did make one change yesterday - and that was remove the virtual USB drive., now that I've realised that I don't actually need to copy everything to USB to decrypt it. I don't know whether having a virtual USB drive would make it any more likely to crash, or whether removing it has any relevance to its not returning to Standby]

FWIW I'm on firmware 1.03.12 and CF 3.03

Any clues?

WT
 
What channel do you have set for the 'avoid OTA updates'? I think the default is 200. If you have changed it, you might have chosen a channel that has associated IPTV and the box tries to access that data but will fail.
 
Try it on standard firmware and see if the crashing stops. It won't, or if it does it will just be coincidence, but you might satisfy yourself. Removing and restoring your CF set-up is as simple as flashing standard code and then flashing custom again.

The anti-OTA reminder is 0420, not 0320, so if your boots really are 0320 there's something wrong.
 
What channel do you have set for the 'avoid OTA updates'? I think the default is 200. If you have changed it, you might have chosen a channel that has associated IPTV and the box tries to access that data but will fail.

It's the default red button (200) - which annoys SWMBO because it's still set to that when she switches it on later in the day - rather than to whatever channel she was last watching!

WT
 
Oh well, it was just an idea. You can use the Power On Channel package to set the startup channel. That might get you some 'brownie points'.
 
Try it on standard firmware and see if the crashing stops. It won't, or if it does it will just be coincidence, but you might satisfy yourself. Removing and restoring your CF set-up is as simple as flashing standard code and then flashing custom again.

The anti-OTA reminder is 0420, not 0320, so if your boots really are 0320 there's something wrong.

Yebbut - the crash log is in UTC and the schedule in BST - so they're actually the same time!

WT
 
Ever since I installed the Custom FW, the HDR has been crashing a lot more. Is this a "feature"?
...
Any clues?

WT

I find that if I access the Hummy from the RS page or WebIF it is more prone to crashing. If I don't do any form of remote access then it hardly ever crashes.

My suspicion is that the reboot action messes with the database somehow (I imagine the reboot is done with a Linux 'shutdown - reboot' command) instead of a 'proper' shutdown using the power off button on the remote, which I suspect allows the Humax software to close down the database in a cleaner fashion. If this supposition is correct I don't know how the Hummy is expected to deal with a power failure, but the problem may be that alterations are happening to the database when using the rs or WebIF and the Hummy has some form of shadow database or checksum which it uses to check the validity of the database in the event of a power failure. In effect the rs/WebIF reboot will be like a power failure to the Humax software, so if a database alteration has occurred it may not know what to do.

I have taken to doing multiple reboots ideally followed by at least one with the remote to allow the Humax software to work through the database repairing any errors it found.

I also have a power off/on cycle using the power management menu on the Humax, turning off at about 05:00 and turning on at around 05:15 to ensure that the Humax has a power cycle it can control thereby doing any database save/repair that occurs under these conditions.
 
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