• The forum software that supports hummy.tv has been upgraded to XenForo 2.3!

    Please bear with us as we continue to tweak things, and feel free to post any questions, issues or suggestions in the upgrade thread.

Picasaweb sync

W

Webreaper

New Member
Hi all,

I'm getting a refurbished 1TB Fox T2 this week and looking forward to installing the custom software. Looks awesome, and will probably solve most of my PVR/NAS/MediaServer needs.

One question I have: I have around 200GB of photos in my Picasaweb account and would like to have them sync to the T2, both as an offline backup and a way to view pics.

I've seen some python and other scripts to sync picasa on Linux, but has anyone tried this (or other ideas) on the Humax? Also, is it possible to run java apps on the T2 - so I could use Picasa directly on the box? :-)

Thanks
 
The HDR-FOX is a crap way to view your pictures (they will be displayed full screen, regardless of what the original aspect ratio was).

Java: not that I know of.

Your easiest path (if you must do this, but I think you will find it inconvenient to commit 200GB of HDR hard drive on a permanent basis) is probably to use the Humax as NAS and sync from a PC directly into it.
 
Thanks, appreciate the response.

Not so worried about picture quality, that's just a nice to have.

Am I right that with the custom firmware it's possible to set up a folder as a samba share (or other network share)? If so, I could just use the Fox as a NAS and run Picasa over the network from the laptop, with Picasaweb acting as cloud storage (with the laptop acting as go-between and doing the syncing.....

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
 
Oh, and as for committing 200GB, I'm happy to do that, we've had a 500GB humax 9300t and even with a whole load of rubbish which we'll never watch, never got more than 80% of it full. ;-)

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
 
Yep, custom firmware lets you set up samba shares :-) I dont use Picasa so cant really help with the ins and outs...

500gb sounds alot until you start recording HD - which you will want to do :-)

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk 2
 
Reading through the docs/specs, I've just realised that it's possible to have an external USB disk attached to the T2 for external storage. Since I already have a 0.5GB one with my picasa stuff on it, this saves the hassle of syncing *and* means I won't use up precious recording space on the T2 itself. :)
 
Sounds good. Keep us informed.

Be aware that the syncing is likely to impose a significant processor load, which will conflict with recording, playback, and even live TV. Best confined to a cron job that only fires up in the night, or (if you need even more power) a maintenance mode boot.
 
Black Hole said:
Be aware that the syncing is likely to impose a significant processor load, which will conflict with recording, playback, and even live TV.
Click to expand...
Syncing is unlikely to be high processor load. It can manage to decrypt and shrink and do all the other things it does without too much problem, so why not this?
Anyway, that's why God invented multi-tasking operating systems with selectable priority levels. Something 'unimportant' like this should be run at a low priority, then it won't interfere with anything.
To say you need to bump it off to the middle of the night is unnecessary. Who's to say you don't want to record something then anyway?
 
Right, I can't imagine this is going to put particular strain on the CPU - most of the work is going to be waiting for the web connection, or I/O, which is unlikely to be any worse than accessing the disc via a SMB share, etc. But we'll see.

If I actually get it working, I'll let you know. ;-)
 
I don't agree with prpr's comments. The functionality he refers to is mainly hived off to hardware accelerators specifically designed to support the normal operation of the Humax. Any functionality we add does not have access to hardware facilities and depends entirely on the available spare processing power - and there isn't a lot of that. The management of the Ethernet traffic will generate interrupts which compete with the interrupts from the management of the standard services.

I'm not saying the Humax can't do it, just to be aware that it could impose an intolerable overhead during normal operations. Suck it and see.
 
I disagree. Decrypting and shrinking and all the other custom packages we run on it have zilch to do with the 'special' hardware because, as you say, we don't have access to it. None of that (priority bugs in previous firmwares notwithstanding) has any effect on the unit's primary purpose.
I've just set a test going (recording two SD streams and playing another) and the CPU use is about 20% on average by the humaxtv process.
So there is 80% available for things other than spinning in the idle loop.
The good thing about priority scheduling is that if you schedule the other things low enough, then you can probably run 100% CPU without affecting humaxtv as it ought to get the time it needs when it needs it.
I don't have time at the moment to write/test something to prove it.
 
prpr said:
I disagree. Decrypting and shrinking and all the other custom packages we run on it have zilch to do with the 'special' hardware because, as you say, we don't have access to it.
Click to expand...
The decryption is done in hardware but you're right about things like shrink. Most of those other things end up I/O bound and, since the disk is capable of multiple HD streams, the box doesn't suffer. Disrupt the I/O stream long enough and you will affect normal operation though, just try removing a few large files from the disk while it's recording a couple of channels (using the standard rm command).

Similarly, I've seen CPU starvation affect playback although I haven't done any further testing with lower process priorities. Automatic background processing deliberately runs at a low priority.
 
Well, when I find the time to give it a shot, I'll let you know. I'm time-constrained due to external pressures, and also a linux n00b, so it might be a few weeks before I get a chance to play properly and see if I can get it running.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top