Porting the Custom Software to Digital Stream

[Black Hole]

I received this as a PM:

Hi there.

I don't have a Humax, but have an alternative Freeview HD DVR - the Digital Stream DHR-8203U.
It's based on the Broadcom 7405 SoC (as used in the T2) and runs an embedded Linux (using uClibc and busybox).

I've modded the firmware to give me root access, and I've got the development toolchain from Digital Stream and ported Samba 2.2.12 to it successfully.

There are some differences from the Humax environment ... but there's a lot of similarities too.

Digital Stream have been extremely helpful with advice and suggestions, and seem quite keen on fostering a "community-contributed" software model. They're even thinking about making their standard firmware check for and launch community-contributed packages that they find on an installed USB memory stick.

Once they've done that and I have the Samba port released in that format, I'm planning on taking a look at DLNA/UPnP media servers, and I'd been thinking about a Web interface and remote recording ... which is when I stumbled across the Humax custom firmware initiatives!

It's possible (though by no means certain) that much of the Humax work might be portable to the Digital Stream platform.

Who would be the best people to talk to about this?

Cheers

David

Wouldn't it be nice if Humax had this enlightened attitude!

 

[Drutt]

I wonder what would happen if we ran the Digital Stream's main executable on the Humax

 

[af123]

It may work with enough fiddling, the base hardware is identical. It might not interface with the tuners or display though!

Their kernel might be worth a shot too - it's the same major version

 

[af123]

Wouldn't it be nice if Humax had this enlightened attitude!

Yes indeed. Humax can certainly attribute some sales to the work of this community so it does make sense for a vendor to be supportive to some extent. I can also understand why one wouldn't want to get involved!

 

[Black Hole]

I'm sure we are all very grateful you are so hands-on. It must feel like something of an albatros at times!

 

[davidgu]

It may work with enough fiddling, the base hardware is identical. It might not interface with the tuners or display though!

Their kernel might be worth a shot too - it's the same major version

I'm told that the Humax uses a different chipset for Dolby Digital decoding - Digital Stream went with the standard Broadcom 7405 (and had to suffer the Beeb changing their minds on HD audio after shipment) whereas Humax waited until the dust had settled and chose their options then.

Some early testing suggests that it should be possible to get OS-level stuff working cross-platform ... though some things on the DS are in different places and will need to startup differently.