Watching my Humax on upstairs TV

A

ANDYWE

New Member
HI everyone

As the cold weather arrives, the topic of being able to watch Humax recordings from upstairs has been floated by my other half.
I am sure there a few answers to how to do this, that fall into the "easiest solution", e.g. a second T2 (HDR), to the "best engineered if you have the time and expertise".
I have a Sony KDL26EX320 TV upstairs, a spare ROKU stick, a windows laptop, a Linux laptop and a limited budget to bring to bear - so I could for instance buy the aforementioned second T2.

What are your experiences and recommendations on this topic please.

Thanks
Andy
 
If you have network access either via Smart TV or ROKU stick and SMB setup on your humax it should be trivial to play recordings using VLC
 
MymsMan said:
If you have network access either via Smart TV or ROKU stick and SMB setup on your humax it should be trivial to play recordings using VLC
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I do have good in house network connectivity, but I have had limited success doing that before, due to the SMB1 limitation I seem to remember?
The other thing I failed to emphasize is the spouse approval / ease-of-use factor!
Ideally we could maintain watch positions / status / deleting from the second location - but she is realistic about "good enough"
 
Definitely a HD-FOX client. We have all the tools to set it up, provides all the conveniences as if watching from the original box (including resume play), and doesn't even require decryption. Advantage over a HDR-FOX is it's diskless and fanless (therefore silent), disadvantage is that it's diskless (can't record or live-pause... but those can be worked around if necessary).

What you will need is (preferably) wired Ethernet between the two.
 
Black Hole said:
Definitely a HD-FOX client. We have all the tools to set it up, provides all the conveniences as if watching from the original box (including resume play), and doesn't even require decryption. Advantage over a HDR-FOX is it's diskless and fanless (therefore silent), disadvantage is that it's diskless (can't record or live-pause... but those can be worked around if necessary).

What you will need is (preferably) wired Ethernet between the two.
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This sounds good. My HDR is wired already so I might only need to run cable in the bedroom - the router is in the adjacent room. As much as I love fiddling with tech, I sometimes just want a simple life. Could I also do it with a second HDR as the client?
 
prpr said:
Yes, but what BH said about noise may be important, which is why I suggested HD rather than HDR. The HD is also physically about half the size.
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Using the Fan package to run the fan continually at half speed avoid the bursts of full speed fan noise using Humax default settings.
My wife plays rain sounds at night to help her sleep so a Humax fan would get lost in that!
Everyone differs in what they consider is an annoying level of nigh time noise!
 
This answer is based on your Humax being downstairs connected to your main TV and your Sony TV being upstairs.

I had this problem a few years ago. Main TV and Humax in Lounge and TV in Kitchen. My solution was to buy a second-hand Humax T2 HDR from eBay.

I choose the Custom Firmware (CFW) route. I installed CFW on both machines. I added the ‘Foxlink’ and supporting packages on both machines to allow them connect to each other. See Foxlink on the Hummy TV Wiki. It is a comprehensive guide on what needs to be done and is the prefect starting point to see if this sounds a feasible solution for you.

‘Foxlink’ makes viewing of content recorded on one machine available on the other – there is no master or slave.

Once installed and configured it is ready to use. To view content you need both machines fully powered up and wait for about a minute. The content on the source machine can the be accessed on the receiving machine by pressing the media button on the remote as normal and then pressing the blue button (Storage) for external content. Then selecting the USB drive (this is added during the Foxlink installation) under which you will see the remote machine name you have added. Once this drive is selected the directory of the remote machine will be displayed exactly as you would see it on the source machine.

Navigation of the recording menu works exactly the same with play/pause, skip forward/back, fast forward/back, toggling subtitles, use of bookmarks etc accessible using the machines remote control. It is a really neat solution to the problem and learning to use it takes moments.

A bonus is you can always share content both ways if you do record on the new device.

My machines are cable connected to my fairly basic network using simple Devolo internet over the mains boxes with an internet mobile router as gateway. The streamed video and control between the boxes works seamlessly without any loss of picture/audio quality, delays or any glitching. It certainly does not require a super high speed setup.

It is a bit of a techy solution but with the help of the excellent Wiki guidance it was working for me in an hour or so.

Hope this helps.
 
You can actually do this between two Humax HDR Fox T2s or one and an HD Fox T2 without any additional firmware, Humax supports it in the standard firmware. It's just not as seamless as using Custom Firmware and things like Foxlink and/or SMB. On the remote device you get a list of directories and filenames not the names of the programmes as broadcast, and much of trick play does not work (ffwd and rew do if I recall correctly). But watching the recording works perfectly.
 
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Brompton Man said:
‘Foxlink’ makes viewing of content recorded on one machine available on the other – there is no master or slave.
Click to expand...
Not true. Foxlink is designed for the HDR-FOX to be a server and HD-FOX as a client. If you've got it to work between two HDR-FOXes, that's not how it was intended, but basically you will have both acting as servers and both as clients – it has to be that way. For networking HDR-FOXes, NetworkSharesAutomount provides a better starting point.

Using HD-FOX as a client is much lower overhead.
 
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Owen Smith said:
You can actually do this between two Humax HDR Fox T2s or one and an HD Fox T2 without any additional firmware, Humax supports it in the standard firmware. It's just not as seamless as using Custom Firmware and things like Foxlink and/or SMB. On the remote device you get a list of directories and filenames not the names of the programmes as broadcast, and much of trick play does not work (ffwed and rew do if I recall correctly). But watching the recording works perfectly.
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Yes, but that's not what the OP specified (post 3).
 
Black Hole said:
Yes, but that's not what the OP specified.
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They said:

I am sure there a few answers to how to do this, that fall into the "easiest solution", e.g. a second T2 (HDR), to the "best engineered if you have the time and expertise".

Using the standard Humax network playback solution falls into "easiest solution" and definitely not "best engineered...", but it clearly falls within the OP's request. It's also something that can be tried, and if it isn't good enough they can move on to Foxlink with little to no additional cost (I'm assuming Foxlink has Custom Firmware installed on the HD Fox T2 on a USB stick).
 
Black Hole said:
Not true. Foxlink is designed for the HDR-FOX to be a server and HD-FOX as a client. If you've got it to work between two HDR-FOXes, that's not how it was intended, but basically you will have both acting as servers and both as clients – it has to be that way. For networking HDR-FOXes, NetworkSharesAutomount provides a better starting point.

Using HD-FOX as a client is much lower overhead.
Click to expand...

Thank you for clarifying the design, also the alternative networking method.

I was aiming to explain that from a users perspective that use of Foxlink with two HDRs is simple with no user requirement to specify a Master or Slave.

As part of my testing today, for the first time, I tried using Foxlink to send HD content both ways at the same time. Two machines playing content from each other. It did work but no surprise that it did look a tiny bit glitchy on my network!
 
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