It's probably a pipe dream, but do you think there will ever be an update to the Humax Freesat+ box so I can watch the ts files directly from another PC or a media-streamed TV in another room via my network?
At the moment to do this I'm having to transfer files from the box to a USB-connected external HDD, then plug the HDD into the network when it's done. Copying the files across is a slow process, it would be good to eliminate this step.
In my opinion this would be a much better use of the ethernet port on the box than the current iPlayer functionality.

I wouldn't have thought so.

How to network your Humax's Hard Disk in three easy steps:
1. Extract Hard Disk from Humax HDR and throw shell in bin.
2. Buy HTPC with DSat Tuner card.
3. Install ex-Humax Hard Disk in HTPC.
You will then be able to record and stream anything you like to anywhere you like.

I'm pretty sure Bob Cat said they'd tried to get networking working on the Humax but hadn't managed it successfully so it had been abandoned. As I believe it was a speed issue it may well be that the current Humax doesn't have enough processing power to cope with the addition of networking on top of its other features.

Hopefully the next box will have a lot more power now that fast Core2 chips are cheap and Core 2 is due to be discontinued by Intel from computing very soon which almost certainly means these chips will be moving over to being sold for electronic devices.

Chips like Core2 seldom find their way into boxes like the HDR, which are the realm of dedicated SoC (system on chip) units, without which it would be impossible to get prices down to the sort of level people expect.

In fact, many of the chips used in these sort of boxes are based on the MIPS processor cores, for the general purpose tasks (running the UI and so on), with dedicated silicon to handle the grunt work, like H.264 or MPEG2 decoding.

Much lower clock speeds, lower power consumption and lower costs are all reasons why you don't find things like Intel's general purpose processors inside set top boxes.

It's that dedicated silicon that's makes these things much more practical than PCs; the Humax HDCI-2000 came out back in 2006, for example, and could decode HD channels quite happily then, in a relatively low-cost package. To do the same on a PC four years ago, you'd have need a top of the range graphics card, and a pretty powerful CPU, too.

I think it's always been thus - when MPEG video first came out, the only practical way to do it was dedicated silicon like a ReelMagic card (think I have one in a cupboard somewhere....). Eventually general purpose CPUs catch up, but by that time the investment cost in developing the SoCs is pretty much recouped, they're cheap as chips, and even if the MIPS processor cores don't even manage a few hundred MHz clock speed, they're still fast enough to do what they're generally required for - menus, epgs, and disk housekeeping.

And yet they have aranged that I can sit watching iPlayer whilst the box will record an HD programme, in fact two programmes which might even be HD!

There would probably need to be some speed throttling. I would have been content with that but I suspect they may have decided that there would be complaints about slow FTP.

Damn! I'd assumed I'd somehow be able to access the box over a network, and if not stream, then at least copy / move a file from the Humax to a PC.

I came on here to check exactly that - are you guys now saying my dreams are shattered?!

iPlayer while recording is pretty straightforward; just about everything that's going on once the stream is connected is handled by the dedicated chip - filtering the incoming transport streams by PID, and sending them to the disc, and decoding the h.264 iPlayer stream.

The MIPS CPU core just has to deal with some stuff like disc allocation and watching out for the UI.

Getting it to run TCP/IP services, like Samba, UPnP or FTP is adding quite a lot of extra stuff on top, and it can be quite a challenge to add lots of stuff using a relatively low-powered processor. You can't compare like for like, as it's risc chip rather than an x86 architecture, but for Broadcom 7405 (which I think is the one in the Humax) has a clock speed of 400MHz; the NEC Emma 3 runs at around 300MHz, and the Emma2 found in Freeview boxes like the Topfield and Humax ones at a whopping 167.

There is far less horsepower in these boxes than in a desktop PC - largely because it's not really needed for most of their tasks.

It really doesn't matter whether the box has the capabilities or not.
The "man from Del-Monte" has said NO so that's an end to it.

Frank

I went down to Maplins and got a NAS enclosure. It has both Ethernet and USB2. I now have it connected to my Foxsat via USB and to the network via Ethernet.

The downside is that I can only access the NAS when the Foxsat is on standby (it won't let me connect the USB and Ethernet concurrently).

Still, this method will let me move music and video over to the NAS so it's ready to play when we switch on the Foxsat

I'm doing something similar - using a WDTV Live media streamer which also doubles up as a NAS server. But the problem is the same:
* if it's plugged into the Foxsat, then it's not on the network
* the only way to network stuff that's on the Foxsat is to pull it across to an external HDD
It looks like we're stuck with having to copy stuff across via USB from the Foxsat in order to make it network accessible. I wouldn't mind so much if copying were a tad quicker...
The guys that have modified their Foxsats to mount the HDD in an external cradle have probably got the best idea, this at least allows you to plug it in to a network without the need to copy.

Or if you want slightly lower quality you can stream the SCART out - I've put an RF convertor on one so I can watch it anywhere in the house via my RF distribution - this includes iplayer - and I've cabled the other to a Panasonic HDD/DVD recorder so I can record it too. I can use the same system to get HD stuff off the box. I know it's not digital - but it's a start.

If you're using smaller teles in other places you shouldn't notice the difference - but you'll know it's not perfect and that could be a worry!!!

You need diddly squat CPU to do half decent FTP under linux. 12 years ago we used outdated PCs as firewalls on one project, much less umph than the CPU in the HDR. They could get it to work fine I believe but decided it was slightly easier for them, and would make more £, if they brought out a new model with these features.

Doesn't the Humax dutch Cable box (Humax iHDR-5050C) which the HDR was based on have FTP and networking features? I'm sure there was a thread ages ago where this was brought up and I beleive Bob_Cat confirmed the HDR was based on this model. I seem to remember the exterior was identical and the screenshots of the EPG and menu's looked earily similar.

Uhmm been browsin' www.maplins.co.uk but can't find it, would you mind sharing the reference? Sounds good enough to me...!

Here is the thread.
Look in the manual.
For the dutch forum use a translator babel.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...=#post36262272

The Humax Icord twin tuner HD sat pvr does.