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Foxsat-HDR Issues |
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#76 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redditch Worcs
Posts: 17,288
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Off the top of my head:-
1) Monitoring user input; 2) Controlling first recording; 3) Controlling second recording; 4) Controlling playback of a current or third recording; 5) Downloading new EPG info; 6) Timer activity controlling when a new recording is due to fire - though this one is closely coupled to the timer chip of course. 8) Allowing viewing of available 3rd channels while dual recording is ongoing 9) Display of the schedule list and buffered epg and scheduling of new programming whatever the tuners are doing 10) Accessing and replaying archived material (from USB or the internal hdd) including decryption of encrypted material on the fly 11) Conforming to the broadcasters drm requirements (broadly enforcing hdcp and post recording copy restrictions). The list is endless, frankly anyone who thinks it's easy has a very simplistic view of what's involved. To suggest that a device that has to respond to calls for service from hardware on a random basis is only linear programming is just plain wrong. It requires interrupt processing routines based on the priority of whatever the cpu is currently doing as against the call for servicing the interrupt |
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#77 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Buckingham
Posts: 28,534
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Many of those can be conflated into a smaller number of single-threading processes. I was sticking to tasks for which it is not really a good idea to combine. Judgement of what can and can't be done in the same process without losing performance or causing problems is a fine art.
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#78 |
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 957
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7) resolution of conflicts arising in real time
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8) Allowing viewing of available 3rd channels while dual recording is ongoing
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9) Display of the schedule list and buffered epg and scheduling of new programming whatever the tuners are doing
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10) Accessing and replaying archived material (from USB or the internal hdd) including decryption of encrypted material on the fly
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11) Conforming to the broadcasters drm requirements (broadly enforcing hdcp and post recording copy restrictions).
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The list is endless, frankly anyone who thinks it's easy has a very simplistic view of what's involved.
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#79 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Buckingham
Posts: 28,534
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Quote:
7) resolution of conflicts arising in real time
![]() The user-written functionality on my Topfields are a benchmark showing how well it *can* be done.
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#80 |
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Join Date: Apr 2004
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The user-written functionality on my Topfields are a benchmark showing how well it *can* be done.
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#81 |
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Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Buckingham
Posts: 28,534
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So would a lot of us. But I guess we would need someone with the knowledge and enthusiasm to patch the firmware into a usable state.
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#82 |
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Perchede, France
Posts: 1,936
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And you don't think a 300MHz MIPS32 processor can handle all that? I think even an 8080 or 6502 could do it.
Also you dismiss rather of lot of functionality as in silicon - which a lot of it may be but you omit to mention that you need to monitor the silicon to show differences in the UI (channels greyed out, non selectable), what to do about it, user message, timer for no reply, default action. I would suspect that 'bugs' such as the power cut issue are a spec issue - It's frequent that what to some people is obvious get omitted from specs. I suspect the guys in Korea had the pad of change requests ready. |
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#83 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Sunny France (sometimes)
Posts: 1,017
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The disappointing thing is that, given that it's a Linux system, we can't get root access to write our own addons or mods.
Humax ought to understand the benefits of open source and not be afraid of giving us access. You only have to look at what the user community has managed with the Humax iCord (due to someone cracking the encryption on an update to get access) to see the benefits. Sure, user mods need to come with a big warning that they are unofficial, unsupported and that if you brick your machine you've only yourself to blame, but ultimately they keep users happy and reduce the manufacturer's support costs. Plus the manufacturer can incorporate the best changes into their next update/model provided they respect the open source licence. Sadly, unless Humax have left a hidden backdoor into the machine such that all they would need to do is tell us about it, I can't see root access to the Foxsat being provided legitimately. |
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#84 |
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Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 207
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But I guess we would need someone with the knowledge and enthusiasm to patch the firmware into a usable state.
@Badvok All this talk of 8080's and 6502's really brings me back. (I learn't assembler on an 8085.) I wouldn't mind a look under the hood myself, though my programming skills are pretty rusty at this stage |
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#85 |
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 957
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You would of course have to fit the code and RAM into the memory map of 64KB
![]() I wrote my first code on a Commodore PET (6502 @ 1MHz with a massive 4KB of static RAM) in BASIC and Machine Code (Note: Not assembly - I didn't have access to an assembler so it was all hand coded - ahhh nostalgia ).P.S. The BBC Micro used the 6502 I mentioned earlier - I assume your 5502 was a typo. |
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#86 |
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 279
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Coo, What a blast from the past, thank you Hillel & Badvok. That got the old grey cells working agaion.
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#87 |
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Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Perchede, France
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LOL, I doubt you could fit even the EPG into 64K without some serious compression. My comparison was just to highlight how powerful this processor is compared to those some of us fondly? remember, I didn't intend it to be 100% realistic
.![]() Quote:
I wrote my first code on a Commodore PET (6502 @ 1MHz with a massive 4KB of static RAM) in BASIC and Machine Code (Note: Not assembly - I didn't have access to an assembler so it was all hand coded - ahhh nostalgia
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P.S. The BBC Micro used the 6502 I mentioned earlier - I assume your 5502 was a typo
I did hope that the BBC or Acorn would follow it up with a nice 68000 but no. |
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#88 |
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 957
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Turns out I was wrong about the processor speed, see this post. It is 33% faster than I thought
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#89 |
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Join Date: Apr 2004
Posts: 957
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Resurrected to remind the Humax fan club members that all these issues still exist in the current firmware and we have no news of when/if any of them are going to be fixed.
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#90 |
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Inactive Member
Join Date: Oct 2009
Posts: 3,089
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Resurrected to remind the Humax fan club members that all these issues still exist in the current firmware and we have no news of when/if any of them are going to be fixed.
There are two aspects to the Humax PVR. One is that it has worked very reliably as a PVR from the day it was introduced (provided you didn't suffer from power cuts). A lot of people have had almost entirely trouble free use of the device for two and a half years. That is something we appreciate. The other aspect is that Humax have been extremely poor at providing updates and even worse at correcting some of the ridiculous UI niggles. They had the opportunity to provide a box that was really first class in every way and they simply haven't bothered. And their communication is worse than useless. One employee that seemed to be posting off his own bat and spent more time telling us that he couldn't tell us anything than providing useful information (but who was, nonetheless fawned over nauseatingly by the HFC Definitely a curate's egg situation. |
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