Have they got it working yet?

It would be so much easier and better to be able to copy recordings to a computer via the Ethernet port than having to copy to a usb device all the time, especially with the lack of NTFS support.

I think their new model out next year will support such features...

Automan.

I don't really want to have to buy a new one just to use the ethernet port.

I thought it was a software issue rather than hardware?

Does that mean they'll be rewriting the software for the new machine and will be able to use it to update the old machine?

The port is presently used only for the BBC iPlayer functions.

And the Jobsite interactive service on the Teletext channel:

http://www.jobsite.co.uk/insider/job...-service-4542/

Yes the port is in use with BBC iPlayer and in the coming months we are having ITV player with other systems like renting a DVD by this port.

No company would pay to get a system on freesat if a port could be 50% used by another way.

So the port will remain IP linked.

So as download port NO sorry you have keep with the USB 2.0 ......until

New boxes may come with USB 4 or another HDMI so that second hard drive system can be linked quick and easy and have speed.

Or boxes many come with a hard drive slot at the back so extra hard drives many be slotted in and a copy system software for this or even just extra space so system can record HD while you are away.

Most boxes in years to come will be HD ready and have expandable ports of some kind as more people are calling for PVR's to work like home made video / DVD library's of the past with the racks on the walls or around the TV.

so 2TB & more units and more quicker ports will have come.

So Video's ( Beta max, 2000, VHS ) DVD's and now Blue ray will come to be history as more people have PVR's and PC with Hard drives to swap data.

Also with many Internet sites giving space to store your data freely. you can have your own films, sports, shows at any time and place with out carry an item but a code.

It's a poor show for what is, after all, a Linux PC. They've clearly taken the decision on commercial rather than technical grounds not to enable net file transfer. My next purchase will be a more open platform - commercial pressures always mean that manufacturers try to ensure a steady income stream from existing customers.

A few months ago in a discussion on the new upcoming Humax PVR Bob_Cat ruled out even USB v 3.0 being included. An eSata port would make a huge difference though and would avoid the space needed for a HDD slot.

I'm not sure I understand what you're saying there. There is a TCP/IP stack in place on the box. That being the case all they need to do is implement an ftp server or SMB.

Of course there may be resource limitations that prevent them doing it (RAM or firmware space perhaps) but from a technical POV it seems to me that the box is capable of being a file server if Humax choose to make it so.

Speaking personally I can never understand the need to transfer files. Everything on TV gets repeated ad-nausseum anyway usually within a few days. There's also little to nothing that's worth saving to watch later. I generally watch/delete and move on. Still - it does seem a popular request.

I can't see why it would not be able to do multiple network functions at the same time - limitations would tend to come from the user interface handling.

I think most people are looking for bi-directional network access. For example a play list of music, video, dvd stored on a home network or on the internet - all to be shown via the future HDR 2.

Technically it's almost certainly possible. the Humax iCord, which I believe is very similar in hardware terms to the Foxsat, was provided with an ftp server by a community programming team in Germany after they managed to find a way to update the iCord software themselves.

I used this method to enable network support on a media enclosure that didn't have any network support.

http://emprex-me1.blogspot.com/2008/...ba-server.html

I was wondering if it could be adapted for the HDR?

A bit off topic, but I have tried to add an external USB HDD, but to no avail.

I have formatted it using FAT32, but while it can see it, I cant move anything on to it.

I have heard it is better to format using a Linux format, but dont really know how to do that as I have Win XP. Also does that mean I then cant use the HDD with a windows system ever again?

Any ideas?

Thanks

When are we getting the renting dvd option?.

Connect the drive, Media opt+ choose file manager.

Cursor right to the USB drive icon and click OK to open the drive to it's root folder.

Cursor left to int hdd list, move to a file and press green to copy it.

To replay direct from the usb drive

Media/Red select usb device. Playback just like the internal drive

Linus EXT3 is needed for files larger that 4GB (most HD), you can get a EXT3 driver for Windows so you can access it under windows.

http://www.howtoforge.com/access-lin...s-from-windows

I suspect that you did not invoke the file manager which is needed to copy a file.

There are windows add-ons that can be used to read unix formatted drives do a seach for "Ext2 EXT3 windows"

To format a drive I would advise you to download a free version of unix to a bootable usb stick then you can format usb drives how you want. you should be able to find full details in a thread describing how to change the HDR's hard disk.

correct me if i'm wrong but there isn't anything hardware related that could really be improved. every complaint i've read about the foxsat hdr is largely software related, at present isn't the box capable of dvb-s2, 3D broadcasts, pay tv services (via cam socket and non-freesat mode). From what i believe if they do release another hdr they going to keep the all ready future proofed model and just change the internal hdd to two versions (500GB and 1TB) Possibly with a 2TB version and bringing the 500GB to the 320GB Price point and of course lowering the price of the 320GB to get rid of stocks before the hdd gets upgraded would make perfect sense wouldn't it? as for the e-sata i really don't see it coming. with the usb sockets they already hit 90% of the external hdd's out there and with ethernet compatability that'll take it to virtually every external hdd.

also in reply to the threads title. i believe this feature will be implemented in the next software as it is already on the freeview hd version.

I think e-sata is quite a possibility, mainly because it is easy and cheap to do. It's just a different connector which could possibly be connected to the existing sata controller. in speed terms it knocks the socks off USB2 and is an existing market direction for PC's.

My bet is that the HDR 2 will be able to play more media over the network and be fully network enabled.

e-sata could come i just don't see why they'd re-engineer the box just for that especially seems as being able to play more media and network connectivity is in essence just software. The new fox t2 hdr still doesn't have an e-sata or an ability to play more media it just is more network enabled and it is pretty much just the foxsat hdr for freeview hd as well, and thats new.

This was part of a Q & A that i filled in for freesat panel ..

I have successfully saved SD files to an external USB drive formatted with FAT32, and played them back. I've also done the same with short HD files - usually ones which haven't completed.

I'm still struggling with large files, even though I bought a drive for the purpose. There would be reasons for using such a drive to back off long recordings, or high res recordings which tend to clog up the space available, but may be irreplaceable. I agree that a lot of material can be watched, and the space then reclaimed, but a few of us have noted that it's often the large files which accumulate on the hard drive - possibly also because it's quite easy to watch short ones and reclaim the space, but less so with large files.

I've tried using Live distros running on a PC for Ubuntu and SUSE to format the drive - e.g from mags such as Linux Format - though the whining from the DVD drive is horrendous, but I did get the distros running.

I couldn't figure anything out in SUSE, but in Ubuntu I did manage to format in EXT2 using a simple GUI approach - right click on the device, and then format. The only options appeared to be EXT2 and EXT4 - though maybe I've got an older version of Ubuntu somewhere which might do EXT2 and EXT3. However this (EXT2) does not work with the Humax Foxsat PVR. I revisited Ubuntu using the command line interface in a Terminal window. I tried using gparted, but couldn't get that to work - or at least not for formatting.

In the end I did:

sudo fdisk -l (this simply lists the drives) and partitions so you know which one to use. It didn't work without the "sudo"!

then

mkfs.ext3 -b 4096 /dev/sdb1

At first this didn't work, so I did

umount /dev/sdb1 - looks like mkfs only works on unmounted devices - which are not available as file systems, but the USB system allows them to be detected as storage devices.

Then I repeated

mkfs.ext3 -b 4096 /dev/sdb1

which seems to have formatted the drive. Checking with gparted shows that the sdb1 partition is now in ext3 format, and it is about the right length - approx 500 Gbytes.

However, plugging it into the Humax box - it still doesn't work.
Maybe I needed to do

sudo mkfs.ext3 -b 4096 /dev/sdb1

I assume that 4096 is a reasonable number.

Another approach which I might try is to format using my Buffalo Linkstation - which worked when I wanted to format another drive for backup purposes. So far drawing a blank on this.

I'm guessing the using Ubuntu to format in ext4 won't work either. Maybe there's a finishing step or something else I need to figure out in my approach to doing the mkfs.ext3?

Of course I can't now easily check what can be done with the drive, apart from using the Live distros, as the drive is not now recognisable by Mac OS or Windows. I may have to reformat it again as FAT32 to at least regain use of the device, though I really wanted this one in EXT3 for handling the large files.

Possibly it is a deliberately arcane process.

It has to be EXT3

Note the last step

Example where the partition is created on sda1

mkfs.ext3 /dev/sda1

Next step is optional it let's you give the drive a name the example calls it FoxsatBU

e2lable /dev/sda1 FoxsatBU

Now to set the partition type

fdisk /dev/sda

type t and enter

enter 83 at the prompt

type wq and enter

Partition Magic 8 (not sure about other versions) will format to ext3 in windows xp. (Once again I don't know about other Os's)