[BrianMW]

I haven't ever had to do this as I use Twonky but from memory you can activate DLNA server abilities directly in WMP (might need to be v11+ though) by enabling 'Share My Media'.

This wont change what the Humax can read from the server though, DLNA servers essentially just create a database of files/types and locations and make them available across the network to a capable device.

I have never tried to play uncompressed WMA file on the Humax, tbh I use the Oppo for most network media playback now but, I cant see any mention of any other compatible audio files that the Humax supports, just MP3's. Has anyone else had any luck there?

[roman-r]

Originally Posted by BrianMW

I have never tried to play uncompressed WMA file on the Humax, tbh I use the Oppo for most network media playback now but, I cant see any mention of any other compatible audio files that the Humax supports, just MP3's. Has anyone else had any luck there?

I did try with my spare HDD plugged into Humax and it reads MP3s but doesn't recognise any WMA.

Just one last question, if I DLNA I'm guessing from your earlier comments that I still don't activate the music from my laptops WMP, would that be right ? If I could use WMP on Laptop to choose tracks it probably would be worth using this method so I could do it without running my TV and scaler all the time.

[BrianMW]

Originally Posted by roman-r

I did try with my spare HDD plugged into Humax and it reads MP3s but doesn't recognise any WMA.

Just one last question, if I DLNA I'm guessing from your earlier comments that I still don't activate the music from my laptops WMP, would that be right ? If I could use WMP on Laptop to choose tracks it probably would be worth using this method so I could do it without running my TV and scaler all the time.

Yeah the Humax has a pretty limited selection of media types but I suppose this isn't its primary function...

So you want the Laptop to control the audio and pick tracks and stuff? Then this isn't how I have been able to use DLNA, the computer/nas drive is just a server that makes files available over the network to any compatible device that can handle it.

I used to use an Apple Airport Express to do what you are trying to do. I had music on the MacBook and the Airport Express connected to the amp via an optical cable and I could pick my audio output destination/zone in iTunes (or even RC it from iPhone), I think this is the sort of thing you are looking to do?

I know I might have used a few 'dirty' words there for you but I am sure there are plenty of direct replacements that use WMP?, maybe squeezeboxes and stuff like that? they should allow you to stream from your laptop to your hifi across the network?

[roman-r]

Thanks Brian.....the search continues

[surv1v0r]

Originally Posted by roman-r

Thanks Brian.....the search continues

You might want to have a look at / signup to Hummy.TV, they seem to be pretty clued up on the HD-Fox T2.

[ralphmalph]

My Dad has a HD-Fox T2 and I can not get it to record. The box sees the usb drive, the recording options can be set (like time before recoding etc) but when we use the guide hit the record button the record program and record series are there but not selecteable where as reminmder is. When viewing a program if you hit the record button you jyst get a no entry sign in the top right hand corner.

I have updated to the latest firmware do I have to do anything to initialise the hard disk or something else?

[BrianMW]

Originally Posted by ralphmalph

My Dad has a HD-Fox T2 and I can not get it to record. The box sees the usb drive, the recording options can be set (like time before recoding etc) but when we use the guide hit the record button the record program and record series are there but not selecteable where as reminmder is. When viewing a program if you hit the record button you jyst get a no entry sign in the top right hand corner.

I have updated to the latest firmware do I have to do anything to initialise the hard disk or something else?

Was the drive formatted to EXT3 but the Humax? and then assigned "Select the HDD for PVR" in the "Settings/System/Data Storage" menu?

When I ask my Humax info on the drive under Storage it shows a red recordable HDD logo next to it, do you have this?

If not for these, as mentioned you should let the humax do the formatting and assigning, this isn;'t necessary if the drive is for media playback only though...

[ralphmalph]

Originally Posted by BrianMW

Was the drive formatted to EXT3 but the Humax? and then assigned "Select the HDD for PVR" in the "Settings/System/Data Storage" menu?

When I ask my Humax info on the drive under Storage it shows a red recordable HDD logo next to it, do you have this?

If not for these, as mentioned you should let the humax do the formatting and assigning, this isn;'t necessary if the drive is for media playback only though...

No, we have not done any of the options under data storage. Thanks for the advice I will try this.

[Mr Keek]

Hi Forum,

Long time reader and first time poster! Could some one help me out with my set up.

I have the Humax Fox HD T2
Laptop running Windows 7
and a 1 TB SeaGate FreeAgent Go Portable Hard Drive, portable job, just runs off the USB cable.

Everything works fine when I format the hard drive on the Set Top box and I can use my box as intented for Recording, live pause etc. No Problems here.

Where I do run into problems is when I connect said HardDrive to my Windows7 Laptop to add files to it, I just want to back up my photo's, movies and music etc..

My laptop will not recognise the drive in 'My Computer'. The problem is, after the Humax does its formatting it removes the Driver letter from the hard drive, and the laptop cannot use it. I can see the hard drive in the Device Manager in and I know how to assign drive letters but I cannot do this without removing the formatting that the Humax has done. When I fix it on the laptop and plug it back to the Hummy, I have to go to settings and format it again to be able to record, so I'm going around in circles.

I want to be able to share my hard drive between my Humax and for my Laptop needs, but the Humax formatting causes problems for the laptop and the laptop formatting(I tried*NTFS*and*FAT32) doesn't work with the Humax.

I*suppose*the*solution*to*my*problem*would*be*if*I *could*format*the*Hard*Drive on*my*laptop in a way that when I connected to the Humax HD T2 I wouldn't have to format it again. What would I need to do?

I hope I explained that OK for ye to understand what I mean. Please help, I don't want to have to run out and buy a second hard drive just to make back ups for my laptop info.

[BrianMW]

Hi Mr Keek,

The reason that Windows 7 can't see the hard drive that is used by the Humax as a recording drive is because the Humax formats it with a Linux file system called EXT3 and as standard Windows(nor mac) can not read this file system.

The drive still shows up in Device Manager because the physical drive is still there but the partition is EXT3 so it can't assign it a drive letter and make it readable.

NTFS and FAT32 can only be used in the Humax as media drives with read permissions only so are not recordable.

There are many pieces of software out there that can make linux drives readable on Windows but it can be a bit of a minefield such as 32 or 64 bit windows and so on... perhaps just google "read ext3 on windows 7" and have a browse there, I done the same on my mac.

But in all honesty you could save yourself lots of hassle by getting a second USB2 drive for either the laptop or the Hummy, you can get external drives for around £30 now...

[grahamlthompson]

EXT2FSD is the most used EXT3 driver for windows machines.

Ext2Fsd Project » Downloads

[everett_psycho]

you could always use a live CD boot of ubuntu to back up from, it will boot your laptop in to linux from the CD and then when you take it back out and reboot your windows install will be as it was. It's that or partition the drive/buy a 2nd.

As for all the DLNA stuff i've taken to using my T2 a lot, it seems to do a better job of scaling my videos from the NAS than bother the XBox and TV do. That said i still prefer to just turn the laptop on for streaming music, scrolling through all the albums and artists using a remote is much more painful and slow than using WMP or itunes.

[Mr Keek]

Originally Posted by grahamlthompson

EXT2FSD is the most used EXT3 driver for windows machines.

Ext2Fsd Project » Downloads

You're a gentleman, this is exactly the solution I was looking for. You've just converted my T2 into a Media Center and saved me a nice few quid as I don't have to buy a second HDD.

Winner! If you are ever in Galway, I'll have to buy you a pint!

[Valad Amolen]

My hard drive for this has just gone mental. It's 2TB in size and on last check it was half full. It's now reporting that it's empty yet I can still watch all the recordings. I've checked on a Linux machine and it's the same situation.

Any ideas?

EDIT:

Fixed: Looks like the Humax had destroyed the partition record and the journal. Had to rebuild them both on a Linux box. No files seem to have been actually lost and it now shows used space correctly.

[Bobbybhoy]

Just got a Fox T2. Updated 1.02.20 and tried my netgear wireless dongle with no joy.

Can i partition a hard drive with one partition Ext3 and the other Fat32?

Or if i connect a usb hub will the T2 see 2 separate drives if i format one Ext3 and the other FAT32?

Thanks in advance.

[grahamlthompson]

If you connect a hub and two drives you can use both and copy between them (I have only tried two EXT 3 drives). If you want to use recorded content on a PC though it won't work as all recordings are encrypted and copying them to another drive unlike the HDR Fox the HD Fox does not remove encryption on copying. It's possible for the brave to fool the HD Fox T2 it's really a HDR Fox T2 but that's strictly for the real tecchies. For the brave instructions in another place FAT32 of course is not much use for HD content due to the 4GB file size limit.

[josephobrien200]

Inspired by earlier posts, I've began 'playing' with using the media streaming function on the Humax HD-T2.

My setup is fairly simple... Humax is connected to O2 Wireless router using ethernet cable. I have a laptop running XP Home , and a desktop too. Both are a bit old mind, the laptop is a Centrino class and the Desktop is Pentium 4! Both connect to the wireless router via their wireless function. Both have windows media player 11 which apparently can stream content. I also have a smartphone (Samsung Wave 1GHz processor with Samsungs Allshare media streaming software)

My first attempt to request the Humax to connect to the PC took a while .... had to find which button to press! Its not obvious...for videos, you have to press Menu>Video then click blue button for storage and select Network! Otherwise it defaults to USB HDD.

The Humax could see my PC but not the content.

A bit of research and I realised my PCs were not setup right... I followed these useful instructions....http://www.etec-components.co.uk/man...ing%20UPnP.pdf

This enabled Universal plug and play (UPnP) , and SSDP whatever that is! Without this helpfile I wouldnt have progressed much further.

I also asked Windows Media Player (version11) to share my media under Tools>Options>Library. Whilst I was there, I made sure WMP was monitoring the My Videos directory of my computer where I store all my videos.

Once I installed UPnP my PC suddenly 'found' my O2 wireless box as a device of some sort on the network. Its called a Thomson..(must be the brand) and for some reason, it sees two of them when I inly have one router!

When going back to my Humax and repeating an attempt to connect to my PC, to my amazement it found my PC, and a 'conecting bubble' came up briefly.....progress I suppose!

But I noticed another bubble appearing on PC....this time it was notifying me of a device wanting to connect to windows media player and would I allow it...yes please! WMP now had an entry under shares as unknown device, I presumed this meant the Humax. Now when attempting to connect with Humax, I can see directories on my PC where photos, music and videos are stored. Not sure how it all works in terms of mapping!

Not all my videos are visible. WMV files seem to steam fine, as do MPGs. But not flv or MP4s (the latter I download from youtube, kidddies cartoons etc). Thats a shame. But they (WMV and MPG content) all play really well with no stuttering and actually look quite impressive!

Musics and photos all play well but the interface on the Humax is a little slow.

Shame about the MP4s....my Samsung Wave makes videos in this format in HD (1280x720) and look stunning on my PC.

But I wonder of I can get the Humax to connect to the Samsung Wave Allshare program? It couldnt see the Samsung Wave at all when I clicked Network, but then I went to the Allshare menu on the phone, the option to connect to the wave appeared! Amazingly, I can get the Humax to play the media content on my mobile phone....wow! Only problem is the MP4 files seem to be a bit too much to stream for either the Wave, the O2 wireless router or the Humax. They start fine then stutter. Its probably the phone because the router is perfectly capable at streaming iplayer HD.

So what else can I get up to?

It would be nice to play the MP4 content on my PC on the HUmax. Well maybe VLC media player can do the job as it plays all sorts of formats. Theres a stream option on the menu and according to this..... VideoLAN - Streaming Features list it seems to have lots of options. Well it seems VLC player wont stream to the Humax because it doesnt support something called DNLA.

So I need a DNLA server. WMP is not the only media streamer using DNLA....I can use an alternative called Tversity. Installed this and now when I run the Humax it detects not only the windows media player server on the PC, but also the Tversity server.

The Humax can now playback MP4s on the desktop computer....success. But it still cant see the flv movie files. This is a bit of a shame but its not a huge limitation. Youtube tends to spit out MP4s as well as flvs and the HD content is always MP4.

The wife was impressed...she can now watch Maroon5s new video move like Jagger in HD streamed from the desktop. I could use the youtube portal but it seems not to work for some links, such as the Maroon5 video from VEVO.

I have tried a few other things out... in theory the Wave should be able to play MP4 content from the PC, but it cant (connection failure). Also I should be able to tell the Wave to push to the Humax....It cant (I can only pull content from the phone to the Humax using the humax).

I wonder if tversity is the way to go, apparently there's another free media server called mediatomb...... see what this gives me!

Any tips ?

[josephobrien200]

Humax HDR Fox T2 - proven video files supported

some more useful info for me...concerning what dnla is and humax file formats

[andywebster]

Just bought a new HDR Fox T2 connected via HDMI. Tried a couple of different leads. Dip lay has lots of red and white pixels.

Any ideas. Tried a retune and it settled ok. Turned on and off to watch again and the same thing happened. Did not make any difference whether went through av receiver or directly into TV via HDMI or scart.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally Posted by andywebster

Just bought a new HDR Fox T2 connected via HDMI. Tried a couple of different leads. Dip lay has lots of red and white pixels.

Do you mean "sparklies"?

If so, they could be caused by Wi-Fi interference!

[josephobrien200]

Just for the record, my Laptop is dual boot (Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux).
I went into Ubuntu today and installed MediaTomb via the Ubuntu Software Centre.
It installed but initially didnt work (said "MediaTomb UI is disabled. Check your configuration.")
Quick google on this, came up with this page:
[ubuntu] MediaTomb UI is disabled. Check your configuration. - Ubuntu Forums

MediaTomb streams MP3 and MP4s from Ubuntu to Humax T2 very well.

[josephobrien200]

Just in case you didnt know, when pointing the Humax T2 HD at a PC running the Ps3 Media Server (PS3 Media Server) , it will see it but when attempting to access files it will force the Humax to reboot!

PS3 Media Server • View topic - Humax HD-FOX T2

No idea why.

So to finalise my media server activities, I now stream to the Humax using Tversity from my PC or laptop, or using Samsung Allshare using my mobile phone.

- 'Windows Media Player 11' with WinXP is fine but has limited file support (doesnt play Mp4) and I cant see any option to transcode.

- 'MediaTomb' with Linux Ubuntu works and does support many file formats including MP4 but when the PC starts and MediaTomb fires up, it stops as the internet service is not ready yet. There are workarounds but I found the mediatomb software a bit basic. Starting the service required a bit of fiddling too.

[topgas]

Had my HD Fox-T2 for just over a week now. I found it easy to set up, once I'd made an ethernet cable that worked after four attempts! I can access my PC which has Tversity on it to play .avi's.
What I don't understand is that I can be recording one HD channel, but can watch another, and even change channels. I thought the HD (as opposed to the HDR) only had one tuner, so I don't see how this can happen.
One point that could be improved is to have a 1.2 or 1.5 playback speed with sound, like my old Sony RDR-HX525 had

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by topgas

Had my HD Fox-T2 for just over a week now. I found it easy to set up, once I'd made an ethernet cable that worked after four attempts! I can access my PC which has Tversity on it to play .avi's.
What I don't understand is that I can be recording one HD channel, but can watch another, and even change channels. I thought the HD (as opposed to the HDR) only had one tuner, so I don't see how this can happen.
One point that could be improved is to have a 1.2 or 1.5 playback speed with sound, like my old Sony RDR-HX525 had

All Humax boxes have tuners that can demux two channels from the same multiplex (transponder for satellite) at the same time. As a result twin tuner ones can record two channels and offer 3rd channel viewing. The single tuner ones let you record one and view a second from the same mux. Example you can record any HD channel and watch any other HD channel at the same time.

[charlie1562]

Originally Posted by Mr Keek

You're a gentleman, this is exactly the solution I was looking for. You've just converted my T2 into a Media Center and saved me a nice few quid as I don't have to buy a second HDD.

Winner! If you are ever in Galway, I'll have to buy you a pint!

Im trying to put my films on a humax reformatted hard drive, the EXT2 software recognises the hard drive but how to you put any files on it.
thanks

[charlie1562]

The hard drive is currently EXT3

[roddyb]

Hi, I foolishly thought I might be able to get a WD Elements 2TB hard drive to work with the Humax FOX T2 HD and followed the advice from a few forums to format the drive in the ext3 format using Easeus partition master. The ext3 HDD format worked fine on the PC and I connected the drive to the Humax. The Humax then asked to format the HDD and took an age (lots of hours) to format it. When finished, the drive was shown as 1.8TB on the Humax but the option to record to the drive or use it as a pvr is not available (dull text - cannot be highlighted).

I then created a partition (via the PC) on the 2TB drive (2 x ext3) but when reattached to the Humax, it still asked to format the drive and showed the same thing e.g. 1.8tb drive but would still not allow me to choose the drive for recording or as a pvr.

I am currently wiping the drive and will then try putting a partition (2 x 1TB) on it and converting each partition to ext3 but wondered if anyone had any information that might help me? Any feedback would be appreciated!

For anyone using Easeus partition, one thing that caused me a problem was forgetting to shut the PC down after the ext3 format as I was then unable to right click on the drive and choose 'create partition' as it was not there as an option. When I later reattached the drive to the PC, the option then appeared using the right click on the mouse. It took me a while to figure this out!

[Psycho666]

I'm not an expert and don't actually own one of these... yet! ... but have you updated the Humax's firmware? Maybe it needs that to be updated for the PVR option to work and it might not be the hard drive that is the problem.

Also, it might be worth double checking this, but doesn't the Humax have a limit to how big the external hard drive can be? Maybe 2TB is too big?

Psycho666

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by roddyb

Hi, I foolishly thought I might be able to get a WD Elements 2TB hard drive to work with the Humax FOX T2 HD and followed the advice from a few forums to format the drive in the ext3 format using Easeus partition master. The ext3 HDD format worked fine on the PC and I connected the drive to the Humax. The Humax then asked to format the HDD and took an age (lots of hours) to format it. When finished, the drive was shown as 1.8TB on the Humax but the option to record to the drive or use it as a pvr is not available (dull text - cannot be highlighted).

I then created a partition (via the PC) on the 2TB drive (2 x ext3) but when reattached to the Humax, it still asked to format the drive and showed the same thing e.g. 1.8tb drive but would still not allow me to choose the drive for recording or as a pvr.

I am currently wiping the drive and will then try putting a partition (2 x 1TB) on it and converting each partition to ext3 but wondered if anyone had any information that might help me? Any feedback would be appreciated!

For anyone using Easeus partition, one thing that caused me a problem was forgetting to shut the PC down after the ext3 format as I was then unable to right click on the drive and choose 'create partition' as it was not there as an option. When I later reattached the drive to the PC, the option then appeared using the right click on the mouse. It took me a while to figure this out!

You wont get the option to create a partition unless the drive has spare capacity.

All the commands in Easeus are queued so non destructive

Basically starting with a drive

Delete the existing partitions

Create a partition (normally the whole space)

Elect to format it (EXT3) in this case.

The order is create partition, then format it. Not vice versa. The format command only works on an existing partition not a volume.

Typically a PC will arrive with two partitions on the HDD C:\ formatted ntfs and D:\ Backup formatted FAT32. (A FAT32 partition can be accessed by booting a PC with a DOS boot disk)

Can't help with a 2TB drive, formatting a 1TB drive worked seamlessly with my HD FOX T2.

[roddyb]

Thanks for replying. I think the Humax has trouble with anything above 1tb generally but some people seem to have had some success in getting the 2tb drives to work. With my very limited knowledge, I thought that it might be easier for the Humax to see the drive as two 1tb drives rather than a single 2tb drive (but I am really guessing).

Most of the posts online seem to refer to when people are needing help rather than what the final solution was (I assume that they eventually got it working). If I manage to get it working I will post the solution so hopefully it will help others.

I have the latest software so I was thinking that perhaps creating the partition first and then formatting was the way to go.

Last time I formatted the drive to ext3 and then formatted it via the Humax as well. When that did not work I then created a partition (both ext3) via the pc and then reformatted again using the Humax. Creating a partition afterwards did not make a difference in terms of how the Humax saw the drive (it reported it was 1.8tb on both occasions and did not seem to see the partition).

Hopefully if I make the partition first (as advised - cheers!) and then format as ext3 I will have more luck.

Do I create the first partition as the primary and the second as the other option (cannot remember what it was called)?

Another thought was that I could create a partition and only format the first 1tb as ext3 so that the Humax will only see that bit - does anyone know if this might work?

Thanks again for replying!