Humax Update Firmware

[Alana Fekety]

HelloHere I have a Humax box, already made official payment. But I am in need to know the ethernet pot it has, is it for increasing more channels or what? As I have tried to plug into it a broadband Internet which it synchronised itself with no good result.

Help me please.

Hi there, have you found whether you can play files directly from another networked source. I have a lot of material on a NAS DLNA media server including photos which it would be brilliant to view from the PVR without transferring files.

Have you tried the custom firmware on the Humax box? Adds some really nice features, including a web interface, and remote program scheduling. I recorded a few videos showing how to install the firmware, packages, and this one showing the web interface in action;

yes install the custom portal it has a google browser but it is very tricky to navigate it through the remote so i plugged in a wireless keyboard to the front usb and it works fine its a little slower than pc but works ok this box does a lot more than it should for the price i think its a gem , ive succesfully got 4od and itvplayer through the google portal so all in all excellent

the only downside sofar is the lack of supported codecs ie most youtube stuff through the original portal dont play says unsupported codecs etc only limited to a few i wish someone would release a custom codec update so this box will play everything

I was keen to get my music accessible from the humax system and duly set up ftp and downloaded it.. To find that the humax music system is a useless system with no access to playlists or any way of sorting it. So reduced to using an old laptop and a decent music player off that. I expect more grief from Her Maj about extra black boxes cluttering the lounge.

Is there any way to get a proper music player onto the humax box?

We get our broadcasts from Astra 2A / Astra 2B / Astra 2D / Eurobird 1 (28.2E).Other free to air channels are available and KingOfSat lists them all.These channels can only be added via the Humax setup menus, but can thenbe presented in the normal EPG using the Channel Editor above.

I have not yet found a way to prevent automatic over the air updates from beingautomatically applied. When an over the air update is applied the Humax stillworks, but the web interface and all the add-ons stop working. The can be solvedby waiting for the custom firmware to be updated (which happen remarkably quickly)and then re-flashing the custom firmware. All the add-ons should start working again.

This version of the custom firmware is designed for troubleshooting and contains a kernel with PRINTK support enabled. This makes the kernel larger and consume more memory than the standard one so can result in instability. It is not recommended to use this version other than for troubleshooting and diagnostics.

This version of the custom firmware contains the stock Humax kernel and wireless driver and can be used if you experience problems using the customised one. Itdoes not contain support for iptables, GUID Partition Tables (GPT) or large drives.

In accordance with the terms of the GPL, you may download a copy of the relevant source code by clicking on the associated links. Alternatively, you may request a copy of the relevant source code for open source programs on physical media by sending an e-mail to g...@humaxdigital.com. This offer is valid for up to three years from the date of original download of the software or purchase of product containing such software.

I'm hoping someone can help me- I feel as if I've tried everything! Basically, up until a week ago, I had a Sony KDL-26U3000 LCD TV to which I had connected my Humax HDR-FOX T2 hard-disk recorder to, and everything worked fine.

Last week, I replaced my 26" Sony TV with a Sony KDL-32EX723 32" SMART 3D LED TV. Ever since then, I've been experiencing a green screen when attempting to use my Humax box via HDMI connection to my new Sony TV. When I switch on the Humax box, the Humax logo appears on the TV screen, followed by a brief 2 second flash of whatever channel the Humax box was last tuned to- and then just a green screen appears!

I've searched online in vain for a solution, and I understand that there is an issue with the "handshaking" between the two devices- but I'm at a loss as to whether the TV or the Humax box is to blame- especially as the Humax box worked fine with my previous Sony TV model. Firmware on both devices is current and up to date. The strange thing is, the Humax box has worked on 2 or 3 occasions with my new TV, but more often than not, I just get a blank green screen.

I've tried changing the HDMI settings on the Sony TV, I've tried switching the TV on first then the box, and also the other way around. I've tried different HDMI ports, different cables, restoring the TV to factory settings, restoring the Humax box to factory settings- but nothing seems to work, so as you can imagine, I'm pretty fed up as I have 2 expensive pieces of equipment that can't seem to talk to each other properly.

After my original post, I purchased a Sony BDV-EF200 3D blu-ray 2.1 home cinema system and then started experiencing signal dropouts on both the TV and Humax box, and when I retuned the Humax box, it failed to find many of the channels, including the HD ones. Let's just say I was not pleased to say the least.

However, when I rang Humax, they were very helpful and offered to send me a replacement box, even though it was unclear as to whether the Humax box or TV was to blame. Worth noting as well that my Humax box was over a year old, but if you go to Humax direct, rather than the place or purchase, a 2-year guarantee applies.

To cut a long story short, the new Humax box worked first time, even though the firmware was up to date on my original Humax box. However, I noticed there were a couple of new icons on the Humax TV Portal page, so I believe that the new Humax box has updated software that has not been released as an OTA broadcast yet.

As for the signal problems, I believe that the Sony KDL-32EX723, when linked to the Sony BDV-EF200 is more sensitive to interference, particularly due to the close proximity of the HDMI ports to the aerial socket, and the fact that the HDMI connection from the TV to the BDV-EF200 is ARC enabled (2-way communication). I was able to resolve this by using high quality coaxial double-shielded aerial cable, and a powered signal-booster.

On the odd occasion, I still get a flashing green screen (different to the original problem of a solid green screen) when using all 3 together, the TV, the Humax and the 2.1 system. However, unlike before, I can resolve this by switching all 3 units off and on again, so this is not really a problem.

Overall I would say things are now fine, but I can't give a definitive answer as to what really solved my issue, particularly as I introduced a 2.1 system into the mix! But I would say, if your Humax unit is under 2 years old and you have your receipt, Humax should be able to offer you a new unit to try. I found this much more useful than Sony support who simply said "buy a Sony gold-plated HDMI cable" which is complete nonsense as it's a digital cable, so it either works or it doesn't. There is no in between like with analogue where better quality cables can improve reception/picture, so don't be ripped off.

The first thing I spotted was some unpopulated UART connectors. I got my scope out and had a probe about but there didn't seem to be any obvious UART data coming down the Tx lines, so left them for the minute to see what else I could fiddle with.

According to various forums, the recordings partition on this box is luks encrypted, but I thought I'd remove the drive, blow the dust off my Gparted boot CD (yes, CD), stick the drive in my PC and see what I could see.

Encouraged by this I tried to mount the drive. Sure enough, all the recordings were visible on the drive. Each recorded TV show appears to consist of 3 or 4 files, an hjm, hts, nts and optionally a png. Presumably the png is the thumbnail that is generated by the box for each recording. Based on filesize, the hts file is the actual video.

A guy called raydon did some excellent analysis of the sidecar files on the Humax Foxsat HDR (the predesesser to this box) and I'm sure the sidecar files present on the HDR 1000S won't differ much from the ones on the HDR.

I decided to copy off a couple of recordings - one episode of Blackadder, which was recorded in SD and an episode of I'm a Celebrity (don't judge me), recorded in HD. You can see my process below - I simply mounted my ext3 USB stick, mounted the Humax partition and copied the files across. Click the image to enlarge it.

It's possible that the drives were shipped encrypted but a firmware update meant that any drive formatted from that point on was unencrypted (perhaps as a result of this), so if you try this with your own drive and find that it is encrypted, then use the menu to format the drive and you'll almost certainly find that it isn't anymore. Obviously you'll lose your recordings when doing this though.

Unfortunately the box won't let you play your recordings directly from the USB stick - the hts files aren't recognised by the box as something it'll play. The hts files are encrypted, just like with the HDR. I haven't had a good look at them yet, but they won't play on a PC. This applies both to SD and HD recordings. You (probably) can't back up your Planned recordings list. I suspect this information is stored on internal flash as your Planned list still appears fine even when the HDD is unplugged.Next..I'm carrying on with looking at the contents of the Humax filesystem and will post any interesting information here.

Pocket-lint has managed to get its hands on a pre-release (beta) version of the forthcoming firmware update for the Humax HD-Fox T2 (which will also arrive for the HDR-Fox T2) and has had a play with the company's brand spanking new TV Portal feature. Through it, the Freeview HD set-top-box gains access to Internet content, such as BBC iPlayer, Sky Player and Wikipedia.

3a8082e126