standby confusion and sharing via dlna?!

Started by aliwake1, February 28, 2013, 09:58:34 AM

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aliwake1

Hi all, I've just joined this crazy pvr world, and I'm loving it so far.  I received my humax 7500t from icetv this week, and I have an easy question and a hard question. (and yes I've read the manual).

Firstly, if I have a program recording while I watch something else, then want to switch everything off and go to bed, will the recording continue even if I switch the humax off with the remote (which I assume means it's in standby?).  Also, if I have a program set to record while we're out, will it wake itself out of standby mode to record it, or would it need to be fully on for the recording to work?  I'm assuming that the recordings continue to work in standby, but haven't been able to find it written clearly anywhere - maybe it's just meant to be obvious :)  Given we've only had PS3 playTV before now and it was completely useless, i'm trying not to assume anything.

Next, and more complicated, I'm trying to view content from my PC, on my tv using my humax.  I don't really need it to work, but I'm very curious and would like to make it happen!  I have content sharing 'on' on the pvr, and have it connected to the network via wifi.  I have my library folders on my pc shared, and have turned on windows media center.  I can view (though not play) my humax recordings on my pc - so that's a good start!  However, when I try to access the pc through the humax, it says 'connecting' for ages, then it says 'no server found' or something along those lines.
I've been reading a million things and trying them all and it's completely doing my head in.  I've opened up my pc firewall to everything on the home network.  Do I need a WMC extender of some kind?
I'm extremely confused.
My pc is windows 7, but I can't tell what version WMC is - fairly new I would think.
If anyone has any easy to understand tips or explanation, that would be great!
Cheers

Dave at IceTV

The Humax has a choice of 2 different standby modes: Power Saving in Standby ON and Power Saving in Standby OFF.

- Go to 'Menu > Settings > System > Power Management'.
- Set 'Power Saving in Standby' to ON or OFF.
- Set 'Automatic Power Down'' to ON or OFF.

With 'Power Saving in Standby' set to ON it behaves like all other PVRs. This mode uses almost no power when in standby. It will wake up to record and will switch off to standby when finished. You cannot turn it off while it is recording (there is an 'auto power down' option that will turn it off after a couple of hours of inactivity, or you can press the sleep button and set the sleep timer for a switch-off time after the recording and padding should have ended). It may even behave like other PVRs where if you press the Power button while it is recording it will automatically switch itself off after the recording has ended.

With 'Power Saving in Standby' set to OFF it keeps the network and HDD active in standby. This mode uses more power when in standby. It will record without turning on. You can switch it off while it is recording.


For your second question, DLNA does not access shared folders on a networked drive or computer etc. It accesses a list of files indexed by a DNLA server. You need a DNLA server running on the PC, and it needs to have indexed the folder(s) containing your video files. Windows Media 'Player' (not media center) has a DLNA server built in. Or you can use a better DNLA server like TVersity or Twonky.

Enabling Content Sharing on the Humax makes the Humax act as a DNLA server which is the opposite of what you are trying to do. This would allow you to stream Humax recordings to other DLNA client devices or to Windows Media 'Center' or VLC media player.
cheers

Dave
Customer Service

Dave at IceTV

To enable media streaming from Windows Media Player:

- Make sure that the Humax is turned on.
- Start Windows Media Player.
- Click on 'Stream'.
- Click on 'Turn On Media Streaming'.
- In the window that appears, click on the 'Turn On Media Streaming' button.
- Make sure that 'Show devices on Local network' is showing.
- Make sure that the Humax is 'Allowed' (or 'Allow All' is selected'.
- Click on the OK button.


Or rather than using Windows Media Player as a media server for the Humax, you can use a small DLNA media server application like TVersity or Twonky. Twonky is probably the best, but TVersity 1.9.7 is free (newer versions are not free).

You can download the free TVersity 1.9.7 here:
http://tversity.en.malavida.com/download

After installing TVersity you just choose the folders that you want to share, and then tick the box to 'start with windows'. Every time you start the computer TVersity will be running in the background and the Humax will be able to stream your shared files.

On the Humax you just need to press the media button, then press the blue button and select network.
cheers

Dave
Customer Service

aliwake1

Hi Dave, thanks so much for all that great info!
I think I may do a few experiments with recording something not important and switching off during the recording, just to be sure.  I currently have power saving on, and I switched off the other night when I thought it was still recording, and I thought it might come up with some kind of warning or something, but it didn't.  I'm thinking now that perhaps the recording had just finished anyway without me realising.  (I haven't been able to check it yet cos I'm still an episode behind ;) )
The sleep timer function sounds like a good option, thanks.

With the second problem - that makes so much sense!  It explains why I can see the humax in WMC especially, but can't see the pc from the humax.
My laptop is fairly new too, so I was kinda just assuming that windows media player was part of windows media center, and they were fairly interchangeable - I guess not!  If WMC is not a DLNA server then it explains a lot.
I'll have a play with WMP tonight instead, and fingers crossed I'll have better luck.  If not I'll give tversity a go.
Thanks so much for your fast response.

aliwake1

Just a quick update and another question.

I tried to get WMP to stream, but it didn't show the humax as being connected to the network, so I gave up on that.
I downloaded tversity and it was visible on the humax straight away!  It takes a while for all the content to become available, but it gets there eventually.  I found the connection was too slow for video, but ok for music and pics, but it definitely works if you're patient!

I have a new question now though, about the tv portal. When I first accessed it a few days ago I vaguely recall it looking like this:
http://www.humaxdigital.com/au/products/image_tvportal_L.html
So, it had lots of apps etc, including all the default things promised like youtube and quickflix etc.
Now when I go to the portal it has absolutely nothing in it.  I even signed up for an account on myhumax.net, to try to add some apps again, but despite it showing apps in the appstore it doesn't let you actually do anything with them?!  I can't see any way to add them to my account, so I still have absolutely nothing in my tv portal...
I don't know if I did something, or if there's something else going on?  Maybe this is one I should ask humax about?

The pic is what I see in the portal now...

Dave at IceTV

Definitely a question for Humax Support.

Though it sounds like a  network issue. Or maybe your Humax is no longer identifying itself as a HDR-7500T so the TV Portal does not know what apps support it. Of course you should first try rebooting via the rear 240v switch.
cheers

Dave
Customer Service

aliwake1

Thanks Dave, I did actually email Humax on Friday, because I had another issue also where the machine crashed really badly after playing a file from usb, and they have said to reboot to fix the portal too. Hopefully that will fix it when I try this afternoon.

For anyone that's interested, the file I played successfully from usb was in the Matroska format, but the humax won't play mkv via dlna. At least it can be done though, so I'm happy about that!

aliwake1

#7
FYI, I finally got humax to admit I had the most recent fw already, so I didn't have to update. I checked on the tv portal again last night though, and it works!! Very happy!  I guess they were just having a few issues...

Also, I played another mkv file via usb last week, and it played fine, however, once it had played to the end, i got an error message from the humax saying format not recognised (or something like that), so that cracked me up a bit.  So, you can play mkv files, but it still likes to pretend that it can't...