Humax on PC Monitor

Started by longbreak, June 13, 2014, 10:04:51 PM

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longbreak

Hello, I have been using Ice TV for a couple of years now and thinking of getting a Humax to replace Windows MC.

I have searched through the forum but cannot find an answer to my query.

All I want to do with a Humax is to connect it to my PC via Telstra modem (wifi) and view all Humax content on my PC monitor. Is this possible? I do not want to use it for the TV which is in another room. If not possible use hdmi direct to the monitor but that would entail unplugging the monitor from the PC and transferring it to the Humax which doesn't sound like a good idea.

Regards, Barry

swamprat96

It is possible and would work fine if you used hdmi. Why you would want to do this I'm not sure as a pc is a much better media player. 

longbreak

Reason being that WMC gets very sluggish throughout the day, every day and I am unable to find what process is strangling it.
I normally fix it by rebooting the PC which is a pain. WMC runs fine when the problem is killed after reboot.
The Humax seems like it may be a better option. Monitor is connected to PC via a HDMI socket but there is another HDMI socket on the monitor which might be OK but I don't think it would be feasible to have PC and Humax connected to the monitor at the same time.

swamprat96

you can use both ports but you'd have to switch inputs via the monitor itself. I have a similar setup on my PC and laptop where they share the same screens.

RE the media center - from a TV tuner perspective the Humax will blow WMC's wheels off. But its the other way around for media.

WMC should not get sluggish as you say. I'd be looking at the plugins

longbreak

Thank you very much for your advice. Very much appreciated.

I am looking at one last desperate attempt to make WMC workable and that is a program called AlacrityPC which can temporarily shut down all running services and background programs to see if WMC improves.

If that doesn't work it looks like Humax to the rescue!!

Will post back if AlacrityPC works.

swamprat96

What os are you running.  Win7? It might be worth a rebuild.

Dave at IceTV

Quote from: swamprat96 on June 14, 2014, 05:53:38 AM
It is possible and would work fine if you used hdmi.
It would work fine as long as the monitor's HDMI or DVI HDCP compliant. The Humax requires a HDCP compliant device connected to the HDMI output or it won't display any video on the HDMI output.

Quote from: longbreak on June 14, 2014, 08:24:04 PM
I am looking at one last desperate attempt to make WMC workable and that is a program called AlacrityPC which can temporarily shut down all running services and background programs to see if WMC improves.
Try Windows task manager ( Ctrl+Alt+Esc ) and check the Processes tab to see what app or process is using all of CPU or Memory.
cheers

Dave
Customer Service

longbreak

Well I tried task manager and saw some svchost items using heaps of memory but unable to identify cause.
Also got AlacrityPC to run and it closed down just about everything that was running but wmc still sluggish.

My monitor is HDCP compliant so that is OK. And running Windows 7 64 bit only recently installed.

Thanks for all the info.

Dave at IceTV

Quote from: longbreak on June 15, 2014, 07:20:18 PM
Well I tried task manager and saw some svchost items using heaps of memory but unable to identify cause.
svchost.exe is a Windows process that runs other services, so you'll usually see a few, or a lot, svchost processes listed in task manager. You can right-click on an instance of svchost.exe, and then click Go to Service(s) to see which service that svchost is.

More info about svchost from Microsoft here:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-au/windows/what-is-svchost-exe#1TC=windows-7

Quote from: longbreak on June 15, 2014, 07:20:18 PM
Also got AlacrityPC to run and it closed down just about everything that was running but wmc still sluggish.

My monitor is HDCP compliant so that is OK. And running Windows 7 64 bit only recently installed.
As it's a recent Windows installation and Media Center seems sluggish it could be a corrupted recording schedule in IceTV Interactive's database. See the following solution:
http://support.icetv.com.au/entries/45514040-Why-is-Media-Center-very-slow-or-CPU-usage-very-high
cheers

Dave
Customer Service

bravotango

Thanks for all the tips Dave. If I have any more trouble I will clean out that interactive folder.

In the meantime I found a nice solution. I have been using the TVStick dual kaiser baas but not the TotalMedia software from Arcsoft as it was a bit buggy first time around. I now installed it and got and upgrade in the process and it is smooth and fast, much better for viewing TV than MCE. I can easily still record programs with MCE and convert them to mpg format to watch them later on TotalMedia.

bravotango

Never did find out what was causing this problem except to leave the PC in sleep mode instead of shut down.

Since then I hear that Microsoft is not supporting WMC in Windows 8 and forcing users to purchase it if required.

Other bad news is that my other option, Sage is finished, taken over by Google and no longer available even for sale.

But getting back to Humax, I realized that our Panasonic dvr is sitting idle most of the time in the living room so I stole it and moved it next to the PC and hooked up the Ethernet to the modem. First up the pictures/video playbacks are lousy. Apparently television units work with a PC but PC monitors do not work with direct TV. However all the other menus on the Panasonic, guides and settings do come up on the screen OK. Also the Panasonic easily finds all media in the PC but lousy play as before.

Connecting the PC back into the monitor Had a terrible time finding access to the Panasonic. Finally found it in an obscure place in Windows Media PLayer under Other Libraries. This was just good luck as I happened to leave WMP on for awhile and saw PANASONIC appear under Other Libraries. The process is very unreliable as it sometimes takes over five minutes and sometimes not at all but once it is open I have no trouble playing any movies from the Panasonic. Then I found that after playing a movie for a minute and going back to library I could save the reference into a playlist. I only need a few in the playlist and if I click on any one of those it forces WMP to open the movie and also to open the whole library. So the trick is to maintain a couple of items in the playlist that will never be deleted from the Panasonic dvr. No need to enter everything into the playlist as it is constantly changing.

This is exactly what I was looking for as I no longer rely on WMC. Unfortunately I can't and don't need ICE TV Interface for Panasonic only for WMC.

I use a HDMI/DVID adaptor and a DVID switcher (2 in and 1 out) to get both Panasonic and PC to the monitor.

I have a question now, can anyone confirm that they can do the same with Humax, that is to view videos using WMP?