Recording to USB pen drive on Humax box?

martin57

Hi folks,

Just wondering if I can record to a 32or 64 gb USB pen drive on a humax box that has just been installed?

It was installed under the BBC help scheme so doesn't have a hard drive itself, but does have a USB connection to connect to an exteranl drive, so wondering if it will work with a pen drive?

I know that will fill up pretty quickly but I wouldn't be recording that much.

Thanks
Martin57

bengalknights

It wil playback but not record to usb

buglawton

Humax make really good PVRs - Personal Video Recorders. I bought one of their refurbs years ago and it's still going strong.

The recording and playback - albeit only on the same box mind - is super efficient and it can track and record series too.

So I suggest, get a used one from a good feedback Ebay seller - there wil be loads of standard definition ones coming onto the market now people are replacing their boxes with high definition ones.

On any screen less then 37" you'll hardly know the difference between SD and HD most of the time.

closed

Depends what you've got, and what firmware version. A hard disk is a better option, flash drive may be too small

http://www.ebuyer.com/255436-cnm-core-250gb-portable-hard-drive-usb2-0-includes-free-security-corepu2250gb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=em1nbUhdDvk&feature=relmfu

http://www.humaxdigital.com/uk/support/support_intro.asp


http://myhumax.org/wiki/index.php/HD_FOX-T2_Firmware_releases

almillar

Dunno where all this info is coming from, but OP hasn't told us what model of box they have, just the brand. Sounds to me like it's just a 'player' and not a recorder, and I'll bet that USB port is just for servicing. Loads of devices have USB ports on them but you shouldn't just go plugging stuff into them!

jtk174

Both current Humax freeview boxes have the usb ports that allow reading from and recording to hard drive devices. The single tuner box does not have a hard drive by default, whereas the dual tuner does.

In both cases, recording works well.

I have tried several usb pens on the single tuner box upto 16Gig without success. I recently read that the box requires a minimum of 20Gig for a recording buffer and that the usb pen needs to be formatted in an EXT2 format ( common in Linux, which is the OS used in the boxes ).

Both these boxes also have network ports and can stream progs from iplayer or indeed the dual tuner box can be used to record and serve recordings to the other single tuner box in another room.
I have both of these networked using 200Mb Homeplugs.

I would get one of the cheap hard drives mentioned and not only will you be be able to record from the EPG, but also pause and rewind things you are watching live.

DRP

buglawton wrote: »

Humax make really good PVRs - Personal Video Recorders. I bought one of their refurbs years ago and it's still going strong.

The recording and playback - albeit only on the same box mind - is super efficient and it can track and record series too.

So I suggest, get a used one from a good feedback Ebay seller - there wil be loads of standard definition ones coming onto the market now people are replacing their boxes with high definition ones.

On any screen less then 37" you'll hardly know the difference between SD and HD most of the time.

shoulda gone to specsavers!

art_for_arts_sake

I've got a Humax Foxsat-HD box which won't record to USB and a HD-Fox T2 which will. As already stated you won't get much joy from a memory stick even if it's 32GB as it needs 20GB preallocated for the buffer but you will be able to be able to play back media files if the box supports it. If it does support recording from an external drive it will probably bring up a menu asking what media type you want to play or go into the settings and see if it has detected the external drive, as you will need to format it to ext-3 to use it for recording. You can either let the box (which is Linux based) do this or do it in Linux or use a partition manager. The HD-Fox T2s are great value at the moment but I managed to pick up a used one for about £50 and used a hard drive I'd been meaning to use in a new computer in a a hard drive enclosure costing £20. Result? A PVR for £70.

almillar

Not a single model number has been listed in this thread and I think they would be really useful for future reference...

art_for_arts_sake

almillar wrote: »

Not a single model number has been listed in this thread and I think they would be really useful for future reference...

Through an aerial I'd recommend the HDR-FOX T2 for all-round flexibility of playback and recording in a one box solution. It has two tuners and HD which, as time moves on, becomes more important, plus it appears to offer more flexibility in what file formats it'll play back.

You can get a HD-FOX T2 which as the name suggests is a single HD tuner but it does offer the capability to record to an external USB drive. Much cheaper but you do have the clutter of leads and the USB drive to consider.

The satellite versions, although good, aren't really a match for their freeview equivalents in terms of playback which the Humax FOXSAT-HD doesn't offer, although the FOXSAT-HDR can record and play back I believe it doesn't support the playback of other files as well as its freeview equivalent.

All the devices offer BBC iPlayer functionality if you have a broadband connection which supports this though you will need to connect via ethernet on the FOXSAT-HD and HDR.

As usual, other brands are available, etc.

jtk174

Thought a quick update was in order, as I recently purchased a 64Gb USB pen drive.

I have plugged it into a Humax HD box. ( 1 tuner, no hard drive ) It works well for both recording complete programmes and also as a pause/rewind buffer.
It can also be used to store additional software if you are running the modified firmware.