AZBox HD Premium HDD

[madmadworld]

With folks like you feeding me advice and information, I might eventually be able to understand the networking challenge and make it all work. At this moment, I am simply a bit blind, uninformed, apprehensive and a tad bit scared!

I am sure that I can develop my skills so that I understand what I am doing, eventually, but it will probably take some time and effort on my part and a lot of assistance from friends like you! For your assistance and help, I thank you!

RADAR

well said Radar my feelings for sure.
but i have read the help givin here and i just might try it. i did get in the box and got a copy of the channel list the other day, but fear like heck of sending one back. lol
1) question when you send the (3)channel lists it just over writes them ?
or do you have to delete the old ones first ?
and i too must thank Jim S. Lak7 Yurek99 gillham for all this info. and Radar for his posts i have read well over 1000 posts about the azbox units and this was the most detailed how to in one spot heck better than all places. i did not get it all but a few more reads and act outs.


Radar
sorry forgot to post the hi bit feed for you i just now remembered.old see
i hope friday night. guessing you don't watch sports all the time lol.
on the videos with your buddys here you are going to be moving them all over. if you need software ideas let me know i have messed with that awhile now but far less than few years ago. it got to be a sickness i think now like drinking. 100s vhs 1000s dvd i would have to live many years to watch them again.
on the recording this box makes they need to fix it so you can rename the files while they are in the box. other wise you will have no idea what they are. the only work around i see now is to rename the channel before recording. something else to remember to do. my sv-8000 lets me do this simple thing.
i guess in a network set up this could be done ?
the sv-8000 if you change the file name in the usb box at the computer the sv-8000 will not read the renamed folder when you put it back.
but really this box i have sent more time on this gizmo than other one ever, read for 4 months before buying now the setup and heck it still has no ver 1 yet. the wife came in and said"don't you just want to watch tv ?"
so true.

 

[Lak7]

1) question when you send the (3)channel lists it just over writes them ?
or do you have to delete the old ones first ?

It overwrites them. But the Factory Default list is in a different (and protected) area. So if something goes wrong, a Factory Reset will restore Clean Channel / Sat lists.
To me, it's best to use the Channel Editor to upload and download the lists.

 

[Lak7]

enter "new" password, just use the default
azbox

This gave me a little trouble as well as the instructions stated to use 6 - 8 characters, (upper and lower case and numeric digits). I am not sure if it was truly neccessary, but I made up my own password that followed the outlines that were requested during the password change. So I utilized some upper and lower case letters and one numeric digit. This was accepted.

Should say 5 - 8 characters, "azbox" should be fine.

Now, in your FTP Program on the PC
(I think you meant on the AZBox FTP menu?)

Nope. I thought you were trying to gain FTP access "to" your AZBox.
To me, using the AZBox to gain access "to" an FTP Server will just drive you crazy.

Password: azbox (or the password that you set yourself if different from this)

If you do not use the Default Password, be sure to remember to also change and update in the Channel Editor.

 

[AcWxRadar]

Should say 5 - 8 characters, "azbox" should be fine.


Nope. I thought you were trying to gain FTP access "to" your AZBox.
To me, using the AZBox to gain access "to" an FTP Server will just drive you crazy.

I misunderstood. But yes, I am trying to gain FTP access "TO" the AZBox. I have FileZilla as my FTP program. It seems to allow access (connection) to the IP address, but doesn't receive a welcome and times out. If I ping the AZBox IP address in DOS cmd, it also connects.

Possibly a firewall related issue?

RADAR

 

[Lak7]

Did you turn "On" the FTP service in the AZBox?
In the Settings Menu, I think it's called Network Services.

 

[AcWxRadar]

Did you turn "On" the FTP service in the AZBox?
In the Settings Menu, I think it's called Network Services.

Yes. If I did so correctly it is in the SETTINGS > NETWORK SERVICE > FTP SERVER (enable or disable) and it is set to enabled.

RADAR

 

[Yurek99]

Yes. If I did so correctly it is in the SETTINGS > NETWORK SERVICE > FTP SERVER (enable or disable) and it is set to enabled.

RADAR

OK, try following from your PC at command window ( Start --> Run--> cmd--> OK

ftp xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx ( xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx = IP address of AZbox)
You should be prompted with

User <xxx.xxx.xxx.xx:<none>>:

type 'root' ( No quotes)
You should be prompted with:

331 Password required for root.

type 'azbox' ( No quotes)

If you get connected,
type 'ls' ( No quotes)

you should see list of the folders
type 'bye' ( No quotes)
and you will get disconected


Let us know if you get in..

 

[AcWxRadar]

OK, try following from your PC at command window ( Start --> Run--> cmd--> OK

ftp xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx ( xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx = IP address of AZbox)
You should be prompted with

User <xxx.xxx.xxx.xx:<none>>:

type 'root' ( No quotes)
You should be prompted with:

331 Password required for root.

type 'azbox' ( No quotes)

If you get connected,
type 'ls' ( No quotes)

you should see list of the folders
type 'bye' ( No quotes)
and you will get disconected


Let us know if you get in..

When I enter ftp xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

it shows connected to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx

and all I detect is the flashing cursor until it eventually displays:

connection closed by remote host

RADAR

 

[Lak7]

Before you go too far...
On my Elite, when I log into the AZBox via FTP, I do not see the External Drive, only the "Operating System" stuff.

 

[Yurek99]

This is my session of FTP to Azbox. For sure, after while no activity Azbox will close connection.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

C:\Users\test>ftp 10.168.1.242
Connected to 10.168.1.242.
220 (vsFTPd 2.0.7)
User (10.168.1.242none)): root
331 Please specify the password.
Password:
230 Login successful.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful. Consider using PASV.
150 Here comes the directory listing.
226 Directory send OK.
ftp> cd ..
250 Directory successfully changed.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful. Consider using PASV.
150 Here comes the directory listing.
DATA
DISK1
DISK2
Download
EMU
MMP
NFS
Patch
TVP
USER
bin
dev
etc
home
init
lib
linuxrc
mnt
opt
proc
root
sbin
sys
tmp
usr
var
226 Directory send OK.
ftp: 152 bytes received in 0.00Seconds 152000.00Kbytes/sec.
ftp> cd DATA
250 Directory successfully changed.
ftp> ls
200 PORT command successful. Consider using PASV.
150 Here comes the directory listing.
cdrom
celrun
download
dstar
hdb1
meta
movie
music
picture
pvrfile
recordfile
recording
shared
tmp
usb1
usb2
226 Directory send OK.
ftp: 124 bytes received in 0.00Seconds 124000.00Kbytes/sec.
ftp>bye
221 Goodbye.

-----------------------------------------------------------

 

[Lak7]

This is my session of FTP to Azbox. For sure, after while no activity Azbox will close connection.

Are you able to see or access a storage drive?

 

[Yurek99]

Are you able to see or access a storage drive?

Yes, I addted to the session expecting similar question.
It is in DATA folder. Just go back to my session listing.
Just to be clear: this is internal HD. I have no external, but expect the same mapping

 

[B.J.]

Yes, I addted to the session expecting similar question.
It is in DATA folder. Just go back to my session listing.
Just to be clear: this is internal HD. I have no external, but expect the same mapping

I haven't been on line for a couple days, and there have been 3 pages of posts here since I last read, so again, I may have missed some of the intent here, but relative to the EXTERNAL drives, looking at the directory listing a few posts back, as suggested above, in the DATA folder, there are sub folders called usb1 and usb2. This is where you'd find an external drive connected to one of the usb ports. It wasn't described in the listing above, but I'm guessing that in the receivers with the internal drives, the drive is probably found in hdb1, at least that's where you normally find drives mounted on linux systems.

Anyway, back to the external drive, if I select the usb1 folder, I see an "sda1" directory. When I select that directory, that is where I find the contents of whatever drive or thumb drive is connected to that USB port.
Someone asked about the speed. I'm doing this from a wireless laptop connected to a hard wired LAN, so it would probably be a bit faster just going hard wired, but I just did a test transfer of a 272 MB recording, and it took 156 seconds. I think that equates to approximately 17 mbps. This is plenty fast enough for transfer back to the PC for processing or playing by other programs, however it seemed interesting to me that this rate is suspiciously similar to the maximum recording rate when using the USB drive. I'm wondering if for some reason the maximum transfer rate of the USB connection??? I've been assuming that the weak link here was my wireless net, but maybe not. I;ll be busy for a while, but I'll try again later from a wired computer, because it seems like this transfer SHOULD be faster than that, however, maybe it's dependent on the device attached too. I was using a thumb drive. I'll try it later with one of my external hard drives.
Anyway, I've used FTP transfer for several recorded videos and other files, and there are no issues relative to the format of the drive that the data is in. As long as the Azbox can read the data, that's what you get.

 

[Smith P.]

That speed wasn't close to any limits of USB ( 2.0: 480 Mbps, 1.1: 12 Mbps ). Seems to me it's just priority of the transfer process is pretty low; we saw similar effect for Dish 622/722 when transferring to EHD.

 

[B.J.]

That speed wasn't close to any limits of USB ( 2.0: 480 Mbps, 1.1: 12 Mbps ). Seems to me it's just priority of the transfer process is pretty low; we saw similar effect for Dish 622/722 when transferring to EHD.

I knew that it wasn't close to the limits of USB2 in general. I don't know the exact maximums, but I know that it's fast enough to handle a 100 mbps ethernet adapter, so it's at least a good bit faster than 100 mbps. But I was thinking that it could be the limit of how fast the Azbox can get data out of it's USB, which could be low priorities of the USB as you suggest. Perhaps the Azbox is too overwhelmed by other processes to have time to get the data to the USB. Also, not all USB hardware is the same. I've seen transfers go 50 times slower using one particular cable vs another cable. I've also seen similar limits in my Roku. When it grabs files from smb shares over a 100 mbps LAN, it's maximum data rate is about 27 mbps if I remember right, whereas if it just reads data being streamed to it, it can handle data rates faster than 40 mbps. So the software seems to often limit how much data can go through ports in these A/V devices.

BTW, I re-tried my transfer experiment to a hard wired computer, and I got 22 MBPS, so my wireless LAN was slowing things down a bit. Also my experiments involved both the USB port and the ethernet port, so it could be that similar to my ROKU comment above, that the ethernet port could be the limiting parameter, not the USB.


Whatever the cause, it does seem like it should be an issue that they can solve though.

 

[madmadworld]

simple man wanting simple things

the latest
i thought i record a game friday night.
hit the record button picked usb HD(fat 32),and it started. i have read it uses the epg to record or 2 hours. so the epg looked like 24 hours or something. but not trusting anything i extended it the 60min it allows. and i keep a eye on it as the time passed 2 hours still going red light on. as the game was coming to a close(over 3 hours) i over ran it about 15 min. as i never get it on time dang it. red light still on i stopped it. it appered to stop. (spell aperred)
well today i go to watch it only to find it only had 2 hours 40min.the HD was at my computer when i found out as i was going to edit it. looked thru the other folders nothing hiding in there dang it.
not happy i put usb HD back to the azbox having done nothing but looked at the recorded file with the slide bar of the player fast.
the azbox does not see the file...... menu>recorded program.
but was found....home>movie>usb>sda1>recorded file... along with some other stuff that was missing.
my guess at what happened the 2:40 file is 3.99 gig IT JUST STOPS at 4 gigs. not cool this needs fixed please.
my sv-8000 just makes another file very fast seamless.
reminds me of a vhs tape with only the 2 hours waiting for a commercial to put in the new tape. very sad.

 

[Yurek99]

the latest
my guess at what happened the 2:40 file is 3.99 gig IT JUST STOPS at 4 gigs. not cool this needs fixed please.

This is limitation of FAT32. Files are limited to 4 GB.
If you format HDD with Linux ext3, you should be able to record more than 4 GB file

 

[madmadworld]

going to confession

This is limitation of FAT32. Files are limited to 4 GB.
If you format HDD with Linux ext3, you should be able to record more than 4 GB file

i knew that Yurek thanks no offence at all
but why should i have to ?
hoping axbox reads this forum seeing how their's don't work.
how many other fta pvr setups make you do that? none i've had, but it is what it is or is it. they should be able to get this thing to do this simple thing.looks like you will be able to surf the net and spend money when they get it going right.
besides that i spent 8 hours trying to get the computer to see the linux hard drive already. and when it did come up on my computer i could not get into it. now i have to admit that. this box is like going to confession. yes i don't understand anything but windows if i know that.
does this box keep time if hooked up to the internet all the time? can't assume.
if it will i can work around by programing it for like 2 two hour events. if the program feature works.
all this for 4:2:2 feeds. boy i'm a sicky
thanks for reading

 

[AcWxRadar]

Recording with AZBox Premium and transporting the content

UPDATE:

HISTORY: I have been able to record to the newly installed (internal) Samsung 500GB HDD (mentioned previously in this thread) and have since been able to connect an external USB HDD (a 750 GB Maxtor OneTouch - also previously mentioned).

The problem was importing the recorded content to my PC.

Trying several avenues, I have locked on to the USF EXPLORER V 4.2 (which was recommended in this thread). I had a difficult time with this as my activation code was identified as invalid). I purchased the version 4.2 USF Explorer, but for some reason, the download I received was not matching my activation (licence code).

I resulted in re-downloading the application and applying the activation code that I was given when I purchased this software. It was then accepted just fine. Installed the program and set it to import a recorded file from the Maxtor OneTouch drive. IT did so and saved it in my windows temp file.

Next step, how to open and play this file, which was a ".ts" video file.

Did some quck research and found a few avenues. Without really researching everything, I just tried the first program I came across, which was VLC Media Player V1.0.1.

I found a location to download this (afterdawn) and loaded it as freeware. Installed it and tested it with the recorded program I had imported to my PC from the Maxtor drive and found that it works! It plays back exceptionally on my PC!

Happy Happy Happy!

Now, this was all done simply to get the recorded program to import from the external Maxtor drive to my PC and ensure that it was not corrupted in the process. It was not and I am amazed at how well the video and audio quality are. It darn near looks better than my tv! Actually it might be a little better! Very crisp video!

Ok... I am not done with this project yet. I have more to do. What you ask? My main intention is to be able to burn this recorded program to a DVD and then replay it on any DVD player. This objective will require more investigation, but I am making some really excellent progress in this direction.

I just wanted to reply on this subject to let you know what results I am now experiencing. Thanks to all of you guys and gals who were very instrumental in getting me to this point so far!

I am hoping to progress to my ultimate goal. Haven't got the telnet or ftp to operate yet, however. I will have to keep working on that item. I think I have a firewall and router protocol / setup issue that is preventing me from getting that accomplished.

Thought you would like to know that I have made this progress and how I accomplished it.

Now... onward!

RADAR

 

[concord]

Did some quck research and found a few avenues. Without really researching everything, I just tried the first program I came across, which was VLC Media Player V1.0.1.

Another option for playing is mplayer: MPlayer - The Movie Player


Re-coding .ts file for DVD, check out:
Xilisoft HD Video Converter: http://www.xilisoft.com/hd-video-converter.html
DVD Santa: dvdSanta: Burn Your Favorite Videos onto DVDs and watch them on TV! (not sure about HD content)
VideoRedo: VideoReDo MPEG Video Editing Software (currently working on an alpha version for doing HD videos)

Accessing a linux formatted drive:
http://www.fs-driver.org/ (I've used this in the past)
http://www.diskinternals.com/linux-reader/