?? Access PC's video files from AZBox?

[upnatm]

Hi all,

I've used MAZ 3.2 to transfer files out to my AZ-P-HD internal HDD and external HDD (on USB-1). Quite a nice feature, although the files sometimes don't show in the AZ until after a reboot.
Fairly quick too, I'd say, a 1/2hr .avi file takes about 4 min.

My question is; instead of FTPing the files over to the AZ, can I not just read them (play the movie) from my AZ via the connection? (cat-5 wired, ~6Mb/s).

When opening "FTP" in the AZ's home menu, a box pops up asking for info in order to connect to my (I assume) PC, but I am unsure of what to enter or where to find it.
Can someone point out what I must enter here?
Host:___. Port:___.
ID:__________.
PW:_________.

I hope I'm on the right track, thanks.

 

[Lone Gunman]

I played movies the other night with my AZBox Elite using movie files stored on a hard drive on my computer in the other room. Did this across my home network and have even played DVD movies on my AZBox through a DVD drive on that computer also. You just have to make the computer you're trying to connect to is "shared" and it will work.

If you go to the "movie" menu on the AZBox you will see a list on the left, one of which is "network". open that and your router's network name should be on that list. When you open that you will see your computers name there if the share was setup correctly.

What operating system is on your computer?

 

[upnatm]

Hi Lone Gunman,

Thanks for the guidance!

I'm running XP Pro, V:2002, SP-3 on this one, and I have 2 other 'puters, plus the AZ connected to a
Lynksys router (wireless capable, but using wired). The router is wired to cable modem, getting speeds
between 5 and 7 Mb/s.

The wifey is using the stb right now, but I'll see if I can set this PC up for the AZ to see it.

I'll check back in a bit.

 

[AcWxRadar]

Upnatm,

The LoneGunman is right. But, you have to have some networking savvy to accomplish this. There are some special considerations that you may need to take into account along the way. Firewalls and exceptions and file sharing setups. You might have to conduct some selective research for the resident system and protection services that you have installed on your PC. I am personally not particularly savvy in this realm, but it is all doable with some research and it isn't all too tough. Worst thing I think is accomodating a procedure that covers all antivirus and protect software. There are so many variations out there now, and the rules are a little different for each. So, you have to know your own setup and work off that. If you are WIRED instead of using WiFI, it will probably be much easier (less hoops and rules to contend with).

RADAR

 

[cracklincrotch]

I've attached a plugin I've been using. Works great. It's called "Mount Wizard." Anyway, it allows you to set up NFS or Windows shares through the GUI and remote without having to telnet/ssh into the box and possibly screw things up. Great for the faint of heart.

Unzip this onto a memory stick and plug it into the Azbox. Go in to Plugins, hit add, choose USB and up it will come. You set the name/IP of the computer the file share is on, folder name, username and password (for Samba/Windows file shares) and you're done.

Can't remember where I found this. But the date on my hard drive says December 27 so I've had it for a few months now.

I should note that you use the 5 key on the remote in alpha mode to cycle through to get the "/" character for folder names.

 

[Babadem]

I've attached a plugin I've been using. Works great. It's called "Mount Wizard." Anyway, it allows you to set up NFS or Windows shares through the GUI and remote without having to telnet/ssh into the box and possibly screw things up. Great for the faint of heart.

Unzip this onto a memory stick and plug it into the Azbox. Go in to Plugins, hit add, choose USB and up it will come. You set the name/IP of the computer the file share is on, folder name, username and password (for Samba/Windows file shares) and you're done.

Can't remember where I found this. But the date on my hard drive says December 27 so I've had it for a few months now.

I should note that you use the 5 key on the remote in alpha mode to cycle through to get the "/" character for folder names.

Very nice of you to point out the key stroke!

 

[zamar23]

Does this plugin make AZBox hard drive accessible from a PC, so that you can play on a PC the content of AZXBox drive - internal or USB?

 

[Keith Brannen]

Does this plugin make AZBox hard drive accessible from a PC, so that you can play on a PC the content of AZXBox drive - internal or USB?

If you want to access your AZBox hard drive from your PC and you have all your network connections setup, put the AZBox into SLEEP mode and then the AZBox will show up in your Network Neighbourhood and you can play any of the files on your AZBox hard drive.

 

[zamar23]

Thanks.

Is there a way to save a channel, streamed by AZBox via LAN, on a remote PC's hard drive real time?

 

[Keith Brannen]

Thanks.

Is there a way to save a channel, streamed by AZBox via LAN, on a remote PC's hard drive real time?

Yes. I use VLC (version 0.8.6b) to view the stream. After setting up the stream (in UDP/RTP multicast) there are Advance Options, check the Stream/Save option and go into Settings, where there are options to play locally and to save as a file (ex: test.ts). If you check "Dump raw input" it seemed to me to give a better image. On my version, if I don't check play locally as well as save, then it saves the file, but VLC doesn't show it, or give any time indication that it is recording, but it is working.

Later versions of VLC may have different settings placement, but if you navigate your version you should be able to find similar settings to the above to be able to save the stream.

 

[zamar23]

Thanks Keith,

The info is very useful. In fact, there is no need to have a hard drive attached to AZBox, when you can save any show on a remote PC or network drive & file server. What file format it saves the stream in? If you are streaming over wired connection, how is HD feed pic quality?

 

[Keith Brannen]

Thanks Keith,

The info is very useful. In fact, there is no need to have a hard drive attached to AZBox, when you can save any show on a remote PC or network drive & file server. What file format it saves the stream in? If you are streaming over wired connection, how is HD feed pic quality?

Yes, you could get away without having a hard drive in the AZBox, although I believe that the streaming quality would not be as good as recording direct to a hard drive in the AZBox. What tests I have done, on SD channels only, recording the stream, then transferring to the hard drive in the AZBox, and playing it back to view on the TV, shows that there is some loss, but not a great deal (you really have to look for it).

While I haven't tried it, from the VLC screen where you enter the file name to save the stream, it appears you can save it in several different formats (and mpeg ts is the default).

I am streaming over a wired connection, but HD doesn't play very well (or record well) for me, but I think it has more to do with my old, slow, not up-to-date computers, than the stream!

 

[zamar23]

Possibly you simply have a slow network connection. HD would generally require Gigabit Ethernet to show uninterrupted 1080p pic oven LAN, and faster SATA hard drives are preferred choice. Even older CPUs and GPUs are generally fast enough for HTPC tasks. I doubt VLC would re-encode the streamed content unless you ask for that.

Why would you need to transfer files back to AZBox? Can't you play them in AZBox via LAN from your PC hard drive?

 

[Keith Brannen]

Possibly you simply have a slow network connection. HD would generally require Gigabit Ethernet to show uninterrupted 1080p pic oven LAN, and faster SATA hard drives are preferred choice. Even older CPUs and GPUs are generally fast enough for HTPC tasks. I doubt VLC would re-encode the streamed content unless you ask for that.

Why would you need to transfer files back to AZBox? Can't you play them in AZBox via LAN from your PC hard drive?

No, it's the computer (Windows98), when I recorded on a newer system the HD played/recorded fine. The AZBox also can't access the hard drives on the Windows98 computer (it sees the hard drives, but won't display folders or files, even though all are shared), but since I don't really need it to, then it is no big deal. So that is why I FTP'ed the files to the AZBox. The newer computer system the AZBox can access.

Anyhow, here is something new I discovered. When recording a stream that has closed captioning, when playing it back through the AZBox onto the TV, the closed captioning appears! And, there is no way to shut it off! Of course, it doesn't appear when played through VLC. Considering that you can't get the AZBox to display CC on your TV, it is rather ironic. However, it could be useful to someone who wants/needs CC to record via a stream, and then play back via LAN.