Plugins on azbox?

[Jim S.]

Do you not get two buttons, one saying "free user" and one saying "premium user"? I just tried it and I did. Granted, the amount per day you can download for free is ridiculously small, and the ads are ridiculously large, but it should work.

 

[putney]

Site wants me to pay them for premium membership to download.
No thanks.

select 'free user'.. wait 45 sec... download

 

[LocutusOfBorg]

Is it possible to access this box remotely and get into the system folders?

There are several applications that'll get you into the file structure of the Azbox. For Windows, FileZilla and WinSCP are examples. I use WinSCP for Windows. For Linux, I either use the CLI sftp or the GUI gFTP. I haven't tried it yet but you probably can get to the Azbox with a web browser using the format: ftp://<azbox adress>.

 

[cracklincrotch]

Is there any advantage to using this putty thing? Ie I just use the Hyperterm that comes with Windows, and that works fine. I do use a separate FTP program (WSFTP and/or SmartFTP) instead of Windows FTP however. But I'm curious whether putty has some advantage over Hyperterm?

I suggested PuTTY because I use SSH for everything. telnet is unencrypted. Not that there's anything I'd be concerned about on a local network, in my house, between my machine and a satellite receiver.

I'm curious how you did this, and I'm also curious whether there is any increase relative to the bitrates of video that you're able to play?
My Roku uses samba type file sharing (I think), and if I remember right, the highest bitrate it could handle across the lan was around 27 mbps, although I think newer firmware improved this a bit. However when it would receive a stream instead of grabbing it from a share, it could handle in excess of 40 mbps, basically never saw a rate too fast for it. So this NFS filesharing sounds interesting. But I'm also interested in perhaps some way of getting the Azbox to receive a stream. Seems like some of the Azbox applications involve getting streams off the internet, so it seems like it should be possible to simulate this over a lan, possibly making it a bit more efficient and able to exceed the 20 mbps cap???

I've always wondered if this so called 20 mbps "cap" on the bitrate was really intentional or if it just happened to be the fastest rate that the Azbox happened to be able to play? Ie I've never seen any URLs posted indicating that Azbox really did this intentionally, but that seems to be the common opinion.

I don't know about calculating the data rate on a particular stream, but I can calculate the file transfer rate between a computer and the Azbox.

SMB/CIFS versus NFS transfer, to the identical server. Only difference is the protocol used. Tested with my Azbox with 3686 firmware, with a 4-way Opteron 2218s 8GB RAM 1.0TB RAID 10 disk array running Fedora 11, 100Mbit full duplex network. Transferring a 277.5MB file I randomly picked as a test file and cached in RAM on the server:

4k block size: SMB/CIFS - 23.05Mbit/sec NFS - 42.33Mbit/sec
8k block size: SMB/CIFS - 22.75Mbit/sec NFS - 44.89Mbit/sec
16k block size: SMB/CIFS - 22.25Mbit/sec NFS - 39.56Mbit/sec
32k block size: SMB/CIFS - 22.49Mbit/sec NFS - 40.10Mbit/sec

I did this test about a week ago with 2880 and the results are much better across the block range that previous. Used to be that only the larger blocks resulted in better transfers, by as much as 50% better. A 100MB file took 47 seconds with a 4k block size versus 24 seconds for a 32k block. The recent firmwares definitely have been improved. In fact, movies that I still couldn't play at all without a/v sync issues and stuttering now play flawlessly across the network, even when I was still getting 40+Mbit transfers.

The Azbox will play movies that my wife's laptop (AMD X2 2.1GHz 3GB RAM) won't. In fact, since 3686 it plays everything without any audio/video sync or stutter issues. Only problem is the audio drops out on the optical audio (only).

Anywho, if you're running an NFS server, linux/solaris/BSD or otherwise, set up your /etc/exports file to look somewhat like this:

/home/azbox 172.16.1.151(rw)

/home/azbox is the folder on your server you are going to allow the azbox access to (which can be whatever you want) and the IP address there to be replaced with the IP of your Azbox. the (rw) means that I've given the azbox permission to read and write to the server. If you want it read only, then change that to (ro).

I mount my server on the /DATA/movie folder manually right now. It can be set up to be automatic as well. Do so at your own risk. I may have taken certain steps foregranted as I used to be a sysadmin and just did this type of stuff anyway.

To do this automatically at reboot:

You will need to mount /dev/hda1 as read/write:

mount -o remount,rw /dev/hda1 /MMP

You will need to edit the file /MMP/usr/bin/S.sh.

nano -w /MMP/usr/bin/S.sh

Go to the bottom of that file and add your mount command to that file. IE:

To mount an NFS share:

mount <server ip here>:/home/azbox /DATA/movie -t nfs -o rsize=8192,wsize=8192,soft,intr

For a Windows/SMB/CIFS share:

mount.cifs //<server ip here>/foldername /DATA/movie -o username=your_user_name,password=your_password

Press CTRL-X to save and exit.

remount /dev/hda1 as read-only:

mount -o remount,ro /dev/hda1 /MMP

You can mount your file share anywhere under /DATA. In fact you can make it so your azbox records directly to your server by mounting your file share under /DATA/usb1/sda1.

Mounting your share on /DATA/movie will let you see everything as soon as you go into the Movie function of the receiver.

If you wish to mount things automatically you should make sure you can do this manually first as you may find that your box will hang waiting for a non-existent server or file share to respond. This may take seconds or minutes or hours depending on your error, firmware version, or position of the moon relative to planet Venus and the burial site of your favourite pet.

All I know is that it works for me.

 

[cracklincrotch]

You should also note that this may have to be redone after a firmware update, I'd imagine.

 

[putney]

I suggested PuTTY because I use SSH for everything. telnet is unencrypted.
You can mount your file share anywhere under /DATA. In fact you can make it so your azbox records directly to your server by mounting your file share under /DATA/usb1/sda1.

Mounting your share on /DATA/movie will let you see everything as soon as you go into the Movie function of the receiver.

I haven't gotten that far yet, but thanks for the tip. Maz has a simple ftp editor built in. And for you Mac users I'm using Transmit, and it's working fine.

Do you know if there is a way (or room) to get NX Server working in this thing? I'd like to give that a try, when I get time. I don't know enough about Linux to know if the components are in place to allow it to work.

Also using FTP, are you (or can you be) successful backing up the whole system? Seems like the first place to start before messing with NX Server.

-thanks

 

[cracklincrotch]

I don't think there's any room to do that on the box. You'd also need to set up a cross-compiler to get that to work.

If you were looking for something like NX server, you'd probably be better off getting a DVB pci card or usb DVB device and use something like MythTV.

 

[putney]

If you were looking for something like NX server, you'd probably be better off getting a DVB pci card or usb DVB device and use something like MythTV.

It was either Azbox or USB DVB. I opted for the Az right now. I'll be hoping that a USB/PCI solution comes with blind scan before going there.

Thanks

 

[cracklincrotch]

I'd have gone the same way, and did. Very happy with my decision and the wife knows how to use it - even more important!

 

[B.J.]

Do you not get two buttons, one saying "free user" and one saying "premium user"? I just tried it and I did. Granted, the amount per day you can download for free is ridiculously small, and the ads are ridiculously large, but it should work.

select 'free user'.. wait 45 sec... download

No, I DID select the "free user" option, and it immediately popped up a message saying something like this particular file requires you to have some special type of membership to download. Strange. I've used that site before without any problems. Never did like the site, even when it worked.

 

[zamar23]

I've got my Azbox set up to use one of my servers as a file server with NFS (faster than Samba/Windows filesharing) to play/record movies across the network. I set that up by logging in remotely.

Anyone else tried to use NFS to play or record shows from AZBox via LAN by now? Can you confirm any speed or playback & recording quality gain with high bit rate shows compare to Samba or Windows Networking with current AZBox firmware?

Should this thread be in AZBox section? Hardly found it, despite NFS info here is highly valuable for advanced users.

 

[guapoharry]

...Should this thread be in AZBox section? ...

I wondered the same thing...

Then I wondered why one would be inclined to change fonts on the Azbox... What benefit is there to that?

 

[Mr Tony]

moved to correct forum

 

[putney]

I wondered the same thing...

Then I wondered why one would be inclined to change fonts on the Azbox... What benefit is there to that?

For me it is because my Az is attached to two TVs. The HD is fine, but it's in the front room and gets heavy wife/kid use and is usually Az-less (used mainly for movies). For scanning sats and general tinkering I operate the Az from the back room with the use of a remote extender. I have an old Lo-Def tv there and the default font is unreadable. Changing the font made it usable.
Once I upgrade that tv to a Hi-Def it won't matter, I'm assuming.

 

[AcWxRadar]

I wondered the same thing...

Then I wondered why one would be inclined to change fonts on the Azbox... What benefit is there to that?

Your eyes may be either younger or stronger than mine! LOL

I really had to squint to see some of the details, especially if there were two "1"s together. I couldn't discern them, they were a blur for me.

Loading different fonts and trying them helped me see them better. I don't remember which one I ended up with, but it is a little better than the system font.

I probably just need glasses.

RADAR