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The following method allows you to use your
PC harddrive as an external networked drive
for any Linux STB running a common image without
using nGrab. It will work whether or not you have
a harddrive in your Linux STB. You can also use this
method to mount any other PC Device (CD, DVD, USB, etc)
to a folder on your STB.
1.) On your PC, go to Administrative Tools > Computer Management >
Users. Create a new user with a password. Right-Click on users,
create new user. Call this user "U" with password "U". This user
will be your STB. Remember to verify that the user you created has been added.
2.) Turn OFF (untick) "Use Simple File Sharing" in Windows Explorer
(Tools>Folder Options>View).
3.) Create a new folder on your PC called anything you like, anywhere you
like. This will be where your recorded programmes are stored. We will call it
"S" in this example. Usually you must also create a subfolder called "movie" or
something similar. The name will vary according to the image you are using.
a.) Right click on the main folder you just created and toggle "Share this folder"
with settings as in the picture below. Its subfolder (eg. "movie") will also
be shared.
b.) Give this user full access to the shared folder by pressing "permissions"
in the box above, removing "Everyone", and entering the appropriate permissions
as follows:
4.) Using the remote with your STB, navigate to "mounts". This is usually
Menu>Setup>Expert Setup>Communications Settings>Mounts.
a.) Enter the information as shown in the image. In the example, 192.168.1.2 is the PC IP ADDRESS. You may need to change this to your PC's IP address.
b.) Select CIFS. CIFS requires a username and password. These are U and U in this example.
c.) Dir is your PC's shared folder. Enter "S" WITHOUT trailing /
d.) LocalDir is where recordings are ordinarily stored in your STB. Here it is /hdd. NOTE THE FORWARD SLASH!
e.) Select read-write (rw) access.
f.) "Extra" can be left as is.
g.) Enter the User and Pass (U and U in this example).
h.) Tick "Automount" and save. Only one mount to a given STB directory can be active at one time.
i.) Press "mount". A message should appear informing you of success or failure.
Note that we kept the shared folder name, the username, and the password quite short, since these had to be added later using the remote. If you are better at SMS than I am, the lengths of these can be anything you like.
If everything succeeded, all of your recordings will be directed to your PC harddrive when you press record or set these to record with the timer and will show up in the shared folder you made earlier on the PC.
Remember that files will be sized as in the expert settings menu. To have an entire film record as one file, set the size as in the expert setup menu below to be as large as possible. The recording need not take up the entire possible size, but neither will it be "chopped" into smaller files. Making an exception to this general practice would be reasonable if you intend to use these files later on DVD (VOB/MPEG format) which usually requires 1GB file parts. You may lose a couple of seconds between the smaller file segments. If this bothers you it is probably better to use file-splitting and DVD authoring software on a larger single file for burning to DVD.
Recordings are in the .TS (transport stream) format by default, which can be played back easily on the PC with VLC (VideoLAN - Free and Open Source software and video streaming solutions for every OS!). VLC is also excellent for transcoding to other formats, such as VOB/MPEG or AVI for playback from DVD and can also be used for streaming recorded video.
Recordings can also be played back on your STB by pressing the "FILE" button on your remote, navigating to "root" or "harddrive" and selecting the recording to play.
Occasionally Automount does not work correctly. In this case you will see an empty directory or files on your STB's harddrive (if any) when you press FILE and navigate to harddrive. Go back to the "Mounts" page in your OSD and re-mount the PC drive to solve the problem.
Firewalls may prevent your STB from connecting to your PC. It is easiest to put the IP Address of your STB in the local zone or equivalent. How this is done depends on your firewall.
Finally, this whole "How-To" is really just how to mount a folder or device on your PC using your STB. The same techniques will work for mounting your CD/DVD drive (a device), for example. If your STB supports files in formats other than TS, you can play these formats back through your STB. If your STB only supports MPEG TS and MP3, you can still play these files from any type of storage device your PC can run, so ... mount away
PC harddrive as an external networked drive
for any Linux STB running a common image without
using nGrab. It will work whether or not you have
a harddrive in your Linux STB. You can also use this
method to mount any other PC Device (CD, DVD, USB, etc)
to a folder on your STB.
1.) On your PC, go to Administrative Tools > Computer Management >
Users. Create a new user with a password. Right-Click on users,
create new user. Call this user "U" with password "U". This user
will be your STB. Remember to verify that the user you created has been added.
2.) Turn OFF (untick) "Use Simple File Sharing" in Windows Explorer
(Tools>Folder Options>View).
3.) Create a new folder on your PC called anything you like, anywhere you
like. This will be where your recorded programmes are stored. We will call it
"S" in this example. Usually you must also create a subfolder called "movie" or
something similar. The name will vary according to the image you are using.
a.) Right click on the main folder you just created and toggle "Share this folder"
with settings as in the picture below. Its subfolder (eg. "movie") will also
be shared.
b.) Give this user full access to the shared folder by pressing "permissions"
in the box above, removing "Everyone", and entering the appropriate permissions
as follows:
4.) Using the remote with your STB, navigate to "mounts". This is usually
Menu>Setup>Expert Setup>Communications Settings>Mounts.
a.) Enter the information as shown in the image. In the example, 192.168.1.2 is the PC IP ADDRESS. You may need to change this to your PC's IP address.
b.) Select CIFS. CIFS requires a username and password. These are U and U in this example.
c.) Dir is your PC's shared folder. Enter "S" WITHOUT trailing /
d.) LocalDir is where recordings are ordinarily stored in your STB. Here it is /hdd. NOTE THE FORWARD SLASH!
e.) Select read-write (rw) access.
f.) "Extra" can be left as is.
g.) Enter the User and Pass (U and U in this example).
h.) Tick "Automount" and save. Only one mount to a given STB directory can be active at one time.
i.) Press "mount". A message should appear informing you of success or failure.
Note that we kept the shared folder name, the username, and the password quite short, since these had to be added later using the remote. If you are better at SMS than I am, the lengths of these can be anything you like.
If everything succeeded, all of your recordings will be directed to your PC harddrive when you press record or set these to record with the timer and will show up in the shared folder you made earlier on the PC.
Remember that files will be sized as in the expert settings menu. To have an entire film record as one file, set the size as in the expert setup menu below to be as large as possible. The recording need not take up the entire possible size, but neither will it be "chopped" into smaller files. Making an exception to this general practice would be reasonable if you intend to use these files later on DVD (VOB/MPEG format) which usually requires 1GB file parts. You may lose a couple of seconds between the smaller file segments. If this bothers you it is probably better to use file-splitting and DVD authoring software on a larger single file for burning to DVD.
Recordings are in the .TS (transport stream) format by default, which can be played back easily on the PC with VLC (VideoLAN - Free and Open Source software and video streaming solutions for every OS!). VLC is also excellent for transcoding to other formats, such as VOB/MPEG or AVI for playback from DVD and can also be used for streaming recorded video.
Recordings can also be played back on your STB by pressing the "FILE" button on your remote, navigating to "root" or "harddrive" and selecting the recording to play.
Occasionally Automount does not work correctly. In this case you will see an empty directory or files on your STB's harddrive (if any) when you press FILE and navigate to harddrive. Go back to the "Mounts" page in your OSD and re-mount the PC drive to solve the problem.
Firewalls may prevent your STB from connecting to your PC. It is easiest to put the IP Address of your STB in the local zone or equivalent. How this is done depends on your firewall.
Finally, this whole "How-To" is really just how to mount a folder or device on your PC using your STB. The same techniques will work for mounting your CD/DVD drive (a device), for example. If your STB supports files in formats other than TS, you can play these formats back through your STB. If your STB only supports MPEG TS and MP3, you can still play these files from any type of storage device your PC can run, so ... mount away