Remote Scheduling

New Terms

rs package 

The remote scheduling program that runs on your Humax box (which needs to be running the modded firmware including the Web Interface package)

http://rs.hummypkg.org.uk/ 

The Remote Scheduling website that captures your schedule requirements and synchronises them to your box at home.

Getting Started

If you are not already running the modified firmware then please have a look at the Wiki and Black Holes threads at the top of the http://hummy.tv Forum which cover how to get started and ready to move on.

First, update to the latest version of the standard web interface and then load the rs package.

Then on the Settings page of the web interface register an email address that you will use to access the web site. In order for the service to work (and to keep track of your schedule info) it needs to pick up the MAC address from your box. This is all done as part of the initial registration process.

Check your email account that you registered with and it will confirm what your password will be, then connect to http://rs.hummypkg.org.uk/ and log in with the email address and password.

When you first log in there is some important information regarding what the site will and won't do and general Terms & Conditions to agree to before you can proceed.

This gets you to the Home Screen

To begin with it will show you the existing schedule details from your Hummy. There's also the Home button to return to this screen, Change Password and Logout buttons. Plus there is the EPG button - click this to see the EPG which will look and feel much the same as that already on the web interface.

Scheduling a Recording

Go into the EPG screen. Peruse the channel listings, you can click on a channel name to see the full line up for that channel. Alternatively you can use the Search or click on the down arrow to search by genre.

There is a more detailed section on searching further down or via the table of contents links.

Click on the Programme Name that you want to schedule and you will get a dialogue box with more detailed programme info, plus buttons at the bottom to record the series, just the program, or cancel.

Once this is done the Home screen will now show a section at the top called Queued Commands - at this stage these are only stored on the website awaiting a sync with your Humax. Every 5 minutes or so (or on next reboot if the box is on standby) your box will contact the site to see if there is anything to sync and if there are items in Queued Commands they will be picked up and copied over to your Humax, and then they will appear in a Pending list. There is a 'last seen' time/date stamp at the top of the Home Page so you know if the site is seeing your box.

Please note that due to the way the core Humax software works a restart of the box is then required in order for Pending items to actually take place. This is why items in the Queued Commands list also have a button for "Schedule Reboot" - if you click this a reboot command is also sent to the Humax box along with your recordings, and the box will restart itself shortly after synchronising the Queued Commands thus ensuring your recordings/changes take place.

All boxes have an auto update task at 4:30 am every morning so at worst case they wake up every morning and any Pending Items already on the box will become active. Otherwise if you have the box on standby when you are not there you may want to schedule a power cycle or two so that the box wakes up and can pick up any Queued and/or Pending items and incorporate them fully into the schedule (there is a function for this under 'Additional Commands')

Don't forget that if you have the box on standby when you make the schedule then it'll need one wake up to pick up the scheduled item(s), then another in order to successfully incorporate them into the schedule on the Humax. You can send the second re-boot along with the schedule but the first has to already be defined on the box (either the built in daily 4:30am auto update or wake up/sleep cycles you can program yourself).

Queued Commands

These are the things you have done on the web site. Set recordings, deleted schedules. At this stage they are only held on the website until the next 5 minute 'sweep' or your Hummy wakes up and check the site.

Deleting Queued Items

You'll notice the Queued items list has a trashcan icon at the end of each line and this will remove the item from the Queue and therefore wont sync with your Hummy.

Scheduled Events on Humax

Pending 

The Humax knows about these items, but it needs a reboot in order to save them into the schedule list on the box so that they actually work as expected.

Active 

These are all the items the Humax knows about AND will carry them out in full.

Deleting Scheduled Items

(i.e. those already synchronised onto the Humax schedule or in the Pending List)

I will refer to items in the Active list but this works just the same for items in the Pending List.Click on the item in the Active list on the home page, and choose the 'Cancel Event' option. This will create a cancellation line in the Queued Commands list and wait for the next sync between the site and your box.

Just like setting a recording the cancellation item will then sit in the Pending Queue on the box until a restart takes place hence you can also send along a reboot action with the cancellation just like you can with a new recording. BUT like setting a recording if your box is in standby it needs to wake up in order to sync in the first place. Less of a worry when deleting items as it's no problem to record something you now don't want anymore.

Additional Commands

This is found at the end of the Active list on the main page. In here you can set up a wake up/sleep event. You can use these to periodically wake the box up to check for any new actions from the website and put it back in standby afterwards. These are separate to the automatic on/off times that you can program from the on screen menus on the Humax settings menu in that you can define multiple wake/sleep events, although along with the built in early morning wake up you may only need 1 or 2 more per day.

Recent Activity

This is a simple view of an event log - it's not meant to be an exhaustive audit trail but it does confirm that things are happening and when they happened. You can see a more detailed list of every event tracked by clicking the More button.