Hi Rowland. The USB ports are currently only available for engineer software maintenance but they are available to YouView and the device manufacturers to support new features that will be added in future software updates.
Dont worry, a hacker will use the usb ports to gain access to the software on the device if this is not updated soon and the usb is not activated, that is what "hakers" do, they give the functionality that has been removed or not given for whatever reason. The longer you-view takes to resolve this the sooner a hacker will jump in and rescue the boxes, and youview will not know the difference, just as with many devices being hacked today. I would wait for a while everyone hackers are probably working in it as we write these comments
YouView is owned by UK TV broadcasters, and probably would prefer to prevent hacking of their boxes to prevent any copyright infringement.
The problem is that not giving this function which is on every other box is just going to encourage the hackers to access the device and do it themselves, this is what hacker do, if youview does not do it someone else will, but i would rather youview did it first, unlikely but you never know, and hackers have all the software they need to hack into this box dont you doubt that for one moment, too many have said their devices are uncrackable just to realsie they have been hacked, now if they gave the functionality nobody would have to hack the box
I was dismayed to find that a 320GB box with usb ports does not enable archiving of recorded content. This is surely a basic feature required of any box that enables replay of recordings? I have a 5-year old HDD/DVD box that enables transfer to DVD and HDD and so I am very surprised (amazed in fact) to find that my 'new' TALKTALK box (TN370) is unable to export content.
Drm again, how many times does drm have to interfere with our viewing, seriously the music industry learnt this the hard way, is the tv industry going to learn the hard way?
I was dismayed to find that a 320GB box with usb ports does not enable archiving of recorded content. This is surely a basic feature required of any box that enables replay of recordings? I have a 5-year old HDD/DVD box that enables transfer to DVD and HDD and so I am very surprised (amazed in fact) to find that my 'new' TALKTALK box (TN370) is unable to export content.
Some devices allow archiving to a usb drive in a proprietary format which can only be played back on same device. No DRM problems. Samsung TV for instance.
I Must admit, I Just presumed it would do this out the box due to the USB Socket on the HUMAX ,
But I was very Surprised & disappointed to find you could not plug in a HDD to record on. Seems so obvious that it's hard to comprehend why it's not been implemented already ?
Exporting to a USB HDD is not only desirable, it is vital if you want to retain recordings and you suffer the "random reset and delete" glitch as I did.
I now double record everything I might want to archive using my Humax HD Fox T2 plus HDD.
THERE ARE NO RIGHTS ISSUES as the original Humax machine must be used to playback externally archived HD recordings and SD recordings are not copy protected anyway.
I did a close reading of the published Youview base specification which states the USB must be available for use but in this context only for playback from an external source or for a wifi dongle in the absence of a built in wifi chip.
It's now 6 months from the Humax box being available in the shops - I suppose the question is whether the full base specification will be available before my one year (trial box) warranty is up!
Under UK law it's illegal to retain recordings, the law allows you to record solely for timeshifting purpose - watching once at a more convenient time. Storing it for long-term viewing ins't permitted.
Given YouView is backed by broadcasters It's perhaps unlikely that a feature which breaks their legal protection against unauthorised copies would be added.
I bought the Humax DTR-1010 box assuming it would be the same as the Humax box my dad has, just with a few extra features. I am really disappointed with the lack of both DLNA and USB playback support. Had I known this, I wouldn't have bothered buying the Youview box and would have just got the standard Humax PVR.
Is there any chance of these features being supported / activated in a future software update?
I bought the Humax DTR-1010 box assuming it would be the same as the Humax box my dad has, just with a few extra features. I am really disappointed with the lack of both DLNA and USB playback support. Had I known this, I wouldn't have bothered buying the Youview box and would have just got the standard Humax PVR.
Is there any chance of these features being supported / activated in a future software update?
There is a good chance of these features being supported in the future, but there are no timescales.
I think people need to remember that Humax just makes the hardware. The software is YouView. I could never buy such a box without looking at the specs in detail and knowing exactly what it did.
I bought the Humax DTR-1010 box assuming it would be the same as the Humax box my dad has, just with a few extra features. I am really disappointed with the lack of both DLNA and USB playback support. Had I known this, I wouldn't have bothered buying the Youview box and would have just got the standard Humax PVR.
Is there any chance of these features being supported / activated in a future software update?
None of that becomes apparent until you plug the box in. I have a very old humax box which is great. I had no idea that this new shiny box would be so inferior as a pvr.
I bought the Humax DTR-1010 box assuming it would be the same as the Humax box my dad has, just with a few extra features. I am really disappointed with the lack of both DLNA and USB playback support. Had I known this, I wouldn't have bothered buying the Youview box and would have just got the standard Humax PVR.
Is there any chance of these features being supported / activated in a future software update?
What? You would happily spend £300 on a box without KNOWING what it did. You are happy to guess? Some people obviously have more money than I do to throw away. The YouView website has a features page that tells you what it does.
I bought the Humax DTR-1010 box assuming it would be the same as the Humax box my dad has, just with a few extra features. I am really disappointed with the lack of both DLNA and USB playback support. Had I known this, I wouldn't have bothered buying the Youview box and would have just got the standard Humax PVR.
Is there any chance of these features being supported / activated in a future software update?
I know funny isn't it, not enough to dump it thou. I wrongly spent my research time trying to workout which I would like best; freetime, freeviewHD,YV or Black Gold tuners for our HTPC. Reading the spec sheets of the humax boxes doesn't split them. Have quite some experience of Humax boxes I confidently ( you can laugh ) thought that the prv side of things would be good. I went to shops to try the different boxes. Nobody had a working YV box (Harrogate). All the other pvr's had a proper feature set. Que another laugh.... I assumed this humax pvr would be at least as good as the other four humax pvr's I had spent time getting to know.
Under UK law it's illegal to retain recordings, the law allows you to record solely for timeshifting purpose - watching once at a more convenient time. Storing it for long-term viewing ins't permitted.
Given YouView is backed by broadcasters It's perhaps unlikely that a feature which breaks their legal protection against unauthorised copies would be added.
Martin are you still banging on about the legalities of recording
Under UK law it's illegal to retain recordings, the law allows you to record solely for timeshifting purpose - watching once at a more convenient time. Storing it for long-term viewing ins't permitted.
Given YouView is backed by broadcasters It's perhaps unlikely that a feature which breaks their legal protection against unauthorised copies would be added.
Martin are you still banging on about the legalities of recording
Not so. The BBC specifically allow one recording of a HD programme to be retained for home use. That is why you can only play recordings exported from one of Humax's Fox T2 (Freeview HD) boxes on the original box, to prevent it being taken to another house and played back there on a similar machine.
All the other broadcasters have the same policy in allowing "time shifting" in that there is no cut-off point beyond which you cannot retain them. If they did not, any PVR usage would be breaking "the law", which you might like to quote. Also, how come there are DVD/Blu ray recorders available, the instructions for which do not mention that you have to trash the DVD-R once you have viewed the recording?
Under UK law it's illegal to retain recordings, the law allows you to record solely for timeshifting purpose - watching once at a more convenient time. Storing it for long-term viewing ins't permitted.
Given YouView is backed by broadcasters It's perhaps unlikely that a feature which breaks their legal protection against unauthorised copies would be added.
Martin are you still banging on about the legalities of recording
Andy, sorry the lack of a different colour for a quote box got me confused, I was of course answering Martin's point and support your view.
Under UK law it's illegal to retain recordings, the law allows you to record solely for timeshifting purpose - watching once at a more convenient time. Storing it for long-term viewing ins't permitted.
Given YouView is backed by broadcasters It's perhaps unlikely that a feature which breaks their legal protection against unauthorised copies would be added.
Martin are you still banging on about the legalities of recording
I don't think how long is long enough for time shifting purposes has ever been tested in court but you have to think that the seven day limit on catch up services that is typical would be offered up as evidence by the case for the prosecution as establishing what the man on the Clapham omnibus would think reasonable.
Under UK law it's illegal to retain recordings, the law allows you to record solely for timeshifting purpose - watching once at a more convenient time. Storing it for long-term viewing ins't permitted.
Given YouView is backed by broadcasters It's perhaps unlikely that a feature which breaks their legal protection against unauthorised copies would be added.
Martin are you still banging on about the legalities of recording
Few things;
The BBC makes podcasts of its radio programmes available to be kept for an indefinite time.
The BBC only keeps programmes available from its site for 7 days from first broadcast. This is for contract reasons involving the performers as they get repeat fees after last of the first transmissions (for example when BBC 3 programmes are repeated in the same week it runs from the last showing) if my understanding of actors' contracts with them is correct.
Channel 4 has a very large back catalogue available on 4oD. The BBC is also planning such a service tho this may be by subscription.
There would not be a "prosecution" as copyright breaches are a civil matter.
Under UK law it's illegal to retain recordings, the law allows you to record solely for timeshifting purpose - watching once at a more convenient time. Storing it for long-term viewing ins't permitted.
Given YouView is backed by broadcasters It's perhaps unlikely that a feature which breaks their legal protection against unauthorised copies would be added.
Martin are you still banging on about the legalities of recording
Of course. That should have read as "case for the plaintiff".
>> I have just read the lukewarm Which review which says wait before buying
A review is just one person's opinion. There are other reviews that give it 4 and 5 stars.
>> Notwithstanding all this the box has two USB ports which are of no value to customers
The box has 2 USB ports because the YouView spec - accessible here https://industry.youview.com/resource... - requires a "Minimum of two: At least one on front panel and one on rear."
They didn't require them to be included just to add another 50p to manufacturing costs.
The spec goes on to list the USB accessories the ports must provide support for. These include:
USB mass storage devices (For presentation of content from USB drives. No requirement to export content.) USB human interface devices
You can read the whole thing via the link above.
It would REALLY add to the level of discussion if people took the time to understand the YouVIew boxes don't include things like USB ports by accident. The components are part of a specification and that specification was designed for a purpose.
They'll get enabled in due course.
The spec says that "Integrated wireless Ethernet is optional. If not provided, the device must support the use of USB Wifi adapters." Does it actually do this?
Prompted by Martin's 5 month old post I've just had a look at the YouView specs publication, which includes the statement...
"Integrated wireless Ethernet is optional. If not provided, the device must support the use of USB Wifi adapters."
Does it actually do this? .
Which is the precise meaning of the wording used. Perhaps they should pander to those who level of comprehension is not up to dissecting the clever wording they use to obfuscate their true meaning?
Prompted by Martin's 5 month old post I've just had a look at the YouView specs publication, which includes the statement...
"Integrated wireless Ethernet is optional. If not provided, the device must support the use of USB Wifi adapters."
Does it actually do this? .
It has to EITHER have a wifi chip built in OR be able to wirelessly connect to the internet using a USB wifi dongle - the base specifications are quite clear on this. Unfortunately the USB is only mandated for use to play back from external sources, not to archive, although that is not forbidden - so Humax could implement it just as, I understand, they have done on the box.
So far then, neither of the two boxes on the market meet the base specification laid down by YouView. Presumably they got their stickers on the basis of promises that they would be implemented at a date some time after being launched. It's disgraceful that Youview have not absolutely clarified this position instead of giving the weasel worded reply above.
It's also disgraceful that Youview chose to introduce a "Sky looky likey" feature in the form of the remote app for Apple (only) devices and spend development time on it instead of implementing their base specification's features in the GUI.
Prompted by Martin's 5 month old post I've just had a look at the YouView specs publication, which includes the statement...
"Integrated wireless Ethernet is optional. If not provided, the device must support the use of USB Wifi adapters."
Does it actually do this? .
gomez, I think the wording quoted says
"If it doesn't offer integrated wireless ethernet (which it doesn't), it must support the use of USB WiFi adaptors."
But what is meant by "supporting the use of USB WiFi adaptors" is ambiguous. You can use USB powered WiFi adaptors, but that's not quite the same thing since the only "support" being provided to the adaptor functions is power.
>> I have just read the lukewarm Which review which says wait before buying
A review is just one person's opinion. There are other reviews that give it 4 and 5 stars.
>> Notwithstanding all this the box has two USB ports which are of no value to customers
The box has 2 USB ports because the YouView spec - accessible here https://industry.youview.com/resource... - requires a "Minimum of two: At least one on front panel and one on rear."
They didn't require them to be included just to add another 50p to manufacturing costs.
The spec goes on to list the USB accessories the ports must provide support for. These include:
USB mass storage devices (For presentation of content from USB drives. No requirement to export content.) USB human interface devices
You can read the whole thing via the link above.
It would REALLY add to the level of discussion if people took the time to understand the YouVIew boxes don't include things like USB ports by accident. The components are part of a specification and that specification was designed for a purpose.
They'll get enabled in due course.
Since the USB ports on neither machine currently on the market have been activated, how can they? In a word, NO!
Note in general Humax and Huawei etc are just the hardware manufacturers. It is YouView that develop the main software and add features. Since this topic is marked as under consideration YouView must be considering the idea but that does not necessarily means we will see any development on it any time soon. As you say a good starting point would be to be able to play/view items from an external USB device even if importing and exporting etc is not initially possible.
Not quite, they are free to implement their own machine specific functions like archiving to USB. Youview admit this in the above comment if you read it carefully:
"They are available to YouView and the device manufacturers to support new features that will be added in future software updates."
Note the inclusion of the "device manufacturers" in that response.
Comments
But I was very Surprised & disappointed to find you could not plug in a HDD to record on. Seems so obvious that it's hard to comprehend why it's not been implemented already ?
This Feature is Needed !
I now double record everything I might want to archive using my Humax HD Fox T2 plus HDD.
THERE ARE NO RIGHTS ISSUES as the original Humax machine must be used to playback externally archived HD recordings and SD recordings are not copy protected anyway.
I did a close reading of the published Youview base specification which states the USB must be available for use but in this context only for playback from an external source or for a wifi dongle in the absence of a built in wifi chip.
It's now 6 months from the Humax box being available in the shops - I suppose the question is whether the full base specification will be available before my one year (trial box) warranty is up!
>> it is vital if you want to retain recordings
Under UK law it's illegal to retain recordings, the law allows you to record solely for timeshifting purpose - watching once at a more convenient time. Storing it for long-term viewing ins't permitted.
Given YouView is backed by broadcasters It's perhaps unlikely that a feature which breaks their legal protection against unauthorised copies would be added.
Is there any chance of these features being supported / activated in a future software update?
I think people need to remember that Humax just makes the hardware. The software is YouView. I could never buy such a box without looking at the specs in detail and knowing exactly what it did.
I have a very old humax box which is great. I had no idea that this new shiny box would be so inferior as a pvr.
I wrongly spent my research time trying to workout which I would like best; freetime, freeviewHD,YV or Black Gold tuners for our HTPC. Reading the spec sheets of the humax boxes doesn't split them. Have quite some experience of Humax boxes I confidently ( you can laugh ) thought that the prv side of things would be good.
I went to shops to try the different boxes. Nobody had a working YV box (Harrogate). All the other pvr's had a proper feature set. Que another laugh....
I assumed this humax pvr would be at least as good as the other four humax pvr's I had spent time getting to know.
How wrong I was...
Under UK law it's illegal to retain recordings, the law allows you to record solely for timeshifting purpose - watching once at a more convenient time. Storing it for long-term viewing ins't permitted.
Given YouView is backed by broadcasters It's perhaps unlikely that a feature which breaks their legal protection against unauthorised copies would be added.
Martin are you still banging on about the legalities of recording
All the other broadcasters have the same policy in allowing "time shifting" in that there is no cut-off point beyond which you cannot retain them. If they did not, any PVR usage would be breaking "the law", which you might like to quote. Also, how come there are DVD/Blu ray recorders available, the instructions for which do not mention that you have to trash the DVD-R once you have viewed the recording?
The BBC makes podcasts of its radio programmes available to be kept for an indefinite time.
The BBC only keeps programmes available from its site for 7 days from first broadcast. This is for contract reasons involving the performers as they get repeat fees after last of the first transmissions (for example when BBC 3 programmes are repeated in the same week it runs from the last showing) if my understanding of actors' contracts with them is correct.
Channel 4 has a very large back catalogue available on 4oD. The BBC is also planning such a service tho this may be by subscription.
There would not be a "prosecution" as copyright breaches are a civil matter.
Does it actually do this?
"Integrated wireless Ethernet is optional. If not provided, the device must support the use of USB Wifi adapters."
Does it actually do this?
.
So far then, neither of the two boxes on the market meet the base specification laid down by YouView. Presumably they got their stickers on the basis of promises that they would be implemented at a date some time after being launched. It's disgraceful that Youview have not absolutely clarified this position instead of giving the weasel worded reply above.
It's also disgraceful that Youview chose to introduce a "Sky looky likey" feature in the form of the remote app for Apple (only) devices and spend development time on it instead of implementing their base specification's features in the GUI.
"If it doesn't offer integrated wireless ethernet (which it doesn't), it must support the use of USB WiFi adaptors."
But what is meant by "supporting the use of USB WiFi adaptors" is ambiguous. You can use USB powered WiFi adaptors, but that's not quite the same thing since the only "support" being provided to the adaptor functions is power.
"They are available to YouView and the device manufacturers to support new features that will be added in future software updates."
Note the inclusion of the "device manufacturers" in that response.