How to Customize the STP-HD300 Media Player UI

[Opus4]

Last updated: October 27, 2010, for firmware 20101022 0

It is possible to customize the STP-HD300's Media Player (standalone) UI by using Studio on a PC installation of SageTV to modify the interface.

To use Studio, see the Studio Information Resources.


Get the Base STV for the STP-HD300

Easiest way - download the zipped files:
To modify the existing HD300 UI, first download the following zip file containing the STV and its support files:

HD300STVFiles.zip

You can unzip this in your SageTV installation directory to create a working location for it -- unzip the file in the existing "STVs" subdirectory where SageTV has been installed, being sure to preserve the folder structure contained in the zip file. This will create a subdirectory named "Cheetah".

Or, copy the files from the HD300:
Telnet into the HD300 (login as 'root', no password). The HD300's STV is found in /sage/STVs/Cheetah. You will need to copy that entire folder tree if you wish to modify & use the STV from a different location, or you will have problems when trying to access the support files it needs (images & so on).

The files can be copied to a USB drive, which is mounted as a subfolder of /tmp/external. You could copy the STV files to your USB drive's subfolder.


Edit the Base STV


The name of the file to be loaded and edited in Studio is named as one of the following:

• Downloaded from above link: "Cheetah300.opt.stv"
• Copied from the HD300: "Cheetah.opt.stv"

Note: The name of the STV in the file download is different from the one built into the HD300 so that if you load and use it, it is more obvious that you are using a custom STV.

You may want to use Studio's File -> Save As option to save the file as an differently named STV file with the .xml extension to help separate your working copy from the STV that can be used on the HD300.

When you are ready to test your edits on the HD300, use Studio's File -> "Save A Copy As..." option to save the file with a name ending in .opt.stv. This saves the file in a special format required for loading the STV on the HD300. Note: If you do not use the Save A Copy As option or do not use the .opt.stv extension, the file will not be loadable on the HD300.


Prepare to use the STV on the HD300

Copy the entire Cheetah directory tree to one of these locations:

• A USB drive to be attached to the HD300.
• A network location that the HD300 has access to. Tip: The HD300 can access a drive on your networked PC if a directory on that drive has been added as an import directory on the HD300.
• The writable flash location in the HD300's internal memory. If you connect to the HD300 over your network from a Windows PC, the writable location is named 'InternalFlash'. When telnetting into the HD300, the directory is '/rw'. These are the same locations on the HD300. Notes:
  • To enable access to the internal writable flash, debug logging must be enabled in standalone mode in Advanced Setup -> General, and the Windows File Server option must be enabled and configured in Advanced Setup -> Server.
  • The internal writable flash has about 200 MB of usable storage space. Be careful not to use too much of that space.

Note: You must copy all the files because the support files (graphics & so on) will be expected to be found in the directory tree in and below the directory where the .opt.stv file is located.




Load the STV on the HD300

After editing & copying the new .opt.stv file and its support files, follow these steps to load the STV on the HD300 when used as a Media Player (not connected to a SageTV server):

1. Plug the USB drive into the HD300, make sure the network path is accessible to the HD300, or make sure the custom STV and all its support files have been copiued to the HD300's internal writable flash directory (above).
   
   
2. From the HD300's Main Menu, go to Settings -> System Information (or just use the Info command while on the Main Menu). Using the remote, enter the 4-digit '5309' code. If entered successfully, you will see a blue dot in the top left corner.
   
   
3. From the HD300's Main Menu, go to Settings -> Advanced Setup -> Advanced -> SageTV Application Package. Load the STV...
   • For a USB drive, use Up Directory to get to "/", then go to tmp/external/<name of the USB drive>, then navigate to the path where the .opt.stv file is located and load it.
   • For a network location, use Up Directory to get to "/", then go to tmp/sagetv_shares, then navigate to the path where the .opt.stv file is located and load it.
   • For an internal writable flash location, use Up Directory to get to "/", then go to 'rw', then navigate to the path where the .opt.stv file is located and load it.

If your edits have created a problem and you need to recover to the original STV, simply remove the USB drive, rename the network path location, or rename/delete the internal writable flash path for the STV and reboot the HD300. When it can't find the custom STV file, it will revert to the original STV.


Let me know if you run into any problems with the above instructions or have questions about some part that isn't clear.

- Andy