It's not a bug in itself but deletion while recording was possible in v01 firmware which was removed in v02 due to a bug that could corrupt the file system.
Thanks for that Graham. That's made things a bit clearer.
As a newcommer to the HDR, I search the net to discover more about the device and came across this forum.
I read with interest that a new firmware is being written and, it would seem, many are champing at the bit for its release.
However, I am unsure about the 'bugs' that have been aired in these pages. Surely, something like, not being able to delete whilst another recording is in progress, is a feature that doesn't exist, not a bug.
Is there an extensive list of bugs i.e. things that don't work as intended and a list of 'nice to have's'? And, out of these lists, what is being tackled in development.
I don't know why, but I have to admit to having a sneaking suspision that the new release will be a jaw dropper.
PJ
Hi PJ,
Welcome to the forums, and being a new HDR owner.
There are various threads that you can find which list Bugs, and others list Feature Requests. There is no list, that I know, of things that are being worked on (not publicly available, anyway).
A good source of information is available over at Hummy.org, especially the FAQs here, are worth a good read.
As a newcommer to the HDR, I search the net to discover more about the device and came across this forum.
I read with interest that a new firmware is being written and, it would seem, many are champing at the bit for its release.
However, I am unsure about the 'bugs' that have been aired in these pages. Surely, something like, not being able to delete whilst another recording is in progress, is a feature that doesn't exist, not a bug.
Is there an extensive list of bugs i.e. things that don't work as intended and a list of 'nice to have's'? And, out of these lists, what is being tackled in development.
I don't know why, but I have to admit to having a sneaking suspision that the new release will be a jaw dropper.
I don't know why, but I have to admit to having a sneaking suspision that the new release will be a jaw dropper.
PJ
Strange that comment as I too for some reason was thinking the same thing. Think it was reading some recent remark by Bob Cat (which through the noise I heard). I got the feeling that the recent upset by some members was a "proof will be in the pudding" sort of moment that Bob Cat was somehow resigning himself with.
I love my PVR but always like it when new software is released. I can wait as long as required though.
Does anyone else feel that the advent of firmware updates (like patches for games) has made manufacturers a bit lazy? It used to be that if you released a product with bad firmware, that reviews and word of mouth meant you had to either recall the product or release a follow-up. Now bugs in firmwares are greeted with reports of patches and updates which often never appear. The manufacturers will always bring out the "adding new features" lines - although these often add new bugs. It also leads to angry people who purchased the unit only after hearing the bugs would be sorted out via an update.
I have just bought a feesat HD box. I was looking at getting a pvr, but the current bugs convinced me not to get one. Promises of patches mean nothing to me until they are released.
Whatever happened to being able to download the firmware and update from a usb stick? I'm sure this was supposed to be available again - or can you only get it if you contact Humax direct?
The HD schedule problem should be addressed as quite important, if anything is updated like channel line-ups etc the HD schedules get scrubbed out to me that is quite a serious issue, I only discovered this once I had purchased the unit so I didn’t do my homework very well did I. (Humax FoxSat)
I believe some people have reported some teething problems with the Panasonic on here, which is considerably more expensive than the Humax and a Japanese name you associate with absolute quality. The cheaper boxes than the Humax have their own set of problems - many of the SD boxes allegedly have reliability issues, many of the HD boxes allegedly have recording restrictions (channel scanning restrictions) that the Humax doesn't have. No amount of research would have got you a better box than the Humax.
Even the Sky boxes allegedly have reliability issues. How many people do you know who's box has allegedly self destructed within a day or two of the end of the warranty? I know a few along with many who's boxes never made it through the warranty period.
As for the Humax, when you look at the length of the list of reported bugs / feature requests, is it any surprise that it takes a long time to work through them all?
I for one would rather Humax took their time and fixed everything and added many wanted features and beta tested it all thoroughly before release than rushed it out full of further bugs.
I used to play online games a lot and the number of times on a big name game that a big name gaming company rushed out patches that fixed 1 bug but caused 4 others for every one fixed was unbelievable. We really don't want that to happen with Humax. The lack of an update is frustrating but I'll take frustration over a buggy release anyday. The Humax is perfectly usable as it is.
White-Knight I didn’t mean for my post to be taken that I was thinking the Humax is rubbish far from it, there is plenty of pluses 2 off the top of my head is how cool it runs & how sensitive the tuners are, I was purely voicing that it will be nice when that’s ironed out, I also record the SD as well as the HD at the same time so if it fails at least I can watch the programme.
I also totally agree that every unit has it’s bugs / faults my Sky HD which is a Thompson, I needed to replace the components in the power supply because of missing channels and it got as hot as a toaster, and before the EPG was changed it froze all the time but I must admit the new EPG works fine now
As for the Humax, when you look at the length of the list of reported bugs / feature requests, is it any surprise that it takes a long time to work through them all?
So far in ten months they have not resolved a single one
Also if Humax knew they were working on a new model for early 2010 why on earth did they worry about iPlayer support for the HDR?
The new model having full iPlayer support would have been another reason a consumer may wish to upgrade his/her old HDR to the new one.
Instead this long, long, long wait for any progress I suspect will have the opposite effects on sales with users suspecting the new box will also never have any firmware updates like our HDR model.
...Humax took their time and fixed everything and added many wanted features and beta tested it all thoroughly before release than rushed it out full of further bugs.
I used to play online games a lot and the number of times on a big name game that a big name gaming company rushed out patches that fixed 1 bug but caused 4 others for every one fixed was unbelievable. We really don't want that to happen with Humax. The lack of an update is frustrating but I'll take frustration over a buggy release anyday. The Humax is perfectly usable as it is.
Does anyone else feel that the advent of firmware updates (like patches for games) has made manufacturers a bit lazy? It used to be that if you released a product with bad firmware, that reviews and word of mouth meant you had to either recall the product or release a follow-up. Now bugs in firmwares are greeted with reports of patches and updates which often never appear. The manufacturers will always bring out the "adding new features" lines - although these often add new bugs. It also leads to angry people who purchased the unit only after hearing the bugs would be sorted out via an update.
I have just bought a feesat HD box. I was looking at getting a pvr, but the current bugs convinced me not to get one. Promises of patches mean nothing to me until they are released.
Firstly, does opportunity to update firmware make manufacturers lazy ? Maybe there is some truth there, but there is also the other angle that without it the amount of extra testing would considerably push up the price and complex products may not even be economic. Also you end up with early adopters having to live with problems that the manufacturer fixed in version 1.1. So frimware push is definitely a fantastic thing and we should all be grateful for it.
As for being put off buying the PVR due to the issues list, its a REALLY excellent (if not completely flawless product), having a PVR changes the way you live your life - unless you've had one you really don't know what you're missing. Ultimately I think that was a bad call.
As for the Humax, when you look at the length of the list of reported bugs / feature requests, is it any surprise that it takes a long time to work through them all?
no none whatsoever - there are so many of them..
The lack of an update is frustrating but I'll take frustration over a buggy release anyday.
I am not saying it is going to happen but what about the following - also possible scenario - frustration and a buggy release?
Unfortunately there is just so much to fix, what if we are left with a buggy release because Humax have moved on? Taking time to do something doesn't mean as much if they are struggling with a lack of resources..I think it would have been better to have had several good releases up to now and if they can't afford an over the air upgrade to have put them on their website. !
The Humax is perfectly usable as it is.
Now here - I am not sure what you mean by "perfectly usable"?
I agree it is usable, yes - but perfectly?? Depends on what you expect I suppose. The very minimum I expect is for a PVR to record reliably with a minimum of babysitting - if a pvr doesn't do that, then for me it is less than perfectly usable..
The very minimum I expect is for a PVR to record reliably with a minimum of babysitting - if a pvr doesn't do that, then for me it is less than perfectly usable..[/B][/I]
Patrick
I’ve had my Humax HDR for about a week now and my I must agree with the above statement which is quite valid, having a HD recorder not recording HD programmes is a little bit pointless I keep checking the schedule to make sure they haven’t disappeared.
I did mention to Humax technical that the favourite channels list was also a little bit strange to get used to and they said a few people have mentioned this (the sky is just one button) the Humax is a bit of a fiddle to get it out of automatic mode which I don’t like, maybe it’s me not sure.
Also when Sky updates the station line up etc it just does it with no fuss but the Humax prompts you with a box e.g. 1 new station added do you want to update the channels or something similar to that, why don’t the Humax just do it without the fuss.
Now here - I am not sure what you mean by "perfectly usable"?
I agree it is usable, yes - but perfectly?? Depends on what you expect I suppose. The very minimum I expect is for a PVR to record reliably with a minimum of babysitting - if a pvr doesn't do that, then for me it is less than perfectly usable..
Patrick
Agreed - A PVR that that wipes scheduled timers following a rescan and also that fails to record following a power cut is far from perfectly usable.
As for the Humax, when you look at the length of the list of reported bugs / feature requests, is it any surprise that it takes a long time to work through them all?
Perhaps it wouldn't have taken them so long if they had made a better job of it in the first place?
Now here - I am not sure what you mean by "perfectly usable"?
I agree it is usable, yes - but perfectly?? Depends on what you expect I suppose. The very minimum I expect is for a PVR to record reliably with a minimum of babysitting - if a pvr doesn't do that, then for me it is less than perfectly usable..
Patrick
The point is for MANY of us the Humax Freesat HDR is perfectly usable. I have had mine for 8 months and the only fault that really gets to me is the inability to delete whilst recording. I just delete programs once week in a quiet time.
It strikes me that anybody that praises the HDR gets there opinion criticised. So I agree with White Knight. it is perfectly usable. Thats got nothing to do with my expectations. Just a bit of patience learning the boxes quirks.
Lets not get into another pointless argument again because peoples opinions differ.
Thats got nothing to do with my expectations. Just a bit of patience learning the boxes quirks.
The quirks such as not being able to delete whilst recording and also its inconsistencies when dealing with clashes I can cope with (and work around).
However my expectations for a PVR is that it should record following a power cut and should not remove programs from its recording schedule all on its own. I have had a Freeview PVR for many years and have got used to the fact that it would just sit there and record everything I set and did not require baby sitting.
Agreed - A PVR that that wipes scheduled timers following a rescan and also that fails to record following a power cut is far from perfectly usable.
Can someone remind me, whether ITV's HD being on the red button was known about soon enough in HDR's development?
ISTM that if it was not, the problem of lost timers are not Humax's fault. If I am wrong a reasoned explanation would be appreciated by me, at least, and possibly others.
Can someone remind me, whether ITV's HD being on the red button was known about soon enough in HDR's development?
ISTM that if it was not, the problem of lost timers are not Humax's fault. If I am wrong a reasoned explanation would be appreciated by me, at least, and possibly others.
ITV HD was launched on Freesat 7th June 2008 - 4/5* months before the first HDR's were available for the public to buy.
*Bit of brain fade here - can't remember whether it was Mid October or November 2008 the HDR was available
I'm not a humax employee, but I am a subscribed member of the HDR fan club. Mine is in the loft, so opportunities for fiddling are limited. It has never been restarted in a year, and has performed far more reliably than the skyHD box it replaced. I am of the opinion that some members here need a sense of perspective. There's a kind of gang histeria that takes hold on DS, and the HDR has been mugged by it. I am a reseller, and I have also not had a single return of a HDR, not one. I daresay it'll come, as they age, but I can only speak as I find.
Mine as well (i.e. I have never had to intentionally restart it). Never had a lockup and never missed a recording (only following a power cut). I am happy to live with the "quirks" which you can work around till (or if) they get fixed by a firmware update.
It's the quite obvious bugs (power cut and losing scheduled programs) that bothers me as these can't (easily) be worked around* and IMHO should have been given a higher priority and fixed already (or perhaps temporarily bodged somehow as per the disabling of delete in the v02 firmware).
* Here I am specifically thinking about when the HDR has to be left alone for several days/weeks with noone around to monitor it.
Even the Sky boxes allegedly have reliability issues. How many people do you know who's box has allegedly self destructed within a day or two of the end of the warranty?
I had an original Sky+ box that failed (after about 5 years), and I replaced it with a V2 box. Sky+ has not been perfect. But it never removed series links when the EPG was updated, it never failed to record following a power cut, it didn't prevent you from deleting files whilst recording, it didn't put folders into the recordings page that are an inconvenience to remove.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I left Sky for the reasons I did - but overall the Sky+ does give a better user experience than the HDR.
I for one would rather Humax took their time and fixed everything and added many wanted features and beta tested it all thoroughly before release than rushed it out full of further bugs.
Then you probably are just one I certainly wouldn't want them to rush out releases with more bugs, but bundling everything into a single release - including a major new feature - actually makes it far more risky that they will introduce new bugs.
I would much rather they focused on one or two of the highest priority bugs at a time, get them fixed, tested properly, and have two or three releases over this last year.
Comments
Thanks for that Graham. That's made things a bit clearer.
PJ
Welcome to the forums, and being a new HDR owner.
There are various threads that you can find which list Bugs, and others list Feature Requests. There is no list, that I know, of things that are being worked on (not publicly available, anyway).
A good source of information is available over at Hummy.org, especially the FAQs here, are worth a good read.
Rgds.
Les.
Deleted posted in error
only in the respect that we will all be amazed when it finally happens
Strange that comment as I too for some reason was thinking the same thing. Think it was reading some recent remark by Bob Cat (which through the noise I heard). I got the feeling that the recent upset by some members was a "proof will be in the pudding" sort of moment that Bob Cat was somehow resigning himself with.
I love my PVR but always like it when new software is released. I can wait as long as required though.
I have just bought a feesat HD box. I was looking at getting a pvr, but the current bugs convinced me not to get one. Promises of patches mean nothing to me until they are released.
I believe some people have reported some teething problems with the Panasonic on here, which is considerably more expensive than the Humax and a Japanese name you associate with absolute quality. The cheaper boxes than the Humax have their own set of problems - many of the SD boxes allegedly have reliability issues, many of the HD boxes allegedly have recording restrictions (channel scanning restrictions) that the Humax doesn't have. No amount of research would have got you a better box than the Humax.
Even the Sky boxes allegedly have reliability issues. How many people do you know who's box has allegedly self destructed within a day or two of the end of the warranty? I know a few along with many who's boxes never made it through the warranty period.
As for the Humax, when you look at the length of the list of reported bugs / feature requests, is it any surprise that it takes a long time to work through them all?
I for one would rather Humax took their time and fixed everything and added many wanted features and beta tested it all thoroughly before release than rushed it out full of further bugs.
I used to play online games a lot and the number of times on a big name game that a big name gaming company rushed out patches that fixed 1 bug but caused 4 others for every one fixed was unbelievable. We really don't want that to happen with Humax. The lack of an update is frustrating but I'll take frustration over a buggy release anyday. The Humax is perfectly usable as it is.
I also totally agree that every unit has it’s bugs / faults my Sky HD which is a Thompson, I needed to replace the components in the power supply because of missing channels and it got as hot as a toaster, and before the EPG was changed it froze all the time but I must admit the new EPG works fine now
So far in ten months they have not resolved a single one
Also if Humax knew they were working on a new model for early 2010 why on earth did they worry about iPlayer support for the HDR?
The new model having full iPlayer support would have been another reason a consumer may wish to upgrade his/her old HDR to the new one.
Instead this long, long, long wait for any progress I suspect will have the opposite effects on sales with users suspecting the new box will also never have any firmware updates like our HDR model.
Automan.
Because they're doing a single release and its better:
Firstly, does opportunity to update firmware make manufacturers lazy ? Maybe there is some truth there, but there is also the other angle that without it the amount of extra testing would considerably push up the price and complex products may not even be economic. Also you end up with early adopters having to live with problems that the manufacturer fixed in version 1.1. So frimware push is definitely a fantastic thing and we should all be grateful for it.
As for being put off buying the PVR due to the issues list, its a REALLY excellent (if not completely flawless product), having a PVR changes the way you live your life - unless you've had one you really don't know what you're missing. Ultimately I think that was a bad call.
As for the Humax, when you look at the length of the list of reported bugs / feature requests, is it any surprise that it takes a long time to work through them all?
no none whatsoever - there are so many of them..
The lack of an update is frustrating but I'll take frustration over a buggy release anyday.
I am not saying it is going to happen but what about the following - also possible scenario - frustration and a buggy release?
Unfortunately there is just so much to fix, what if we are left with a buggy release because Humax have moved on? Taking time to do something doesn't mean as much if they are struggling with a lack of resources..I think it would have been better to have had several good releases up to now and if they can't afford an over the air upgrade to have put them on their website. !
The Humax is perfectly usable as it is.
Now here - I am not sure what you mean by "perfectly usable"?
I agree it is usable, yes - but perfectly?? Depends on what you expect I suppose. The very minimum I expect is for a PVR to record reliably with a minimum of babysitting - if a pvr doesn't do that, then for me it is less than perfectly usable..
Patrick
Why is it better?
Surely the more things you change at once the greater the chance for a unforseen side effect.
Automan.
I’ve had my Humax HDR for about a week now and my I must agree with the above statement which is quite valid, having a HD recorder not recording HD programmes is a little bit pointless I keep checking the schedule to make sure they haven’t disappeared.
I did mention to Humax technical that the favourite channels list was also a little bit strange to get used to and they said a few people have mentioned this (the sky is just one button) the Humax is a bit of a fiddle to get it out of automatic mode which I don’t like, maybe it’s me not sure.
Also when Sky updates the station line up etc it just does it with no fuss but the Humax prompts you with a box e.g. 1 new station added do you want to update the channels or something similar to that, why don’t the Humax just do it without the fuss.
Agreed - A PVR that that wipes scheduled timers following a rescan and also that fails to record following a power cut is far from perfectly usable.
It strikes me that anybody that praises the HDR gets there opinion criticised. So I agree with White Knight. it is perfectly usable. Thats got nothing to do with my expectations. Just a bit of patience learning the boxes quirks.
Lets not get into another pointless argument again because peoples opinions differ.
The quirks such as not being able to delete whilst recording and also its inconsistencies when dealing with clashes I can cope with (and work around).
However my expectations for a PVR is that it should record following a power cut and should not remove programs from its recording schedule all on its own. I have had a Freeview PVR for many years and have got used to the fact that it would just sit there and record everything I set and did not require baby sitting.
Can someone remind me, whether ITV's HD being on the red button was known about soon enough in HDR's development?
ISTM that if it was not, the problem of lost timers are not Humax's fault. If I am wrong a reasoned explanation would be appreciated by me, at least, and possibly others.
ITV HD was launched on Freesat 7th June 2008 - 4/5* months before the first HDR's were available for the public to buy.
*Bit of brain fade here - can't remember whether it was Mid October or November 2008 the HDR was available
Mine as well (i.e. I have never had to intentionally restart it). Never had a lockup and never missed a recording (only following a power cut). I am happy to live with the "quirks" which you can work around till (or if) they get fixed by a firmware update.
It's the quite obvious bugs (power cut and losing scheduled programs) that bothers me as these can't (easily) be worked around* and IMHO should have been given a higher priority and fixed already (or perhaps temporarily bodged somehow as per the disabling of delete in the v02 firmware).
* Here I am specifically thinking about when the HDR has to be left alone for several days/weeks with noone around to monitor it.
That may (or may not) be the case. It doesn't mean that the Humax is free from bugs that some would argue make it unfit for it's purpose.
I had an original Sky+ box that failed (after about 5 years), and I replaced it with a V2 box. Sky+ has not been perfect. But it never removed series links when the EPG was updated, it never failed to record following a power cut, it didn't prevent you from deleting files whilst recording, it didn't put folders into the recordings page that are an inconvenience to remove.
Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I left Sky for the reasons I did - but overall the Sky+ does give a better user experience than the HDR.
Then you probably are just one
I would much rather they focused on one or two of the highest priority bugs at a time, get them fixed, tested properly, and have two or three releases over this last year.