I sure hope the firmware upgrade fixes the power cut/standby issue with the timers. This is currently one of the main reasons stopping me getting this box!

If it doesn't then I'm another potential Humax customer lost...

Forgive me, but if the frequency of power-cuts causing lost timers is your main concern regarding the purchase of this item, shouldn't you do something about your power supply? Get a UPS?

Very true. I've had to restore F1 on BBC once already this season. I nearly missed the final episode of Pushing Daisies as well.

Me neither. The 9200 is in an unusual position in some respects. It was originally sold without series link so for some people it might seem petty to complain that something that they were given for free has bugs

OTOH I bought my Humax because it had series link. Unreliable series link is almost as bad as no series link at all.

I remember back when the Humax Freesat PVR was first announced that I commented about how they ought to get it right and ought to fix bugs quickly. I also stated I wouldn't buy one if I felt they weren't fixing issues.

So, here we are - over six months later and I kept my word. I bought a satellite tuner card instead of the Humax. I do still recommend Humax PVRs to people but I also make it clear that they can be unreliable and that the manufacturer is lackadaisical about updating them.

So Humax should be excused because someone else is no better?

At least Sky have the excuse of different manufacturers to target and a helluva lot more boxes in use. Not so many for the new EPG of course (but still two - or is it three?) but the old EPG is running across a huge variety of boxes.

..but enough of that. Sky specify the boxes and knew this would happen so I don't want to appear to be excusing them too much either

True up to a point. Then again manufacturers ought to make sure things work before releasing them or at least fix issues quickly.

I'm glad to see Bob_Cat still visits these forums. As a representative of Humax he's done a lot to encourage me to continue recommending their products. They don't get a ringing endorsement but 'best of a bad bunch' isn't a total put down

Or maybe let some of do some testing - eg like Microsoft does - a public release candidate perhaps?

It doesn't help when the folder takes the title of the first recording in a series and subsequent episodes have different titles.

It's not necessary the frequency of them, but I do live in a rural part of Ireland and the supply does occasionally drop out for 1-2 secs or longer at times. You can bet your bottom dollar it will happen when the box is set to record a number of programmes when we are away. Nothing I can do about the power dropping. However my Sky+ box copes with this without issue. The Humax box should be able to as well. Why should I *have* to buy a UPS to get the Humax to work correctly?! I want to replace my Sky+ box without buying an additional item!

The other issues I've read about I could live with. Having a box constantly failing to record if it is powered off and returned to standby by the power coming back is something I couldn't live with.

That's down to the way the title is presented in the EPG, though. I doubt there's anything Humax can do about that.

(You could say "well, cut it off after a colon" but then CSI:NY and CSI:Miami, for example, would all be in one big "CSI" folder.)

I agree it's annoying — it's happened to me when recording "A Little Later" — but it's down to the broadcasters.

This is an interesting point because of the economics associated. Bob_Cat did indicate in another thread that (paraphrased) it would be unreasonable for us to expect ongoing updates in the long term. As he pointed out (paraphrased again), we have purchased a product to access a service.

The Sky situation is different because we continue to feed Sky money through their service offering (well, many of us do, anyway) and if the box fails to deliver then "we" could just walk away from this. However, as jzee indicates, they (we, because I have both boxes) still have problems, but I feel solutions will come, long term.

I think there are a few people who are accidentally (and I must stress accidentally) taking the view that the Humax box will develop and evolve (through firmware) long term because they have been Sky customers and expect some form of evolution to continue.

I think there will be a couple of very honest shots by Humax to solve our (their?) ills and, as a bonus, we will probably get iPlayer. But I don't think there will be a long term development plan for this actual model.

As far as updates go I would be happy if there was a major one which enabled the Ethernet port (for iPlayer and other services - I assume these would be MHEG based so new services would not require further firmware updates) and I would expect a series of smaller bug fix updates to iron out all the current niggles.

As far as long term updates go at some point no doubt Humax will release an updated HDR and common sense would tell them to base their next generation product on similar hardware as the current HDR so they will already have a head start with the firmware as they should already have reliable and bug free (well as bug free as possible) firmware to tweak and enhance. So the early Freesat PVR adopters should probably expect a longer support period (whilst the firmware is brought upto scratch) than any next generation boxes.

As an aside I was an early adopter of the Thomson DHD4000 which received 2 updates whilst I owned it (I still own it by the way and performance wise its the most reliable bit of kit I have got). The first update occurred December 04 as the original out-of-the-box firmware was pretty dodgy from what I remember. The last update was May 06 and sorted out the remaining niggles and made it rock solid.

So back to the HDR, whilst not expecting any new features (other than Ethernet port to be enabled and all the relevant suff for the broadcasters to use it to its full potential) to be added I am expecting bug fixes to be ongoing for a while.

I, and I think many others, aren't really looking for a 'long term' development plan- I just want an update that makes the box work as it should. That's not too much to ask. If I ever get firmware that will fix the black-screen-on-boot-up issue and dates in the schedule being all screwed up (shouldn't it list the dates of episodes coming up, not episodes that have been and gone???) among a handful of other issues, then I will be a happy man, and won't expect any more, because I have got what I paid for. I think that's all any of us can ask for.
Until then, I am not recommending it to anyone- it shouldn't have been released in this state imo.

Twice, actually. We noticed last night that the timer had gone walkabout again.

If Humax were interested in fixing this then looking at how the F1 coverage is being transmitted from the Oxford transmitter could be a good place to look. There must be some reason why F1 is suffering this so much. Strange how it seems to be the same even though it's now moved to the BBC.

Perhaps it's interference from the engines.

Can bob-cat say if this pre-iplayer release will enable the network port for accessing recordings ? Seems a crying shame to have that network port just sitting there.

Can we just keep this thread to updates about the firmware release please?

I'm tired of seeing the same old discussions that have been brought up in other threads. Lets have one area where Bob_Cat can easily keep us informed of what's going on - even if there is no news. And please remember we shouldn't shoot the messenger!
Thanks
Last edited by Claudette Monet : 14-05-2009 at 12:21

Its a forum, what do you expect ? We ask the same questions and make the same points over and over adnorsium, then someone answers it, then each week thereafter someone new posts the same question again.

I'd be looking at getting your supply comapny to sort out the problems!
But that aside a ups is only a few quid and would resolve the issue and give additional protection as as well.

The hdr power supply may have enough stored energy to survive a short power outage. It certainly is OK with a short collapse of the voltage arising from a close network fault. It sounds as if you are on a overhead network with a high speed recloser. I will try switching off and off for about 2 sec to find out what happens

A UPS is not the panacea it might at first seem to be. It should work fine if the box is in standby but, if it's on or recording, you are going to have a flat battery in the UPS very quickly. I doubt if cheaper UPSs are going to like having their battery flattened too often and, if it that does happen, you are likely to end up with a dead battery. If you suffer enough power cuts to make it worthwhile getting a UPS you may well suffer enough of them to kill a cheap UPS sooner or later.

Cheap UPSs are not designed for this type of use. They are intended to keep a PC running the few minutes it takes for the user to shut the PC down (or, for a few quid more, for the UPS to shut the PC down automatically).

If the power goes off with the power on then when the ups battery pegs out presumably it will act the same as if the power went off while the stb is on, which is OK as the box boots up when the power comes back.

Just set a recording to start in about 30 mins. Turned the box to sby and then turned the power off for about 3 sec. The stb has just woken up to record so it's OK with a high speed reclosure transient fault. Need to try 17sec which is the down time for an transient overhead line fault on a DAR (Delayed Auto Reclose) equipped high voltage line in the UK

It will survive a power cut of up to about 10-12 sec (The time for the red light to go out when you turn off the power)

Great! Thanks for taking the time to find out! That actually puts my mind at rest somewhat.

We're on a 15Kw pole mounted transformer - but I know others in the area on different transformers from the same 3 phase line (440V?) suffer these blips.

Not sure I know the difference between a high speed reclosure transient fault. and a transient overhead line fault on a DAR (Delayed Auto Reclose) equipped high voltage line! But I guess one's a short power dip and the others a longer power dip!

Anyhow back on topic....

That was effective then

Just for info, most faults on an overhead system are caused by a flashover between the overhead conductors. The resulting arc creates an ionised low impedance arc path in the air which maintains the arc until the circuit protection denergises the line. Once the arc has gone out the ionised air is rapidly replaced by normal air. At this point the line can be safely re-energised, on lower voltage systems (typically 11Kv) this is done by a high speed recloser which works in about 1 - 2 sec. On higher voltage networks (132Kv) and above you can't use such short times, because of connected generation you have to let the system transient power swings decay. On these systems one end will have a go at charging the line in 15sec and if OK the other end recloses 2 sec later. These faults don't usually cause a power outage though due to the built in redundancy in higher power networks. Now You Know

Well, to be honest, Bob_cat never really actually says much.

His contributions on this topic are usually limited to his being unable to give any information.

The one thing I do remember him saying is that there will be a release before the net player.