Why would you not want this? What would be preferable?

That should only happen if the channel you are viewing is not available due to the recording choice. If you want the recording to happen there is no other choice (except of course a 3rd tuner ). You should consider yourself lucky, the mega expensive Panasonic bluray stbs don't allow you to watch any 3rd channels while recording two.

What I don't understand is how the box loses ITV HD recording caperbilities, does this happen on the Panny box?

This is where you have selected the HD prog to record, and then it just does the SD version instead and you can't access red button you have to do a reset and then it works.

Fault?

I now have a box that does crash but it skips the odd programme mainly on news 24 (because of the EPG data) and ITV HD

Does anyone know if the expected firmware update will give us a genuine standby mode?

Can you clarify; we already have 2 Standby modes.

Rgds.

Les.

At the moment we have a choice of whether or not to display a clock when the receiver is shut down. If you put your PC into standby, the operating system stays in memory and peripherals are powered down. At the moment, the Humax does not have a standby mode in the conventional sense, as a boot is involved whether it is powered off or in "standby". Having a proper standby would at least eliminate that really annoying problem of being suddenly presented with the Humax boot screen while watching another source just because a recording is about to start. It would also reduce the start-up time considerably and, with a bit of effort, might even allow the EPG to be updated while in standby.

There is no plan to implement suspend but we are working on improving start-up times a bit.

Bob @ Humax

It would also considerably increase power consumption and that would alienate a lot of buyers and annoy the government given that standby features on electrical products is now a big issue due to the power consumption.

One of the most important considerations for me in buying the Humax given rising fuel prices was the very low standby consumption. The days of buying goods using 75 watt standby or even 15 or 20 watts is gone.

I fail to see where you're saying a boot is involved when its in standby. When mine is in "standby" recording another programme I get Freesat instantly if I press the on button, no booting no delays. Its only when the box is in its full off red position that any boot is involved. Personally, whilst I don't like long boot times, I'd rather have a boot that increased power consumption.

Also, the best way to reduce boot times is fit better components. A faster processor, memory, fast motherboard and a fast hard drive (not that I'm in actual fact suggesting anything wrong with current hard drive speed) always reduces boot times considerably on a pc. The Humax should be quick as I believe the OS is on a flash chip not the hard drive which is used for programmes only. However, I think its bottlenecked by the processor speed.

I agree, speeding up the boot is better than a standby option.

The amount of power used to keep the operating system in memory is not significant, and a single boot probably uses enough power to keep the machine in proper standby for a day at least. Annoying the government is not problem for me. If they genuinely wanted to save power they could just put the clocks forward an hour or two.

When recording, the machine is not in "standby": it has already booted up. There is a bug which often disables the video output if you turn on the Humax while it is recording.

At present, if I know a recording is scheduled in the next hour or so and I want to watch a DVD or use the TV tuner, I have to turn on the Humax first and leave it running. The alternatives are to unplug the HDMI lead or have my viewing interrupted. This is a true waste of power, and should not be necessary.

The EPG does already update in the background whilst in Standby.


I've never seen this happen, and it is something I do often.

Rgds.

Les.

How about turning off auto switching?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ardee View Post
....... and, with a bit of effort, might even allow the EPG to be updated while in standby.
The EPG does already update in the background whilst in Standby.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ardee View Post
........ There is a bug which often disables the video output if you turn on the Humax while it is recording.
I've never seen this happen, and it is something I do often.

Rgds.

Les.

It has happened to me, I wondered why occasionally I get a blank screen on boot up. . normally a change of channel cures it although sometimes I have to switch the machine off and reboot which cures it too.. it doesn't happen that often though. Thankfully.

Patrick

Yep I had this a handful of times.. quick channel change cures it for me too, not needed to reboot yet

Hmmm ........

Never seen this, at all. I have mine connected by both Scart & HDMI (I only watch HD via HDMI, SD via Scart). I wonder if that's why?

Rgds.

Les.

Didn't know HDMI autoswitched. Are you sure it's not connected by scart as well?

I had this happen once yonks ago but touch wood it's never happened again.

Depends on the TV, my sony has got the option but of course it doesnt communicate with the Humax and they will both say its the others fault.

It happens all the time for us, we have a Panasonic TV.

Turn on when Humax is recording and we get a black picture on TV.

Bob - reading Ardee's complaint, I don't think 'suspend', or even improving start-up times are really needed to address the issue (although improving start-up times would be a good thing )

Rather, the real issue is the behaviour of the box when it needs to prepare for a recording, in that it is always activating the output / sending an autoswitch pulse for the boot.

That is wrong. The box should ONLY turn on the output / send an autoswitch pulse when the user powers the box up for viewing.

As long as the box understands the two different scenarios - 'recording (and thumbnail generation) initiated boot' and 'user initiated boot' - and ensures that the output is treated appropriately during the boot phase, then I doubt Ardee will have a problem with saving a few pence in the standby mode

With you on that one!



We have a Sony KDL32V4000 and I can't say I have ever noticed that effect. Perhaps it is your TV which won't lock to the HDMI, or perhaps a failure in the auto-negotiation of mutually best screen resolution.
Come to think of it, we have our Humax set to a fixed output resolution as I dislike the time that the TV takes as it relocks when presented with resolution changes. It's very annoying when a Blu Ray player moves between 60Hz menus, SD and HD.


Again, we never ever see this. Since our Humax box and software are the same that suggests that we use different TVs with different behaviours. Our Sony TV *does* pull over to the DVD when it is switched on.
The Humax and Blu-ray are both connected HDMI.
The TV has settings for how it handles what Sony call "Control for HDMI" (HDMI CEC).

I really should have finished catching up because my post was pretty redundant - I think others had probably hit the nail on the head.

But is it really?
Or are there some models of TV which "twitch" as soon as they see a digital signal flowing?
My TV doesn't switch.
That's not to say that Humax have got it right, perhaps what they do is right for some models of some manufacturers.
We could probably do them a favour by citing which models we have this on (and being clear that we are talking HDMI only not SCART).

...Of course we could be wasting our time if Humax have a list of tv model issues. Each case might be "our problem", "their problem" or "in dispute".

Bob Cat, can you tell us if there is a list of models which have issues?
Are there some which will change behaviour with the new software?

You have a wooden keyboard?

Waiting for delivery at the moment (Laskys, 2yr warranty, £250 plus 4.5% cashback at topcashback- woot!) but what is concerning over the last page or so is this switching when preparing for a recording- seems crazy that it exists at all. Surely there is a way in todays post-BBC Micro technological environment for a system to distinguish between an internal start up request and a user initiated press of a button on a remote? Or have i watched Star Trek too much?

It's a serious design flaw in the Humax, my 8000 DTT PVR does the same thing, when it starts a timed recording it forces pin 8 high and switchs the TV to that SCART input.

Nothing else works like that, and it's an incredibly stupid implementation of the SCART standard, but it seems to be the Humax way?.

At least with SCART you can chop pin 8 and pin 16, and prevent auto-switching completely, there's no such simple option with HDMI and the Panasonic implementation of it.

Whereas I don't care about annoying the government personally. I wouldn't buy a box with anything more than around 5 watts of standby consumption especially given that average power bills are forecast to reach £5,000 (5 times current levels) by 2018 due to this governments commitment to allowing the power companies to charge us the customers for the cost of installing renewables. See the paper headlines from a couple of weeks ago for confirmation.




The bug is most likely on your tv in how the Panasonic handles input signals.

I've had 2 Humax boxes (the psu failed on the 1st) and both my boxes work perfectly. I can start my box during or when a recording is scheduled and watch it perfectly or manually record. I'm free to do whatever else I please on my Pioneer plasma whilst the box is recording also.I can switch to analogue tv, watch a DVD, watch a Blu Ray, trun on the full cinema system, anything without restriction.

I also fail to see how the Humax could in itself be responsible for controlling the other inputs on your tv. The Humax is just an incoming secure signal to your tv which your tv diverts to the screen when that input is selected for viewing.

Its the tv that has control of what inputs are active not the Humax. Seems much more likely a restriction on your tv that if a HDMI signal is being received, it disables the video out. I'd check your tv manual for restrictions on input / output ports and their usage.

BTW for reference I use HDMi for everything except sound out from the Humax which is on optical link.