Pete,

I don't have firmware v 1.00.03, I'm on 02. I know Graham Thompson, and others tested this, and I'm pretty sure they are on 02 as well. Barry, over at Hummy.org also confirmed it, but I can't remember if that was before he got his second box which is on 03, or not. Bob has confirmed that 03 only contains an update process tweak, needed to be able to receive the next feature release OTA, so I would be surprised if this was "fixed" in 03, although you could test or monitor this.

Graham's test, I think, concluded that the HDR could survive about 25secs (the residual power left in the PSU capacitors), before succumbing to this.

Rgds.


Les.

LES

That fits. Most of our power cuts are short term. Often less than the 25 secs you mention. I will however monitor my PVR. when or if we have our next power cut.

I am pretty sure I have read about 03 just being an update process tweak

Rgds

Pete

White-Knight, Savvy, jonesyboy,

Rather than a bug I would declare it a short-coming in the design, one which is quite unfortunate for some people and wholly insignificant to others. It is already added to the list but it is another thing that has wider implications so the engineers need to be careful implementing any fixes.

Bob

Its in use 24/7. No lockups ever, had it for about a month now. At the start it failed to record a few programs, but was down to bad a signal problem, but all fine now.

let's get some perspective - If Humax issue a update that borks a load of boxes then they clearly have a biiiig issue. the fact is, that for most users the HDR has been fine.

Mine gets turned off and on multiple times a day sometimes, Sunday it recorded all 7 hours of ITV4 Touring Cars whist we watched a variety of programmes on other channels. It's performed faultlessly for me since purchase over some 8 months of useage.

I'd rather wait until an update is ready, and has been tested fully, there are a lot of scenarios to be be tested for that's all I'm saying.....
Last edited by drevil666 : 03-08-2009 at 21:38

No, I didn't take it that way, but thanks anyway.

Rgds.

Les.

Bob, understood.

Thanks for confirming.

Rgds.


Les.

I can see very well why that particular 'feature' exists and why it is not an easy fix.

It doens't seem unreasonable that Humax assumed people have reliable (mains) power supplies given that most of us do nowadays.

Still annoying for those that don't but it should really be considered a fault with the electricity supplier.

I don't - it is a pretty basic requirement for any PVR that providing it has power and a signal it should record without user intervention. The Humax Freeview PVR's do not suffer from this (can't confirm just what I've read on here). Seems that whoever did the requirements capture and/or the testing process was at fault. I am from a safety critical software and hardware background so I struggle to get my head around how basic things like this just "slip" through without being picked up.


Nothing can be a 100% reliable though. The past 3 or 4 years I reckon we have only had 1 power cut each year and as we have not had one this year its sods law that says it will happen the 3 weeks I am away on holiday.

I would have thought it would have been a problem with the Boot loader that should be fairly easy to fix but from the way you have worded the above it implies that either :-

there is a genuine hardware problem/fault that causes this issue

or

it may not be straight forward to update the Boot loader (via OTA method) and you risk "bricking" the HDR.

richard_g_uk,

There is no hardware issue, it is all in software.

Bob
Last edited by Bob_Cat : 04-08-2009 at 08:18

Bob_Cat,
Are you suggesting that the insensitive remote control sensor will be resolve in a future firmware update???
Tinker7

Tinker7,

No I am not, please look at my response in context.

Bob

I can confirm my stb is on v02 firmware. Short power interruptions like you describe are usually as a result of a 11kv overhead line feed. Lower voltage lines are subject to all sorts of fault problems depending on location, carbonised blowing straw during crop burning, tree encroachment, galloping conductors to name but a few. Because 99% of these faults are of a transitory nature lines subject to these types of faults are often fitted with high speed reclosers which detect the fault, denergise the line and a few seconds later reclose to re-energise the line after hopefully the deionised conducting air in the fault arc path has dissipated. Fact of life I am afraid for those who live in a rural environment.

I agree that it should, but I said I can see why this feature might exist and be hard to fix.

Purely hypothetical, of course as I haven't seen the circuit diagrammes or the code involved but it seems pretty likely that it's a design fault caused by a decision that the box will not boot as soon as power is available but will require the user to actually turn it on (the default configuration for most PC's).

Once that decision was made (and implemented in hadware) it's very likely to be impossible to fix with any software update unless, perhaps, they can re-flash the bios (and it has that option).

You can't change the behaviour by modifying even something as early as the boot loader because the boot loader will not even run unless the countdown timer trips or the user presses the 'on' button.

With you, this is one of the biggest bugs in the product, nearly up there with it not recording if you leave it on CBBC channel !

The freeview 9200 which has many family similarities works OK after a power outage

It's a very simple to do unless you set it up not to!

On most PC's you can go into the bios and set a switch: 'Boot on power on'.

The Freesat+ box either does not have that option in its equivelant of a BIOS or it is disabled. With the 9200 it is there and enabled.

This is incorrect. We had two power cuts yesterday whilst the box was in standby and all scheduled recordings worked fine.

How long was the power off ?.

Did the box happen to be recording in "Active Standby" at the time, or woken up within the T-15 window to start a recording?

Rgds.

Les.

Power is pretty stable in my area but just in case all my boxes are fed by a Double Conversion UPS.

It being double conversion turns the mains in to DC which keeps it battery charged.

The battery then feeds the true sinewave inverter which always gives out 230V 50Hz whatever the incoming mains is doing.

Only snag with this is the energy wasted in the UPS

Automan.

Not being able to delete whilst the box records is my only gripe. I've had the machine reach 100% capacity twice now and all because I never get to it when it's idle.
Other than that it's been a healthy move from my old TiVo.

Because as it stands, the product is bordering on not fit for purpose. The high number of lockups, failed recordings.

I've owned many types of PVRs, and this is the least stable I've ever known.

However, I've got to be honest, in the HDRs defence, since I performed a factory reset a few weeks ago, I've only had one lockup, instead of one lock up every couple of days.

For the majority on this forum, the product is fit for purpose.I have never had a lock up in 6 months. Many other posters report the same.

I would echo this and the slow deletion rate.

Minor things though, excellent otherwise.