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1st August - Still no fireware Update!!
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savvy
03-08-2009
Originally Posted by jonesyboy:
“Les

Thanks for explaining that. I have ver 2003, is that affected in the same way.? I am reasonably sure my box was in Stand by the last time we had a power cut and it recovered by itself and recorded OK. The other time I know of it was ON.

If it happens again I will check.

What we do get are momentary blips in power. Some of our STB's are affected and lose the time, some are not.

I cannot recall recent complaints on power cuts, hence my comments.

I also am not a Humax basher. To be honest I get rather fed up with all the persistant bashing, when in essence the PVR is excellent. I honestly think most issues are more to do with the UI, which is "Different" but usable.

Pete”

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.
jonesyboy
03-08-2009
Originally Posted by savvy:
“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
Bob_Cat
03-08-2009
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
you-cant-see-me
03-08-2009
Originally Posted by CPN:
“This is a wind up right?

You obviously don't "stress" or use your box enough if you have never had =any= problems at all... ”

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.
drevil666
03-08-2009
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
savvy
03-08-2009
Originally Posted by White-Knight:
“Wasn't aimed at you Les. ”

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

Rgds.

Les.
savvy
03-08-2009
Originally Posted by Bob_Cat:
“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”

Bob, understood.

Thanks for confirming.

Rgds.


Les.
Tern
03-08-2009
Originally Posted by Bob_Cat:
“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”

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.
richard_g_uk
04-08-2009
Originally Posted by Tern:
“I can see very well why that particular 'feature' exists and why it is not an easy fix.”

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.

Originally Posted by Tern:
“It doens't seem unreasonable that Humax assumed people have reliable (mains) power supplies given that most of us do nowadays.”

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.
richard_g_uk
04-08-2009
Originally Posted by Bob_Cat:
“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”

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.
Bob_Cat
04-08-2009
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
Tinker7
04-08-2009
Bob_Cat,
Are you suggesting that the insensitive remote control sensor will be resolve in a future firmware update???
Tinker7
Bob_Cat
04-08-2009
Tinker7,

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

Bob
grahamlthompson
04-08-2009
Originally Posted by jonesyboy:
“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”

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.
Tern
04-08-2009
Originally Posted by Tern:
“I can see very well why that particular 'feature' exists and why it is not an easy fix.”

Originally Posted by richard_g_uk:
“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.”

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.
swedish cook
04-08-2009
Originally Posted by richard_g_uk:
“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.”

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 !
grahamlthompson
04-08-2009
The freeview 9200 which has many family similarities works OK after a power outage
Tern
04-08-2009
Originally Posted by grahamlthompson:
“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.
jwball
04-08-2009
Originally Posted by savvy:
“
The HDR, if in Standby at the point of a power cut, does not recover the clock time on restoration of power; it requires manually bringing out of standby to recover the time, so no recordings will be made as it has no clock to refer to.”

This is incorrect. We had two power cuts yesterday whilst the box was in standby and all scheduled recordings worked fine.
grahamlthompson
04-08-2009
Originally Posted by jwball:
“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 ?.
savvy
04-08-2009
Originally Posted by jwball:
“This is incorrect. We had two power cuts yesterday whilst the box was in standby and all scheduled recordings worked fine.”

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.
Automan
04-08-2009
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.
Pugwash69
04-08-2009
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.
bryhhh
05-08-2009
Originally Posted by partridge:
“Unless you've got a service level agreement with Humax for the regular release of firmware updates, you can complain here all you want, it doesn't matter a jot.

Be grateful that any of these companies offer free updates for their products after release.

Just because something can be udpated doesn't mean it will be. And frankly with all the whingers on this forum why would Humax bother? Bunch of ungrateful moaners ”

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.
jonesyboy
05-08-2009
Originally Posted by bryhhh:
“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.
Quote:
“ Pugwash69

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.”

I would echo this and the slow deletion rate.

Minor things though, excellent otherwise.
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