If you just want a forum where people can mindlessly praise a certain manufacturer and not have to be troubled by a few well deserved criticisms I would suggest that you start one yourself and place a rule that no one can criticise the object of your affections in the term and conditions.

That way you'll be able to live in your own little la-la land, happy and carefree.

The rest of us will stay here in the real world and whilst agreeing that the Humax is a very nice product will not be blinded to its faults (of which, one hopes, there will be significantly fewer in the coming months).

If life seems jolly rotten
And the updates been forgotten
That's the time to laugh and dance and even sing.
When you're feeling in the dumps
Try not to get the humps
Just purse your lips and whistle - that's the thing!

And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...

(With thanks to Eric Idle)

I suspect that once the ethernet port is activated beta testers will give their feedback and any further updates will be via an OTA update..... perhaps

That's really rather good.

I wonder will the upgrade work with the International version of IPlayer?? (see here)

Humax, they make good kit
When you look closely at it
Tho Bits and Bob's need fixing, this is true.
But you'll see in a while
That they've gone that extra mile
Just be careful that the last laugh's, not on you.

So always look on the bright side of death.....
When your PVR, draws its terminal breath....
They thought they'd got it right
But the screen's now black as night
So Bob_Cat, its off to the cross for you...

And...always look on the bright side of life...
Always look on the light side of life...


(With apologies to Bob_Cat)

P.S. The original is better, see here.

Surely this thread is more Holy Grail territory?
I've been keeping a close eye on the Foxsat HDR over the past year, ending up opting for Sky HD when I got my HD TV in June because the Humax model didn't seem to quite be there yet. Moving from the Sky+ EPG would have met with a lot of resistance from the family, along with the fact that the Sky box has been more than 99% reliable. Doing what is expected with no fiddling about is paramount to the users in my house.
The other day however, Sky decided to "upgrade" the EPG rendering it clunky, ugly and confusing. PQ has degraded, the sound is too quiet. Amazing that Sky can do all this with an "upgrade" (it's not just me).
If Humax can get this firmware out sharpish and actually improve things with it then they might just cause some defections from Sky. I'll certainly give it a second look (if I can find a highstreet store where they've got one actually plugged in).

Assuming Freesat recorder, whichever one you like the look of, works pretty much as needed, I wonder whether you and your family will find the programming adequate on freesat - coming from Sky that is.

But....

Your post shows how difficult this whole area is. You're right, its like the search for the Holy Grail.
I have Sky HD and think the new EPG is a substantial improvement over the old one.
Even my OH, who's a technophope, has no problem using it.
However, everyone has different tastes!

I got the Humax PVR because the UK terrestrial channels, particularly BBC radio, are not on the Sky EPG in Ireland. It was FAR more mature on first release than the early Sky boxes and has more features than the Sky HD box. It also has the advantage that you can delete unwanted channels from the EPG. (Ever wanted to this with Sky???)

My particular issue is lock-ups, which I suspect is due to the radio side of the functionality. It wasn't helped by the fact that I had the box in the attic where it was less accessible. Anyway, I'm in the process of moving it to the lounge. Then, the odd lock-up won't matter and I'll be dead happy, once the firmware update is out.
(I'd be even happier if it could handle a lossless audio format as I'd put all my CD's onto it as well.)

I'll be absolutely delighted to have the last laugh on me if they really do a top class job on the update.

But they'll need to fix the piece of clunkiness that drives me to distraction on an almost daily basis; the wretched info bar that stays on screen way too long and prevents you performing certain functions instead of just disappearing and doing what you told it to.

(The piece of programming I called amateurish [which I stand by], which led to a lot of problems with those who adore Humax).

Interesting what winds some people up, I never really noticed the infobar channel name come up when I change channels - hope it won't annoy me now.

It is only there for around 5 seconds and what does it stop you doing ? I tried the main things like recording the channel, changing channel, guide, media, subtitles and they all seem to work fine in those first few secxonds when the infobar is up.

Is this news or repeated info? :- http://www.pvrjunction.co.uk/category/freesat/

J

lets all hope that it happens on or around that date

The one that really annoys me is the subtitles.

Every day or so there will be some vital piece of dialogue that I can't make out.

On a DigiHome box you just rewind a few seconds, press subtitles and up they come, see what's said, press subtitles again and they're gone.

The same process on the Humax is:

Rewind a few seconds
Press exit to get rid of the info bar
Press subtitles
Press down
Press OK

See what's said
Press subtitles
Press up
Press OK

Or, if you forget that the stupid info bar defeats the subtitles:

Rewind a few seconds
Press subtitles
Observe the 'prohibited function symbol'
Press exit to remove infobar
Realise you've now passed the bit you wanted
Rewind again
Press exit
Press subtitles
Press down
Press OK

See what's said
Press subtitles
Press up
Press OK


So what on a Digihome is a 4 key sequence is a minimum of nine keys on the Humax.

The original spec said 'one touch' subtitles so why they couldn't manage that I don't know.


On the plus side, the inability to delete whilst recording doesn't bother me in the least.

"Resolved issues playing back encrypted HD content from an external device."

Good news!

Great news no double transfer and now you can use multiple drives to store HD and replay without hassle. I feel a caddy for my second 1Tb drive is going to be purchased shortly

Admittedly it's not at the top of my irritations list either.. although it used to annoy me at first because I agree it was there for too long, a quick press of the back button gets rid of it instantly.

Patrick

As does exit but the point is it's unnecessarily clunky and should never have been released like that in the first place.

That's why beta testing is so important.

Yes, this is fantastic news for those of us that haven't upgraded the internal HDD yet.

Now, if only ITV HD would enable the Copy Once flag, too

Rgds.


Les.

I wasn't aware that exit did the same thing, I don't use the standard remote - as ergonomically I find it a mess.. when I reprogrammed the replacement, I don't think there was one function that the exit button didn't do that the back button does... or was it the other way round? Anyway..

Patrick

I think that's what I found.

Similarly, I use a non standard remote as the standard one is horrible and I was one button short for the main functions so I kept exit and sacrificed back - I agree AFAIR they were pretty much identical in functionality.

I'm crossing my fingers that they have enabled manual recording schedules in non-freesat mode, and an FTP server.

Humax have already said no ftp server.

Which replacement remote are you guys using and is it a case of learning the functions?

J

Oh well, no FTP server, shame but not a big problem (I assume it was too difficult for them to implement protection of the encrypted HD files via FTP).

Hopefully the update will support manual scheduled recording in non-Freesat mode. If not, I may treat myself to a Topfield TMS SRP-2100