Sheesh - that didn't take long.

I've had my Foxsat for two weeks and this weekend it failed to record Lewis, CSI New York and The Prisoner. Reason : Unknown.

It managed to pick up Time Team on Sunday night so Lewis is a bit of a puzzle.

I saw it switch on both evenings so it wasn't the power cut bug and it's two different broadcasters. Could it have been an accurate record failure? Does that show as 'reason:unknown'? Is there anything I can do to avoid this happening again?

It's early days yet but I'm no longer so impressed. My Sky HD box lost two recordings last week but that was the first two it had lost since it was installed in August.

Edit:Could this be because of the recent retune?

My HDR didn't record Lewis either, did record the prisoner on Saturday though.

Mine recorded both fine on series record. Schedule has also updated to next episodes Prisoner 8/5 and Lewis 9/5 both on ITV 1 HD 119. I watched Lewis as it recorded in chasing playback about 30 mins behind real time. Were your faulires by any chance on the red button service from 28.5E

Er..dunno? I usually mark stuff on ITV (103) and accept the alternate HD offering rather than marking stuff directly on ITV HD ('cos I can't be bothered to go and find it on the EPG ).

My box did get The Mentalist on Friday so presumably the retune didn't hit C5 as such. Could it be that the ITV HD glitch simply screwed the box up and it couldn't do anything?

I also noticed this morning that the box was tuned to ITV HD. I never watch anything live so I assume that's where recording left the tuner which suggests it did at least tune to the right channel. And it was definately on for most of last night. I remember being slightly annoyed by the bright display (BTW - can this be turned off when recording?).

You only get to use the red button service if you don't have ITV 1 HD on channel 119. (STV and UTV areas). IF you chose series recording what have you now got in the recording schedule ?

ITV may have screwed up the link from 103 to 119 I set mine from 119. After setting recordings it's a good idea to press schedule to see what episode of a series is going to be recorded next and that you have an entry for any one off events.

I always press schedule to check the current days recording then red for the instant epg to add any new ones

You can't turn off the clock display but many slip a piece of darker plastic behind the flap to make it less obtrusive

Mine shows as channel 119 for next week. I also have Midsomer Murders marked for later today. Upscaled no doubt but I have plenty of HDD space on the Humax. Will be interesting to see how it goes - it got two recordings from last week.


Actually the box is off to one side so it's not so bad but the IR detector is a bit poor. It's a shame when you have to point the remote at a device just to get it to respond. He ho.

Just check the recording, it may be there. I've had this message when all that's happened is it switched off a few seconds before the epg time is up.

Recordings appear in the media list 30 sec after recording starts but I did once find a missing series recording that had finished up int wrong folder.

There's a near invisible protective film under the flap over the whole display. Leaving it on impacts on the IR performance but even with it off it's still fairly directional.

Interesting. Unfortunately my other half slightly ruined the Midsomer Murders test but it might have produced a result. She went to watch another recording at about four minutes to four and called me because the box didn't seem to power on.

As it turned out it was sat there showing the time and blue LED but not outputting any video. I know that there had been nothing on the display a minute earlier and that's odd. I thought MM started at 1630 but since it started at 1600 it should have been showing the time and a red LED for the last fifteen minutes shouldn't it?

Anyway I brought the guide up and it burst into life and is apparently now recording MM. Time will tell though. I'm half expecting it to report another recording failure though.

Edit:Nm. I forgot I changed it to use a minute before/after instead of auto. That explains why it wasn't on early. I'm not sure it explains why it wasn't outputting any video though unless she powered on just as it was waking itself up and it got confused.

The box does not fully power up to make a recording, it wakes up 15mins before (the clock lights up) and a small recording icon will illuminate when recording starts but there is no video/audio output. Pressing the sby button will give you an instantaneous boot during the pre recording checks and during the recording. 30 seconds after recording starts or later you can play back the recording in chasing playback by selecting it from the media list

Yeah but that isn't what happened.

When I was called back downstairs the TV wasn't showing anything except 'No signal' (meaning no HDMI signal). The Foxsat LED was blue but the LCD display was showing the time.

I've never seen that before. I thought that the LED glows blue to indicate someone is actively using the box (which was correct) but in that case the LCD display ought to have been showing either a channel name or (during playback) a programme name.

That's strange did you try pressing the sby button on the front ?

What icons were lit on the display ? Normally there's a little clock icon in the pre 15 mins and it's joined by a rec icon during actual recording

I just pressed [Guide] and the guide appeared (along with -Guide- on the LCD as it should). After that everything was fine. Most odd.

Anyway for now I'll keep an eye on it. Hopefully it was just the way I was marking stuff on ITV HD. I do want to like the box - it's a nice looking EPG(*) and as with the 9200T I love 'skip 30 seconds'. That's something I really, really, really wish Sky would put on their boxes but I don't think they ever will.

(*)Although it does have two faults:
The use of 'Opt+' for delete in a few places is silly. Not only does it hardly make sense but it's the first time my Harmony One hasn't had a convenient button. I only have two spare soft buttons and those are spoken for because of another silly idea - having separate buttons for 'Media' and 'Schedule'.

One thing Sky do get right there is having a single 'Planner' screen IMO.

Not faults 'features'

I like the Schedule being separate from recorded programs.

Dan.

I had a stack of failed recordings the other week on my Foxsat HDR, and on investigating it turned out that water had got into one of my LNB connections and it had corroded away - recordings on LNB2 would be OK, just not any on LNB1. It looks as if the box does not ignore a tuner with no input signal, even if only one recording needs to be made - I wonder if it always uses LNB1 in preference to LNB2?

@Andrue

You might be interested in the reuse I have made of ‘spare ’ hard keys on my Harmony 885.

I use the |<< and >>| as short sequences EXIT+SCHEDULE and EXIT+MEDIA to quickly switch from whatever state the Humax is in to go direct to the Programme list or the Media list.

I use the Previous button as the Opt+ key

I use the + key for Backward skip and the Enter as Forward skip (These are the commands I use most often and are conveniently placed either side of the 0 key right at the bottom of the remote - no fiddling about in the dark!)

I know the function of these buttons will not be immediately obvious to a casual user picking up the remote but my wife finds them easy to use.

Hope that is helpful.

Get use to pressing schedule and red to acess the epg, unlike guide it does not steal a tuner to download a new epg and it's instanteous also updated continously for the next few hours

Be cautious when using this method. If the HDR goes too long without being able to do a full EPG refresh it will crash (that's my experience anyway). So make sure you pop it into standby or turn it off over night when using this method and/or use the 'Guide' button sometimes.

I haven't pressed guide on my hdr for at least 4 weeks, no problems at all. Remember the hdr wakes up in the middle of the night to do it's housekeeping which I imagine includes a full epg refresh

He said: "So make sure you pop it into standby or turn it off over night " which you are presumably doing as a matter of course.

Do some people leave their box on all the time?

It seems a great shame when Humax went to such trouble to achieve an outstandingly good standby power consumption.

Actually I have to correct you there Graham, I'm in South Yorkshire and I get both offered to me. I have 119 but still get a working red button service offered on 103 when there's HD.

That's wierd, never heard of anyone with an english postcode still having access. On mine selecting an HD programme on 103 simply sets a reservation on 119. Off to try 977.

Just set a recording for Red Heat tonight from 977. THe schedule has a reservation for Channel 119 ITV 1 HD just the same as using 103.

Pretty sure there's no red button prompt either. Need to wait for a true HD transmission to check

excluding the obvious exceptions, 103 still offers red button prompt/access to the hd stream without retuning to 119. But as you say reserving via 103 places the reservation on 119.

Will try and remember to watch 103 at 19:30, must admit I normally watch 119 anyway so would not have noticed. Interesting to try recording both channels at the same time