I've just had FreeSat and Humax HDR installed after using a PACE Twin on Freeview happily for a few years and have a few questions, if anyone can help me out...

1. All channels are fine apart from France 24 and Russia Today (get the 'no signal' screen) should I be getting the installer back to sort this out?

2. After a manual scan I see there are loads of other channels available outside of the FreeSat platform - is there an easy way to organise these and delete the blocked channels from the EPG?

3. I scheduled a recording on both tuners and noticed that some channels seemed to 'disappear' whilst the recording was ongoing - is this normal??

4. From reading this forum the Humax appears to have additional functionality to that described in the manual, are these summarised anywhere

I'm sure I'll have more questions as I get used to the transition from Pace to Humax, but answers to these would be a start!

You've moved from Freeview to Freesat. The channel lineup is not the same.


No. In fact there isn't any way.


Yes. (I presume you mean you scheduled two recordings and the channel absence was whilst both recordings were taking place.)


There is a thread that refers to the 'hidden menu' here.

If BBL is refering to non-freesat mode then yes you can edit the channel list. But if BBL is talking about editing the freesat EPG then no you can't.

While in non-freesat mode press 'menu' select 'edit channels' then 'edit channel list' and press ok. From here channels can be moved or deleted. If you wish to rename a channel then whilst watching in non-freesat mode press the 'Opt+' button and a prompt will allow for name changing.

Not sure how he can be talking about the channel list since he refers to an EPG and the channel list is not an EPG.

Of course, it could just be me being pedantic.

Thanks for taking the time to respond and apologies if my questions weren't clear.

France24/Russia Today both appear in my FreeSat EPG (under News Channels) but I can't view either channel - should I be able to?

Given the extra channels after a manual scan is there any disadvantage to not using the FreeSat EPG?

Is the disappearing channels whilst recording 2 channels a known bug?

The fact that he/she referred to doing a 'manual scan' indicates non-freesat mode, as oppossed to doing a 'freesat scan' which of course would indicate being within freesat mode. But as we note the slight discrepancies in the question an answer covering both bases is probably the best option.

Yes, you can't use PVR functions from the non Freesat list. Also all you get is a channel list, not a proper programme guide.


No, it's expected behaviour. If both tuners are in use you can only view channels that have the same polarisation/band as one of the channels you are recording.

No probs.

This may be due to some interference from a DECT phone or your wifi router try turning them off to test.


The problem with being in non-freesat mode is that you can't make scheduled recordings although you can press the record button to do instant recordings and pressing the button twice will give you the flexabilty of extended recording times, and by pressing the > and < buttons will offer even more flexabily.

This isn't a bug it indicates which channels are still available to view whilst recording using the two tuners.

Yes, you should be able to. I watch both channels quite regularly.

I'm back.

France 24/Russia Today issue has been resolved - was a dodgy sattelite dish and was fixed by the installer.

Next questions (that I can't find answers to in the manual)

1. I'm getting scheduled recordings that start after the programme has started. I though the HUMAX could 'detect' the start of the programme (even if it is moved in the schedules) and adjust accordingly? Is this something I have done/not done or just the channel not transmitting the appropriate prompts?

2. In the 'Schedule' menu if I click OK on any event it puts a tick in the box that preceeds the details of the programme to be recorded - what's the tick for?

3. Is the only way to schedule repeat recordings of a series to press record on the first programme, then go into the schedule menu and edit that entry (e.g. to weekly)? This seems a bit long-winded

As always, grateful for any guidance.

It sounds like you're making your reservations by pressing the record button and not the OK button.


This is just to make functions like deleting or moving to a multiple selection of files

that should be just deleting.

In the EPG? Yes, I tend to press the record button after selecting the programme I want to record. Are you saying I should press OK and then choose between 'record' and 'watch' to resolve this?


Great - thanks. Last question (for the moment) I thought I had the ability to skip the adverts after recording a programme. I can skip forward in predefined steps (from the menu 30s, 60s etc) but is there a way to always skip from the end of one section of the programme to the start of the next?

Yes pressing the OK button gives you the option to record series linked programmes too, hence your query over editing the existing reservations to 'weekly/daily' repeats. Setting a recording using the record button prompts the box to record the stated times on the epg and doesn't let the box make adjustments to any recording that starts early or late.

Not too sure what you're getting at here are you refering to skipping the entire advert break? If so pressing/holding the right cursor button (the silver ring surrounding the OK button) will whizz through the recording but it's a bit hit and miss for this purpose. Generally folks find setting the skip forwards and backwards to their own preference is better and a couple of forwards skips and one or two back work well. I have mine set at 15 secs back and 120 secs forward and fine that two forward presses work a treat *, but occassionaly one step back is required.

* for Channel 4 recordings. Other comercial channels may vary

Sorry no way - do you really think a broadcaster would set marker points in the broadcast to allow such a thing when advertising is paying for the programming? Without such markers you would need a very sophisticated and expensive receiver to differentiate between programming and advertising. Fast forward or skip times are the best you can hope for from any receiver manufacturer.

Skipping the ads is easy. Press the forward skip twice on ITV1-HD (The default is +2 mins and the ITV1-Hd are usually 4 mins long). On other transmissions press the forward skip until you see the programme again. Press the reverse skip (default -15 sec) until you see the last few seconds of the adverts.

Although I don't think any PVRs implement it, it's actually quite easy to detect the beginning and end of most advert breaks using the audio pattern.

Thank the advertisers for their 'dynamic range compression' aka increased volume for that.