My apologies in advance, as I'm sure that this topic has been covered before, but just how reliable is the Humax Foxsat-HDR when it comes to recording programmes?

I've had my HDR for about 6 months now, and I use it occasionally to fill-in the gaps that aren't covered by Freeview. Anyway, my wife wanted to make sure that the new series on More4, The Big C, was recorded properly, so in addition to setting-up my Freeview PVR to record it, I also set-up my Foxsat to record the time-shifted versions on More4+1 (as one-off recordings, not series-linked). After programming, I could see both the midnight and 03:25 entries in the schedule list when I set things up last Tuesday. When I checked the results yesterday though, the HDR had only recorded the transmission at midnight, and I could find no reason why the second transmission hadn't been recorded.

Is this a common occurrence? Am I missing something obvious here? Any help/suggestions/guidance would be greatly appreciated.

I don't run the box in low power mode, so the clock is always visible on the front panel in standby. One thing I did notice was that when I first set-up the recordings I could see a small analogue clock indicator in the front panel to the left of the digital clock, but that disappeared after a while. I don't know if this an issue, because if I go back into the schedule list it reappears for a while once the box goes into standby, then disappears again. I'm using the box in single tuner mode with a loop connection to LNB2, but I can't see that having a bearing.

TIA


Clem

PS: I've already posted this question on AVForums -- my apologies to those here who've already seen the post.

Is it possible you had a slight/quick power cut on that night before the second recording?

Unfortunately in the current firmware for the Humax Foxsat HDR, there is a flaw of whenever a power cut occurs the Foxsat does not load the clock data until the next time it is manually turned on. This means no further recordings can take place until it is manually activated by the user. It makes no difference if you have the Foxsat in either full or low power-mode.

Humax is aware of this flaw and is said to have done a fix, that it auto loads the clock data whenever it starts up cold (i.e.when power is disconnected and reconnected). This will be released in the next firmware version soon.

If it wasn't that, then I'm not really sure what the problem was. I have been using my Foxsat HDR for over a year and a half now. All of my TV programmes are recorded, which is a handful each day as I rarely watch anything as its being broadcast. I haven't had any problems, apart from when the very rare power cuts occurs.

BTW - I would really use the low power-mode if I were you, it uses a heck of a lot of less power when it's in stand-by and will save money in the long-run. Even when Humax eventually releases the next fixed firmware, it will still take effect for those using low-power mode.

Freesat PVR's by default use automatic recording triggered by the broadcasters sending start and stop signals for specific programme and series identities - Some channels screw this up, While you can change this for recording to add padding - you risk increasing the risk of programme clashes.

You're referring to the Accurate Recording technology, which unfortunately none of the Channel 4 channels use (just BBC and some ITV channels).

When recording a programme on Channel 4 (or More 4) it will use the PVR's clock to start and stop recording, regardless of whether the programme has actually began or ended. I get this every weekday as I series-link record Frasier in the morning, and it is so irritating when it either starts late or overruns (seems to always miss a part of it).

I really hope Channel 4 implement Accurate Recording soon! I have already emailed their Viewer Enquiries twice, but it's still "we have plans to do so but not in the near future".

The odd thing is that the C4 family of channels are now played out by Red Bee who also run the BBC playout.

Thanks for all the replies so far. I'll repeat the exercise this Thursday and see what happens. One Q please: If a recording fails, where will that be shown? I looked in all the obvious places and didn't see anything like that as I recall.

Cheers


Clem

It will be shown where it would be normally, I havent had a failure for a long long time and Ive never had one that didnt leave evidence of a failure.

The only 2 things i can think of is a mini power cut or someone else accidentally deleted the schedule.

Isn't it the MOST annoying thing that cancelling a series recording cancels the whole series - someone was having a bad day when they designed that piece !

Yes it is, that another niggle that Id like sorted.

The HDR is technically a great box but they must have only had the engineers test it rather than normal users because theres lots of things that make no sense. I think they need to widen the testing user base to get more feedback.

If I was a tester, theyd have known they needed a better remote and a wider range for the remote, Im 3 yards away from the box and if I move more that a yard either side, the box doesnt register the remote.

Frankly don't know how they made the remote so bad, any and all programmables seem to operate fine with the HDR so its obviously just a bad remote circuit.

I have a programmable and that works fine with everything else but more than a yard to one side and it struggles with the HDR, the hole in the flap isnt large enough which leads to a tiny angle that it can be operated on.

If I pull the flap down, I can triple the angle that the remote will work.

Well, I'm 100% sure that my wife didn't touch the box, so that rules that out, and I certainly didn't delete the entry, and there's only us in the house. I suppose a mini power cut is a possibility, but it would have had to have been a brown-out, because we definitely haven't had any power cuts where I am recently (which makes a change) -- I'm a very light sleeper and would have noticed that.

Let's see what happens on Thursday.


Clem

OK, I think something odd is going on but I can't quite work out what.

I woke by box up from standby last night and first checked the schedule - empty, as expected. I then went to the EPG to pick the Big C episodes on More4+1 for tonight/tomorrow, same as last week and I saw the red clock icon already present on both entries, so it looks like the Humax has series-linked them last week, even though I know I only picked single episodes.

With my wife watching, I deleted the reservations from the EPG then again scheduled single recordings for this week's episodes, which are flagged on the EPG again and listed in the schedule.

I put the box into standby where I saw the small analogue clock appear next to the front panel digital clock. A couple of hours later, the small analogue clock had disappeared from the front panel display.

I reckon that the box will only record the first +1 episode again, based on what I saw last night, but I'm happy to be proved wrong.

Any thoughts, comments pending tonight's recording(s) would be greatly appreciated.

Clem

Interesting, if you want Clem I could also set it to record on mine as well? That way you know for sure if it's affecting all Foxsat-HDR boxes or just your own.

Let me know exactly which programme it is, and whether you set it for single or series link. Plus I assume you got all the recording options in menu as default. If we try this, probably best to make sure there's no differences in recording options.

Cheers, that would be really helpful.

The programme is The Big C. I'm recording the More4+1 versions which start at 00:00 on 11/02/11, and again at 03:25.

I haven't made any changes to the recording options - accurate record is what I'm using, no padding. I simply pick the recordings from the EPG and follow the prompts, selecting the single programme option (can't recall what that is exactly) from the pop-up menus, then I check the schedule to confirm everything is as expected. BTW, these are the only recordings that I have scheduled.

Clem

Okay, I've set mine to record both of them as single (no series-link) on More4+1. I haven't got anything else set to record tonight, so the Foxsat HDR should boot up for both them (rather than already being on).

Will let you know in the morning the results.

Not sure if it's relevant or not but more4 and more4+1 has had problems with an incomplete epg in the last few days. Seems to be OK now. Channel 4 incidentally does not implement accurate record so if the programme deviates from schedule you can lose bits. Manual padding bu editing the reservation is the easiest option until Ch4 sort it out. (Hopefully before CH4-HD arrives)

Just to let you know Clem, my Foxsat-HDR recorded both episodes with no problems. How did it go on yours?

This time, spot on! I wonder if the issues about the EPG were relevant? The other thing that crossed my mind was if the episodes had been series-linked (well, they were, it seems, even though I specifically selected single episodes) there's some sort of intelligence in place to say that if the first programme recorded OK, and the second had the same descriptors the recording was ignored?

Right now, this all sounds like 'liveware' error, doesn't it, but I know that I set-up the first recordings as single episodes -- there was no point doing a series link set-up just in case my wife didn't like the material.

I checked the EPG yesterday and there's no series link/red icon showing for this Thursday's episodes, so I'll try the experiment again to see what happens.

Thanks to everyone who's commented/tried things out. I'm still confused as to why the Foxsat skipped a recording though.

Cheers


Clem

If you turn off Accurate Record it's very reliable. It's a little hard to quantify since I don't use it as much as I use my Sky HD box but I don't think I've ever known my HDR to fail since disabling AR. I also don't think it's the box at fault - I think it's more likely to be the broadcasters at fault.

As for box faults:

The remote sensor sucks. I can leave my Harmony One behind a cushion on the sofa(*) and everything else will respond to it. The HDR sometimes doesn't respond when I'm pointing the remote if I'm a bit off.

The use of the 'Opt+' key. Need I say more?

Not being able to select recordings in the planner for a mass-delete (or delete an entire stack). Don't need it often but when I do it's a pain to have to delete each item one by one.

The silly difference between 'Guide' and 'Schedule+Red button'. Supposedly that's fixed in the update if/when it ever turns up.

But overall I think it's the best PVR I've ever owned and I've owned six so far.

(*)Where my budgie has yet to find it

You can select multiple folders or all the contents of a folder for deletion or copying using edit mode - press yellow in file manager, press OK to toggle a select flag on multiple entries. Not sure where you got the idea that guide or schedule/red will be changed in the next update

I'd say it is about 99% reliable. The 1% that fail for me are, I suspect, just down to errors in the broadcast information. A handful of failures have been down to a Foxsat-HDR bug that makes it crash/reboot just as it starts a recording.

Oh excellent. I'll try and remember that for next time
I thought Bob had agreed it was a bug and that 'Guide' would work the same way as 'Schedule+Red button'. That's a bit sad if I'm wrong - it seems silly to have to use two buttons to get to the same place given that the dedicated button produces a sluggish box.

There are times when you need the guide button to build a new epg for instance after a factory reset. The update of the epg from data transmitted along with the programmes is a bit like a trickle charge. If you press schedule/red after a factory reset you will see big holes in the epg till you use the guide button.

They don't get to the same place

Guide - steals tuner 1 and downloads a whole new guide from the eurobird 1 home transponder. (that's why you lose the video/audio for around 30 sec)

Schedule/Red simply displays the buffered epg, it's the only way to get a epg while tuner 1 is recording although the box substitutes the buffered epg if you press guide when tuner 1 is not available.

There's certainly some higher intelligence that can baffle us mortals wrt series linking. I haven't had the exact situation you describe, but other confusing situations which make sense if the logic in the box is something like "I'm looking for this series - I'll record an episode if it's not already on the HDD".

I'm not saying that is the logic - sometimes it seems to be, sometimes it doesn't.

Cheers,
David.