Because you expect the perfect box does not neccessarily mean you have high standards,So no contradiction!!
If you go back through the thread you will see that I am not alone with my views!!

Which for most people it seems the HDR is and we have every right to post here and say that. In fact I'd say we have an obligation to post that. Anyone whose finding their HDR to be unreliable most likely has a hardware fault and should be encouraged to get the box replaced or repaired.

I have not been shy about criticising Humax in the past - I slated them a lot about their 9200T. Now that was a PVR that couldn't be trusted to remember what you told it to record. But the HDR has just never let me down. Humax finally produced a PVR that - like my Sky box - can be trusted to do what's asked of it.

Actually it's better than the Sky box. My Sky HD box has several niggles that I encounter several times a week

Ive never owned a sky box and took 2 FV boxes back after a couple of days but no matter how good or bad a box is, theres no excuse for making it worse with an update that took a year to do. I have those niggles every time I want to record something, every time I select the recording on an HD channel and every time I do a tune.

All are 100% repeatable bugs or annoyances.

Reliability has never been a problem, usability has and thats much, much easier to fix which makes it all the more annoying that they continue to ignore it.

Of course if it was unreliable, wed have people on here telling us we should be happy to get the recordings the box manages to make.

It means exactly that.

You have low standards proven by the fact youre happy with a bugged box.

I have higher standards proven by the fact Im not happy with a bugged box.

Fact, end of. I wont bother replying on that subject because youre either trolling or not worth my time.

I have NOT stated that I am happy with a bugged box!!

I have as OP's have also said that I don't have a problem with using the workrounds!!

We would all like the "Perfect" box but nothing is perfect in life.
I have posted no differently than several other posters on this thread but for some reason you chose to direct your attack on me.
Your problem is inflexibility,unless everyone agrees 100% with you you lower your standards and start throwing insults around.
I am delighted that you consider me to be not worth your time,another indication that you are not winning the debate!!
This issue of bugs is obviously"Bugging" you so why don't you take your moans to the source and complain to Humax,or is that too much trouble for you?

No I have not missed the point. If you read my other posts you will see I was offering comarisons.

Yes the Foxsat HDr has a few issues. However I stand by my view and experience. It is far more relaible than SKY HD. As another poster agrees.

If you really think that the FoXSAT is so bad get Rid Or contact Humax. I have rung Humax once to help with Setup. They were helpful and Polite.

You are doing yourself no favours by continually insulting others with different views.

Mush better expressed than I did. Once again you are on the money.

What problems are you experiencing? I'm not trying to convince you that there's no problem - I'm just puzzled as to why you are experiencing problems that I never seem to.

I've owned a lot of PVRs over the years and I'd be the first person to complain if they were unreliable. I time shift everything without exception. I rely on PVRs to record what I tell them and often leave them to record entire series unchecked by me. Both Sky HD and the Humax HDR seem to do that. A shocking six or seven hours on average every day and probably no more than half a dozen failures over an entire year. I'd say 80% of the recordings are on the Sky box but also 80% of the failures(*).

I complain about a lot of consumer kit because I'm a software developer and I hate the slovenly job most consumer kit manufacturers do when it comes to software. The Humax HDR appears to me be a ray of sunshine in an otherwise depressing market. A box that actually does what it's supposed to and can be relied upon. Not perfect (could do with some UI tweaks and there's a couple of what I'd consider corner case bugs) but for most people I'd say it was faultless.

(*)The Sky box almost never fails to record anything but occasionally a recording won't playback or is corrupt. That's bloody annoying and something the HDR has never done.

My Sky Hd box Freezes on a weekly basis. The Humax is far more stable. I slso have no Recording/Playback problems with it. Wish Sky was the same, although to be fair it is normally fine with Recording/Playback.

Ironically that's where we disagree. I do object to workarounds. I'm a software developer and I 'specialise' in ease of use. I love technology not so much because of the function but because it can make life easier.

To me the idea of 'working around' a software debug is anathema. It makes a mockery of technology. I'll accept functional limitations in software before I'll accept workarounds

I had a new problem last night.

I booted the box from 'off' - i.e. red strip displaying and display completely black. I immediately started something recording. I then went to the guide to set some recordings and found that it was full of gaps. I waited for all recording to finish and tried again but I did not get the usual 'receiving programme information' and the gaps remained.

Remaining calm, I then turned the box off from the remote, waited for the red strip to appear and turned it on again. This time the EPG was updated and I could set my recordings.

For me, it depends on the workaround. The 'schedule | red' I can live with because it's really no trouble (or none if you can programme your remote [once you've done the programming]).

But being told, for example, that you should use the skip buttons to get around the absurd lack of a x8 FF/FR speed is going too far because they do not completely cure the problem.

Similarly having to press 'back' after virtually any transport function to get rid of that stupid progress bar in anything short of geological time is very annoying. After pausing and whilst FF/FR, fair enough, but once you select normal play it should vanish immediately without further action on the user's part.

I don't think we are so far apart.Not being a software expert
to me a having to use a workaround as a result of "Functional limitation"is better than not having that function at all.
As a layman This equipment performs really well for me and I rarely have a problem with it.I do agree however that it would preferable if the bugs didn't exist and workarounds were rendered obsolete.

To skip a average 4 minute ad break at 8X takes 30 seconds assuming you don't overshoot (a big assumption).

A normal 4 minute break takes about 4-5 seconds to skip using a 2 min forward skip setting, a tiny bit more if you need to back up 15 seconds or so.

Now who's absurd

At least the HDR has a skip button. Sky doesn't. I hate FF. It's hit and miss, jerky (on the Sky box quite horribly so) and usually entails using FR to backtrack.

Skip is so much better. Just hit it three or four times and you're done

But each to their own and really these are functional issues that I can live with. It's naff but not too bad. The kind of thing I hate is typified by the Sky PiG (Picture in Guide). Now I can accept that some people like the idea. In fact for someone watching live (quaint notion, lol) it must be great to be able to browse the EPG during ad breaks. When watching a recording I've sometimes wanted to do that and it'd be nice. However personally most of the time I'm browsing the EPG I'm not watching anything so would rather have the space used for more listings information. Even better the PiG would tie up a tuner that could cause me issues since I often have two recordings going at the same time.

Humax appear to agree with me on the HDR and that's that. Sky went a step further and allows users to choose whether they want it or not. So on that basis both design teams made a decision and so be it. I prefer the Sky philosophy but hey, each to their own

But the box I criticise most over this PiG thing, in fact the one I detest on the subject, is the Sky box. Why? Because the stupid bloody box leaves the sound track running when you disable the PiG. So it still ties up a tuner. It can act as a spoiler if you are recording something.

And what's the typical response to this complaint? "Oh just mute the volume when you bring the guide up.". That's the worst kind of workaround. Not only does it require more effort from me but it doesn't even fully address the problem.

But meh - that's a Sky problem and somewhat OT for this forum

This is a clear demonstration of how you learn to live with the HDR, rather than Humax developing software that is easy to use for anyone. Many people will come to DVRs from VCRs and try and do things the same way they are used to. Humax, for some inexplicable reason, have made that difficult.


Que? I guess you mean "happy" != "don't have a problem" a bit of clarity in your expression may help understanding.

No point going down that route, I tried it and got nowhere, no responses, no changes.

These issues still bug me: http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1310034
Plus the green screen issue reoccurred for me yesterday.

That's complete rubbish, the exact opposite is the case, some years ago I did a comparison of the Toppy 5800 without TAP's compared to a Topfield 9200.

One of the few things the Humax did much better was the programmeable skip keys. In other respects the Topfield was and is a much better pvr than the 9200. Add taps of course it's streets ahead.

During the run up to the Foxsat-hdr launch it was rumoured that due to pressure from ITV that the Humax trademark programmeable forward/reverse skip keys would not be allowed on Freesat+ boxes. It started a storm of protest, thankfully it proved to be false.

Humax have got a lot right with the HDR, it's a good box. What I think frustrates many of us though is for the sake of a few niggle-fixes it could be virtually perfect. For instance, I can't believe it would be a major software task to fix the 8x FF bug. Or that the HDMI output is flagged as 4:3. It manages the startup Humax splash-screen as 16:9 OK though. I believe this was broken with an earlier update. OK, you can work around it with your TV, there are work arounds for most niggles, but it would be nice not to have to.

I didn't mean to start a fire storm. I think we all know where we are on the problems with the guide, and the schedule+red workaround, so please let's leave that!

What I'm most concerned about is my hunch that it's a bit buggy now.

So can I come back to my question from page 1 please? How can I revert the box to the old software, and keep it there? Simple instructions, or a link - please? Anyone?

Many thanks,
David.

That has been answered.

I'm quite worried by that prospect - that's one of the reason I want to get the old software back on there - to see if the slight "bugginess" is due to the new software, or hardware failure.

I'm trying to remember what warranty I've got - it's less than 2 years old.

The thing is, if I have to buy a new one, I'm not sure I'd buy the same thing again. I'm hoping it's not broken, but if it is, then I'm hoping it limps on until people report that one of the newer boxes is stable.


...I'm watching the Samsung and Echostar threads!

Cheers,
David.

Do you mean this...
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...12&postcount=7
...?

I'm not sure that works. I could plug the Humax into a cheap mains timer to power the box off every night easily enough - but on the old software, it would never wake up again!

Cheers,
David.

Download and instructions

http://beta.humaxonline.co.uk/freesat-hd

To avoid auto updating you will have to disable the overnight housekeeping (forfeiting features like thumbnails).

You can either

Power off the box overnight - remember V1.00.13 won't record scheduled recordings till you manually boot the box after a power off unless you switch the power off with the box fully booted.

Set a scheduled watch or recording to cover the overnight period.

To be honest apart from the guide problem and HD channel subtitles in time shift (fixeable) I have not found any problems with recording. Just the opposite in fact V1.00.15 will record some ITV1 programmes that V1.00.13 fails to record (event id changes by ITV).

Unlike certain posters on this thread I try to be helpfull

I have had nearly 2 years with SCART and only 2 months with HDMI..
Not even aware of and not come across this 4:3HDMI problem with this years Panny..
When testing from time to time.. i do see 'Friends?' in 4:3 and it's a lousy picture as well..
I assumed that the TV was showing correctly that it was a very old TV show..
Is my TV more wonderful even than I thought in that i have been blithely unaware of a 4:3 problem or should i now be concerned please?

However, if you do a lot of skipping (30-60 nins), it will send you back to the start of the program.

The box seems to have a lot of trouble with repeated remote presses. Do a scan and then quickly select 100 channels to delete and it will reboot the box every time.