Hi

I will shortly be buying a Humax HDR 500GB and have a quick question.

I've read a few reviews which have mentioned about the box sometimes missing the end of programmes.

If I set the box to add a 2min buffer at the end of programme would that cause an issue with back to back recordings? ie

Recording 1 8pm - 9:02pm
Recording 2 8pm - 9:02pm
Recording 3 9pm - 10:02pm

Would the box stop recording at 9:02pm and then pick up recording 3 from 9:02pm or would it fail recording 3 completely?

I have mine set at automatic or whatever the default setting is, never misses the end unless there's a screw up from the broadcasters (ITV!). The recording is fine.

Going by the behaviour when using Accurate Record (when the broadcaster signals the start/stop times) then Recording 3 would begin at 9:02, though the box may offer an on-screen prompt at 9:00 asking whether to stop one of the other recordings - which you can either do, or press exit to clear the message and wait for the recording to start when it can. (Haven't tested padding specifically though, but I'd be surprised if it operated differently.)

Confusingly the Humax will show a failed recording icon on any recording where part of it has been missed, which can give the false impression that the recording has failed entirely.

In my experience it's the C4 set of channels that are the worst as they don't support Accurate Record and often overrun their broadcast slot. Though when I reported this as a fault to them a few months ago, they assured me they were looking to support Accurate Record on Freesat early this year, so there is some hope...

I use accurate record for BBC and ITV and have never missed the end of a recording. For C4, E4 and F4 I go into the recording schedule and edit the item to add 5 mins on the end (making it a weekly recording also for series) as those channels don't support accurate recording. Works for me.

If the third recording in the example above was using a similar transponder polarisation to the second (and providing another channel wasn't already being watched, wouldn't it be potentially able to record all three?

The best I've got is the box to record two channels while I watch a third with timeshift, so technically it does record three channels at once but as we know the Humax doesn't give the choice to save timeshift programs.