I am interested as to what signal level others users are finding is acceptable for reliable operation of the HDR. Our month old Humax has never shown any more than 50% when connected to a new "digital" aerial. It has always had the odd moment of picture break up and failed recordings which I assume are related to this low signal?

I have a pair of Humax PVRs, a 9150 and HDR FOX-T2. Rarely do I see above 60%. And for a while I was seeing 40% prior to DSO. At 40% there could be a bit of break-up but at 60% most of the time I get rock solid reception. Never had an actual failed recording though.

One thing I have had a couple of times is the Fox-T2 reports a failed recording but in fact it is perfectly intact when you come to play it back. Not exactly sure why, perhaps some signal glitch makes it think the recording has screwed up for whatever reason.

There are a few things to try to help reception. If the aerial cable ends up on a wall plate and you use a short lead from plate to Humax make sure the cable is a decent quality. Not one of those cheap and nasty thin supermarket leads. They can let in all sorts of nasties.

Keeping the aerial lead as physically separate from other cables as possible will help reduce interference.

Things like heating thermostats can generate mains bourne interference which can make the picture glitch. You should be able to check if you are suffering this by seeing if you get glitching when the heating trips in or out. Should be fairly simple to suppress any such interference if you do get it.

But 50% signal ought to be OK as long as the quality is reading 100% most of the time.

40% should be adequate and we worked for a long time with less than 30% signal on an HDR-FOX T2.

i have 75% strength and 100% quality on my 2000t. not noticed on my T2.

With a totally unobstructed signal path, it's surprising how low the signal can be for good reception. My 2000T and HDFox both indicate only 25% on Com7 with 100%Q from a Log36 in the loft. I have never seen glitching or any problems on recordings. Other muxes show around 40%/100Q. The same SD signals on my Sony machines show 85%.That quality reading is the best indicator.
Mike.

At the moment the HDR-2000T is connected to the aerial out of PVR-9200T. Signal strength levels for the two boxes are as follows:

Mux Channel HDR-2000 9200
BBC A 22 47% 72%
D3&4 25 52% 80%
L-GMB 27 25% -
BBC B 28 69% -
SDN 30 51% 75%
COM7 33 50% -
ARQ A 53 51% 79%
ARQ B 60 52% 80%

Signal quality is 100% in all cases except L-GMB (which is only a test transmission) and is quality 25%. So far all good.

Thanks all for the responses. I understand then that the signal quality is a more important indicator. I have not noticed this drop below 100 so will look at other areas to explain the glitches.