I am thinking of getting a Humax HDR-1010S, but it has quite a lot of mixed reviews, particularly older reviews near its launch are largely poor. Has the firmware been improved to get rid of all the bugs? Which bugs still remain?
There used to be a really good website listing all the flaws with Freesat Freetime and expected fixes, where has this gone?
Thanks very much for any help.

I have the HDR-1000S which is virtually identical and it isn't plagued by serious bugs. I've had it for about 2 months and do about 4 recordings a day and it hasn't missed any of them. The unit was a graded 1TB and only cost £169.

There were apparently lots of problems with the early software but these have been pretty much fixed. There are still issues that I would like changed such as requiring less key presses to resume playing a recording but these are UI preferences rather than bugs.

The main freesat forum closed because the freesat (not Humax) owners did not like negative comments. There are still Humax forums open.

Many of the original "bugs" were in fact wishes for changes in the UI. Don't remember any really serious bugs, there were some modifications which appeared quite quickly in two main releases.

I have a HDR-1000S and a HB-1000S and am very happy with them, That said some have issues with the WiFi on the HDR-1010S.

The HDR 1000S has had a fair number of firmware updates, including one this week! Around the time of the Commonwealth Games/European Athletics champs this year, my 1000S decided to do some weird "stunts" with the series recordings I'd set. Examples included a slew of "failed" one minute recordings (annoyingly followed by failing to record the morning session of the sport) and refusing to let me delete the series recording events when the events had finished.

Not seen any issues since that (I believe series recording events will be removed 13 weeks after the last airing, so they're due to go any day now).

I think the only real complaint you can have about the firmware now is how "clunky" the UI feels - far too many button presses (and an extra menu level when you don't really need it) to do common operations. The lack of use of the 4 coloured buttons on the remote is nothing short of a UI disaster, so there's no easy way to reduce the number of presses.

I agree especially with the coloured button shortcuts (A feature of all Humax pvrs since the first ones).

The problem is not down to the firmware, it's down to the designed by committee, head in the sand attitude of the frankly incompetent idiots at Freesat who are entirely responsible for the UI design. They actually had a user forum, all these good ideas were posted, they ignored the lot and in the end closed the forum.

Whoever is responsible for responding to customer enquires at Freesat has clearly never used a twin tuner Humax PVR of any vintage.

Note this response from Freesat which is pure garbage

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showp...2&postcount=27

From this thread

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2005799

The truth is every Humax twin tuner pvr ever made, and was responsible for the UI, has always been capable of recording two at the same time and also capable of watching a 3rd channel dependant on the transponder (Freesat) / Mux (Freeview) combination being recorded.

What was the one this week for?

Was it over the air or internet? I haven't noticed anything so if I haven't got it is it worth getting?

Never mind I looked this up. The changes were so subtle I never even noticed my box had been upgraded (I don't use showcase).

I have both a 1000s and a 1010s and am very pleased with both. The only issue I sometimes encounter with the 1000s is that it shows "you have no recordings" when in fact I know there are quite a few. But this happens rarely and a reboot sorts it out. I have not experienced any issues with the wifi on the 1010s.

Both I think. New Showcase and option to turn off the also available in HD prompt. I haven't seen the flashing book me now prompt since the update (could be a coincidence of course).

What I don't like about the new Showcase layout is the reduction of the programme you are currently watching to almost 20% less than credit card size on a 46" screen - I mean why bother. OK you still have the audio but it would be nice to be able to still see something of it whilst you are browsing through the Showcase offerings.

I'm on the very brink of buying a Humax HDR-1010S for Freesat and would be interested in knowing what drawbacks it has.

I have used a Humax Freeview box (the PVR-9300T) and the interface seems clunky but okay to me. So I figured that the HDR1010S would be more or less the same. What might I be overlooking?

I have had the 1000S for a couple of months myself, it was only a cheap £130 500GB option but whipped out the old HDD and put a new WD 2TB green in it and never had any issues with it and i cap a huge amount of stuff (sometimes 10 shows a day) both one off and series link stuff only time it has scred up is when a show was removed for some reason or another, never use their showcase much as my BB is pants and it stops and starts due to poor speed, UI is aweful IMO but that is personal taste, check out a working version if you can.

All1

If you accept the clumsy, clunky, badly designed UI, and the fact that Freesat seem oblivious to all user criticism of same, then the box is now pretty rock solid in its performance. Personally I won't be buying any more Freesat boxes until they deliver a well designed client-server combo which allows viewing of recordings remotely. Example being record on HDR and watch on HB. Until then my money says put.

I have a HDR 1000s the only annoying bug I know of is the one where you lose the ability to freeze live TV, I have been in touch with Humax and the only solution is to reformat the drive.
this is unnacceptable to the wife !!!!
Still, BUT I do not think there is a simple fix.
Pete

The original publicity blurb of the HB-1000S pre-launch back in September 2013 actually promised such a facility ....


Promises, promises .... or just castles in the air?

The promises go back further than that. The HDR was launched in Oct 2012 and promised the future availability of a server facility, and the possible HB to HDR client/server interaction was discussed on forums prior to the HB launch. To be fair to Humax I am guessing that the Freesat supplied s/w has been so unstable that the focus has been on fixing that. I will believe it when I see it and buy it only after it has been tried and tested by more bold and adventurous users. Lesson learned where Humax products are concerned.

My memory is quite good. Humax made no direct statement on client server functionality. Barry, over at MyHumax Forum, asked Humax to respond or comment, on a list of questions - one of which was the DLNA client/Server functions.
The response I remember is that it is our (Humax's) intention to provide this in the future. Later I saw a response that DLNA server function functionality was not planned for the HB-1000S.

My memory is excellent and I'm certain they did.


What future would that be?


I never mentioned server function in the HB, only the HDR.

Would be interested if you can find back the source.
I do remember seeing something about another Humax product in another region with Hub functionality on Humax's International site,


Ours I hope.



OK.

They are okay, I used one for a while and went back to my YouView box because of the odd bug here and now. I kept getting the "Channel Scrambled' message even though it was actually showing the channel. I also had a channel listing for BBC1 be the listing for Playboy Chat, along with the annoying 1 second delay to pause.

Maybe it's just my box but I have put it away now.

I'd love to be able to resurrect my Foxsat HDR. On the 1010S:-

The EPG just lists programmes by 'now and 'next', rather than in hourly bandings, which makes it impossible to follow easily;

There's no time display on the box when replaying a recording, nor when in time lapse. Any time you wonder how long a recording has to go, you have to press a button;

Recording series can be listed in 'most recent' or 'A-Z' order but you click on a recorded series, the individual programmes are in no apparent order at all. In fact, they can be in a different order next time you click on that series;

When a live programme is showing, the 'I' button doesn't show a progress bar;

The list of recorded programmes gives no idea of what time it was originally broadcast;

There's no obvious indication on screen that something is being recorded in the background;

No hint on screen or box when you are watching in time lapse and no indication when you cancel rewind that you are watching live TV;

If you press "right" twice then you get a display in hourly bandings. Yes it would be better if you could configure it to be like that from the start but it is liveable with.


Yes it would be better if the front panel showed elapsed time rather than the program name, this is no different to Sky though.


I'm not sure what you mean? A continuous on screen display would be awful and a reason to return the box as unusable. A brief on screen display when a recording starts would be annoying. There is a front panel icon showing record.


It would be good if the front panel showed the time offset in that case. On screen would be awful.

My Foxsat HDR and Fox T2 boxes both show a quick indicator in the top left hand corner that a recording has started. Pressing 'info' also shows the on screen icon and I find it pretty handy if you want to quickly check if it's recording. I also can't clearly see the front panels from my viewing distance.

My HB1000S has no front panel indication whatsoever, so I have to go into the epg guide or 'recordings' to see if something is recording which is a more cumbersome way of doing it.

I don't want an indicator to show something has started because it's not something I care about - I set the thing to record, it records and that's it until I want to watch it. An on screen indicator would be annoying but if it was selectable on/off then fine.

Why do you want to see when a recording has started on a PVR? I thought the whole point of a PVR was that you didn't have to bother about things like that any more?


I can see why you'd want some indication on the HB1000S since it's single channel and not a PVR. On the HDR1000S it's different and the record icon is visible - it's unreadable at normal viewing distance but that doesn't matter as it's enough to see it's there.

I agree with bobcar.
The idea of an on screen recording indicator in addition to those annoying DOG's, Ahhhh!