I've now had two HDR-2000Ts (the first one went back with an unrelated fault) and they both seem to have issues after a power failure.

After the mains power supply to the box has been interrupted, and the box is turned on manually, the TV picture appears almost instantly (no Humax splash screen) and the hard drive does not spin up. Live channels can be viewed, but no PVR functionality is available because the hard drive isn't running.

Usually, I can recover this by switching to standby, waiting a few seconds, then switching back on - this normally invokes a normal boot (complete with Humax splash screen) and all is well again. However, this evening this didn't work. I switched off and on several times to no avail, even after waiting several minutes. Every time, the TV picture appeared straight away, no Humax splash screen, and no PVR functions available. I recovered by powering off at the mains while the box was on, then powering back on again - this seemed to invoke a full (normal) boot.

It does't seem to matter how long I leave the box between reconnecting the power and turning on. I've left it for over an hour, but on the first switch-on, it always comes up in this state, and I have to switch off and back on again to get the hard drive to spin up and regain PVR functions.

While this isn't catastrophic in itself, my worry is that it will fail to make scheduled recordings after a power failure.

Since I've had two boxes that exhibit the exact same behaviour, I presume it must be a software bug - or have I been really unlucky and ended up with two boxes with the same fault?

Can you get the programme guide and change channels via the remote?

Yep, channel changes work fine, and Guide comes up as normal. Only the PVR functions are unavailable - the Media list won't come up, I can't schedule any recordings, and can't pause live TV.

Basically any function that would require the hard disk is unavailable until I switch to standby then back on again, and hear the HDD spin up.

I can replicate the problem as follows:
1. Make sure the box is fully in standby and the HDD is not running, and no scheduled recordings are imminent.
2. Power off the mains supply.
3. Wait a couple of minutes.
4. Power on the mains supply. Front-panel light initially comes up blue, then turns red after a few seconds.
5. Wait for some time. (I've waited for about 1 minute to up to an hour in this state before continuing - it seems to make no difference).
6. Bring box out of standby, either using the front-panel button or the power button on the remote.
7. TV picture appears straight away, the HDD does not spin up, and PVR functions are unavailable.
8. Switch box back to standby, and wait about 10 to 15 seconds.
9. Bring box out of standby again.
10. The box starts up normally with the Humax splash screen, and the HDD can he heard spinning up. It then functions normally.

I'm having all kinds of problems with mine. About two times out of three I switch it on and there is no sound and it doesn't respond to the remote control. It's getting to the stage where I have to pull the power lead out and then put it back in again nearly every time. Not impressed.

I too get the power light turning blue and then turning red again. Sometimes it goes out altogether. I'm beginning to think these boxes are too buggy to recommend any more.

This same problem has started happening again. Does anybody else switch the box on to find that the picture is there but no sound? I can't find any way of fixing this without pulling the power lead out for about ten seconds. Switching off via the power button on the front panel isn't enough. To make it doubly annoying, there is always a truly horrible loud rasping sound through the TV speakers as the Humax logo appears when it is booting up.

I don't know if it's relevant that I also have a YouView box plugged in to the other HDMI port of the TV. I hardly use it though because the YouView box is rubbish compared to the Humax (at least when it's working properly).