Well, when I first installed my HDR Fox T2 I wondered what on earth this folder business was all about and certainly didn't like it at first. A couple of years later and bearing in mind my use of this machine, I suppose folders have their use but wouldn't condemn any machine for not having that facility.
Nothing is archived on my machine for longer than a couple of weeks and if The Chase, for example was presented to me as a series of icons only and not within a folder then so what. However, as I understand it here, there are people who must view and store a considerable amount of TV programmes where presumably folders are a lifeline to them.
Mine is just a multiple recorder device, storing, say, the last 7 day's TV programmes - nearly always commercial (for obvious reasons) which are then viewed and then deleted.
Each to their own, of course.

Unfortunately you are in a VERY small minority there.

PIP is a very underused feature, and most manufacturers have long since abandoned it.

I agree. My TV has it but again the way I use my TV and ancillary recording devices makes this feature redundant. A bit like 3D TV. Who would buy a TV with this?
An analogy with cars could be drawn. There is so much unnecessary gizmos on cars most of which average Joe Public doesn't use or want. Get the basics right first is my mantra.

Agree with that comment, For 10 years now I have never made use of PIP on any of my PVR's.

The only use I found for it was to check both tuners were working OK. Of course to do this on a FVP-4000T you need to have 3 pictures

Agree about PIP, but, having a windowed picture in the epg to watch while searching was handy.
Another annoyance is that if you want to find info on a programme that is currently being broadcast, it will not give you the info unless you change to the channel from whatever you are watching.
Again, stuff they got right before and have abandoned.

According to THIS article Humax are considering a 4K version next year...

I believe the new Panasonic PVR's due for release at the end of this month have this already.

Really been looking forward to this - have been holding off replacing my Fox T2 which is showing its age a little. We got a Humax YouView box for the bedroom and I was disappointed by how wedded it was to the EPG - you had no option but to follow EPG timings even if the broadcaster didn't send out proper start times to the box (such as C5), and no option at all to set manual recording. I presume this box doesn't have those limitations?

Bit disappointed in lack of Scart socket for DVD archiving, although it seems from the discussion you could use RCA to scart adapter. No issue with archiving the recordings instead to the USB but the HD channels are encrypted which means you'd need to record something twice if you knew you wanted to keep it, which defeats the object somewhat.

I thought that the Humax boxes already had the HEVC spec inside
According to Digital UK it has
See Here https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3o...ew?usp=sharing

That would make sense as they are offering 4K recording on the PWT550 model.

Having never owned a Fox T2,how are the folders actually created?

They can be created, renamed and moved manually. They are also created at the top level of the folder structure when recording a series if there is not already a folder at the top level for the series at the top level. The series folders are based on the series title and not the series id. This mans that two series with the same title will be amalgamated.

Yuview differs from the Humax freeview HDR recorders, including the HDR-FOXs, in that they can cannot manually create, rename or move folders. Additionally Youview folders are only displayed when there are at least 2 recordings for a series. This means that once all but 1 recording for a series has been deleted, then the recording will be shown as a standalone recording rather than as a recording within a folder.
Series folders are based on series id and not series title. So if you record a series in HD and SD you will get two series folders.

From what has been said so far I suspect That the FVP-4000T folder process is the same or similar to Youview.

Personally I don't know that answer but wish there was the choice whether to have them or not. After getting used to them and the surprise of that facility then I would probably opt to keep the folder option although some time their titles are underscored, for reasons better known to the experts here.

Oops, sorry. Hadn't realised that someone above had answered your question.

I use the folder facility a lot in my Fox T2, I have created several folders.
E.g. I have created one and renamed it Music, actually _Music so my folders show last.
I like watching the old TOTPs so if there is a particular one that I want to keep I move it to the Music folder.
I then rename the programme title to signify who's in it.
I also bookmark the songs I like so I can skip straight to them.

Set mine up last night. Am happy with it so far. A few quirks which are different from my HDR-T2 but I expect I'll get use to that. Picture is good. All catchup stuff seems to work Ok, although I didn't get much chance to try. Managed to transfer some recordings from my HDR-T2 which took a while but they seem to play OK, from the Media Centre section of the FVP-4000T.

Had a few problems as I was trying to use both Humax's in parallel while transferring the recordings, and the remote control operates both of them. Eventually I found out how to set one to use a different remote control mode so I could operate both devices independently!

Things that have changed that I need to get used to (or find out how they work differently):
No way of showing detailed programme information about the recording that is being played back. (Used to be able to press the 'i' key to get info).
Can't skip forward or back by (say) 30 seconds, instantly. Not worked out how annoying this is yet, but I realise I can get this function by pressing OK and then forward/back. Just was nice to be able to skip over a section with one button press.
The guide seems large and not as neat as on the T2 so you can see fewer EPG entries on the screen at once.
I used to be able to use a single button to get to the Media playback section for playing back recordings. Now you have to go to the Home meny and then select Recordings. Seems odd that there is a dedicated button for On Demand but not for Recordings.

Overall, though, I like it and will look forward to using it fully over the coming days/weeks.

Thanks for the detailed answer.

That is unbelievable!! I use it all the time when skipping adverts. I'm wondering now if there will ever be any GOOD news about this machine (apart from the 3 tuners). So far to me it just sounds awful.

It's not awful - there are many great things about it, just that a few features are not as easy to access.

But isn't that the point with new edition PVR's, they should make it easier for users not go backwards.

Couldn't agree more,as it has the potential to be a really good PVR. I'm confident that given a software update the few quirks could be sorted,as at the end of the day Freeview are pinning a lot on Play being a success.

Get used to it, it won't give programme info while viewing a recorded prog.

That is, unfortunately, almost the only way to skip. but you don't need to use the forward/back buttons just press OK then left/right button
You can change the length of the skip in settings.[/quote]


Isn't it just? Seems to have been designed by someone with vision difficulties.

Another instance of throwing away the good from previous machines.

I can't say I like it, but, it will do for now. Might buy one of the Panasonic ones if they have mastered some of the niggles that Humax have created.

According to Humax Customer Support,a remote record app for Freeview Play will be released in the next few weeks.

I hope it works better than the freetime app. Once paired the box boots every 20 minutes or so 24/7 to check for reservation changes. There is no user setting to increase this to a suitable time interval for the change.

Wow, not heard that one before, that is a terrible implementation...