People seem to be having a lot of problems when watching ITV 1 and 2 - there have been lots of reports of lockups on these channels in the massive 9200T thread Barry started.

Could it be an MHEG stream causing problems, or maybe the fact that ITV4's being launched soon and the mux is a bit unstable?

It seems too much of a coincidence that so many of these lockups are happening on these channels, even though they are relatively rare.

I think the ITV mux is the one using the more error prone QAM64 rather than QAM16 - so maybe that's why the 9200 is more sensitive?

It's also those channels using the weird and wonderful aspect ratio that was causing 4TV boxes display issues for a while too.

(typical bloody ITV - trying to squeeze more quantity in at the expense of quality - so nothing new there then!)

Cliff

I've had recordings without sound twice now ... and seeing as Humax seem to no longer like answering the phone I think it might be time to take the box back to Comet

A

Has anybody actually had a failed television recording? The radio programmes don't seem to record when in standby, but are the TV programmes reliably recorded?

I've been having some problems with ITV channels too.

First...
If I watch BBC1, then use PIP to put ITV1 in the small PIP window, when I swap the PIP screens (so ITV is now full screen) there is no sound! Any other channel works perfectly! I've emailed Humax, but had no reply yet.

Second...
Last night (Monday, 31st Oct), I could not watch ITV1 live from about 7pm to 8pm. The picture appeared for a few seconds, then disappeared (no sound either). This seemed to be on all the ITV channels - although Ch4 (on same mux) was OK. I had to press pause, then play. It then played perfectly OK - a few seconds behind live TV. Very strange! My F2-FoxT box, by the way, worked perfectly during this time (using the same aerial).

I'm assuming these are not hardware faults - because it only happens on ITV!

Gareth.

i think this might have something to do with itv4 launch and the other channels putting a banner at bottom warning of retuning, once this banners goes like on e4 problems were sorted.

Another lockup today. SHMBO had just changed to ITV1 from Channel 5 at 12.12 this afternoon, and it locked straight away.

Tried an experiment last night. At about 18:40 I switched the Guide over to Radio and selected The Archers on Radio 4 as a scheduled recording ( 19:00-19:15) - no comments on program choice this was the shortest program I could find for a test . I then set the box back to TV (BBC1) and shortly after put into standby.

The box duly had a record light on at 19:00 which went off just before 19:15 so a couple of mins later I switched on and there on the recorded program list was an audio recording (had a little double-quaver symbol).

It plays fine although the none-padded EPG means it has a couple of minutes news before the Archers and loses the last minute (the recording is timed as 19:00-19:14)

Next experiments - Mike Harding's folk program on Radio 2 is set to record tonight (with Rome on BBC2 and Concert for George on BBC4 immediately following). Also need to get The Archers to the PC to check MP2-MP3 transcoding.

I also set up some test recordings yesterday, 2 on Radio 1 set direct from EPG and 2 on Radio 2 set up manually. I expected the manual ones to record fine following previous comments about manual recordings from stand-by working fine (was that GrannyGrunt??).

I made sure that all recordings would be from stand-by (i.e. left a 1/2 hour gap between each one to allow the unit to return to stand-by between recordings.

Got home last night to find the two set-up direct from EPG had recorded fine but the two manual set-ups were missing.

I can't fathom the radio recording at all!! Can anyone provide a definitive overview of how the radio should operate?

Yes, I have had several missed television recordings, also reported by others in the massive thread started by Barry. Seems to occur when you try to record the first program on a part-time channel (eg, CBeebies) and I have also had it happen when you program a recording through the EPG whilst the channel is off air (eg, programming a CBeebies at 8 pm to record stuff the next day). Last weekend none of the 'Grand Design' repeats on more 4 recorded !

Have emailed all this to Humax but no reply (yet).

Tried your scenario - seemed to work fine - although radio program only show up if u go menu - record - recorded programme - ie won't show up if u just press the play list button (blue background screen)

On the playlist you have to use the left / right buttons to toggle between audio and video recordings

Well, I don't know how you did that! Have still not succeeded in getting a pre-scheduled radio prog to record in standby mode - and I badly want to.

Flushed with the success of last night's EPG recording of The Archers from stand-by I set my box a more difficult mission tonight - record Mike Harding Folk programme on Radio 2 followed immediately by simultaneous video recordings of Rome on BBC2 and The Concert For George on BBC4

The two video recordings appear to be fine but no sign of the radio recording. Checked audio files on the playlist and just yesterday's Archers is there.

So, looks like I, too, am also a victim of the 'will not record from radio EPG when in standby' bug. What baffles me is why this failed tonight when last night's Archers worked OK? The only thing I recall being different (apart from last night I set the recording up only 15 mins prior to the start time) was that last night I may have been in Radio mode listening to Radio 4 before scheduling the recording but distinctly remember going back to TV mode (on BBC 1) before going to standby.

One other failure - Carlito's Way (ITV4 IIRC) only recorded 54mins - I'm assuming this was EPG error of some sort. Bummer.

Carlito's Way had a short Entertainment Update type programme in the middle. You'd have needed to reserve both bits of the film. ITV are doing this all the time... beware! (I just edit the first reservation to extend the end time.

Thanks for that - at least now I know the PVR wasn't at fault. I did see 2 Carlito's Ways scheduled in the film genre of the EPG but didn't check times so thought 2nd one was a repeat showing.

Still - I've already got more material on the hard drive than I can probably catch up with so not having it recorded will save me deleting it unwatched later

I've had two failed TV recordings, for the same program, a week apart.
I have two timers, which I set up using the guide, and then edited the end times
to add 5 minutes to each. The first timer runs from 8:00 to 8:35, the second from
8:30 to 905. Both programs are on the same channel. The first program records OK,
but there is no sign of the second one.

I've also had several cases of programs not appearing with the correct name and
date in the list of recorded programs. They are all programs I set to record
weekly, and they appear with the name of the channel (e.g. BBC ONE) instead
of the name of the program, and the date is exactly one week later than it should
be. I happened to be watching TV when one of these mis-named programs was
recording. 5 minutes before the end of the recording, a window popped up on
the screen saying "channel is unavailabel or scrambled".

Perhaps missed isn't the right word to use, for me at least, as the recordings from standby do take place and are listed in the recording list. However the recording information shows that the file is 0mb. If I press play to play the file it shows the full progress bar but only plays the last 30 secs i.e. the bar is at the end of the recording and I cannot rewind more than 30 secs approx.
I have repeated this quite a few times over several days with the same results.
As with someones previous post, scheduling a manual radio recording works fine.

I have only tried to download one radio file to the PC but could not get it to play using any software I have. TV downloads have been okay.

Has anyone been able to play a radio recording on a PC ?

EDIT - Just been sent GOMPLAYER which plays radio and video files downloaded from the 9200
Last edited by jtk174 : 04-11-2005 at 16:23

Hi

Can anyone confirm the below finding and/or suggest a possible solution/reason?

As well as SCART input into my TV I also have the RF loop out from the 9200 connected. Digital picture on all channels is fine. BCC 1 and 2 ITV and Channel 4 analog picture is also fine but the analog picture on Channel 5 has interference (wavy lines). If I put the 9200 into standby the wavy lines on Channel 5 analog picture dissapear?

Thanks

My 9200T on initial setup chose channel 36 in UHF Tuning (under preferences). When Channel 5 first came online, engineers around the country retuned VCR's away from this channel because of it's close proximity to C5.
I would suggest setting the 9200T to a different free channel, try to pick one 4 or 5 channels away from any used channel. This will depend on transmitters in your area.

Changing to or from ITV messes the boxes up. However i have to throw a spanner in the works - I get screen blackouts just after selecting Sky3 form the Tv Guide for some reason??

Thanks for this info. To save me much possible messing about has anyone else who lives in Herefordshire and tunes into the Much Marcle ridge transmitter suggestions for the best alternative channel to tune into?

You can set the Humax to channel 69, nothing in the country transmits on that channel = official channels in the UK are 21 to 68. But make sure nothing is transmitting on 68. I am not in your area.

You could try the info here which should tell you which frequencies channels are transmitted on.

fixerman did you fix your time loss problem? my replacement unit seems to be suffering with this problem. I think humax have made a pile of pants here. not only will it not shedule record radio, but now it records TV programmes half way through because it fails keep the correct time.