[size=2]I have today received a reply from Michael Caughey at Humax to my initial feedback of wants/musts for the 9200.
I had e-mailed him thus:
Quote:
“
Hi
Had my 9200 for nearly two weeks now, having waited since April 2004 for you to bring it to market (thanks to Michael Caughey for 'keeping me warm' in the meantime) - and, yes, it was worth the wait.
I know that my namesake Barry from the Digital Spy forum has been keeping you guys updated on the wants and must haves that are emerging, but I should like to underline my own inputs.
Autopadding and shifting the EPG from EEPROM to the HDD I understand you are already working on - that's great.
My biggest concern is that the 9200 fails to record scheduled radio programmes if the unit is left in standby. The 'REC' icon appears and disappears on the display at the scheduled times, but the recording does not then appear in the radio recordings playlist. Since the 9200 records scheduled TV programmes quite happily when left in standby but records scheduled radio programmes only if the unit is left fully powered up I can only assume it is an unintentional outcome on the part of your system designers. From my point of view it is a serious loss of functionality which should be addressed as a matter of urgency - no-one wants to leave the unit fully powered up for days when going away in order to successfully schedule a recording.
Some other concerns, but these are 'wants' compared with the above, which is a 'must have':
The limit of 20 scheduled recordings is too low considering the size of the HDD
It would be nice to be able to have one live TV transmission as PIP whilst watching a completed recording. Scenario: You are watching a film recorded the previous day, but want to keep an eye on a live sport transmission to watch for goals or wickets.
When viewing the listed recordings by way of the single 'playlist' button on the RC, the titles of the recordings are in a pale blue font which makes them extremely difficult to read (even if OSD transparency is disabled). The dates and times are fine (in white font) - please make the titles white also. The recordings listings viewable via Menu - Record - Recorded Progs are fine already.
The channel lists available via the RC should default to those last used before going into standby/power down. In other words, if a favourites TV listing was the last used, that should be the one first available when coming out of standby. Similarly when switching from TV to radio listings the last-used radio list (eg radio favourites) should immediately be the 'live' one, not the full radio channel listing.
When editing a recorded programme on the 9200 it is possible to select a 'snippet' from a recording. However when electing to 'Save', the snippet replaces the original full recording. The functionality of this facility would be greatly improved if it were possible to 'Save as ...' ie retain both the full original recording and the snippet.
Compared with the box failing to record scheduled radio programmes from standy, these requests are icing on what is otherwise a beautiful cake! Congratulations to Humax on a well-specced machine and a supremely elegant piece of physical design.
Best regards
Barry Young”
He replied thus:
Quote:
“
Hi Barry,
Thanks for the information. I will be trying to get our engineers to resolve the issues that you have mentioned below and change the software to support some additional functionality that customers have requested.
The only thing I think may not be possible is the PiP when recording; however it will be looked into.
I will try to post something on the forums in the next couple of weeks as to the changes that we (sic) be taking place.
Bet regards
Michael Caughey
”
So the message seems to be - 'Watch this space'. Of course it might just be that, in 'the next couple of weeks' all he's able to say could be: 'It's going to take us six months!' - but we live in hope.
From my viewpoint it's encouraging that the only thing he is being discouraging about at this point is my request for live PIP on a single channel whilst viewing a recording.
Barry
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