Just got an email from Humax that states the slots for the Over the Air broadcast of the new firmware have been booked for 14th to 16th of January 2008 with numerous repeat slots to follow.

new HumaxDirect website for 2008

Dear Humax User

As a valued customer Humax are delighted to announce the launching of our new website for 2008 www.humaxdirect.co.uk. On this site we will showcase our new and flagship products for the Digital TV and PVR markets, and have exclusive product offerings not available on-line or in the high street.

NEWS

We have recently been inundated with requests for information about upgrading the PVR9200T/TB/TS for Freeview Playback 2. We had hoped to send an over the air download (OAD) that included Accurate Recording and Series Recording in time for Christmas, but due to the last minute changes required this has not been possible. Although we are currently shipping this version of the software with the new PVR9200TBX we are currently finalising the software for the OAD version. This should be completed in the next 2-4 weeks and as soon as it is, it will be made available for manual download and installation from the support section on our corporate website

http://www.humaxdigital.com/hcsa/dow.../PVR-9200T.asp .

The OAD slot has been booked for broadcasting on the 14th to 16th of January 2008 with numerous repeat slots to follow ensuring that our users get this important update. As usual with OAD updates all PVR9200T/TS/TB users will receive this free of charge and automatically, as long as their PVR is set to the default setting to receive updates and the unit is in the standby mode overnight (please refer to your user manual if you are unsure). The details of all of the new features and changes in this new version of the software will be made available on our website...... (info on special offers omitted)

Not a happy christmas for some then

Perhaps not, but let's face it, we've managed to cope without series link before now. It's a bonus to have it.

it's really affects the owners who have been stuck on v06 either because their don't have a PC or haven't come across the humax download site on the internet. these people will be stuck with 25 timers etc etc.

on the plus side, with v20 being around for quite a while, they should have most if not all of the bugs out of it by Jan.

If not a merry christmas at least a happy new year then

I think if those users have really suffered then they would have attempted to do the manual upgrade one way or another by now...

You're right. There's loads of users out there stuck on v.06 because of no internet access or if they have it, they're too scared to update that way. They'll have a serious bit of catching up to do. It's been said there should be an on-screen announcement when they do upgrade via OTA - there needs to be IMO, especially with regards to setting to default after the installation.

Personally, I don't think he is... You can't miss what you've never had...

I just got the email as well.
it does say the new version will be available for download within the next 4 weeks, so i'm reading into this that this will be "v20 + fixes" = v21 ??
so sounds like it's not much point installing v20 anymore as I do use AutoPadding.

You are very right. The current issues v.20 has with AP will be resolved in the OTA firmware. Best wait if you do not want the Series Recording facility...

But by the same token they will probably have no idea that all these new features are about to hit them. Since they won't have a new manual to read when they get V2X there may be some mixed feelings



IIRC this is given on the first start after the update has downloaded. But I can't remember if you also get the choice of whether to accept the download or not.

Given the flaky nature of the broadcasters' implementation of AR and series link so far, it's probably better most people don't have it for this Christmas

I too am a bit cynical on this one. I happily put version .10 onto mine just before Christmas last year but when version.15 came out I hung back and waited until I saw some feedback from the user base. And sure enough, some stable machines suddenly became unstable and lock-ups were reported.

I am still on v .10 and will stay there until I see what some of the brave souls on this forum have to say about v. 20 or .21 or .25 or whatever it is sent out as !!

I'm on 1.00.06 because IMO the later versions haven't offered enough that I want to justify the new bugs that they have brought to the party.

I'm tempted by 1.00.20 but the AP bugs may well still put me off. I'm going to keep reading here for another week and then make a decision.

Ian

Just upgrade the software to .20 and get on with it. If you don't like it after a few days just go back to an older version. It seems to work fine on my hummy.
So many have moaned about the software not being available and now they moan that it's here but are not willing to give it a go in case it's not 100%.
Humax at least are trying.
Some PVR manufacturers just don't do updates anymore.

I agree I prefer the stability of auto padding to series link too. Relying on AR is not a very reliable option

I don't mind waiting for a few weeks as long as Humax can sort it out so that 'series link & auto padding' can work together.

Hi


I don't think this will ever happen as Humax are too far down the road now to be changing this.

The problem stems from Korean firmware programmers using nice and tidy test data streams where they have no concept of auto recording in practice with our TV system. A similar problem arose with PDC on analogue recorders where no two VCR's followed the same specification or behaved in the same way.

Auto recording is never going to be as reliable as padding as it is too "real time" and the TV companies will not invest enough resources to ensure the data is spot on at the point when the schedules start slipping.

Freeview Playback should have junked the auto recording real-time signalling stuff. All that is needed is that any recording set follows the times in the EPG, so if they change the program start time the recording is updated with the new times, with auto padding catching a few minutes of early start or a few minutes of overrun.

Yes accurate recording might be great for the rare time a program starts many minutes late and would fall outside the padding time, however to have that means that all recordings are at the mercy of this real time data, so the net affect is you lose more recordings through problems in that data than it ever has chance to save.

Why they went with accurate recording I'll never know, considering the simpler PDC system over just 4 (then later 5) channels they never had working reliably.

Regards

Phil

AT metadata depends on the various broadcasters... AR is accurate if the metadata is accurate. If it isn't or non-existent hassle the channel in question.

That is never going to happen. SR+AP is not part of the Freeview Playback specs.

People seem to be missing a couple of points here. Series Recording is about following a Series WHENEVER it is broadcast. It's not just about a program starting a few minutes late, but actually moving in the schedule. For example, you want to watch some series that is normally on at, say, 8pm BBC1, Thursday. Unknown to you just yet, in 3 weeks time it will be at least an hour late because they are going to show some program with 22 men running around a plot of muddy grass trying to kit a piece of puffed up leather. (or look what happens to Strictly Come Dancing, never the same time two weeks running).

In a week's time you go on holiday for two weeks, expecting your selection of a repeated time slot with a bit of padding either end will catch your favourite program. WRONG. Series Recording SHOULD make sure you do get it - even if they moved it to BBC2. (or in the case of SCD, Sunday's program is in the same series as Saturday's. One setting catches all of them whenever they are broadcast - well it better - not for me you understand).

The other point is to do with the hummy "knowing" the program is about to start and start recording a couple of minutes early. With Series Recording it has lost all concept of time (well almost) and is waiting for the correct data signal. IF you keep the two tuners BUT only allow 1 channel to be recorded, then maybe the Hummy could have a small internal buffer of the "recording" tuner to re-wind a minute or two when it sees the start. But you still might have a problem if you want to record something from a different channel immediately after the first one finishes. So maybe you need 4 tuners, but you only "see" two of them?

Which make me think. How does SR work if tuner 1 is recording from, say, Mux 1, you are watching something on Mux 3 with tuner 2 and you have a recording set from Mux 5. It can't be looking at the Mux 5 data as it's run out of tuners. Does it switch tuner 2 to Mux 5 based on the time then wait for the data stream?

The EIT data stream is carried on all muxes; repetition time for EIT present/following actual, which is the data for the mux you're tuned to, is 2 seconds, and for EIT p/f other, which is data related to other multiplexes, it's 5 seconds.

(Timings according to the UK DTT SI plan, version 4).

Current FP specs does not cater for 'Series' jumping channels...


I opened this problem up for discussion a while back, and those in the know doubt it if the specs could cope which such 'dynamics'...

It would also require a psychic receiver....

Or better technology and a change in the FP specs... maybe

I am wondering if the Toppy and its TAPs could provide such a facility? Does Nigel know?

The Series Link TAP on the Toppy will do padding, yep. You just set a standard repeating timer, and then if there's series link data if changes it to one off timers using CRIDs, and can automatically add padding.

I'm not sure how well it handles rescheduling - I've not used it myself.