Humax pvr-9200t freeview PVR - £171

irv

Everyone seems to be giving great reviews about the Hummy.....although....I've had one of these for the best part of a year now and can't say it's all that great to be honest...good but not great.

It is wonderful if you just want to record programs via the guide, ie. one time only recordings, it's very easy and no problem but what I do have an issue with this PVR is it's total lack of 'intellegence'...for example, if you program it to record daily something like, 'Deal Or No Deal'.... it does, but the problem is it also tries to record daily settings at the weekend (at the same time even when the program is not on)....there is no 'weekday only' daily record setting, daily means every day on the Hummy....which doesn't sound a big problem but it is a pain in the bum having to change the settings to skip the weekend every Friday night (I have three or four daily programs set up at the mo).... you can just leave it of course and delete whatever it does record but again it can get confusing and is still a bit of a pain.

Another down side I have found is if the program is running late the Hummy does not take account of this, I cant tell you how many times I've missed the last moments of a show, annoying. Also if the program changes it's air time whilst on a daily setting (which the BBC is dreadful for!!) the Hummy does not know/check it's guide and alter.

Not wanting to slate the machine totally as it is generally a very reliable piece of kit but another problem I have found is it sometimes messes the dates up in the recorded program list - I've deleted shows thinking I've already watched them, again slightly annoying.

Hopefully one day Humax will get all these bugs sorted out but they are not quite there yet (I do have the latest updates installed) - saying all that there is no other PVR on the market that can match this (besides SKY+) in terms of general functionality or reliability, so if you want one don't be put off by my remarks.

:beer:

Jazzyjeff_2

Re: SKY+, have you seen watchdog lately?? lol!! Wouldn't of said it is reliable

p.s. come on they are great not just good. Agreed it is not completely perfect as you have mentioned but its a revolutionary step up from the vcr, head and shoulders above almost all other pvr's (toppy possibly as good), and what other electrical equipment do you get updated features every now and then. I am sure that the next update will solve your series link issues.

I am over the moon with mine, had it 6 months.

dogran_2

From what Ive read elsewhere I think theres an auto padding feature in the latest release, where by you can get it to automatically add say 5mins to the end (& start poss?)of a scheduled recording. So if your prog finishes at 7.30, it will finish recording at 7.35. You may have to search on how to do this, as I dont have the Humax, but want one desperately, but lilke the OP am waiting for the price to come down....
Cheapest I have seen it is £170 @ Empire direct. delivery is 4.99, but if you have a shop nearby, then you can collect. Its an alternative if you dont like haggling.
http://www.empiredirect.co.uk/content/products/details/index~modelcode~HUM-PVR9200T.htm

Woby_Tide

irv wrote:

It is wonderful if you just want to record programs via the guide, ie. one time only recordings, it's very easy and no problem but what I do have an issue with this PVR is it's total lack of 'intellegence'...for example, if you program it to record daily something like, 'Deal Or No Deal'.... it does, but the problem is it also tries to record daily settings at the weekend (at the same time even when the program is not on)....there is no 'weekday only' daily record setting, daily means every day on the Hummy....which doesn't sound a big problem but it is a pain in the bum having to change the settings to skip the weekend every Friday night (I have three or four daily programs set up at the mo).... you can just leave it of course and delete whatever it does record but again it can get confusing and is still a bit of a pain.

In firmware 1.0.10 released before christmas and available to download and update your Hummy now you now have 50 timer slots available with the option to repeat recordings, daily, weekly, weekday only, weekend only

irv wrote:

Another down side I have found is if the program is running late the Hummy does not take account of this, I cant tell you how many times I've missed the last moments of a show, annoying. Also if the program changes it's air time whilst on a daily setting (which the BBC is dreadful for!!) the Hummy does not know/check it's guide and alter.

Auto padding, been a feature for quite a while now, can over-record by varying amounts up to 30 mins I think

irv wrote:

Not wanting to slate the machine totally as it is generally a very reliable piece of kit but another problem I have found is it sometimes messes the dates up in the recorded program list - I've deleted shows thinking I've already watched them, again slightly annoying..

Again what firmware do you run, think that was fixed in 1.0.8 or 1.0.10

irv wrote:

Hopefully one day Humax will get all these bugs sorted out but they are not quite there yet (I do have the latest updates installed) - saying all that there is no other PVR on the market that can match this (besides SKY+) in terms of general functionality or reliability, so if you want one don't be put off by my remarks...

Again, I don't think there is a company out there doing these machines that is as responsive as Humax to customer requests. Thanks to a fair amount of users testing and providing feedback to them this is now the third software release for the machine since last Summer (and this isn't just bug fixing firmware, this is enhancements firmware adding in features people want)

Woby_Tide

jinkssick wrote:

£170 is a lotttttt for this piece of kit. I think I must be getting tight or poor.

I got a £25 freeview player and a £20 PVR attached to my PC (600GB). Thats a hell of a price difference and I can do exactly the same as You lot do.

If it was £100, I'd think about it.

I'm not sure but I'd say a PC with a 600GBHD, a £20 PVR and a £25 freeview player would cost more than £170....

plus it would be two Freeview players anyway, or you aren't comparing like for like. Plus this is in one box.....etc. Horses for courses, you can buy PVR's for £100, buy one, it isn't even in the same league as the Humax sadly

Idiophreak

While we're on the subject, how does one do a firmware update?
I thought some stuff was sposed to be done overnight?
Do I need to USB it to the PC?

On the recording weekdays thing (I don't have the option to record only weekdays! I want that!) I've just got 5 weekly timers set up for neighbours - one for each day. Not rocket science, although I suppose it will eat in to the 20 timers for 3 shows per day.

Idiophreak

Woby_Tide wrote:

I'm not sure but I'd say a PC with a 600GBHD, a £20 PVR and a £25 freeview player would cost more than £170....

plus it would be two Freeview players anyway, or you aren't comparing like for like. Plus this is in one box.....etc. Horses for courses, you can buy PVR's for £100, buy one, it isn't even in the same league as the Humax sadly

Well said.

I used to have freeview/pvr setup through my PC.

It was hassle, lame and didn't have half the features of the humax.

The humax is leagues (much more than £170 worth) ahead.

Woby_Tide

Idiophreak wrote:

While we're on the subject, how does one do a firmware update?
I thought some stuff was sposed to be done overnight?
Do I need to USB it to the PC?

On the recording weekdays thing (I don't have the option to record only weekdays! I want that!) I've just got 5 weekly timers set up for neighbours - one for each day. Not rocket science, although I suppose it will eat in to the 20 timers for 3 shows per day.

The weekday recordings is only available in 1.0.10, it's scheduled to go 'Over the air' i.e. via your aerial sometime in the next 2-3 months (though no guarantee). You can download it now from the Humax website though and install it. You need a null modem cable from Maplin or Ebay is cheapest (assuming you have a Com port on your PC (Com ports have |o|o| symbol above them), otherwise you need a null modem to USB convertor

Full instructions are here
http://www.hummy.org.uk/invison/index.php?showtopic=473

Once you have the cables and the firmware file it takes about 10 minutes. And is pretty easy to do. Been using the software since Mid December with no problems

matimage

Nope ignore this, the forum seems to be lagging for me, I didn't see all the posts after Jinksick. Doesn't appear to be the solution for me.
Nevermind.

adon30

Empire Direct definately do not have any at the moment they are expecting them at the end of the month although they can not give 100% commitment to it.

Dixons have them in stock as I phoned them today.

I've just ordered mine from 24-7 Electrical as it worked out a little cheaper