Humax FreeSat problems

HappySeagull

After many, many years, we ditched Sky TV because of the price, and decided on FreeSat, plus Amazon Prime and Netflix subscriptions.

We bought a Humax HDR-1100S, from a limited choice of FreeSat recorders. The interface is clumsy/confusing, it takes forever to start up, and there are no power/recording lights, but the picture and sound are fine.

However, it has a fatal habit of not recording scheduled programs, especially those on "series link" - at least five times in two months, it has either lost the series altogether, or scheduled future programs without recording the current episode.

At the point of deciding that it's not fit for purpose, Sky have now (coincidently) offered us six months free HD for the basic channels.

Before we send the Humax back, has anyone overcome this problem? The software is all updated.

kwikbreaks

I have one and haven't encountered the problems you have with series recordings. I did have an issue a little like that with a Freeview box at my holiday caravan and that turned out to be a poor antenna signal so it may be worth checking your signal quality - could be something as simple as the f connectors being badly connected when you swapped boxes.

Regarding the power light - it does have one but it's right on the bottom and reflects off the surface below. Not sure why they thought that was a good idea but it does reduce the number of annoying bright leds that seem to proliferate these days.

Startup time from standby imo is reasonably quick. It may be that you are powering it off rather than putting it on standby. Could possibly be why it misses some episodes in a series record too.

Interface is, I suppose, a matter of personal preference and I find it pretty intuitive albeit requiring a few more button presses than I'd regard as strictly necessary. It's certainly faster than the box it replaced (a FoxSat HDR).

Gers

HappySeagull wrote: »

After many, many years, we ditched Sky TV because of the price, and decided on FreeSat, plus Amazon Prime and Netflix subscriptions.

We bought a Humax HDR-1100S, from a limited choice of FreeSat recorders. The interface is clumsy/confusing, it takes forever to start up, and there are no power/recording lights, but the picture and sound are fine.

However, it has a fatal habit of not recording scheduled programs, especially those on "series link" - at least five times in two months, it has either lost the series altogether, or scheduled future programs without recording the current episode.

At the point of deciding that it's not fit for purpose, Sky have now (coincidently) offered us six months free HD for the basic channels.

Before we send the Humax back, has anyone overcome this problem? The software is all updated.

Sorry, can't help. We have two Humax Freesat boxes and both work well. The blue light indicating on is not glaring, on the Freeview ones it's a large button in the middle which glows either red when recording or blue when switched on - most annoying.

Perhaps look in the 'planned' section of recordings to check that it's all set up properly.

Sometimes TV companies re-schedule programmes (which is really annoying).

Don't know what you mean by 'lost series' but a previous Humax did have a problem which meant that we couldn't access recordings. Something to do with a failed hard drive. As the machine was an old Freeview one we mourned the loss of saved recordings and ditched it.

HappySeagull

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Startup time from standby imo is reasonably quick. It may be that you are powering it off rather than putting it on standby. Could possibly be why it misses some episodes in a series record too.

That made me wonder, but the "Power" button on the remote control is described in the manual as "Standby - puts the box into standby, and on again".

So, I'm not even sure how you would power if off rather than putting it on standby, other than unplugging it?

stockton_2

I like to power off the box each night. "kwikbreaks" suggests that it might have been better to leave it on standby. Generally I always switch things off at night but it would be interesting to leave it on for a week or so and see if this cures the problem.

missbiggles1

stockton wrote: »

I have a Humax Foxsat HDR that I bought about six years ago. I found that the recording was unreliable. I would set it to record a series continuously and then find that it had recorded a few programs in the series and then stopped.

I used to power off the box each night. "kwikbreaks" suggests that it might have been better to leave it on standby. Generally I always switch things off at night but it would be interesting to leave it on for a week or so and see if this cures the problem.

How can it record when you've switched the power off?

HappySeagull

Gers wrote: »

Perhaps look in the 'planned' section of recordings to check that it's all set up properly.

Sometimes TV companies re-schedule programmes (which is really annoying).

Don't know what you mean by 'lost series' but a previous Humax did have a problem which meant that we couldn't access recordings. Something to do with a failed hard drive. As the machine was an old Freeview one we mourned the loss of saved recordings and ditched it.

Thanks, but we've had it long enough to know that the planned recordings were set up correctly, and the programmes weren't rescheduled.

By "lost series", I mean it started recording a weekly series, but then lost it from its "planned" section. (More than once.)

It has also failed to record an episode of a series, but left the subsequent episodes in the "planned"section.

kwikbreaks

HappySeagull wrote: »

I'm not even sure how you would power if off rather than putting it on standby, other than unplugging it?

I thought you may be powering it down at the mains. I've not noticed that mine is slow coming out of standby - I guess it's a case of what you are comparing it with. I never power mine down (when at home) as standby power is supposed to be low and it saves me bothering to power it back up to catch a scheduled recording.

I never lost recordings on on FoxSat HDR either but I ran it on an alternate firmware so possibly that fixed some bug or other.

===

Based on your post while I was typing I'd emphasise my suggestion to check the dish cables and signal quality. If it's at all dodgy it may miss the short data burst that signals the start of a program. The other possibility if these were not mainstream channels is that the broadcaster screwed up and didn't broadcast that data stream. BBC and ITV usually get them right and that is mostly where we series record from with the other channels being more fill-ins when we want to vegetate and we have nothing recorded, nothing much on catchup, and there is nothing live we are bothered about.

HappySeagull

Just to be clear, it is NEVER switched off at the mains!

almillar

First thing is to make sure you're getting a good signal.
Then:
Do actually check your scheduled programmes, just in case.
Don't 'switch off' (as in unplug or power completely off), just put it in standby.

I've got the very old HDR, and if you re-tune, all schedules are lost.

Can I suggest making sure you've got a good signal, taking a note of all your scheduled recordings, performing a factory reset, re-tune, and enter your schedule again?

debitcardmayhem

stockton wrote: »

I have a Humax Foxsat HDR that I bought about six years ago. I found that the recording was unreliable. I would set it to record a series continuously and then find that it had recorded a few programs in the series and then stopped.

I used to power off the box each night. "kwikbreaks" suggests that it might have been better to leave it on standby. Generally I always switch things off at night but it would be interesting to leave it on for a week or so and see if this cures the problem.

the hdr performs "housekeeping" at 3am . powering off negates that