Humax Hard Disk recorder problem

Undervalued

Any words of wisdom would be appreciated.....

I have a Humax HDR which is maybe ten years old (SCART sockets only , no HDMI) which which is capable of recording two Freeview channels at the same time.

From time to time (maybe 1 in 5) it fails to record a scheduled program. This can often, but not always, be one of a series set via the series link function despite it having recorded other programs in the series correctly. If the program is missed it still appears in the Scheduled Recordings list as if it was going to have another go in a year's time!

Any ideas?

Thanks.

DoaM

Get a new box ... you've had 10 years service from this one so had your money's worth.

psychic_teabag

IIRC it uses a signal transmitted alongside the program to indicate when programs are starting and stopping, and also the unique identity of the program within the series. I found that channel 5 in particular were very bad at generating the correct data, so we missed some episodes.

I think you might be able to tell the humax to just use fixed times, rather than the signal, but of course that means you can miss things if they run late. (Or coverage gets extended for sports things.)

I don't recall that it automatically removed series links after the last episode had been received. (We stopped using our humax a while back.)

Undervalued

DoaM wrote: »

Get a new box ... you've had 10 years service from this one so had your money's worth.

Well that is one solution obviously but hardly "Money Saving"!

Undervalued

psychic_teabag wrote: »

IIRC it uses a signal transmitted alongside the program to indicate when programs are starting and stopping, and also the unique identity of the program within the series. I found that channel 5 in particular were very bad at generating the correct data, so we missed some episodes.

I think you might be able to tell the humax to just use fixed times, rather than the signal, but of course that means you can miss things if they run late. (Or coverage gets extended for sports things.)

I don't recall that it automatically removed series links after the last episode had been received. (We stopped using our humax a while back.)

Thanks, I had vaguely wondered about that and will investigate later.

The trouble is with an intermittent problem it will good a good while before I know for certain if it has worked.

I think, from memory, I can set a fixed overrun time for recordings and maybe an early start too? For my limited use I could happily set say 15 mins over....

RumRat

Undervalued wrote: »

Well that is one solution obviously but hardly "Money Saving"!

There is 'Money Saving' and then there is 'Not spending anything'. 10 years from an old PVR, that is well past it's best before date, can be considered well into miser territory, even for this site....:D

Undervalued

RumRat wrote: »

There is 'Money Saving' and then there is 'Not spending anything'. 10 years from an old PVR, that is well past it's best before date, can be considered well into miser territory, even for this site....:D

OK! However apart from missing the odd recording it is excellent. I am not a TV addict, it is only connected to a fairly basic 32in TV and it produces every bit as good a picture as the TV manages in SD.

Plus, both of the HDMI sockets on the TV are in use, one for my Chromecast and one for my BluRay so if I get something newer / better that is then another issue to solve.

So a quick fix to avoid missing maybe one recording a month is all I currently need. Maybe changing the setting suggested by psychic teabag will do the trick!

RumRat

If it doesn't work and you need to get a new one, a HDMI switcher could add some extra ports....

John_Gray

Undervalued wrote: »

From time to time (maybe 1 in 5) it fails to record a scheduled program.

I have the same problem with a 9300T dating from 2011, but rather more rarely than you.

When I find out I just consider using some Rude Words, but don't. :A

(More annoying is not getting the Programme Guide to populate itself fully.)

Undervalued

John_Gray wrote: »

(More annoying is not getting the Programme Guide to populate itself fully.)

I get that occasionally although if I leave it for a few minutes it fills in.

Spelunthus

We had similar with our old Hummy. Start by doing a complete "Factory Reset" - this will set everything back to initial conditions. You wil have to re-enter your chosen settings, and re-scan for channels. Note down any settings before you do the reset. You may also choose to "Format the disk" - this will delete all your existing recordings.