Padding Missing?

[The_Hawk]

I have noticed the last few days that the padding on my recordings doesn't exist which means that I am missing things like the news headlines because they seem to start just before the timer every day.  Anyone else having this issue?

I have deleted the schedules today and have re-added them via the web... will see if that helps or not?

[swamprat96]

So have you set the padding up? The maximum is 20 minutes which can still be not enough

[The_Hawk]

Padding always has been setup for 3 minutes before and after and while I accept this may not be enough in all instances, when was the last time a show started EARLY??

That said, the 6pm News is one of those things that pretty much always starts bang on 6pm.  I have always found that if you went by clock the STB's clock (including my old Foxtel box and the Humax) you were 15 - 30 seconds late if you started recording right on 6pm.  Adding in a couple of minutes at the start fixed the problem.

But back to my specific issue, the old recordings were all 35/36 minutes where the last couple have been 29/30 minutes and cut off the first 30 seconds.

Like I said, last night I removed the schedule for the news and re-added them (via the web) and have upped the padding to 5 minutes to see what happens with tonight's recordings.

[prl]

Padding always has been setup for 3 minutes before and after and while I accept this may not be enough in all instances, when was the last time a show started EARLY??

Shows frequently start early. Over on the DTV Forum, Dr P has recently provided a list of shows that started more than 5 minutes early.

Three minutes post-padding will almost certainly see you missing the end of the majority of prime-time commercial shows broadcast after the main news bulletin of the day. I have 25 minutes post padding set on my Beyonwizes. One Big Brother final (can't recall the year) went more than 50 minutes over time. DrP's list also shows that even 25 minutes would not be enough post-padding in some circumstances, but I don't often have problems on the shows I record. I have 2 minutes pre-padding, and I sometimes miss the beginning of a show.

[rossl]

I originally had a Topfield 5000 and early last year, added a TRF2460 to the family. I've still only got a SD RPTV but in preparation for some upgrading to HD in the near future, I decided to replace the aging Topfield 5000 (also IDE hard drives are getting a bit hard to find) with a Humax.

I purchased my Humax at the end of August last year (with the lifetime IceTV subscription, which was one of the major selling points for me) and have had ongoing problems with the padding from day one. I don't normally have to worry about firmware updates as these are downloading and installing automatically, so I've always got the latest version. The Humax and Toppy are both hard wired into my home network.

Padding on my Humax has always been flakey. I've always had mine set to +3 at start and +20 at end. Sometimes I get no padding at all, other times the padding is correct. Dave from IceTV Support also advised me that there is a known problem when recording 2 different channels and the programs overlap. Although it shouldn't, this does impact padding usually resulting in none at all. He recommended I report the problem to Humax.

I sent an email to Humax about my issues and received a brief message back from one of the staff who advised he was one of the technicians working on the problem and that they needed a bit more time (that was nearly 3 weeks ago). I also had an email from Dave at IceTV support 6 days after the Humax reply advising that Humax "(finally) admitted the problem with padding on their boxes when using the Ice guide. We have worked out why it's not working (when the TV guide's end time doesn't match our end time) and Humax are working on a new firmware". I don't believe this is the only issue with padding but I don't know if Humax acknowledge that.

Because of the problems with the padding and the inability of most TV stations to start or finish a program on time, I have now had to revert to using the Humax effectively as a single tuner PVR. Generally, if only one program is being recorded, then the padding works most of the time, but not always.

The latest firmware update (V1.05.01) seems to be worse than the previous version regards padding. It has also introduced a new problem relating to the automated moving of series recordings into their own file folders. That was working reasonably well before (not 100% but close) whereas since the update, most recordings are not being moved into their folders.

I don't have problems with padding on the Toppy, so now anything I want to record reliably with padding goes on either the Toppy or the Foxtel IQ2 which also doesn't have any problems with padding.

I am very disappointed with the Humax. Coming from the European market, I thought it would be reasonably mature in its development. It has a lot of promise and some nice features, but at present, I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone. I only wish I had bough a second TRF2460 instead of the Humax.

[toppytools]

The problem with the padding is (according to a Humax engineer) that the HDR-7500T uses the in-band guide data from the TV channel to calculate the padding and when the in-band guide data differs from the IceTV guide data the Humax drops the padding. In extreme cases it even seems to reduce the recording length!

The other issue is that 20 minutes end padding is not enough sometimes.

[ozpowell]

Glad I found this thread.  I have previously sent an email to Humax support regarding this issue without any kind of response.  Happy to see someone at the company is working on the problem.  Hopefully it will be resolved in the next fw update.

[Dave at IceTV]

Hi ozpowell,

The only emails I can find from yourself were to sales in early January.

[ozpowell]

Hi Dave,

I emailed Humax support a couple weeks ago, not IceTV.

[jeisner]

Same problem, I have padding set to 10 mins before and 20 mins after for Alcatraz, I am recording nothing else that night but it always records exactly 60mins (no padding) and misses the end of the show... Hopeless, and yes I am running the latest firmware..

I am a little frustrated as I have bought 3 different units from ICETV (strong then Topfield masterpiece 2400 and now this humax) and none of them have been reliable in recording shows, though all in different ways.. My IQ2 has NEVER missed a show or cut it off..

[ozpowell]

This problem has been much worse for me over the last week or so. Almost every recording has no padding now.... 

[lingfish]

I have this problem too it seems.

I thought there were other recordings following it  and I was going insane.

[andya]

Yep, have the same problem here as well .. The Mrs. isn't happy!

[jeisner]

Humax do not respond to emails on this issue (so far for me) and ICETV are pushing this unit as their top pick, and yet it has an important features that simply doesn't work.

Padding is essential for ICETV to work, and this unit is frustratingly unrealiable without it...

P.S. Has everyone who commented here emailed Humax, maybe if we ensure everone complains they may wake up and do something about it..

[ozpowell]

Humax do not respond to emails on this issue (so far for me) and ICETV are pushing this unit as their top pick, and yet it has an important features that simply doesn't work.

Padding is essential for ICETV to work, and this unit is frustratingly unrealiable without it...

P.S. Has everyone who commented here emailed Humax, maybe if we ensure everone complains they may wake up and do something about it..

I emailed Humax about this issue and didn't receive any response.  However, it does appear (from other other posts in this forum) that Humax and IceTV are working together on a fix...