Padding Missing?

[lingfish]

Humax, like Beyonwiz and Topfield, is a South Korean company, and like Beyonwiz and Topfield, I'd assume that their coders are in South Korea. They also manufacture in Poland, India and China, but may or may not have coders there.

Testing PVRs for the Australian market is a bit of a problem in South Korea, because South Korea uses a different and incompatible digital TV standard from Australia.

Sure, but haven't we pretty much determined, and Ice have said, that it's down to something silly like it still refers to the FTA EPG even when told to use Ice, but only for padding?

We're not asking for Apache httpd to be ported to it

[jeisner]

Humax, like Beyonwiz and Topfield, is a South Korean company, and like Beyonwiz and Topfield, I'd assume that their coders are in South Korea. They also manufacture in Poland, India and China, but may or may not have coders there.

Testing PVRs for the Australian market is a bit of a problem in South Korea, because South Korea uses a different and incompatible digital TV standard from Australia.

Well they could just ask Topfield what to do, they seem to be able to pad TV shows.. Though as has been suggested padding should have little to do with the digital TV standard...

[jeisner]

Got a response from Humax on the issue...

"we are working very hard on Padding Time issue associated with your recordings scheduled using the IceTV electronic program guide on your Humax HDR-7500T.

Timeline will be available once we know exact cause of the problem. "

It worries me that after 2 months they are still trying to find what is causing the issue...

[lingfish]

It worries me that after 2 months they are still trying to find what is causing the issue...

... on a feature that is an advertised part of, and selling point, of the product.

[jeisner]

... on a feature that is an advertised part of, and selling point, of the product.

Well they didn't seem to like my suggestion that the unt is 'not fit for purpose', I will give them another month to fix it (3 months total) and if not fixed I will be pursuing a refund from ICETV (whom I bought it from) on this unit that is simply not working as advertised..

I suppose I will just get a second topfield masterpiece, costs more but it works reliably (as long as you use wired ethernet, wireless is a bit flakey in my experience)..

[swamprat96]

Yeh I 'm with jeisner. I'm a little tired waiting for manufacturers to fix stuff after they've released it. I also plan to return my unit as not fit for purpose if this is not fixed by may end. This is the second brand I've had from icetv that's had no support from the manufacturer.

Whilst I feel for icetv they need to be more stringent with suppliers. Humax need a massive kick up the axxx if they want any kind of market penetration

[ozpowell]

I've now missed the end of Masterchef three nights running due to this issue

[swamprat96]

The silence is deafening from Humax. I'm glad I kept the packaging so it will be easier to return.

[jeisner]

Well I asked Humax for a progress report and got the following from the lady I have been dealing with there..

Is your Power Saving in Standby and Automatic Power Down OFF?
MENU – SETTINGS – SYSTEM – POWER MANAGEMENT
You will see above two options ON as a default.
Please turn them off.
Then, please turn the box off using rear switch and turn it back on.

As a IceTV user you need to have HDR-7500T to communicate with the IceTV server all the time.
When Power Saving in Standby is ON, when HDR-7500T goes into the standby, it goes into what we call ‘passive standby’.
It means none of USB ports, network, terrestrial etc will operate during standby mode.
(Only those require to wake up HDR-7500T at scheduled time which were stored before HDR-7500T was put into standby will run)
Therefore, if you have above options off it will not communicate to the server and you will lose some recordings you set up during HDR-7500T was under standby and paddings on some recordings.

We were carrying out investigations on paddings as many customers were claiming contrary opinions on paddings.
We have collected valid testing results from comprehensive testing with IceTV EPG on HDR-7500T and very close to put an end on the padding issue.

Until we have final confirmation I cannot say whether there is any permanent resolution on padding issue but there may not be a need of any resolutions.

I am a bit confussed by this, my topfield shuts down and only receives recordings when it comes on (to either be watched or record something else) I like that solution as it works fine as long as you record a few shows a week and understand the limitation. And if padding is set it automatically comes on early to apply the padding..

The solution from Humax is a power waste as they suggest the unit stays on 24/7.... 

EDIT: This makes sense now, so what may be happening is you schedule a show for 8pm, if the unit is switched off (power saving standby) leading up to the show starting it won't come on until 8pm at which point it missing the lead-in paddnig and then must decide not to do lead-out too if it missed the in? BUT If you leave the unit on all the time (or it is on at the time the show is scheduled to start) it will see the show is meant to start in 10 mins and you have 10mins padding so it begins early (this is why we see inconsistant results)...  This is the only way her explanation of how to resolve the issue makes sense to me, if so, this is NOT how other units work and really is a fault but they are going to try and avoid having to fix it by telling us all to leave our units on 24/7 in order to resolve it...

The "may not be a need of any resolutions" comment worries me.. Humax, do not try and back out of fixing this, there is still definately a need for a resolution, no other unit I know of on the market requires you to disable power saving standby so that padding works....

P.S. Can others try testing this, I will test tonight..

[lingfish]

The solution from Humax is a power waste as they suggest the unit stays on 24/7.... 

Totally agree, and this is not the behaviour I've seen... mine happily sits in standby and pulls down new shows to record etc, without needing to power it on.

EDIT: This makes sense now, so what may be happening is you schedule a show for 8pm, if the unit is switched off (power saving standby) leading up to the show starting it won't come on until 8pm at which point it missing the lead-in paddnig and then must decide not to do lead-out too if it missed the in? BUT If you leave the unit on all the time (or it is on at the time the show is scheduled to start) it will see the show is meant to start in 10 mins and you have 10mins padding so it begins early (this is why we see inconsistant results)... 

The issue isn't padding at the start... it's at the end, I thought.  It is for me.

The "may not be a need of any resolutions" comment worries me.. Humax, do not try and back out of fixing this, there is still definately a need for a resolution, no other unit I know of on the market requires you to disable power saving standby so that padding works....

Yep, agree again, and is the reason I bought the unit -- I'm big on saving power.  If this is their "fix", that's a second "not as advertised" failure on their part.

[jeisner]

Totally agree, and this is not the behaviour I've seen... mine happily sits in standby and pulls down new shows to record etc, without needing to power it on.

So does mine, I had another email from her trying to get clarification and she seemed to be saying in the deep power saving standby (rather than non power saving standby) not all 'programs' run and I need to disable the power saving standby. It still goes into what looks like standby when you disable power saving standby but she said it is like a phone with the screen off, it is still partially running. As I understand it in that mode rather than the full standby the padding should still work..

It got confusing at that point really as on one hand she said in both standby modes padding should work but on the other the developers told her to tell people to disable the deep power saving mode in order to fix these problems.. Complete contradiction if you ask me..

The issue isn't padding at the start... it's at the end, I thought.  It is for me.

It's both for me but maybe if the start is broken then the end is too? I don't know her explanation makes little sense to me... It seems like the coding is screwed up and the developers are trying to avoid the issue, too much work to fix it?

Yep, agree again, and is the reason I bought the unit -- I'm big on saving power.  If this is their "fix", that's a second "not as advertised" failure on their part.

Yes well the <1W standby is no longer valid it should have an * next to it pointing out not all features work if you use this mode (which btw is the default standby mode)..

[lingfish]

So does mine, I had another email from her trying to get clarification and she seemed to be saying in the deep power saving standby (rather than non power saving standby) not all 'programs' run and I need to disable the power saving standby.

Honestly, I didn't even know there were multiple modes... I thougt there was soft power off, and the hard switch at the back, and that's it.  Obviously hard switching would kill all features.

Yes well the <1W standby is no longer valid it should have an * next to it pointing out not all features work if you use this mode (which btw is he default standby mode)..

I'd be super shocked if that's what they mean... as I said, and you too, the out-of-the-box soft power down mode seems to work just fine... I honestly believe this person is talking about something else... wires crossed etc.

[swamprat96]

My icetv subscription is up may 28. I've been waiting for this issue to be fixed and if what I'm reading is correct there may be no fix. I've also emailed icetv about this saying I'll renew but if the issue is not fixed I'd like a refund for unused subscription and I'll be returning the unit as unfit for use.

I've surprisingly heard nothing from icetv. I've almost given up hearing anything from Humax Australia. I may give up on both.

[jeisner]

I'd be super shocked if that's what they mean... as I said, and you too, the out-of-the-box soft power down mode seems to work just fine... I honestly believe this person is talking about something else... wires crossed etc.

I don't know, she is the only person at humax that responds to me.. I did try tonight just turning my unit on before "the block" started (normally it is off and starts itself) and for the first time since the series started the padding worked, so it seems to me there may be some truth in it, i.e. coming on from power saving mode screws up the padding... Could be coincidence? I also changed the power saving mode as suggested and will see how I go..

This is the phone program analogy email she sent me to try and explain the modes when I tried to get clarification.

Sorry if it wasn’t clear but I didn’t mean that HDR-7500T had to be physically ON 24/7.
The differences of ‘Power Saving in Standby (PSS)’ On and Off is how it is operating when it’s under standby mode.
 
I will use mobile phone as an example to give you an idea of different modes.
This is not exactly how HDR-7500T operates but I hope you can get the  idea.
 
When you have PSS ON it is similar to:
           When your phone is completely off.
           You are not receiving any calls = No communication with your telephone network.
           But how does your phone wakes up when you have an ALARM set? No battery consumption when its turned off? If I turn off the phone today then will I be able to use the phone on 22nd May 2013?
This is similar concept to HDR-7500T in standby when it has PSS ON (It runs with regulatory requirement of <1W in standby mode).
HDR-7500T will wake up for the recording schedule data (Alarm) stored before HDR-7500T was turned off
 
 
When you have PSS OFF it is similar to:
           Your phone is ON but no apps and it sits inside your drawer. 
           You will only receive calls = communication is alive.
           Yes, you will use more energy than having the phone off completely however it is much lower than having apps running and talking to your friend on the phone.
 
The differences between Standby mode electricity consumptions with PSS ON and OFF are not significant.
The differences would add up to paying for an extra day in several years.
 
You will see the differences when you try with PSS OFF.

[lingfish]

Yep, don't buy it.  I don't think that person knows wtf she's talking about.

Padding is indeed still working for me... sometimes.  My power on/off patterns through a day have not changed.