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

That possibility worries me more really.. How seriously are Humax actually taking this issue? They and ICETV are essentially selling a product they know to be faulty (at least for the last few months) we keep getting told it will be fixed in a matter of weeks, not months, and still Humax support has no idea...

And you are right once in a while it does work for me too, though mostly it doesn't.. I have checked with other people at work who have this unit (a couple do) and they have the same padding issue, i.e. sometimes it just doesn't work, they assumed it was ICETVs fault when I asked them...

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.

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)..

[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...]

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..

... 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)..

["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. "]

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...

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...

Thats true ozpowell at least we get some response from ICETV, i.e. that it is a known issue, HUMAX just ignores emails asking about faults in their products...

Agreed manually editing is not a fix when using with ICETV as when you series link through ICETV it isn't loaded as a humax series and you can't just change the time of all upcoming events.. For this to be a workaround you would have to manually edit every show every week once it downloads from ICETV to the Humax, you might as well not bother linking it through ICETV..

Sorry but I am getting a little fed up (between this unit and my previous Strong unit) having to double check and fix the programs downloaded to my PVR from ICETV, it defeats the purpose of using ICETV and when I forget I miss the last 10-15 mins of shows as the free to air channels are never on time... Padding is an essential feature in my opinion, not just something nice to have...

I have a masterpiece 2400 and the Humax 7500, the masterpeice is fine with padding only the humax has issues..

I seem to be missing both lead-in and lead-out padding, so my shows are exactly 30mins or 60mins etc

The shows I have noticed it on (off the top of my head) are 'Alcatraz' and 'Bondi Rescue' which are on Nine and Ten... [edit] I have just checked and ABC does it too, maybe 90% of the time, though I noticed that 'Top Gear' seems to be OK...

I tend to agree with an earlier post, in my experience the topfield seems the most reliable, the strong units reset all the time and get patched constantly without fixing anything until they discontinue the unit and stop supporting it, and I had nothing but trouble with the Beyonwiz DP-2 (exchanged for my topfield masterpiece) though others seem to love them..

I have tried a lot of different PVRs with ICETV and I have to say unlike my previous 'Strong' and 'Beyonwiz' units I haven't had any freeze ups or resets with the Humax, just the lack of padding.. Though even the lack of padding makes the unit not really fit for purpose..

I do also have a Topfield masterpeice in another room and it went a bit screwy on wireless but switched it to wired network and it is reliable.

I hope they resolve this soon or I will be requesting a refund as the unit is not working as designed or fit for purpose with icetv (whome I bought the unit from), I guess I will get another topfield and make sure I don't use wireless, lol.. It is a shame as I think the Humax interface is a lot nicer, but I am a little annoyed they don't even bother to email back their customers to let them know it is a known problem they are working on...

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..

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..

OK I have tried the latest beta firmware also (1.15) and that has exactly the same problem, ICETV is unusable on my Strong 5492..

EDIT: I have also tried rescanning all the channels.

OK first time I entered the settings it said 'authorised' and was downloading some channels but had 'no information' for ABC1, SBS2, SBS3 and ONE HD..

It was ok apart from the missing channels until I turned it off and back on again, then it said 'unauthised' and refuses to authorise again..

I am running the latest firmware 1.14

Anyone have things working with this device? it seems to be well known to be full of bugs if you read forums like whirlpool or dtvforum.. Now they are releasing a new model? so I guess they can forget about this one?