Hello, thanks for reading. I'm a new Humax owner having moved from TiVo after 6 or 7 years. I have to say I am not impressed with the Humax, seems to be full of bugs. I have latest firmware and performed a factory reset. 7500T 1TB
My issues are:
- after having paused a live broadcast for a period of time, then go to play it in order to FF through ads, I intermittently get periods of black screen and it skips forward. Rewinding and playing again confirms the program was recorded correctly, then it will black out again and skip in a different section. Video either side of skip is often pixelated and broken up then settles down. Black only goes for a second or two but skipping can be whole chunks of program
- sometimes it locks up with an error message saying scrambled or no content on this channel (can't remember exact wording) epg displays fine but no video content on any channel. Same error if I try to play an existing recorded program. Problem is fixed by hard power cycle
- sometimes the front panel text display is blank after wake from sleep
- overall tv channel reception seems to be poorer with more breakups than what I had with the TiVo
I have only had this box for a week and am so frustrated that I am ready to return it and go back to the TiVo. The TiVo just worked. The Humax has features that made me change brands like extended time shifting and 1TB recording space as well as being able to move and copy program files although I have not yet tried this yet. All this is useless if the machine doesn't operate reliably.
Any suggestions would be much appreciated, thanks.
Any issues I've had in relation to your point 1 are due to signal strength, pixelation a definite sign. I live in a weak signal area and use a masthead amp (see my other post), but I also believe the Humax's signal ability is poorer than other appliances. Do you live in a lower signal area? I recently had 'no signal' issues like your point 2 and fixed it by doing a channel re-scan, however this was on regional channels.
Sorry not able to help on point 3.
Thanks for your reply Doctor. Regarding the skipping with the black screen and pixellation, i disagree that could be a signal strength problem because I can rewind back to the problem area and it will play correctly, then another section will muck up. I have a masthead amplifier, with only one device connected and have good quality signal strength on all channels. With the Tivo I would occasionally get pixellated reception during heavy rain or very windy conditions. This problem is only with time shifted live broadcasts, recorded programs play back fine (at least the few I have recorded and watched so far).
I live on the Central Coast of NSW and receive both regional and Sydney channels.
Anyway, thanks for your input
Yes, I have had similar.
I have a theory that the Humax has some kind of skip capability when there is insufficient data (due to signal strength), but that this is not always consistent each time the data is read, as you have observed.
Similarly to you I get Melbourne and regional channels with a masthead amp.
This is just a theory and possibly the result of imbibing excessive amounts of Abbotsford Invalid Stout.
Doc.
I also experience this problem, and I find it extremely frustrating. Frequently, when I play recorded programs, I will see a warning that the program has not recorded properly. Like photo-mac, I can rewind to the skipped part (to the point just a moment after the start of the skipped segment) and watch it, although the presence of pixelation is evidence of some signal loss. Nevertheless, I'd prefer to watch the segments of a program with some pixelation rather than have the Humax PVR decide that I should not watch it. (It's doing me no favours by skipping.)
I have also noticed that the Humax seems to have a less sensitive receiver than the television. If on the Humax a live program is pixelated, or if there is a black screen with a "Weak signal" message, I can often switch back to the television's own receiver, where I encounter no such problem with the signal. Seems like this has to be a problem inherent in the Humax device which is compounded by its tendency to deny the viewer the right to watch every part of a recorded program.
-Peter