Entertainment For Lively Minds
Humax experiences ?
Posted by SpaceBoy on 22 January 2011 - 11:08pm.
Just bought a Humax Foxsat PVR. Good news is works fine with the dish on the block of flats. Has some v nice features like a front panel display.
Unfortunately the remote seems suddenly to have stopped working, and changing the batteries hasn't fixed it. Also the various suggestions here http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=965751&page=3
haven't fixed it.
I know a few people here have them, just wanted to check if there is anything else I should know--plan A is just to take it back to John Lewis, get another one and try that as they seem pretty nice overall.
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sorry, can't help with remote
I am a very happy humax owner though, got two 9200-ts. Planning to upgrade to the same model as you soonish...
I've had that problem....
There are 4 buttons along the top of the remote: PVR, TV, DVD, Audio. Make sure the PVR is lit up, or it may have tried to turn itself into a control for one of the other 3 devices. Press PVR, see the button blink, then try working the Humax
How about that !!!!
Fantastic---many, many thanks.
Damn! You Beat Me To It!
I was thinking about posting this when I got some time to play on here.
It's something that took me a while to figure out, as did this:
Bottom row of buttons, 2nd right, marked V-Format: Allows you to upscale normal broadcasts to 1080i. Took me six months to work that out.
... and here's another handy tip :
.... the Foxsat keeps the previous 30 minutes of footage stored in case you'd like to reverse back through it to watch it again (as long as you don't change channel, in which case it starts the buffering again).
However, in recent times, if you do this rewinding and rewatching action then on some of the channels (seems to be BBC ones only) it has the annoying habit of adding subtitles automatically and you can't clear it with the SUB button. However, press OK twice, and it'll clear it toot sweet! I do hope this helps somebody cos it was bugging me for an age.
BR
FT
Thank you v much
That has been bugging the hell out of me & the FPO for ages!
Which reminds me...
Here's a top tip and a half. If you have a remote control and aren't sure if it is working or not, point it towards the camera on your phone and press any button on the remote - if the batteries are OK you'll see the light flashing on the end of the remote.
Regarding Humax we have a 9300T Freeview+ thing and it is ok. The menus seem really 1990s but it seems to work most of the time, although every now and again it has a benny and deletes all of your recording schedule for a laugh.
our 9200t does that occasionally
We discovered, if you go to the empty schedule page and press the down arrow twice, it all comes back. Different model, but maybe that'll work for you next time.
Thanks all for the various suggestions
above, I'll try the upscaling tip in a minute.
The aspect that is really delighting right now is the use of it as a radio. I went from DAB back to Freeview radio when I traded my Arcam Solo for an amp, but now I have the Humax optical output fed into a DAC magic and Radio 3 is sounding great. It should be at least as good as DAB because both are 192kbps for R3 if this is accurate (http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/dab/digital_radio_bit_rates.htm).
Ability to pause live radio also v nice. Have now tried out the iPlayer and this is also v impressive, esp when you use the higher quality stream. This presumably is not the HD iPlayer stream though is it ?
The only other thing I am curious about is what format the system archives into. It can copy to and from FAT formatted USB (not NTFS), which suggests I could possibly take recordings over to partner's to view them via her PC---but this assumes it is a standard file format. Any experience here ? I understand that some broadcasts use the HDCP protection but not all.
Watching this blog
with interest as a Humax PVR in its satellite or terrestrial form is probably my next purchase. How well it can play other formats as well as exporting video is probably a deciding factor.
The terrestrial one
actually looks more versatile in that respect---see the What Hi Fi reviews if you haven't already. The manuals are online at Humax as well.
For me the choice of satellite was in part i) that I had managed to briefly borrow one and knew that it worked well on the communal dish in my flat, whereas my Freeview reception isn't especially great and the aerial hasn't been upgraded; ii) partly that I liked the nice bright green display for radio use, and iii) the fact it was a bit cheaper than the terrestrial model (mine was 225 quid).
It looks as if the satellite one writes standard def TV files into .ts files
http://www.avforums.com/forums/freesat/892077-humax-foxsat-hdr-copying-u...
and so these should play via the VLC player on a PC. Will try this at some point and report. I don't think exporting HD is (deliberately) at all easy from what I've seen on the web.
We'll probably get one of the terrestrial boxes at the FPO's eventually as she doesn't have a dish.
Just to say we have just bought the terrestrial version
for the FPO's house. First impressions are very positive.
Main differences are that the Freeview HD version has bigger disk (500 Gb or bigger), and is a DLNA client (wired ethernet) so you can play files by that route as well as by a USB stick or disk. We plan to try this sooner or later. What isn't so clear is what file types will work for video---for music MP3 is OK. We haven't got around to trying the USB yet.
It's also stated that the Freeview one will record radio programmes, not clear that the Freesat one does. They also have different intefarface software, but very similar in spirit. Freeview has a small picture in picture window for the current channel in the EPG---my Freesat one doesn't.
Main limitation of Freeview is that it obviously depends on your local reception and your arial. Until we get a newer one we won't get things like Film 4 for example, and we don't yet have the HD channels.
One nice feature of both is that they have front panel displays and you can switch between radio and TV channels on the handset, so you can thus easily use the box as a radio tuner without needing to turn the TV on. You just need to use phono leads as well as the HDMI connection.
edit: and one other thing---you need a suitable dish to use both tuners on the Freesat version-I am currently limited to one.
And a final note re bassclef's query
Have tried a few video formats now in a quick trial from a USB stick.
YOUR MILEAGE MAY VARY, of course, and I'd look at AVForums etc for the real experts, but I found that on the Freeview version I could easy play .avi and .mov (the later originally from the iplayer grabber ipdl), as well as a NASA high def file, whereas the Freesat machine couldn't see them as far as I could tell. Same files were easily visible to my WD TV media player. I'd try an experiment in the shop if you can (NB Freview player has USB slot in the back !).
Thanks for that SpaceBoy
I see Sony have launched their own PVR too which uses the same hardware as the Humax, picture quality is supposed to be better but it has no front display and it doesn't seem as versatile as the Humax for moving files off the box and for playback, although you can use an external HDD to expand its capacity.
So I guess it's Humax Foxsat HD PVR here we come (after the Royal Wedding of course;-))
the one that worked well
for reading files was the freeview one not the sat one. ..
also NB humax one can be expanded with an external disk.
no knowledge re the Sony
Sorry
My mistake.
I haven't bought a PVR yet but the Humax Freeview HD PVR is the favourite at the moment.
Just a quick note, bassclef et al,
to say we have now put all our video captures on a cheap 320Mb USB-powered disk and it's happy with that as well (a Verbatim model). Basically most .avi. .mov and .mp4 seem happy-including those mentioned above, another high def test one ("Home") and some converted by RealPlayer's software from YouTube.
So far .avi's from a camera don't work, and .vob from DVD-Rs not happy, but the latter play on our blu ray player anyway. I suspect most of these other formats will be convertible in time. So as long as you don't expect the flexibility of something like VLC on a PC I think you'll be fine.
Possible decider
My sky dish on the flat seems to be faulty. While investigating I did a manual reset as I was assured by menus this wouldn't lose recordings. I don't think it has, but what they don't say is that if no sat signal is there the box won't then get out of the menus and you won't be able to get to the recordings.
Box now useless until we get aerial sorted. Freeview may be more graceful in that regard, not sure, worth asking.
Is this the thread that will not die
or is it just you and I, SpaceBoy?
In which case, hallo, SpaceBoy.
probably just us
but worth a shot in case anyone knew how to get at the recordings.
had I set it up as a server (hacks exist) I'd be able to view them from PC I suspect ---bit late now. it'll be sorted-hopefully before proms.
And here's a Dancing Spacegirl
they *really* don't make them like that any more ...
Does anybody else
feel this whole thread is a practical joke at their expense? A Humax Foxsat PVR.? Yeah and the A&J 'cast is really a Podmax, right?
I'm glad
I'm not the only one.
You could say the same
about all the Apple fanboi threads on the Word blog.
The Word magazine strapline is "Entertainment for lively minds" so surely any topic (within reason) is up for discussion - whether that's entertaining or even interesting is entirely subjective.
In this case SpaceBoy briefly revived the thread to update me for which I'm grateful.
It wasn't a criticism...
in fact, that's one of the things that I love about this site - the many and various subjects under discussion, and the odd ones that tip over into Harry Hill style fights.
It's just that sometimes I read the real techie ones with bewildered amusement, thinking 'How the feck do you people KNOW all this stuff?'. That's all.
In my case
it was a mis-spent youth ;-)
Now...
I like the Humax Foxsat-HDR box, but I also like my Humax PVR9200T.
But which is better? FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHHT!
yeah
not a criticism in the slightest, bassclef - if anything I was criticising my own tech-numptiness. I have no idea what the machine mentioned in the op is or does, I was reminded a little of the spoof 'it's well weapon' ads from Nathan Barley.
To have "my" thread
compared to this gentleman
is deeply, er, touching ...[hadn't realised the Barley ads were in some way immortalised here: http://www.trashbat.co.ck/t12/index.html ]
Anyway, to clarify, at the risk of being even more geeky, the Humaxes are just hard disk recorders, and have proved very handy to me and the FPO as our local analogue TV signals start to disappear.
[That's enough Humaxes, ed.]
In praise of the Humax USB
We have a Humax freesat HD and it's great.
Thanks for the tips above about its little quirks.
I love how you can copy programmes - not HD - onto a USB stick and then get them into the computer for conversion. I have a Mac and Handbrake is good for this.
It means I can archive really good shows on my Apple TV to watch for everymore ( or till the disc fails!)
Do you know you can also watch Sky News if you really want to by changing the setting to Non Freesat channels? You have to change it back to get the Freesat line up but Sky News is there broadcasting in the clear when you do that switch. RTE 1 and RTE 2 are also there but scrambled it seems.
An apology
to Susie Baby and badartdog for being such a GOB yesterday...
Wrong end of stick grasped, and all that.
Plus my enthusiasm for what's basically a PVR with facilities as a media player got the better of me.
I was rather touched by your spirited defence, myself ...
However, I realise now I should have used a more Word-friendly title---perhaps something to do with the Jimi Humax Experience ?
Gets patchouli-soaked coat ....
Toppy
I love my Topfield 5800 PVR which is similar to the Humix but it can also run additional utilities known as TAPS which a legion of nerdy users produce. It interfaces direct to the laptop for taking programmes off, burning to DVD etc. Similar to the Humix apparently.