To pin the problem on the box or C5, you'd need to compare results over a week or two. If some recordings are badly timed on all units, C5 is the culprit. If some recordings are badly timed on all FVP units, the box must be viewed with suspicion. If some recordings are badly timed on some but not all FVPs, it may be settings or tuning on the misbehaving FVP.
But my money's on Five. It's just too much of a coincidence.
I have just had a response from DigitalUK.
Unfortunately, DigitalUK did not seem to understand the problem I was raising and suggested solutions like programmes are often delayed by overrunning sports, and try adding padding.
They did not seeem to appreciate that the automatic system is failing because the timing signals are being placed wrongly.
I too am pretty certain it's the timing signals and not the fault of the Humax.
The Humax correctly records BBC and ITV, apart from extremely rare occurrences, which I can accept as "occasional error by BBC/ITV".
It is only C5 and 5USA (that I have found so far) which consistently and repeatedly get it wrong.
JohnH77 - 26 minutes ago »
I have just had a response from DigitalUK.
Unfortunately, DigitalUK did not seem to understand the problem I was raising and suggested solutions like programmes are often delayed by overrunning sports, and try adding padding.
They did not seeem to appreciate that the automatic system is failing because the timing signals are being placed wrongly.
They probably do follow what you are saying but it's far easier for them if they "appear" to not understand. It's just like corporate mission statements when asked a particular question. Politicians are masters of the art.
Faust
Politicians are masters of the art.
That reminds of the MP who was asked what was the most important quality a politician needed gettin the answer "The ability to fake sincerity - once you can do that, everything else is easy"
and back on topic 
Tonight's timer for Law and Order...
Freeview faired better then freesat on this occasion, started spot on 5 logo followed by sponsor message, whole programme recorded
Freesat missed first 30 secs of preamble, then recorded whole programme.
Barry
My Law and Order was perfect too - exactly as yours.
It cannot be the Humax - bad timings must be caused by the station doing the broadcasting putting the timer markings in the wrong place.
I have not yet heard back from DigitalUK after telling them, politely, to read my complaint properly and answer my questions, instead of ignoring what I wrote and sending me completely irrelevant answers to things I never asked.
I did not mention before that DigitalTV had asked me for my phone number so that someone could call.
This morning I was called by another person at DigitalUK and he was most helpful. He understood exactly what I was saying and told me some useful facts:
1 The timing signals are inserted by the broadcaster, which means C5 and 5 USA. I should complain to them.
2 The timing signal is broadcast as a continuous "record me now" signal during the entire duration of the programme.
If it was transmitted as short "Start now" and "End now" signals, then interference might obscure it, and you would lose the recording (or it might never stop).
With the continuous sigal, even if interference means you lose some of the signal, sooner or later the recorder will see the "Record me now" signal and start recording, and will stop recording when it loses the "Record me now".
3 He was aware of the other C5 problems - mis categorinsing series so you record the repeats as well; renaming a programme half way through a series; setting up a series link for episodes 1-5, and a different series link for episodes 6-10 so you think the series ends at episode 5.
I also mentioned that a BBC1 or BBC2 6 Nations rugby match programme is typically 30 minutes of pundits, followed by the kick-off. BBC often starts the recording at the kick-off, so you miss the pundits.
4 DigitalTV is not responsible for the timing, but likes to be told of problems like this so it can apply the appropriate pressure to the broadcasters. If you contact them, please ensure that you include
a) exactly which programme
b) transmitted on which channel
c) at what time
d) on what date
e) had precisely what problem
when you contact them so they can look at it.
I was very impressed.
It's the Now/Next transition that's the problem. And yes, the people to complain to are C5.
Nice that he took the trouble to ring you back though.
To be fair, it's not always C5 in the dock when programmes keep getting truncated. A few years back, users in the YouView forum ran an informal series of tests to try to pin down the cause of truncated recordings of Shaun the Sheep - a BBC children's programme.
It quickly became obvious that Huawei YouView boxes truncated StS much more frequently and severely than Humax YouView boxes. Piers Lomax (at that time, and for all I know perhaps still, YouView Head of Engineering), commented towards the end:
"We're still investigating why TalkTalk boxes seem behave differently. The latest thinking is that they might be using the scheduled start or end time from the Guide under some circumstances, rather than the near real-time signals."
I don't know whether that was ever established as the true cause, but the fact that knowledgeable techies mentioned it as a possible explanation, makes me wonder if the FVP4000T might do this "under some circumstances". Given that the Australian version of the box apparently had to cope with very unreliable AR timings, and thus might often have to default to Guide start/end times. Could legacy coding be resulting in the box opting to use Guide start/end times rather than AR signals "in some circumstances"?
More than likely it's C5, though, given their track record.
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