My Humax Forum » Freeview HD » FVP 4000T, 5000T

5000T - so slow its borderline unusable?

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    ColinMcC

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    Have I got a dud? Or are they all this bad?

    Bought from John Lewis (for easy returns!). Brand new 1tb model.

    I hate it. It is SO slow at times it feels broken. I'm talking response times between 10 and 30 seconds at times. The UI is cumbersome, slow and feels like something out of the 90's. The companion apps are dreadful, most of the time they simply don't work as they won't connect to the box. It's a set up correctly, sometimes (rarely), they do connect, but not often.

    It's their interface. If you look for suggestions through their UI, it takes forever. But the "explore freeview" does essentially the same thing, only much, MUCH, faster.

    Even the basic TV guide is so slow and klunky is almost unusable.

    For the premium price, it's a huge disappointment.

    I'm about to return it and replace it with a second hand 500gb Fox T2.

    Unless someone can convince me otherwise....

    | Wed 12 Jun 2019 13:04:31 #1 |
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    Marius

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    The 5000Ts are all that bad - appallingly underpowered. The problem is that nothing else will record four channels simultaneously and faultlessly - never messing up a single recording.

    I'd happily pay twice as much for an adequately resourced machine, but there isn't one and commercial rationale dictates that there probably never will be.

    So it really comes down to what would irritate me the most - a machine that moves at the speed of an arthritic snail wearing a lead collar or one that misses and messes up recordings?

    For me, at least, the latter would be marginally more annoying - but I admit that it's a very close thing.

    | Wed 12 Jun 2019 17:37:27 #2 |
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    GrahamRHK

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    I believe that many issues of slow response are not necessarily related to the speed of the processor. Most of the 'sophisticated' functions - recommendations etc. - rely on the internet connection. What speed is your broadband connection? I am lucky to have high speed fibre. I suspect that the box would struggle with basic ADSL - as would any computer doing smart things. In my experience some internal FVP functions - EPG, recordings list etc. take no more than 5 seconds - in oractice quite usable though slower than my previous HUMAX boxes. 4 simultaneous recordings, integrated on demand, reliable recordings and remote recording setting are tremendous features for a £200 box.

    | Wed 12 Jun 2019 18:03:52 #3 |
  4. grahamlthompson

    grahamlthompson

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    My 5000T is certainly not fast, but it's nothing like ColinMcC's experience. Mine is on a 100Mbps cat 5 link which is matched by a 100mbps Virgin connection.

    This does give credence to GrahamRHK's post and I agree totally the reliable recording recording of up to 4 HD recordings at once is invaluable.

    I have a 2TB drive that it is easy to get a very large number of recordings. So much so that after a boot pressing recordings often disconcertingly often says no recordings. Leaving the box for a few minutes has always restored the list.

    I imagine this is down to the choice of processor interrupt priority in order that the cpu can handle more important pvr support actions after a boot.

    Never had any issues with the epg build, however experimentation shows that the cached epg is deleted so the first boot of the day takes a while to rebuild the cache.In my case a timed power on/off boot after 0800 for 15 mins has already produced a full epg when ever the first boot of the day is.

    This also solves the disappearing epg that results from using padding if the box is not booted for several days.

    It also pays to know the shortcuts when navigating the epg going up and down is slow one page at a time. If you know the channel number tapping it in jumps very quickly to the channel.

    | Wed 12 Jun 2019 18:45:37 #4 |
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    A1944

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    Some 5000T boxes have problems with the remote not responding to some buttons. Keep an eye on the power button for the red edge flash as you press any of the buttons (apart from those controllling your TV).

    | Wed 12 Jun 2019 18:55:21 #5 |
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    ColinMcC

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    Thanks for the replies folks.

    I can tidy up a couple of points ...

    Connection speed is fine. I've run Now TV, streaming PC's, Virgin Tivo etc etc through it no problem. I run a MESH WiFi system (Tenda MW3) and although it doesn't deliver my full 100Mbps cable connection, it's more than enough. I know the network is fine.

    Plus, as I mentioned, the "Explore Freeview" app that comes pre-installed on the box effectively does the same thing as asking the 5000T for "Recommended content". Except it does it much, MUCH, faster.

    The remote is not missing presses I'm pretty sure. Sometimes I'll press a button, then actually put the remote down while I wait for the box to respond, it's that bad. Early impatience with how bad it was (I've been trying to live with it for a couple of weeks now) caused many double presses which resulted in me ending up in the wrong place and then facing even more lag getting back.

    On that point though, it doesn't help that most presses don't trigger any sort of indication on the box (a light or some onscreen text) to indicate that it's now (trying) to do something. A couple do. In the EPG, you do get a "Please Wait" I think. But on most screens, you're just left wondering if the button works.

    I picked up a T2 local to me today. It was cheap. I can sell it on for more than I paid on Ebay if I decide to get rid. But, so far, it is a night and day experience compared to the 5000T. It's not "lightning" all the time, on everything, but compared to the 5000T? It's Usain Bolt.

    I bought the 5000T mainly for convenience. I can get all the catchup stuff on the TV, or other gizmos. But I haven't had any recording facilities for a while, since I got rid of Virgin (except for the broadband). That was the main goal to get back. And even then, mainly for a few shows which are not available on catchup. So the 5000T seemed like a good shout as a jack-of-all-trades. Save me switching devices constantly. Unfortunately, it does a bad job of being a jack-of-all-trades. And it is certainly master of none.

    Is it under-powered? Possibly. I don't know, I haven't looked into the internals of it. But, given a Raspberry Pi can be turned into a half decent PVR, I would hope not. As far as I'm concerned, with a box like this, I'm paying for the polish as well as the features. I'm paying Humax over £200 rather than dicking around trying to shove a Rasp Pi into the back of my TV and convince it to run some sort of buggy Kodi extension.

    It sounds like it does a lot on paper, but my experience in practice has been a total let down. So many badly implemented features, things that don't work, and horrendous usability.

    I'm an IT performance test engineer by trade! I would never have signed this thing off if they're all as bad as my one!

    I think I'm just going to stick with the T2 for now. The 5000T can go back to JL. Not fit for purpose IMHO.

    | Wed 12 Jun 2019 20:54:11 #6 |
  7. grahamlthompson

    grahamlthompson

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    ColinMcC - 18 minutes ago  » 
    Thanks for the replies folks.
    I can tidy up a couple of points ...
    Connection speed is fine. I've run Now TV, streaming PC's, Virgin Tivo etc etc through it no problem. I run a MESH WiFi system (Tenda MW3) and although it doesn't deliver my full 100Mbps cable connection, it's more than enough. I know the network is fine.
    Plus, as I mentioned, the "Explore Freeview" app that comes pre-installed on the box effectively does the same thing as asking the 5000T for "Recommended content". Except it does it much, MUCH, faster.
    The remote is not missing presses I'm pretty sure. Sometimes I'll press a button, then actually put the remote down while I wait for the box to respond, it's that bad. Early impatience with how bad it was (I've been trying to live with it for a couple of weeks now) caused many double presses which resulted in me ending up in the wrong place and then facing even more lag getting back.
    On that point though, it doesn't help that most presses don't trigger any sort of indication on the box (a light or some onscreen text) to indicate that it's now (trying) to do something. A couple do. In the EPG, you do get a "Please Wait" I think. But on most screens, you're just left wondering if the button works.
    I picked up a T2 local to me today. It was cheap. I can sell it on for more than I paid on Ebay if I decide to get rid. But, so far, it is a night and day experience compared to the 5000T. It's not "lightning" all the time, on everything, but compared to the 5000T? It's Usain Bolt.
    I bought the 5000T mainly for convenience. I can get all the catchup stuff on the TV, or other gizmos. But I haven't had any recording facilities for a while, since I got rid of Virgin (except for the broadband). That was the main goal to get back. And even then, mainly for a few shows which are not available on catchup. So the 5000T seemed like a good shout as a jack-of-all-trades. Save me switching devices constantly. Unfortunately, it does a bad job of being a jack-of-all-trades. And it is certainly master of none.
    Is it under-powered? Possibly. I don't know, I haven't looked into the internals of it. But, given a Raspberry Pi can be turned into a half decent PVR, I would hope not. As far as I'm concerned, with a box like this, I'm paying for the polish as well as the features. I'm paying Humax over £200 rather than dicking around trying to shove a Rasp Pi into the back of my TV and convince it to run some sort of buggy Kodi extension.
    It sounds like it does a lot on paper, but my experience in practice has been a total let down. So many badly implemented features, things that don't work, and horrendous usability.
    I'm an IT performance test engineer by trade! I would never have signed this thing off if they're all as bad as my one!
    I think I'm just going to stick with the T2 for now. The 5000T can go back to JL. Not fit for purpose IMHO.

    Two HDR-FOX-T2's can do most anything the 5000T can other than the free and paid for streaming services) especially with the custom firmware other than trying to remember which box you recorded it from. The DTCP-IP server/client on each does mean you can use two in a different location to view the other boxes recordings.

    Though it does appear that two 5000T can do the same thing. Not having two noway to check.

    | Wed 12 Jun 2019 21:20:51 #7 |
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    Martin Liddle

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    ColinMcC - 1 hour ago  » 
    I think I'm just going to stick with the T2 for now. The 5000T can go back to JL. Not fit for purpose IMHO.

    In my experience the FVP-5000T isn't quite as slow as you are reporting but it certainly isn't rapid. What irritates me more is the lack of consistency in the way the UI behaves. However for me (a long term HDR-FOX T2 user), the killer advantages of the FVP-5000T are that the sub-titles work properly and an irritating sound blip issue with an HDR-FOX T2 connected to a modern LG smart TV doesn't occur with an FVP-5000T.

    | Wed 12 Jun 2019 22:16:09 #8 |
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    GrahamRHK

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    On that point though, it doesn't help that most presses don't trigger any sort of indication on the box (a light or some onscreen text) to indicate that it's now (trying) to do something. A couple do. In the EPG, you do get a "Please Wait" I think. But on most screens, you're just left wondering if the button works.

    I agree that the UI is cumbersome and takes a lot of use to become familiar but after a few weeks one gets used to it. However the response times you quoted originally seem much worse than mine - maybe its faulty. On the other hand it may be something to do with the internet connection. I have found that routers provided by ISPs have odd quirks related to DNS queries. I haven't had time to fully investigate why that should be so - yet. If you look at the network connection status in the network settings menu what DNS servers are reported? They should be the ones provided by your ISP. If it reports the IP address of your router as primary DNS server that may be part of the problem. Would be interesting to know.

    | Thu 13 Jun 2019 8:08:17 #9 |
  10. Trev

    Trev

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    Does it 'speed up' if you disconnect the internet. If so that will prove/eliminate that particular source of slowdown.

    | Thu 13 Jun 2019 16:14:53 #10 |

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