Hello. This is the best Humax forum I have come across so here is my first post, apologies for it being rather long but I was trying to be as explicit as possible.
I have a PVR9200T and a PVR9300T and both exhibit the same problem with the EPG. Since new they have both taken a long time to populate the programme guide but in recent years, certainly since before digital switchover in 2012, this has become increasingly worse. Armed with my Radio Times it should be a five minute job to reserve my programmes for the week but now it is somewhat protracted.
So to quantify this, today I tuned to BBC1 on the PVR9200T and examined the programme guide. I am only interested in BBC1, BBC2, BBC3 BBC4, ITV, Ch4 and Ch5, and within a few minutes the first two days' worth of BBC channels are fully populated as well as some of the programmes for the commercial channels. A few minutes later the all the BBC channels are populated for the rest of the week, during which time a few more programmes for the commercial channels appear. Half an hour later both BBC and commercial channels are fully populated for the first two days and more programmes have appeared later in the week on the commercial channels but not all. An hour later, the BBC channels are still ok but all programmes for the commercial channels have suddenly disappeared!
I have not noticed the commercial channels disappearing before because I never wait that long. Instead I use a work around which has been successful so far. Once I have reserved my BBC programmes for the week I tune to a commercial channel, ITV for this example, put the unit into standby, then fire it back up again. As I have said, I do not usually wait this long and I notice this time that just before switching off, the first two days are still fully populated, the rest of the week the commercial channels are still blank but now the BBC channels have disappeared.
So now tuned to ITV and within a couple of minutes the first two days are completely populated on all channels again. In the next twenty minutes or so only Ch4 programmes appear for the rest of the week on the commercial channels, together with most BBC1 programmes. Day three is fully populated on all channels at this point. After half an hour most commercial programmes have appeared for the rest of the week plus quite a few BBC ones. I can then reserve my commercial channel programmes for the week.
I think you can see the logic, when tuned to the multiplex containing my BBC programmes it successfully, (eventually), displays them all but not all the commercial ones. Similarly, tuning to the multiplex containing the commercial programmes it successfully displays those but not the BBC ones. I have used BBC1 and ITV for this example but selecting any channel within the multiplex will do the same and I have been using this method for quite some time with the same results.
I live in South Essex, my aerial is pointing to Crystal Palace and I get a 75% signal and 100% quality on all channels. However, I did notice that with auto tuning there were nine programmes in the 800 section. These are the D3&4 multiplex programmes on channel 43 which is coming from Bluebell Hill in Kent, just over the river. Your advice about targeting only the multiplexes coming from the preferred transmitter seemed eminently sensible so I followed your manual tuning instructions to the letter with great expectations. There are now no channels in the 800 range but sadly it has made no difference to the EPG problem.
None of this is helped by the lack of response to the remote control which is steadily getting worse but I will leave that for another, briefer, post.
So no happy ending I am afraid, I was just hoping someone might at least venture some reason for this happening even if not a cure.