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

FVP 5000T Disappointment

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  1. Soloist

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    John 1. Thanks for the good tip re jump forward/back, it works well most of the time. I haven’t had time to find out why it sometimes fails. When it doesn’t work I stop the programme and go back to it and it works fine.

    Martin Liddle and Aldaweb. I think they failed because at different times they had been used in a wooden tv cabinet with a glass front door and although there is a 65mm approx cable hole at the back there was probably not enough passage of air through the cabinet. My new 5000T sits on top of the cabinet behind the tv to avoid overheating. I replaced the fans in both Fox T2’s and the fans did not work, even when the machines were quite warm. I note with interest that the power supply in this new machine is external on the mains cable which may be Humax’s modification to avoid the overheating.

    Harters. I agree. I hate the ugly large text in the unnecessarily large boxes.
    Soloist.

    | Thu 21 Dec 2017 12:03:33 #11 |
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    Martin Liddle

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    Soloist - 15 minutes ago  » 
    I think they failed because at different times they had been used in a wooden tv cabinet with a glass front door and although there is a 65mm approx cable hole at the back there was probably not enough passage of air through the cabinet.

    Our HDR-FOX T2 has sat in a similar cabinet for six years without problem.

    I replaced the fans in both Fox T2’s and the fans did not work, even when the machines were quite warm.

    The Humax fan control strategy is a bit odd; the fan stays off until the hard drive reaches (I think) 55 degC and then turns on full blast. The custom firmware for the HDR-FOX T2 allows a more nuanced approach and I have the fan set to run at about 50% of full speed continuously that keeps the hard drive at a nice constant 40 degC.

    | Thu 21 Dec 2017 12:25:07 #12 |
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    AJ

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    Harters - 12 hours ago  » 
    I just hope and pray that Humax listen to all of these complaints and start making a decent PVR again. If they are not going to use the coloured buttons, just take them away from the remote as they are a constant reminder how how useful they used to be!

    Here, here. I’ve come from an ancient DigitalStream which while didn’t do half of what this box does, in some aspects I feel like I’ve gone backward.

    Sticky pads on feet (which has helped noise), new HDMI just in case there was interference causing odd stuttering of picture, turnt down masthead amp incase (tuner overly sensitive?). A smart retune that didn’t ask for my region. A remote which is ‘clicky’ on the main buttons plus rather than having much needed buttons such as info, four arrow buttons go to the same thing. Thumbnail icons which say the recording fails if it detects black frames.

    Series function where it thinks you want to watch the last episode before the first. Huge picture icons/text in places where better detail could be. Different behaviour of skip buttons in timeshift to recordings. Arrow up/down behaviour in guide. I refuse to believe most of these could not be resolved in one sweep.

    In saying that there are some great features of the box and I couldn’t say I have experienced all bugs mentioned here by people. I am also comforted in that there has been a software update which I am hoping will bring more improvements!

    | Thu 21 Dec 2017 20:39:45 #13 |
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    Harters

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    AJ - 13 hours ago  » 

    Harters - 12 hours ago  » 
    I just hope and pray that Humax listen to all of these complaints and start making a decent PVR again. If they are not going to use the coloured buttons, just take them away from the remote as they are a constant reminder how how useful they used to be!

    ....I refuse to believe most of these could not be resolved in one sweep.
    In saying that there are some great features of the box and I couldn’t say I have experienced all bugs mentioned here by people. I am also comforted in that there has been a software update which I am hoping will bring more improvements!

    You may be lucky as you have the 5000, but spare a thought for us poor early adopters of the relatively short lived 4000 as I think the chance of any useful updates for us is very slim.

    I feel pretty let down by the 4000 to be honest. Its a treat when we go to bed and use the far superior 'old' HDR-FOX T2 which we have in the bedroom. The only major advantages of the 4000 in our case is the extra tuner, all the online features I want to use are on the NowTV box which cost less than £15 and is super slick and fast!

    | Fri 22 Dec 2017 10:18:37 #14 |
  5. grahamlthompson

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    Harters - 12 hours ago  » 

    AJ - 13 hours ago  » 

    Harters - 12 hours ago  » 
    I just hope and pray that Humax listen to all of these complaints and start making a decent PVR again. If they are not going to use the coloured buttons, just take them away from the remote as they are a constant reminder how how useful they used to be!

    ....I refuse to believe most of these could not be resolved in one sweep.
    In saying that there are some great features of the box and I couldn’t say I have experienced all bugs mentioned here by people. I am also comforted in that there has been a software update which I am hoping will bring more improvements!

    You may be lucky as you have the 5000, but spare a thought for us poor early adopters of the relatively short lived 4000 as I think the chance of any useful updates for us is very slim.
    I feel pretty let down by the 4000 to be honest. Its a treat when we go to bed and use the far superior 'old' HDR-FOX T2 which we have in the bedroom. The only major advantages of the 4000 in our case is the extra tuner, all the online features I want to use are on the NowTV box which cost less than £15 and is super slick and fast!

    As for NOW-TV could be down to the reduced resolution 1280 x 720 (720p), guessing the NOW TV box outputs 720p25). Considering the ill advised postings when HD was 1440 x 1080 but backed by a much higher bitrate there may be nothing wrong with that,

    I don't have a Now TV source but suspect that the picture quality suffers.

    Basically 1920 x 1080 interlaced at 25 fps (Full HD 1080i, or in the case of most Freeview-HD content 1080p25) is pretty much the same as 1280 x 720 at 50 fps (720P50). The enhanced true frame rate more than compensates for most content depending entirely on your TV/Monitor.

    I assume you don't have a large screen TV in your bedroom. If you had the limitations of 720P25 may well be much more obvious.

    If you were to watch a NOW TV box on a large screen TV at the sort of distance from the TV where the extra pixels make a noticeable difference you may well have a different opinion.

    4K (especially HDR) is great. But only if you can accommodate a very large TV to see the enhanced resolution (and extra brightness and colour depth from HDR). If you watch a Full-HD TV too far away you will not appreciate the extra pixels.

    In respect of the 5000T software in terms of the main features, picture quality and recording reliability I don't think you are missing very much.

    | Fri 22 Dec 2017 23:30:02 #15 |
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    Harters

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    I think you misunderstood my reply.

    I only use the NowTV box for the online catch up services and YouTube which it does a superb job of. 40" in the Bedroom and 55" in the lounge.

    I never renewed the free 3 Month Entertainment pass as I didn't need it, I just got the box due to Samsung deleting the YouTube app from both of our Samsung TVs as they are were not up to spec to support the new YouTube app and it was a very cheap option.

    I did watch some of the content whilst I had the pass and can confirm it may only be 720p, but I was amazed at how good the picture quality was and the fact that every program started instantly and I never had one buffering issue.

    The interface is very slick as well. The only thing they need to improve is to add a proper guide to the 'Smart' version which I have recently purchased rather than just 'now and next'

    | Sat 23 Dec 2017 11:32:32 #16 |
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    obsolent

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    We treated ourselves to a 5000t for Christmas, but have now returned it after just 2 weeks. We had it alongside our old hdr-fox-t2, and were thus able to make direct comparisons. The new box overcame the “premature subtitle” problem described elsewhere, and had the extra channel, but we just hated the new user interface. The guide was harder to read than on the Fox, and we found we could get into a dead end - I think this happened if we were watching a programme having rewound it a bit, then went to the guide and selected another programme, at which point we would see an info screen for the new program but with only one button on it , saying CLOSE. Daft! The other thing we hated about the new box was that it was SO SLOW starting up. So anyway here we are back on the old fox. With all its faults it is still better for us,

    | Sun 24 Dec 2017 9:14:45 #17 |
  8. Barry

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    Slow starting up

    Not my experience, 17 seconds from boot to picture/audio displayed, faster then the HDR T2.

    | Sun 24 Dec 2017 11:04:58 #18 |
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    Harters

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    Barry - 28 minutes ago  » 
    Slow starting up
    Not my experience, 17 seconds from boot to picture/audio displayed, faster then the HDR T2.

    Agreed, we have ours with the energy save option enabled so its in ultra low power mode and the start up is very quick, but once up and running its the interface that is woefully slow...

    If only a techno whiz could install another tuner into the HDR then I would be very happy

    | Sun 24 Dec 2017 11:36:34 #19 |
  10. Soloist

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    I'm new here so I hope I am adding this in the right place. Re disappointment with the new 5000T: After lots of use over the Xmas period I am a lot more familiar with the 5000T. Here’s what I’ve discovered compared with the FoxT2:
    1. As previously mentioned, no dedicated jump buttons.
    2. The apparently only method available to jump forward/back using arrows right and left do not work on live TV. It does on the Fox T2.
    3. Can’t rename or add to the title of a recorded program. This was a useful way for each of us to let the other know that we had finished with the recording by easily adding our initial to the end of the title.
    4. Can’t read the details of a recorded program without stopping the replay.
    5. I often use pause to read the fast moving credits at the end of a program, on the 5000T half the picture is covered in graphics; obscuring the text.
    6. Except for a barely visible blue light beneath the unit, there is no indication that the unit is turned on.
    7. What is the purpose of the leading zeros in front of every channel number in the guide and on the program description pages?, its just unnecessary clutter.
    8. Large shouting upper case text in large boxes.
    9. Generally slow and awkward navigating through menus.
    10. Unnecessarily large Netflix (you have to pay) and On Demand buttons taking up ideal space for jump buttons.
    11. The mute and recorded program buttons are in the wrong place.
    12. The coloured buttons don’t seem to do anything (as noted by another).
    Anyone coming from the Fox T2 or similar format models will be disappointed with this latest 5000T. Surely the purpose of bringing out a new model is to incorporate improvements. Trying hard to think of a way in which this model is better, the only improvement I can think of is the extra tuner. In my opinion, if the developers had started with the Fox T2 and simply added an extra tuner, that would have been my ideal. Netflix and On Demand could have been put in the menus.
    Soloist.

    | Thu 28 Dec 2017 11:59:22 #20 |

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