Greyed out Menu options and loss of 2nd Tuner

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Greyed out Menu options and loss of 2nd Tuner

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MattNoVAT

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I have two FoxSat 1 Tb PVR's and Ive swapped them over to see both display the same issue:

Normal operation, both tuners are visible in Humax Menu/Diagnostics and are at 85% Quality / 100% Strength

I have things scheduled to record, however soon as the recording starts, the box seems to only recognise one tuner (thats being used for the recording) and the second tuner doesn't seem to be available as I only see channels that are broadcast on the same frequency as the channel thats being recorded.

When recording is "active", if I go into the Humax Menu there are a number of previously available options on the four menu categories that are greyed out and hence unavailable. Including the Diagnostics options.

If I play a previously recorded program and access the Humax Menu while "Watching", again some the Humax Menu options are Greyed out and unavailable, Stop playing the recording and the Greyed out options become available again.

This issue started probably 4-5 months ago, initially I thought my FoxSat PVR was failing and Tuner 2 was dropping out intermittently, but as I have swapped it over for an identical FoxSat PVR and get identical issue I'm confident that the Humax box is actually OK from a hardware perspective.

I have changed the original Quad LNB for a brand new Quad LNB - but the problem still persists.

I am beginning to wonder that there is a software/firmware issue that has arisen following an upgrade by the broadcasters?

Having had Humax boxes for the past 10 years and been 100% satisfied with them, I'd love to go back to being able to benefit from the functionality of having dual tuners.

Both FoxSat PVR's are running:
Loader U7.54
Software version HPRSFCI 1.00.21
System ID 3768.0000
Update Date: 27/07/2012

Any ideas as to the cause of all this?
Or if/where the latest firmware/software is available? (I realise that these boxes have been superseded but there must be later S/w or F/w for them than what was loaded at time of manufacture)

Thanks in advance

| Sat 23 May 2020 11:25:10 #1 |
grahamlthompson

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You have the latest firmware. It was rushed out during the London Olympics to fix the box being unable to record the red button streams.

Firstly check you have channel 999 in the epg.

Your dish alignment needs tweaking. If you are in England 100% signal 100% quality should be easily attained on UK spot beam transponders).

On the Pan Europe (weaker due to larger footprint) 65% signal 100% quality is fine.

You will need some help

If you using UK spot beams (labelled UK) choose a mid range horizontal to optimise signal and quality. 100% on both is easy in most of the UK. Check adjacent vertical transponder

Check for perfect alignment.

With help get someone to watch quality (wait for box metering to respond.

Press gently on dish back left. If quality goes down. Repeat on right. If quality goes down as well azimuth is spot on.

Repeat top and bottom for elevation.

Astra 2E / Astra 2F / Astra 2G (28.2°E) - All transmissions - frequencies - KingOfSat

Remember Sky type offset dishes look as if they aiming much lower than they are. New Sky dishes do not have a elevation scale. A inclinometer set to the dish offset is the most accurate way.

Dishpointer. com will give the exact figures for your dish location. And a zoomable line of sight for accurate azimuth.

DishPointer - Align your satellite dish

Once you have optimised your dish and you have channel 999. Make note of your recording schedule and carry out a reset to factory defaults.

What happens if you swap the infeeds on one box ? If you get no signal on tuner 1, then it's likely you have a bad connection on the lnb on one of the two cables feeding the box.

| Sat 23 May 2020 11:36:36 #2 |
MattNoVAT

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Hi Graham,

I am based in mid-west France and there was no problem with the FoxSat box for the first 7 years with any of our Humax boxes, its only the last few months that this has started to occur.

I have both 1Tb FoxSat boxes hooked up to the same dish / Quad LNB, so using all four feeds. Both boxes do the same thing, so I feel confident that all four ports on the LNB are good. As when not recording I can see both in the diagnostics with 100% strength, 85% quality (the quality will toggle at times between 85% and 90% for all tuners - which I guess is atmospheric).

The second FoxSat box (which I've only just hooked up) had brand new cable, new connectors and as an ex IT Engineer, I make sure the connectors are done properly (as I like to keep trips up onto the roof kept to a minimum ) For the original box, I also stripped the two old connectors off and re-did them in case there had been some rust or water ingress that was causing an issue. Cable used for connecting the second box was Twin Shotgun style cable, cable feeding first box was brand new when I installed it 7 years ago.

I have channel 999 on the EPG on both 1Tb boxes

I use DishAlign for the exact details for the Astra satellites and then fine tune by having my wife sat watching the diagnostics / metering and shouting at me when its at its highest %.

With my first 1Tb FoxSat box I did a Factory Reset and re-entered the scheduled recordings, same problem occurred. If I see a program I want to record later while watching another channel, if I tell it to record it throws up the "Recording Conflict" message which is confusing as I have two tuners, but its acting like there is only one available.

I will now check my third FoxSat 320Gb box that is in my gite to see if that has the same issue - it runs off a different dish/ quad LNB.

Many thanks for your response.

| Sat 23 May 2020 13:56:31 #3 |
grahamlthompson

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MattNoVAT - 2 hours ago »
Hi Graham,
I am based in mid-west France and there was no problem with the FoxSat box for the first 7 years with any of our Humax boxes, its only the last few months that this has started to occur.
I have both 1Tb FoxSat boxes hooked up to the same dish / Quad LNB, so using all four feeds. Both boxes do the same thing, so I feel confident that all four ports on the LNB are good. As when not recording I can see both in the diagnostics with 100% strength, 85% quality (the quality will toggle at times between 85% and 90% for all tuners - which I guess is atmospheric).
The second FoxSat box (which I've only just hooked up) had brand new cable, new connectors and as an ex IT Engineer, I make sure the connectors are done properly (as I like to keep trips up onto the roof kept to a minimum ) For the original box, I also stripped the two old connectors off and re-did them in case there had been some rust or water ingress that was causing an issue. Cable used for connecting the second box was Twin Shotgun style cable, cable feeding first box was brand new when I installed it 7 years ago.
I have channel 999 on the EPG on both 1Tb boxes
I use DishAlign for the exact details for the Astra satellites and then fine tune by having my wife sat watching the diagnostics / metering and shouting at me when its at its highest %.
With my first 1Tb FoxSat box I did a Factory Reset and re-entered the scheduled recordings, same problem occurred. If I see a program I want to record later while watching another channel, if I tell it to record it throws up the "Recording Conflict" message which is confusing as I have two tuners, but its acting like there is only one available.
I will now check my third FoxSat 320Gb box that is in my gite to see if that has the same issue - it runs off a different dish/ quad LNB.
Many thanks for your response.

Member repassac lives in your neck of the woods so may be able to help. If you select 999 what does signal info say about this transponder.

You may have a crid Issue especially with BBC content. They have changed the crids in such a way that one reservation can create multiple recording of the same content.

After making one reservation check the epg for more reservations at the higher numbers shown below

One way is to delete all other BBC Nation channels and leave only 1 SD region.

Use Edit channels to delete these if that's the issue

950 BBC 1 London
951 BBC 1 CI
952 BBC 1 E Mids
953 BBC 1 East (E)
954 BBC 1 East (W)
955 BBC 1 N West
956 BBC 1 NE & C
957 BBC 1 NI
958 BBC 1 Oxford
959 BBC 1 S East
960 BBC 1 Scotland
961 BBC 1 South
962 BBC 1 S West
963 BBC 1 W Mids
964 BBC 1 Wales
965 BBC 1 West
966 BBC 1 Yorks
967 BBC 1 EYrks&L
968 BBC 2 England
969 BBC 2 NI
970 BBC 2 Scotland
971 BBC 2 Wales HD
972 BBC ONE HD (England)
973 BBC 1 Scot HD
974 Channel 4
975 Channel 4 + 1
976 BBC 1 Wales HD
977 ITV
978 BBC 1 NI HD
979 BBC Two Wales

The attached image is what happened to the Christmas Strictly Come Dancing. Of course it failed
Attachments
1. All_4_Strictly_Nations_Scheduled.jpg (433.2 KB, 2 downloads) 4 years old
| Sat 23 May 2020 16:35:28 #4 |
REPASSAC

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Postcode and dish size pleas, (for UK users, French postcodes cover a much, much larger area than UK ones). LNB's tend to go bad far quicker than UK but not as quick as in Spain. I one had to replace a quality make 2 months after install.

The gite install having the same problem is puzzling, are disk sizes the same?

| Sat 23 May 2020 17:58:56 #5 |
MattNoVAT

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Postcode is 79350 - Dish size is 80cm on main house. I have put a new, UK purchased quad LNB on main house dish to see if it was the LNB but issue still exists.

I have two Humax 1Tb boxes in my house, plus I have a third Humax box in the gite (320Gb)
I have not sat down in the gite to check if the same issue applies to that set up. (On a separate 80cm dish and quad LNB)

| Sun 24 May 2020 17:27:29 #6 |
grahamlthompson

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MattNoVAT - 25 mins ago »
Postcode is 79350 - Dish size is 80cm on main house. I have put a new, UK purchased quad LNB on main house dish to see if it was the LNB but issue still exists.
I have two Humax 1Tb boxes in my house, plus I have a third Humax box in the gite (320Gb)
I have not sat down in the gite to check if the same issue applies to that set up. (On a separate 80cm dish and quad LNB)

When you get the issue, can you cycle through the available channels using the channel up/down buttons.

This sort of basic info will help in finding the issue.

| Sun 24 May 2020 17:57:43 #7 |
MattNoVAT

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I have just tested all three Humax boxes and discovered something interesting:

On the both 1Tb Humax FoxSat boxes in my main house.

If I record a program on channel 5 (105) then change channel when I get to Channel 133, then change up one more channel it skips to channel 141, then 155, then 160.

On the 320Gb Humax FoxSat box in the gite:
I record the same program on channel 5 (105) then change channel in the same manner, I get to channel 133, then 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140 and then 141.

So on the 320Gb box this is how the dual channel system should work and in fact used to work on the 1Tb boxes. The box records on one tuner, then uses the second tuner when you want to watch/record a second program on a different freq/channel.

The 320Gb box runs same software level but Loader V7.52 - maybe there are other internal differences other than a smaller HDD?

I bought the second 1Tb box because I thought my original was failing/faulty, I decided not to purchase the newer Humax boxes because they clearly have an issue with the HDD not being able to record which needs a return to Humax to repair (just a whole bunch of aggravation I don't need living in France), so stuck with the boxes that I've run for past 10 years + without issue.... until now.

I deleted a scheduled recording on BBC1, I removed all BBC Nation channels on a 1Tb box, Power cycled the box, re-entered the same scheduled SD recording, this threw up a recording conflict on an ITV channel based on a timing conflict.... to my understanding that should not have happened as it should be able to record using the second tuner.
I could only re-enter the scheduled recording by selecting the HD version of the same program, then it was successfully scheduled.

On the same 1Tb box
I also unplugged tuner 2 while watching a program that I was currently recording on channel 105 - the recording continued and the picture continued as normal.
I reconnected tuner 2, and unplugged tuner 1. Signal dropped out, so I changed channels down and found some channels were still available.

It seems to me that the 1Tb boxes now only receive a proportion of the channels on tuner 1 and the others on tuner 2 - rather than all channels on both tuners like the 320Gb box in my gite. Like its balancing load between tuners.
(Thats my current thinking of whats going on anyway).

So, Ive just got to find out whats changed..... It's frustrating !!

One Question: How do I find out Transponder Info for Channel 999

Apologies for the long post !

| Sun 24 May 2020 18:02:29 #8 |
grahamlthompson

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Simple - tune to it and press opt+

Try the following

Enter setup and press the following keys without looking at the screen

RED GREEN YELLOW BLUE GREEN YELLOW BLUE.

Open the hidden menu Antenna Setting - Connection type

Post what it says.

| Sun 24 May 2020 18:11:57 #9 |
MattNoVAT

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For the channel 999 - I have the following

freest 11426MHz, H27500 2/3

When I access the setup menu and RGYBGYB

Connection Type is currently set to Single Cable

| Mon 25 May 2020 6:03:57 #10 |