I'm not under any NDA (that I'm aware of!) so I just wanted to update the forum that Humax are still actively investigating the issue where some units have random brief pixilation and sound break-up events on HD live TV and recordings.
I am in contact with the Humax development team in the far east to provide them with samples of the issue. I’m parallel recording the same programmes on two units. Both boxes receive the signal from the same dedicated cable so are processing identical data. The test box is connected first and our box is attached via a RF-OUT loop cable from the test box. Firstly, the recordings were compared to an HDR-FOX T2 test box and that has since been replaced with a test Aura unit. As I have a very strong signal a variable attenuator is attached to the test Aura input. Interestingly our box still shows a stronger signal than the test.
The HDR-FOX T2 never had any issues. The test Aura sometimes has corruption at the same time as our box, on other occasions the test box is fine, but then also the test box can have an issue and ours does not. So, the result is there is a signal processing issue, unless I have two duff units.
Humax have advised there have been no component updates or changes in the current production so I am comparing like with like.
The 09.16 Beta Release Firmware (12 May 2021) did include the following fix: Improvement: Intermittent pixilation issue - New demodulator firmware integrated with improved DVB-T2 performance.
Apparently not all users see this issue and the feedback on the beta firmware update was divided, 50% said it improved a lot, others not. Humax explained the situation to me as follows (Paraphrased to improve the English):
We are currently focusing on the demodulator chip - which is the part where the digital data is processed from the analogue RF signal. Aura is equipped with a successor of the demodulator chip used for our previous products, in general it should work fine, - but strangely seems to create problems in some cases (but not all). The improvement in the current beta firmware (09.16) is also related to this chip, there is a separate small firmware running on the demodulator chip - this demodulator firmware has been changed for the improvement. The chip is supplied by Broadcom, which is famous for RF products, like WIFI, BT or DVB, and main STB chips.
We are in contact with an RF engineer from Broadcom in America, after collecting information from users this is being passed to Broadcom. In addition, to gather more information, we’re now working on test software to log how many errors happen during watching & recording, together with some important parameters which the RF expert wants to know. We expect the test software to be completed in a couple of weeks to then better understand why the errors happen and solve it. We will then need more time to work on the solution.
