My Humax Forum » Freesat HD » HDR 1000, 1010, 1100S

HDR-1000S - Progressively more broken

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    MattH

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    Hi,

    I've had an HDR-1000s more-or-less since release. Since Christmas it has been behaving progressively worse:

    • iPlayer / onDemand would have no icons
    • iPlayer would start but fail to play any content citing "something went wrong"
    • The recordings would disappear
    • The unit would spontaneously reboot, sometimes several times in a row


    The first three problems would sometimes be resolved by turning the unit off and on again and leaving it for a while before using again.

    However, these problems started happening more often and the off-and-on no longer helped.

    I've now bought a new HDR-1010s (and my wife is pretty disappointed we've lost our recordings).

    Would Humax Towers be interested in looking at my old HDR-1000s and finding out why it became to unreliable?

    | Fri 1 May 2015 15:24:25 #1 |
  2. -gonzo-

    -gonzo-

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    You'd be better off asking Humax themselves as this isn't and official Humax forum.

    As for the issues, have you tried a factory reset?

    | Fri 1 May 2015 15:37:55 #2 |
  3. grahamlthompson

    grahamlthompson

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    At a guess you may simply have needed to fit a new hard disk.

    Did you try a hard disk format before writing off the unit ?

    | Fri 1 May 2015 15:38:25 #3 |
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    MattH

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    I need a functional Freesat and PVR, so I bought a replacement.

    While I understand that this isn't the official channel, my understanding was that several members of this board were Humax engineers.

    The suggestions on this board for such issues seemed to centre on erasing the hard drive and destroying all recordings and any evidence of the original problem.

    So this is the offer of a "pristine" faulty HDR-1000s for some genuine engineer examination.

    I'd like Humax to "do better" with regards to fault reporting, how about actually diagnostic error codes for hard-drive faults. No S.M.A.R.T. on the drives?

    I'm also baffled by the "format your drive" solution to iPlayer not working and the unit spontaneously rebooting.

    | Fri 1 May 2015 15:50:35 #4 |
  5. grahamlthompson

    grahamlthompson

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    MattH - 6 minutes ago  » 
    I need a functional Freesat and PVR, so I bought a replacement.
    While I understand that this isn't the official channel, my understanding was that several members of this board were Humax engineers.
    The suggestions on this board for such issues seemed to centre on erasing the hard drive and destroying all recordings and any evidence of the original problem.
    So this is the offer of a "pristine" faulty HDR-1000s for some genuine engineer examination.
    I'd like Humax to "do better" with regards to fault reporting, how about actually diagnostic error codes for hard-drive faults. No S.M.A.R.T. on the drives?
    I'm also baffled by the "format your drive" solution to iPlayer not working and the unit spontaneously rebooting.

    Iplayer buffers content to the hard disk as does live TV. For instance using a HDR FOX T2 and viewing Youtube or iplayer (in HD) , on my internet connection the complete contents are on the hard disk in about 20 minutes for a 1hr programme.

    A common cause of very similar issues on the earlier Foxsat-HDR was a corrupted hard disk file. Because it's relatively easy to access the hard disk on a Foxsat it's very easy to fix without losing your recordings (You can back them up on a Foxsat and restore to a new hard disk if you have to fit a new hard disk).

    The hard disk on a pvr has a very hard life. For instance the time shift buffer file is constantly written and rewritten.

    Being a mechanical device it's the most likely component to fail.

    Fortunately it's very simple to replace it yourself.

    Afaik - no one contributing to this forum is employed by Humax.

    Way back a genuine Humax engineer did post on a now defunct Humax forum (BobCat). He left Humax a long time ago and I haven't seen a BobCat post in a long time. (I believe he is back at Humax now though).

    Barry though has some close contacts who do work for the Humax Engineering team.

    Although the Box uses the Linux system, compared to a computer it has limited memory and uses a LUKS encrypted recording partition. The UI and design of the box is dictated by Freesat.

    Humax make the freetime boxes to their specification. I doubt you would persuade Freesat to consider unlocking the drive to allow standard Linux disk tools to be used. The Foxsat-hdr using a standard Linux EXT3 file system can be connected to a PC for testing or even checked and repaired internally using the additional capabilities provided by the Custom Firmware.

    | Fri 1 May 2015 16:09:53 #5 |
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    MattH

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    Thanks for the feedback and information Graham. I've got a fairly different idea about what a hard-time is with regard to hard-drive usage.

    I'll reach out to Humax directly and possibly Freesat as well. If there genuinely is a fault on the disk then the UI should provide a means of communicating this rather than letting the user-experience just progressively rot.

    Cheers,
    Matt

    | Fri 1 May 2015 16:18:17 #6 |
  7. grahamlthompson

    grahamlthompson

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    MattH - 16 minutes ago  » 
    Thanks for the feedback and information Graham. I've got a fairly different idea about what a hard-time is with regard to hard-drive usage.
    I'll reach out to Humax directly and possibly Freesat as well. If there genuinely is a fault on the disk then the UI should provide a means of communicating this rather than letting the user-experience just progressively rot.
    Cheers,
    Matt

    Are you aware of the quite different requirements of a hard drive required to be used in a pvr compared to the requirements of one intended for use in a PC ?

    A desktop PC drive has to have built in data error checking, as the hard disk gets older data transfer speeds will get somewhat slower. A pvr requires a constant data transfer speed (the odd wrong bit won't matter very much).

    My HDR1000S had a 2TB one of these fitted a week or two after it being new. Repassac afaik was the first to do so. Mine and his box have worked flawlessly from 2012.

    http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/SpecSheet/ENG/2879-701250.pdf

    | Fri 1 May 2015 16:40:43 #7 |
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    JamesB

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    MattH - it's not likely (in my view) that any manufacturer would approach support issues in that way. I suspect that they would first want to establish whether or not the problems you've experienced were due to a Humax fault. To do that they would try to duplicate the symptoms on a test device in a controlled environment - not on the customer's device.

    If duplicated, the problem would be acknowledged as a fault, and a fix would be produced. If not duplicated, it would not be accepted as a Humax fault.

    Analysis of the customer's device only becomes relevant if the customer believes the device was faulty when purchased. At that point, the customer might need to pay for a third-party report to prove his case.

    | Fri 1 May 2015 17:14:05 #8 |
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    MattH

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    A desktop PC drive has to have built in data error checking, as the hard disk gets older data transfer speeds will get somewhat slower. A pvr requires a constant data transfer speed (the odd wrong bit won't matter very much).

    If you're talking about bad-block detection and then the overhead for avoiding them. Then the platform could a report on bad blocks, provide an error message should write speeds become too slow, provide a diagnostic to benchmark current write speeds.

    it's not likely (in my view) that any manufacturer would approach support issues in that way.

    I disagree with just about everything you've said JamesB. So much so, that I suspect that either you're trying to troll me or... actually, I can't think of any alternatives.

    JamesB, you can't duplicate something in a lab without knowing what it is you're duplicating.

    | Fri 1 May 2015 19:14:55 #9 |
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    JamesB

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    Why not just express your disagreement politely, if you think what I've posted is incorrect? I see no need for a personal attack.

    | Fri 1 May 2015 19:19:18 #10 |

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