Hi everyone. I've been using the Aura for a few weeks and thought I'd share my experience so far and (hopefully!) get some help from the community. Thanks to everyone who has already shared their experience.
Like many, I've been a happy Fox-T2 owner for many years, but it was starting to fail, so I needed something new. Having researched last year, I was ready to go for the Manhattan T3-R until I saw the Humax Aura had been released. I saw the many negative reviews, and lack of android app, and lack of support for some apps (like netflix), but thought I was worth giving it a go. (I'm still not decided; I might get a Manhattan so that I can compare them side-by-side and then return one of them.)
Overall, it's been a better experience than I was expecting based on reading reviews. But I guess there's a lot of issues overall, and each user is only experiencing a subset of them. The interface is pretty good, easy to use, responsive, etc (although see below about size). The Amazon Prime and Kodi apps are working nicely, and having these available on the main box is nice (previously I've been using a Roku for streaming apps like Amazon, and a linux media pc for Kodi). But the lack of some apps like Netflix and Curzon home cinema mean that it's unlikely the Aura will be a one-box solution, so if I need to keep using other devices for streaming apps, then maybe I don't need to pay the extra for the Aura... Of course like everyone I'm eager to see the dedicated app become available, but am also pleased that it's already possible to stream live tv and recordings over the local network (and thus essentially to download recordings, albeit in the .ts format).
But there are some rough edges, which take the shine off paying the premium for the Aura. So if anyone can offer help with these, it would be much appreciated! (I contacted humax support nearly 2 weeks ago, but have still not had any kind of response. Below are excerpts from that email)
I can't get the remote control to work with my TV. The remote is paired with the Aura box and controls that as expected. I have a middle-aged LG TV, and the remote for my old (and faithful!) HRD-Fox T2 worked fine with it. I've tried all the LG codes stated in the manual, and although some of them do cause the TV to turn off, and I'm able to 'confirm' them with the OK button, the remote is only able to turn the TV on and off and change the source/input. I'm not able to control the volume of the TV, nor access the settings menu of the TV. Is it meant to work as I'm expecting? (The ideal is that I would not need to use my TV's dedicated remote control at all - as has been the case with the Fox T2)
Is it possible to change the size of the text in the EPG (in particular to make it bigger)? I find the text quite small and narrow and therefore uncomfortable to read. There's plenty of empty space to be used by wider text. A bit of googling suggests that it should be possible to change the text size for an android TV, but I was not able to find such an option in the Aura. (Although I've used android phones and tablets for many years, the Aura is my first 'Android TV' experience.) The EPG is my main view on any PVR, so I'd really like it to be comfortable to use.
I understand that the Aura has two stand-by modes, normal and 'deep' -- correct? i.e. if I hold down the standby button for 3 seconds, the box asks if I want to switch it off. But once I've done that, how should I be able to turn it back on again? Neither the remote nor the button on the box itself appeared to have any effect, so I resorted to pulling the power cord and plugging it back in.
Also, does anyone know what the expected power usage is in the normal stand-by mode? (I wonder if it's not really saving much power compared to being 'on')
... and the reason I'd looked into the deep stand-by mode was that on one occasion I could no longer see live TV. i.e. when I selected a freeview channel and used the 'Live TV' button on the remote, the box responded, but I had a blank screen instead of the expected video content. The channel information displayed at the bottom of the screen for a few seconds as expected, but not the content itself! I was able to record the live transmission and watch it by playing the recording ('chasing' the live recording), but no channel would actually display 'live'. After a hard reboot it was fine. I think a few other people have reported similar in these forums.
Is there a way to disconnect a bluetooth device, specifically headphones? I was able to pair my bluetooth headphones no problem, but then I couldn't see how to disconnect. (on my android phone, I can just open the bluetooth menu, tap on the headphones and choose 'disconnect') The Aura seemed to take priority with the headphones; even getting my phone to connect to the headphones didn't have any effect until I went in to the system settings on the Aura (which means you're no longer hearing/seeing live tv) and then I could hear my phone audio, but as soon as I went back to live tv on the Aura the headphones switched back to that. So I just had to unpair the headphones again. Not the end of the world, but having to pair my headphones every time I want to use them is a bit of a faff.
Any tips welcome. I'll update if I make any progress...
| Wed 13 Jan 2021 22:18:09
#643 |
Humax Aura
