Just bought a Foxsat HDR « My Humax Forum

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Just bought a Foxsat HDR

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JoeFonebone

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I'd had a Topfield PVR for years – brilliant but old so not FreeSat ready or HD. I’ve had a Humax for less than two weeks and I am underwhelmed. My 1Tb Foxsat-HDR just froze on the ‘Guide’. Not knowing the workaround at the time (press 'Schedule' then the red button), I had to unplug the unit from the mains. Whilst I appreciate the aforementioned workaround, it oughtn't to be needed especially for a brand new unit which the updater tells me has the latest software installed. For £300 (literally the price you pay for buying direct from Humax) I expect better – a LOT better.

This is my second Foxsat-HDR within three weeks. Amazon were selling 1Tb Freesat-HDRs for £280-ish when I bought mine however I deliberately wanted to cut out any middle-men from the deal in case anything went wrong and a ‘blame game’ started. As I’m dealing directly with Humax I'm taking no nonsense. The initial box was sent back due to arriving with a dent in it. A replacement was sent within days.
I will be ringing customer services in the morning to see if they acknowledge the problem with the Guide.

I must also say that I'm also unimpressed with the fact that it’s only possible to record two program at the same time with certain channels but not with others. I even scheduled one single program on BBC 2 last Sunday night and when it came time for the recording to start the unit still requested I select a channel, presumably because I was watching a channel other than BBC 2. Pathetic.

There also appears to be no facility to crop and cut recorded programs (ie chopping off the ads at the start and end of a recording). I was able to carry out these basic editing tasks on my much older Topfield.
Isn’t technology supposed to move forward and not backwards?

| Tue 27 Mar 2012 22:58:07 #11 |
Barry

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1. Did you have 2 LNB feeds to the unit when you set it up?

Are they connected to the correct inputs - should be the outer two sockets on the rear of the unit.

2. As for cropping etc you have to remember the unit is built to a freesat specification, if you think that certain facilities are missing then contact them.

| Wed 28 Mar 2012 6:39:52 #12 |
JoeFonebone

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Barry - 14 hours ago »
1. Did you have 2 LNB feeds to the unit when you set it up?
Are they connected to the correct inputs - should be the outer two sockets on the rear of the unit.
2. As for cropping etc you have to remember the unit is built to a freesat specification, if you think that certain facilities are missing then contact them.

Thanks for the reply Barry.

To clarify I live in a block of flats that has recently been upgraded to FreeView/FreeSat.

I have two cables running from the wall into the back of the unit – Sat 1 & Sat 2. Initially I had problems as the unit could not pick up a signal. When another engineer came out he found that the Sat 1 feed was faulty having been poorly installed. On his leaving both lines were, and still are to the best of my knowledge, working. When he went I recorded two different channels (BBC1 & BBC2 I think) by simply pressing the red Record button. No problem, both recorded at the same time which indicated to me that both Sat 1 & 2 lines are working. Then I started making timer recordings and at this point things became complicated and outright frustrating.

Take this evening – I’m recording C4HD from 22:00. I then planned to watch the film starting at 22:00 on BBC3 – more fool me. As soon as the unit started recording C4HD I was unceremoniously bumped off BBC3 onto another channel. If I try to view BB3 I cannot and there is a slew of other channels that become unavailable.

I’ve done a little bit of research online and from what I can gather this is simply how things are currently. Apparently there are different providers for different signals and if they clash then you can’t watch an opposing signal – madness.

I have a number of neighbours who are awaiting feedback with regards to FreeSat I’ll give it another week or so but at the moment I don’t intend to paint a very good picture I’m afraid.

| Wed 28 Mar 2012 21:41:20 #13 |
grahamlthompson

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Your problems are most likely simply because you assumed that following your problems with the original installation that the box would somehow know that you had now fixed the original installation screw up. The hdr detected that on the original install you had only 1 lnb connected. Carry out a factory reset, watch for 2 cables found, you should now have full 2 tuner working. You should sack your so called engineer.

| Wed 28 Mar 2012 22:09:25 #14 |
JoeFonebone

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grahamlthompson - 3 hours ago »
Your problems are most likely....

Did a factory reset and the unit is only detecting one connection. Calling the installation firm again in the morning to ask to speak to the *cough* engineer who gave it the green light. Watch this space…

| Thu 29 Mar 2012 1:57:24 #15 |
grahamlthompson

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JoeFonebone - 6 hours ago »

grahamlthompson - 3 hours ago »
Your problems are most likely....

Did a factory reset and the unit is only detecting one connection. Calling the installation firm again in the morning to ask to speak to the *cough* engineer who gave it the green light. Watch this space…

Have a squint round the back, are the two cables on the outer connections with the centre one with no cable. If not with the box powered down correct the connections (11mm spanner) and repeat the reset.

| Thu 29 Mar 2012 8:50:50 #16 |
bigpaul

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I have had my Humax freesat box for less than 2 weeks, I have checked all connections done all the tests, the box keeps telling me everything is fine great signal ect, I have lost count of the times I have re booted, re set to factory setting, even the Humax customer services have now given up and advised me to exchange the box.
Faults include irregular access to on demand services, no sound, unit freezing up, this is not a great advert for Humax, I am not impressed, wake up and smell the coffee.

| Thu 29 Mar 2012 9:39:22 #17 |
JoeFonebone

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Have a squint round the back, are the two cables on the outer connections with the centre one with no cable. If not with the box powered down correct the connections (11mm spanner) and repeat the reset.

Thanks for taking the time out to advise bigpaul.

The connections are as follows - Sat 1 on the wall socket to Sat 1 on the Unit and Sat 2 on the wall socket to Sat 2 on the rear of the unit. LNB1 OUT, the middle socket, has not been used at any stage.

When doing a freesat detection after the factory reset I get the following messages:
'Antenna signal detected. (DiSEqC A)'
This is followed by;
'Antenna signal detected. (One Cable)'

This seem quite definitive - only one cable is detected.

I've just called the company who installed the Sat /TV /Radio socket and there is another engineer (this'll be the third one) arriving on Monday.

Things are about to get interesting as the installation company now states that if the fault is not theirs, that's to say they can show that both the signals are there, then they are going to charge me. This means of course that I am effectively gambling on there being nothing wrong with the Humax unit. If I'm wrong and the unit is dodgy then it is going to cost me money and Humax will be advised accordingly...

Watch this space.

| Thu 29 Mar 2012 11:03:51 #18 |
JoeFonebone

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Oops, thank you also grahamlthompson (did the copy then didn't paste - doh!)

| Thu 29 Mar 2012 11:07:47 #19 |
gomezz

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bigpaul - 1 hour ago » Humax customer services have now given up and advised me to exchange the box.
And how is the replacement doing?

| Thu 29 Mar 2012 11:09:43 #20 |