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My Humax Forum » Freeview SD » PVR 9150T, 9200T, 9300T

1. 

   Chris547
   

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   My PVR9300T has served me faithfully for a few years however 2 things have happened which encourage me to move forward however I want to be cost conscious as I have retired.

   The Humax started making loud pops and cracking noises and there were some transient effects on the picture which I wrongly diagnosed as a faulty 32" CRT Phillips TV which was 11 years old. I looked in the January sales and bought a new 40" full 1080P HD Blaupunk TV for £180 hooked up my PVR9300T and the duo have run perfectly for almost 2 months. The fault reappeared yesterday. I switched off for an hour and restarted and all seems OK for now.

   There is another niggle I have on recordings when the sound sometimes becomes intermittent and this is worse when you rewind or wind forward to escape the adverts. So now I realise my old TV is still fine and probably only worth 99p if I flog it on ebay.

   Could I make a wild guess and say the Humax PSU capacitors are showing signs of age and perhaps replacing them would revive the old Humax or should I move on and buy a new Humax which will ouput 1080p instead of feeding only 720? That pulls me towards a Humax with HD+ tuners.

   Being a bit tight I looked on eBay at a used Humax unit or customer return, did some research and got completely confused as Youview has complicated matters. I suspect the recording functionality of the DTR models is not as sophisticated as the HDR models and I would say that most of my viewing is on BBC anyway and I do appreciate the quality and pleasure from HD. So I am leaning towards the HDR models.

   Then there is the matter of which generation to buy. I am seduced by the HDR-2000T as it is nimbler than the previous 1000 generation. The 1800 model might even have enough memory even for HD recording.

   Perhaps the only reason I am being seduced by the DTR approach is the rash of cheap boxes being pushed out onto eBay from BT customers. Why?

   Help me please, do I repair the old 9300 or buy a new Humax. Is it HDR or DTR? Has anyone got a view on this based on their actual experience rather than just reading the net?

   | Wed 18 Feb 2015 12:15:40 #1 |
2. 

   Martin Liddle
   

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   Chris547 - 3 minutes ago  » 
   Perhaps the only reason I am being seduced by the DTR approach is the rash of cheap boxes being pushed out onto eBay from BT customers. Why?

   The reliability of the original DTR-1000 boxes is poor and the PVR functionality lacks various features found in the Freeview HD models. There don't seem to be the same number of reports for the later DTR-2000 models but I don't know how many are in circulation.

   I would suggest an HDR-1800/2000T is the way forward.

   | Wed 18 Feb 2015 12:22:18 #2 |
3. 

   JamesB
   

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   I definitely would avoid buying a DTR box on ebay, because of the reliability question. If you're attracted by the YouView On-demand features, you could get one from Richer Sounds with a five-year guarantee, which makes it reasonable value. If you really only want a pvr, I agree, go for the HDR box.

   I had one of the early DTR1000 boxes, and it failed when I'd had it about eight months. Humax swapped it, and the replacement died four months later. Since I only had a one-year warranty, that was the end of my YouView experience.

   | Wed 18 Feb 2015 12:31:15 #3 |
4. 

   Chris547
   

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   Martin and James,

   thanks for your frank responses on the BT boxes.

   If one takes the whole life cost then the Richer Sounds box with the 5 year warranty works out a bit under £30 a year which is fair.

   I decided to pop the lid on my 9300T to see if there was anything untoward however all the capacitors looked perfect and I was highly impressed by the quality of the box and circuitry. Humax are very skilled at manufacture so I suspect the reliability issues with DTR are more software related or perhaps BT went for some cost cutting. I could be callous and as I have BT Broadband just get a BT 2100 box on subscription for £5 a month with a £35 activation charge so if I dumped the subscription after a year could get a box for £95.

   I think after hearing what you said and seeing how well engineered the 9300T is inside I'll just hang on until it dies a death.

   I am working my way through all the really interesting stuff on your Humax website and getting a real education. It will take me a few months and I am starting to realise just how functional these products are. It's bizarre that each new product seems to lose features rather than gain them.

   If I am honest the 720 upscaled picture from the 9300T on my 1080 TV still looks pretty good. The faults seem to have disappeared for now.

   I will set up a search on ebay to see if I can get a cheap HDR 1800 as it looks as if everyone bids on the HDR 2000.

   I am not following your advice to the letter however if I can get a Humax HDR 1800 for circa 60 quid then I'll be running on 1080p and could always upgrade the hard disk using one of your tutorials. I am doing what you suggest in spirit I believe. I suspect that 320GB might even do me even on HDTV.

   Perhaps 1080 on a TV viewed 10ft away is more than the eye requires. My computer monitor is 2K resolution 2560x1440 however I sit very close to the monitor and the high resolution does add value.

   | Sat 21 Feb 2015 20:02:17 #4 |
5. 

   JamesB
   

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   I could be callous and as I have BT Broadband just get a BT 2100 box on subscription for £5 a month with a £35 activation charge so if I dumped the subscription after a year could get a box for £95.

   Surely a good deal? I'd go for it without hesitation, if it weren't for my deepseated dislike of BT. But if you do decide to sign up for a box with BT TV, I suggest it might be worth the £5/month to continue the BT TV sub post-contract, as it keeps you covered in case of breakdown.

   It's bizarre that each new product seems to lose features rather than gain them.

   STB development these days is driven less by the wishes of the consumer, and more by the requirements of the content owners and the networks. Consequently the new boxes focus on IPTV delivery and just try to paste new technologies onto old. IMO. It's not all bad though. Nice to have catchup so easily availble.

   | Sat 21 Feb 2015 20:59:27 #5 |
6. 

   Chris547
   

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   I have decided not to go the YouView Route after reading many unhappy experiences/posts on myhumax and chosen to keep life simple.

   Reasons include:

   As you get more and more devices life can get complex. Looked up Harmony 555 Remote Control and amazed that folks will pay £160 for something that won't even do anything unless you progam it first. Can't even think what my wife would say if she tried to use it!

   Then I began to look into the complexities of trying to use WiFi with YouView. Oh dear what a mess.

   Then I read an incredible set of (spun) notes of the meeting between the YourView's Senior managers and the users. Quite surprised at the complexity of their jobs and how frustrated they must feel when they go home at night. Perhaps Alan Sugar needs to fire one or 2 of them and get them refocused. Perhaps they all need fired for not delivering regarding scope and time.

   Then a look at myhumax's section on DTR1000 and the unhappy experience of so many trusting consumers. Then studying the patterns of failure and the resulting hours of wasted time spent trying to put right iffy software issues and interfaces that lack compatibility.

   Then looking at BT's attempt to bring simplicity out of chaos by introducing the "New YouView Box" Makes you laugh that people can have meetings in rooms that set into motion crazy ideas.

   As you say JamesB it's not all bad and thanks for helping me find the few good bits that slipped through un-noticed.

   I'm off now to view the BBC test card (not an easy thing to find) and fiddle with my TV settings and try to minimise any processing and ensure "dynamic" modes are off. Check my sound set up and make sure the "Line straight" light is on. May as well optimize what I already have.

   I will eventually just go for a Humax HDR 1800 or 2000 for 1080p and try to keep everything as simple as I can. Just trying to think now how I can run a 20m long ethernet cable from my router to the new Humax for my catchup TV to avoid going for a bridge or adapters?

   I am sure I will be able to use the Humax Remote to control the TV so my wife will be able to use it easily.

   | Mon 23 Feb 2015 6:09:50 #6 |
7. 

   JamesB
   

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   YouView's backstory is long and complicated, with plenty of blame to go around but also a good deal of credit, particularly due to the BBC tech department. BT hijacked this PSB venture, and corrupted the vision - but then, it never would have succeeded without all those free BT boxes flooding the market. Such is life.

   Glad you've arrived at your choice. Good luck.

   | Mon 23 Feb 2015 8:09:26 #7 |
8. 

   Chris547
   

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   Great to hear you praise the BBC. It is one of the great UK success stories and has done so much for us all. Even now the programmes are often of exceptional standard. Compare this to the rubbish from other "great nations."

   In conclusion yes there is much that is good about Youview however the plethora of DTR 2000 series boxes on e-Bay suggests to me that we may be wiser to wait for the 3rd or even the 4th Generation boxes to appear by which time a new concept will have appeared anyway.

   Thanks JB & ML for all the hard work put into this Forum it is an education of the finest quality.

   I should try and put back something into the forum and thinking of starting a new thread which could be about optimising the equipment people already own.

   I thought a post on using the test card might be of interest. I have experimented myself and using my knowledge of digital photography I've learned how to make the colours strong and vibrant so setting up the TV is an important step. It's one of these "less is more scenarios"; cranking up the brightness, contrast, colour and sharpness is counter productive.

   | Mon 23 Feb 2015 11:08:55 #8 |
9. 

   Ozzy
   

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   I have had a 9300T for some years and it is really good.
   Still working fine, the odd glitch like missing teh end of Top Gear, normal things people complain of but recently, I decided to get a satellite dish and buy an HDR 1000S and get Freesat with Freetime which I understand is much better than YouView. I also decided to buy it from John Lewis for £209.99 and add £20 to extend the warranty to 5 years. I could have bought one on ebay for £195.99 but felt the extra was worth it. The box from John Lewis is teh latest one, with teh latest remote control, the one with TV and STB, alraedy had November 2014 firmaware on it. I have moved the 9300T to the kitchen, too good to part with really. The 9300T picture quality is excellent and the HD on the Freesat is only marginally better on my Sony Bravia 32KDL4000 TV. You get a few more channels, nothing really worth having and connect an Ethernet cable between the box and your router and you have really good catch-up services. FREETIME works well, just scroll teh TV guide backwards. Only had it working a few days, but if you are thinking of replacing that 9300T and are willing to have a satellite dish installed, I think the HDR1000S is the best option. But as someone else said, make sure you get a good guarantee and don't buy some grey market or old stock cheap on the internet. Having said that, I buy loads of stuff on ebay and Amazon but with this, I think John Lewis or Richer Sounds. Argos was same price for box but wanted £59.99 to extend the warranty where John Lewis did it for £20.
   Cost me £95 to have the dish installed with a dual feed to the lounge.
   Please note, you must have a dual feed for this box to work properly as it has twin tuners and cannot share a cable like Freeview Boxes can.
   Pleased with it so far despite what other people are saying about them.
   Remote control can be interfered with by Infra Red from your LCD TV sometimes http://forums.cnet.com/7723-21577_102-361270/lcd-tv-interference-with-satellite-ir-remote/

   | Mon 23 Feb 2015 11:26:16 #9 |
10. 

    Martin Liddle
    

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    Ozzy - 43 minutes ago  » 
    I have had a 9300T for some years and it is really good.
    Still working fine, the odd glitch like missing teh end of Top Gear, normal things people complain of but recently, I decided to get a satellite dish and buy an HDR 1000S and get Freesat with Freetime which I understand is much better than YouView.

    As a matter of interest, why did you rule out an HD Freeview box (which would have been more than a £100 cheaper)?

    | Mon 23 Feb 2015 12:10:58 #10 |

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