No picture or sound - need to power cycle. Hummy dying?

parish

Member
For the last week or so I've been getting no picture or sound from my HDR Fox-T2. It still records and changes channel etc. when it's in this state so it hasn't hung/crashed.

Powering off/on using the switch at the rear doesn't fix it, only pulling the mains plug for ~60 seconds resets it.

I've confirmed that it isn't the HDMI input on my A/V amp as I've swapped the Hummy (when there was no picture) with my Blu-ray player and the BR works fine on the HDMI normally used by the Hummy but the Hummy still gave no picture and sound on the BR HDMI port.

I've also confirmed that it isn't a boot-up issue as last night I left it on (auto power-off is disabled) and have the same issue today.

It's running the latest 1.02.28 firmware.

Any ideas? I hope that if it is dying that it lasts another 3 weeks as we're off on holiday next week for two weeks!

EDIT: Just to add. If I power off/on while the TV is on then I see the Hummy splash screen, but once it's booted I get a blank screen. The stereo indicators on the A/V amp also come on for a couple of seconds.
 
Have you tried connecting the HDMI directly to your TV?

No, but why would that make any difference? It's been connected up the same way ever since I've had it - when they first came out so, what's that, two years or more? I've never had this happen before.

It wouldn't be so easy to try as the TV is wall-mounted and the HDMI ports are nigh on impossible to get at.
 
It was just a thought to rule out the possibility of a problem with your AV amp.
 
It was just a thought to rule out the possibility of a problem with your AV amp.

Fair point, although both my Blu-ray and Apple TV are not having any problems.

If I get one of those right-angle HDMI adaptors then I should be able to get at one of the ports on the TV
 
It could be HDMI handshake failure, in which case the SCART output would still be working, it might be worth checking the SCART output, or the Phono audio output temporarily. If it does turn out to be HDMI handshaking you could check if the Remote V-Fortmat button has inadvertently been switched to a format your AV Amp / TV doesn't like.
 
1.02.28 isn't the latest.

Hmm, I've just looked and there has been .29 and now .32. Are these release versions or betas? If release, why hasn't it picked up the OTA updates (I leave it in standby over night)?
 
As far as I know neither .29 nor .32 have been broadcast as OTAs. prpr was merely commenting on your remark "the latest 1.02.28 firmware". For history of official firmware releases, see Things Every... (click) section 1.

I don't think either of these will address your problem, but anything is worth a try. It is worth bypassing your AV while testing, and even trying a different TV - there is no certainty the fault is at the Humax end, because unlike a straightforward analogue signal which is sourced at one end and received at the other, HDMI involves a two-way interaction which may differ from device to device.
 
It could be HDMI handshake failure,

I was thinking it was to do with the HDMI communication.

Interestingly, I left the Hummy on (as opposed to in standby) last night. I've just turned the TV on (which starts up the A/V amp automatically) and at first there was sound and a picture, but when the amp switched the sound to the speakers (when it first starts up the sound gets sent to the TV) then the sound and picture disappeared.

I unplugged the Hummy, turned off the TV (and amp), plugged the Hummy back in and powered it up, then turned on the TV and it's now working - even after the amp switched from TV speakers to the surround ones

Hmm, I will permanently swap the Hummy and Blu-ray or Apple TV input HDMI ports on the amp and see if the problem goes away.

in which case the SCART output would still be working, it might be worth checking the SCART output, or the Phono audio output temporarily. If it does turn out to be HDMI handshaking you could check if the Remote V-Fortmat button has inadvertently been switched to a format your AV Amp / TV doesn't like.

The SCARTs are even harder to get at than the HDMI ports.

Nope, V-Format is 1080p which is what it's always been set to.
 
It is unusual for something like this to happen for no reason. Are you certain you did nothing to the set-up of your overall AV coincident with the problem appearing, even something as "minor" as changing the audio stream parameters on the amp?
 
It is unusual for something like this to happen for no reason.

I agree, which is why I'm concerned that it's a hardware fault and that the box will fail completely sometime.

Are you certain you did nothing to the set-up of your overall AV coincident with the problem appearing, even something as "minor" as changing the audio stream parameters on the amp?

Nothing that I can think of. I did once (months ago) change the audio settings to a music setting as music streamed from my iPhone via the Apple TV didn't sound too good, but the audio settings revert to auto-detect when the amp restarts.

The only other thing I changed - again, a couple of months ago - was the Wide setting on the Hummy to Auto as video shot on my iPhone 4S is distorted if Wide is set to Zoom, which is the normal setting.[/quote]
 
Isn't this is the same problems as described in the "HDMI output issue" discussion posted by Javi on 18th Apr?
 
Isn't this is the same problems as described in the "HDMI output issue" discussion posted by Javi on 18th Apr?

Yep, almost identical symptoms (I did search, but my search terms didn't get a hit on that thread).

Strangely, it seems to have fixed itself. I swapped the HDMI inputs the Hummy and Apple TV use on the amp and the last 4 times I've switched on it has worked even though when I first tried this, it didn't :confused:

This has got me wondering if the cause is the HDMI cable. Due to the confined space behind the Hummy and the amp - especially the amp as it's very deep - there are very tight 90 degree bends immediately behind the plugs and even though the strain relief mouldings are very substantial, maybe two years of strain has caused one or more of the cores to start breaking but moving them has improved the connection?

I'm still curious as to why, even when there is no picture or sound, I still see the Humax splash screen and get 1-2 seconds of audio when I first switched the Hummy on :confused: Does kind of imply an HDMI hand-shaking issue though.
 
I've been away on holiday but now I've finally got around to buying a new HDMI lead, but the problem still persists. I've also tried connecting it directly to the TV and it still has the same problem.

So, I think that pretty much confirms that the problem is with the Hummy (which I suspected all along as all the other kit works properly and disconnecting the Hummy from the mains for a few minutes always fixes the problem (until the next time).

Do Humax UK offer a repair service? Probably not really worth it as I guess everything is on a single board. I see that there is a Grade A Manager's Special on the Humax UK website for £139 but am I correct in thinking that if I were to buy another box that the programmes on this one will be unwatchable as the encryption keys are machine-specific?

Any other ideas? I expect that it will probably die eventually.
 
All recordings on the Humax are encrypted, Standard Def. files copied to a USB drive will be decrypted and using Foxy will allow the same trick to work on Hi-Def recordings as well, there is a greater range of decryption options if the Custom Firmware is installed, but you may not want to go down that path. If you don't install the Custom Firmware, you would need to temporarily connect the Humax to a TV via Scart in order to carry out the Copy to USB method
 
All recordings on the Humax are encrypted, Standard Def. files copied to a USB drive will be decrypted and using Foxy will allow the same trick to work on Hi-Def recordings as well, there is a greater range of decryption options if the Custom Firmware is installed, but you may not want to go down that path. If you don't install the Custom Firmware, you would need to temporarily connect the Humax to a TV via Scart in order to carry out the Copy to USB method

If I was replacing the box I'd install the custom firmware - might do so anyway. I know how to remove the encryption from HD programmes (without Foxy, just a hex editor) but from the tinkering I've done with a USB stick, anything copied to USB just appears as a file, i.e. you don't have the media menu and synopsis etc.

What I was really seeking clarification on was that if I took this disk out of this box and put it in another then the recordings would not be viewable as the encryption keys are different between the two machines. Is this correct?
 
Yes, that is correct, you must get the original Humax to do the decryption, as far as I'm aware no-one has ever decrypted a file outside of the original Humax that recorded it.
 
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