On board Clock

G

GrahamS

New Member
Hi All.

Last gasp help before both Fox t2 PVR's returned for full refund.

I might ramble a bit, but please stay with me.
I understand the causes of lack of EPG update, (Black Hole et al) and that the system clock is dependant on the displayed EPG clock.
My problem is, that although the EPG does indeed update, the EPG clock does not!
I should point out, that at first boot the displayed time/EPG time were synced and equal to radio controlled clock (and my pioneer hdd/dvd recorders) but since then have been advancing by about 10sec per day.
Have done a factory reset on one m/c,:correct time on reset, 10sec per day advance thereafter.
Huge disappointment as, apart from above, excellent vid, straight forward usability.

Only purchased one week ago, so offer of return to Humax turned down. Have been offered full refund unless anybody out there has a magic wand.

Regards GrahamS
 
There is a magic wand. The clock only seems to resync on cold boot, so you could get into the habit of doing a full power off once a week. However, if you are prepared to install the custom firmware, the system clock can be updated from an Internet time server every boot.

10 seconds per day is extraordinary, particularly so if two show the same. My HDR3 is currently 36 seconds fast, I can't remember when I last cold started it. Ditto HDR1, which is currently only 10 seconds fast.

Why does it bother you particularly? The system time has very little effect on anything, I'm not sure whether system item or EPG time is used for manual timer recordings but AR would be largely unaffected, and I'm not sure but expect padding recordings similar.
 
Hi BH,

It bothers me because I don't expect behaviour like this in current electronics equipment, bearing in mind that my pioneer gear is accurate to the second.
I have just this very minute turned off and on the power switch on the rear of one of the m/c's and it now shows correct time! By doing this, do I lose scheduled recordings?
 
No, everything will function as it should (as long as the power isn't off at the time, of course).

My recommendation: try to ignore it, it really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things (and there are many things the HDR-FOX does much better than anything else).
 
Yes, the lack of clock correctness is indeed crap. Mine drifts several seconds a day as well.
It should not only sync. when you turn the box on - it should do it continuously. The info. is there in the DVB stream but Humax's programmers are obviously brain-dead. This is not new, nor is it a surprise.

So, install the custom firmware and set the thing up to sync. to an NTP server once every hour. That's what I do anyway. If you think Humax give a stuff or are going to fix it, then you will be sorely disappointed.
 
prpr said:
So, install the custom firmware and set the thing up to sync. to an NTP server once every hour. That's what I do anyway.
Click to expand...
I know this is the wrong forum, but could this be made into a package?
 
prpr said:
Yes it does matter. Don't tell people it doesn't.
Click to expand...
I said that is my recommendation - I did not say that it absolutely does not matter, only comparatively in the grand scheme.

It doesn't matter to me because the equipment does not seem to malfunction in any way other than display a time which is out of sync - and since I have other clocks to look at I don't need the HDR-FOX to be a clock.

Yes it would be nice if the clock synced up every boot, but it doesn't and we (or just me perhaps) overlook that in view of the other benefits. It would also be nice if it didn't kill your schedule when retuning, or many other foibles that we have discussed and accept as a fact of HDR-FOX ownership.

An owner with a grievance has three options:
  • Reject it and get your money back. This is to say "I don't care what else the HDR-FOX can do, if it doesn't work as a clock I don't want it".
  • Reject it and get a replacement in the hope that a replacement might be better (it's unlikely be perfect).
  • Ignore the clock issue and enjoy the things the HDR-FOX does best. This is to accept there are more important things to worry about than the clock.
Take your pick. It can be alleviated by custom firmware.
 
brian said:
I know this is the wrong forum, but could this be made into a package?
Click to expand...
It's already available as a package, see ntpclient. I only needed it while my HD-FOX didn't have an aerial so I could access iPlayer. I certainly don't bother to run it on my other machines.
 
I never quite saw the point of the ntpclient package (and it's not installed here). There is a binary already built-in - /usr/bin/ntpclient

I stuck this in /mod/etc/anacrontab:
1 1 ntp_sync /usr/bin/ntpclient -s -h pool.ntp.org

and this in /mod/var/spool/cron/crontabs/root:
0 * * * * /usr/bin/ntpclient -s -h pool.ntp.org
 
How does ntpclient work? the wiki notes suggest that it works on boot, but prpr was saying that he had it set to sync every hour. It is this aspect that I thought would be useful packaged.
 
The current ntpclient just sets it on boot but I'm about to push up an update that will set it at boot and then maintain it.
 
Isn't every boot good enough?

When I was playing with that sort of thing, particularly aerial-less, I found the system time had to be established before the rest of the system got going in order for the time to be picked up elsewhere - there are several systems using time, and all seem to operate independently except at boot.

I suspect, for example, that the screen saver clock will ignore any system clock updates that occur after boot.
 
brian said:
Some people tend to leave their boxes booted up for long periods so this would be useful for them.
Click to expand...
I usually only reboot mine when it crashes or just before I go away for a while, to minimise the likelihood of it crashing whilst away.
Or firmware updates of course :)
 
In which case you can say whether the screen saver clock picks up your hourly clock corrections or proceeds on its own merry way between boots.
 
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