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Basjoe

Member
My father-in-law has always had trouble with his Humax 9200. Whenever he records something from ITV3, the recording gets corrupted, and he ends up having to reformat his disk. He's wondering whether the latest Humax model might be more reliable, but he doesn't want to replace his analogue TV. His TV has a scart connection of course, but obviously it can hardly be described as HD.

Would the HDR-FOXT2 work with an analogue TV connected to it via scart ?

Best Regards
Basjoe
 
Welcome. Yes it would. You would be effectively using the TV as a monitor. Set the TV to the SCART input (if it doesn't select automatically), and you should be away.

Note that the HDR Fox T2 along with many other PVR's, only has an RF loopthough, so you cannot watch recordings via the RF output. SCART & HDMI will be fine.
 
One possible reason for the ITV3 recording problem may be that the PVR has duplicate channels tuned in which will show up in the 800 range. If the replacement Freeview PVR also tunes in duplicates then that is going to suffer problems too.
 
Basjoe said:
My father-in-law has always had trouble with his Humax 9200. Whenever he records something from ITV3, the recording gets corrupted, and he ends up having to reformat his disk.
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I have never heard of a problem like that. Can you describe exactly what happens and why it is necessary to reformat the disk?
 
OK. This mostly happens with ITV3, often with a repeating series. The first clue is in the table of recorded programmes. The programme title will have some of its characters corrupted. Attempting to play the programme will result in the Humax locking up. Attempting to delete the programme will similarly result in the Humax locking up. I've always suspected a dodgy hard disk, but the Humax has worked fine for the last 3 months since my father-in-law resolved not to attempt any more recordings on ITV3.

Reformatting the disk is the only way I could find to delete the corrupted programme(s). Once one corrupted programme is left in the table, over time other titles start getting corrupted at random from any channel ! I couldn't find any duplicate channels in the 800 range.

Strange, eh ?

Best Regards
Basjoe
 
Basjoe said:
Reformatting the disk is the only way I could find to delete the corrupted programme(s). Once one corrupted programme is left in the table, over time other titles start getting corrupted at random from any channel ! I couldn't find any duplicate channels in the 800 range.
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That sounds like the very common problem of a corrupt file system but I have never previously seen it associated with recording from a particular channel. My best guess is that the hard drive is failing and replacing it will completely fix the problem.
 
The other thing to check is that it is running the latest firmware. If it is still on an old version then there is a known issue with that cause creeping hard disk corruption leading to a reformat being needed.
 
gomezz said:
If it is still on an old version then there is a known issue with that cause creeping hard disk corruption leading to a reformat being needed.
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What issue is that? I am aware of the problem with very early versions where it wrote random garbage over the file system but that was instant destruction rather than creeping.
 
Not according to the various reports made by users at the time. The very nature of the fault meant that in some cases death was instant and in others led to a very sick machine.
 
It's on the latest firmware. Thanks for the advice about replacing the hard disk. I'll pass that idea on to him.

Best Regards
Basjoe
 
gomezz said:
Not according to the various reports made by users at the time. The very nature of the fault meant that in some cases death was instant and in others led to a very sick machine.
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OK your memory is better than mine. When we experienced it the box was instantly unusable with no prior warning. The software would have to be very old for this to be relevant (about 5 years).
 
By the way, is there some advice somewhere on the site about how to change the drive, and what best type to buy. I'm used to building computers, so the job itself holds no fear, but I'd appreciate a heads-up on any potential gotchas.

Best Regards
Basjoe
 
Basjoe said:
By the way, is there some advice somewhere on the site about how to change the drive, and what best type to buy. I'm used to building computers, so the job itself holds no fear, but I'd appreciate a heads-up on any potential gotchas.
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Far and away the simplest route is to buy another Seagate DB35.3 ACE drive. It is impossible to buy them new these days but there are reliable suppliers on eBay (and of course some cowboys). I would test the drive with Seagate Seatools for DOS (bootable CD) before installation. Installation is simply a matter of removing the lid (5 screws), unplugging cables, removing the drive and carrier, checking that the new drive has the Master/Slave jumper set the same as the old drive and putting it back together. The Humax will offer to format the drive when it nexts boots up.

The alternative is to go for a SATA drive, which are easier to find, but you then need a PATA to SATA converter.
 
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