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Beta testing

F

framedtoo

Member
just been on DS, it's getting stupid now

i've been testing 03 for about 3 weeks. (after this post,don't think i will be invited to test anymore)

portal working, a bit slow, but it works (for me anyway). 1 lock up, unable to replicate the lockup.

switch off and on again sorted it (anyone downloading from beta site knows how to do that)

some of the wishlist sorted, i'm not going into it, this post is to try and get it on beta site (why it's not is beyond me)

if humax choose to drag their feet after the 4th feb, ask questions, and if a can ans i will

i will talk about the portal though before then (it's not bad, no worse than a PC, when watching a programme)
 
Nice one! Like a beleaguered Egyptian president, humax says nothing despite the protests, and just like the Egyptian Army, now the beta tester have had enough. :D

Brand loyalty for me = zero. I won't be buying humax when I upgrade in the future.
 
I think brand loyalty is a dying art anyway. The more standardised things become the easier it is to swap brands as they (should) all work together.
 
For me the frustration isn't the delay of the portal (although that would be nice to have), it's that the other updates being rolled into this release are also being delayed. Things like hopefully a fix for some of the remaining HDMI issues, the DD5.1 drop-outs and new features that were hinted at (by a beta tester) before Christmas, like Background delete, SMS style text entry, Trailer Booking and DLNA server capability.
Yes the portal was an advertised feature of this box, but to me the others are more important as they are 'core' features of a DVR.
 
My frustration is purely at the lack of communciation. I'm happy to wait to get a properly tested and working portal, but the customer expectation has been set and now they appear to have just gone silent. I've always been happy with my Humax boxes (got three of the things) but it there was a viable alternative then I have to admit I'd be looking at that for my next purchase. Purely based on their shocking inability to communicate effectively with their customer base.
 
I agree with you Wyniro, but I imagine that the likes of us who frequent tech forums like this are a tiny - miniscule even - percentage of Humax's customers so it's not really going to harm their reputation - or sales - noticeably by taking this approach.
 
WYNIR0 said:
My frustration is purely at the lack of communciation. I'm happy to wait to get a properly tested and working portal, but the customer expectation has been set and now they appear to have just gone silent. I've always been happy with my Humax boxes (got three of the things) but it there was a viable alternative then I have to admit I'd be looking at that for my next purchase. Purely based on their shocking inability to communicate effectively with their customer base.
Click to expand...

This is exactly how the were with the 9200 - seems they have not learned/or do not want to learn from the past and could be a good indication of their respect for their customers.
 
I suspect that the problem is that they've let technical staff communicate with the customers without any guidance. I don't want to generalise but I've been managing teams of IT engineers for the past 15 years or so and they don't always spare a thought for how their communication (or lack thereof ) will go down with their customers.
 
The real problem coudl be that there is a major issue with the software......... Why else would it take this long to write what would seem like a reasonable simple bit of code that displays a web page, and then follows a link!

I wonder if this is a hardware problem for example it does not fit onto the flash drive where the firmware is storred?????? Or the CPU is just not upto the task???????

This sort of thing has happened many times - for example the ofiringal STB sold by oNDigital, that only had a 2400bps modem in, very ltiitle memory, and a very slow CPU, and worked fine with the original shiped software, but by the time they had loaded e-mail, internet browsing, on demand control software etc. etc. onto it it exentually required 2-3 seconds to change a channel!!
 
WYNIR0 said:
I suspect that the problem is that they've let technical staff communicate with the customers without any guidance. I don't want to generalise but I've been managing teams of IT engineers for the past 15 years or so and they don't always spare a thought for how their communication (or lack thereof ) will go down with their customers.
Click to expand...

I suspect that this is what happened on the beta before Christmas; the email said OK to talk but don't mention certain bits of the portal software. Hence I posted the features (as mentioned by Fifthhorseman) and avoided discussing the portal. I was quickly castigated by a Humax representative saying this is why they don't like giving betas out to real people. I pointed out (privately) that discussion had been specifically allowed but didn't get an acknowledgement.

The latest betas said not to discuss the software at all so perhaps it was released through a more official channel.
 
write what would seem like a reasonable simple bit of code that displays a web page, and then follows a link!
Click to expand...
I don't even think they need to do that.
I seem to remember someone mentioning on hummy.org.uk that it used a 3rd party browser. I don't remember what it was called, but if the browser is already built and being used elsewhere is it something hardware related? Maybe.....
 
Random crashes (as has been suggested regarding the portal) are usually caused by memory leaks.
As they are using open source or a pre-built CE-HTML module that has leaks they will need to patch them.
And as with all memory leaks, usually when one is patched, another 2 spring up.
I'm guessing this is what they are battling against.
 
ChrisDaniels said:
Random crashes (as has been suggested regarding the portal) are usually caused by memory leaks.
As they are using open source or a pre-built CE-HTML module that has leaks they will need to patch them.
And as with all memory leaks, usually when one is patched, another 2 spring up.
I'm guessing this is what they are battling against.
Click to expand...


the version 03 was stable enough (for me anyway) to have been on their beta site weeks a go, and then those who wanted to try it could have, after all its their beta site, if they don't want to use it , why set it up in the first place?
 
I really don't know. They are a confusing company.
One minute they are chatting away to forum members on DS talking about the upcoming update, the next it's lockdown and all quiet. They want it both ways I guess, but when it suits them.

I hope they learn some serious lessons from this episode about communication with their customers, but as people have mentioned, they have been like this before with the 9200 box and firmware.

I for one now do not hold Humax as high in my estimations as I first did when I purchased the T2.
Sure, they are pushing out a new firmware for us which is great, but what about listening and replying to their customers. Feedback is one of the essential pieces of information that a developer wants and needs.

Maybe the devs do read all the feedback however. Maybe they just need a better PR/customer service procedure..
 
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