Does HDR Fox T2 have commercial skip?

Rick J

New Member
I am thinking of upgrading from my 9200 to a Fox HDR, but would be reluctant to lose one great facility on the 9200, which is the ability with one button push to jump forward either 15 or 30 seconds, or jump back 7 seconds. The manual seems to be unclear, - so what is the position? - Does one have to rely on the FF buttons to zap through ads, which means you have to watch carefully to see when the programming starts again?
 
You can program the skip buttons - I use 2 mins forward and 15 secs back, adverts tend to be 4 minutes long.
 
Thanks Black Hole for the answer, - what are the parameters for programming?

Is there anything significant I might miss going from my much loved 9200 to a Fox HDR? On the other hand are there any real goodies, (apart from the obvious HD capabilities and bigger disk)?
 
Picture-in-Picture, Slo-mo play & Games are missing.
Text on menus, EPG etc. is much harder to read on T2 than 9200.

Aside from the things you mention, the big plus of the T2 is the customised firmware and that it doesn't start trashing its disk after a couple of weeks of use, which the 9200 does with annoying regularity (along with all its other annoyances).
 
I miss the back button as it worked on the 9200, bit of a fiddle on the T2, but that's a minor con . The T2 is a much more refined machine, you won't regret the upgrade.
I store a lot of mp3's on mine , ok the 9200 offered that as well but normally crashed the machine.
Networking is a major plus. I was sat in the dining room watching a sd program on my android tablet . My wife was in the living room watching another prog.
Remember it's not an upgraded 9200 it's a different beast , but similar in operation.
Think I prefered the 9200 remote but there again I had the bloody thing for 8 years ( still in daily use)
Oh nearly forgot, the picture quality is superb compared to the 9200
 
Picture-in-Picture, Slo-mo play & Games are missing.
Slo-mo play is there (the button above WIDE at the bottom right)

I can't remember what the options are for the skip buttons (box is recording so I can't get into that menu) but they're independant - mine are set to 15 seconds back, 30 forwards. In fact, they're stored in the settings database so presumably could be set to any values you want if the standard ones don't suit.
 
Think I prefered the 9200 remote but there again I had the bloody thing for 8 years ( still in daily use)
Did you have a pre-production example? as it has only been available for just over 7 years.
 
Did you have a pre-production example? as it has only been available for just over 7 years.
I'm sure I bought it in 2004 but that's old age for you , now where did I leave my bus pass !!!!:frantic:
Still prefer the remote even if it's only 7 years old, Think the transport controls are better
 
Menu >> Settings >> Preferences >> Recording (who would guess) >> Instant Replay Time / Skip Forward Time
 
Skip back (instant replay): 7, 15, 30 seconds.
Skip forwards: 30, 60, 120, 240 seconds.
 
It's that block of paper delivered with the goody that is your Humax which is often ignored, because there are wonderful forums around in which the most basic of questions can be posted. I suppose it's easier to bang away at the laptop than get up and take it from wherever you've forgotten you've put it!:)
 
I suppose it's easier to bang away at the laptop than get up and take it from wherever you've forgotten you've put it!:)
Dosen't that presume that you know which questions to ask? Asking the appropriate questions could be more difficult. Also if you are on your laptop then its only a few clicks away on the Humax Digital UK Support site. for any of the current manuals
http://www.humaxdigital.com/uk/support/downloadcenter_manual.asp
 
The OP said that the manual was unclear regards skip times, I said it looks clear to me.
I have found that even after I've had a product for several months it pays to re-read the manual. A lot of what appeared mysterious at purchase is clearer and you can still find missed items.
 
I have found that even after I've had a product for several months it pays to re-read the manual. A lot of what appeared mysterious at purchase is clearer and you can still find missed items.
Are you my long list twin? After a few months of using the 9200T reading the 9200T manual some of the implications of what it said stood out far better.

The OP said that the manual was unclear regards skip times, I said it looks clear to me.
OK. You are not my long lost twin. This is what the manual says:
MENU -> Settings -> Preferences -> Recording

Setting Jump Time
You can set the jump time to replay or skip scenes
during playback or time shifted recording.

Instant Replay Time :
7 sec, 15 sec, 30 sec

Skip Forward Time :
30 sec, 60 sec, 120 sec, 240 sec
 
Is there anything significant I might miss going from my much loved 9200 to a Fox HDR? On the other hand are there any real goodies, (apart from the obvious HD capabilities and bigger disk)?

Depends what you call significant. Some of the following differences between the HDR-FOX-T2 and the 9200T may not be considered significant. Also some may be considered positives of the HDR-FOX-T2. Some can be resolved or mitigated using custom firmware:

(a) No Picture-In-Picture
(b) 1 scart. The other scart has become an HDMI socket
(c) To toggle between 2 channels you need to press ‘i’ before pressing ‘BACK’
(d) When tuned to freeview Radio for more than a few minutes the Humax screen saver obscures the ‘playing now’ details or any other details the channel should display
(e) On manual timers that have user added padding at the start of the programme the programme name in both the schedule and the recorded list is for the previously broadcast programme
(f) Within the EPG, programmes which are scheduled to record the epg can only display the record icon just before the end time line. The implication of this is that if the bit of the EPG currently being displayed only includes the start time but not the end time then the record icon does not get displayed until the epg is scrolled forwards
(g) As with the 9150t/9300t the EPG search results only include current and future programmes
(h) If you recorded 6 hours of a broadcast from channel 301 because it was not certain when your sport can be broadcast then out-of-the-box the HDR-FOX-T2 does not have an editing facility to release space back into the free space pool
(i) Recordings take up more space than the equivalent recording on the 9200T. A 500GB HDD on the HDR-FOX-T2 holds little more than a 400GB on a 9200T. If you record a lot of Radio then the difference is even more noticeable
(j) Extracting Radio recordings via USB takes longer than extracting the same Radio programmes from an unmodified 9200T (using elinker) due to the Radio recording file size and the HDR-FOX-T2 needing to decrypt the file. (Extraction of HDR-FOX-T2 TV programmes is quicker and more reliable than the 9200T’s elinker)
(k) The recorded list only shows 5 to a screen
(l) The Humax HDR-FOX-T2 menus are fine (IMHO) on low quality HD ready screens even when connected by a scart, but can be difficult to read when connected to non-HD ready screens
(m) The 9200T is consistent with the size of subtitles. When the HDRT-FOX-T2 adds subtitles on ‘HD’ channels they are smaller than on SD channels despite the TV screen size staying the same
(n) Series linked programmes default to being placed in folders
(o) Pressing the play button twice does not jump to the start of playback
(p) If you have a black 9200T you may miss its matt finish
(q) If you have a light grey 9200T you may miss its good looks
Edit (thanks to xyz321 for the reminder for (r), (s) and (t))
(r) The HDR does not have an RF modulator, just an RF feed through. If you need this function then an external modulator connected to the single SCART socket may be a solution.
(s) The HDR's timebar is more awkard to use for navigation than the 9200T. It tends to move at a jerky high speed making it difficult to move to a particular location.
(t) The HDR lacks the function where you could type in the time and it would jump to that location. Having said that it still has bookmarks which give similar funtionality to the 9200T's bookmarks.

On the other hand are there any real goodies, (apart from the obvious HD capabilities and bigger disk)?
See here http://www.humaxdigital.com/global/products/new_manual/UM_HDR-FOXT2_300GB_12-0309.pdf
And here http://wiki.hummy.tv/wiki/Customised_Firmware_-_Features_Available

One of the implications of the HDR-FOX-T2 support for external hard drives is that if you are running out of space you can just plug in an external 2.5” portable HDD, move programmes to it and then play them with HDR-FOX-T2 full functionality while they are still on the external disk.
If you have a brother who keeps on recording every repeat of Top Gear from Dave then buy him an external HDD for Christmas and problem solved!

The 500GB HDR-FOX-T2 is always quieter than a 9200T. (OK. There may be exceptions. I.e. if you have one of the very first 9200T with the quieter fan or have modified the 9200T fan.)

Reports of the HDR-FOX-T2 1TB drives I have seen tend to suggest that the 1TB drive is more audible than the 500GB. You could buy a 1TB so that you can tell whether it is switched on or not without needing to look.

The later version of the HDR-FOX-T2 has a space saving feature that forces a retune and looses your schedule when it may not be convenient to set it up again. Having pointed that out, unlike the current 9200T on the full freeview line-up the HDR-FOX-T2 has a full 8-day epg (which populates relatively quickly) so setting up the schedule again can be easier than the 9200T.
 
Nice summary.

In particular, the customised firmware can fix/help with:

Some can be resolved or mitigated using custom firmware:
...
(h) If you recorded 6 hours of a broadcast from channel 301 because it was not certain when your sport can be broadcast then out-of-the-box the HDR-FOX-T2 does not have an editing facility to release space back into the free space pool
(i) Recordings take up more space than the equivalent recording on the 9200T. A 500GB HDD on the HDR-FOX-T2 holds little more than a 400GB on a 9200T. If you record a lot of Radio then the difference is even more noticeable

The later version of the HDR-FOX-T2 has a space saving feature that forces a retune and looses your schedule when it may not be convenient to set it up again.

  • On-box recording edits, even when the files are still encrypted;
  • On-box recording shrink to remove the unnecessary extra frames that bloat the HDR recordings;
  • Forced retune prevention;
  • Schedule backup/restore.
 
Back
Top