FVP-4000T Standby Loop through TV signal cut off

Julien Helme

New Member
I have the aerial connected to the FVP and looped through to my TV.
If I'm watching my TV with the FVP in standby, the FVP wakes up every few minutes and kills the TV signal for a couple of seconds, then it goes back to standby and the picture returns. The red standby led turns off when this happens then goes back to red.
My FVP is updated (as of 1st Dec 2016), and the power saving is turned off otherwise I wouldn't be able to watch TV at all whilst it is in standby.
I realise the loop through rf signal is electronic and a work around would be to split the aerial feed to my TV before the FVP but this will result in a signal loss and can I not just have a box that works as normal without me having to fork out on extra gear??
Apparently this "power saving" feature of cutting off the TV signal of the loop through is to get the standby power consumption to less than 0.5w, Why is this even a thing? I don't understand why it is even electronic in the first place as no content is sent from the aerial connector so a simple passive pass through would suffice.
Anyway has anyone else had this problem??
Thanks in advance
 
a work around would be to split the aerial feed to my TV before the FVP but this will result in a signal loss
Does signal loss matter?
If it does, then you are too close to threshold anyway and you should be amplifying regardless.
If it doesn't, then you have enough to stand a split.
If in doubt, get a low gain masthead amplifier (10dB max.) and put it as near to the aerial as is convenient. Then you can split without worry (within reason).
can I not just have a box that works as normal without me having to fork out on extra gear??
Apparently not, if you buy the latest Humax junk.
I don't understand why it is even electronic in the first place as no content is sent from the aerial connector so a simple passive pass through would suffice.
You can't have 'passive' and 'through' without loss, and loss seems to upset people, which is where we came in.
 
The loss of signal might be due to interference from the HDMI. Try disconnecting the HDMI cable and see if it still happens.
 
Thanks for the replies. The point about splitting the signal and loss etc was just a rant, before anyone else comments, about companies releasing poorly designed tech and using the money paying public as guinea pigs knowing that most people can't be bothered to return the product and hang on to the idea that it will be fixed in a future software update.
Back to the original point of the unit waking up every few minutes and killing the loop through tv signal. Is this normal or is my unit faulty??
To Black Hole the HDMI cable is fine.
 
I did. Yes sorry that is what I meant by it being fine.
It's as if the unit is powering itself up and killing the TV signal but then going back to standby a couple of seconds later.
 
Sounds like it must be faulty.

Depends what you mean by faulty. The loop-through is known to be a problem similar to the HDR-2000T boxes. A simple aerial splitter to give a discrete feed to the the TV is going to solve the problem for 99% of users as already posted, Any effect on picture quality will be obvious. Digital works 100% or with very obvious problems.

The remote scheduling app has other problems,

Imagine the constant rebooting (approx 20 mins) is down to the use of the remote scheduling app, I would not use it unless away from home for longer than 7 days. The effect on the hard disk reboots for the service live of the box is pretty obvious.
 
If they all behave like this (interrupt the pass-through) then it's a design fault rather than a faulty unit.
 
Just discovered that the volume control doesn't actually alter the volume if HDMI audio is set to dolby digital even though the on screen graphic is showing it changing. It's ok if set to stereo.
And If you watch something on Iplayer from the beginning whilst the live show is still on, when the live show ends the box switches to it. Trying to get back to Iplayer to resume watching threw up "no entry" signs on the screen rendering the box unresponsive until a full power cycle got the box going again.
Whilst I guess these problems could be in threads of their own I thought I might as well throw them out there whilst I'm here.
As I've only had this box a couple of days I reckon I'm sending it back for a refund under the premise it is not fit for purpose.
 
Just discovered that the volume control doesn't actually alter the volume if HDMI audio is set to dolby digital even though the on screen graphic is showing it changing. It's ok if set to stereo.
That one, in particular, is the fault of your telly not the Humax. We know all about that. The reason is that for multi-channel audio the audio stream over HDMI/TOSlink is not scaled by the volume setting - the volume level requested by the user is also sent as data in the stream, to be applied by the output device (the TV). If the TV doesn't understand that, the volume of the data stream will always be full and you have to use the TV's volume to control it.
 
That one, in particular, is the fault of your telly not the Humax. We know all about that. The reason is that for multi-channel audio the audio stream over HDMI/TOSlink is not scaled by the volume setting - the volume level requested by the user is also sent as data in the stream, to be applied by the output device (the TV). If the TV doesn't understand that, the volume of the data stream will always be full and you have to use the TV's volume to control it.
mmm interesting but every other box I've had manages to do it. PS3, Cheap Chinese clone android media player, my old Tevion freeview HD recorder (which I was replacing) all out putting dolby digital.
 
We have a lot of examples of this with the Humax HDR-FOX - it confused the hell of us to start with, some people reporting the volume control didn't work while for others it did. It's a compatibility issue.

Maybe your boxes that do work are scaling the audio data instead of sending volume level commands. You have a work around: don't use multi-channel audio. Another work-around is to switch to a Logitech Harmony universal remote, which always sends volume commands to the TV instead of the player.
 
Just discovered that the volume control doesn't actually alter the volume if HDMI audio is set to dolby digital even though the on screen graphic is showing it changing. It's ok if set to stereo.
And If you watch something on Iplayer from the beginning whilst the live show is still on, when the live show ends the box switches to it. Trying to get back to Iplayer to resume watching threw up "no entry" signs on the screen rendering the box unresponsive until a full power cycle got the box going again.
Whilst I guess these problems could be in threads of their own I thought I might as well throw them out there whilst I'm here.
As I've only had this box a couple of days I reckon I'm sending it back for a refund under the premise it is not fit for purpose.

Setting the output to stereo recodes Dolby Digital to LPCM. If you are using a TV for audio that only has stereo audio there is no disadvantage. The volume control works on HD using my Yamaha AV receiver but I use a Harmony remote so leave the audio settings on my 2 HDR-FOX-T2's and my 2 Freesat boxes set to near max.
 
I have the aerial connected to the FVP and looped through to my TV.
If I'm watching my TV with the FVP in standby, the FVP wakes up every few minutes and kills the TV signal for a couple of seconds, then it goes back to standby and the picture returns. The red standby led turns off when this happens then goes back to red.
My FVP is updated (as of 1st Dec 2016), and the power saving is turned off otherwise I wouldn't be able to watch TV at all whilst it is in standby.
I realise the loop through rf signal is electronic and a work around would be to split the aerial feed to my TV before the FVP but this will result in a signal loss and can I not just have a box that works as normal without me having to fork out on extra gear??
Apparently this "power saving" feature of cutting off the TV signal of the loop through is to get the standby power consumption to less than 0.5w, Why is this even a thing? I don't understand why it is even electronic in the first place as no content is sent from the aerial connector so a simple passive pass through would suffice.
Anyway has anyone else had this problem??
Thanks in advance

Hi Julien
I also have similar problems to yourself, my FVP4000T drops the RF feed to the TV ONLY when the unit goes from standby to on and it lasts a few seconds. I have also noticed that my Humax box is on when it shouldn't be, I think it is usually after a scheduled recording but I have not investigated this fault since it is not as important to me as the RF feed through problem.
It is not a signal strength problem, an HDMI switch/lead problem it is purely the FVP4000T.
Could you and anyone else having this issue please contact Humax and if they tell you the same as they did to me yesterday (i.e. no one else is reporting this problem), then you can tell them you are not alone.
If only a few of us are having this issue then it could be a hardware fault but if a lot of us are having this issue then it is probably due to software.
You do need to ensure though that it is not a marginal signal strength problem, a faulty HDMI lead or a HDMI switch box drawing too much current (just disconnect the HDMI lead and see if the problem still exists), please be aware that the Humax box does housekeeping after you put it into standby, so give it about 5 minutes before taking it out of standby to test the problem.
 
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...if a lot of us are having this issue then it is definitely software.
Why? It could also be a hardware design error. Your hope is that it is either a one-off hardware fault (which could potentially be fixed), or a software error (which can be corrected by issuing a revised software). A hardware design error probably can't be got around by revised software, or fixed.
 
Why? It could also be a hardware design error. Your hope is that it is either a one-off hardware fault (which could potentially be fixed), or a software error (which can be corrected by issuing a revised software). A hardware design error probably can't be got around by revised software, or fixed.

I have changed my post to read "probably due to software" because the main purpose of the post was to let others know that Julien isn't the only one with these problems and to encourage others to contact Humax if they have these issues.
 
Hmm. You probably think this is being picky, but I'm not clear why you think this is even "probably" a software error. I don't think that determination can be made without detailed knowledge of how it actually works. The adverb I would have used is "possibly".
 
I have changed my post to read "probably due to software" because the main purpose of the post was to let others know that Julien isn't the only one with these problems and to encourage others to contact Humax if they have these issues.

The same issue exists on the HDR-2000T as well as the FVP-4000T. I imagine it's a hardware issue as they have never fixed it on the 2000T. Simple solution is fit a aerial splitter to give box and TV a discrete RF feed. You can then save a bit of money by turning on low power standby.
 
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