HDMI on HDR FOX T2

emmdeew

emmdeew

New Member
Has anyone an answer, or explanation for the following problem with HDMI connection?

New owner of HDR FOX T2 (1GB), previously of a 9200T, which did excellent service for many years. Bought this new PVR to record now-available HD channels as well as regular SD TV and view them on a Samsung D8000 series TV. Generally quite pleased with improved interface and facilities etc. except for a niggling problem:

Connected the PVR to TV via HDMI cable as recommended, with RF pass-through to TV. However, the HDMI connection is not as perfect as it should be, either on HD or SD. The symptom that niggles is a perceptible 'frame skip' almost every time the broadcast or recorded video switches to a new scene (like a very brief hiccup) and a second or so into it. If the scene contains a moving image (e.g car or plane passes across the scene), it will halt just for a micro-second, then continue. Any camera pan, tilt or zoom also displays this very brief twitch in the video. Also, more rarely, cutting from one video 'clip' to another produces a brief semi-scrambling between video frames, like a momentary loss of synchronisation of the interlaced video.

Watching the same channels on the TV via the pass-through co-ax cable is frame perfect (as far as my eyes can perceive) in all situations. The broadcast signal strength and quality are 65-85% and 100% respectively (the lower signal figure is for the weaker multiplexes, but the problem occurs on all of them). Have switched to different video formats via the V-Format button and this results in only a very slight reduction in the occurrence of this problem on 1080i. Tried a "better quality" HDMI cable (I know, I know!), which did make the colour saturation marginally better but had no effect on the twitch.

Am I right in suspecting that there could be a problem with video synchronisation on the Humax HD box using HDMI? Can it be corrected, or even just mitigated? Does anyone else have this problem, or am I the only one? SWMBO insists that it isn't a problem, but I find that, more and more, I am watching for it.

Would be most grateful for any advice. Thanks.
 
The first thing is to make sure you have the latest firmware installed, as various HDMI incompatibilities with TVs have been steadily reduced over the issues. The current formal issue is 1.02.20, or there is 1.02.27 in beta.

Change over to the SCART interface to see if it's any better, if it is the same then either you are being hypercritical or there is a fault with your Humax.
 
Black Hole said:
The first thing is to make sure you have the latest firmware installed, as various HDMI incompatibilities with TVs have been steadily reduced over the issues. The current formal issue is 1.02.20, or there is 1.02.27 in beta.

Change over to the SCART interface to see if it's any better, if it is the same then either you are being hypercritical or there is a fault with your Humax.
Click to expand...

Hi there!

Thanks very much for picking up my post so quickly. I haven't tried the SCART interface, but will report my result. However, since I cannot view HD content through it, I may just as well have stayed with my 9200 and watched HD programmes live on the Samsung TV.

The firmware is as up to date as 1.02.20, but I'm reluctant to try a 'beta' version until Humax release it officially (fingers burnt in another time, another place!).

But we'll see.
 
ChrisDaniels said:
I think you'll find it's not the humax..
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1402142
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for your reply.

Have checked that link and accept that the problem can exist with other LCD/LED flat panel TVs. But in this case the TV works fine on a direct aerial input (or RF passthrough), but the problem has only arisen since using the HDMI output from the Humax. Though it is a fine TV, Samsung D8000 series does have 1 or 2 other problems (e.g. not remembering its wifi security code between switching the set into standby and back on again - Samsung seem incapable of correcting this), but the HDMI input from their Blu-Ray player functions perfectly. There have been no further updates available for its firmware (the curse of having last year's model!), but none of the previous ones mentioned HDMI problems.
 
ChrisDaniels said:
Yeah, it seems to be an issue with these models..
The problem seems to be with the hdmi, which would explain why it's fine over rf.
http://www.avforums.com/forums/tvs/1626518-need-advice-please-d8000-stutter.html

Or google D8000 stutter...
Click to expand...

Thanks for that!

Have Google'd D8000 stutter and followed your link, which aren't too reassuring, unfortunately. The problem doesn't occur on BluRay through HDMI, and, as written, the direct RF input HD picture is perfect.

Perhaps trying the Motion Plus feature set to Clear (which seems to change the standard Blur and Judder reduction settings) will improve things. However, what most people describe as 'Judder' or 'Stutter' seems not exactly what I am experiencing. In the OP, I described a momentary (microsecond) skip, like a frame or two dropped, almost in order to keep up with the incoming signal. But it occurs once, and only very rarely twice, in almost every video scene or sequence 'cut', and no more than half a second into the scene if there is motion present (car, moving graphic etc.). Otherwise, the video carries on fine until the next 'cut'.

Samsung make good looking equipment, which for the most part does it job very well, but sometimes they incorporate features (like Voice/Face/Gesture recognition in the latest models e.g.), before correcting the faults carried over from previous models. They also resolutely deny there is anything amiss if you report a fault, until you press them hard. Humax on the other hand made a very good PVR in the 9200, but it took several firmware updates before it 'matured'. Perhaps the same has to be said of the HDR FOX T2, which has not been out that long. Samsung however move on to the current year's model almost as if last year's no longer exists. Perhaps they believe that firmware updating is achieved by buying a new model each year!

Guess I'm going to have to live with this.

Thanks for the help.
 
I think it's safe to say that the HDR Fox T2 is rather mature. Well, it's grown out of it's pimple stage.......
 
Wallace said:
I think it's safe to say that the HDR Fox T2 is rather mature. Well, it's grown out of it's pimple stage.......
Click to expand...

Black Hole said:
Who are you kidding? At least 2 years, and half a dozen firmware updates - the first of which made it work, then added the TV portal, then content sharing...
Click to expand...

Sure. Sure. I meant that it hasn't been out AS long (as the 9200).

But all I'm saying is that the problem seems only to have occurred with the Humax HDR FOX T2. It's no big deal, more an irritation. My experience with software/firmware is that bugs are everywhere: squash one and another pops up, often bigger (as you will know if you are a Daily Telegraph digital subscriber in the last 2 days!). These issues can take some time to eliminate, assuming they are even recognised as such, or that the circumstances in which they occur can be reproduced. Two years after buying the first of my two Samsung LED TVs (C8000 then D8000) I still can't get the set to remember its wifi code (our Laptops, Nintendo Wii and iPad all do).

Go figure.
 
MartinLiddle said:
Less than 2 years actually http://www.techradar.com/news/home-...r-fox-t2-uk-release-date-made-official-706814
Click to expand...
The following quote from that link is quite amusing
The biggest pull for most, though, will be the inclusion of Sky Player on the box. This means that you will be able to get a number of Sky channels for a monthly fee, without the need of a satellite dish.
Click to expand...
That was certainly Not even the slightest pull for me when I purchased mine.:rolleyes:;)
 
Since this is on scene changes could this be when the program is switching from 1080i to 1080p and back and your telly has to resync in some way - I believe it does this dynamically as the content changes?

Sadly our HDR-FOX-T2 won't work with HDMI on our old telly anyway (though Asus O!Play media player, and Blu-Ray player does) though annoyingly it did on early factory firmware so use SCART still till I replace the telly :-( Still HD pictures through SCART are still much better than the same SD channels...

Steve
 
Thanks, but sadly not. This is a little over SD resolution 32" Sharp TV and used to work OK with the HDR, HDR works fine in any resolution against another telly, and the Sharp works fine at any resolution with two other devices either direct or through multi-port HDMI adaptor but HDR = blank screen or rather keeps sort of hunting around trying to sync. Gave up and used SCART since TV resolution not much more than 576 anyway...

Still wonder if the 1080i / 1080p switching is the OP's issue with this particular TV.

"Tried a "better quality" HDMI cable (I know, I know!), which did make the colour saturation marginally better but had no effect on the twitch."
Click to expand...

Really? Colour saturation better, that must be some powerful cable to reprocess all the data on the fly adjusting the colour along the way.
 
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