HDR-1000S: User Interface is unresponsive...

Chris Holman

New Member
I'm now on my second HDR-1000S, both seem to be affected by the same problem.

It works fine for a few weeks and then the User Interface just stops working. I cant pinpoint what I was doing when it started, but it was on a standard navigation screen.

Once it's frozen the remote is ineffective and the STBY button on the box doesn't respond either. Unplugging the PWR and plugging it back in enables one or two key presses on the remote to be actioned, but then it locks up again.

I'll be sending this one back as well, but not sure if I'm going to buy another :-(
 
What's your power supply like? This sounds like a lock up due to spikes or surges (esp as it's a replacement box). Try putting it on a surge protector for a while & see what happens. Failing that I'd guess that you're just incredibly unlucky.

Although if you're attached to a router and the line goes down, the box can hang while it desperately tries to poll the network. Take the ethernet cable out for a while if this is the case. And the same can happen if you get an IP conflict on your internal network - in which case set up a static address on the router out of the normal DHCP range (the MAC address is in the settings pages).
 
Aha!

Not sure which it was, but unplugged the PWR and ETH for half an hour, now it's back up. Suspect it was the router. Will set a static IP (can't hurt).

Thanks :)
Should have tried posting here before returning the first one :-(
 
If it happens again, try going and making a cup of tea and coming back 10 minutes or so later. From other reports it seems it may be a processor interrupt issue (some higher priority task is locking out the remote and box controls for a period).
 
I may be getting this too. When it switches on, it sometimes shows an almost blank front panel, with just a small clock showing. No signal out, and nothing you can do but unplug it and plug it in again. Sometimes you can switch it on and off with the remote but that is it. Sometimes, not even the hard on/off button works.

On other occasions, the unresponsiveness happens after a while of viewing.

This is totally unacceptable on a nearly new box.
 
Aha!

Not sure which it was, but unplugged the PWR and ETH for half an hour, now it's back up. Suspect it was the router. Will set a static IP (can't hurt).

Thanks :)
Should have tried posting here before returning the first one :-(
Did you try resetting your router ?
 
So, are you saying that Humax boxes are incompatible with routers?
 
Yeah, like after a few minutes' use when the Hummy is playing up? Not fit for purpose springs to mind.

Anyway, I have assigned a permanent IP address to it in the router, and will see if that changes anything, but, really, that should never be necessary.

Edit: I should have checked if the trouble arose when the Hummy was requesting a new IP address or renewal. Has anyone else done this?
 
I was referring to many weeks of router activity.

Typical DHCP client design is to request renewal any time after 50% of the lease.
Typical DHCP server design is to always reassign an address to the same MAC unless it is unavailable.

I assign address reservations to most of my clients (especially to ones without host names).
 
I generally assign fixed addresses via the router but a recent change of dhcp host meant that the Hummy was on a 48 hour lease.

As I said, I assigned a permanent ip address to it earlier and got it to renew its ip so that it took.

This evening we were watching a recording and at the end of it the box was unresponsive to everything apart from a standby command, so I reckon the router theory is well and truly irrelevant.

It was playing back an HD recording and also recording two more HD programmes when it froze.

My other equipment seems to have no problems like this. Mind you, Humax have a track record for poorly written software, so I am not that surprised. What a pity they have a monopoly on Freesat recorders.
 
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I think the problem when switching on and loss of responsiveness of the remote are different problems.
Your first post implies that the unit is still in standby (small clock showing). Where as the response only to standby (plus volume and I think Mute) is that the unit is doing something else. What I have no idea. Graham's suggestion is what I would try.

You do not mention the brand of TV - but if it has HDMI-CEC enabled (Google HDMI-CEC and Brand to see what they call it) then disable it and then place the TV in standby. Then bring the TV out of standby.
It may be necessary to put the Humax in standby and do a power cycle once to get it to forget the last TV CEC state.
 
There are several ways the TV becomes unresponsive, I gave two of them. I have cec turned off everywhere. The small timer? clock is when the box should have been on. Pressing standby again switches to the standby digital clock.

As for Graham's suggestion, that implies a software bug. It isn't a practical solution.
 
OK, another lock-up last night. The box was recording two HD programs at the time and we were watching one of them, Would I Lie to You, but got a phone call so put the playback of that recording on hold. We later restarted it, but at the end could not stop the recording or do anything apart from turn the box off with the remote.

Lewis was recording in the background, and also HIGNFY followed by Not Going Out. As it was time the latter started, we thought we would just watch that. However, the sound kept starting and stopping, and, in fact on anything, live or recorded that we tried to watch, the same happened. In the end, we switched the 1000s off and watched it on the tv tuner instead.

At 10pm we decided to watch the recording of HIGNFY and it played back perfectly.

So, what the hell is happening there? The box locks up, sound is intermittent, but recordings are fine. Is the box incapable of two simultaneous HD recordings? I am sure I have done that before, since we record everything we intend to watch in HD if available.
 
OK, another lock-up last night. The box was recording two HD programs at the time and we were watching one of them, Would I Lie to You, but got a phone call so put the playback of that recording on hold. We later restarted it, but at the end could not stop the recording or do anything apart from turn the box off with the remote.

Lewis was recording in the background, and also HIGNFY followed by Not Going Out. As it was time the latter started, we thought we would just watch that. However, the sound kept starting and stopping, and, in fact on anything, live or recorded that we tried to watch, the same happened. In the end, we switched the 1000s off and watched it on the tv tuner instead.

At 10pm we decided to watch the recording of HIGNFY and it played back perfectly.

So, what the hell is happening there? The box locks up, sound is intermittent, but recordings are fine. Is the box incapable of two simultaneous HD recordings? I am sure I have done that before, since we record everything we intend to watch in HD if available.

Of course the box is capable of recording two at once. In fact if the two programmes are on the same transponder eg 102 108 then only 1 tuner is used. The other is free to watch any other channel you like and also time shift it. As a result when one of the recordings finishes you can record the 3rd programme by pressing the instant record button.

Try a factory reset on the box (note your recording schedule first).

Check your box knows you have two cables connected. Settings Signal Info. It should say Freesat box connected with 2 cable. If you added a second cable after setup you will need to reset the box to recognise the independent feed to tuner 2
 
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Of course it knows it has two cables, it records two things at once, in this case BBC1 HD and ITV HD. What I was asking was whether it is struggling. How can it lock up and then have an inability to split the sound out of a live program or recording when it is recording two HD programs? Does it have enough power, or is it thrashing, or what?

Another load of bl**dy junk from Humax!
 
Of course it knows it has two cables, it records two things at once, in this case BBC1 HD and ITV HD. What I was asking was whether it is struggling. How can it lock up and then have an inability to split the sound out of a live program or recording when it is recording two HD programs? Does it have enough power, or is it thrashing, or what?

Another load of bl**dy junk from Humax!

No idea what you mean, the box can easily record two HD programmes and watch a third or stream a HD file across a home network or stream a HD source like iplayer in HD all at the same time. It should not be locking up, hence the suggestion to try a factory reset (you mav have some corruption in NVram). I take it you actually followed the advice as suggested, before your final frankly ridiculous tirade :eek:

Your post simply said you were recording two HD programmes at the same time, you neglected to say from what channels. As I tried to explain that could easily be accomplished with a single tuner so it was entirely possible that the box was in single cable mode or tuner 2 in wasn't working. Try recording 102 and 108 at the same time, you should be able to watch any third channel. If you were to disconnect the tuner 2 in cable you could still record 102 and 108 at the same time but of course you could not watch a third channel.

Frankly I don't no why I bother to try and help.
 
Geez, it's hardly surprising Humax are so slow at fixing bugs when they have apologists like you!
 
Geez, it's hardly surprising Humax are so slow at fixing bugs when they have apologists like you!

Seing as I and thousands of others don't have the issue, how can it be a software bug ? If the issue cannot be reproduced what do you think any manufacturer could do about it.

Suggest you look closer to home rather than making inane posts.

Your box may of course have a hardware fault, or it's something local. Do you have a rf source close to the box (wireless router or cordless phone) ?
 
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