HDR-FOX T2 1TB Freezing

[danishblue]

danishblue, did you receive a replacement?

After phoning Humax they agreed to replace my unit but when the courier arrived today he did not have a replacement. I phoned Humax and was told that there was no ‘exchange’ because they did not have any HDR-FOX T2 1TB in stock so it will either be replaced or repaired. They could not provide any estimate of when that would be. I said to Humax that I was disappointed not to be told in advance that there would be no replacement. I am now to wait for a call re a replacement or repair.

Sorry for the tardy reply but I haven't looked in for a while.

Similar story to yours. Humax asked whether I would like to have mine repaired or a replacement. Since I didn't really want to be without it for a long period I requested a replacement. They said they would send me out a replacement and swap it out for my original unit. However when courier turned up he had no replacement and wanted to know (from my wife) why it wasn't boxed up. She said that we had been told (which we had) to box the old one up in the packaging from the replacement. He said that he didn't know anything about that and wouldn't take it without any packaging. Eventually he just got a plastic envelope out of his van and put it in that unprotected. When my wife told me what had happened I rang Humax up and they said it was now being repaired because they didn't have any replacement units available. I expressed some dissaatisfaction at not having being informed of this in advance and they apologised and promised to make good any damage which may be incurred due to the in adequate packaging. Have to say that apart from this mix up the support staff on the helpline were always very polite and helpful.

It was collected on 1/11/2011 and I received it back today (16/11/2011). Fortunately no damage I can detect from its outward journey. I assume the hard disk has been replaced as it went straight into set-up and there are now no recordings in the media library any more. It seems OK so far but I really haven't tested it in anger as yet. I'll report back after using it for a while.

 

[Sam Widges]

You can't assume that the disc has been replaced, they could just have done a factory reset before sending it to you, but the important thing is that you still have the rest of your 2 year warranty left.

 

[Sam Widges]

I took some time out over lunch and I've just reported my 1TB box as faulty. The chap on the phone assured me that stocks had been low but that they were now sending out replacement units again. After Skind56's experiences, I hope that actually is the case.

I'll keep you posted on what really happens.

A quick update...

I didn't return the paperwork until last Friday (2nd December) for a variety of reasons. When I did, Humax Customer Support said that there were replacement units but I think that was based on the name of the form that I was sent, not a view of stock - they asked me the name of the form I had been sent before telling me there was stock!

Because they aroused my suspicions and because I had already backed up most of my programmes to an external drive, I invested in an HD-Fox-T2 over the weekend. I would have been seriously in the doghouse if the PVR was out of action over Christmas, so at least this way we had a safety net. It also means I can play with the HD-T2 firmware

Here's the important part - on Monday I called to ask about the replacement and I was told that there were no more 1TB HDRs in the supply chain. I stood my ground and I explained that I had been assured that there were replacements on Friday and, all of a sudden, one magically became available (but it was the last one - apparently). So, if you have a dodgy 1TB HDR, you may now be out of luck getting it replaced before Christmas.

On the flip side, the replacement box (reconditioned, based on the serial number) arrived today within the 1 hour window that they emailed me last night and it is now in place, tuned in and my backed-up programmes are copying over.

I've spent a fair amount of time tweaking the backup utility for these boxes and it was well worth it - without the modified firmware and that effort, we would have lost 900+ TV and radio programmes, so domestic bliss continues.

 

[ChrisDaniels]

[Humax] sorry sir, we have no 1Tb units left
[Sam] but you promised !
[Humax] [looks at the boxes of 1Tb HDDs in the warehouse]
[Humax] [rips out 500Gb HDD and installs a 1Tb HDD and starts to format]
[Humax] Ok sir, I found one!

 

[skind56]

So, if you have a dodgy 1TB HDR, you may now be out of luck getting it replaced before Christmas.
On the flip side, the replacement box (reconditioned, based on the serial number) arrived today
.

Sam, glad to hear you managed to get a replacement. I'm still waiting on Humax phoning me about a replacement since 15th November.

There is however an update on the box - on Saturday evening all recordings seemed to have disappeared and the HD wanted to be reformatted. I started the reformat on Sunday morning but after 2 hours had to go out for the day. On returning in the evening the box was in standby. I switched on and all the 'lost' recordings had returned - what did it do I wonder?! Since then recordings can have a series of 2 second gaps and judder along for a spell then return to normal. Some recordings are complete but these I believe are when the box is in standby mode and nothing else is happening on the box.

Steve

 

[Sam Widges]

That disk isn't well, or the power supply is failing. In fact, the 'freezing' symptoms sound very like what I had with my old Topfield where the capacitors degraded and the power supply would go out of spec: the remote control would stop working, recording and playback then became unreliable, the disk corrupted and the motherboard eventually fried if you left it long enough.

Out of interest, is the box well ventilated when you use it, or does it get hot? If it is component degradation, you might be able to prove the point by keeping it cooler and seeing if it behaves better.

Regarding your service (or lack of it) from Humax, I was assured on 5th December that they were sending out units again, so I suspect that your problem has gone into the "They've stopped complaining" pile - the pile where they hope it was user error but which also contains faults for people who have given up in disgust and will probably go somewhere else and never buy another Humax box in their lives. Organisations that proactively call you back are few and far between, you've been more than reasonable so call them on a weekly basis. Your box is now unusable and they have failed at the first repair, so I would have thought that they should prioritise getting you a new one.

If you have a video camera (or a phone that does video) get some footage of the problems happening, which might be useful in the future.

 

[Trilleen]

This has been driving me mad for some time now,ie the freezing during playback problem.Like others above I contacted Humax direct and very unhelpfully they sent me instructions on a manual re tune.I have very good signal strength and I know this is not the problem.Searching other forums others have suggested going back to a previous firmware ie 1.01.09 rather than the lastest 1.02.20. This apparently solves the problem or at least it did for me.In doing this you lose the i player and some other functionality but I consider it worth it as the freezing is very very annoying. My guess is that the latest firmware which is a larger file overstretches either the built in flash memory or puny processor whatever. The bottom line is this is a design fault and Humax really do not want to know or take any kind of responsibility a very poor show Humax. I would be interested to know of any users of the 1 TB model that actually works properly with 1.02.20 .

Another fault is there is no volume control on the Humax remote for HD live tv or recordings I have to use the tv remote to reduce volume

I think its about time they sorted this possibly with a new firmware release however I am not holding my breath.

Regards Gareth

 

[Black Hole]

Another fault is there is no volume control on the Humax remote for HD live tv or recordings I have to use the tv remote to reduce volume

Sorry Gareth but you're behind the times with this one. Solution HERE (click), and in any case we prefer to use the TV volume control rather than reduce the sound quality being sent to the TV.

This has been driving me mad for some time now,ie the freezing during playback problem.Like others above I contacted Humax direct and very unhelpfully they sent me instructions on a manual re tune.I have very good signal strength and I know this is not the problem.Searching other forums others have suggested going back to a previous firmware ie 1.01.09 rather than the lastest 1.02.20. This apparently solves the problem or at least it did for me.In doing this you lose the i player and some other functionality but I consider it worth it as the freezing is very very annoying. My guess is that the latest firmware which is a larger file overstretches either the built in flash memory or puny processor whatever. The bottom line is this is a design fault and Humax really do not want to know or take any kind of responsibility a very poor show Humax. I would be interested to know of any users of the 1 TB model that actually works properly with 1.02.20 .

This is completely unjustified. If it was a design fault in the manner you describe EVERYBODY (or at least a significant proportion) would be suffering the same thing, and we're not. 1.02.20 is absolutely fine (there are some bugs we know of, but it is a vast improvement on 1.01.09). The only way it could be a design fault is if you have an early production unit with a previous issue circuit board, or the design doesn't account for the full spread of timing variations in the production batch (which counts as a faulty unit or batch).

I'm sorry you are having freezing problems, but the best advice we can offer is to do a complete system reset (not only a retune), reformat the hard drive, and ultimately if it still won't work with 1.02.20 take it back to the SUPPLIER as faulty. The only problems that usually get reported with the 1TB model specifically are hard drive related.

 

[Brian]

Another fault is there is no volume control on the Humax remote for HD live tv or recordings I have to use the tv remote to reduce volume

That may well be a "fault" with your TV, as I have no problems controlling the sound output to my TV via HDMI using my Humax volume control. It will not work when using the Optical output though.

 

[Trilleen]

Thanks for the HD audio fix much appreciated works fine now via Preferences/Audio/Stereo menu although I would have thought this should be set as the factory default until you add a digital 5.1 external amp of some sort.

My HDR-FOX T2 1TB was probably one of the first dispatched as it was eagerly awaited something over a year ago,I was not hopeful judging from lack luster responses from Humax in the past that they would be interested in resolving my issues with 1.02.20 firmware update or box. Logically I can not see how a Reset/hard drive reformat will resolve anything but would be willing to give it a try if it has worked for others.Why does reverting to 1.01.09 solve the problem for me and it does I have never had freezing issues with1.01.09.I rarely use the i player and if I do need it I just connect my laptop via HDMI and this works perfectly and as a bonus I have the Skyplayer option as well with that.Whatever happened to the skyplayer option initially promised for the hummy it disappeared after the initial firmware upgrade.
Gareth

 

[Brian]

Thanks for the HD audio fix much appreciated works fine now via Preferences/Audio/Stereo menu although I would have thought this should be set as the factory default until you add a digital 5.1 external amp of some sort.

I'm not sure what you mean by "HD audio fix" are you saying that your volume control works if you set Menu>Settings>Preferences>Audio>Digital Audio Output to "Stereo", but will not work if set to "Multi-channel" ? this is very strange, as mine works properly when set to either, so I leave it set to Multi-channel as I also connect to my AV system via the optical output.

 

[oijonesey]

I'm not sure what you mean by "HD audio fix" are you saying that your volume control works if you set Menu>Settings>Preferences>Audio>Digital Audio Output to "Stereo", but will not work if set to "Multi-channel" ? this is very strange, as mine works properly when set to either, so I leave it set to Multi-channel as I also connect to my AV system via the optical output.

I thought I remembered this from somewhere before (it was Here (Click) . It suggests that the volume will work on either Audio Output setting when watching SD, but if you're watching HD then it doesn't. @Brian would that prove true to your findings?

 

[Brian]

I thought I remembered this from somewhere before (it was Here (Click) . It suggests that the volume will work on either Audio Output setting when watching SD, but if you're watching HD then it doesn't. @Brian would that prove true to your findings?

No, I only have the Four HD channels tuned into my boxes, and either Digital Audio Output setting works properly via HDMI to my current and previous TV's.

 

[Trilleen]

I'm not sure what you mean by "HD audio fix" are you saying that your volume control works if you set Menu>Settings>Preferences>Audio>Digital Audio Output to "Stereo", but will not work if set to "Multi-channel" ? this is very strange, as mine works properly when set to either, so I leave it set to Multi-channel as I also connect to my AV system via the optical output.

When set to multi channel the volume control on the hummy remote had no effect on volume on HD channels and in fact when you changed channel to a HD one the volume level previously blew you out of the room unless adjusted it down with the TV remote.I do not have external AV the sound quality being perfectly adequateon nice LG TV

Ps When set to multi channel it works fine with all SD Channels.

 

[Brian]

When set to multi channel the volume control on the hummy remote had no effect on volume on HD channels and in fact when you changed channel to a HD one the volume level previously blew you out of the room unless adjusted it down with the TV remote.I do not have external AV the sound quality being perfectly adequateon nice LG TV

Ps When set to multi channel it works fine with all SD Channels.

It must be something TV related then.

 

[Black Hole]

Brian, this is off topic but I thought we had resolved the sound issue? I thought the HiDef output level from the Humax over HDMI is fixed unless the output format is stereo?

Gareth, the inequality in the volume level is fixed in 1.02.20.

I've had my HDR-FOX for 18 months (500GB model) without any of these issues. A full reset (ie restore factory options), reformat the drive, and reload the firmware are the only user interventions available to try to clear a problem. Beyond that the conclusion is "faulty".

 

[Brian]

Brian, this is off topic but I thought we had resolved the sound issue? I thought the HiDef output level from the Humax over HDMI is fixed unless the output format is stereo?

Then you thought wrongly, as I keep trying to tell people the sound output level from the HD channels via HDMI to my TV is NOT fixed, and the Humax volume control DOES work on "Multi-channel" and "Stereo" settings. It is however at a Fixed level when output via the optical out.

 

[4291]

I can confirm that the volume control on the remote works when multi-channel is set and the HDFOX is connected via HDMI. (Viewing a HiDef channel)
I do not use the optical output.

 

[Brian]

I can confirm that the volume control on the remote works when multi-channel is set and the HDFOX is connected via HDMI.
I do not use the optical output.

Is that also the case when viewing the HD channels? as this is what most people claim does not work. It's good to know that I'm not the only one who does not have this problem.

 

[oijonesey]

I have just posted in the original topic about the volume control so this one can get back to freezing issues. The volume topic is Here(Click)