HDR Fox T2 Support Ending?

[greywizard]

At present I have an ageing 9300,but faults are starting to show. As the new 2000T doesn't have a display and also appears to have problems with RF loopthru on standby, I was thinking about getting a Graded Fox T2 from HumaxDirect. As T2 has been superceded by 2000T, I was wondering if anybody had thoughts on how long Humax will continue support for the Fox??. Contacted Humax, but they were vague and just suggested the 2000T as an alternative.

 

[MartinLiddle]

As T2 has been superceded by 2000T, I was wondering if anybody had thoughts on how long Humax will continue support for the Fox??.

Perhaps you should define what you mean by support? If you mean will they continue with software updates then I think there will be very few; maybe one or two more at most but that is only a guess. However the HDR-FOX T2 is a mature box with relatively few problems at the moment. Don't overlook the advantages of the HDR-2000T: 2 year warranty, faster response to remote when using guide, Read write support for NTFS formatted USB drives.

 

[Luke]

Don't overlook the advantages of the HDR-2000T: 2 year warranty, faster response to remote when using guide, Read write support for NTFS formatted USB drives.

plus the freeview epg's IPTV channels

 

[Luke]

I was wondering if anybody had thoughts on how long Humax will continue support for the Fox?

The HDR-FOX T2 has less bugs and therefore currently does not need as much support as the HDR-2000T.

Support would only needed if something needs fixing, or if the freeview signal changes or the BBC or Youtube remove support for the registered iPlayer or Youtube app.

Some support may also be negative. For instance both the HDR-FOX T2 and the HDR-2000T use the previous version of iPlayer which includes Radio. At some point the BBC will probably drop Radio from that old version, just like they have for the even older version. If in the mean time the HDR-2000T is moved on to the newest version of iPlayer it will loose radio when that 'support' is supplied unless both the BBC and Humax can provide an additional alternative for iPlayer radio.

 

[Tell]

Personally I use the radio part more than the TV part of the iPlayer on these boxes. Does this verge on what I touched on in the custom area that there ought to be a iPlayer radio version if they the BBC are going to package up the application as they do on other platforms. I think we would have had something to say if they hadn't provided the iPlayer radio on Android devices when radio was dropped from audio from iPlayer, but they were good enough to have a separate app. Seems to me that box providers dangle carrots in front of you then pull them or conceptually the BBC doesn't exercise some stick over suppliers and say if you are going to offer this software then you must offer the complete BBC suite. It was a bit convenient for the BBC to say that the Humax HD was no longer supported, so no radio. Seems to me that in the day of transmission being over internet the BBC shouldn't be allowed to have short product lives on apps for boxes and wash their hands of it.

I'm sure you won't all agree....

 

[MontysEvilTwin]

I too don't think we are going to see many more software updates. I hope that they fix the major remaining niggles (e.g. slow EPG and the audio description bug in versions post 1.02.20) before calling it a day.
The BBC seem to have decided that people don't use the iPlayer radio functionality enough on TVs (smart TVs, PVRs etc.) so it is not in the latest iPlayer version (V4). The fact that it has been dropped from iPlayer V2 is probably a technical issue: why would they selectively remove it from V2, but leave it in V3? Unless it is a phased withdraw of service, which is still ongoing. Humax could provide a 1.03.xx version for the HD-FOX to provide iPlayer (V3) with radio but they haven't: we can't blame the BBC for this. What I don't understand about the BBC's position is that if it is true that iPlayer radio isn't popular on TVs, is listening to radio through a TV a popular activity? Surely providing the iPlayer radio functionality is relatively cheap compared to broadcasting 10 radio stations over the Freeview platform?

 

[Black Hole]

I too don't think we are going to see many more software updates.

It has seemed unlikely Humax would be spending effort on free updates to the HDR-FOX when they had new products in the pipeline over a year ago, and yet they did. I agree we probably won't see many more updates, but I won't be surprised if the the occasional one turns up.

 

[prpr]

I don't think there will be any more updates for the HDR T2. They abandoned the 9200 without making it working properly (and they never even attempted to fix the fundamental long-term bugs), so I think 1.03.12 will be the last we see. Time will tell I guess...

Someone (you know who) was claiming a few weeks ago there'd be an update for the 2000 soon. That's not happened. Need I say more?

 

[Luke]

An update for the F2-FOX's epg and aspect ratio issues would be good!

To explain. Many years ago the F2-FOX was priced as a high end freeview stb but its last software update still left it with a couple of major issues, (and I am hungry).

 

[Tell]

What I don't understand about the BBC's position is that if it is true that iPlayer radio isn't popular on TVs, is listening to radio through a TV a popular activity? Surely providing the iPlayer radio functionality is relatively cheap compared to broadcasting 10 radio stations over the Freeview platform?

It's like the old days of VHF radio on your TV.... those were the days. It was nice to have radio back again on your TV when Freeview arrived with it and of course it delivered the digital stations. Presume the BBC would say they did it for this but it's a service that people enjoy. If you separate audio from video and use a surround sound processor you just switch off the TV to enjoy radio delivered this way or radio on the iPlayer. Use iPlayer navigation to find what you want to listen to and then bang off the TV.

I think it's just penny pinching that the BBC don't want to provide radio within the latest iPlayer TV app since they have pulled this out as a separate app for smartphones / tablets etc in the latest design but won't provide the same for TV. What that means is you don't get to see the music concert streams which are delivered for the iPlayer radio app. This is a shame since getting them on a large screen is where you want them not on a small screen. So something is a bit wrong here. I can't see the old folks want their Proms delivered up on a smartphone and would enjoy it more on big screen. People want to gather around a large screen to enjoy streamed concert events whether pop or classical and all stations between.

I suspect the "youngsters" that run the iPlayer aren't managed as well as they could be since the BBC managers outside don't comprehend the decisions that the iPlayer team are making and how it affects their audience base as they segment audio and video interactive between devices.

 

[Trev]

Perhaps they are working on the not too illogical thoughts that TVs are for watching pictures on and radios are for listening to. To listen to radio on TV sounds a bit silly to me. But WDIK.

 

[greywizard]

Thanks guys for your info.
The thing I noticed on other websites is that the 2000T doesn't have a clock display ( but I guess I can live with that), however it seems that the Rf loop thru doesn't work properly in standby and that Humax are meant to be arranging an update for this problem. However they seem to be very long winded!

 

[MontysEvilTwin]

Perhaps they are working on the not too illogical thoughts that TVs are for watching pictures on and radios are for listening to. To listen to radio on TV sounds a bit silly to me. But WDIK.

I think that there is a strong argument for dropping iPlayer radio support on TVs and PVRs. What I don't follow is why, in this context, it still makes sense to broadcast 10 BBC radio stations on Freeview. In the early days of digital radio, with the slow take up of DAB it did make sense to distribute across multiple platforms but does it now?

 

[Tell]

Perhaps they are working on the not too illogical thoughts that TVs are for watching pictures on and radios are for listening to. To listen to radio on TV sounds a bit silly to me. But WDIK.

There has been this new idea around for sometime called multi media ..... If you were correct that doesn't explain why they have decided to strand people with no way of looking at BBC Music interactive except on a small screen. At the minute the BBC iPlayer Radio on Android shows 96 episodes of Proms video compared to 17 on BBC iPlayer video via the Humax. I know a strange construct to put video for Prom fans on a baby screen ditto for most of the interactive events music. Clearly the target audience for the Proms aren't people who want to watch it on small screens and tablets.

This is one of their design mismatches of putting events music video on mobile devices and but not on the BBC Big Screen since they failed to develop the radio player for the big screen app citing that their wasn't a demand on the blog pages and bundling BBC Music events (in video) with the radio app. I'm intrigued where they will put BBC Three if implemented as interactive with Glastonbury / Reading events etc being stranded on the small screen. I think people would have something to say if Wimbledon disappeared onto a tiny screen. Obviously Proms is a new extra but it isn't being served up very well for the radio app only on small screens, ditto all BBC Music events.

Just design chaos. I don't think money comes into it.

Has it ever been explained why radio content was unbundled from the video app on the mobile platform which then set the design concept across platforms which the BBC aren't fully supporting across the big screen element and the resultant music events stranded on the small screen.

It was apparent that their was a gaping hole in the design concept with BBC Sport and BBC News as separate apps across platforms. BBC Music as an app was bundled into the iPlayer radio but not implemented on the big screen. I know this is getting close to the concept that music is for listening to and not for watching.... This brings us back to BBC iPlayer management not being managed at the next level up.

 

[prpr]

In the early days of digital radio, with the slow take up of DAB it did make sense to distribute across multiple platforms but does it now?

Yes it does. Freeview provides a more decent bit rate (and therefore quality) than DAB which is just low quality sh1te (and in many cases mono).

 

[Tell]

I think that there is a strong argument for dropping iPlayer radio support on TVs and PVRs. What I don't follow is why, in this context, it still makes sense to broadcast 10 BBC radio stations on Freeview. In the early days of digital radio, with the slow take up of DAB it did make sense to distribute across multiple platforms but does it now?

I'm not going to support this one... but in Scotland they have the fun of radio digital bandwidth being taken by Alba TV in the evenings as I recall. Next we'd be saying that Sky and Freesat shouldn't be transmitting it either. Only a few enjoyable bytes.

DAB sound is terrible since it's over compressed and not enough data is transmitted. Freeview is broadcast quality radio sound in the main which sadly DAB isn't. BBC and commercial broadcasters went for volume of stations rather than quality so it never delivered what it could have done. Many view that it's now overtaken by internet delivery whether broadband on 3G / 4G.

 

[Trev]

If there is a picture with the sound then it aint radio, it's TV. Call it multimedia, DAB FM, AM whatever. Why on earth would I want to turn on my 200" plasma TV to listen to the radio?

 

[HarveyB]

If there is a picture with the sound then it aint radio, it's TV. Call it multimedia, DAB FM, AM whatever. Why on earth would I want to turn on my 200" plasma TV to listen to the radio?

To make the most of what would be a massive investment

 

[Tell]

If there is a picture with the sound then it aint radio, it's TV. Call it multimedia, DAB FM, AM whatever. Why on earth would I want to turn on my 200" plasma TV to listen to the radio?

The TV just displays pictures... put it off. I can't believe that anybody who's into audio visuals uses the TV sound system I haven't for about 20 years now. You connect your sound system between rooms and listen to the same audio source whether you have pictures or not it all goes through the surround sound processor. You want to select your audio ideally through the TV screen, nice big and clear rather than fiddling with just an audio media player watching a small screen to navigate. What you can do with the iPlayer at the minute. But then the BBC want you to watch the music events on your small screen rather than the "big screen" since they have got a bit confused that they don't want a music app for big screen yet put video on a radio app... obviously it's all logical to someone. Radio with pictures... yeah it's the future.

 

[Trev]

Radio with pictures... yeah it's the future.

They have had that since the 1930's. They called it television then. What has changed?