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HDR freezing up regularly

RobH1 said:
Just an observation, but don't you go away to get away? :)
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I am not sure what I am getting away from?. I took early retirement some 10 years ago so there is not much to escape from apart from the cooler temperature in the U.K. I am heading 2000 miles south where I usually go in the winter. A trip to Thailand and to Egypt has delayed this trip until the Spring. There are some 500 Geocaches where we are going so there is plenty to go hunting for.
 
The comment was a bit tongue in cheek, but as much as I admire and use technology, it's nice to get away from it for a time. I too, retired early some 17 years ago and am out of the country for over four months each year but am dismayed at times that even when visiting obscure areas, that people cannot leave their technology alone for more than a few minutes.
We see a few 'geocachers' up here in the Lakes. :eek:
 
RobH1 said:
The comment was a bit tongue in cheek, but as much as I admire and use technology, it's nice to get away from it for a time. I too, retired early some 17 years ago and am out of the country for over four months each year but am dismayed at times that even when visiting obscure areas, that people cannot leave their technology alone for more than a few minutes.
We see a few 'geocachers' up here in the Lakes. :eek:
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I agree that we can become too dependant on technology although I was a systems engineer so my work life revolved around technology. Part of the wi-fi aspect is to be in touch with our daughter who lives and works in Thailand. Whenever we meet up with my brother in law I am always amazed at the caravans etc nearby and how like the home that they have left behind they are. Fridges, microwaves, satellite tv and central heating. Apart from the different view they might as well be at home!
Being out of the country for 4 months means the Humax it put to good use then.I use Digiguide to be able to look more than a week ahead.

Ezra, that is the very program which we use on both of our tablets. A great free app.
 
This topic (apart from that latest diversion ;) ) is what's just brought me here - and may be about to part me from the Humax.

I've grown accustomed - though it's not acceptable - to the PVR going catatonic for the second of two weeks away. Now I've just come back after two DAYS away, and nothing was recorded for the second day. The Humax was apparently on but frozen - only switching off and on at the mains switch on the back restored response to the remote control or its appearance on the network.

Is anything really known about this? Is there a work-around? Like the OP, I was a Topfield refugee to the Humax, and I appreciate the advantage of HD recordings and proper network capability compared with the Toppy. But I could program the Toppy for two weeks or more directly from DigiGuide, and it didn't regularly fall over when not attended.

Please can someone suggest what to try. Or failing that, can anyone suggest a PVR which actually works?

Thanks.

André Coutanche
 
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You could try resetting to factory defaults (without formatting the disk). You will then have to set up the unit from scratch; it will run the installation wizard after rebooting. If this does not work your problem might be hardware related.
 
andrec said:
I've grown accustomed - though it's not acceptable - to the PVR going catatonic for the second of two weeks away. Now I've just come back after two DAYS away, and nothing was recorded for the second day. The Humax was apparently on but frozen - only switching off and on at the mains switch on the back restored response to the remote control or its appearance on the network.
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The above is worth a try. Are you leaving the unit on all the time, or is it in standby and waking up to record - and then freezing?
 
Black Hole said:
The above is worth a try. Are you leaving the unit on all the time, or is it in standby and waking up to record - and then freezing?
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Thanks - I'll try. It's on all the time. I did try for one two-week holiday switching it off (standby) and letting it wake up to record as necessary. It still failed to record anything for the second week and was zombie-like on my return.
 
andrec said:
It's on all the time. I did try for one two-week holiday switching it off (standby) and letting it wake up to record as necessary. It still failed to record anything for the second week and was zombie-like on my return.
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Something is wrong; it definitely shouldn't be necessary to leave it on all the time (which is reported to cause problems after an extended period). What software version is the box using and do you have start or end time padding set?
 
Black Hole said:
I'm not saying it explains all your problems, but read Things every ... section 4 (and follow the link to further information). Recent firmware updates are reported to have solved this problem.
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Thanks. I had read that before, and it was as a result of reading it that I had decided to leave the machine on permanently while away. It still failed. It also seemed to keep recording series-linked timers when it neglected one-off timers.

I'm on:
Web interface version: 1.2.2-8
Custom firmware version: 3.00 (build 2137)
Humax Version: 1.03.12 (kernel HDR_CFW_3.00)

I have padding set.

I'll try a factory-default reset when I've got a clear run at it (no recordings pending, and no interruptions from Real Life.
 
What that said was not supposed to be an encouragement to leave it turned on - other preventatives are preferred!
 
Well, I did a factory reset - and then I did a factory reset with disk format anyway. I then put everything back as it was (I think!). As long as I keep using it every day there's no problem. But I've just come back from five days away, and nothing has been cured. Still on but zombie-like on my return; still recordings done in the first couple of days and then nothing.

If it's a hardware fault, I'd be grateful for pointers. If it would help to take off the custom firmware, or downgrade to an earlier version, or to downgrade to an earlier firmware, I'll give it a try. But I'm already starting to google for other PVRs ...
 
andrec said:
Well, I did a factory reset - and then I did a factory reset with disk format anyway. I then put everything back as it was (I think!). As long as I keep using it every day there's no problem. But I've just come back from five days away, and nothing has been cured. Still on but zombie-like on my return; still recordings done in the first couple of days and then nothing.

If it's a hardware fault, I'd be grateful for pointers. If it would help to take off the custom firmware, or downgrade to an earlier version, or to downgrade to an earlier firmware, I'll give it a try. But I'm already starting to google for other PVRs ...
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Have you got a daily wake up set ?. Suspect without this the clock is not being corrected every day. Without padding the clock gets corrected in the pre 15 minute watch for AR starts.
 
Thanks for the prompt reply - which I don't understand :confused: .

I don't have a daily wake-up set - but it's permanently on anyway. Whether or not the clock is drifting, I can't say, because when I come back, the machine is showing the currently tuned channel but unresponsive to anything except the mains switch at the back.
 
andrec said:
Thanks for the prompt reply - which I don't understand :confused: .

I don't have a daily wake-up set - but it's permanently on anyway. Whether or not the clock is drifting, I can't say, because when I come back, the machine is showing the currently tuned channel but unresponsive to anything except the mains switch at the back.
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Why is it permanently on ? At the very least you will be thrashing the time shift buffer file 24/7. It may well be getting corrupted ?
 
Well, it may be a hang-over from Topfield habits, where it was generally safer to leave it on and not rely on it coming on when programmed to do so. But on the Toppy you could (and I did) switch off the time shift buffer.

For one holiday, I did leave it in stand-by, but it still failed. I'm happy to try stand-by with a wake-up, but the symptoms seem to me to go beyond that. For example, in recent days, I'm getting on the on the Web IF messages saying that recordings (I think only or mainly HD recordings) have failed to decrypt.

I'll only know whether 'stand-by and wake-up' works when I leave it unattended for a few days, but I'll try it now with fingers crossed and little optimism!
 
grahamlthompson said:
Why is it permanently on ? At the very least you will be thrashing the time shift buffer file 24/7. It may well be getting corrupted ?
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It is nothing to do with being permanently on, although that does seem to exacerbate the problem in that it seems to happen more frequently. I have a turn off/wake up on mine at 5am/5;15am and it still gets the occasional lockup. It locked up the other night in the middle of a recording - the recording just stopped and the clock screen saver showed the stop time.

Mine does seem to be exacerbated by accessing through webif or hpkg.tv in that again it locks up more frequently if I use one of these, even if I do a restart on a regular basis. My suspicion is that the database gets some minor corruption somehow and the database handling code can't get itself around the corruption until there is a power cycle. I presume that a roll back/roll forward is done on bootup in case the unit powered down with a mains failure and this corrects whatever corruption exists, but I do wonder if this rollback/ roll forward is done on a sleep, as it knows the power hasn't gone off, and so sending the unit to sleep doesn't fix whatever corruption makes it lock up.

To correct this problem I am thinking of looking for a timer to insert into the power lead to give it a power cycle for 10 mins or so every 24 hours at a time it won't be recording.
 
Your refer to "turn off/wake up at 5:00 and 5:15"!
How have you set that up?
Wouldn't the standard power on/off timer have problems with that, as it would mean turn on at 5:15 and the off at 5:00 (23hr 45mins later). Does it cope with an off time on the following day?
I know the box can have problems when it gets orphaned on/off events, could this be related ...
 
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