Humax FoxSat-HDR fault - am I correct in my diagnosis?

frogman23

New Member
My Humax FoxSat-HDR with standard firmware, which must be about 8 years old and has been in pretty constant use, has developed a fault.

Although I can watch Freesat, every time I change a channel I get a brief message of "No or Bad Signal" before the channel is then displayed. It's impossible to record one channel and watch another. I have 2 feeds from the dish but, when I bring up the Humax Diagnostics, Tuner 1 shows nothing while Tuner 2 shows Strength of 90 - 100% with Quality at 100%. If I swap the cables, I still get Tuner 1 showing nothing while Tuner 2 is OK. Because Tuner 1 is always showing nothing while Tuner 2 shows a strong signal regardless of which cable serves which tuner, I would have thought it was probable that the PVR was at fault rather than the dish or cabling. Would that be correct?

I'd be grateful for any help or confirmation of my diagnosis, or suggestions of other tests I might run - many thanks in advance.
 
Just one thing.
Don't retune/factory reset or it will break it as tuner 1 needs to be able to access the Freesat home transponder to establish your postcode before it can go further.
 
Thanks for that, Trev - I sort of suspected myself that a re-tune might do more harm than good, so steered clear.
 
Thanks to those who offered advice. I managed to borrow another Humax box to test and that worked flawlessly, with both tuners reporting good signals. So I'm now looking forward to my new HDR 1100S
 
And pretty soon pining for your Foxsat.
Let us know how you get on with it please.
 
I know what you mean - I've had great service from the old Foxsat, and have never felt the need to change it until now. I'll post back after I've got it and had a chance to play with it.
 
Hi,
My Foxsat HDR has developed the following problem on the freesat side:
When I change from a non HD to an HD channel all goes well and then after about 10 seconds the screen goes black for a very brief time (less than a second) and then the picture returns and I get no further problem until I change channels again, the sound does not appear to be affected. This does not happen going the other way (HD to Non HD).
If I switch to programmes I have set up on the manual tuning side the problem is not there.
Any thoughts?
 
That sounds like hdmi handshake issue. Try a new HDMI cable and/or a different HDMI port on the TV. What output resolution is the Foxsat-HDR set to ?
 
That sounds like hdmi handshake issue. Try a new HDMI cable and/or a different HDMI port on the TV. What output resolution is the Foxsat-HDR set to ?
Thanks Graham,
You could well be correct, I have just carried out a factory reset prior to trying your suggestions ( Should have done this before I know but did not want the aggravation) and the problem seems to have disappeared.
Resolution is set at 1080i. connected via Sony STR-DN860 AVR and being auto upscaled to 1920x1080 by my Samsung UE40JU7000
Pete.
 
1080i is already 1920 x 1080. Your TV will likely be de-interlacing and frame doubling to 1080p50. Check the AVR settings are set to simply pass through the Foxsat output rather than add video processing of it's own.
 
You are correct Graham, that is the case, at present I have the AVR set to pass the signal from the Foxsat thru without any upscaling,
it does have the ability to upscale to 4k or near to it (3840/2160/25p) but I have tried this and not found any real benefits, in fact the Humax on-screen menu fonts seem to be slightly less clear with this setting.
The original problem has not re-appeared since the reset so I am happy with what i now have.
Thanks again.
Peter.
 
it does have the ability to upscale to 4k or near to it (3840/2160/25p) but I have tried this and not found any real benefits
Is this a surprise? You can't make something out of nothing, nor put back what was never there in the first place.
 
Hi Frogman23, just wondering how you got on with the Foxsat HDR or is it still u/s. I'm interested in case you decide to get rid because I have one which is not working - stuck on initial boot. I do know it works if I change the front panel so I'm on the lookout for spares.
 
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