Humax HDR-1000S Freetime experience so far . . . .

J

jdlfreetime

New Member
Humax HDR-1000s experience so far.

(Email to Humax support)
Dear Humax Customer support,
I just thought I would contact you with my feedback on recent purchase. I have been a very loyal customer of Humax since the Humax 8000, 9200 (we have two of these at home) & 9300. I purchased a Humax HDR-1000S on 3/9/2013 & although I am generally pleased with purchase I do find quite a number of the features either very frustrating or lacking in sensible functionality compared to your other models(!) I recently exchanged the machine this Monday (7/10/2013) as I found that original unit when changing channels/after stopping playback of recording or returning from pause live tv, the picture would freeze, with sound still continuing. After several attempts doing factory reset, reformatting hard drive – losing all my recordings & a large number of schedules this still did not work. Turning off the Buffer solved problem, until you switched it on again ! Eventually I seemed to have found a cure on the faulty unit: By uninstalling current software & reloading OTA software & leaving unit off for approx. 30 minutes & then doing another factory reset/format hard drive, problem seemed to disappear. Hopefully replacement unit received this week will not display this problem! I thought it was best to get the exchange unit, just in case problem reappeared on unit sent back.
Overall, if the HDR-1000S firmware could be corrected/improved/amended it will be a brilliant machine. At the moment in time, I honestly wonder if I should have purchased your previous model: Humax Foxsat instead? I will see how I get on & maybe report back. Certainly has a nice looking EPG interface, but there needs to be a list corrections to make this more user friendly as with other models.
I look forward to your feedback – maybe some/all of my comments might help. Hope all makes sense – please contact me if you need more info. Thank you for your time.
Kind Regards,

Since email, I recently have been using the replacement & this still freezes on occasions most recent freeze was encountered after using Media menu for viewing photos from USB card in front USB port - So New one also is experiencing similar problem (what a surprise!) I would be interested if any other users are experiencing similar problems - if you are I would encourage you to contact Humax. Hopefully they will resolve or they will be issuing refunds to unsatisfied customers like myself.
Missing essential features compared to Humax 9200 & 9300 & other Freesat PVRS
1. No proper Play Bar or information plate for when playing recordings – very difficult to read small text on top of picture background. Why remove task bar banner?
2. Only fast forwards/rewinds to 32X. Why can’t we have 64X as with previous machines inc. Humax Foxsat PVR?
3. No Book marks – very useful when you want to find a practical place. Previous models allow more than one Bookmark which I found very useful. The resume option on HDR-1000S is very basic.
4. No Recordings lock – not very secure in preventing deletion of recording.
5. No option to be able to select more than one recording for deletion
6. No playlist option – good for when archiving recordings to DVD.
7. Manual recording facility very lacking in functionality:
8. Not able to select Weekday only on timer recordings
9. Not able to edit schedules for recordings programmed by EPG.
10. No Picture in Picture option
11. Not able to record Non-freesat channels. There are plenty of good channels out there to be explored. The Sagem Freesat pvr does & as far as I know so does Humax Foxsat using add on software).
12. Although SEARCH menu looks good with “autotext” search, it lacks all important GENRE option. The only Genre option is via EPG LIST option – you then spend ages searching through EPG!
13. EPG start screen - Very annoying that EPG default set to only one option. It has to be turned off at start or you only get “now” & next” instead of full EPG guide. Why not add an option so customer can decide how they want the EPG to start?
14. No S-Video option for Scart – worth considering if Customer uses Scart to connect to DVD Recorder & uses HDMI to TV. Shame there is not a twin Scart as on your other units.

Bugs I have found so far:
1. RGB has to be reset if the box is restarted on Warm boot. Works ok from cold start. Already reported to Humax. Because most Customers don’t use scart not many reports made? The problem is that if you want to make recordings via scart you will only get CVS mode unless you go into picture menu, select CBVS & then reselect RGB & all is ok. I have tested this on another TV & a friends & it brings up the same fault. The replacement Humax machine received 7/10/2013 shows the same fault.
2. YouTube now not working – I was enjoying using the feature until recently. I have looked on Web & noticed other users having same problem.
3. Recordings appear missing sometimes when exiting a recording played?
4. EPG Favourites defaults back to main list each time.
5. EPG – Shopping channel list shows BBC as one of channels while listing via Shopping List?
6. If you sometimes finish playing a recording & you then loss part of menu details when returning to menu.
7. When using EPG & moving to next page the location where Cursor was, moves to totally different place on EPG Guide screen
8. If you delete a recording while playing recording it still remains in buffer for a short time. It just doesn’t seem correct operation?
9. As reported above + also reported to Humax Customer support recently. Picture freeze when leaving Buffer (pause live TV), as recording.
 
I'm amazed - no relies. There must be at least one other Humax Freetime Customer experiencing some, if not all these problems. I've searched forums & not much has been commented about the Freetime Freesat boxes. Very impressive advertising & also a very well thought out machine, but there are some issues that need to be resolved. Hopefully more Forum Members can add their findings & Humax will hopefully take note & improve/fix faults. I'm still awaiting a reply from Humax . . . .
 
It seems that way. Maybe most consumers out there maybe don't know about the forums! Hopefully other users after reading, will provide their feedback, suggestions, comments/reports about their Freetime machines inc. the 1010s model, as this model has been on the UK market now for a year? I only purchased mine recently & there have been quite a few software updates since the launch. Time will tell . . . .
 
. . . as at 25th October, 133 viewers but still no more replies/feedback. Come one readers, one of you must have some feedback. If you are reading this forum, then I would have thought you owned/used one of these Humax Freetime Freesat PVRS. Look forward to seeing more replies . . . watch this space.
 
I suspect, as BH previously mentioned, that there aren't many/any HDR-1000S users on these forums. If they were, I feel sure you would have had a reply by now.

Sell it and by a Freeview HDR-Fox T2 and then see how many replies you get!

;)
 
Wallace, that doesn't really solve the problem.
I thought this was the main forum/section for reporting any issues for Humax Freetime PVRS. It looks like no-one is that interested. Can you recommend any other forums to try? Thank you.
 
TBH, the hummy.tv forum is mainly driven by HDR-FOX enthusiasts (including HD-FOX), with some spill over to Foxsat-HDR. The other sections are there for inclusiveness, but we can't help it if there are few forum regulars with those machines.
 
Crashes regularly - worst electrical item I've ever bought.
Bought new in July 2103.OK for a month then started locking up/freezing. Rang Humax who diagnosed it immediately over the phone so presume a common problem. Humax won't honour warranty. Quote from their email 'Unfortunately an Ebay purchase would not be the same as purchasing new from a retailer'. Research first and see what problems get reported about this machine - if you enjoy a gamble go ahead and buy but expect problems in my opinion.
 
Doesn't cross your mind that might have been the reason this particular brick was on eBay? I see no need to slur Humax when you should be slurring the idiots who buy stuff on eBay and expect shop service.
 
Yes considered that. It was bought new and on arrival the packing was fully intact so absolutely no reason to suspect it had been opened or used etc.
 
Well, if the item was sold by somebody who could reasonably be called a routine trader, there is no reason the Sale of Goods Act should not apply to them - regardless of it being sold on eBay or what disclaimers they might make.
 
Good point and I am already pursuing that but by the same logic the Humax warranty should therefore be valid and to qoute from their policy '
  • This warranty is offered to any person who has legally obtained possession of this product within the warranty period.'
which to me implies even second hand if faulty within 12 months of the original purchase as a second hand purchaser would be in legal possession . What it had beenbought as a gift for second person ? In my opinion Humax are happy to get the sales that E bay generates but may be playing around with technicalities to avoid resonsibility and I can only presume it's because the product is so unreliable in my view. Any way, warranty aside the main point is that I believe the product is still unreliable and having read some reviews before purchase I did believe I was taking a chance and naturally believe that even more now. I have read reviews based on the fault mine has since all this happened. I took the chance because twin tuner freesat devices are not particularly numerous. My initial reference to the warranty issue was more to warn those considering buying from E bay rather than a pop at Humax response and appears to be detracting from the main point of unreliability.
 
I agree Humax should be honouring their offer, and could be construed to have a contractual obligation, but nonetheless your rights in law are with the seller. The problem (with distance selling) is enforcing it. On balance I think you would be better off pursuing it with Humax. Their concern might be that the seller did not obtain it legally, but I think the onus is on them to show that rather than you.

I admit to occasionally buying on eBay myself, but always with this question in mind: "this could be money down the drain, am I prepared to take the risk?".
 
I bought the Humax HB-1000S about 3 months ago.

I decided to buy a Humax because I felt it is a good brand and hoped I wouldn't have issues with it, my friend gets on well with his Humax.

The box however has started crashing, sometimes when just watching TV, other times when using the menu. I am very disappointed.
Also, when going into the guide, it doesnt show live tv in the corner - just says' recieving data'. This used to work when I first got it.
I have it connected to my network via ethernet and wonder if network activity is causing it to crash, I will try unconnecting it and see how it beaves.

However, this would hardly be a solution. Humax need to acknowledge the problem and issue a firmware update to fix it.

If it continues and no fix is presented, I will send it back and get something different.

You would think Humax would do something to protect its image/brand?
 
Crashing is rare (with the current firmware I have never had one) and implies there is something not correct with your unit or setup.
I would suspect a poor freesat transponder signal on one or more of your feeds.
Try a factory reset and then re-check two feeds were detected.
 
jdlfreetime said:
Humax HDR-1000s experience so far.
Click to expand...

Hello

Just reading through your extensive review so far and I have to say that I have ALL of the same problems

I am desperate to get this thing working after ditching SKY and I am fed up with the lack of support, the lack of functionality and annoyed that, like yourself, has always been an advocate of Humax and up until now has always supported their products.

I started a thread here http://myhumax.org/forum/topic/gradient-black-lines-freezing-image-poor-service

Just some of my problems too and again have had no concise response or solution.

The recent update (Jan 14) has now made the YouTube feature play better but now with no sound! Guess what the response was? "Restore your machine to factory settings"

I'll keep checking back here but I feel better knowing someone else is feeling my angst!

Cheers
 
In respect of YouTube, before you access select a a SD channel say 101 before using the Youtube app, the problem is related to HD channels that use ac3 audio. I do not recognise your other problem at all.
 
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