PVR9150T recordings and picture unstable.

You'll need to be more specific about the issue. If live TV viewing is unstable it may be nothing to do with the HDD and recording / file system and more to do with reception generally, interference, or other failing components in the box.

NB Except in Freeview Lite transmitter areas the 9150/9200/9300 range can't cope with the number of transmitted DVB-T channels (a problem for the majority of the population that can get the 5 multiplexes from 'main' transmitters) ... So possibly time for a new PVR anyway? My 9200T was donated to a charity over 7 years ago.

PS There is a known issue with 9150 and 9300 recordings jumping and skipping that is documented on 'that other' forum and may be what you mean to describe... If so, there's no known cure.
 
Lack of memory.
Manual tuning of four muxes containing the most wanted channels is the only cure, I believe.

 
PS There is a known issue with 9150 and 9300 recordings jumping and skipping that is documented on 'that other' forum and may be what you mean to describe... If so, there's no known cure.
I thought we may have discussed it on this forum, but I can't find it. It certainly has quite a few mentions in the other place.
 
I thought we may have discussed it on this forum, but I can't find it. It certainly has quite a few mentions in the other place.
Other places actually... DS and AVF have discussions... The linked thread is the first Google found me for on here.

It's so long ago that I've forgotten the detail... and probably one reason I got shot of the 9200T when we moved (having 2 Foxsat-HDRs and and a HDR-T2 by then).

There's one mention even on a Caravan forum I used to frequent https://www.caravantalk.co.uk/community/topic/105762-is-my-old-humax-freeview-p-v-r-faulty/
 
I'd forgotten about DS as I can no longer post there!
When the symptoms first started to surface it was you who first suggested that it was a memory issue with a post on DS, which no one replied to - or at least that part of your post. It was a week or two later, also on DS, that someone posted confirming that it was a memory issue . They were having no issues but never tuned in all muxes and were trying to see if they could get the issue and so set it up their 9200T as most people would which resulted in immediate signs of the issue. The reaction of the 9200T is a lot more pronounced than 9150Ts and 9300Ts, in that the reorders attempts to continually populate the stored epg puts a bigger strain on the 9200T slower chip.

About a fortnight later I wasted some time looking for earlier posts and your speculation was the earliest to suggest the cause with nothing else until the DS post concerning the number of muxs work round.
 
I'm getting confused here. I remember posting about the skipping problem. I don't remember posting about memory problems (I might post about my own memory problems, but that's a different matter ) Still, who cares now?
 
The 9150 is a friends I am tryinmg to help, she trains dogs and has some recorded footage with them at Crufts. She tells me that the PVR works OK on live TV, but skips and jumps whem playing back recordings, so does this point to the drive?
 
skips and jumps whem playing back recordings, so does this point to the drive?
It sounds likely, but not necessarily hardware failure – it could be file system inconsistencies.

I'm not familiar with 9150 but I suspect it has no diagnostics other than to reformat the drive, so your best option is to remove the drive and examine it using a computer (preferably running something non-destructive, ie Linux).

Even if your computer runs Windows, as long as you can boot from USB or an optical disc you can run a "Live Linux" (which you download and unpack to USB/disc using Windows). Linux is not scary, it has a point-and-click interface just like Windows, but it is able to read/write many more file system types than Windows. For HDD maintenance/recovery, I suggest this: https://gparted.org/livecd.php

Perhaps somebody can confirm whether the 9150 uses a conventional or a "special" file system.

You need humaxrw to read drives from this generation of machines.
 
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I'm not familiar with 9150 but I suspect it has no diagnostics other than to reformat the drive,
Mine is currently disconnected from any TV so I might be wrong. I think the diagnostics may be the bog-standard Humax disc check (ie chocolate teapot) and reformat.
 
The 9150 is a friends I am tryinmg to help, she trains dogs and has some recorded footage with them at Crufts. She tells me that the PVR works OK on live TV, but skips and jumps whem playing back recordings, so does this point to the drive?
It could be a disk issue but here is also a known issue with the 9150T not being able to handle some cartoons and parts of some programmes that are displaying high contrast text info boxes.

Is it skipping and jumping when there is an info text box being broadcast as part of the picture?

Also if the offending part is played at X2 speed does it then look OK? If it does look OK at twice speed then that would indicate that the recording is intact and that this is another example of the existing issue first noticed many years ago on Points of View and Family Man.
 
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I think the diagnostics may be the bog-standard Humax disc check (ie chocolate teapot) and reformat.
Is there any diagnostic built into the 9xxx series? HumaxCheck by XYZ 321 is the only file system checking tool that I am aware of for the 9xxx series.
 
I am having difficulty locating any definitive information about humaxrw, including where it came from (indications are that it was written by xyz321). The earliest posting on this forum is 2014, but that is just a mention.

Link to some 2016 information, including downloads: https://myhumax.org/forum/topic/humaxrw

It has also been compiled for running on HDR-FOX, so the source code must have been available to af123. The help file is on our wiki: https://wiki.hummy.tv/wiki/Custom_Firmware_Package_Notes#Humaxrw

@JohnRT:

It seems to me your best bet is to retrieve anything to be kept from the 9150's HDD using humaxrw, then re-format (in the 9150) and put the files back (using humaxrw again). If that doesn't solve it you may need to replace the HDD.

Hopefully anything important will also be backed up elsewhere.
 
It seems to me your best bet is to retrieve anything to be kept from the 9150's HDD using humaxrw, then re-format (in the 9150) and put the files back (using humaxrw again).
I think there has been a report that someone has managed to put the files back on to a 9300T/9150T but most reports are that there has been no success with putting the files back unless it is a 9200T.

Also blaming the HDD may not be the route to go if it's the old contrast issue that is the problem.
 
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It has also been compiled for running on HDR-FOX, so the source code must have been available to af123.
Non sequitur.
Code:
# opkg info humaxrw
Package: humaxrw
Version: 1.15
Maintainer: xyz321
Description: Utility to copy recordings from Humax 9200T/9150T/9300T hard disks.
 
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