Repair or replacement advice sought

[carterbrandon]

I have a HDR-FOX T2 which has started misbehaving, so I have two sets of questions, depending on what I end up doing with it.

First, what it is and what it’s doing. It’s on FHCTP 1.03.12, loader a7.31, Micom 9.3. It has a USB powered EXT3 external HDD attached on the rear port, and is cabled to the router by Ethernet, so I can FTP SD recordings off it.Sometimes I use Foxy for HD ones. I usually control it with a Logotech Harmony universal remorse.

The symptom is that often (i.e. unless I’ve been using it in the past few minutes) it hangs on wakeup from standby, freezing on the HUMAX splash screen with the power button lit blue, and the external drive does not spin up. The fix is to turn power off and on at the wall (the rear power switch isn’t accessible), then power it on again. It will then start up, but immediately switch back to standby. Taking it back off standby will then get it working - it will turn on, and power the external HDD.

The repair route:

My questions about this are: What kind of failure might be behind this? Would some kind of reset / reformat help? Or has it not been downloading firmware properly? Is it a matter of replacing the internal HDD (I could probably manage that, but not circuitry)?

The replacement route:

I’m open to the idea of getting a newer and better Humax if it does what I want, so: Do the current models allow me to get recordings off? Is that also via an external HDD? Does Foxy work on them for HD recordings? If I got my current SD recordings off this box, would they play if I copied them back to a current model? What’s the recommendation for passing my ½ working box on to someone who could make use of it?

Hope you can help.

 

[Black Hole]

The symptom is that often (i.e. unless I’ve been using it in the past few minutes) it hangs on wakeup from standby, freezing on the HUMAX splash screen with the power button lit blue, and the external drive does not spin up. The fix is to turn power off and on at the wall (the rear power switch isn’t accessible), then power it on again. It will then start up, but immediately switch back to standby. Taking it back off standby will then get it working - it will turn on, and power the external HDD.

My questions about this are: What kind of failure might be behind this? Would some kind of reset / reformat help? Or has it not been downloading firmware properly? Is it a matter of replacing the internal HDD (I could probably manage that, but not circuitry)?

It rather depends what the internal HDD (as opposed to a USB-connected HDD) is doing during this process. Just to be clear: you are talking about HDR-FOX and not HD-FOX?

I've provided a hardware diagnostic and repair procedure here: Steps for Resolving HDR-FOX Crash/Reboot Issues (click).

I’m open to the idea of getting a newer and better Humax if it does what I want...

When it comes to extracting recordings, particularly HiDef recordings, the HDR-FOX is the sweet-spot, but you've been missing out by not availing yourself of the custom firmware (details HERE).

Does Foxy work on [more recent PVRs] for HD recordings?

No. You can work around the HDR-2000T, but that's about it (and almost as obsolete as the HDR-FOX). My advice would be to replace with a second-hand HDR-FOX – and with the custom firmware you won't need to muck around with Foxy.

 

[EEPhil]

Does Foxy work on them for HD recordings? If I got my current SD recordings off this box, would they play if I copied them back to a current model?

No. You can work around the HDR-2000T, but that's about it (and almost as obsolete as the HDR-FOX).

If I remember correctly, the Foxy process is to ftp the htm file to your computer, use Foxy on it and ftp it back. The HiDef file can then be saved to an external drive using the Humax interface. Exactly the same process is possible with a 2000T. Furthermore, the sidecar files from the Fox and 1800T/2000T are sufficiently similar for decrypted Fox recordings to be imported onto a 2000T and work as expected ( with a possibility of mis-identification of channel/lcn).
None of this is possible with a 5000T and I have no idea about the Aura.
The 2000T is probably obsolete, there have been no updates for ages. The 5000T isn’t much better with the last update over a year ago.