What we Know so Far . . .

[EEPhil]

EEPhil: Not sure why the 4:3 issue would put you off. Are you seriously intending to watch the output of a HiDef PVR on an old 4:3 TV? Are you sure you are not reading this as buggy display of a 4:3 picture on a 16:9 TV? You have me puzzled!

I only have access to an old 4:3 set and a 5 year old 9150t at present. The skipping BBC channels (eg. Family Guy, Points of View) and epg not filling problems and inability to transfer programmes from the PVR to PC easily are of more interest than the actual picture quality issues. However, in picture terms, the 9150t outputs a 16:9 letterbox on a 4:3 device and doesn't go into 14:9 by itself .

With only enough money to buy either a 16:9 tv or a PVR, the PVR is more important to me - so yes you could say I'm seriously intending using a HiDef PVR on an old tv. The PVR part of the equation is more important than the HiDef. But the HiDef is there for future proofing.

If I understood Luke's reply then it would imply that the 2000t when set to display on a 4:3 device cannot be set to display 16:9 letterbox on BBC and ITV as it goes into auto - which appears to be 14:9 on BBC/ITV. More correctly, it can be set - but doesn't work. Maybe it does do what it is supposed to do with "AFD descriptor: 16:9 (with shoot & protect 14:9 center)" but cropping the sides of the picture (more than the overscan does) is not what I want. I want the picture choices as they are on the 9150t. IF the 2000t cannot do this at present then I'm having second thoughts.

 

[MartinLiddle]

I don't have any DLNA devices lying around (unless someone can suggest a suitable media player for a Linux computer)

VLC is one possibility.

 

[MontysEvilTwin]

Regarding a lack of aerial loop through when the HDR-2000T is in standby:

I use a cheap distribution amp to feed my various devices

That'll work fine but if you don't already have one you'll have to buy one. The power required to run it will likely be higher than leaving the 2000T on, and will be higher than if a standby option with loop through were enabled.

Not much point having a loop-through at all then. I read that as a bad mistake, possibly to be corrected by firmware update.

At least if Humax issue an update it will give AF123 and 'the gurus' something to customise

 

[EdTall]

Has anyone tried?? As far as I can see only one of us has bought a 2000T so far!

We can however extrapolate from HDR-FOX. There is nothing wrong with the DLNA server, it is the nature of the content that causes trouble with the DLNA clients. It is reasonable to assume that HiDef content will still be locked down, and if unlocked (by other means) will almost certainly be beyond the capability of the clients built into the current generation of smart TVs.

It's not the server end that needs to improve, it's the client devices.


Some of us use Logitech remotes to overcome this.

I tried a Panasonic DMR-PWT420EB PVR and Blueray Player and was able to stream to non Panasonic DLNA devices, no problem, the quality was not great, can't remember if I tried HD or SD recording. I returned it since it was restrictive in other ways.
Is there a very cheap logitech everybody uses?
The lack of display is a real put off for me.

 

[Ezra Pound]

The Logitech Harmony 200 is about cheapest, although there are other brands that are cheaper, This,One 4 All or the one HERE for example. I think Logitech have pulled out of the Remote Control market, unless they changed their plans, link HERE

 

[Peter Christy]

Black Hole & MontysEvilTwin Re: Loop-through. Fair comment, but the current consumption of a distribution amp is trivial. You are right that it would be a nuisance having to buy one, though. I already had one for other reasons, so for me, it was a no-brainer! Non-techy households would probably be unaware of the option.

EPhil: OK, I an see where you are coming from now! The 2000T has both scart and phono output connectors. The phonos are composite video + stereo audio. The scart is selectable between composite and RGB. Scart (and presumably the phonos) are 576i only. You can select the display screen to be either 16:9 or 4:3. If you select 4:3, you can choose between AUTO, Letterbox 16:9, Letterbox 14:9 or centre display (according to the handbook!). Centre appears to crop the edges, and the others do what you would expect. All this is according to the handbook. I have a small 4:3 telly somewhere with a scart connector, but the house is in turmoil at the moment due to the pending move. If I can find it, and if you want me to, I can try and fire it up and see what happens in reality!

Martin: VLC! Urgh! I've never had much luck compiling that, its a real dog's dinner! I normally use mplayer via the smplayer gui, which just works AND enables me to use the GPU to offload HiDef decoding from the cpu - very important on my small laptop! Although VLC claims to be able to do this, I've never succeeded in getting it to work. Even in Windoze, it wouldn't play back HiDef smoothly the last time I tried (Micro$oft's own player handled it fine!). I believe there is a new version out now, perhaps I'll give it another go, but life really is too short to mess around with it, especially when MPlayer works so beautifully! I know SMPlayer has some networking capabilities, but I've never explored them before. I'll have to investigate.....

 

[Luke]

If I understood Luke's reply then it would imply that the 2000t when set to display on a 4:3 device cannot be set to display 16:9 letterbox on BBC and ITV as it goes into auto - which appears to be 14:9 on BBC/ITV. More correctly, it can be set - but doesn't work.

Yes that is exactly what happened using a 4:3 TV and attempting to use the 2000T to display in the different formats.
BTW The HDR-FOX T2 works OK i.e. the same as the 9150T for 4:3 TVs.

 

[EEPhil]

EPhil: OK, I an see where you are coming from now! The 2000T has both scart and phono output connectors. The phonos are composite video + stereo audio. The scart is selectable between composite and RGB. Scart (and presumably the phonos) are 576i only. You can select the display screen to be either 16:9 or 4:3. If you select 4:3, you can choose between AUTO, Letterbox 16:9, Letterbox 14:9 or centre display (according to the handbook!). Centre appears to crop the edges, and the others do what you would expect. All this is according to the handbook.

It was Luke's observation (at least my interpretation of ) that the auto, 16:9,14:9 and centre DON'T work as expected. It just does auto, and on BBC/ITV the AFD descriptor screws it up - probably as designed!

I have a small 4:3 telly somewhere with a scart connector, but the house is in turmoil at the moment due to the pending move. If I can find it, and if you want me to, I can try and fire it up and see what happens in reality!

It would be interesting to know what you find trying this, but don't go out of your way if it causes too much trouble!
Many thanks,
Phil.

 

[Luke]

EPhil: OK, I an see where you are coming from now! The 2000T has both scart and phono output connectors. The phonos are composite video + stereo audio. The scart is selectable between composite and RGB. Scart (and presumably the phonos) are 576i only. You can select the display screen to be either 16:9 or 4:3. If you select 4:3, you can choose between AUTO, Letterbox 16:9, Letterbox 14:9 or centre display (according to the handbook!). Centre appears to crop the edges, and the others do what you would expect. All this is according to the handbook. I have a small 4:3 telly somewhere with a scart connector, but the house is in turmoil at the moment due to the pending move. If I can find it, and if you want me to, I can try and fire it up and see what happens in reality!

Why would you results on your 20000T be any different to mine?

BTW If you connect the 2000T to a widescreen via scart you can try out the 4:3 display modes. If you want you could go further look at the TV standing towards one side of it so that it looks like a 4:3 TV!

 

[Peter Christy]

EEPhil & Luke: Found the telly, but the picture was so dim that it was hard to see what was going on! Certainly it responded to different channels in different ways, and didn't seem to be doing what the settings instructed it to! It looks as if I can confirm what Luke found!

Having said that, the 4:3 picture seemed perfectly watchable - or rather it would have done if the telly wasn't so duff! At least people looked the right shape. And of course, this should only affect the output display, not what is recorded, so lifting stuff off or buying a 16:9 TV would mean that you would then be able to watch your recordings in the correct original format. Not sure if that helps at all, but there you go!

 

[EEPhil]

EEPhil & Luke: Found the telly, but the picture was so dim that it was hard to see what was going on! Certainly it responded to different channels in different ways, and didn't seem to be doing what the settings instructed it to! It looks as if I can confirm what Luke found! ... Not sure if that helps at all, but there you go!

It helps in the sense that I might wait and see if a software update or two sorts the problems out. Or possibly look at trying to get a HDR FOX-T2 from somewhere. Or stick with the irritations of the 9150t.
Many thanks for your input!

 

[Squuiid]

Looks like the HDR-2000T is based on a broadcom 7429 chip
The HD[R]-Fox T2 is a 7405

Wow. The 7429 in the 2000T looks like a significant jump in performance over the 7405 in the FOX T2.
It would be great if someone could post a video to Youtube showing real world performance of the UX on the 2000T.

 

[Ezra Pound]

As the 2000T is now available and the info. in post #1 wasn't really relevant any more, I have replaced it with a summary of info. from this thread, as stated I don't own a 2000T at present, so if owners see any errors let me know so that I can correct them

 

[selectortone]

I don't have any DLNA devices lying around (unless someone can suggest a suitable media player for a Linux computer), or I would check the server capabilities

You can stream via DLNA to a Linux computer running XBMC.

 

[af123]

As the 2000T is now available and the info. in post #1 wasn't really relevant any more, I have replaced it with a summary of info. from this thread, as stated I don't own a 2000T at present, so if owners see any errors let me know so that I can correct them

Looks like a good summary to me - only thing I spotted is that the 2000T has a two-colour LED, just the one, not a ring.

 

[Ezra Pound]

thanks - updated

 

[Brian]

As the 2000T is now available and the info. in post #1 wasn't really relevant any more, I have replaced it with a summary of info. from this thread, as stated I don't own a 2000T at present, so if owners see any errors let me know so that I can correct them

Does this box definitely not have a CAM slot? Photos show what looks to be a slot on the front panel to the left of the USB port, perhaps an owner can confirm this.

 

[Luke]

I no longer have a 2000T but I did examine that part of the box. It is just some stange lines on the molding. No hidden doors here. Whether there is one somewhere else perhaps some one who still has theirs can confirm?

 

[Luke]

A few trivial differences ...

The 2000T has a BBC Sports app and a BBC News App. The sports App looked like it is intended for red button coverage.

Although the 2000T remote has an AD button instead of an Audio button it is a name change only. I.e. the AD button can be used to select the left and right channels.

The 2000T remote appears to be permanently stuck on the equivalent of the RM-F04's mode 1.
edit 7/11/13: The remote's mode can be changed.

An HDR-FOX T2 remote (RM-F04) in mode 1 will operate the 2000T and have the added advantage of a usable WIDE button.

I got a couple of remote control buffering delays while in the menus which I never had on an HDR-FOX T2.

A couple of manual recordings resulted in files that could be played on the 2000T but not on a Networked HDR-FOX t2 and they could not be exported satisfactorily. (See myhumax.org/forum/topic/corrupt-recordings for details). I wonder if what was exported gives further clues about the internals of the 2000T?

Auto tune is broke compared to the HDR-FOX T2 1.2.32. The selection of a region only effects PSB1 and PSB2, for the others the lowest frequency muxies were stored.

Audio Description was not as clear as with the HDR-FOX T2's SD 1.2.20 but I did not have time or the inclination to check if it was any better than the other HDR-FOX T2 versions.

The disc storage screen shows percentage free instead of GB free.

On the menus the red/green/yellow/blue symbols are square instead of round (to match the remote).

The loader splashscreen has faint gray triangles in the background.

The power brick is 12V negative outer Ktec P043 (KSAS04B1200250HK). Ignoring the pins the maximum dimensions are 39x48x90mm. The cord length is 50 inches.

No power on/off switch round the back for when it freezes. Unplug the power cord instead?

I looked but could not identify any differences in the menu items, including the hidden menus, bar the low power option.

I neglected to compare the epg scroll speed with an HDR-FOX T2.

 

[PokeADonkey]

Just bought a 2000T from Argos at 179.99 as my 9100T is quickly dying and was kind of hoping I'd get the FOX T2 as that was the image shown in the catalogue; however the 2000T was in the box.

While I've no experience of the FOX T2 I can only compare it to my 9100T and find that while I greatly welcome the ability to FTP video across from the 9100T (via my laptop by means of Media Controller s/ware) to the new box and am able to watch the transferred content straight away, there are more basic features this box doesn't do that I believe it should.

One simple example is having a "back" button to change channels quickly back to the previous one you were watching (very handy for swapping channels during ad breaks).

Another, more fundamental to me however, is the ability to record two channels while watching a third. This is something that was possible with the 9100T, albeit I was only able to watch a third channel if it wasn't greyed out on the guide (I'm not technical, but it's something to do with the two channels being recorded appearing on the same mutex [??] or something like that).

Either way it's something that'll be sorely missed (until such time my additional Huwai YouView box arrives that is, which will serve as IPTV and "third" channel device).

The lack of front panel display isn't something that is particularly welcome also, as I'd like to see on the display what channel is currently set without the TV on (so I can swap channels to CBBC for example so my son can rewind the TV back half an hour or so when he gets up).

The ability to arrange recordings in folders is great; however, I'm wondering how much it'll get in the way when a large number of recordings are present long term.

Bizarrely however despite cost savings on the features mentioned above Humax in their wisdom no doubt spent a lot of time / money on developing a TV portal, which apart from having BBC iPlayer and YouTube seems pretty pointless. In fact the list of handful apps that are shown as available on line seem pretty pointless also (notwithstanding the fact however the portal may well be a new facility hence the limited number of apps available).

I'd much rather they preserve essentials like being able to record two channels while watching another and a channel "back" button.

Anyway, this is my first post and first thoughts of the 2000T vs my aging 9100T, cheers.