What We Know So Far ...

[Duncan]

Got mine today after years of a Fox-T2, seems OK ATM even if very different, the main thing I don't like so far is in guide and recordings, everything is so big, not as much on the sreen as the T2. Is there a way to change this?

 

[Steppy]

Set up my friends last night and I agree the guide is not its best feature..... hopefully it will improve. Far too big with not enough information on display. I think she will be ok with it as her current 9150 only shows 5 channels and no PIP so she will probably think it looks very pretty, but certainly not as slick as the HDR. You can't get any information on a programme unless you OK it which brings up the recording options along with it, but after a bit of a delay.... there is quite a lot of waiting on this machine, it’s not instant like the HDR

It took me a while to work out what the guide is doing as the first time it opens up it just a simple Now & Next display of all the channels, its only on right arrow toggle that you go into the actual guide. I like the yellow timeline to show where you are in each programme, but I'm still undecided if I like the overlapping style the guide uses. It seems that each program when selected shows a minimum width of 1 hour even if its news of only 15mins. I was also confused by the red/orange line that shows on top of each program which I worked out to be the currently selected programmes length. Difficult to explain, but basically when you select e.g. the news (say 15min in length) it highlights an hours’ worth of display, but the red/orange line is only shown on the top edge is for the length of the actual programme, this then shows there is another programme hiding behind the selected box. When you then right arrow to the next programme the box doesn't move but the next programme is displayed. Confusing, but I think I quite liked, but I may change my mind......

I am a bit confused by the various symbols that appear throughout the guide that are circles with a play symbol in them, a bit like the Sky Plus logo. Sometimes they are bold and solid, other times not bold and with a dotted line around them. One of them is shown in the manual as 'Playback Possible' so whether its something to do with what you can or cant watch when you have various timers set due to MUX limitations???

Someone mentioned there wasn't a way of jumping days in the guide, but if you press and hold right arrow it brings up the next seven days then you can just arrow along to the day you want. Shame the guide doesn't show you what the day is you have selected, it only shows the current day in the top right hand corner. If you roll through the guide and go into the next day it briefly displays the next day in large writing in the middle of the screen but then goes away.

I like the way the recorded programmes are ordered. Folders may of gone, but they are replaced by nested thumbnails which I like. These can be displayed in day, programme or channel order.

The remote seems to be getting a lot of stick, but I find it OK if a bit clicky on the navigation arrows. The only thing I would change would be the OK button as its immediately next to and level with the arrow keys (apart from a slight dip) so it’s not so easy to use without looking at it and is very easy to click the wrong button.

I managed to play SD content from my HDR downstairs without issue and could fast forward and rewind OK. It also played HD content from the HDR too (I have encryption flags removed), but it wasn't smooth, so that maybe more of an issue with my WiFi, but I am no expert.

Skipping forward and backwards worked well too.

I found the hard drive to be pretty noisy which surprised me as our HDR and Toppy are REALLY quiet. Its got a kind of roaring sound to it so I'm wondering how the 1TB one will be as that's what I will be getting. At least I know it will be going downstairs as there is no way my other half would put up with that roaring away in the night.

All in all I like it, but it will take some getting used to

 

[Black Hole]

so that maybe more of an issue with my WiFi

Probably. There is no reason to suspect the 4000 doesn't have the right codecs, and my HiDef steaming stutters over Powerline.

 

[Luke]

I am a bit confused by the various symbols that appear throughout the guide that are circles with a play symbol in them, a bit like the Sky Plus logo. Sometimes they are bold and solid, other times not bold and with a dotted line around them. One of them is shown in the manual as 'Playback Possible' so whether its something to do with what you can or cant watch when you have various timers set due to MUX limitations???

Solid circles with a play symbol in them indicates a programme that can be played now, and broken circles with a play symbol are those that are to be recorded either from that time slot of the same episode from another time slot.

On Youview recorders this works very well and selecting a programme to play from the guide where that programme has been recorded will start to play the recording in preference to the catch-up service. I am suspicious that the FVP-4000T goes for the catch-up service instead of playing the potential better recorded programme. Can you confirm what the FVP-4000T does?

 

[Steppy]

I will need to unbox it again tonight to check up on that as I am fitting it at the weekend hopefully. I just wanted to get all the updates and tuning done last night at home and a quick familiarisation so I am prepared when all the telephone support questions start occurring

From what I remember the symbols seemed to be quite random.... Am I understanding it correctly that if its a solid circle it means I have a version of that programme already recorded and can be played from the guide rather than going into the library and playing it? Still dont understand what you are saying about the broken circle symbols because if it was due to be recorded wouldn't it be a red dot? maybe it will become clear tonight

 

[Owen Smith]

Given how rubbish the 4000T appears to be (no skip buttons, awful EPG, no HD recording export, silly power supply) I think I'll be giving it a miss. I've realised what I actually want is something with better streaming support to complement my HDR Fox T2 (which with custom firmware is almost perfect as a FreewView PVR, shame about the IP channel numbers). So that's what I'll probably get, something like a Roku 3. All I want is ITV and C4 catchup (real shame the HDR Fox T2 doesn't have them).

 

[gomezz]

Actually it does have skip buttons: Press Play or OK to bring up the playbar then use cursor /left / right.

 

[Owen Smith]

Actually it does have skip buttons: Press Play or OK to bring up the playbar then use cursor /left / right.

No, that's not the same. It requires twice as many button presses, and I believe the play time bar appears on screen obscuring part of the picture until it times out and disappears. Not acceptable.

 

[Brian]

No, that's not the same. It requires twice as many button presses, and I believe the play time bar appears on screen obscuring part of the picture until it times out and disappears. Not acceptable.

It doesn't require twice as many button presses, just one more! The time bar can be dismissed if required.

 

[Owen Smith]

It doesn't require twice as many button presses, just one more! The time bar can be dismissed if required.

And dismissing the time bar is yet another button press. No, just no.

 

[grahamlthompson]

No, that's not the same. It requires twice as many button presses, and I believe the play time bar appears on screen obscuring part of the picture until it times out and disappears. Not acceptable.

Is it just me, I find it very hard to understand why having to press one button followed by another is unacceptable ? At 70 don't have an issue with this (how hard is it to press one button and then another - do these people drive a car and have to use two feet and a hand to change gear smoothly ). Strongly reminds me of the so called issue (totally a non issue to me), with the way a Foxsat-HDR loads a new guide when pressing the guide button, and instantly displays the epg if you press the schedule button and then red. The number of posters with the same reaction frankly baffles me, they would rather wait 30+ seconds for the current programme thumbnail to appear.

As to the part of the picture being obscured also baffles me, surely all you need to know is if you have gone far enough forward to resume playback or if you need a touch backwards).

Not having seen the epg I can't comment, but the programme info on a Freetime box is so small I guess anyone with any sort of vision difficulties would find it difficult to read. Perhaps Humax have gone the other way and made the epg more easily readable.

 

[Brian]

And dismissing the time bar is yet another button press. No, just no.

If you are so against this product, you will probably have no further need to comment in this thread.

 

[prpr]

It doesn't require twice as many button presses, just one more! The time bar can be dismissed if required.

One more than one is two, which is twice as many. It's not a hard calculation.

Is it just me, I find it very hard to understand why having to press one button followed by another is unacceptable ?

Because it's pointless and unnecessary.

As to the part of the picture being obscured also baffles me, surely all you need to know is if you have gone far enough forward to resume playback or if you need a touch backwards).

Er, you need to see the picture to know whether you've gone far enough. That's obviously harder if it's obscured. Who cares what the flamin' timebar says? It's not important.

If you are so against this product, you will probably have no further need to comment in this thread.

So much for free speech. Go on censor me again. You know you want to.

 

[Black Hole]

Because it's pointless and unnecessary.

Yep. It surprises me that people are so willing to accept such a loss of functional convenience, or that Humax decided to eliminate the relevant buttons from the handset.

Suppression of free discussion is not acceptable, or even the hint of it.

 

[Brian]

It doesn't require twice as many button presses, just one more! The time bar can be dismissed if required.

One more than one is two, which is twice as many. It's not a hard calculation.
Because it's pointless and unnecessary.

When I skip through adverts, it usually requires a couple of skips forwards, and occasionally a skip or two backwards. On the FVP-4000T, this requires one more button press than a HDR-FOX T2, definitely Not twice as many!

So much for free speech. Go on censor me again. You know you want to.

I have no wish to censor you or anyone else for that matter, but I can't see the point of someone commenting on a product that they have no interest in, nor have any intention to purchase.

 

[grahamlthompson]

Because it's pointless and unnecessary.

.

Much like your post

Talk about throwing the baby away with the bath water . It's clear you will not be buying this product no matter how much it improves with future software updates. It's already way superior to the first generation Youview boxes. I still say your reasons are completely trivial. The perfect pvr has never existed hwever the open platform for user updates provided by the Topfield (sadly SD only) boxes and the capability to modify the user interface using TAP's came close.

How much of the picture do you need to see to know where you are (talk about clutching at straws).

No one is censoring your post, merely querying your somewhat extreme views.

I entirely agree it's not as user friendly as the excellent HDR FOX T2, but on the other hand it has capabilities the earlier box does not have. As it happens there are none currently that I do not already have (including a live Freeview TV server to mobile devices connected to my router). The few extra button presses would certainly not influence me in buying one.

 

[grahamlthompson]

Yep. It surprises me that people are so willing to accept such a loss of functional convenience, or that Humax decided to eliminate the relevant buttons from the handset.

Suppression of free discussion is not acceptable, or even the hint of it.

There isn't any. Presumably we are allowed to point out the points we disagree with.

 

[Brian]

Yep. It surprises me that people are so willing to accept such a loss of functional convenience, or that Humax decided to eliminate the relevant buttons from the handset.

Suppression of free discussion is not acceptable, or even the hint of it.

The skip facility on the FVP-4000T is actually more convenient than that on the HDR-FOX T2, due to the layout of buttons on the remote control.
There is no suggestion of free discussion being suppressed.

 

[Owen Smith]

As to the part of the picture being obscured also baffles me, surely all you need to know is if you have gone far enough forward to resume playback or if you need a touch backwards).

I watch a lot of sub-titled stuff on BBC4. The time bar has a nasty habit of appearing on top of the sub-titles, meaning I have to jump back far enough that the time bar will have disappeared by the time the sub-titles appear with something I need to read. This is bad enough on the HDR Fox T2 when I pause a programme, but if it occurs when skipping as well that's even worse. If I miss some important picture content while reading the subtitles or versa I often skip back 15 seconds, if that means lots of button presses and the time bar appearing over the top of the subtitles that's going to be a fairly wretched experience.

And there is a point to my posting in this thread. Namely, if Humax are reading to persuade them they have made a mistake and change the product.

Question: is Freeview Play like Youview in that the UI is dictated by Youview/Freeview Play? Or are Humax free to provide whatever UI they like as with plain old Freeview? (In which case why did they change what was already nearly perfect ie. the HDR Fox T2 UI?).

And I don't like the HDR Fox T2 UI because it's the first one I used. I started on the Pace Twin and that had a lovely UI. Fortunately the HDR Fox T2 is very similar to the Pace Twin. Alas people seem to be failing to learn the lessons of those two excellent products.

 

[Owen Smith]

The skip facility on the FVP-4000T is actually more convenient than that on the HDR-FOX T2, due to the layout of buttons on the remote control.
There is no suggestion of free discussion being suppressed.

No it isn't, I can get used to where buttons are on the remote and I'm fine with the HDR Fox T2 ones.