[Hiro]

I don't know if this happens with all makes of Freesat box, but is there a way to stop my Humax FOXSAT HD box from automatically retuning and checking for new software every morning at 02:50 am in Freesat mode and 03:00 am in non-freesat mode?

Because of this I can't record anything that is on at these times because the retune ends up in the recording. It's worse in freesat mode as it goes through a complete retune (taking 5 minutes or more), and when finished switches back to BBC1 from whatever channel I left it on. It doesn't do a full retune in non-freesat mode, but there is still the on screen prompt asking if I want to check for new channels, etc, and then a loss of picture for about 30 seconds or so before exiting back to the programme I was recording.

It does this in both modes despite no input from me (it automatically selects Yes at the prompt). I can't find an option in the setup relating to this in order to stop it.

[SkipTracer]

I am not aware of my HDR retuning everyday but I believe it does a bit of house keeping about that time of day.

The only time my HDR retunes is when theres a channel update which sometimes feels like everyday.

Sadly AFAIK you can't turn off auto tune.

[Hiro]

At first I thought it must have been pure coincidence and bad timing that it happened at the same time there were a couple of films I wanted to record on consecutive nights, but it happened the next time, then again, and then again. So I deliberately set up a weeks worth of recordings from 2.45am in freesat mode and each one was interrupted by this automatic channel and software scan. I then did the same thing in non-freesat mode and everyone was interrupted. It's not so bad if there is a +1 channel as I can schedule it for the hour later, but it would be great if there were an option to turn it off as you can do with Freeview boxes.

There is a setting on my Freeview box for "Network Monitoring", which lets you know when there are new channels. There is also a setting called this in the Humax settings when doing a manual non-freesat tune, but selecting off doesn't stop it so I'm assuming it's not the same thing, or it's not working.

The thing that gets me is that there is a prompt first asking if I want to do this, but even though there is no input from me, since I'm in bed at that time, it automatically selects the Yes button itself any way.

I have contacted Humax about it, but I've as yet not heard back from them.

[tv-Addict]

I was having similar trouble earlier in the year...
I never saw a retune prompt on the recording, but my recordings always stopped at 03:30 (programme is now on at 04:20 ish so is no longer affected)

The 03:00 is supposed to be invisible housekeeping, and not affect recordings, so I don't know what is going on.
(btw: I only used freesat mode)

Maybe the "upcoming" software update will fix it...

[Hiro]

Still no word from Humax. It's now been two weeks.

What update is this? I know there was one a couple of months back, but that was just for HDR boxes as far as I'm aware. Am I right in thinking you have a HDR box? I have just the HD one, so my recordings are done to an external HDD/DVD Recorder, which means anything that comes on screen, like prompts, the EPG, etc., will also appear on the recording. Recordings to an internal HDD won't.

[tv-Addict]

Originally Posted by Hiro

Still no word from Humax. It's now been two weeks.

What update is this? I know there was one a couple of months back, but that was just for HDR boxes as far as I'm aware.

I believe it is available OTA from this evening (for HD & HDR).

Originally Posted by Hiro

Am I right in thinking you have a HDR box? I have just the HD one, so my recordings are done to an external HDD/DVD Recorder, which means anything that comes on screen, like prompts, the EPG, etc., will also appear on the recording. Recordings to an internal HDD won't.

My misunderstanding - yes I have an HDR, so my comments are not particularly relevant...

[GaseousClay]

Hiro, when you make a recording overnight are you just leaving the box on, on the appropriate channel and setting your dvd recorder to start at the correct time, or are you making a reminder reservation? Maybe the later will prevent the 'house keeping' from interupting?

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by Hiro

Still no word from Humax. It's now been two weeks.

What update is this? I know there was one a couple of months back, but that was just for HDR boxes as far as I'm aware. Am I right in thinking you have a HDR box? I have just the HD one, so my recordings are done to an external HDD/DVD Recorder, which means anything that comes on screen, like prompts, the EPG, etc., will also appear on the recording. Recordings to an internal HDD won't.

Firmware and loader

http://www.humaxdigital.com/global/s...ategory_seq=61

Firmware only OTA from late afternoon today

[Hiro]

Originally Posted by GaseousClay

Hiro, when you make a recording overnight are you just leaving the box on, on the appropriate channel and setting your dvd recorder to start at the correct time, or are you making a reminder reservation? Maybe the later will prevent the 'house keeping' from interupting?

If I'm recording from a channel that's only available in non-freesat mode the box has to be left switched on and on that channel. The option to set a reminder isn't available because there is only Now and Next available in the EPG, so I'd have to sit up till that programme was listed, and the Time option in the settings (which allows you to set a time to bring the box out of standby, the channel to come out of standby to, and then the time for the box to go back to standby) is only available in freesat mode.

If it's a channel that's also on freesat then I use the Time option rather than leave the box on.

Next time I want to record something that is on a channel that's on freesat I will try the reminder option. Does the reminder bring the box out of standby, or does it only change channel for you?

[Hiro]

Originally Posted by tv-Addict

My misunderstanding - yes I have an HDR, so my comments are not particularly relevant...

Not really, it still shows something was happening to you at or around this time too, that also interrupted your recordings.

[GaseousClay]

Originally Posted by Hiro

Does the reminder bring the box out of standby, or does it only change channel for you?

Yep it will bring it out of standby and it should turn it back off after the programme finishes

[Hiro]

Originally Posted by GaseousClay

Yep it will bring it out of standby and it should turn it back off after the programme finishes

I decided to go and check if it did or not, to answer my own question, but the reminder I set (for Murder, She Wrote at 2.15 on BBC1) didn't bring the box out of standby. The time of the reminder came and went.

[GaseousClay]

Originally Posted by Hiro

I decided to go and check if it did or not, to answer my own question, but the reminder I set (for Murder, She Wrote at 2.15 on BBC1) didn't bring the box out of standby. The time of the reminder came and went.

How strange, I too tested it before posting on Dickinsons Real Deal at 2:00 on itv. When you pressed the standby button did the box then display the time at which it should have rebooted? Maybe the time between setting it to standby and the time it was due to restart were too close? I had about a 4 minute difference when I tried it

[Hiro]

I don't have the display on as I find them distracting. I set up the reminder within a minute or so of my last post, which was 1.55 pm. That's nearly 20 minutes before it was due to start.

I'll try another one for Countdown at 3.25 pm.

ADDENDUM: I've just noticed my pop-up blocker has blocked 110 pop-ups in the time I've been on the forum.

[Hiro]

Originally Posted by GaseousClay

I had about a 4 minute difference when I tried it

I obviously wasn't paying attention as I missed the bit that you left only four minutes.

So I've just been and set another one for something that was due to start at 2.45 pm and this time it did bring the box out of standby, and immediately too. Not sure why it didn't with the previous reminder.

[GaseousClay]

I've just tried another reservation this time with a long space between placing in standby and reboot time. There was no clock display this time but the box did reboot at the start of the programme. Maybe your first attempt coincided with the BBC not flagging the start correctly who knows. Lets hope this method works for your over night recordings. Let us know how it goes.

[Hiro]

Whilst it did bring it out of standby the second time, when I went back after it was due to finish (15 minutes later) the box was still on. So it looks like it only switches it on, but that's OK, that's all I need it to do.

I'll set a reminder later for something that starts on or around the time I keep getting these retunes and see if it stops them.

I wonder if Humax didn't get back to me because they knew an update was due? Maybe that'll sort it.

[ozsat]

I found by FoxsatHD was going off at 3am each morning when doing its checks. This meant it could be used for recording from overnight.

I reported it to Humax (about a year ago) who insisted that the box only did it if it was inactive - which I insisted it did it anyway.

I could get them to except it was a problem

[Hiro]

I was just reading a thread about the update for HDR boxes and Humax support did pop up quite a few times. Some one there mentioned they sent several emails over several months about an issue they were having and none of them were answered.

[ozsat]

Originally Posted by ozsat

I found by FoxsatHD was going off at 3am each morning when doing its checks. This meant it could be used for recording from overnight.

I reported it to Humax (about a year ago) who insisted that the box only did it if it was inactive - which I insisted it did it anyway.

I could get them to except it was a problem

I meant to say "I couldn't get them to except it was a problem.

[Hiro]

I reserved a film last night on Movies4Men that was due to start at 1.15 am and finish at 3.00 am. I left the box in freesat mode. I made an edit to the reservation to add a couple of minutes on to the start time and extend the end time to include the film that followed. In total the reservation was set for about 3 hours 15 minutes. It came on at the correct time, however, at exactly 1 hour 47 minutes in to the recording the picture goes black because the box went back in to standby at 3.00 am, the end time of the original reservation. It totally ignored that I added time to the end to include the following film.

No sign of a retune at 2.50 am though, but still no good if you can't set a timed recording with confidence that the box will actually remain on, or not decide to do a retune on its own. I'm seriously thinking of getting rid of this one and trying a different make, or just hooking my Sky box back up. There's not enough HD content at the moment any way to make me want to go out and get a HD TV yet.

[GaseousClay]

I'm suprised the edited reservation reverted back to it's original values, though you could have tried just setting two reservations, one folowing the other. But at least the 'watch reserve' does actually defer the house keeping.

[BenSat]

Hi

With regards to the initial topic of this thread:

I stopped using my Humax Foxsat about six months ago, when it ruined a recording for me. I had set my recorder ro record Nero Wolfe on BBC2 (a 90-minute programme).

Sixty minutes into the programme (at 2.50am) it interrupted it to do a full channel search. After displaying: Added channels:0, Removed channels:0, Changed channels:0 it then reverted to normal viewing. On BBC1. To add insult to injury, at 3am it also did a software check. By then it didn’t matter. The recording was already ruined.

The next day I didn’t check any of this beforehand, I just started watching the programme. When I realised that I would never get to see how it ended I was so furious I nearly smashed the Foxsat there and then. In the end I didn’t, but I did stop using it regularly.

I have switched it on now and again but it still insists on interrupting every single night and that, to me, is totally contrary to its stated purpose. Surely it’s supposed to facilitate the viewing of TV-channels, not to keep interrupting them. Especially since there are many (sensible) ways to do a software/channel check.

(And it seems especially silly at the moment to check for new software every night when the last two updates were almost fourteen months apart?)

Does anyone know if other Freesat boxes does the same thing? In other words, is the problem the Freesat specifications (like the equally annoying disabling of the S-Video output when switching to most HD Channels), or is this something exlusive to the Humax brand?

If a new software download should remedy this problem in the future, I hope somebody tells me. I actually would like to start using it again. There were things about it that I liked too, but I have no use for a box that can’t be used during the night as well.

[Hiro]

I think I may do what I planned to do a while back and get a quad LNB fitted so that I can have both the FOXSAT HD and Sky box connected. Then I can use the Sky box for any late night/early morning recordings safe in the knowledge that I am much more likely to actually get the whole thing.

Wasn't all this technology supposed to make our lives easier?

[Hiro]

Originally Posted by GaseousClay

I'm suprised the edited reservation reverted back to it's original values, though you could have tried just setting two reservations, one folowing the other. But at least the 'watch reserve' does actually defer the house keeping.

Decided to try two reservations with Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Newsnight on BBC2 earlier. I was expecitng it to stay on after buzzcocks with the second reservation being immediately after, but at the end of Buzzcocks it switched off and didn't come back on for Newsnight.

I think it's fair to say it's a bit buggy.