Humax PVR conflict

Gary Toolan

I've recently updated my Sat dish to dual LNB and reinstalled PVR - shows two inputs.
It still wont allow me to record 2 different channels at same time - any suggestions? I presume its me - but cannot find anything relevant in manual.
All suggestions gratefully received....

Gary Toolan

further tests show no problem recording 2 diff channels together and watching 3rd, in real time - problem is with advance scheduling.
No third program setup to record (that I can find) - more investigation needed...

Trevord

Reading your posts it seems to me you might be expecting more from the HUMAX box than it can offer.

You can record two channels at the same time and watch a third channel, but you have a very restricted choice for the third freesat channel, as it needs to be on the same transponder as one of the channel already recording. (You can of course still watch RTE 1, 2 etc from your aerial while those two freesat channels are recording)

If you are watching a particular freesat channel and have recordings set up for two other channels you may get a conflict message if the channel being watched is not on the same transponders as either of the channels set to record.

You then need to decide whether you want to cancel one of your recordings or stop watching the third channel.

Gary Toolan

Thanks, Trevord, I am aware of transponder issue, but its not relevant here.
Issue is what prevents scheduling of recordings - nothing else is scheduled, but it will only all 1 channel to be scheduled.
Strange............

Gary Toolan

Sorry for being so quick to dismiss your suggestion, Trevord - I think you were correct after all!!
It appears I wasn't counting the channel I was watching, before I switched to EPG - effectively a third channel, and if on the wrong transponder.........
I've just set watched channel to UTV and set timer to record C4 & BBC1 at 10pm and it accepted it no problem.
Many thanks for taking the trouble to reply.

Gary Toolan

That should have read watching UTV, and timer set to UTV/BBC1 ...

Trevord

no problem

holidaysong

I had three separate recordings fail today on my Humax Foxsat HDR.

FIVE @ 2.15pm, ITV3 @ 3.10pm and BBC2 @ 4.30pm.

The electricity wasn't out so it's not that which caused it. Also, there were no other recordings scheduled with them that could have caused the to fail.

When I turned on the machine this evening at 6pm the recordings didn't actually show up in the media list as failed. Instead, they showed up on my list of scheduled recordings (even though the time for all these recordings had passed). When I went into the guide and back into the scheduled recordings the programmes had disappeared from today and showed up for tomorrow. All the shows are on series link and all are shown daily.

It's not the first time this has happened. A few weekends ago I went away on Friday night and came back on Monday and not one of my recordings over the weekend had been done. My flatmate had been there all weekend though (who knows how the system works) and said all the recordings should have taken place.

Any ideas what is causing this to happen? It's very annoying as I've absolutely no idea when it will decide not to record stuff.

FRIENDO

Is it possible the 3 recordings where over lapping with each other, you did not mention the finishing times for the recordings.

If the problem continues you may have to try a Factory reset

holidaysong

No none of them overlapped at all. I'll give it another while before attempting a factory reset. Would be a real pain to have to set up all my recordings again.

FRIENDO

Just in case, don't forget to alter any recordings for BBC HD with the arrival of BBC one HD tomorrow.

holidaysong

Yeah that's a bit of an inconvenience as it is.

Rick_

Since you've upgraded to 2 LNB inputs, have you completely reset the box so it now knows it has 2 inputs to play with?

This would appear to be the reason why it will only let you schedule one thing at a time.

And like others have said, once you fully reset it to factory settings, you should be able to record two or more channels on the same transponder at the same time (such as BBC 1 London and Channel 5) leaving you with the ability to record any other channels you wish, you can even record multiple things at once if the channels are on the same transponder.

I'm not sure if there is a limit to how many it will record at once, but I imagine you could record BBC 1 London, BBC 2 England, Channel 5, BBC 3, Chartshow TV, The Vault, Flaunt, Bliss and Scuzz all at the same time because all of those channels are contained on the same 2 transponders.

Rick_

After fully checking that out, the Humax HDR can record 4 things at once, 2 per input as long as the two things each input are recording are on the same transponder.

So it is quite possible to record BBC 1 London and BBC 2 England (on transponder 1) and Channel 4 and Film 4 (on transponder 2) all at the same time, whilst watching something back from the hard drive you recorded earlier as well.

The Humax iCord, the HDR's German equivalent, can record 8 things at once (4 per input!)

Martin_F

Paddy C wrote: »

I'm not sure if there is a limit to how many it will record at once, but I imagine you could record BBC 1 London, BBC 2 England, Channel 5, BBC 3, Chartshow TV, The Vault, Flaunt, Bliss and Scuzz all at the same time because all of those channels are contained on the same 2 transponders.

The limit is 2.

At launch of the foxsat - I did read that they did hope to release a f/w update to allow 4 (subject to availabity of channels on 1/2 transponders) - I since read about some unnamed function that they were unable to provide as hoped due to limitations of the speed of the internal hardware... and I suspect this was it. If they have updated the internals of the upcoming box - then it is possible they may support that in future.

Martin_F

Paddy C wrote: »

After fully checking that out, the Humax HDR can record 4 things at once, 2 per input as long as the two things each input are recording are on the same transponder.

Where did you find this? I just tested on mine - 2 max. record BBC1 & ITV - I can watch BBC2 (so it is available on transponder) - but if i try to record - it comes up with a conflict.

Rick_

Apologies, mis-understood the answer given to me when I asked elsewhere.

The box due to the current software will only allow you to record 2 things at once, but it is capable of recording two things from each input at the same time, effectively allowing you to record 4 channels at once, but this has not been implemented yet in the software and is unknown if it ever will be, but the ability is there. It's up to Humax to implement it.

Martin, try recording BBC 1 and ITV again but when you go to BBC 2, press PAUSE, not RECORD. It should let you pause BBC 2 and watch it on delay. So essentially the box is recording 3 things at once but you can't save what is being timeshifted to the hard drive yet, that is coming in a future software upgrade that was due at the end of October and has been temporarily delayed so should be released very shortly.

Trevord

holidaysong wrote: »

I had three separate recordings fail today on my Humax Foxsat HDR.

When I turned on the machine this evening at 6pm the recordings didn't actually show up in the media list as failed. Instead, they showed up on my list of scheduled recordings (even though the time for all these recordings had passed). When I went into the guide and back into the scheduled recordings the programmes had disappeared from today and showed up for tomorrow. All the shows are on series link and all are shown daily.

Any ideas what is causing this to happen? It's very annoying as I've absolutely no idea when it will decide not to record stuff.

Had exact same experience a few weeks ago. My recordings did not fail, they didn't even start!

I actually was there when it happened as it was stuff that I have series linked because occasionally I would be out when they're on. It was like the box failed to see the recordings were scheduled even though you could see they were clearly marked to record when you entered the EPG.

I'm wondering in this case if it was an epg issue rather than an issue with the box itself.

In terms of the occasional record fails that you might get (the ones that actually show up in the list as failed recordings) I think these are caused by the box crashing and rebooting. I have observed that these are more likely when the box hard drive is close to being full e.g. >95% so I am experimenting at the moment with keeping the drive below 80% to see if that makes a difference.

Do PVRs needs some hard disk space as virtual memory ? Could that then lead to a crash when the drive is almost full ?

Martin_F

Trevord wrote: »

Had exact same experience a few weeks ago. My recordings did not fail, they didn't even start!

I actually was there when it happened as it was stuff that I have series linked because occasionally I would be out when they're on. It was like the box failed to see the recordings were scheduled even though you could see they were clearly marked to record when you entered the EPG.

I'm wondering in this case if it was an epg issue rather than an issue with the box itself.

In terms of the occasional record fails that you might get (the ones that actually show up in the list as failed recordings) I think these are caused by the box crashing and rebooting. I have observed that these are more likely when the box hard drive is close to being full e.g. >95% so I am experimenting at the moment with keeping the drive below 80% to see if that makes a difference.

Last year I had a whole week and half of series links fail while away on holidays with unknown reason. When I powered on the unit - the first thing it did was suggest there were EPG changes - and did a rescan. I was always suspicious that the recordings had failed because the unit could not update while in standby/record mode. All the schedules were all still present and correct.

Martin_F

Paddy C wrote: »

The box due to the current software will only allow you to record 2 things at once, but it is capable of recording two things from each input at the same time, effectively allowing you to record 4 channels at once, but this has not been implemented yet in the software and is unknown if it ever will be, but the ability is there. It's up to Humax to implement it.

Martin, try recording BBC 1 and ITV again but when you go to BBC 2, press PAUSE, not RECORD. It should let you pause BBC 2 and watch it on delay. So essentially the box is recording 3 things at once but you can't save what is being timeshifted to the hard drive yet, that is coming in a future software upgrade that was due at the end of October and has been temporarily delayed so should be released very shortly.

Yes - like I said - I had read before that theoretically the hardware can do it - and they did talk about it at one stage. Personally it is rare to need 3 things recording - usually it is the buffer I'd like to save - so roll on the update by all accounts. That in itself might allow you to record 3 things at once ! save the buffer while recording 2 other channels - we'll have to wait and see.