HUMAX VAST PVR arrived & activated

[Tassie Devil]

And yes, as anticipated, it is a clone of the terrestrial unit. If a program is part of a series, that option can be selected to record, .... it is a very ergonomic and sensible recorder to operate.

And with channels all around Australia to select from, any clashes are easily avoided e.g. West Australia has a 2 hour time difference to here, SA 30 mins and so on. This means the one recorder should be all that is needed where for terrestrial, 2 were sometimes needed to overcome clashes.

Highly recommended.

John

[gordon_s1942]

The ABC and SBS have always had that 'Time Zone' difference firstly on Auroa and now on Vast with the only difference being that each (ABC&SBS) have more channels on VAST than Aurora.
Of course if your a 'Bona Fide' traveler and have one STB for the East and One for the West, you now get the 'Time Zone' difference for the 'Commercial' broadcasters too...............Aint technology grand???

[Tassie Devil]

Yup, technology is grand EXCEPT the link to the local commercial station news programs has not been made yet. They give the channels to go to but nothing broadcast on them yet.

Otherwise, VAST looks fine and, as said before, the Humax works well.

[transit]

Yup, technology is grand EXCEPT the link to the local commercial station news programs has not been made yet. They give the channels to go to but nothing broadcast on them yet.

Otherwise, VAST looks fine and, as said before, the Humax works well.

1. Do you mean the 400 series channels? Haven't looked at them lately but they used to work -- but only a few hours a day.

2. I'm very interested to know how much the fan on the HUMAX operates. Does it run all the time the unit is on or only some of the time? If the unit is powered up BUT in standby does the fan operate at all? I ask because UEC claim that the LNB and most of the unit have to be powered on even in standby in order to become VAST certified. Interestingly, the specs on the HUMAX show that it uses practically nothing in standby [0.25w I think] which would indicate that almost nothing is powered up. Do you have any way to check how much power it is drawing in standby? -- easily done if you are on solar.

3. How would you rate the picture quality -- is it is good as the 4121?

4. Found any bugs yet? Any crashes or freezes?

I am thinking of getting a twin tuner but the $140 or so extra that the HUMAX costs is making me lean towards the UEC model.

[Tassie Devil]

1. Yes. Not working tonight anyway.

2. Yes I have a power measuring device to do that - will investigate tomorrow. However we have had the Humax operating for the last 5 hours and it is just warm to touch and I do not hear any fan operating.

3. Picture quality is fine.

4. No crashes but they do not have the "skip" function right in this unit. The terrestrial one could be programmed to alter the skips but I've not found that option in the VAST model - it jumps a useless 10 minutes!! I intent to bang the drum to Humax about that tomorrow as it is a serious boo-boo.
It labels recordings accurately but many of the functions are more convoluted than would appear necessary. I've overcome some by using a programmed universal URC MX 850 with macros. Overall it is not as nice to use as the terrestrial MAGIC but comes a close second. I expect that skip problem can be rectified in future firmware releases as it is certainly bad at the moment.
And I should add I did have a couple of HDMI handshaking problems I have not got to the bottom of yet.

[transit]

1. Yes. Not working tonight anyway.

2. Yes I have a power measuring device to do that - will investigate tomorrow. However we have had the Humax operating for the last 5 hours and it is just warm to touch and I do not hear any fan operating.

3. Picture quality is fine.

4. No crashes but they do not have the "skip" function right in this unit. The terrestrial one could be programmed to alter the skips but I've not found that option in the VAST model - it jumps a useless 10 minutes!! I intent to bang the drum to Humax about that tomorrow as it is a serious boo-boo.
It labels recordings accurately but many of the functions are more convoluted than would appear necessary. I've overcome some by using a programmed universal URC MX 850 with macros. Overall it is not as nice to use as the terrestrial MAGIC but comes a close second. I expect that skip problem can be rectified in future firmware releases as it is certainly bad at the moment.
And I should add I did have a couple of HDMI handshaking problems I have not got to the bottom of yet.

It would be good for everyone here to know what the handshaking problems are/were and how you resolved them [once you have resolved them].

[Tassie Devil]

I'm just in the process of contacting Humax about all this.

I had set up the PVR on a small monitor using composite video but when I went to view it via HDMI there was nothing until I powered the Humax off and on again. A/V then magically appeared. Later I experienced something similar but cannot remember the detail so I'll pay closer attention to it tonight and record exactly the series of events.

[Tassie Devil]

2. I'm very interested to know how much the fan on the HUMAX operates. Does it run all the time the unit is on or only some of the time? If the unit is powered up BUT in standby does the fan operate at all? I ask because UEC claim that the LNB and most of the unit have to be powered on even in standby in order to become VAST certified. Interestingly, the specs on the HUMAX show that it uses practically nothing in standby [0.25w I think] which would indicate that almost nothing is powered up. Do you have any way to check how much power it is drawing in standby? -- easily done if you are on solar.

Just tested it. On standby overnight - still feels warm & registers 12.4W consumption.
Powered it on & consumption increased to 16.1W so it is not power hungry.

And there is NO FAN operating anywhere that I can hear & no vent holes for the air anyway!

[Tassie Devil]

Quick & impressive reply from Humax. (see below). So looks like the skip function can be fixed - to be looked at shortly, but not so sure about the HDMI handshake issue. It is being fed into a Rotel RSP-1570 preamp/processor, not direct into the display. And of course I tried something else into that input to check it & got full A/V so the issue is conversation between the Humax & the Rotel.

With regards to your first issue, could you please put the HDMI cable into a different input on the TV? And make sure that the cable is properly and tightly connected.

With regards to the skip forward time, please go menu – settings – preferences – media playback and press 'OK' button on Skip Forward time Option.
Currently we have 30, 60, 120, and 240 seconds skip forward time.

10 minutes of the skip forward time you are talking about might be a jumping to a next section function.
You can use a skip forward function by pressing an arrow button next to the 'OK' button.

[Tassie Devil]

No, that SKIP function still appears faulty unless I'm doing something wrong. If the skip button is used during play, it leaps forward 10 minutes BUT if it is made to FF 2X the skip button then does skip as required but that is not how it is supposed to work. So it is a bug in the operating system that I've reported again to Humax.

[transit]

What is the fastest that you can fast forward? On the 4121 it is 9X.

[Tassie Devil]

16X which is not great

Finally got to the bottom of the SKIP function problem. The User's Manual is wrong and states the button above the GUIDE button is the SKIP one - NO, the navigator left right are the correct buttons to use.

So, there is not a bug for this function after all. I'll follow up tonight to see if there are any more odd HDMI handshaking problems.

The operation of this Humax is not quite as good as the terrestrial MAGIC and requires the user to plough through a few windows for some functions which one button on the MAGIC disposes of neatly. I have overcome this chore using macros on the programmable remote. But on the plus side if you set a series to record, a red dot shows on every guide entry, something unreliable with the MAGIC so there the Humax is ahead. So it is swings and round abouts.

I've now experienced about 10 different PVRs and a few were truly awful to operate. And even some new terrestrial ones are crap. I recently tried out an LG and it was hopeless to operate simply. So, my appraisal of the PVRs currently available, of those I've used, the HUMAX heads the list so we are fortunate to have it available for VAST. Pity the MAGIC is no longer sold in Australia or has a VAST model.

[Tassie Devil]

No HDMI problems tonight but strangely the timers set via the guide yesterday had vanished tonight. Not sure what is going on so will live with it for a few more days before making a final verdict.

No question it is not as good as the terrestrial MAGIC but that is little help to those saddled with VAST only. I'm in a unique position where terrestrial is OK most of the time for most stations but unfortunately and frustratingly is not 100% all of the time for all stations, particularly in the warmer months. So I'll probably use both for awhile before deciding whether or not to ever move over 100% to VAST. It is a swings and roundabouts situation.

[Smacca]

This box has a skip function? That's otherwise known as "ad-skipping". VAST relaxing the rules, eh?

[Tassie Devil]

This box has a skip function? That's otherwise known as "ad-skipping". VAST relaxing the rules, eh?

Well I'm still not sure about that.

The manual indicates the skip button is above the Guide one but that is clearly wrong as using it does not skip, it does a huge jump of 10 minutes as posted earlier. Humax techo said the correct buttons were the navigator buttons either side of OK. Wrong again, they are the "Instant replay" buttons as I discovered last night. They were set to 15 seconds so many presses were needed to hop (not skip) through the ads. I have reset it to 30 second hops but that is still not very functional as you cannot see where you have hopped to unless you pause at every hop. So in this regard the VAST model is vastly (sorry for that) different to the terrestrial one which I also have. With this the skips are instantaneous and the video changes instantaneously so you can see where you are.

And I think I know why I lost all the timers. Yesterday, in response to requests here, I disconnected the PVR from the power to test its consumption with a meter device. That is the only odd thing done which could have caused that. If true (and I'll check with the techo later) it means that all timers will need to be reset every time there is a power outage - a PIA.

I'll tackle the Humax techo on all the above later today.

[Tiny]

Snip....

And I think I know why I lost all the timers. Yesterday, in response to requests here, I disconnected the PVR from the power to test its consumption with a meter device. That is the only odd thing done which could have caused that. If true (and I'll check with the techo later) it means that all timers will need to be reset every time there is a power outage - a PIA.

I'll tackle the Humax techo on all the above later today.

That would be a huge PIA, hope it's not true & just an error, even so, having to check program timers every time there is a power out, just in case they go missing is bad news.

[transit]

That would be a huge PIA, hope it's not true & just an error, even so, having to check program timers every time there is a power out, just in case they go missing is bad news.

Especially bad news for those of us who must power off when not in use. I don't think that it can be true though -- surely they wouldn't design it like that? Looking forward to further info on this.

[Tassie Devil]

Especially bad news for those of us who must power off when not in use. I don't think that it can be true though -- surely they wouldn't design it like that? Looking forward to further info on this.

NO, looks like my assumption was wrong. I just set two timers, disconnected the power, put it back on and they were still there.

No idea why the other timers were lost.

And I'm, starting to think that there is no SKIP, despite what the manual says. The button for this that is on the terrestrial unit is not on the VAST one. Anyway I'll email HUMAX to see what they have to say about it all.

[gordon_s1942]

This box has a skip function? That's otherwise known as "ad-skipping". VAST relaxing the rules, eh?

From what I am reading all this 'Skip' facilty does is allow YOU manualy to FF just as you do now, not an automatic Advert 'Skipper' unfortunately which none of the 'Broadcasters' will ever allow in OZ.
I was surprised in one way to see they allow this 'Series Link' feature as it in one way takes away your need to remember and find the program and not be distracted by the other channels as you search for what you want but then they all want to run 'series' so they have no choice but to allow it to function.

[transit]

NO, looks like my assumption was wrong. I just set two timers, disconnected the power, put it back on and they were still there.

No idea why the other timers were lost.

And I'm, starting to think that there is no SKIP, despite what the manual says. The button for this that is on the terrestrial unit is not on the VAST one. Anyway I'll email HUMAX to see what they have to say about it all.

That would fit in with this UEC quote from :

8) Can my DSR 4639 skip adverts?

There are no design limitations preventing the DSR 4639 from skipping ads, however to achieve VAST certification the software must to be compliant with the VAST set top box specification and this does not allow ad skipping.