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Should I buy one?
Oh dear, this forum makes alarming reading. I was going to buy the PVR9200T until I read about all of these problems and bugs etc. I was a long suffering Nokia 221t owner so I know all about this kind of thing and how frustrating and damn right annoying these problems can be. I have been thinking about replacing my 221t with the humax for months but thought I would wait and monitor the forums before I purchased. I am glad I did wait now!. I have serious doubts about getting this box now. Can anyone give me some advise, should I still purchase it or leave well alone. It seems the new firmware has created more problems than it has fixed. I have been through all of this with the Nokia 221t and do not want to do so again with another box.
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I'm in the yes camp. I love my Hummy - bought it for following reasons:
1) Replace VCR
2) Wanted Freeview
3) Fed up with Sky (I'll miss Sky Sports though, but not £36)
4) Dual Tuner
5) Load mp3s onto it (don't need hifi in front room - although max 5gb)
6) gets good feedback on forums (read the bad as well, but put in the context of what you want to use it for!)
7) My mate has got one, and I had a play on it, and thought it met my requirements
8) So simple to use, the missus has recorded more stuff than me!!
There have been problems that have affected me:
1) BBC Lock-up - now sorted (The ITV one doesn't seem to affect me)
2) Can't consistently upload mp3s from laptop (but can via desktop w/o any disconnects - just means taking Hummy upstairs)
But some of the probs mentioned by others are not things I bought the Hummy for, or don't hit my box.
If you buy from someone like John Lewis, they give you 28 days money back - and they pricematch with Heathrow Systems too. So go ahead try it, if you don't like take it back.
I expect you're trying to decide whether its a Hummy or a Toppy. It was a split decision for me, and I went for the Hummy, cause I could get it in store at John Lewis (amongst a few other reasons).
Hope this helps.
Believe me, nothing is as bad as the 221T - the Hummy has been a revelation in terms of functionality and reliability. The 04 sofware update has fixed the BBC lockups, not that I experienced that many.
The 9200T is soooo much better than the Nokia, its a world apart.
And on top of that Humax are in the process of fixing any futher bugs and working on new features such as chase play. We were lucky to get 1 OTA update out of Nokia in the 2.5 years I owned the box.
Go for it, I say! :cool:
True i've had a few problems with my box but nothing catastrophic. i've had no lockups since the update and i think its a fantastic machine. on the other hand i have not tried any other pvrs so maybe i'm missing out.
I had a HUMAX freeview box for a while and debated whether to get a PVR or not.I read through the forums here and took a sensible view from the mixture of good and bad posts.
I liked the look and build quality of the Humax and looking at previous models they seem to have supported them well.
Yes it has its little niggles but ultimately the Humax has changed the way I watch TV.I can now look 7 days ahead and record stuff.Then when im in bored one night,I can plan my own tv line up for the night.
At the end of the day,I paid £700 for my first VCR.The Humax was £200 with "free" uopgrades-bargain.Buy it!
Steve
good value for money;
well built PVR, that's simple to use;
great picture quality;
over 100 hours of recording capacity;
occasional transfer of recordings to a PC for archive or whatever;
can live with the occasional crash or lost recording;
has an active internet based support forum;
lives in an area where they can receive Freeview!
etc
I was in a similar situation to yourself but ended going for the Humax about a month ago. I don't have any regrets (other than I'm watching far more telly than I used to!)
I was considering the 9200T or the Topfield; there is a thread on both this and the Topfield board called "Humax vs Topfield - your views please" which is worth a read. In the end it was really just that the £60 cost difference could go owards a DVD recorder which was worth more to me than the extra features that the Topfield had.
As far as bugs are concerned, the only real show-stopper I have had is the BBC lock-ups which Humax were very on-the-ball in fixing. Since then I have had no lockups or other serious problems. Some people have reported similar serious problems when tuned to ITV channels but I haven't come across that at all so I don't know if that is due to heavy ITV usage or just certain ITV regions (I'm in Scottish region - which is technically not ITV at all). I think you will find quite a few people who will talk up certain minor problems and make a real mountain out of a molehill but you really need to consider what is important to you - some Topfield users seem to think lack of chase play is the end of the world but I'm rather perplexed as to what the fuss is about.
There are a few people on these boards who are beta testing new functionality for Humax and it may be worth checking out their posts - Marc Davies seems particularly articulate in that matter. It should give you some idea what to expect, anyway.
Please don't be sucked into all the "I bought one, and it's changed my life!" posts, because what those people are really experiencing is simply the wonder of owning a PVR. PVRs are wonderful things and they will change your life (or at least your viewing enjoyment) but they don't have to be a Humax to do that, and right now it's difficult to know why anyone should choose a Humax over the various other machines on the market.
If you wait, the Humax may actually get a fix which stops it randomnly locking up - and maybe then another fix to stop it randomnly deleting all your recordings - at which point it really will be a very good machine. But at the moment, without either of those fixes (which everyone has already been waiting six months for) it's really not so good, and its difficult to see why Humax should be rewarded with your custom in the meantime.
If you must buy now, the Topfield is a very similar machine with much better reliability, and a few extra bells and whistles to boot. On balance, it's fair to say Topfield's response to the problems they have had has been much better too.
The 9200 will be a very good box *when* it gets firmware that works. Until then you're gambling that you won't get hit by its major faults and design errors. I'm currently facing the task of setting up 9 days of recordings with just 20 timers... a design error of stunning stupidity that Humax show no haste in fixing. (Or I would be if I didn't have dual tuners on my PC which is currently more reliable than my 9200, my wife will just have to gamble on the 9200)
While 28 days might seem a long enough time to find out if you've got a lemon, mine had its first unprovoked loss of all recordings a few days past 28 days.
It really does seem that a disproportionate number of posters here are 1st time PVR users overly impressed by the basic functionality expected of any PVR. So impressed the pig flys at all they'll ignore it crashlanding at the end of the runway
Wait till the major update (guesstimated for June) appears and do the research again, if you can't wait get a Topfield.
I have tried the Toppy and the Hummy, and there are many things that the Toppy is better at - stability, functionality, the ability to customise using TAPS etc. However the key thing for me was picture quality - on my TV, with my distinctly average reception - the Humax that I tried produced a noticably better picture.
I took the decision to go for the Hummy based on that, figuring that software updates and fixes could bring the machine's functionality up to scratch, but the that the quality of the picture was most likely due to the hardware.
I am mostly happy with this decision. The crashes have got on my wick, but all seems OK for now, and I believe Humax will sort things out eventually.
Of course, if I'd lost all my recorded items like some have, then I might not be so forgiving of the Hummy's other foibles.
So in conclusion, I think Humax have produced a top quality piece of hardware, sadly powered by average at best OS. Whether you decide to buy or not I guess would depend on whether you think this OS will be beaten into shape eventually.
If you want to buy a PVR today the 9200T is as good a choice as any and better than most.
No, not at the moment it isn't. It locks up more than any other PVR on the market, and currently enjoys more reports of wiped hard drives too - neither of which make it a very good choice.
happy 9200T owner no lockups on .04!!!
My advice is either wait and see how quickly Humax have a fix for the latest lock-ups and if there is any headway made on the other problems before you buy.
If you really do want to take the plunge like has been sugested buy from John Lewis as they have brilliant customer service and will price match Heathrow Systems (they did for me
As for the 28 day limit on returning for a refund, this is not quite correct as the lockups do technically make the box not fit for purpose, as does the loss of recordings which most likely would not come to light in 28 days and therefore any 28 day limit imposed by john Lewis is most likely not legally binding, especially if the problem came to light after the 28 days had expired.
Pushing the law to the limit then this gives you up to 6 years to claim not fit for purpose under current consumer laws
There has been trade offs in features which I now miss a lot. Chase playing and the EPG take a long time to load. The Fusion loads the EPG quickly whereas on the Humax it can take me anything up to a few minutes to load data for most of the EPG. This information is then lost the next time the Humax is put into standby.
I am used to seeing lots of channels in the guide on the Fusion but on the Humax you can only see 4 channels at a time though you can see quite a few programmes that will be on for each channel in this view. I now think this is a better method of displaying EPG (I can press the channel up and down button to move to the next set of channels on the list). It also keeps a little window with the channel you are watching on display while choosing your recordings.
In common with most if not all of the reports from people moving from Fusion to Humax, I am happy with my decision. My personal opinion is that it is a much better machine. It has an assuring quality to both hardware build and the software seems rock solid compared to the Fusion. The Fusion could lockup if you sent to many remote commands very quickly. Response to the remote and carrying out commands is quick. It felt like my Fusion used to have to think about a command at times before carrying them out. The menus and the graphics and overall user interface are quality compared to the Fusion.
It beggars belief that a PVR of this quality and features does not have chase play. I did use this feature on the Fusion from time to time when required and at first this was a frustrating limitation on the Humax PVR. I do use a method of stopping a recording and restarting it to get around this problem. To be honest its just as easy as using chase play on the Fusion but what a silly omission.
The remote control on the Fusion was never the cleverest of designs and so the Humax remote control is sensible compared, though I find over sized. No problems with use or response with the PVR and the remote. Although you have to trust that the machine always registers commands from the standby button as the Humax takes a second or two to show a reaction from the front display readout.
I suppose this brings me on to the start up time. It takes a long time to start up. My Fusion starts up from standby in about 2 to 3 seconds to picture on screen. I guess we are talking about 15 seconds from the Humax. OK its not that long but one thing Fusion owners certainly will notice.
One of the well known problems with the Fusion is the noise, which doesn’t affect everyone. In standby the Fusion is just as noisy in fact as when on. This I understand is because when you switch off the Fusion it only turns off the display. When the Humax goes into standby almost everything seems to shut down and I know the had drive spins down because there is a faint wizz down to be heard if you place you ear to the Humax. After hours of use the Humax case is cool to the touch on every area of the casing which isn’t a big deal, but little details like this seem to add up.
Setting up recordings couldn’t be easier and manual timers are simple to set up. I like being able to set repeat timers. However there is a bug which I have only just discovered that has made one of my recordings show the wrong date. I read this bug is related to repeat timers and is triggered by my show not repeated in the schedule. I am assured that my recordings will still be ordered correctly if this problem gets worse before it is fixed.
Another problem I have found with the Humax is when watching a programme in chase play and are recording at the same time you loose your current viewing point when the recording ends sometimes. Is there anything I am doing wrong? The buffer seems to go on for about and hour and a half or probably more.
I was fortunate enough to have bought the Humax at the time when the new software to fix the BBC lockups was being transmitted. Although I did experience 3 lockups on Monday on ITV, so I quite understand the problem that has been discussed at length. In truth I don’t want to change this machine. There is much about this PVR that I am happy with and knowing Humax are working as best as they can on it is enough of an excuse for me to be able to keep it.
I am aware that there have been reports of people loosing their recordings. This is also a big thing that prospective buyers like me can get a bit nervous about when reading the lost recordings thread. Its a big problem the Fusion has too but by all accounts there seems to be a small percentage of people that this has happened to here as well. Any number, comparatively large or small, is a big problem in our eyes as consumers, especially as critical as some of us consumers frequenting boards, and for me the big difference in experience is the way the manufacturer deals with it, not always how long necessarily it takes to find a cure to big problems. Fusion told customers that their widescreen bug fix would happen in November, then Christmas and now we are mid April for a seemingly trivial fix. How many months does it take to fix this which is one of the most bothersome of bugs at the moment on the Fusion? In that time there has been no fix for the lost recordings problem on the Fusion either. Therefore on the face of it, any lack of bug fixes in all that time is not uncommon amongst manufacturers. However if the truth be known Humax have actually released probably about 6 bug fixes to some well known issues during that whole time (I.e. what they were able to do) and Fusion have released none. I seriously considered the Topfield which also had many bugs (see http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board...24&postcount=14 ) and over time they too sent out fixes when they were ready. Its been a year but even the Topfield has bugs that just haven’t been sorted yet. I think the Topfield is potentially the best of the whole lot. The only reason why I didn’t buy one in the end is because I don’t have a computer at home and this made the basic Topfield look over priced for me as I would not be able to add the enhancements and some workarounds I would have wanted. To most other people not in the same boat as me the Topfield is a big one to consider, plus like the year old Panasonic, these are much more mature and stable PVRs now.
I am one of the Fusion customers who lost all their recordings. Some people seem to think it is directly related to one of the Fusions key feature - compressing recordings to make space. I have not used compression because of this risk yet it still happened to me. To me, when you get something like this happen its the attitude of the company that is also important and this is where Fusion fail . See this thread http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board...ad.php?t=356386
By contrast Humax seem to have no trouble saying they are aware of the problem and its impact and have their engineers looking into solving the problem. I have phoned Humax up to find out a bit more before I made my purchase and quite frankly they seemed more than happy to discuss some of the current bugs.
The quality of the picture on the Humax is top class. The picture on playback of recordings not surprisingly is very good. They say that the Humax tuners are very good and must say I have yet to see any picture problems on the Humax whereas I did from time to time on the Fusion. I can so far concur with that point.
Rounding off, I think that if anyone is seriously considering the Humax, do you own thorough reading of these threads. I started to pick out the important bits to make my own mind up and came to the conclusion that it was worth the risk, considering I could take it back.
I would say there are a small band of posters that mix a little of the truth with a lot of rubbish. This unfortunately makes it much more difficult for us prospective purchasers. However I made my decision and I think the Humax is a cracking design, super well featured in most respects and slightly under on one or two key features. It feels solid and reliable although Humax need to take away the lockups problem completely to make it 100% in my book. Overall a definite YES. You will give it back if it’s not anyway!
By the way when I phoned Humax they have told me that there will be chase play. They also told me the EPG will be saved, the timers limit will go up to something like 50, improvements to the EPG view, weekday repeat timers, I cant remember some of the other things. She couldn’t give me exact time frames due to certain bug fixes taking priority at the moment. If Humax just fixed the outstanding bugs only this PVR would probably be the best you can buy for the money and its so nearly complete. Those new features on top would probably just take it into a different league, especially if it will be priced at under £190. Perhaps its best to check in a few months time if you are not sure and if you can wait too.
I won't quote it all!
Thats a very thorough review of the positives and negatives of the 9200t, well done.
Great read for anyone thinking about purchasing a pvr.
There are also a number of unbalanced critcisms from some people who don't actually own a 9200T.
Post of the week award to Mr RogerS1! Your summary is spot on. I know for a fact that chase play is on the cards because the beta testers already have it.
After owning a Fusion for over a year, and working it pretty hard, this doesn't tally with my experience at all. Is it possible yours had some kind of fault?
The FVRT1xx series, on current software (which fixes both the widescreen issue and library loss issues you mention) is just about the most reliable PVR there is. I don't recommend it to new purchasers now because it's old, lacking some more modern features (larger hard drive, USB transfer, third channel etc), and you have to mess around putting the best software on it yourself because Fusion stopped sending it out - but nevertheless, I wouldn't swap mine for a Humax. A Topfield, maybe, but I'm in no hurry.
P.S. As a word of advice to those doubting the reliability of any given author I recommend doing a search on that author along with key words of praise or complaint. You can usually find out those who are more unbalanced and discount their glorification/trolling.
The Fusion is a very capable machine. Its much cheaper which makes it even more attractive in many ways. The price difference between the Fusion and the Humax means the Humax can afford to put a 160GB hard drive, Top up tv, silent in stanby quiet in operation, record two and a lot of the time watch a third etc etc etc. You are quite right in that here is no fair comparison to be made or attempted considering the Humax costs a lot more.
If you are on a bugdet I would go so far as to say why would you want to buy anything other than a Fusion 145.
It was sorted in software version 1.7.5, released OTA once back in October last year, for the FVRT100/150 (and now 145) only - which also fixed the widescreen problem and just about every other remaining issue. Unfortunately the FVRT200 never received a similar fix, although it's possible to install 1.7.5 on a 200 to gain from the fixes, while losing a few of the 200's extra features such as folders and repeat timers.
The Fusion/4TV situation has been confused for some time, with OTA updates having been very rare since October, and only consisting of the previous version 1.7.4 - the theory is this is something to do with the sale of 4TV to Thomson (4TV is the software house which originally designed the Fusion's software, and also operate the channel which provides the 14 day epg and any software updates). However, 1.7.5 can be put on any box easily with a serial cable, and is not only easily obtainable online, but has even been hacked to redesign the menus and some other functions.
You're right - the 145 is a funny one tho, since it's really just a slightly modified version of the much older 150, which was itself just a 100 with bigger HDD. Of course the age of the design is one of the reasons they're now so cheap!
I'd also recommend it to anyone on a budget, but with the proviso that they also get a serial cable and put 1.7.5 on there themselves.