We’ve documented our long and depressing history of the major problems we’ve been suffering with out Humax PVR-9200T PVR, but with the player becoming even more unreliable and no fix from Humax in sight, we suspect a hammer/PVR interface may be happening soon.
The problems are numerous- and shared by many readers – but here’s the some of most annoying:
- The PVR completely freezes up, forcing us to physically turn it off and on again at the mains – sometimes several times before the thing works again.
- The remote control can be really slow to respond, so pressing ‘play’ when fast forwarding to the start of a movie has no effect until the ruddy film is half way through.
- It gets completely stuck in rewind or fast forward modes, forcing you to turn it off at the mains to stop it
- The fan stays on at full blast even when the machine is turned off
- Programmed shows don’t record at all or are listed with a red marker and the baffling message: “this program is not recorded due to conflict with other reservations – do you want to delete?”
Goals missed, Humax shouted at
We’ve lost count of the amount of times we’ve come home from the pub ready to watch some top notch Cardiff City-related action only to find that the useless PVR-9200T has let us down once again.
Gibberish
We’ve tried updating the software from the PVR’s control panel – that only brings up a confidence-sapping ‘Now searching a new software’ gibberish message – as well as every bodge and fix we could find on the web, all to no avail.
MC Hammer time?
Seeing as it’s now well out of warranty and Humax seem thoroughly disinterested in answering our emails, the thought of attacking it with a large, heavy hammer is becoming more appealing every day.
Anyone else feeling equally frustrated?
Absolutely! Even after updating the firmware, my Humax 9200T is glitchy and unreliable. I’ve put off buying the new HD version because of documented HDMI issues, including “no sound” recordings. I hope I can get some recommendations for a suitable replacement.
Seeing as Humax are promising an over the air upgrade on the 17th November, we’ll hold back a little longer.
See the full listing for Humax downloads here: http://www.dtg.org.uk/industry/download_schedule.php
I got offered a download thingy last night, but Mad Men was about to start so I clicked ‘later’. Hopefully I haven’t missed my chance.
I’m downloading it now. If this one doesn’t work, a hammer/Humax interface is likely to follow.
I assume you have done the following:
– Unplugged the aerial lead, done a rescan, reconnected the aerial then done a second rescan. That properly resets the channels memory
– checked the software update schedule to make sure you are trying to install between the correct hours (while making sure you have it set to BBC1)
My 9200T is up to 1.00.23 now, which sorted out the remote control. Plus, this weeks rescan made it start recording again (missed Eastenders last week). However, I forgot to unplug aerial etc, so not 100% yet. Will do again at the weekend so that I have time to reprogramme everything.
Yes mine still freezes up occaisonally but not enough to have put me off buying the 9300 model for the bedroom. Now if one is playing up the other is usually ok. They still come out well in the Which? reports and I continue to recommend them. Its seems all PVR’s have issues and you just have to be patient, not be fearful of technology and if desperate look for answers on the internet. The only annoyance I have is how useless the Humax website is. I used to rely on Hummy.org instead but they seem to have disappeared…
Anyway, good luck!
I was seriously considering one of these when I was on the verge of giving up getting my Mythbuntu box working properly just before Christmas – I am SO glad I persisted with that, instead!
I am truly amazed that a company whose future presumably depends on customers feeling confident that their product will do what it says on the tin aren’t moving heaven and earth to not just fix the problem, but keep those customers reassured and feeling looked-after in the process. Well, not TRULY amazed, because firms seem to quite regularly forget about keeping people in the loop.
I hate it SO MUCH! I bought this sorry excuse for a PVR just over a year ago to replace my beloved Topfield 5800 which finally died after 3 years faultless performance. The only reason I didn’t buy another Topfield was because I wanted a cheaper interim measure while waiting for a decent HD freeview pvr with some web widgets to come on the market.
It crashes at least once a week and can only be bought to life again by a power cycle, it fails to record about 80% of what I have scheduled. When it crashes it loses the schedule and also somehow manages to incorrectly label programmes I have already recorded and list them in triplicate, when I try and clear up the mess it has made of my recordings it crashes. Upgrading firmware has made absolutely no impact. To be honest I was surprised it stayed up long enough without crashing to update the firmware.
It makes me more furious than iTunes and that is saying something. It has to go!