Humax HDR-FOX T2 500GB Freeview + HD Digital TV Recorder

My aged Thompson gave up the ghost four months ago so I needed a new box. We run three freeview PVRs and so I have had lots of experience with different brands and software. I already have a marvellous Toppy but its an old one without HDMI. Its as good as it gets as far as a freeview PVR is concerned and the backup from the blogs and the amazing ability to download apps which make it run so conveniently made me look to this stable again.
Sadly, it seems that this top notch company has not moved with the times and does not currently offer a machine with HD. I looked around and there was really little choice but the Humax so I dived in and bought one. Happily I can report almost complete satisfaction. Really easy to set up, if you can call just downloading the channels, setting up. Once connected, the HD channels blew my mind, eyes and ears. I had no idea just how different the technology is between HD and regular transmissions. The box is really two in one; an HD box and a regular. I don't think you would notice the difference through your TV but through an AV amp you realise that the audio via the HDMI is a completely different stream. How great to see the dts lights come on, on the AV amp, and to hear the surround sound come to life. I'd have to say that viewing a film on HDTV is every bit as good as on Blu-Ray (except for adverts on some channels) and infinitely better than my local cinema.
It will surely, really, come into its own when there are more than the present, four, HD channels. I think the capabilities of the Humax are set to increase as there are a number of menu items which look to be waiting. The TV Portal gives, unlimited, international radio stations and some TV catchup programs and looks to be interesting for the future. The machine looks well made and feels nice quality. Everything works as you would expect and seems quite intuitive so you don't end up looking for things which are hidden away. They are just there when you need them. A couple of niggles; on a machine of this price and quality, its bizarre that there is no facility, as on most cheaper machines, to switch back and forth between two programmes.I find this a glaring omission. The, very useful, display information needs to be brighter in daytime with maybe auto or manual switching for night time and what a pity they don't build in wireless internet. The 500GB disc is excellent and holds loads of programmes. You need to remember though, that HD recordings take up almost double the space of ordinary ones. There is a temptation to keep great films on HD but you could run out of space if you go mad. Most films seem to come on again long before you revisit the recording so its a good way of making you show restraint. There is now a 1TB version (about £50 more) which would be good but remember that the more programmes you have stored, the more time you spend searching through the lists. I love the way it is so easy to record a series and the way it reminds you that a program you are about to set is also avilable on HD if you prefer. Its an expensive machine but, connected to the internet, it has the potential to be all you need for home entertainment, so it has the bangs per buck. Its so good, I just bought a second machine because I got frustrated at the lack of features on another old one. One (two?) of my better purchases!

I was forced into buying this because my Samsung TV in the kitchen did not have a good enough Freeview tuner to do justice to the excellent display. I am so pleased with the Humax; using the HDMI interface in 1080p mode I can make the Samsung display the whole picture without over-scan cropping the picture. The HD pictures are superb, and the up-scaler from SD in the Humax is a very good one, without any of the silly and redundant noise-reduction features of the Samsung. And the Humax is a twin-tuner recorder too!

The EPG in the Humax is excellent, very easy to navigate, and one soon gets used to the fact that it also displays past programs as well - the time line at the top shows where we are. Normal detail navigation with the remote control uses the central four NSEW buttons around the select button; channel page jump is by using the program up-down buttons; time jump uses the >> or << buttons to go to next screen, and >>| or |<< buttons to see the same time on the next/previous day. If one is right handed the most used buttons all seem to be in just the right places for the thumb. A great feature is that while browsing the list you can still see and hear the current channel being shown in a small window on the left.

Initially I found the assorted time-stretching, time-shifting, recording, skipping forward, etc, functions complex and disconcerting, but that is partly because one is talking to a Linux PC inside the box, and there might have to be a few steps taken before making a recording, and partly because there are so many different options available. But you can also just press the record button on the remote control to grab what you are watching, just like with a VCR. After a few months, we have all found it really does work very well; if we have missed something it has become quite intuitive to use the << button a few times to roll back at 2x or 4x or 8x or 16x or 32x speed just to have another look, and then >> to roll forward through an advert or link to catch up. Slo-mo can be from 1/2, 1/4, down to 1/8 speed, and back to normal by repeatedly pressing the |> button.

The manual is comprehensive and quite well laid out, especially so when considering how much is possible with this machine. The more I have studied it and experimented with various functions, the more I have to agree with how it has been done. But there is a steep learning curve.

The Ethernet works well; hooked into my home network it does not require a PC as a host. It can just use the ADSL modem like any other computer for viewing things such as the BBC iPlayer. When I am more confident about its security I plan to allow it to look at my central server for music, home movies, pictures, etc. Edit 19/5/2013. It now looks at a dedicated DNLA Media Server, see Addendum 7 below.

The USB on the front works nicely; I put in my Test Stick with various patterns, music and a home video on it. All worked as hoped, more so than when putting the same stick into the Samsung.

The box as delivered had an old firmware within - January 2011, and the HD pictures were poor and breaking up. I asked it to do an OTA update, and fortunately there was a June 2011 version available, which took the best part of half an hour to download. After this finished the pictures were superb, and the Freeview+ option works - which allows you to flag a future program for recording if you see a green dot on the trailer. I've since set it to automatically update whenever an OTA update is available, and it has successfully found each of them.

One small niggle was that the eco-power-down is ON as a default, and set to two hours! I could extend the time to 10 hours easily, but it took slightly more digging to find out how to turn OFF the eco function.

Another niggle, not a Humax problem but inherent because of the way the broadcasters allocate the channels, is that if the box needs to be re-tuned then all the 'Program Record' and 'Series Record' pre-set choices one has made using the EPG will be lost, and need to be entered all over again. Fortunately all the previously recorded programs still remain on the hard disk.

I called up Test-Card W on channel 105 (now on 200) to see how much bandwidth was coming in, and was most impressed with the results, it is all there, and nothing is missing. It showed that the Humax up-scaler from SD to the 1080p display via 1080p HDMI was significantly better than the Samsung scaler doing the same job from SD (either 576i or 576p) via HDMI.

My Humax tuner is the second last receiver in a long string of other tuners fed from a distribution amp near a loft aerial in a fringe area, and it is giving the best and most stable of all the pictures. It has not glitched or locked up at all yet. (But see the later addendum below!) And it is future-proof for 2012 switch-over when there will be much more HD on Freeview. Roll-on the Olympics!

I will be adding to this review when I have played some more with the Ethernet, time shifting and other recording features for a few more weeks.

So far I think it is definitely well worth five stars.

Addendum 1. 9th Nov 2011

Ethernet.
This was easy to set up on auto, and yet allows manual selection of ip address. It all worked first try and was visible to all the tests on my home network. However I still haven't attempted to allow it to look into the rest of my system - and thinking about security I probably will not.

HumaxTVPortal.
After a very slow start - I kept getting an `application error' at the humaxtvportal website - it all suddenly worked immaculately. At first I didn't know why it was slow, because I had the latest software update; and thought maybe I had been too impatient and didn't give it long enough to sort itself out for that first contact. I later discovered the box needs to be turned Off and On again after the set-up for this to become effective.
The BBC iPlayer is super, and appears in full resolution on the screen with no visible artefacts, and this on a web connection typically running at only 3.5Mbits or less. This is a very worthwhile feature, recommended!
There are also You Tube (heavily sanitised), Flickr (poor access), Internet Radio (very limited selection), and Wiki TV (too much like hard work), none of which are a patch on the easy and intuitive BBC iPlayer.

Addendum 2. 03 Dec 2011

Freeze-up.
We've noticed that after a few days it can lose functions and eventually lock up; you can only watch the channel already selected. The first warning is when the annoying 'Red Button' graphic in the top right hand corner has gone away (yay!) without having to press the green button, but alas, so has the Text facility. Changing channels away from BBC at this stage can sometimes restore correct operation. Soon after losing the Text facility, though, it will refuse to change channel, and locks. Switching off and on again at the mains does a cold-boot and everything is OK again.
We have also noticed that if it is left tuned to a non-BBC station this might never happen, so I think there is possibly a bug in the BBC's Red Button software, perhaps causing a memory leak that eventually fills up the RAM and crashes the internal computer. But of course, this is just my speculation, and could be completely wrong.
(edit 6/1/2012) We have also seen this problem in the last few days on a couple of different makes of HD Freeview+ TVs, first symptom being unable to find the Test Card with the magic button sequence on Channel 200 (was 105).
(edit 6/5/2013) The freeze problem seems to have mostly gone away, it has not happened for several months, perhaps the Red Button software has finally been fixed (for now).

Addendum 3. 11 March 2012

HDCP.
I've tried to plug the HDMI output via a Blackmagic HDMI To SDI converter into an elderly (but very good) SDI-only plasma display. Alas, the HDMI connection carries HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection) even on 576i (lowest definition output, selected via V-Format button), so I am unable to use the Humax with my biggest display, and only end up with a blank green screen. Note that this will also prevent copying programs at full quality via the HDMI output.

Addendum 4. 10 April 2012

8K mode.
It works well with the new 8K mode used on the BBC London multiplex since the April 4th Switch-over.

Addendum 5. 6 June 2012

Repeat customer.
I've just bought another Humax T2, to go with the living-room "Smart" TV. The T2 replaces a Panasonic offering from Vine which turned out to be just too unfriendly when compared with this Humax.

Addendum 6. 6 Jan 2013.

Backup to USB.
We recorded a couple of programs and series we didn't want to erase, so have backed them up to a USB Flash drive and more recently to a portable 1TB hard drive in a USB caddy. The USB drives can later be played directly on either of the Humaxen into their TVs, and also a friend's Humax plays them and can copy them. Read more ›

Having first bought the 9300 standard definition PVR about 2 years ago, and since upgrading my TV to one with a larger screen and HD, I had began to notice that the 9300's ability to up-scale from 576P to 1080P was certainly quite good but, having seen the Fox HD perform in a shop demo, it was immediately obvious that the newer machine was significantly better in that respect. It is so good that it is difficult to believe that it is an up-scaled image.

Having got it home, setting up was fairly simple but the big surprise was that it has very little in common operationally with the older product. The remote controls are different, their functions also different and the on-screen menus have almost nothing in common. In setting it up, I had checked Humax's web site to compare firmware versions and there was a significant difference in versions. Over the air updates are random and infrequent and not always completely reliable, in my experience. It may be weeks or months before the next update transmission but the USB socket at the rear provided the opportunity to download to a memory stick (not all are compatible as I quickly discovered) and update from that - insert the memory stick, power down by the switch on the rear, power back up and let it go - it is really that simple. It may take a few minutes to download but the installation needs very little time. Be aware however that updating the firmware will cancel any existing recording schedules but will not affect anything currently on its drive.

The USB socket can also be used to accommodate Humax'x WiFi dongle but it is quite expensive, especially as Humax have simply rebadged somebody else's product. The Edimax ones work equally well out of the box at about 1/4 of the price. Others may also work. Another alternative may be to use a PowerLine adapter, especially if you have other devices connected the same way.

Tuning is more or less automated and fairly fast even if there are more than 100 different stations to be found (in London and the South-East, although several are far from family-friendly). Recording via the 'Guide' system uses an electronic EPG. You can select a program and channel, press the OK button to select, again to request a recording and then select whether to record the complete program. Sometimes, you may be offered selected additional programs or the same in HD should it be available. The number of HD channels is currently very limited but was promised to increase once the digital changeover was complete. That has now finished but not a single new HD station is in evidence.

To obtain the best results does require a good aerial system, external if possible but an amplified internal aerial or the use of a signal booster, may help. The improved signal levels, and presumably quality levels, post digital changeover should improve matters for some though not necessarily all.

There are in fact two internal tuners, meaning that you can record two programs simultaneously and then tune into a third on your TV and then watch that. Should you attempt to record a third program, the machine will alert you to the conflict and offer the option to amend your choices. It may offer an alternative schedule for one of the programs where possible. In that respect, the machine is quite user-friendly.

There is a second USB socket on the front and it is possible to attach a memory stick, a hard drive or other USB equipment in order to play other material. Using a memory stick or hard drive, you can select to use that to record so, in effect, you are increasing the recording capacity of the unit. In some situations, it is also possible to copy something from the unit's internal drive to the external one. That may then be playable via a second TV, PVR or Blu-ray player provided they have USB support, as many now do, provided that the file format (.TS) is supported. The content can also be played on a PC with suitable video-playing software.

With several programs recorded, it is possible to sort them temporarily by name, by the source channel, or by recording date and time. From that menu, you can choose to delete something you no longer need, to 'lock' it to prevent deletion, or yo can create and delete folders within which you can move certain items, should you wish. With 1TB at your disposal, several hundreds of hours of recording is possible. HD programs will require more space per hour than SD ones, so precise figures are not possible. I have seen close to 350 programs recorded, several HD, and still with about 80GB free.

Now for the problems. Lock-ups for no obvious reason are often experienced. Whatever the nature or cause, they can usually be corrected by using the rear power switch but, if a recording or two was started before the lock-up, you will lose part. I suspect that a future firmware update may resolve the issue as something similar did sometimes happen with the 9300 which was later resolved by updates. There has been no further update since 7/2011 (as at 4/2012) and the issue therefore is unresolved.

Sometimes, I find that although both TV and PVR are both on, the TV does not recognise the PVR. Restarting the PVR usually solves the problem but not always and switching off the TV alone, or both, can also resolve the problem. I have, on occasion, disconnected all HDMI leads from my TV and relocated them. I also changed the leads in the event that one may have proven an issue. Nothing has yet been a permanent fix!

There is the occasional annoyance that the remote control appears not to have commands accepted. Initially, I thought that replacing the batteries, although still very fresh, might help. It did not. One problem is that within the top row of buttons is a small group that allows different units to be controlled by the one remote (product codes supplied in the manual will help with this) and it is possible that one or other may have been activated, but it does not explain every eventuality. Pressing the PVR button returns control to the unit. On the older control for the 9300 there was a sliding panel that protected several infrequently used controls and a similar system may help prevent this accidental deactivation. I have also since discovered that on several occasions I experienced strange behaviour and I now realise that there are times when pressing a function button - the Opt+ button is one that has several functions but resetting the machine is not one of them - will result in the machine rebooting. There are several buttons where this may happen, although much of the time they will perform as intended.

The audio and video capabilities of the machine are superb but the other issues are a major distraction. My sister had bought the same model at a different time and it is exhibiting the same behaviour. As the 500GB model is identical other than the drive capacity, it will probably behave identically.

I had contacted Humax UK by email but several months on, have yet to see a reply - I don't think that I'll see one now! Unlike others who seem to update product firmwares whenever someone sneezes, Humax are happy to leave things alone. I have not seen an update for my 9300 for about 18 months.

A good product badly let down by software and other issues.

POSTSCRIPT @04-2013

Some 18 months after my review, the lockup problem continues and has become far more frequent and the machine may not unlock upon the first reboot but sometimes needs one or more additional cycles before full functionality is restored. Firmware updates ceased to be issued long ago and it appears that Humax's policy is to release these upgrades for about a year after release and then to cease. It is unclear whether there has been any significant but unannounced hardware update. Due to its issues, the machine is therefore not always usable.

Due to the lockup problem, I often have to delete partial recordings and it is fairly easy to identify the offending entries by their duration alone.

I am sure that there must be a better HD Freeview+ Hard Drive Recorder and I am currently inclined to never again buy another Humax product as the issues with this model appear to be repeated across their range. There has never knowingly been any explanation for the regualarity of a similar problem across several products and no clear eveidence of any attempt to resolve the issues.