HUMAX FREEVIEW

[alang498]

I have a Panasonic full HD TV which was connected directly to the roof aerial cable = no problems with Freeview HD reception, picture, sound or channels.
In order to be able to record programmes, I purchased a Humax 9150 T twin tuner.
I connected the aerial cable to the Humax and then connected the Humax to the TV with an HDMI cable.
I now have problems with the picture and sound " freezing and jumping " on certain channels - especially ITV - and this makes it impossible to view those channels.
Has anyone else experienced this problem and/or does anyone have any idea how I overcome it ?

 

[Diyisfun]

Must be a problem on the Humax OR the cable/connection.
You have established the aerial is good.

 

[ChrisFrost]

It could be too much or too little signal which would come from a difference in the sensitivity of the two tuners. Another possibility is the Humax is tuned to a different transmitter (though that's less likely), or that the Humax firmware needs an upgrade, or that it is indeed faulty although this is again very unlikely.

The signal meters in TVs and Freeview receivers are course and optimistic. Take those readings with a pinch of salt. If the levels are maxed out or close to it then try a variable attenuator.

 

[Sam Gangee]

Isn't the Humax 9150 T an obsolete model?
How old is it?

 

[Munroast]

We had a Humax PVR, can't remember what model, it was always freezing and jumping and the sound could be out of sync with the picture. Would have to disconnect the power supply and wait a few minutes to get it working again. The company was very unhelpful and failed to sort anything out. The only satisfaction I ever got out of it was hitting it with the sledge hammer before binning it off.

Replaced it with a Sagecom which has been faultless for the past 3 years.

 

[alang498]

Many thanks to all for the comments and suggestions.
The Humax was purchased just before Christmas as a present for my Mother (78) but I have only just got round to setting it up for her.
She was perfectly content with her old TV and video recorder for simply tapeing one soap whilst watching another. The remotes were simple and everything had big clear buttons.
Like many people (I suspect) she did not want change and has felt forced by the digital switchover into purchasing a new TV and equipment that can record.
We were advised that the Humax is the simplest on the market and that the remote control was also the easiest to understand. Out of the box and looking at the remote, instruction manual, and experiencing the freezing and jumping, and out of synch, I would beg to differ and think we may have wasted £170.00.
As a temporary solution, I am educating my Mother on the merits of ITV1 + 1 and BBC4 !!!!!

 

[Sam Gangee]

I have a Panasonic full HD TV which was connected directly to the roof aerial cable = no problems with Freeview HD reception, picture, sound or channels.
In order to be able to record programmes, I purchased a Humax 9150 T twin tuner.
I connected the aerial cable to the Humax and then connected the Humax to the TV with an HDMI cable.
I now have problems with the picture and sound " freezing and jumping " on certain channels - especially ITV

Some thoughts:
1. TVs emit a lot of interference. If the Humax is close to the TV and/or the associated coaxial cables are not double-screened, that could be the cause of your problem. Any wall socket should be screened.

2. Your aerial signal may be borderline so it's just enough for the TV but not enough for the Humax. (I consider this unlikely but can't rule it out.) Your aerial signal may be too strong. Try an attenuator.

3. There could be some weird problem with the HDMI cable. What's it like via Scart cable instead?

4. The Humax may simply be faulty. Test it in a different location. If the problem remains, return it to the seller under warranty.

 

[alang498]

Thank you for your suggestions.

 

[braychurchmouse]

Actually the Humax is possibly more sensitive than your TV, so it may have picked up a lower powered transmitter signal first on the scan. You may find the same channels (from the better transmitter) up at the top end of the numbers.

if that is the case, the solution is to first do a tune and save with the aerial completely disconnected. Then fit an attenuator and retune so that basically only the strongest transmitter gets detected. After tuning you can possibly remove the attenuator.

Having said all of that its worth checking for damage to cables. Even a kink can affect certain channels and not others. Once it took me an hour to solve a similar problem caused by the vacuum cleaner just knocking an aerial socket mounted on the skirting board. Only certain channels were affected so I didn't think it could be a cable problem, but the twist in the cable seemed to just resonate with certain channels.

What happens if you "pass through" the aerial signal from the Humax to the TV RF in.? Is the TV picture as good as before?

Another possibility is that there is an aerial amplifier in the loft or on the mast which needs power from the RF socket. Maybe the TV was set up to power it, but you have not set the Humax to do the same?

...and switch off any cordless phone, WiFi etc etc and see if it improves...that would indicate poor cable screening, but which somehow was not critical when the aerial was plugged directly into the TV.

Hope that gives you a few ideas. There's an unofficial Humax forum at http://www.hummy.org.uk/index.php, but it seems to have disappeared !!!

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

I was reading on another forum about jumpy older model Humax's and people have had success with an upgrade, gotta be worth trying.

 

[dannyboi2003]

Had same issues with the same model Humax during the digital switch-over in wales. Tried everything but in the end called out an aerial engineer who identified the unit was picking up a signal from the main transmitter and another one nearby thus confusing the Humax tuners, he fitted an attenuator (basically this reduces the signal strength slightly) and its been fine ever since. If the cause of your problems is the same you'll need an engineer with the right kit to test the incoming signal and fit the appropriate attenuator.

Its been faultless ever since, only thing i would say to check is make sure your on the latest version of the firmware too as they rarely ship with the most recent version, instructions on how to update it are on their website. I used a laptop with a serial cable myself but you can do it "over the air" too.

 

[gman76]

Actually the Humax is possibly more sensitive than your TV, so it may have picked up a lower powered transmitter signal first on the scan. You may find the same channels (from the better transmitter) up at the top end of the numbers.

I think this may be spot on, my 9200T does this every time I run an automatic scan and can cause just those problems. The give away is some doubled up channels in the 800 slots.

The way I get around it is to look up your chosen transmitter here: www.mb21.co.uk and write down the six channel numbers each of the multiplexes are transmitted on.

Restore the defaults on the Humax, run a manual scan on each of the channel numbers & save them.

You do need to do this every time you rescan, sounds like a PITA, but it takes no longer than an auto scan once you are used to it!

Hope this helps!

 

[alang498]

Many thanks to all for the comments and suggestions = I will work my way through them.

 

[alang498]

Just to bring things up to date: I went back to the retailer where we purchased the Humax Freeview HD recorder and explained the problem. The dealer thinks that there may be a problem with the HD on the Humax even though it is straight out of the box and has asked that it be returned.
To his credit, he has drawn our attention to the recently released Panasonic DMR-HW100EBK and has suggested that this may be a better option as the Panasonic TV can be controlled from the same remote, the remote has bigger buttons, the buttons identify what they do, etc.
I have looked at reviews on the internet and the Panasonic seems to attract good marks (re-assuringly for my Mother) in respect of ease of use from Senior Citizens.