Problems with PVR recording - automatic deletions

[Dave2002]

We have a Humax Foxsat PVR. Some while ago I set it up to record CD Review on Saturday mornings.
This particular PVR has a USB output, so it's possible to ofload recordings to a portable hard drive.

I discovered not too long ago that the PVR also has an auto delete feature, to delete recordings if there is insufficient space available for new ones. There are settings which in theory over ride this, but it seems to me that they don't work too well. The consequence of this is that if one, or someone else in a family tries to record something, then previous recordings may be erased with no warning, and it's possible for quite a large collection of potentially interesting/useful recordings to be lost. A two hour film in HD could wipe out a lot of radio audio recordings.

I don't know whether putting a protect lock on each recording would prevent this automatic deletion behaviour.

It's not a life and death matter (think football - Bill Shankly), but it can be a bit sad when things get lost this way because some trivial and ephemeral TV programme has bumped them out of the backup storage.

So the message is to check storage, try to put on protect locks where possible, and to back up anything one really wants to keep using an appropriate method - in our case USB portable drives.

[Anastasius]

I have a very jaundiced view of Humax's software based on using their PVR's over the years. I'm getting to the point of biting the bullet and getting rid of our current one. The Foxsat was on the list but your timely post means another lengthy trawl through the various manufacturers. (I think I am grateful to you for alerting us to this flaw ??!!)

[Dave2002]

anastasius

I'm not sure that all the Humax models would have this problem, though as you mention it's probably a software thing. Obvviously when storage fills up something has to give, but deleting stuff without warning, and simply marking files as "ghost files" after the event is really not good enough.

If you find a better model elsewhere please let us know what it is. Our first PVR was very nice - the recommended model (Digifusion?) at the time when PVRs were just beginning to be on the UK market, but (un) fortunately it failed after almost exactly a year - the good thing was that I got a new Freeview Humax as a replacement for free - that was a close thing.

We also have a newish BT box, which is also a Humax, but it supports YouView. If you have any interest in using BT it's quite good - though some aspects of BT's service are very expensive. We make hardly any telephone calls using BT deliberately in the interests of economy, and as we're not too keen on football we don't make much use of BT TV - though it's sometimes good for tennis. Football enthusiasts might like it, though. It is good for catchup TV, and we've at last figured that if we do catch up using the BT box we don't have to pay any more - though BT has tried to persuade us to move away from a 40 Gbyte download limit per month to unlimited for extra dosh - though perhaps they have just had a free "upgrade" offer, which I've not yet checked out - I think that was in return for a new 12 month contract.

[johnb]

I have a Humax HDR Fox-T2 (which is a glorified Freeview PVR) and I'm absolutely delighted with it. On its own it is pretty good but the customized firmware and utilities written by the folks on the Hummy.tv forum take it to an entirely different level - so much so that I am seriously considering hunting round for a second hand box as a backup in case the one I have fails.

Back to the topic. On my HDR Fox-T2 the Auto Delete setting is on the Settings/Preferences/Recording menu and can be enabled/disabled from there. On my box I believe it was disabled by default. Having said that I keep an eye on the amount of free HDD space in the Humax and have never approached the level at which the auto delete would come into effect.

One advantage of the HDR Fox-T2 customized firmware is that it includes an optional package to enable the Humax to automatically mount network shares - so, in effect, my HP Microserver (running Ubuntu Server and used as a glorified NAS) becomes an extension of the Humax and is seen as a USB HDD. This, together with the customized firmware's automatic decryption and web interface, makes it very easy and relatively quick to transfer files from the Humax to the Microserver.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

We have a Humax Freesat+ box which allows us to record two programmes at once. As there's 1 Tb of memory, filling up the hard drive isn't a real issue. (On our only DVD recorder, we thought 80 Gb was pretty good.

The only gripe is that the iPlayer feature is restricted to TV programmes and Radio 1. So no TTN.