Humax bad designs

[DeskJockey]

Have an FVP-4000t Freeview play box hooked up to the telly. It sits in a cabinet with plenty of air above and to the sides, and although it gets uncomfortably hot, TADTS.

Last week it suddenly started displaying HDCP error messages. Contacting Humax support it was apparently the HDMI cables fault, despite me explaining that I've tried three different cables and three different ports on the telly and the Blu-ray player had no issues with HDMI or HD content using the same cables and ports.

Leaving it off for an extended period of time seems to fix the issue, so I figured it was the box at fault, despite what Humax said.

Ended up sticking some spacers underneath it, lifting the box about 3cm up and it has been perfect since. No HDCP issues, picture looks crisper (could be placebo) and the box certainly responds faster to commands.

I'm wondering if thermal management has been throttling it trying to avoid overheating. It is a fanless design.

In short: rubbish design.

[Simon]

Funny you should say that. I'm currently applying my soldering skills to my Dad's very old DTR-T1000 box. The caps go out of spec and die. Done about 12 of them so far and not managed to bring it back to life yet though.

I think they just cheap out on components to be honest.

[drcarlos]

Funny you should say that. I'm currently applying my soldering skills to my Dad's very old DTR-T1000 box. The caps go out of spec and die. Done about 12 of them so far and not managed to bring it back to life yet though.

I think they just cheap out on components to be honest.

One of mums Foxsat-HDR boxes is nearly dead. The box powers on and you can watch recorded stuff but there's no channels or EPG. It appears to be a tuner fault. Fortunately the TV is pretty new and is fitted with a Freesat tuner which I commented up and activated. She also has Sky-Q in another room so she's good for recording stuff. I guess 10 years life isn't bad for a box.

[Orange Cola]

We have a Humax and it’s got a few issues:

1) annually it develops amnesia and forgets all its recordings. Won’t record anything anything. Recovers after 6-8 weeks and magically finds all the lost recordings

2) it doesn’t like CH4, hasn’t worked for a number of years now. All other channels work just fine

3) I can’t find a replacement new Humax freesat box. I think I’m going to have to try and get a TV aerial installed and swap away from freesat, TV reception isn’t great around here and I don’t watch enough TV to justify Sky

[V8Granite]

Literally exactly the same with out EE box, raised it up 15mm and it has been pretty good since.

Dave!

[DeskJockey]

Sadly the spacers didn't fix it. Box randomly decides to have issues.

So, not wanting to pay Humax more money, I researched the very, very limited options and bought a Vboxcomm Android TV Gateway as it seemed to tick all the boxes and the reviews were acceptable.

Four hours after unboxing I've requested an RMA. It has a lot of promise, but is immature and unfinished, and lacks fundamental products like Netflix.

Extra fun that they shipped it from the Czech Republic, but I have to return it to HQ in Israel.

So, back to Humax I guess. Pants.

[DaveE]

We've had a couple of Humax boxes (in series) now for years and years.

They can be a little finicky, and ours is very noisy now.

But they're overall good IMO.

Picking up a cheap BT box off eBay is the best alternative from what I've seen so far (having had one for a while).

[DeskJockey]

Bought a new Humax box and it works fine, seems faster than the old one too. To no surprise it also proves my original suspicion: it isn't the cables.

£24.30 later I've shipped the other box back. Can see from the T&T was attempted yesterday. Contacting the vendor they apparently can't receive a package for another three weeks due to the pandemic. Seems overly restrictive, so I've said I can provide pictures to prove the state of it for shipping so they can expedite the refund.