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Newbie here! Well, new to 4000T anyway, just bought one to replace elderly 9200T that was playing up.
It loaded in the new November software on boot-up so I have no comparison with earlier versions. I have a few questions, hope someone can help.
1) Even on a 37″ TV the EPG seems to be in a somewhat unnecessarily compressed font and difficult to read. Can this be changed at all?
2) Also, the EPG, inexplicably, shows the time delineations at the top at the half hour, (17.30 – 18.30 – 19.30 etc) which is somewhat annoying as a lot of channel schedules are based round program changes on the hour. The screen shots of the EPG on the reviews and ads for the PVR actually show the time delineations on the hour (so why the half hour on mine?) and though its hard to tell from a screen shot, the font generally seems a little clearer. Is this change a feature of the November 16 software update? Can it be changed or customised? In fact can anything in the UI be tweaked or changed?
I have also had the “won’t wake up” problem, but I will apply some of the detailed advice provided on this matter in other posts.
Basically the thing seems to work OK and picture quality is excellent, but it just seems to be “hard work” compared to the 9200T (which had slowed down to a crawl, which is why it was replaced) but was dead easy to use. Many of the functions were one touch from a dedicated key, instead of all this “menu tree” stuff, and two or three touches to just do something as simple as play a recording.
Anybody any thoughts?
Thanks in advance – Rick J
It was changed some time ago because people complained the font was too big.
prking – 30 minutes ago »
It was changed some time ago because people complained the font was too big.
That seems to be a perverse thing to do and ignores those users who may have poorer eyesight. Perhaps they should follow computer OS’s which have an ‘accessibility mode’.
Rick J – 8 hours ago »
2) Also, the EPG, inexplicably, shows the time delineations at the top at the half hour, (17.30 – 18.30 – 19.30 etc) which is somewhat annoying as a lot of channel schedules are based round program changes on the hour. The screen shots of the EPG on the reviews and ads for the PVR actually show the time delineations on the hour (so why the half hour on mine?)
It doesn’t – the EPG shows a 2 hour window, anchored to the last half hour that has passed.
So, if you go to the EPG when the time is between :00 and :29 it will show on the hour delineations. If you enter the EPG between :30 and :59, it will show half past the hour.
Thanks Hackenbacker, – in fact I just noticed it myself this morning when I checked it at around 9.15 this morning! But thanks for the clear explanation, I had just thought it was happening randomly like a lot of other stuff on the 4000T appears to until you get down to the nitty gritty.
Incidentally, I did all the adjustments to settings late last night as advised in the very helpful posts on the thread about not waking up, and all seemed well at 9.15 this morning. Lets hope it continues.
Thanks also to a devil of a good post from Faust above, which refers to accessibility modes available on computers and mobile phones. I’m 67, my wife is 66. We are not “elderly” in the sense that we both work, we both are fully sentient (sort of), both working, and both use computers and technological devices all the time in our work. (I have been the FD of a computer company in my dim and distant past.) I am still playing lead guitar in a rock band at weekends. But the passing of years has made our eyesight somewhat less acute than it used to be, and, like using the bold font option on my iPhone, it would have been very helpful of Humax to have offered a few UI tweaks to accessibility to accommodate older people who must make up a reasonably noticeable proportion of their customer base.
Finally, can someone explain the difference between “switching off” and “standby”. Is it as simple that the latter is just the consequence of the former, or is there more to it?
Thanks in advance for your patience and good advice.
Rick J
Rick J – 10 minutes ago »
Finally, can someone explain the difference between “switching off” and “standby”. Is it as simple that the latter is just the consequence of the former, or is there more to it?
Standby is the state reached by pressing the button on the remote and reduces the boxes power consumption but leaves it capable of making a recording when required. Switching off usually means completely removing the electrical power so the box can do nothing and is occasionally required to recover from some fault conditions.
Thanks Martin – I think I get that!
Is there a more elegant way of switching off power than simply yanking out the power cord on the back? The 9200T had a little rocker switch on the back for that, but I can’t find an equivalent on the 4000T.
Rick J
Thanks Barry
So putting it into standby is just a matter of pushing the button top right on the handset (while its not recording) and pushing it again wakes it up? If so this could be done manually I suppose, putting into standby when going to bed, and waking it up next day. Or using the auto-off and auto-on facility in settings – I tried that on the first night we had it and it didn’t wake up the next day, but at that point I hadn’t been through the adjustments advised in the other thread.
Or might it be easier just to leave it on all the time, it can’t be using that much electricity!
Rick J
Rick J – 18 minutes ago »
Or might it be easier just to leave it on all the time, it can’t be using that much electricity!
Easier yes but in my opinion you get better more reliable operation by putting it into standby overnight however not everybody agrees with that view.
Leaving it on 24/7 is continuously writing and rewriting to the hard disk time shift buffer file. It’s likely to reduce the life of the hard disk significantly. Depending on your tariff it will cost about £25.00 or so in extra electricity. Low Power sby uses less than 0.5W.
Rick J – 58 minutes ago »
Thanks Barry
So putting it into standby is just a matter of pushing the button top right on the handset (while its not recording) and pushing it again wakes it up?
Correct – you can put into standby whilst unit is recording.
If there is no user interaction with the unit for 4 hours it will switch to standby automatically if auto power down is left as default in system settings.
You can push the off button at any time on a Humax pvr. If the box is recording it turns off the video and audio output but the box remains booted and the recording(s) continue. In the same state as it would be if recording from full sby. The box wakes to this condition 15 mins or so before a accurate recording is due to watch for the broadcaster to signal that the programme has started and to start recording. If you press the power button during this pre-recording period or during the actual recording the box just turns on the audio and video giving the impression of a fast boot.
When recording finishes the box goes into the full low power sby (if enabled) reducing the power output to 0.5W.
Similar happens if you delete a lot of content, this takes a while on a Linux system, if you push the off button the box stays awake in the background till the deletions are processed.
Basically you can push the off button at any time without affecting your recordings in any way.
Gentlemen thanks very much for the detailed and clear information. The unit seems to be behaving more stably in the last day or two. This is a really good and well run forum, I will no doubt be in touch again with my next set of queries.
Rick J
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