Green screen on Humax PVR

[Another John]

Stand by for naivete and ignorance .. but here's the place I need to
ask:

Since yesterday I've had a problem with our Humax PVR - an HDR-Fox T2
(mid-2013). Our TV is a Sony KDL 37EX524 (late 2011).

The first time this happened was when switching to the PVR (over the
HDMI connection): a green screen appeared, followed quickly by a black
screen (result: I couldn't see menus, nor the effect of *any* button
that I pressed).

I eventually cured the problem last night, by switching off at the power
switch, and restarting a little while later.

Then today it happened again, after turning on the TV and PVR. Again, a
restart seemed to cure it, after a few attempts and a lot of waiting.

PREQUEL

Now then: before this happened yesterday, I noticed that even the
broadcast via the PVR was 'grainy' and basically rubbish. I know
nothing about the machine (and hardly ever use it actually, but my wife
watches almost all her TV via playback) - and so I didn't try to fix
anything.

Then I fumbled picking up the remote, and accidentally pressed the
V-Format button, which duly displayed "576i" on the screen. "Hello" I
thought: shouldn't that be "1080P" on this HD PVR/TV set-up?
I thought that perhaps someone had fumbled the pick-up before, and
accidentally set the V-Format wrongly, to 576i

So I set it to 1080P. Everything was immediately clearer and rather
wonderful [except for the sound which for some reason is always rubbish
via the PVR but that's another story no doubt].

I watched my programme, turned TV and PVR off .... then later that
evening I turned them on again ..... and the green screen appeared as
described above.


Any comments from the Experts? Thank you for reading this far ... if
you have!

Cheers
John

[Max Demian]

Sounds like an HDMI handshaking problem. (I don't really understand what
that means but it sounds good.) Try a different cable, or reseat the
plugs. If you have a SCART cable handy, try that, though you'll only
have SD. Should see whether it's an HDMI problem. (That V-format button
is a nuisance as it's easy to press it by mistake, especially if you are
swapping remotes with a Panasonic PVR where all the buttons are in
different positions.)

--
Max Demian

[Brian Gaff]

So did it revert back to the other format then,when it rebooted correctly?
Funny thing is I heard that this often happens when the psu or capacitors
in it are on the way out and for want of a better word, crap gets on the
supply lines and messes with the software. W would it not be great to have
the old days back when stuff was hardware and not all just software running
bits of chippery?
Brian

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[NY]

"Martin" <m...@address.invalid> wrote in message
news:0n91jd180gp4t9e7v...@4ax.com...
> Is the fan working. Maybe the PVR is over heating in this sub-tropical
> weather.

Could the power supply be knackered? I've had bizarre symptoms with a
TVOnics PVR when the wall-wart PSU stopped working: it generated 12 V,
according to a multimeter, but the on-load voltage was about 8 V, which was
enough to power the electronics but not the hard disk. Just a thought...

[Andrew]

On 24/06/2018 20:52, Another John wrote:

My HD FOX T2 (with an external hard disk) sometimes briefly shows a
green screen for a second or so after power-on from cold.

Sometimes it can take a couple of minutes for it make an HDMI connection
to my Hazro monitor too, but it always succeeds eventually.

[Max Demian]

Same here. That what made me suggest it's an HDMI problem.

--
Max Demian

[Roger Mills]

On 25/06/2018 09:39, Brian Gaff wrote:
> Would it not be great to have

> the old days back when stuff was hardware and not all just software running
> bits of chippery?
> Brian
>

Well, at least the OP wouldn't have *this* problem - 'cos there'd be no
PVRs!
--
Cheers,
Roger
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Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom
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[Roger Mills]

On 24/06/2018 20:52, Another John wrote:

We used to have a similar green screen problem with our HDR-FOX-T2
feeding an oldish (but it had HDMI) Philips TV. This was usually caused
by the TV getting confused because it was receiving a command from the
remote which was intended for the PVR. Often, the only reliable way of
fixing it was to power down both devices and start again.

[Another John]

In article <pgq9nv$hh$1...@news.albasani.net>,

"Brian Gaff" <bri...@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote:

> So did it revert back to the other format then,when it rebooted correctly?

OP here .. No -- it kept the setting of 1080P, after I finally got it to
reboot. Then it did it again later (green screened), hence my cry of
help to the group.


_Many thanks_ for all the encouraging replies - most reassuring!

I'm pleased to say that even I can now add 2p as well! ...

When looking through the manual once more, a piece of paper dropped out
of it. It was an email I'd printed off shortly after I'd got the Humax;
it was from an *excellent* person at John Lewis, where I'd bought it,
advising me on a few issues I'd raised with their technical support.
The key phrase was that "the device's default setting is 1080i".

I have set the V-Format to 1080i instead of 1080p, and - touch wood -
the problem has not resurfaced yet. I must point out that I wouldn't
have had the nouse to do this, without discussing things here.

Thanks to your replies I now understand more about this set-up: many
thanks. I'm going to be incommunicado for a week or two while we visit
our son in Canada. Although Usenet I'm sure is still going strong there
too, I won't have access to software that can use it! So if anyone else
offers advice, please don't be offended by silence in reply!

Cheers
John