Remanufactured HUMAX T800F 80 Hour Digital Video Recorder with TiVo

I've not had the priv. of dealing with Humax customer service so can't attest to the other reviews out here - although we may have to now since we're just now starting to have lock-up problems. All I can say is we've had our Humax for a couple of years now and absolutely love it. It's been problem-free and does everything it should. We especially love the ability to burn our recorded shows directly to DVD. We have another unit that's not a Humax and I doesn't have the DVD capability - I hope we can find another Humax as I don't want to be reduced to just the standard TiVo features.

I've been a big fan of TIVO ever since they were a desperate, small concern offering LIFETIME memberships for $299!! Well, ever since Letterman started mentioning TIVO, the company's subscriber base started to pick up [They really owe Dave a big THANKS for his casual comments].

We started with the first series, a Philips branded model with a relatively small Linux-based hard drive and MPEG compression. Although you do not need to subscribe to TIVO to use much of the machine's capabilities, it's not a bad deal; a mere fraction you paid for your last carton of Lucky Strikes[well, it could be your last, you never know].

The Philips-branded box worked well, but with the advent of higher quality video sources and an increasing number of commercials [now often up to 40% and more of your viewing pleasure]we decided it was time for an "Upgrade" to the newly-developed "Series Two" model, brand spanking new and 2x the viewing capacity of our old Philips.
Woohoo, let the show begin!
No wait, it's resetting itself. No wait, it lost the wish list. No wait, it's resetting itself. No wait, it lost all preferences. No wait, it's resetting itself. No wait, it's not coming on at all but the light's flashing yellow. No wait, it lost all preferences. No wait, it's resetting itself. When the HUMAX does play, it often "stutters", presenting the viewer with some very lovely but impromptu digitized aberrations.

Wow, "regular" satellite HD Dolby 9.3 ambient lit television was never this exciting. Before, you simply selected a channel and your tuner very predictably found that channel and miraculously displayed the content of your program without a glitch.

With HUMAX, the suspense alone is worth the price. Did it record my program? Did it remember I don't speak Lithuanian and deleted those channels? Will I be able to watch the *entire* program without those wild and crazy digital effects? These and other suspense-packed questions can all be yours for the asking. You can depend on HUMAX for all this *and* if you order> !now!, you can look forward to the bonus features 100% FREE with your paid subscription; like countless service calls; like a confused automated telephone attendant prompts; like a fairly useless but very friendly customer service department. What's not to like?

For those without a need for all this enrichment and would prefer to just watch the program you desire when you want, I would not recommend this brand. However, if you have no life and find yourself developing a dry wit jaded by predictability, I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND ANY HUMAX!

Just think of the possibilities!
--- For a little more suspense, you could invite your borderline personality-disordered neighbor to watch a part of "Trainwreck II: The Movie Again" or a portion of a partial episode of your almost favorite "Survivor" series.

Life just doesn't get any better.

AX~

I stongly suggest to anyone that plans on purchasing a prodcut from HUMAX to think again! My wife purchsed me one and we have had nothing but problems with the company and its DVR. Our first DVR froze on a screen druring set up. So they set us a second one to replace the broken one. As we used it for a day, the second machine did the same, freezing at different spots. Trying to reset the machine as instructed, it did not work. So they sent us a third. Well, guess what, the third is also freezing. Now three weeks into waiting for the fourth, still no dvr. The company simply needs to get their act together and fix the problem. The customer service was nice, but they are a subbed out company that realy can't help me with my problems just try to rectify it by sending me another and REQUESTING assistance. You do not have direct contact with the company and there for can not help you and simply request by email to Humax for additional help. Please do not buy a product from HUMAX, it will save you time, frustration and stress!!

My friend didn't want to pay the tivo monthly fee ($12.95) so he gave me the unit. I have used this product for over 2 months now with the TIVO monthly subscription. It has expanded my TV viewing from the normal main channels: ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, CNN, and ESPN, to include many more channels: Oxygen, Comedy Central, AZN, Bravo, History, Food Network, and many more. Tivo allows me to set my wishlist and it searches the programs that fit the list.

It searches and records the programs at all hours and saves them in the hard drive. It tells me whether there would be any conflict and allow me to decide how to deal with the overlapped programs. Over last weekend, 1/1/2006, the cable was out in my area. I was able to catch up on the saved programs like movies: Buying a Cow, Lucky7, The Sweetest Things; TV-series: Lost, House, As you like it, Voice within; and infomational programs: The Vanderbilt and King Tut.

It provides a Svideo output for me to save the program to a DVD via an external DVD recorder. It also can be connected to my home wireless/wired network via 802.11b/RJ45 (I use the Linksys USB wireless adaptor). If you like watching TV this is a machine that allows you to watch what you want at your own time, and it is relatively painless to set up.

I purchased one of these Refurb t800 units on October 21st. Shortly after receiving the unit, it started locking up. The only recourse was pulling the power cable. After some basic diagnostics, Humax customer service advised unit had bad hard drive and to send it back for replacement. That's when the fun began.

11/8 Original Call to Humax
11/11 Called to initiate advanced replacement
11/12 Called to get shipment info. They didn't have it, call back.
11/14 Called to get shipment info. They didn't have it, call back.

11/16 Called to get shipment info. They didn't have it, call back.

11/18 Called to get shipment info. They didn't have it, call back.

11/18 11:30pm Found Tivo on front porch of my house. I had it shipped to my place of employment but somebody screwed up my work address (even after 3 times verifying the address on the 11/11 phone call) and Humax had it sent to my house instead. Nice, but nobody notified me. The kicker--it arrived on the 15th. It sat on my porch for 3 days in sub-freezing weather.

11/19 Went to setup replacement t800. Guess what, it's defective and cannot even get through setup routine without rebooting.

11/19 Called Humax. Will ship third unit. Very apologetic, but could not do anything other than apologize. Spoke to manager, he agreed to ask their distribution site to expedite the shipment. He asked me to call on 11/21 to get tracking info and verify unit will be shipped overnight.

11/21 Called Humax to get tracking info. There is nothing noted on the account. Very apologetic, but call back for tracking info.

I've spoken about 8 times with a rep named Betty. She is useless and can provide no information. She had the gall to tell me it will get delivered correctly this time because 'I did it right this time.' What? She's the only rep there that can do the work?

My suggestion is to stay as far away from this company as you can. Once I get a good unit, I'll probably love it. But dealing with Humax Customer Service had been a nightmare.

And if you do purchase one and have problems, tell Betty that Rob from Ohio says hi and I'll be calling her later today!

Updated 11/22: The replacement promised to be overnighted on 11/21 was shipped regular shipping which means I have to wait another 5-7 business days for delivery. I don't understand how a company can be this incompetent!