Over the last couple of days a number of people who own a Thomson DTi6300 Freeview set top box have been experiencing problems with their box failing to switch on/come out of standby mode and typically showing an amber light on the front panel display.

This problem is the result of a corrupt file having been broadcast and loaded onto the hard disk of the box as part of the auto-update service and it is not down to faulty equipment.

If you have been affected with this problem, the advice is to initially switch off the box at the mains for a period of approx 20 seconds and then switch back on again.

If switching off and back on doesn’t cure the problem, then you’ll need to reformat the hard disk in the box and then perform a retune. Instructions on how to carry out the procedure are on the Top Up TV website in the Help centre section HERE.

Reformatting will cause any recordings in your programme library to be lost and you may have to try the procedure a few times in order to resolve the issue as it requires complete attention and precise timing.

I recently bought myself a PVR (a digital Freeview box with an inbuilt hard disk drive) it’s a Humax PVR-9200T (Duovisio)

The loft aerial system needs a little attention because I can’t always get a signal on a couple of the Freeview multiplexes, but the box itself is pretty good.  There are some nice features that have changed the way I watch and record TV programmes…

Twin tuners so I can record two programmes simultaneously and watch a third;
Time shifted recording - pause, rewind etc a live programme;
Easy to use on-screen displays, to name but a few.

Minor gripes are that, out of standby, the 160GB hard disk causes a bit of a rumbling noise in the box, and this noise is exaggerated by the fact that the vibration is picked up by the wooden shelf in my TV cabinet which then acts as a kind of soundbox.  Careful placement of some felt pads under the feet of the Humax box and also between the shelf and it’s support pins seems to have fixed that little issue now.  The other thing is the fact that the EPG is slow to populate with programme details and every time you put the box into standby mode it forgets everything in the EPG.

There are some interesting articles on the box in the forums at Hummy.org.uk