Humax’s hugely popular Freeview PVR has recently undergone a hardware transplant to offer HDMI output, and the lowest standby power consumption we know of in a PVR. Consequently the model number has changed slightly to PVR-9300t, and a 320GB hard drive is now fitted as standard. The changes are hoped to satisfy current UK consumer demand until Humax can unveil its all new ‘signing and dancing’ high definition PVR when Freeview HD arrives late next year.

But despite its best buy status for UK PVR’s, it seems there is one issue a number of users have feedback to the company: a noisy fan. Ordinarily the fan is turned off during standby; however if the PVR is left on when the TV is switched off, many customers have reported hearing the sound of the fan.

During our conversations with Humax today we took the opportunity to ask them about the fan fitted to their PVR-9300t and PVR-9150t model; and its good news. Humax UK have already asked its engineering division to look into the issue, and as a result a new version of the PVR software has been readied for testing. The changes are designed such that the PVR can control the power feeding the fan while the machine is on.

In house testing will continue together with more beta testers in order to check there will be no adverse effects on the long term reliability of the PVR. If this goes as planned the software will be rolling out to all PVR-9300t and PVR-9150t receivers via an over the air download sometime in the next six or so weeks.