# Any tuning (black screen) problems reported with Roamio?



## thyname (Dec 27, 2010)

This problem is widely reported with Premiere 4 and tuning adapters, including myself. It basically means that tivo will fail to tune to channel occassionally and it will display a blank screen. A few channel Up Down moves will display the said channel.

Anybody has experienced this problem with Roamio?


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

I get that problem occasionally with Elite but so far so good with Roamio. In fact signal strength & SNR numbers are high and RS corrected/uncorrected are low which is a good sign. But really need to give it a couple more weeks before claiming victory over that nasty Elite/XL4 issue. I have an inkling the tuner chip being used is no longer Maxlinear which would be a good thing.


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## Goldwing2001 (Sep 30, 2006)

Yes, I'm seeing this issue on mine (Roamio Pro). This has happened on my previous Elite, but very rarely. I've been using the Roamio Pro for three days now and I have encountered black screens each day so far.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

The one where you get the v56 error and have to reboot?

I just had that happen on my Elite again. Seems to be happening more frequently in the last few months.


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## thyname (Dec 27, 2010)

That is definitely a Tivo software problem, unfortunately never acknowledged by Tivo, who always blame the cable company. I have done everything that I could with Cox: changed TA and cable cards, checked the signal, lines, repair cc over and over, etc. It keeps happening. I am fed up with my P4, to the point of switching to Cox new 6 tuner dvr.


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## grey ghost (Feb 2, 2010)

Been playing it since yesterday morning(24/7) and I haven't seen any such black screen


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I think the problem might have to do with watching/recording SDV channels. I just had it happen this morning. Yesterday I had intentionally switched all 4 tuners to an SDV channel just to verify they all worked because I was reading about how some cable companies are still using old firmware on their TAs. 
Anyway I normally don't record many SDV channels because none of out HD channels are SDV, and I rarely record anything that's not HD. But it seems like the last few times this has happened it's been after I recorded something on an SDV channel, like SciFi.

When I get my Roamio Pro I'm going to set up a bunch of recordings on SDV channels and see if I can force it to get this problem. If it does I'll report back.


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## MeInDallas (Jul 31, 2011)

I hate to hear this is STILL going on! I was really hopeful that with the new hardware this wouldnt pop up again, or had gone away. I dont guess Tivo will ever acknowledge this issue. Well thank God I didnt buy one right off the bat, I've been itching all week to pull the trigger on one. I think ill wait until the base model goes down in price a little and get one for OTA, if I do that at all. Very disappointing news.


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## MeInDallas (Jul 31, 2011)

Just for kicks, I had set mine up with just the card card and no tuning adapter, unchecked all SDV channels, and just let it run that way for like a month, and the issue never happened, not one single time. Hooked up the tuning adpater again, put all my SDV channels back in the list, and withing a day it began happening again.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

MeInDallas said:


> I hate to hear this is STILL going on! I was really hopeful that with the new hardware this wouldnt pop up again, or had gone away. I dont guess Tivo will ever acknowledge this issue. Well thank God I didnt buy one right off the bat, I've been itching all week to pull the trigger on one. I think ill wait until the base model goes down in price a little and get one for OTA, if I do that at all. Very disappointing news.


I'm not sure it is. There are two black screen issues I've seen. This one, which really sucks and requires a full reboot, and one where when you turn on the TV for the first time you're presented with a black screen until you you hit a button on the remote. It's unclear which one the Goldwing is talking about.


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## monkeydust (Dec 12, 2004)

This issue sounds very similar to what I reported a few days ago. I haven't done any testing in a few days but last time I checked, all my channels I checked were working. Could be an issue that resolves itself over time or there is a systemic issue here that is becoming more evident with these six tuner machines.


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## MeInDallas (Jul 31, 2011)

Well I hope its not the same one I had. If thats what it is then it would be such a deal breaker for me. I'm still fighting with my XL4 almost on a daily basis.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

With the v56 error once it happens it does not resolve itself unless you manually reboot. So even if they just added a way for it to fix itself that's a step in the right direction. Although I hope this is just a misunderstanding and this issue isn't happening on the Roamio. I was really hoping this was a hardware issue and would be fixed with the new box.


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## MeInDallas (Jul 31, 2011)

The issue I have mainly seems like its something to do when the channels changes, like the tuning adapter or Tivo dont change in sync with one another, one changes faster than the other, then the Tivo thinks theres no signal there, so it gives an error. When it changes on my HTPC it changes so fast, like almost immediately, and it never gets an error. Then sometimes on the Tivo it gets to where it will not tune any channels at all, and I have to pull the power to the tuning adapter and Tivo, then turn it all back on again. That was my hope, that with new hardware and faster processor it wouldnt show its head again. I guess we need more info on whats going on.

I used to have it in my big TV room where I sit down to relax and watch everything, but I moved it to my office to where it doesnt matter. I just cant trust it anymore to record all my shows.


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## thyname (Dec 27, 2010)

I don't mind the problem when watching live tv. A quick channel up or down will fix the problem, and it will tune the channel I want in 2-3 tries. The big problem is when I set something to record and it records nothing, just blank.

And it happens to non- SDV channels, like AMC last Sunday with Breaking Bad.

This issues is heavily discussed here under Premiere section. I never had it with my old first generation 2 tuner Premiere. Only when I got the P4


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## Goldwing2001 (Sep 30, 2006)

Dan203 said:


> I'm not sure it is. There are two black screen issues I've seen. This one, which really sucks and requires a full reboot, and one where when you turn on the TV for the first time you're presented with a black screen until you you hit a button on the remote. It's unclear which one the Goldwing is talking about.


The black screen issue I'm having is sometimes when changing channels (SDV channels) I get a black/blank screen. But, it I change to another channel, then change back to that channel i get a picture this time.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Ok good. That's not great, but it's better then the v56 error that requires a complete reboot of the TiVo to fix.


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

thyname said:


> That is definitely a Tivo software problem, unfortunately never acknowledged by Tivo, who always blame the cable company. I have done everything that I could with Cox: changed TA and cable cards, checked the signal, lines, repair cc over and over, etc. It keeps happening. I am fed up with my P4, *to the point of switching to Cox new 6 tuner dvr.*


Before you do, you should really research the new Cox 6 Tuner DVR,
Lots of complaints of missed recordings, 1 minute recordings, tuner unavailable, etc, etc...

http://forums.cox.com/forum_home/tv_forum/f/4.aspx


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## thyname (Dec 27, 2010)

CoxInPHX said:


> Before you do, you should really research the new Cox 6 Tuner DVR,
> Lots of complaints of missed recordings, 1 minute recordings, tuner unavailable, etc, etc...
> 
> http://forums.cox.com/forum_home/tv_forum/f/4.aspx


Thanks for the post. I am aware of these problems as I read Cox Forums as well. I think the best thing to do is wait.


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## jellyandtoast (Aug 26, 2013)

I have a similar/peculiar problem.

I noticed that sometimes i'll be changing channels and it'll show an error message that it can't tune a certain channel (although signal strength is consistently strong in the signal test thing). Sometimes, pressing the LiveTV button resolves the issue because it switches to another tuner but sometimes it doesn't and requires a full restart. after the restart, everything seems to be fine.

I rebooted the Roamio 3 times yesterday and am this close to just giving up and returning it.

Has anyone seen this yet on their base (or other) Roamios?


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## jellyandtoast (Aug 26, 2013)

I should mention that this is a V52 error and is becoming far too easy to replicate.

UPDATE: I spoke with TiVo support and they seem to think that it's a weak OTA signal coming into the box. I'm skeptical because I know most channels come in with a strong signal (as verified by TiVo's own signal meter in Settings). 

They asked that I try a signal booster and report back. If it still persists, they'll swap out the box apparently.


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

On my Premier, if I have problems like this, I can go to the cable card diagnostics channel test screen and get flawless pictures on the same channels I get V52, not authorized, or sometimes just black screens on. The fact that the cable card test shows a perfect image, yet the TiVo can't tune to it in "normal" operation is what has me waiting for the mythical TiVo software update to come in someday and maybe fix things so they are no worse than before the 20.3 update arrived (and all these errors started).


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## brianm729 (Jul 11, 2013)

This sounds very similar to an issue I've been having lately with my series 3 and now the Roamio. I was hoping the Roamio would fix this but apparently not. Some of my channels are not tunning and I get a V58 message or channel not available message. If I switch to a different tuner I can usually get it to tune. I have Comcast but no tunning adapter. I've never heard of a tunning adapter until I started researching here, but it seems Comcast doesn't use them? How would I know if I need one? At this point I wouldn't trust Comcast if I ask them. Any suggestions for me? Thanks


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## bwperez (Jan 4, 2005)

I got my Tivo Romio today, threw in a 2GB harddrive and fired it up. Everything was great until later this evening when I tried channel surfing when guess what. I hit the V52 error message.

Searching for a signal on this channel. (v52)

I have figured out that the problem is if you are trying to use the 3rd tuner. I was able to reproduce the problem by recording two programs then changing to another channel. If I canceled one of the recordings I was then able to tune the channel it was complaining about.

Called up tivo and they are shipping me a replacement. I really suspect this is a software issue but I'll take the replacement all the same.

Brian


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## skaggs (Feb 13, 2003)

This is disappointing news about the v52 and black screen issues happening with the Roamio units.

I was thinking about pulling the trigger for a pro + mini and get rid of my two Premieres. I'm extremely frustrated with the black screen issues on the Premiere. I was only thinking about moving to the pro + mini to get rid of the black screen issue.

A few weeks ago, sat down on Monday night to watch the True Blood and Ray Donovan episodes that recorded the night before. However, both the recordings were of black screens.

I'll wait to pull the trigger until the v52 and black screen issues have been resolved.


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## bwperez (Jan 4, 2005)

skaggs said:


> This is disappointing news about the v52 and black screen issues happening with the Roamio units.


Just for clarity sake. I'm using a Romio Basic with OTA antenna hooked up. I'm not using a cable card.

Brian


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## thyname (Dec 27, 2010)

From all the posts here, I think this is definitely a Tivo issue. It happens to almost everybody, with or without Tuning Adapter, even with OTA signal, sdv or not SDV channels.

The problem is Tivo does not acknowledge this. They have not for the past 8 months or so that I have been dealing with it with my Premiere 4. This is not acceptable! They kkep blaming my cable company.

I don't care about all the bells and whistles in my Tivo, I just want it to do the basic functions of a DVR, which is recording a show, and changing the channels.


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## MeInDallas (Jul 31, 2011)

thyname said:


> I don't care about all the bells and whistles in my Tivo, I just want it to do the basic functions of a DVR, which is recording a show, and changing the channels.


I been screaming and stomping my feet about that same thing since January 2012 when I got my first Elite/XL4 but it got me no where, so I just gave up. I dont know if Tivo will ever acknowledge or fix it.


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## jellyandtoast (Aug 26, 2013)

MeInDallas said:


> I been screaming and stomping my feet about that same thing since January 2012 when I got my first Elite/XL4 but it got me no where, so I just gave up. I dont know if Tivo will ever acknowledge or fix it.


so I take it they never even tried to provide any monetary concessions for all the trouble you've had?

what a sad state of affairs. I mean, if this is really an issue for a good chunk of people, it's really bad form for them not to acknowledge and try to fix it.

On my end, I'm going to try the signal amp they suggested but I'm highly skeptical that's the issue. if it doesn't work, I'm returning the box back to Amazon and cancelling my lifetime service.

what BS on the part of TiVo.


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## jellyandtoast (Aug 26, 2013)

another update (for the benefit of others).

Last night I installed a signal booster to see if a weak signal was the root of the issue. but, the booster didn't help at all...

However, I noticed last night that it was only Tuner #2 that wouldn't tune channels. I went to the DVR diagnostics under settings and noticed that no matter what channel I was on, Tuners 0,1, and 3 constantly had a reliable lock on a signal, whereas Tuner 2 wouldn't tune _anything_. I restarted several times to see if Tuner 2 is just a dynamic label or if it's 'hard coded' to an actual tuner. it turns out that the latter was true. so in fact, it looks like (at least in my case) there is a defective tuner.

I called TiVo with this update and they suggested I just return it and get a new one.

I just ordered a new one and hope that the issue doesn't reappear.

Can anyone else check DVR statistics and see if all 4 tuners are picking up a signal (even on the weak signal channels)?


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## MeInDallas (Jul 31, 2011)

jellyandtoast said:


> so I take it they never even tried to provide any monetary concessions for all the trouble you've had?
> 
> what a sad state of affairs. I mean, if this is really an issue for a good chunk of people, it's really bad form for them not to acknowledge and try to fix it.
> 
> ...


They did give me free service for awhile, and I went thru a lot of boxes, but switching out a box for another thats exactly the same is just going to produce the same problems. The last update did help one of the major problems I was having, so now I'm at least able to watch TV with the box, but every few days it does go a bit crazy on me and I have to just unplug everything and let it sit for about 10 minutes and then turn it all back on again.

I dont trust it enough though to use in my main TV room, so its banished to my office for now. Shame to have a $400 box in my office, but oh well. I keep hoping that there will be some update to fix this. I know most the time the engineers are working behind the scenes to fix things that Tivo support doesnt really know about, so its kind of a wait and see situation. I'd love to get a new Roamio, but I wont spend the money on it until I know more. If they cant fix the one I have then I wont give them anymore money, no way.


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## MeInDallas (Jul 31, 2011)

Oh and I forgot to add, I know that engineering has a fix that is supposed to be included in the Fall 2013 software update that might fix this problem for some people, but its just a "wait and see what happens" situation at this point. Hopefully it will help a lot of people out, and I hope I'm included in that count.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

MeInDallas said:


> I'd love to get a new Roamio, but I wont spend the money on it until I know more. If they cant fix the one I have then I wont give them anymore money, no way.


 You can always buy a Roamio and give it a try and return it within the return window if you find the problem is still there. I know it's early days and I haven't had my Roamio Plus very long, but I have not seen the issue yet whereas with my Elite I would occasionally see the issue (but I really need to give Roamio Plus about 2-3 months of use before calling it fixed for me). The reported "signal strength" and RS corrected/uncorrected are better on Roamio than on my Elite but that could just be software differences.


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## amseven11 (Dec 24, 2011)

No problems here with 2 Roamio's. So far so good!


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## oh4real (Jan 8, 2007)

jellyandtoast said:


> another update (for the benefit of others).
> 
> Last night I installed a signal booster to see if a weak signal was the root of the issue. but, the booster didn't help at all...
> 
> ...


I bought a roamio for OTA yesterday and after I hooked it up, I notice that one of the tuners never seems to work on all (or most) channels.

If i do a "signal strength" diagnostic, all channels get signal, in the green. Then I stop diag and the first, second and third tuner seem to catch all channels, but the 4th, just a handful.

I bought the un-powered antenna ClearStrem1 Convertible, suggested by TiVo, but it made no difference.

Really horrible when one tuner might be on CBS, but another tuner can't catch it and toggling back and forth between them changes nothing.

My 4.5 yo dual tuner HD works perfectly on both tuners.

I guess I'll have to give TiVo a call and possibly do a swap if one of the tuners is defective - assuming it's not a software issue.


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## jdaniels1982 (Jan 15, 2011)

Running into the same issues here on Long Island....I'm a longtime Tivo user and Cablevision customer....have always had a great tivo experience over the years with the Series 1, Series 2, and 2 tuner Premier xl. The minute I switched over to the 4 tuner Premier Elite model last year I began getting the V58 errors and dropped signal black screen. I returned my 4 tuner last year for an older 2 tuner xl after many tivo box exchanges and cable card swap outs. I was so excited when the Romeo was announced and had hoped the new 6 tuner unit had resolved the old issues....Within an our after plugging in my Roamio, I started loosing channels that minutes before had been working fine. The channels that drop are always unpredictable which makes it worse. I'm returning the Roamio unit and going back to my 2 Tuner XL until it dies. So disappointed I love the speed and agility of the new Roamio...but at the end of the day I'm using it to watch tv....if the tivo can't reliably keep all the channels in tune...what's the point... I'm highly doubtful Cablevision carries multiple brands of cable cards to try.
Also just want to say how annoying it is that Tivo continually says to me that this is the first they have heard of the issue...when clearly this forum shows that not to be the case.
Anyone have genuine success resolving the issue?
Joe


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## jwbelcher (Nov 13, 2007)

I've been checking the DVR diagnostics when getting the black screen after changing channels. Its appears the cablecard tuner status is "waiting for a response" from the tuning adapter. 

This is the same TA (cisco sta1520) that works fine with my TivoHD. My theory is the tuning adapter isn't supporting 6 SDV steams concurrently. I'm having better results with limiting the tuners (right now 5 with the 88635 code). time will tell if it holds up


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## jdaniels1982 (Jan 15, 2011)

I have never used or needed a tuning adapter with Cablevision so that doesn't explain my issues


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## jwbelcher (Nov 13, 2007)

jdaniels1982 said:


> I have never used or needed a tuning adapter with Cablevision so that doesn't explain my issues


Have you checked the firmware version on the CableCard? There's a heavy discussion about older firmware not supporting 6 tuners - possible that your CableCard is limited to two? If you browse around in the CableCard diags you should be able to tell how many tuners / sessions allowed. My TivoHD shows the cablecard support 6 even though the Tivo is only using two of them.

The speed of the Roamio is so good it be a shame to return it. Too bad Tivo doesn't have a code to limit the tuners to two for compatibility. I've tried the 8863x code with 2, but seems the smallest that can be specified is 4 (88634)


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Dan203 said:


> I think the problem might have to do with watching/recording SDV channels.


Yep.

I lost all my SDV channels (Cox) also, and no amount of up/down tuning made any difference. So I power cycled the tuning adapter and after a few minutes they came back.

I *HATE* the whole F'ing tuning adapter concept.



> Anyway I normally don't record many SDV channels because none of out HD channels are SDV, and I rarely record anything that's not HD.


Same here. Mostly because I hadn't gone through and turned all the crayy non-HD channels off yet. Now I did.



> When I get my Roamio Pro I'm going to set up a bunch of recordings on SDV channels and see if I can force it to get this problem. If it does I'll report back.


Mine is a Roamio Pro connected to Cox.


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## Zipster90 (Sep 3, 2013)

I've just returned to the TiVo world after getting rid of my Series2 waaay back. I've started using my Roamio yesterday with an OTA antenna (a Winegard FlatWave Amped) and it was working great...until the black screens came. Rebooting or power cycling would resolve it the first few times. Now, it's stuck in a reboot loop on the "Welcome! Starting up." screen. Guess it's time to call TiVo after a whole half-day of use.

Really disappointing.


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## Unbeliever (Feb 3, 2001)

A few instances I've had a black screen and a "Channel unavailable" banner 4-5 seconds after a successful tune.

I noticed it on my S3, but it was less obvious as the timeout on the S3 was less than 1 second before the S3 popped up the banner. With the Roamio/S5 the timeout is a bit longer, apparently.

So I'll still do the "4 minute manual recording" method of doing multiple tune attempts on SDV channels. (e.g. record from 9:55 to 9:59 for a 10:00 show for a total of 3 tune attempts). The sting is softened a bit with more tuners. On my S3, about 1/3rd of the manual recordings failed, but they were sacrificial, as the primary season pass recording it preceded had 3 tune attempts to get it right. I rarely lost recordings after I started doing that.

--Carlos V.


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## jwbelcher (Nov 13, 2007)

Jelly - are you connected to a Tuning Adapter? Would love to hear your results with the new Tivo. I've got a Pro that continually fails to turn SDV channels.


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## profet (Aug 27, 2004)

jwbelcher said:


> Have you checked the firmware version on the CableCard? There's a heavy discussion about older firmware not supporting 6 tuners - possible that your CableCard is limited to two? If you browse around in the CableCard diags you should be able to tell how many tuners / sessions allowed. My TivoHD shows the cablecard support 6 even though the Tivo is only using two of them.
> 
> The speed of the Roamio is so good it be a shame to return it. Too bad Tivo doesn't have a code to limit the tuners to two for compatibility. I've tried the 8863x code with 2, but seems the smallest that can be specified is 4 (88634)


I am also on cablevision on Long Island have noticed sporadic V58 errors. I could have 4 tuners tuning the channel fine and 1 tuner that gets V58.

It seems to be totally random.


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## jellyandtoast (Aug 26, 2013)

Just wanted to post a final update on my issue with this. It turns out as I'd suspected, the problem with mine was not the OTA signal strength but a faulty tuner. Once i narrowed things down, i discovered Tuner #2 was consistently not tuning anything. 

I returned the box and have been testing the replacement for almost a week now with no V53 errors. 

Definitely relieved.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I had this happen today. Last night I recorded a show from an SDV channel. When I turned on the TV today the TiVo was still on that channel but it had a V53 error floating around the screen. It appears that the SDV channel timed out. Unlike the Premiere this didn't require a reboot to recover from though. I simply changed the channel and then changed it back and the channel came back on line.

So it seems like maybe TiVo needs to add some code to send an intermittent tuning request to the TA to keep the channel alive. Although maybe there are some rules against that if the user hasn't actively pressed a button in X minutes. It would sort of defeat the purpose of SDV if a bunch of people were tying up SDV channels they weren't actually watching.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Dan203 said:


> It would sort of defeat the purpose of SDV if a bunch of people were tying up SDV channels they weren't actually watching.


The whole point of SDV is to make our lives miserable. It is an abomination that should never have happened


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## uforia (Jul 30, 2004)

This is happening to me with my Pro (Comcast SA cable card) and is causing some major WAF issues. Is it worth it to swap out the cable card? Reduce from 6 to 4 tuners? I'm open to any work arounds short of returning the Pro and Mini and plugging back in the two Premieres that never had this issue. Although I may have to consider returning as well.

I get either a black screen, and if I switch tuners and come back I get a "Channel not available. Contact your cable provider." message.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

I may have stumbled on a fix, but I haven't had it implemented long enough to know yet. I'm not sure if anyone else suggested it yet either as I don't remember this entire thread. 

What I did when I kept getting black screens and the like is that I was thinking it was a signal strength issue so I went into the menu and stumbled on the "Channel Scan" selection. When I tried it, it said that it couldn't do it because I had the cable card and TA installed. So I disconnected them and did a full channel scan. It came back with way over 200 channels (to be expected on my pkg). I also saw before I did the scan that when I tried to do the "Test Channels" part, it said I had no digital channels to test!!! This is one of the reasons I thought to do the scan as well. 

Well after that was done I backed out into live TV and tuned a bunch of the channels I had issues with and lo and behold they all seemed to tune and get a picture on the first try!

You guys with issues may wan to give that a shot. It's worth a try at least. I know how frustrating it is!

Hollas,
Dave "TiVo and tamales" Harper


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

I spoke too soon. I just had the issue again when I came in to start watching some football.


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## jwbelcher (Nov 13, 2007)

HarperVision said:


> I spoke too soon. I just had the issue again when I came in to start watching some football.


Dave - what brand of cablecard / tuning adapter? I had the issue with Cisco branded. What I noticed in the Tuning Adapter's diagnostics is that the failed channel is normally w/o a frequency and the sdv session status is inactive.

The Tivo DVR diagnostics will either show the tuner with resolution status as "channel not available" -- this is when it prompts to press "SELECT" to try to tune again. Or when getting a black screen, and sometimes V58 or V56, the Tivo DVR diags has the tuner marked as Analog w/o a frequency, the resolution status "pending response". I also noticed that when recording 6 shows simultaneously that the TA diags would only show 2 tuners as active. To me this seems like a problem.

If your using Cisco TA; take a look at the SDV session info (tuning adapter diag menu) and cross reference with the Tivo DVR diagnostics. These statuses were always the case for me. It would be interesting if your failures are consistent.

Btw, does anyone know what the Resolution Status relates too? I assume it related to communications to the tuning adapter which could mean this a Cisco issue that requires new firmware (my odds on favorite). Otherwise it could be that tuner is failing to tune certain frequencies that are dynamically returned by the tuning adapter (my outside theory).

My experiences are in the orlando brighthouse area. It was very easy to reproduce for me. Anytime I loaded up more than 2 SDV channels these were the errors I received. Unfortunately, I had to return the Roamio yesterday (was closing in on Bestbuy's lousy 15 day return policy). I might try again in a few months. Hopefully by then Tivo and / or Cisco will do something to resolve these issues.

@TiVoMargret - any possibility of us getting a 88632 code until this issue is resolved with Cisco tuning adapters? Reports of 2 tuners working (TivoHD and Premier) make this a potential work-around for those of us effected.

James


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## uforia (Jul 30, 2004)

jwbelcher said:


> @TiVoMargret - any possibility of us getting a 88632 code until this issue is resolved with Cisco tuning adapters? Reports of 2 tuners working (TivoHD and Premier) make this a potential work-around for those of us effected.


The couple times I checked the diagnostics when I had the issue, it's always been tuner 3 on my SA cable card. Note that this is the 4th tuner (out of 0-5). I saw someone else mention tuner 3 seemed to be their problem tuner rather consistently as well. Now if others see tuner 3 as the issue, I'd be very happy to just disable that one tuner and go with 5 total until there's a fix. Wonder if that's possible.

I did try one thing today with my connectivity. My signal seems to always be at 100 and SNR at around 41. But I occasionally get 2-3 seconds of pixelation when watching shows. Never had that with my 2 Premieres. So I bypassed my 8-way coax splitter and am going directly to the Roamio after a 2 way splitter for the cable modem. We'll see if that helps at all, but I'm not holding my breath.

BTW, I'm on Comcast in Houston (Friendswood).

Ben


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

jwbelcher said:


> Dave - what brand of cablecard / tuning adapter? I had the issue with Cisco branded. What I noticed in the Tuning Adapter's diagnostics is that the failed channel is normally w/o a frequency and the sdv session status is inactive.
> 
> The Tivo DVR diagnostics will either show the tuner with resolution status as "channel not available" -- this is when it prompts to press "SELECT" to try to tune again. Or when getting a black screen, and sometimes V58 or V56, the Tivo DVR diags has the tuner marked as Analog w/o a frequency, the resolution status "pending response". I also noticed that when recording 6 shows simultaneously that the TA diags would only show 2 tuners as active. To me this seems like a problem.
> 
> ...


Cisco CC and SA TA. I'll try to do some more testing today and get back to you. Thanks for the info!


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## Johnnymarr (Sep 9, 2013)

I just bought a Roamio (basic) after 8 years of perfect service on a series 2. I felt it was time for an upgrade. That was the biggest mistake of my life. I have TWC and a tuner box. Within 15 minutes of plugging it in, I had premium channels drop in/out. Within a day, the channels never came back. Nothing but black screen on 75% of my channels. I contacted TWC. They came to my house, looked at the tivo confused for an hour, and said it was a tivo issue. I contacted Tivo, and they said it was a Time Warner issue. Also, during certain programming, I noticed the trick plays don't work (like NFL games in HD). Debating on buying the bullet and just going with a TWC DVR and save myself the hassle.


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Johnnymarr said:


> I just bought a Roamio (basic) after 8 years of perfect service on a series 2. I felt it was time for an upgrade. That was the biggest mistake of my life. I have TWC and a tuner box. Within 15 minutes of plugging it in, I had premium channels drop in/out. Within a day, the channels never came back. Nothing but black screen on 75% of my channels. I contacted TWC. They came to my house, looked at the tivo confused for an hour, and said it was a tivo issue. I contacted Tivo, and they said it was a Time Warner issue. Also, during certain programming, I noticed the trick plays don't work (like NFL games in HD). Debating on buying the bullet and just going with a TWC DVR and save myself the hassle.


Digital cable and such is a whole other world. I would say you likely have a poor quality signal from cable company. When they came out, they SHOULD have checked your levels...


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## jwbelcher (Nov 13, 2007)

crxssi said:


> Digital cable and such is a whole other world. I would say you likely have a poor quality signal from cable company. When they came out, they SHOULD have checked your levels...


There are too many of these reports on SDV especially when the tuning adapter is a Cisco STA 1520. My signal levels are 98-100 w/ SNR 37-40.

We need to voice these issues in a productive manner to Tivo representatives so they can get attention. I emailed Tivo Margret today and she responded with in minutes! Amazing.

She recommended that next time you are on the black screen or channel not available message, and you have more than 2 SDV channels tuned, please enter 9-1-1-CLEAR and 7-7-7-CLEAR and then Connect to the TiVo Service *TWICE*. Then email [email protected] with your TiVo Service Number and the date/time of the problem. This will provide Tivo the logs to see what is going on.

--James


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## Johnnymarr (Sep 9, 2013)

I'm finding that out the hard way. They did check my levels. I'm pretty sure that's all they did.


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## dotorg (Jul 3, 2000)

Ugh, wish I'd seen these threads before wasting $1500 on a Roamio Pro and minis to replace my flawless HD units ...

Clearly Comcast insisting its a Roamio problem is true ...


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## uforia (Jul 30, 2004)

dotorg said:


> Ugh, wish I'd seen these threads before wasting $1500 on a Roamio Pro and minis to replace my flawless HD units ...
> 
> Clearly Comcast insisting its a Roamio problem is true ...


I experienced this 5-6 times in the first month of owning my Roamio (had mine within a week or so of availability). But I've not seen the issue in many, many weeks. Probably not since late Sept or early Oct. The only thing I changed was the coax cable from the outlet to the Roamio. Signal readings didn't really change, so not sure if that's what helped. But something did.


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## jwbelcher (Nov 13, 2007)

Nah, don't buy that argument from them. IMHO its the flaky fragmented Cablecard (and TA) firmware versions scattered across various cable operators that's causing these problems. jumping up from 2 tuners has exposed a whole host of issues.. Keep an HD as a backup for recording must-see-tv until it all of it sorts out.


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## jwbelcher (Nov 13, 2007)

uforia said:


> I experienced this 5-6 times in the first month of owning my Roamio (had mine within a week or so of availability). But I've not seen the issue in many, many weeks. Probably not since late Sept or early Oct. The only thing I changed was the coax cable from the outlet to the Roamio. Signal readings didn't really change, so not sure if that's what helped. But something did.


Tivo had a software release that made things much better (albeit not perfect) around that time. Since then I've missed only a couple recordings due to No Signal.


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

TiVoMargret said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> If you are experiencing black screens and have a Cisco Tuning Adapter, we'd like your help. We have worked with Cisco and identified a bug in the firmware of the Tuning Adapter that causes it to occasionally fail to respond when we ask it to tune. In order to escalate the priority within Cisco, they need to receive (one or more) requests from Cable Companies to fix it. (Cable Companies are customers of Cisco, TiVo is not.) Once Cisco has updated firmware available, then it will be up to the cable companies to deploy the fix.
> 
> ...


Has anyone seen or been testing a newer Cisco TA Firmware than the following version:

FLASH: STA1.0.0_1520_LR_F.*1601* - Jan 31, 2012


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## dave13077 (Jan 11, 2009)

CoxInPHX said:


> Has anyone seen or been testing a newer Cisco TA Firmware than the following version:
> 
> FLASH: STA1.0.0_1520_LR_F.*1601* - Jan 31, 2012


I have this version on both my Premiere 2 tuner and Elite box. I still have the black screen/ fail to tune issue. If anything it has gotten a bit worse with the "Fall Update" that was just rolled out. IMO the boxes are already under-powered and now after the Fall Update Tivo is asking even more from the boxes with the extra processing power needed to display and ability to interact with more ads. Just my 2 pennies of course.


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