# TiVo Mini and the "black" screen on Main (Premiere 4) TV



## thyname (Dec 27, 2010)

I am having a problem since I got my Mini installed. Here is my setup:

1 - Living Room - TiVo Premiere 4 - Connected to the router via ethernet
2 - Bedroom - TiVo Mini - Connected to internet via MoCA

I noticed that I get the "black" screen often in my main tv when I select a channel. I then go channel down or up a couple of times and then the channel shows up.

I called my cable company, and had one of their cable card technicians come over. He spent two hours in my house. Everything was fine from Cox part, signal in my house, tuning adapter and cable card. He was getting 89 signal strength across the board.

He mentioned that the problems comes from TiVo Mini since the Premiere 4 thinks that a tuner is busy because of Mini. 

Have you heard anything about this? Anybody experiences this? I am seriously thinking of returning my Mini and canceling the subscription, since this is driving me crazy. I have also missed a scheduled recording twice now, because of this problem.

Thank you in advance!


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## Gadfly (Oct 27, 2007)

I noticed this last night and I don't even use MOCA (all Ethernet).

Tivo's software in general is the buggiest I have ever seen. I can't wait for a day that they have a serious competitor so I can throw this garbage out of my house.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Wow I'd hate to know how you feel about the cable co's, DirecTV and Dish's DVRs then!


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## thyname (Dec 27, 2010)

I am surprised that this has happened to only one other person here. Maybe just bad luck for me.

Maybe I can solve this by not sharing a tuner from my P4. Thoughts? I would hate not to be able to watch live tv on my bedroom through the Mini.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

thyname said:


> I am surprised that this has happened to only one other person here. Maybe just bad luck for me.
> 
> Maybe I can solve this by not sharing a tuner from my P4. Thoughts? I would hate not to be able to watch live tv on my bedroom through the Mini.


I have a Mini setup and I don't have any problem but the tuning adapter may be part of your problem, is anybody using the Mini on a system that requires a tuner adapter *??*, my Comcast setup does not use any tuner adapter.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

lessd said:


> I have a Mini setup and I don't have any problem but the tuning adapter may be part of your problem, is anybody using the Mini on a system that requires a tuner adapter *??*, my Comcast setup does not use any tuner adapter.


 I'm sure there are plenty of Mini users with that setup as TAs are quite prevalent in non Comcast & FIOS markets. I have TAs and no such problem. TAs get a pretty bad rap but have been very reliable for me. There's been lots of threads about tuning issues with 4 tuner units though. It seems like pristine conditions are needed for 4 tuner units to tune properly.


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## thyname (Dec 27, 2010)

lessd said:


> I have a Mini setup and I don't have any problem but the tuning adapter may be part of your problem, is anybody using the Mini on a system that requires a tuner adapter *??*, my Comcast setup does not use any tuner adapter.


That is what I thought as the "black" screen problem I observed happened with only the SDV channels (at least, this is what I recall). This was one of the reasons that I had a Cox technician come over to my house. He checked and tested my tuning adapter and found no problems with it. He actually showed my on his instrument panel how the TA was performing.

Of course, the more devices you have in the mix, the more likely is a problem to happen.


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## Loach (Jan 11, 2013)

Cox is implementing SDV in my market today. So I will have the pleasure of finding out whether the tuning adapter causes any problems soon. Haven't experienced anything like you've described in my few weeks of usage without a TA.


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## thyname (Dec 27, 2010)

Another weird thing happening is that when I check "signal strength" I get an error message saying that "channel strength not available since you don't subscribe to any digital channels" (or something like this). I definitely subscribe to many digital channels, including HD. I never saw this before with my old Premiere where I could always check the signal strength and meter.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

I had this issue too. Go into the menu and test both the tuning adapter (if you have one) and cablecard channels. Mine worked in the TA test screen but got the same message you described when I tested them in the cablecard menu. I think what caused it was when I set it up I bypassed activating the cablecard right away because it was real late at night. After I called in and they re-paired, activated the TA and CC, etc. then it finally worked. It took a few tries though. Did you happen to bypass CC activation initially as well?


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Yes, as HarperVision mentions there is a different "test channels" screen you have to use when TA is attached. The CableCard screen doesn't work in that case because the TA is controlling the channel mapping when installed. Of course ideally the TiVo would be smart enough to know that and direct you to the TA "test channels" screen either way but evidently it does not.


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## thyname (Dec 27, 2010)

Thank you for the replies.

My Premiere 4 replaced the two-tuner "old" Premiere. I just swapped the cable card from the "old" Premiere to the the P4 and reconnected the Tuning Adapter to the new one. Called Cox to pair the cable card with the new TiVo and that was it.

The Mini arrived just a couple of weeks ago. Maybe it is just a coincidence, but I started having this problem when Mini was added to the setup.

When the Cox technician was in my home, he did what he called "re-mapping" with the home office. It did NOT solve the problem.

I called TiVo yesterday. They told me this is a problem they are aware of and escalated to Level 2 of technical support (whatever that means). They told me that will contact me in 5-7 days via email.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Yeah, the problem they are "aware of" is lack of proper training  It sounds like the issue I had, which was the TA also needs to be re-authorized.


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## teklock (Sep 11, 2012)

I have noticed not as reliable service when I had my xl4 on moca and my minis on Ethernet. I`ve since put everything on moca and have had no problems. 

Maybe put everything on one network and test?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

teklock said:


> I have noticed not as reliable service when I had my xl4 on moca and my minis on Ethernet. I`ve since put everything on moca and have had no problems.
> 
> Maybe put everything on one network and test?


I've tried my two Elites and Two Minis on Ethernet, on MoCA, and now on wireless(with wireless Bridges) over the last couple of weeks. Using each one for two days or more.They were all using the same format concurrently. i didn't mix them. From a user perspective, perfomance seemed identical between all three.


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## teklock (Sep 11, 2012)

aaronwt said:


> I've tried my two Elites and Two Minis on Ethernet, on MoCA, and now on wireless(with wireless Bridges) over the last couple of weeks. Using each one for two days or more.They were all using the same format concurrently. i didn't mix them. From a user perspective, perfomance seemed identical between all three.


Exactly my point. It sounds like the OP is mixing which maybe where the problem is.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Mine are mixed without issue. (2 minis using ethernet through DirecTV DeCA units)


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## thyname (Dec 27, 2010)

UPDATE:

This is the email I received from Level 2 Support two days ago:

_Thank you for contacting TiVo Customer Support. This is a response to your current issue that is noted on reference number ---------. We have attempted to send a possible fix to your TiVo Device. Once sent, this potential fix can take up to 48 hours to run on you TiVo unit. Please monitor your channels as they come in. We ask for assistance in verifying whether or not our fix was able to resolve your issue. If the issue still persists after 48 hours of this email being received please use one of the following methods to contact our Technical Support Department at your earliest convenience_

I have had no problems tuning over the past two days since this email, apart from a reset of Tivo I had to do when I went back home the day I received the email. Cross fingers: I am hoping this problem is fixed once and for all.


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