# Black screen



## blinkhappy (May 12, 2010)

I have a Tivo Premiere, and twice now my TV has randomly gone black while I was watching it. After this happened, I verified that my HDMI cable was indeed connected correctly. The Tivo appeared to be responding to the remote, but I didn't hear any sound other than the Tivo error sound effect. 

I finally gave up on all other options, and I unplugged my Tivo. I assume this isn't all that good for it, but after I plugged it back in the picture came back. 

Has anyone else experienced this problem? Is there a way to reset (reboot?) the Tivo without unplugging it and waiting for it to start up? Any other suggestions?

Thanks much


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Try a different HDMI cable.

A funky cable can sometimes cause those issues. Changing the cable is an easy first step to see if that's causing the problem.
With the close to one hundred HDMI cables I've used in the last six years, I've run across a few cables that caused an issue like that..


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## denise1768 (Apr 16, 2010)

This happened to me last night.

I was watching a program from "my shows". It went black. I went to live tv, and I saw the live show, went back to the show I was watching and it went black again. When I went to ff to see if it was a problem with the show, it just froze up on the black screen. I waited 10 minutes because I was afraid to do anything since I was recording 2 shows. I had to pull the plug and reboot. Luckily, the entire time it was black, it still recorded my shows, although I did miss about 10 minutes while the machine rebooted.

This was my first freeze ever since upgrading to the new software.


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## chepworth (May 24, 2003)

I set up my Tivo Premiere yesterday and everything worked fine with one exception. I noticed that when I turned my TV on while it was recording two separate programs I would be greeted with a black screen, or a screen divided into 5 columns with thin colorful horizontal lines running across the entire screen. Unplugging and then re-plugging in the HDMI cable at either the Tivo or the TV would fix it. Within the last couple days I had purchased an inexpensive 26 inch Sanyo LCD tv. I thought maybe it was just a cheap TV issue. For the heck of it I went to Sam's and bought a new "Pure AV 8 foot HDMI cable which supports 1080P HDMI 1.3. I have tried to re-create the problem, but the new cable seems to have fixed it. Maybe the HDMI cable that comes with the Premiere is not a good one?


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## fareal (Feb 16, 2004)

This is happening to me right now. It's been happening since the afternoon actually. I believe that I've noticed that the black screen goes away after it is finished with a recording. You can then watch whatever is currently onscreen and ffwd and rwnd it and switch to whatever is on other tuner, but if you try to access the Tivo menu the screen will go black again.

I haven't rebooted yet because I don't want to interrupt the ongoing recording. I should have interrupted earlier programs though because now I'm missing Survivor because of this issue. Frustrating.

EDIT: Reading some of the other posts above mine. This doesn't seem to be related to any cabling issue. Seems more to do with something about the Menus, they just aren't accessible anymore, system needs a reboot. Although recordings will continue as I mentioned in my post.

EDIT: My screen just came back on. 29 minutes into the Survivor Reunion. So my theory above was incorrect. It isn't an end of a recording that brings back the screen, it is something else. Just to clarify.. this isn't an issue with my TV.. I can switch to any other source and the screen displays as expected.

EDIT: I used an old "LIST" button on my Harmony Remote that was for my Series 3 TiVo. It takes me to the old SD UI "NOW PLAYING LIST" and guess what it worked. So this issue appears to be with the HD UI because as I mentioned above if I press the normal "TiVo" button to take me to the Menus, I get stuck with a black screen.

EDIT: Ahh good old SD UI, it is good to see you again until I can afford a reboot.


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## Davis Freeberg (May 23, 2006)

I had this problem when I first tried to setup my box. The HDMI cable I was using worked fine for the S3, but for whatever reason didn't register with the premiere. Once I swapped the cable it seemed to work, so there may be something funky about how the premiere reads the HDMI especially on older cords.


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## jim111 (May 17, 2007)

I am having this problem now. Has anyone found a definitive solution, or contacted TiVo about it?

Thanks for any insights.

Jim


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## MikeAndrews (Jan 17, 2002)

That sounds very close to what I ran into when my S3 wasn't happy with the HDCP conversation. In my case after getting the black screen I had to power cycle the TiVo if I ever turned the TV off.

After more than a week of hacking I figured out the fix was connecting the HDMI cable from the TiVo directly to the TV rather than using the supposed HDMI pass through of my Onkyo receiver. It's been stable ever since.


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## jim111 (May 17, 2007)

I don't think it's related to the cable, although I saw that others in the thread also thought it might be. 

When it happened to me (it's happened twice, and I unplugged to reboot and solve it), it happened when I pressed the TiVo button. Then, even while black, every time I pressed the TiVo button, the channel up/down button, etc., I get the TiVo error noise (I call it the "DONG"). If it was a simple matter of the TiVo signal not correctly making it to the TV through the HDMI cable, it shouldn't make that noise (no matter where you are in the TiVo interface, pressing the TiVo button should always take you to the main screen, and shouldn't produce the error dong). I'm thinking it's a bug in the UI.

Anyone talk to TiVo support about it?


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## SnydersWeb (May 5, 2010)

I had the same thing happen.. I had to use the Thumbs Up>Thumbs Down>Play>Play trick to clear it.. but my ads work perfectly... stellar TiVo..just...stellar.


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## fareal (Feb 16, 2004)

SnydersWeb said:


> I had the same thing happen.. I had to use the Thumbs Up>Thumbs Down>Play>Play trick to clear it.. but my ads work perfectly... stellar TiVo..just...stellar.


What is that trick for? Haven't heard of it.


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## sghrush (Mar 8, 2005)

After I received the 14.4 update, I will get a temporary black screen (for 1-2 seconds) when I use the 30 second skip button or the forward button.


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## razor237 (Feb 1, 2002)

I've hand many black screen issues, press TiVo from live tv and my TiVo will sit at a black screen for 20-40 min b4 tv comes back ...only way to fix is to pull the plug or Doing a HD UI reset

really sucks  .... im getting less and less happy with tivo


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## Derek Nickel (Oct 7, 2003)

I've been a loyal TiVo customer since 1999, but I am getting very tried of the HD menus having so many problems, such as the Black Screen of Death. The black death has plagued me numerous times and requires a reboot.

TiVo, get your act together and fix the HD menus! If I revert to the old SD menus, then my expensive TiVo Premier XL is no better than my old S3 with upgraded hard disks. I am having a very hard time explaining why I spent so much money on something that doesn't work.


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## Ruth (Jul 31, 2001)

I had one of these the other day, for the first time. The weird thing was that it continued recording, and the lights on the front showed responsiveness to the remote, even though it was just giving me the black screen. 

I suppose if I'd been patient enough to wait until all my recordings were over to reboot I wouldn't even have missed anything. Of course, I was not that patient! I ended up missing about 10 minutes from a show while I waited for it to start up again.


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## _Ryan_ (Apr 4, 2010)

Black screen happened to me last weekend. Two red recording lights stayed lit, but the yellow light on the TiVo did not blink when I tried using the remote. Restart fixed it. (I'm using the HD menus)


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## Ruth (Jul 31, 2001)

Had another one of these last night. Happenned after I read a Message and was trying to get back to TiVo Central. 

I could still see the Premiere fine from my other TiVo using MRV. The Premiere continued to record and, judging from the lights on the front, it was recieving remote button presses. But the screen was black and unresponsive. 

If the TiVo didn't take almost 10 minutes to restart after a hard reboot, this would be a less irritating problem.


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## caddyroger (Mar 15, 2005)

Try using the SD menu. I believe the HD menu is responsible for this behavior. the same thing happen to me while I was in the HD menu. It not happen while in the SD menu.


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## SnydersWeb (May 5, 2010)

fareal said:


> What is that trick for? Haven't heard of it.


Sorry.. been out of town for a week. That TU TD Play Play reboots the menus so you don't end up having to pull the plug on it.


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## Ruth (Jul 31, 2001)

SnydersWeb said:


> Sorry.. been out of town for a week. That TU TD Play Play reboots the menus so you don't end up having to pull the plug on it.


Didn't work for me.


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## Ruth (Jul 31, 2001)

caddyroger said:


> Try using the SD menu. I believe the HD menu is responsible for this behavior. the same thing happen to me while I was in the HD menu. It not happen while in the SD menu.


I guess I will if I have to. But I'd rather not . . .


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## caddyroger (Mar 15, 2005)

Ruth said:


> I guess I will if I have to. But I'd rather not . . .


I would like to use what I paid for (HD menu) also but can not use it because of being slow and freezes up.


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## sghrush (Mar 8, 2005)

Ruth said:


> Had another one of these last night. Happenned after I read a Message and was trying to get back to TiVo Central.
> 
> I could still see the Premiere fine from my other TiVo using MRV. The Premiere continued to record and, judging from the lights on the front, it was recieving remote button presses. But the screen was black and unresponsive.
> 
> If the TiVo didn't take almost 10 minutes to restart after a hard reboot, this would be a less irritating problem.


This happened to me last night. The exact same thing.


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## sghrush (Mar 8, 2005)

SnydersWeb said:


> Sorry.. been out of town for a week. That TU TD Play Play reboots the menus so you don't end up having to pull the plug on it.


I tried TU, TD, play, play but nothing happened. Do these series of commands work on the Premiere? Or are these from S2 and S3s?


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## rkallerud (Feb 24, 2003)

Happening right now for me. TiVo Premiere XL. Just a black screen, lights on, seems to still be receiving signals from the remote. TU TD PLAY PLAY does nothing.

Should I wait it out?

Other than this happening twice in the 3 weeks I've had the Premiere, it's been perfect.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

rkallerud said:


> Happening right now for me. TiVo Premiere XL. Just a black screen, lights on, seems to still be receiving signals from the remote. TU TD PLAY PLAY does nothing.
> 
> Should I wait it out?
> 
> Other than this happening twice in the 3 weeks I've had the Premiere, it's been perfect.


I would not be happy with my Premieres if my experience mirrored yours.


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## Jonathan316 (Jan 4, 2004)

my 4th 'black screen of death' in 2 weeks. the problems with the Premiere are getting SO old! now it is sitting there recording - i think - two channels; and we have another black screen. the only way we can get it living again is to power cycle the Premiere - loosing what its current recording.

going to give Tivo another month or so to get their software together or i'll dump this buggy device and find another solution. the HD interface is slower than a old PC-XT, we have not had even ONE MONTH of clear service without lockups, freeze outs and black screens of death.

so disappointed...


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## iLOVEtv143 (Aug 3, 2010)

Dear TiVo Support;

please help.... this just happened to me too


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## iLOVEtv143 (Aug 3, 2010)

Two nights in a row.:down::down:

Is their a Premiere software update for this soon????


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## ckelly33 (Oct 30, 2004)

I had it happen the other night...black screen, but I had sound. The weird thing is, the tivo menus all worked. Live TV was black as was my current recording. I thought it was a cable signal issue but just to confirm, I went to a recording I had watched several nights ago....it was black with sound


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## caddyroger (Mar 15, 2005)

iLOVEtv143 said:


> Two nights in a row.:down::down:
> 
> Is their a Premiere software update for this soon????


Have you tried using the SDUI display?


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## Daniel Skeen (Aug 5, 2010)

We see this all the time with the HD interface. the background goes away but if you press one of the menu buttons the overlay menus do come on and the audio from the menus come through but otherwise no video or audio from the cable or hard disk sources.

Does anyone else think this might be a bug?


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## Tanner (May 28, 2003)

This may not be the cure
For
Some, but it's Thumbs down, thumbs up, play, play


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