# TiVo output woes



## Caravelle (Dec 6, 2012)

For some years I have been recording TV programs on a Sony HDD/DVD recorder using cable-box>SCART>Sony>SCART>TV. The latest incarnation of the cable box is a TiVo and that has worked fine for about a year.

Suddenly, however, in mid-program the video signal stopped passing through the Sony: the TV made an irritating fizzing sci-fi type sound and the picture was a set of black lines moving from right to left. I can't be sure, as I was operating on automatic at the time, but I think I might have just switched the Sony on. I have been messing about with cables ever since, and trying to reach a conclusion as to what exactly has stopped working but haven't got anywhere. At the moment, the SCART signal will pass through when the Sony is switched off but the faulty screen starts as soon as it is switched on. When a signal is created within the Sony, by using the menu system, or playing a recording or DVD it works just fine. Any attempt to record something from the TiVo disk produces a recording of sound but no picture.

Some weeks later my TiVO has started misbehaving in that sometimes no signal gets through to the TV, even with a direct HDMI connection. If I reboot it everything (apart from the issue in the previous paragraph) works normally. A while later I'll switch the TV on again and there may be a signal, there may not.

Does anyone have any ideas what might be wrong, or how best to test things to work out what's wrong?

Given the latest problem it looks like time to call the Virgin engineer who will doubtless just assume an unknown intermittent fault and replace the box - and I doubt very much if there is any way I can get my recordings off it first. It would be <so> nice if the USB was enabled for connection to an external disk to run the files off the old one and then transfer them to the new one.

I was also thinking of upgrading my Sony to a DVD recorder with upscaling and HDMI output and all the other options they have these days. But there is no point if it's not going to work with a TiVo, any TiVo, so can someone confirm that Virgin haven't quietly "upgraded" the machine to prevent recording via SCART? There is an awful lot of very confusing information out there on the subject of copy protection.

Thanks
Caravelle


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