# Channels not tuning



## dave13077

I have Time Warner Cable with tuning adapters. I also have a Premiere Elite (XL4) and a regular Premiere. I noticed a problem the last few days and am not sure how long it has been there. This happens on both Tivos. If you are in the HD channels (700-800) and if you surf channels by using the channel up or down on the remote some of the channels will not tune in. It is different channels all the time and if a channel does not tune you can't get it to tune if you use the buttons and select the numbers. As you scroll up and down some channels will not tune but as you come back to them they will tune in and maybe others will not. It seems quite random. It works fine on the "lower" channels. Can anyone else duplicate this? Thanks.


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## nandopr

dave13077 said:


> I have Time Warner Cable with tuning adapters. I also have a Premiere Elite (XL4) and a regular Premiere. I noticed a problem the last few days and am not sure how long it has been there. This happens on both Tivos. If you are in the HD channels (700-800) and if you surf channels by using the channel up or down on the remote some of the channels will not tune in. It is different channels all the time and if a channel does not tune you can't get it to tune if you use the buttons and select the numbers. As you scroll up and down some channels will not tune but as you come back to them they will tune in and maybe others will not. It seems quite random. It works fine on the "lower" channels. Can anyone else duplicate this? Thanks.


I have the same problem. TiVo saids the problem is with Brighthouse (Central Florida) and viceversa.

I really got tired of this situation and will try to live with it. Maybe someone here will come with a solution and/or suggestion.

Have a god day all.


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## TiVoSupport_Kaitlyn

Dave13077 and pandopr, 

Can you please send me a Private Message with your TiVo Service Number in it? We would like to enable logging on your TiVo DVRs so we can better understand and track the issue. 

Thank you, 

Kaitlyn


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## dave13077

tivosupport_kaitlyn said:


> Dave13077 and pandopr,
> 
> Can you please send me a Private Message with your TiVo Service Number in it? We would like to enable logging on your TiVo DVRs so we can better understand and track the issue.
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Kaitlyn


PM sent. thanks


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## James01020

dave13077 said:


> I have Time Warner Cable with tuning adapters. I also have a Premiere Elite (XL4) and a regular Premiere. I noticed a problem the last few days and am not sure how long it has been there. This happens on both Tivos. If you are in the HD channels (700-800) and if you surf channels by using the channel up or down on the remote some of the channels will not tune in. It is different channels all the time and if a channel does not tune you can't get it to tune if you use the buttons and select the numbers. As you scroll up and down some channels will not tune but as you come back to them they will tune in and maybe others will not. It seems quite random. It works fine on the "lower" channels. Can anyone else duplicate this? Thanks.


I am having the exact issue you described with Charter cable along with the added frustration of Tivo suggestions not recording. Hopefully someone will have an answer for this.


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## fritolayguy

I am having the same issue with my new Elite XL4 and Time Warner with Tuning adapter.

Will try to tune in a channel from the guide, and the progress bar at the bottom will show that it is paused with no video signal. Switch back to previous channel, and everything is fine, then sometimes will try to go back to the channel that would not tune, and now it is available. This happens randomly, and the channel tuning in on the second try is the exception and not the rule.

Would love to understand what is causing this and if it can be resolved.


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## ScubaCat

I've had my new TiVo Premiere XL for about four months and it has been working well up until a few nights ago. Since then I've had several partial recordings and a long period where the channels would come and go every twenty minutes or so. Basically this means I can't trust that TiVo will completely record any scheduled programs and even watching live TV is dicey. 

I've been using a TiVo for over ten years and never considered using anything else. Last night I seriously considered using something else. Please fix this soon!


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## shaa

I have a similar issue with Charter using a tuning adapter as well. Just this week it didn't record a show claiming the channel was unavailable. I hadn't had it for a while and thought the issue was fixed after the last update but I guess not.


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## Davisadm

Sounds like the problem is the tuning adapters. It happens when cable companies make changes to their lineups. Contact your cable provider, and don't let them push the problem off to someone else. Insist on talking to the next tier and/or supervisor


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## Teeps

Davisadm said:


> Contact your cable provider, and don't let them push the problem off to someone else. Insist on talking to the next tier and/or supervisor


To what end?


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## shaa

Davisadm said:


> Sounds like the problem is the tuning adapters. It happens when cable companies make changes to their lineups. Contact your cable provider, and don't let them push the problem off to someone else. Insist on talking to the next tier and/or supervisor


I disagree. When I manually change the channel it tunes just fine it only screws up when Tivo changes to the channel I want to record. I know everyone likes to blame the tuners and that may be the case sometimes but I do think the way Tivo changes to a new channel needs to be looked at since obviously the tuner is not receiving the request to change properly.


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## timstack8969

This also has been happening to me. I'm using a TIVO Premiere w/comcast (No SDV). Lately when I go from one channel to another like ch. 806 to ch. 860 nothing comes up but the message "This channel is not available" by using the "Last channel" button, channel up and down buttons and direct tune. (Comcast of Garden State, NJ).


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## TripFoeYa

Same issue here with Comcast in Connecticut. Mine seems to only happen with one of the four major network channels. I have to power cycle the TiVo to get the channel to work again.


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## m_jonis

same issue here and I know it's not the TA because my 3 TivoHD don't have the problem. It's something with the Premier XL


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## spameater2005

This has been happening to me too. I'm using two TiVo Premieres and one Elite with Comcast. SDV is not in my Comcast area. I am getting "This channel is not available" on a lot of HD channels or while watching a program the screen will go blank for 1 sec or 2 and come back. Never had an issue in years until now. I am in the Scranton Comcast system. One thing I have done instead of restarting the boxes is to check the signal strength of the channel and it will initially be zero, but give it a second and then my strength will be in the 90's and the channel comes back.


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## Goldwing2001

This also happens to me on my Premiere XL4. It happens quite randomly. If a channel does not tune you can't get it to tune if you use the buttons and select the numbers.


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## swarto112

moved from fios to TWC market, night and day. nothing but problems with tuning adpaters. main thing is to make sure that they split the Tivo and TA otherwise you wont get most of your channels. Even after the split still dont get a lot of the higher switched channels unless i tune it in and come back later. Seems that it'll work after quite awhile. Proved funtionality ten times to ten different techs in person. Bess they can come up with is to rotate TAs until one works. Ive spent 50 hours over 2 months...man I miss Fios.


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## Teeps

swarto112 said:


> moved from fios to TWC market, night and day.
> nothing but problems with tuning adpaters.


I feel your pain.
FIOS is not even an option on my street; but is a few blocks west. Maybe some day... soon.


swarto112 said:


> main thing is to make sure that they split the Tivo and TA otherwise you wont get most of your channels.


What do you mean?

Also, please include your city and state in the profile.


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## timstack8969

Still having this problem with channels not tuning in. Just when you think it went away it happened this morning. Seems to happen more times when you press "Last" on remote than entering channel number. I'm on Comcast of Garden State, NJ "Cisco" cable card system.


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## rogmatic

I have had this problem since I got an Elite a year ago. Constantly losing signal - often for all channels unless I did a reboot. Now I have unplugged the tuning adapter and it works fine - less channels, but at least they work.


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## mrizzo80

Have no idea which of the half dozen active "tuners fail" threads I should put this under, but add me to the list of people having tuning issues. Time Warner (SW Ohio). TiVo Elite.

Started to have continuous trouble with SDV channels a couple weeks ago. I replaced my TA and that appeared to fix things instantly, but I guess it was just temporary.

No rhyme or reason to these issues. Over the years I've had TiVo, I've had issues where once a channel locks on, I can surf off that channel and surf back onto it several minutes later (using the same tuner the whole time) and it would tune fine. Not anymore. 

I had a series of like 5 channels I was just testing with.
Channel A: tunes fine. Up/Down to Channel B: no tune. Tune back to Channel A: no tune. Channel C: tunes fine. Channel D: tunes fine. Back to Channel C. No tune. Channel D: no tune. Back to Channel C: tunes fine. All within the span of like 90 seconds.

Not getting any of the usual popups (searching for signal, hit Select to try again, problem with the signal, etc). Just a blank screen.


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## TVLander

Same problems here. I wish TiVo would address this. Seems like they could retry the channel a few times if "No Signal" is detected. 

I'm seeing missed shows daily now, and Time Warner has been out to check the line and they gave me a new TA, so no help on that end.


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## mrizzo80

Well, just sunk an hour into investigating this. 2 reboots -- not much of a change. No longer seeing the weird issue where a channel tunes 1 second and not the next; but still was lucky to tune half of the channels I tried.

Then I got a "recording about to start on the other tuner" prompt. OK'd it. The time flipped to 9pm and I've only had issues with 2 channels since then. Poof. Nearly everything works all of the sudden.

Could just be a coincidence, but maybe one of those 2 events actually did factor into fixing it? Maybe that event forced a clearing of memory or a buffer? Maybe some sort of timing issue that gets cleared at the top of the hour?

Before the issue resolved itself, I tried to isolate each of the 4 tuners to see if any 1 of them was the problem by going through a large range of channels to see if Tuner A would refuse to tune it but Tuner B/C/D would tune it. It was all-or-none.


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## L David Matheny

mrizzo80 said:


> Have no idea which of the half dozen active "tuners fail" threads I should put this under, but add me to the list of people having tuning issues. Time Warner (SW Ohio). TiVo Elite.
> 
> Started to have continuous trouble with SDV channels a couple weeks ago. I replaced my TA and that appeared to fix things instantly, but I guess it was just temporary.
> 
> No rhyme or reason to these issues. Over the years I've had TiVo, I've had issues where once a channel locks on, I can surf off that channel and surf back onto it several minutes later (using the same tuner the whole time) and it would tune fine. Not anymore.
> 
> I had a series of like 5 channels I was just testing with.
> Channel A: tunes fine. Up/Down to Channel B: no tune. Tune back to Channel A: no tune. Channel C: tunes fine. Channel D: tunes fine. Back to Channel C. No tune. Channel D: no tune. Back to Channel C: tunes fine. All within the span of like 90 seconds.
> 
> Not getting any of the usual popups (searching for signal, hit Select to try again, problem with the signal, etc). Just a blank screen.


Isn't the whole SDV concept incompatible with willy-nilly channel surfing? If you happen to be the only person doing it, the tuning adapter may be able to swap SDV channels quickly enough to keep up, but certainly if other people near you (same cable node?) are trying to do the same thing, there will be some tuning failures. You can't really blame TiVo for that, and maybe it's not even fair to expect too much from the cable company. SDV just isn't designed for channel surfing.

TiVo should, however, try to handle the inevitable problems SDV causes in a more graceful manner. If after a channel change the TiVo sees no transport stream data, it should retune every ten seconds (say) for a minute and then every minute for the duration of the recording until it starts receiving data to record. And if the transport stream is lost during the recording, the TiVo should begin a new retuning sequence.


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## rgjutro

I've been having this issue for the last couple of months with my XL4 with TWC in Socal and it's driving me crazy. It's just so random, that it's tough to nail down. For mine it does it for everything, not just from sdv to hdv. Some days it's not bad at all, and some other days it's atrocious.

When I first got my XL4, it never happened, and then one day it just started and hasn't left. I've done all the regular gammits, restarts, replace TA, power cycle the devices in different orders, etc etc. 

Has anyone find a way to permanently fix this yet?


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## mrizzo80

rgjutro said:


> I've been having this issue for the last couple of months with my XL4 with TWC in Socal and it's driving me crazy. It's just so random, that it's tough to nail down. For mine it does it for everything, not just from sdv to hdv. Some days it's not bad at all, and some other days it's atrocious.
> 
> When I first got my XL4, it never happened, and then one day it just started and hasn't left. I've done all the regular gammits, restarts, replace TA, power cycle the devices in different orders, etc etc.
> 
> Has anyone find a way to permanently fix this yet?


I talked to both TiVo tech support and the TWC Cable Card support hotline recently. TiVo said the TiVo is fine and that it's probably the Tuning Adapter's fault. He didn't seem to care that I had replaced the TA after this issue started and still experienced this afterwards.

The TWC Cable Card hotline had me check my EMMs (Entitlement Messages). Mine read at 4; it should be 40+. He sent some hits to the cablecard to get it over 60. I still had trouble tuning some channels after he did that; but haven't had major trouble since then. But it's only been a few days so can't say for sure if this is a permanent fix.

You can check your "EMMs Processed" level on the CableCARD Menu screen in TiVo. I have a Cisco M-Stream; so for me it's listed on the first page of the CA Screen.


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## Teeps

rgjutro said:


> I've been having this issue for the last couple of months with my XL4 with TWC in Socal and it's driving me crazy. It's just so random, that it's tough to nail down. For mine it does it for everything, not just from sdv to hdv. Some days it's not bad at all, and some other days it's atrocious.
> 
> When I first got my XL4, it never happened, and then one day it just started and hasn't left. I've done all the regular gammits, restarts, replace TA, power cycle the devices in different orders, etc etc.
> 
> Has anyone find a way to permanently fix this yet?





mrizzo80 said:


> I talked to both TiVo tech support and the TWC Cable Card support hotline recently. TiVo said the TiVo is fine and that it's probably the Tuning Adapter's fault. He didn't seem to care that I had replaced the TA after this issue started and still experienced this afterwards.
> 
> The TWC Cable Card hotline had me check my EMMs (Entitlement Messages). Mine read at 4; it should be 40+. He sent some hits to the cablecard to get it over 60. I still had trouble tuning some channels after he did that; but haven't had major trouble since then. But it's only been a few days so can't say for sure if this is a permanent fix.
> 
> You can check your "EMMs Processed" level on the CableCARD Menu screen in TiVo. I have a Cisco M-Stream; so for me it's listed on the first page of the CA Screen.


I had similar problems when time warner first issued the tuning adapters.
Short story:
The home run drop, from the pole to my house was chewed by a rodent.
I would start there.

Also, it can be helpful to include city and state in your profile.


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## rgjutro

After doing some testing with Tivo, it looks like one of my tuners is bad. They are going to replace my unit. It still doesn't sound right to me, but we'll see. I'm tempted to buy a second unit so I can transfer all my recorded programs, and season pass manager over. Since Time Warner flags everything as protected, exporting to a computer is out of the question. I'll update if that fixes the issue.


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## Teeps

rgjutro said:


> After doing some testing with Tivo, it looks like one of my tuners is bad. They are going to replace my unit. It still doesn't sound right to me, but we'll see. I'm tempted to buy a second unit so I can transfer all my recorded programs, and season pass manager over. Since Time Warner flags everything as protected, exporting to a computer is out of the question. I'll update if that fixes the issue.


I don't think you can transfer copy protected materials, only stream them.

Too bad TiVo won't let you swap the hard drives.


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## rgjutro

I'm actually debating on whether to swap my Tivo out, because I don't think the tuner is the problem. They were looking at the tuner statistics, and it didn't show any stats on one of them at that random moment in time, but I think that's normal. When I checked again when I was having issues again, all the tuner stats were present, and the issue was still persisting.

On a side note, as anyone tried imaging the drives, as I'm loathe to lose all of those hard earned recordings . I have a hardware based and software based imaging systems that I use all the time in my professional life, and would be interested to know if anyone has any success in cloning them, or is that against the EULA. It's sad to think that they haven't developed at least some kind of basic system that would allow users to keep their recordings, other then that ridiculous computer based software which doesn't work for 99% of the recordings since everything is flagged as protected.


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## dave13077

I am starting to lean more towards this being a hardware issue. I am thinking the Premiere boxes , especially the 4 tuner boxes, when running the HD menus are under powered. The problem with a hardware issue is that Tivo will never admit it because they would have to replace units.


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## sharkster

I continue to have a daily problem with one of my two-tuner Premieres. 

I have the living room TV on from somewhere around 11:30am to 1pm until around 10:30 or 11pm each day. When I come in to turn that TV on, pretty much every day, one tuner is either stuck in pause (of course I didn't leave it paused) on some show from mid-morning or it's just black with the 'channel not authorized' banner.

I have to think it must be the Tivo unit, and not other hardware (such as the TV, TA, or CC) because all I have to do is restart the Tivo and all is fine for the rest of the day - until the next morning. I don't think it's cable because I can go to my bdrm Premiere and those channels (whatever channels du jour that the living rm Tivo deems unauthorized) are just fine.

I hesitate to think it's the CC or TA because all it takes is a Tivo restart to render everything fine.


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## Teeps

rgjutro said:


> On a side note, as anyone tried imaging the drives, as I'm loathe to lose all of those hard earned recordings .
> 
> I have a hardware based and software based imaging systems that I use all the time in my professional life, and would be interested to know if anyone has any success in cloning them, or is that against the EULA.


I've imaged, cloned or bit copied data from several failing TiVo drives to new replacement drives. Now whether a cloned drive, will work, after being installed in a different TiVo I don't know. As, I've only done direct replacement.

And, yes against EULA; TiVo really has hardware and software locked down when it comes to preventing the extraction of copy protected program material.

And, this forum to the extent that the subject of hacking copy protection (in any way), is forbidden.


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## L David Matheny

Teeps said:


> I've imaged, cloned or bit copied data from several failing TiVo drives to new replacement drives. Now whether a cloned drive, will work, after being installed in a different TiVo I don't know. As, I've only done direct replacement.


A cloned drive should work in another TiVo of exactly the same model, but you won't be able to play any existing recordings and you will have to do a "Clear & delete everything" before it will record, so you will lose all existing recordings (and season passes and everything).


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## timstack8969

I' m still having this problem with my TIVO Premiere. I get the "Not Authorized" message for Local HD channels (803,806,810) on the comcast of Garden State, NJ system which I do receive. We don't use "SDV". It's really getting annoying. Also still noticing the screen will go "Black" while watching "Live TV". It happened 3 times last night while watching the "Sorpanos" on ch. 303. Are other people seeing this??? Is it the TIVO software or maybe Comcast problem.


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## Teeps

timstack8969 said:


> I' m still having this problem with my TIVO Premiere. I get the "Not Authorized" message for Local HD channels (803,806,810) on the comcast of Garden State, NJ system which I do receive. We don't use "SDV". It's really getting annoying. Also still noticing the screen will go "Black" while watching "Live TV". It happened 3 times last night while watching the "Sorpanos" on ch. 303. Are other people seeing this??? Is it the TIVO software or maybe Comcast problem.


See post #27 above.

Make sure the home run cable drop is good.


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## Aviedo

timstack8969 said:


> I' m still having this problem with my TIVO Premiere. I get the "Not Authorized" message for Local HD channels (803,806,810) on the comcast of Garden State, NJ system which I do receive. We don't use "SDV". It's really getting annoying. Also still noticing the screen will go "Black" while watching "Live TV". It happened 3 times last night while watching the "Sorpanos" on ch. 303. Are other people seeing this??? Is it the TIVO software or maybe Comcast problem.


Not only do I have this exact same problem but when I get the not authorized message and keep trying to tune up and back to see if I can get my channels back I find that my cable card can only get my paid channels like HBO, SHO etc. When I got to the settings menu on the tivo to look at the cable card and check channels most of the channels are missing from the card. I will only see a few channels there when scrolling through the channel test. It's as if my cable card has completely lost it's signal. I am assuming that this is a Comcast problem whether it's hardware of software I couldn't say but I had been using my 2 Tivo premiers without problem for a year before this started so somewhere either Comcast or Tivo instituted an update to their hardware or software that changed something.

It's very frustrating because sometimes I have a season pass that only records a black screen because the channel would not tune and only shows an error.


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## captjackny

I've had the channel not available problem with my TA and SDV for almost 2 years. I have Time Warner cable in Rochester, NY. I've had the TA replaced as well as the cable cards to no avail. my TIVO is a Premier.

I have a feeling that this is a problem that cannot be fixed due to the design of SDV and that we are just screwed!


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## moyekj

captjackny said:


> I've had the channel not available problem with my TA and SDV for almost 2 years. I have Time Warner cable in Rochester, NY. I've had the TA replaced as well as the cable cards to no avail. my TIVO is a Premier.
> 
> I have a feeling that this is a problem that cannot be fixed due to the design of SDV and that we are just screwed!


 There's a conglomeration of posts here and other threads from what seems to be several different reasons for why tuning is failing, but there have been plenty of posts from people without TAs. So don't assume it's a TA problem. If anything I'd say it's more likely a CableCard related problem as one of the ways that often fixes the problem is by ejecting and re-inserting the CableCard.


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## dave13077

For everyone that is getting a "black screen" at random times. If you have a tuning adapter, do you have your cable feed pass through the TA or have you split the cable with one feed going to the Tivo and the other feed going to the TA?

I am using the TA as a pass through and I am starting to wonder if it is degrading the signal causing the Tivo not to tune a channel.


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## mrizzo80

dave13077 said:


> For everyone that is getting a "black screen" at random times. If you have a tuning adapter, do you have your cable feed pass through the TA or have you split the cable with one feed going to the Tivo and the other feed going to the TA?
> 
> I am using the TA as a pass through and I am starting to wonder if it is degrading the signal causing the Tivo not to tune a channel.


I have this problem. I use a TA and everything is fed thru the TA.


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## moyekj

dave13077 said:


> For everyone that is getting a "black screen" at random times. If you have a tuning adapter, do you have your cable feed pass through the TA or have you split the cable with one feed going to the Tivo and the other feed going to the TA?
> 
> I am using the TA as a pass through and I am starting to wonder if it is degrading the signal causing the Tivo not to tune a channel.


 There have been posts about this and the consensus is to try and avoid doing that since in some cases the internal spit is lousy or not functional at all. Better to split the signal before TA and take one split to TA and other to TiVo. But don't expect failing tuners issue to be completely solved after doing so since there are plenty of people still with the issue (and people without TAs with the issue).


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## dave13077

moyekj said:


> There have been posts about this and the consensus is to try and avoid doing that since in some cases the internal spit is lousy or not functional at all. Better to split the signal before TA and take one split to TA and other to TiVo. But don't expect failing tuners issue to be completely solved after doing so since there are plenty of people still with the issue (and people without TAs with the issue).


You are correct. I split the cable and I was still having channels that were not tuning at times.

But I may have found something and wondering if others can give it a try. It seems that the failure to tune issue (random black screen) happens a lot more when more than one tuner is tuned to the same channel. I was just having the problem. And since I had just rebooted the Tivo, after splitting the cable feed, all 4 tuners were on the same channel and I was having trouble with black channels. I then made sure that each of the 4 tuners were on a different channel and I stopped having the black channels. Don't know if it is a coincidence or not. Ever since I got my Elite, every morning I would turn on the TV all 4 tuners would be on the same channel (unless suggestions were recording). I wonder if there is a way for Tivo to program it so a channel could not be tuned on more that one tuner at a time. Of course that would be an issue if you were recording 2 shows on the same channel if both were padded for extra time.

Anyway if others who have this issue can test it out it would be great.


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## dave13077

I tested this again as all 4 tuners were on the same channel when I turned on the TV this morning. When the same channel is on more than one tuner I was getting black screens on some of the channels I switched to. I then made sure all 4 tuners were on a different channel and everything was tuning fine, even the same channels that would not tune a few minutes prior when all 4 tuners were on the same channel.


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## m_jonis

dave13077 said:


> I tested this again as all 4 tuners were on the same channel when I turned on the TV this morning. When the same channel is on more than one tuner I was getting black screens on some of the channels I switched to. I then made sure all 4 tuners were on a different channel and everything was tuning fine, even the same channels that would not tune a few minutes prior when all 4 tuners were on the same channel.


Unfortunately I think I shot that down twice this week.

Last Saturday or Sunday, all 4 tuners were on different channels. I was actively watching Cartoon Network. The Clone Wars was upcoming in a few minutes. The Tivo was set to record Clone Wars, and since it was already tuned, it went to record the show and that's when the channel went completely black and the Tivo progress bar showed it was "paused". I could watch the Cartoon network show on any of my TivoHD, so I know it's not the SDV situation.

I had no choice but to cancel the recording (as soon as I did so, the channel came back).

Same thing happened last night. All tuners on 4 diff channels. Was set to record Arrow (okay that was Wed. night maybe) on our local CW15 which is not an SDV channel. It "recorded" nothing but a black channel. I had to cancel the recording for it to become visible again.

This is really annoying. I think I'm going to cancel my Tivo's this weekend as I'm tired of paying $10/month for an unreliable DVR.


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## sasmps

I am experiencing the same problem. I am in the KC area, with SureWest as our provider. I have 4 Tivo DVR's running, 4 Tuning adaptors. I have a Premier, and 3 HD's. The problem occurs frequently on the Premier, and all I have to do to fix is pull the power plug from the Tuning adaptor. Sometimes I have to reboot the premier.

The issue occurs on all the boxes, but most frequently on the Premier. I get a black screen, no message (but have seen messages before). 

This is a Tivo problem... interface issue with the Premier and Tuning adaptor. The Tivo box has the smarts in it... how to handle different situations it sees from the TA. 

Would like to see a Tivo tech that trolls the forums to respond to this track and let us know Tivo RnD is engaged on this issue.


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## sharkster

FWIW, to update my 'tuner' situation - 

I replaced that TV and have not had a problem since. I wonder if something in the older TV (it was only 5-6 years old, standard HDTV) just wasn't jiving with something in the Tivo software since the fall updates.


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## sasmps

Sharkster,

I dont believe the age or model of your set is the issue. I have 4 different models and flavors of Panasonic Plasmas (two 58s, one 65, one 42 inch). This is tivo code and can be corrected with an update from Tivo.


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## shaun-ohio

i am getting the same issue from twc some sd channels on the lower end will come in but when you go to the hd side they wont come in i have even rebooted unplugged the tuner and did a repeat of the guided setup but that didnt help either i am in mid ohio zanesville ohio are and i am not going to get one of there useless dvr's


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## Teeps

I was having the same problem yesterday with my XL4 and channels in the upper 400 range of TWC in Torrance.

It appears to be working today.


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## sharkster

sasmps said:


> Sharkster,
> 
> I dont believe the age or model of your set is the issue. I have 4 different models and flavors of Panasonic Plasmas (two 58s, one 65, one 42 inch). This is tivo code and can be corrected with an update from Tivo.


Hi! Thanks for your response. I guess time will tell. But I've gone almost 3 weeks now without the problem, that was happening every day before replacing the TV, happening even once.

It sounds like you know a lot more about these things than I do so I will continue to pay attention your posts around the board, as I like to learn.

I have a pretty logical mind. Yeah, this gets in the way with electronics sometimes. I was unable to figure anything out and envisioned a scenario with calling Tivo and/or Charter Cable and getting 'it's the other guy's fault' from both of them (BTDT when I had a weird problem my old Tivos). So, since I wanted a new TV in there anyway, I went ahead and got that so that I could figure that if the problem continued I could continue on with Tivo before the initial 1yr warranty, on my Premieres, end this month.


----------



## sasmps

I have sent a PM to Tivo regarding this track, and received a reply that they are reviewing and have an escalation team engaged.


----------



## dave13077

sasmps said:


> I have sent a PM to Tivo regarding this track, and received a reply that they are reviewing and have an escalation team engaged.


I have an open ticket on this issue and I have been told that they are aware of this issue and are working on it. I guess time will tell.


----------



## sasmps

Dave13077,

One theory may be high congestion of request to the specific headend node that supports your neighborhood from your cable provider. In otherwords, two many neighbors in your hood are watching content that requries two way communication (the TA asking for the headend to supply the channel). This can cause latency providing the content (channel) to your TA box, and the TA or your Tivo box are 'timing out'. This would explain the variability of channels being available at different times of the day (traffic variability). How this latency is handled would be a Tivo programming function (retry, various messages you see (or dont see), etc. 

One thing you could do is contact your cable provider and ask them to access the traffic on your headend. They may need to rebalance your neighborhood based on traffic. 

Otherwise it is a fact of life that congestion at the headend will occur, and the Tivo box needs to be able to resolve these issues.


----------



## dave13077

sasmps said:


> Dave13077,
> 
> One theory may be high congestion of request to the specific headend node that supports your neighborhood from your cable provider. In otherwords, two many neighbors in your hood are watching content that requries two way communication (the TA asking for the headend to supply the channel). This can cause latency providing the content (channel) to your TA box, and the TA or your Tivo box are 'timing out'. This would explain the variability of channels being available at different times of the day (traffic variability). How this latency is handled would be a Tivo programming function (retry, various messages you see (or dont see), etc.
> 
> One thing you could do is contact your cable provider and ask them to access the traffic on your headend. They may need to rebalance your neighborhood based on traffic.
> 
> Otherwise it is a fact of life that congestion at the headend will occur, and the Tivo box needs to be able to resolve these issues.


I don't think it has much to do with the TA as the channels that don't tune are random and not always an SDV channel. A channel might not tune one second and then it will when you come back to it. Sometimes it won't tune when you come back to it. It happens on the broadcast (ABC,NBC, Ect.) as well as the upper cable HD channels. I think it has more to do with the tuners on the Elite/XL4 units. If I make sure each tuner is on separate channel than this doesn't happen, SDV channels requiring the TA included.


----------



## sasmps

dave13077 said:


> I don't think it has much to do with the TA as the channels that don't tune are random and not always an SDV channel. A channel might not tune one second and then it will when you come back to it. Sometimes it won't tune when you come back to it. It happens on the broadcast (ABC,NBC, Ect.) as well as the upper cable HD channels. I think it has more to do with the tuners on the Elite/XL4 units. If I make sure each tuner is on separate channel than this doesn't happen, SDV channels requiring the TA included.


I have seen this as well.... exact same behavior (SDV and Non SDV). However the problem goes away with no ryme or reason, and it does not happen frequently enough for it to be a serious issue (and I have redundency in the house, 4 Tivo boxes and 4 TA's.... it is rare if more than one has the same issue).

I did get a call back from Tivo support last night where we spent a good 40 minutes discussing the problem and what they have collected so far. Here are some bullet points:

1. Tivo has a clear seperation in their mind on what is their resposibility and what is the cable providers resposibility. Communication between the Tuning Adapter and the providers headend is not their domain.

2. If you experience the behavior with SDV or nonSDV channells, quickly look at your TA and see if the light is blinking green, or solid. If it is blinking, your TA has lost contact with the providers headend. That would be an issue with your provider..as the TA and the headend are theirs. Suggestion is to replace the TA (first and easiest thing), replace your drop to the pedistal (second) or argue that they have too much congestion on your existing headend and it needs upgrading or balanceing.

3. The impact on the Tivo tuners from the above problems are just as we have observed. The channel will not lock ((why? bad TA box, poor signal quality (the drop cable) or latency (because the headend is slow to give you the channel)). When you first move to a new channel and it does not lock, and you go forward past the channel, then back to it, a new request to the headend is initiated and this time you get it. Poor signal quality is also a factor, as a weak signal or poor quality signal (strength in DB, and corrected/uncorrected SSR count) will cause the Tivo tuners to constantly be busy trying to retune the channels ( that may be why your trick of putting all the tuners on the same channel works).

Suggestions:

Keep track of the blinking light when the problem occurs. Note the time of day.

Document your signal strength (85 too 95 db is good) . Waiting on some good metrics from Tivo for SSR.

I see the issues even when the light is solid... so keep track of the channel and time of day when you notice the problem. A solid light puts the issue back in Tivo's domain.

If you notice this issue happens mainly in the evening (when folks get home from work and fire up the TV) this is an arguement for upgrading or rebalancing the headend.

I have asked Tivo for some acceptable TA Diagnostic metrics... a baseline to compair our diagnostics to when we see issues. It would be nice to prove to the cable provider that you have poor communication to the headend, or you are seeing a long pause from the headend in supplying the channel. That pause is why changing from channel to channel is slow, or you do not get the channel at all.

There are lots of savy folks in the forum, any suggestions or metrics on DVR signal levels, and or TA metrics would be nice.


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## tatergator1

I don't have an Elite/XL4, but it seems to me that since this affects both SDV and Non-SDV channels alike, the root cause has to be in the Tivo tuners. The key point for me are the examples cited of non-SDV channels failing to tune, but being available after a quick re-tune. The non-SDV channel is always in the coax line, and there is no head-end communication in that situation, it's simply tuning to the appropriate frequency. 

It seems unlikely that a TA light blinking is the root cause. It's highly improbable that every time a a non-SDV or SDV fails to tune, but is available via re-tune a few seconds later, that in that same time frame, the TA has regained communication after losing it. If it is somehow related to the TA, I'd suspect some other sort of interference from the TA, as opposed to loss of the headend connection.

Just my 2 cents.


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## sasmps

tatergator1 said:


> I don't have an Elite/XL4, but it seems to me that since this affects both SDV and Non-SDV channels alike, the root cause has to be in the Tivo tuners. The key point for me are the examples cited of non-SDV channels failing to tune, but being available after a quick re-tune. The non-SDV channel is always in the coax line, and there is no head-end communication in that situation, it's simply tuning to the appropriate frequency.
> 
> It seems unlikely that a TA light blinking is the root cause. It's highly improbable that every time a a non-SDV or SDV fails to tune, but is available via re-tune a few seconds later, that in that same time frame, the TA has regained communication after losing it. If it is somehow related to the TA, I'd suspect some other sort of interference from the TA, as opposed to loss of the headend connection.
> 
> Just my 2 cents.


Good points... I am not letting Tivo off the hook for addressing these issues. I have seen certian channels in certian parts of the country have tuning problems, and I have seen these first hand (Remember the FX channel problems in the North East back in 2010?).

We never get an explination from Tivo on the resolutions.. so we are left guessing as we deal with issues first hand.

In my case, the problem channel resolved itself when my provider 'moved it' from its old frequency to a new location. I figuerd it out by compairing it to a direct cabled set (no box, just using the QAM tuner in the set) and noticing it had a new frequency. The tuners have blind spots, and I suspect Tivo pushes updates that cover the blind spots, but create new ones. So we have the illusion the problem went away, but it in fact moved to another area, or moved out of the channels you normally get.

With a TA, all your tuning is contolled by that box (SDV and non SDV). When the Tivo can not find the TA, you are working in passthru mode (so you see the non SDV channels). When it locks, it is acting as the tuner for every channel. So if there is an issue with the TA, it will show up on all channels. (Per Tivo... with no TA, it finds its programming from the cable card, with no cable card it runs set up, finds the channels, and maps them to its programming guide.).

I also do not beleive all the problems surface when the TA looses communications (as I have seen the problem when the light is solid). In those situations I beleive either the headend is slow to surface the channel (SDV), or at that moment you have signal issues (strength and or quality) that would impact locking on SDV or nonSDV channels, or the signal problem causes the Tivo to become busy trying to lock multiple tuners to a point that it can not address the immediate request.

In any event, Tivo has the responsibility to resolve...


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## XIBM

sharkster said:


> FWIW, to update my 'tuner' situation -
> 
> I replaced that TV and have not had a problem since. I wonder if something in the older TV (it was only 5-6 years old, standard HDTV) just wasn't jiving with something in the Tivo software since the fall updates.


Did your old TV use HDMI? HDMI is a two way communications link to Tivo so they negociate transfer rates based on the tv's capability. This may change the code Tivo is executing and avoid the bug...


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## sgreen0

Just thought I'd add my experience with this.

I just recently installed a Tuning Adapter because I noticed Tivo was recording blank programs on certain channels (Sundance, for instance).

After much handwringing, I managed to get the Tuning Adapter installed and working - the light (amber, in my case, is solid).

Here's the mystery:

The channels that were recording blank programs are back. BUT, one channel (BBCAmerica HD - 448 in TW SoCal's line-up) is gone! 446, fine. 449, fine. Nothing I have tried will get Tivo to tune 448 in. The SD version (131, in my case) tunes in fine.

I've had two telephone sessions with Time Warner. After the second they sent a technician, who was stumped. They are sending another tomorrow.

However, they suggested that Tivo might have an issue here. So I'm joining this thread.

Stephen
Premier XL


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## TiVolunteer

Add me to the list of folks struggling with this issue. Had multiple issues of my Premiere XL4 missing recordings this past week. The history log says "no signal available". So, I've started scheduling key shows on my other units since I don't trust the XL4. And I've caught the unit a couple of times in this situation. Attempting to tune to the required channel and just getting a grey screen. Signal levels look fine and my Series 3 and HD units are getting the same show at the same time. The Premiere is the only one having the problem.

All this sounds SOOOOOO similar to what we faced when they rolled out the Series 3 with Time Warner cable. Channels would just go randomly untunable. It took a LOT of debugging on our end, TiVo's end and TWC end and it turned out to be a bug on TiVo's side and a problem on Time Warner side which caused a signal glitch which triggered the bug in the TiVo. Wondering if the Premiere is suffering from a code regression (i.e. a bug fix in a previous release didn't make it into the later releases).


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## sasmps

Happy to report after testing the downloaded Tivo update from Tivo Tech Support, my issue with blank channels has been resolved. I am able to lock on the first attempt, with both SDV and non SDV content. I have monitored the situation for the last 6 days, and formally closed the track today.


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## moyekj

sasmps said:


> Happy to report after testing the downloaded Tivo update from Tivo Tech Support, my issue with blank channels has been resolved. I am able to lock on the first attempt, with both SDV and non SDV content. I have monitored the situation for the last 6 days, and formally closed the track today.


 Come again? Are you saying you get a special software build with a fix to the problem? If so I'd say that's very unusual. Normally you would be invited to be a beta tester to receive a non-production build. Unless you are in beta and accidentally posting here?


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## MeInDallas

Thats what I was going to ask. What sort of update did you get? And what is the software version number you are running now?


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## Teeps

sasmps said:


> Happy to report after testing the downloaded Tivo update from Tivo Tech Support, my issue with blank channels has been resolved. I am able to lock on the first attempt, with both SDV and non SDV content. I have monitored the situation for the last 6 days, and formally closed the track today.


Yes, please post the current TiVo software number.


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## mrizzo80

Wow. Would be great if this is fixed in a new build... IF we can call in and request it. I've been considering getting a replacement box, but I really don't want to do that because it seems like its a software issue. I don't want to blow my 3 year extended warranty for nothing just 6 months after purchasing it.


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## MeInDallas

I just called Tivo support, and the guy told me at first there was a patch, and then he called someone else, I think he said "level 2 support" and he came back on the line and said that someone from that area was going to call me back later, and then possibly push the patch to my Tivo's. I was on the phone for about 45 minutes with him, and he was writing everything down in the notes. So I never really got confirmation that there is a patch. He saw my long history with this issue on my account. So I guess maybe I'll find out later if there really is a patch for this.


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## moyekj

Well if you do get a software update please post the software revision # here since sasmps has disappeared. Still seems highly unusual to happen outside of beta...


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## MeInDallas

I will definately post here. I've been praying they have some sort of fix that might be included in the spring update. I assume this will be something beta as well. I'm willing to try it though.


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## sasmps

MeInDallas.... 2nd level escalation team is who reached out to me, and the process was identical to your post. When they push the script, your XL will go dark.. unable to lock into anything till you reboot. After you boot, hopefully your issues will go away as mine did. 

moyekj.... Not sure it is a General update, sounds more like an interm patch. But here is the level my XL is on currently... Long time ago I was a beta tester... but have not been active for several years. Not sure you have to be tester to get the script. 

20.2.2.1-01-2-758

is that the same as yours? 

I asked Tivo for guidence on how to tell folks how to get the patch. It appears MeInDallas was able to just call Tivo, ask for the escalation team, and they called him.


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## Teeps

sasmps said:


> moyekj.... Not sure it is a General update, sounds more like an interm patch.
> 
> 20.2.2.1-01-2-758


I would agree with above as this is the software ver in my XL4.


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## mrizzo80

I called in a few minutes ago asking for the tuner patch sasmps mentioned in post #62. I referenced that post and the guy from tech support scanned through this thread. He got a hold of tier 2 and I got added to the list of boxes that will receive an update. 

He wasn't able to give a time frame though. Told me to call back in a week if I haven't seen anything. 

He said TiVo is monitoring this thread.


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## sasmps

My Track number (which is now closed) was 130307-013650. This may also help them find it.


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## dave13077

My ticket # is 121212-015451. It is now marked as "Solved" but I did not call Tivo to push the patch and they did not let me know if they did it. At this point I have no idea if I was on the list or not.


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## josborne

I just called Tivo support only to be told this "fix" was only for tivos that that have no channel tuning ability when using a tuning adapter, but do when removing the tuning adapter. I have the same issue a lot of folks are mentioning here. Channels tune in and don't tune in intermittently. I have gotten to where I have to make sure my recordings get recorded and if not I have to reschedule them ASAP. Of course if the show only airs once a week on a network I'm humped. The moron I talked to also stated that this update would never be for general release....only case by case.....so who knows. I did reference the first ticket number mentioned above....this is the answer I got. It a problem with my cable provider.


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## BelowTheRoot

I'd like to thank everyone involved in this thread. I purchases an XL4 over the weekend and was very frustrated with intermittently not being able to tune in channels. (I'm on TW in Central New York.) If I went back and forth enough or entered the channel in manually I could eventually tune in what I wanted, but I missed some shows in the meantime. After calling TiVo and mentioning this thread I did get them to acknowledge that there was a problem. Apparently an email was sent out yesterday informing staff of the issue. Currently they can run a script of your unit that can resolve the issue in many instances. They are continuing to work on the issue and will eventually release an update. I was told that I would receive it in 24-48 hours time and am hopefully it will resolve the problem. I'll let everyone know how it goes.


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## sasmps

So far the script fix is still working for me, with only occasional situations where I have to go past the channel I am requesting, and then back to get it to lock. It was a specific channel (non SDV) and that behavior has now disappeared as well.

I have received some PM's from folks on this thread that are trying out the script as I write.... some haveing a 'bumpy' start after it is applied, then seeing better behavior the next day. 

I suggest after the script is downloaded, (and you can tell as your XL will behave stangely... mine would not lock on any channels !) you power down the XL, power down the tuning adaptor, and then bring everything back up. It seems to be important that the XL and the TA get 'reaquanted'. You may have to repeat this process a second time. Please post your experiences... I want to make sure we give Tivo lots of feedback as they may need to do some tweeks...


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## sharkster

I have two Premieres and all of a sudden, today, they are both having tuning problems. I'm getting really sick and tired of paying a ton of money for equipment and services and having the stuff not work right. 

Today both of them were screwing up and, intermittently throughout the day, were randomly not recognizing channels - a LOT of channels. Sometimes one of them would not get a given channel when the other would.

Is it the Tivo, or the tuning adapter, or the CableCARD? Am I going to have to call Charter and Tivo and they each say the problem is the other guy? I am so far beyond frustrated at this point. A while back one of the Tivos was doing this and all it took was restarting it and it would be fine - until the next day. Then, when I got a new TV it stopped. Everything has been fine for the last few weeks until today, when both Tivos started doing this crap.

I don't know how to do really high tech level stuff, so I feel at a disadvantage.


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## sasmps

Sharkster,

Try this first.....

Pull the power plug on the Tuning adapter... wait for the tivo to tell you it lost the adaptor, then plug it back in. Tivo should pop another message it found the TA, clear it, and then retune. More often than not it it is the TA that needs to have power cycled and not the Tivo. This is way faster than cycling power to the Tivo. Let us know how it works.

Yes, there is a handshake going on betweent he Tivo and TA, and yes it is Tivo that has to figure out what the cable companies are doing different from when they were working fine. If the problem persist, call Tivo and ask for the script download. Use my old case number as a reference (listed a few post back).


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## CoxInPHX

sasmps said:


> Sharkster,
> 
> Try this first.....
> 
> Pull the power plug on the Tuning adapter... wait for the tivo to tell you it lost the adapter, then plug it back in. *Tivo should pop another message it found the TA*, clear it, and then retune. More often than not it it is the TA that needs to have power cycled and not the Tivo. *This is way faster than cycling power to the Tivo*. Let us know how it works.
> 
> Yes, there is a handshake going on between he Tivo and TA, and yes it is Tivo that has to figure out what the cable companies are doing different from when they were working fine. If the problem persist, call Tivo and ask for the script download. Use my old case number as a reference (listed a few post back).


I find it interesting that the Premiere takes 15 mins to recognize and sync back up to my Cisco TA after a TA reboot.

When my SiliconDust HD HomeRun Prime's TA is ready to go in just 3 mins.

Perhaps it is the difference in the UDCP specs vs the OCUR specs, I just wish TiVo could speed up this sync.


----------



## sharkster

sasmps said:


> Sharkster,
> 
> Try this first.....
> 
> Pull the power plug on the Tuning adapter... wait for the tivo to tell you it lost the adaptor, then plug it back in. Tivo should pop another message it found the TA, clear it, and then retune. More often than not it it is the TA that needs to have power cycled and not the Tivo. This is way faster than cycling power to the Tivo. Let us know how it works.
> 
> Yes, there is a handshake going on betweent he Tivo and TA, and yes it is Tivo that has to figure out what the cable companies are doing different from when they were working fine. If the problem persist, call Tivo and ask for the script download. Use my old case number as a reference (listed a few post back).


Thank You so much for your response. I'll try this. I am so far beyond frustrated with this stuff. I thought it had stopped so imagine my frustration when BOTH Tivos started this crap yesterday. argh


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## moyekj

CoxInPHX said:


> I find it interesting that the Premiere takes 15 mins to recognize and sync back up to my Cisco TA after a TA reboot.
> 
> When my SiliconDust HD HomeRun Prime's TA is ready to go in just 3 mins.
> 
> Perhaps it is the difference in the UDCP specs vs the OCUR specs, I just wish TiVo could speed up this sync.


 FYI, my Moto TAs sync back up in ~ 3 mins or less with my Premiere, Elite & S3 OLED units.


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## JandS

We've had at least one a day instances of "blank" channels the past 5-6 days. 

XL4, no tuning adapter, Comcast multi-card (Motorola brand).

No "channel not available" messages, just a black screen, no audio. Clicking "record" does record the program in progress correctly even though the screen stays blank. Changing channels up/down or entering specific channel numbers doesn't bring the MIA channel back. MIA channels are those that we have watched multiple times during the day.

Using "info" to display tuners does not show multiple tuners on one channel.

Tivo s/w: 20.2.2-01-2-758 (oddly, yes, an older version, despite several manual update tries this box hasn't updated yet, while our XL2 updated weeks ago)

The DVR diagnostics for the problem tuner (different tuners each time) show "tuning status = not tuned, general error" and most other data is just a dash.

Other tuners have good stats:
RS corrected/uncorrected = 0
SNR: 34dB
Signal Strength: 86-88

The Motorola cable card was replaced approx 2 months ago (due to "channel not authorized" errors that couldn't be corrected by Comcast sending reset signals to the box). This is a brand new card, not a refurb card (Comcast guy showed us where the refurb cards have a very faint serial number stamped on them).

Called Tivo support yesterday, have case #. They pointed to the cable card.

Next step will be to pull the cable card and reinsert, reboot, if no joy then change cable card.


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## Am_I_Evil

so i just tried to call and get this patch and was told "there is no patch for that issue" and that it is DEFINITELY a cable card issue...ugh...

guess i'll try again later...

also the guy i talked to said that 130307-013650 did not pull anything up...i wonder if only the escalation team can see it or something...


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## MeInDallas

I was told that it is a "script" that downloads and runs on the Tivo. You can see it downloading, and it took about 10 minutes to run. When it runs you will loose access to the tuners, and if you are recording, then the red lights will go out and the recordings stop. After its done then you unplug everything, then plug it all back in.

My ticket number is: 130325-010690 and is still open if you want to give that to them. Level one tech support will have no clue what you are talking about, and will not have any info about this script. They should be able to see that there is something level 2 tech support is doing, but they wont have any info at all about what it is they are doing. Best thing to do is call tech support, tell them you want to get the script, give them my ticket number, and ask that someone from level 2 tech support gets in touch with you. It will take a few days for them to get back to you. If the first person in tech support acts like youre crazy, hang up and call back and get someone else. I was on the phone for over 2 hours last week, so I know level 2 knows about this. Dont call and say well its this or that or this is what I think it is, just call and say you have the "lost channels" problem that people are having, and go from there.

I really hate it when people are having these bad issues and Tivo likes to act like everything is so "cloak and dagger"


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## moyekj

So are they testing this "fix" with the intent of eventually having it in general release, or is this going to only be on case by case basis if you need it?


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## Am_I_Evil

so any tips on what to say to the first guy? because he didn't want to seem to send me to another level until he diagnosed this "cablecard" problem...

but i guess i'll try someone else tomorrow and see what happens...


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## MeInDallas

moyekj said:


> So are they testing this "fix" with the intent of eventually having it in general release, or is this going to only be on case by case basis if you need it?


No idea, they wont tell me. I'd like to find out is this something that will change if I were to swap out the hard drive, or is it just some script that changes the internal settings that we dont normally have access to. They just will not say.

Am_I_Evil: Just call them and tell the tech support guy/girl that answers, that you are having the issue where the channels are lost. They will probably try to get you to jump thru hoops and/or fire like they did me, and start the troubleshooting process like they normally do. Immediately tell them you got a message from me, and I gave you my ticket number 130325-010690, and to pull it up and read it from my account. Tell them you are having the same issue as me and you want that script sent to your box. They will have to send a message to level 2 tech support, and then in a few days level 2 tech support will contact you, probably via email.


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## mrizzo80

It's been a week since I was put on the push list and I still haven't received anything. I just called in and it looks like someone forgot to fulfill the request.

The tech I just talked to worked with Level 2 again and they will re-push the request up to Engineering (the only team who will actually push the script), which will take another 2-3 business days. So hopefully my TiVo will be back to normal soon.

I asked him what the technical issue for the lost channels is and he said it was a software update pushed by the cable companies that was not communicated to TiVo in advance. I didn't ask him to elaborate on that though. Seems like the issue would be much more widespread if that is the true cause, but who knows. Maybe there are a few factors that have to be met in order for a TiVo to be affected.

Sounds like they are well aware of the issue though. He said the script has a 97% success rate.


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## MeInDallas

mrizzo80 said:


> I asked him what the technical issue for the lost channels is and he said it was a software update pushed by the cable companies that was not communicated to TiVo in advance.


Thats what they told me about the "no suggestions" issue that people have been having. That Time Warner cut them off because they felt it was tying up bandwidth when people werent actually watching TV. I dont know how true that is, but thats what they told me about the no suggestions issue.


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## Am_I_Evil

on the phone with support again...this guy has me on hold while he reads over the case from the ticket number i gave him and then hopefully calls the escalation team...so let's see what happens...

edit: the escalation team must have their own tickets or something...this guy just came back and asked if i knew the name from the account i gave him the ticket number (MeInDallas; i told him it was a friend in Dallas...lol) but he said he was only seeing some guy from Tennessee about updating credit cards...

he still said he would continue to look into it though so that's a step in the right direction...

just came back and said that they know of no known issues...said my readings look good but the signal i'm getting from FIOS seems to be TOO strong...and if its not that maybe the cable card...ugh...oh well...guess i'll just hope they send the fix to everyone eventually...


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## thyname

I also have the same problem. I have a Premiere 4 in living room connected to the router with ethernet, and tuning adapter, as well as a Tivo Mini in the bedroom connected to the internet via MoCa.

I had a Cox technician come to my home last Saturday. He spend 2 hours in my home, testing everything. He said everything is fine in my system: cable signal strength, tuning adapter, cablecard and connections. Could not figure out the problem. Tried also "re-mapping" and re-paring my cc and ta. Nothing happened.

I called TiVo yesterday. The technician was clueless and kept telling me is my cable signal. He then put me on hold for 15 minutes. When he came back, he said that the Level 2 tech support he talked to was aware of the problem and will contact me directly via email in 5-7 days. Let us hope they will have a solution.

Maybe this is just a coincidence, but my problem start happening after I installed my Mini in my bedroom. I do have one tuner from my P4 allocated to the Mini.


----------



## sharkster

Well, it was nice while it lasted but restarting (unplug/plug) the tuning adapter seems to not have made any difference. It doesn't seem to be a cable problem because, all but one time, when a bunch of channels are 'not authorized' it's just on one TV/Tivo.

When I turned on my living rm TV, it was stuck in pause on one of the hd hbo channels, where something recorded in the middle of the night. There was that blue Tivo banner that said the channel was not authorized (or whatever that msg is). I tried some more channels and nothing in the 3-digit tiers. 

This time I decided to try unplugging the tuning adapter again, just for kicks. I waited and then plugged it back in. Waited for it to be recognized and still missing those channels.

So I went in (through the Tivo menus) to check the channels through the adapter. It started out in the mid 700s, where I had last tried to tune, and nothing so I kept going downward and nothing until I got to 705. It recognized that channel and I kept going downward through to about the low 600s where everything seemed fine. So I tried heading back upward and at that point the channels above 705 were fine again.

I don't know if those lower numbers were fine or just, at the point I got there everything was tuning again. It's hugely frustrating. I feel like it's some kind of Tivo problem. I never had this problem until after the last updates.


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## moyekj

sharkster said:


> Well, it was nice while it lasted but restarting (unplug/plug) the tuning adapter seems to not have made any difference. It doesn't seem to be a cable problem because, all but one time, when a bunch of channels are 'not authorized' it's just on one TV/Tivo.
> 
> When I turned on my living rm TV, it was stuck in pause on one of the hd hbo channels, where something recorded in the middle of the night. There was that blue Tivo banner that said the channel was not authorized (or whatever that msg is). I tried some more channels and nothing in the 3-digit tiers.
> 
> This time I decided to try unplugging the tuning adapter again, just for kicks. I waited and then plugged it back in. Waited for it to be recognized and still missing those channels.
> 
> So I went in (through the Tivo menus) to check the channels through the adapter. It started out in the mid 700s, where I had last tried to tune, and nothing so I kept going downward and nothing until I got to 705. It recognized that channel and I kept going downward through to about the low 600s where everything seemed fine. So I tried heading back upward and at that point the channels above 705 were fine again.
> 
> I don't know if those lower numbers were fine or just, at the point I got there everything was tuning again. It's hugely frustrating. I feel like it's some kind of Tivo problem. I never had this problem until after the last updates.


 Since you have a TA, TiVo may have a fix for you already. See the main thread on this:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=476691


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## sharkster

Thanks, Moyekj! I'm trying to read through it. Been sick since last Thurs and head is throbbing, so it's quite possible that my head will explode before I find my answer. ha! 

Looks like a myriad of different tuning problems, so I don't know if they are all related. I was reading some stuff about people with grey screens and just full-on NO tuning. Some of it is above my head.

I hope this Spring update is the answer. I am pretty tired of spending good money for equipment and services, and then having to constantly monitor if things are getting recorded or if it's just a black screen, or the show pauses in the middle and I get the unauthorized channel banner.


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## josborne

A little background:
Since the last Tivo software update ....sometime late last year I started having a lot of just blank (black) screens when I would attempt to tune in channels. I was missing recirdings as well. Prior to this update I would occasionally get the little message problem tuning in blah bah channel trying again or press ok to try again...or something like that. After the update last year this message rarely occurred and the channels randomly not tunning happened a lot. Channel up then down multiple times and sooner or later it might come it. I could pull my cc out and re-insert it and he channel would appear. Change the channel and go back and it was gone again. 

After reading this thread and calling Tivo about this illusive script which they refuse to akcnowledge I decided to really dig in and look at this issue. I have 4 tuner Elite model. 

I began changing channels until a channel would not tune in. When this happened I changed tuners and tried to tune into the same channel. What I observed is that the tuner that was on an untuned channel stayed on it and this new tuner refused to turn to it. It would just swap tuners on me. It took me a few minutes to realize this. I could not get any of the other 3 tuners to tune to the channel. Each time I tried it would just change tuners to the one that couldn't tune the channel in. 

At this point I was convinced that maybe a tuner or maybe multiple tuners could be bad. Since I had bought a Tivo mini recently I had already allocated a tuner to my mini so I really only had 3 tuners to test. Before now I had decided to turn off tuner sharing to make all 4 available when I was doing my experiment above when I was trying to tune multiple tuners to the same channel that wold not tune. 

Now I decided to go to the tuner allocation setting and decided to allocate 2 tuners for sharing basically leaving me with a 2 tuner tivo. At this point I started changing channels trying to find one that would not tune in. 

Guess what? I couldn't reproduce the problem. Every damn channel tuned in. I tried them all. I then decided to change the tuner allocation setting back to none giving me all my tuners back. Again I was able to tune into everything I tried. I even swapped tuners and it continued to work. At ths point I decided to allocate 1 tuner to my mini again and ran through my channels again. No more tuning issues. 

In summary:
I'm convinced the winter update included support for the tuner allocation. I think the update created this issue from the get go. By going in and adjusting the tuner allocation the process fixed my issue. It obviously runs a process (maybe even a script ha ha) when u adjust this setting because it tells you anything being recorded on any of the tuners will be stopped. 

There you go...... May not be a silver bullet for everyone. Part of me wants to call tivo and share. Part of me says screw'em. All they wanted to do was blame TWC and accuse them of bad business practices for sharing the ticket number that was given in this thread to help get the script pushed. 


Hope this my help a few of you. 

Later....


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## sharkster

Josborne - While most of what you said was beyond my ability to comprehend, one thing stuck out for me...I remember different times when I couldn't tun to channels, since this crap began, trying to go to the other tuner (my Premieres are both two-tuner) and see if I could go to the channel on the 'other' tuner. Well, it would just go back to where I was originally and no channel.

I'm not sure if that means I have the exact same problem you do, or if there is something I can do about (you lost me on the solution part), but I feel like there is nothing wrong with the tuners at this point of experimentation. I'm fairly certain of that.

I do feel like it's a software issue, and not a hardware issue. I just cannot figure out what to do about it - if there is anything I CAN do. At least the last couple of days it's been fine, but - well, I think we probably all know that doesn't mean anything. It's like every day when I turn on the TV I cross my fingers and hope I can watch the channels I pay for without having to restart everything and dink around missing recordings. Maybe I need to call and add to the complaints. I've been sick and really just not up to playing the tech one level telephone game. Maybe tomorrow...


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## sasmps

Josborne has a strong argument... timing of issues and the specific symptoms being on the XL support this. I tried your trick Josborne, and I am now locking on all channels. Keep in mind the script has been applied to my system. I will monitor the next few days and see how long it holds.

I do think we should share with Tivo all we observe, we are beneficiaries of any positive results. 

If you want to try this, turn on HD menus, go to settings, device-cablecard etc, tuners, then allocate some tuners to a mini (even if you dont have one). Then toggle it back to the 'none' setting (getting all your tuners back). 

See how it does...


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## sharkster

I'll try that. Thanks!


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## mrizzo80

sasmps said:


> Josborne has a strong argument... timing of issues and the specific symptoms being on the XL support this. *I tried your trick Josborne, and I am now locking on all channels. Keep in mind the script has been applied to my system. I will monitor the next few days and see how long it holds.*
> 
> I do think we should share with Tivo all we observe, we are beneficiaries of any positive results.
> 
> If you want to try this, turn on HD menus, go to settings, device-cablecard etc, tuners, then allocate some tuners to a mini (even if you dont have one). Then toggle it back to the 'none' setting (getting all your tuners back).
> 
> See how it does...


So are you saying that the script they applied to your TiVo a few weeks ago turned out to only work temporarily and that you've begun to lose channels again?


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## moyekj

mrizzo80 said:


> So are you saying that the script they applied to your TiVo a few weeks ago turned out to only work temporarily and that you've begun to lose channels again?


 Good question. I was confused by the same post as well... Plus this issue has been around for much longer than the Mini so not sure it really has anything to do with tuner allocation.


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## Am_I_Evil

so after a fairly decent run of not losing channels (no fix or anything, just been a week or so) they've went out 3 different times today...this is really annoying....especially now in primetime...

they really need to fix this...

i noticed a high corrected/uncorrected count on tuner 3...the tuner dedicated to the mini...yet it wasn't actually showing the channel the mini was turned to...i found that a little strange..but there's no way for me to access that tuner to change that channel...

edit: right now, after a reboot, i'm noticing an insane amount of RS corrected increase across all tuners...except for 2...that one is fairly low...but already at like 121000+ on tuner 0 and 62000ish on tuner 3...no idea what's going on...

edit again: well i seem to have fixed the upcounting...at least for now...so let's see how long until it does this again...


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## ckazacos

Add me to the list of people experiencing this issue.

My 4 Tuner XL (with tuning adapter) gets blank screens when attempting to tune into some channels. Seems random. If I keep trying a channel, it will usually tune eventually. As a result I'm missing some recordings.

I got the 4 Tuner XL around 10 weeks ago. Previously, my main Tivo was a Tivo Premiere and it did not have these issues. I don't use the Premiere as much any more, but when I do use it, it does not have this issue.

This is very annoying. I think I'd rather have my reliable 2 Tuner Premiere than a 4 Tuner that doesn't always record what it should.

I dread dealing with tech support so I haven't gone down that route yet.


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## sharkster

Seems like the days that are the worst, for me, are also days when other people have the same problems. Yesterday was a nightmare. Oddly, one of my Tivos was having trouble with a bunch of channels early on. 

The other one was fine until right at 5pm, when one tuner started recording a show. At that exact moment, I had the channel I was on, on the other tuner, go weird. From then on for a couple of hours there were channels that wouldn't tune. Then it was fine. Haven't checked yet this morning. I half don't even want to know because this is stressful.

It was unusual for channels to go 'out' in the evening, for me anyway. I had to do some rearranging to get a few shows recorded and lost one completely. One of the shows recorded cut off about 4 minutes before the end, during that time.


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## sasmps

moyekj said:


> Good question. I was confused by the same post as well... Plus this issue has been around for much longer than the Mini so not sure it really has anything to do with tuner allocation.


Hoping to clear up my confusing post 

Yes I had the patch applied, and yes it did improve the situation dramaticaly. However I could still create situations where the tuner would not lock on the channel.....

The patch is a big improvment, but not a complete success. I think Tivo still has some work to do.

Mini has been out for a while, yes.... however pushes to the XL to support the mini have had specific content related to the tuners. I think perhaps Tivo created the problem wtih their last update. This is just a theroy.... but trying Josbone's trick has so far been 100%. Lets give it a week and I will report back.


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## jwmccnn99

I also have had random channels that do not tune occasionally. I do not have a Tivo Mini and never had but this problem has happened for the 10 months or so that I have had the Premiere XL4. To fix this I just remove the cable card and reinsert it, the channels always tune in after I do this but there is usually another instance of a blank channel in a day or so. Is there a better fix for this than just removing the CC and hoping that it doesn't happen again?


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## sharkster

I've done both the 'unplugging of the tuning adapter' and 'restarting the Tivo' and both of those things have brought back all the channels, BUT clearly these are just momentary fixes because it keeps happening randomly. My Premieres are both two-tuner Premieres. I've had them just over a year. This has become chronic just recently.


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## m_jonis

Is anyone getting tuner problems if you do NOT have a Tuning Adapter? ie: Verizon FIOS?
I'm either going to dump my Tivo or TW but I cannot pay a monthly fee for Tivo when it doesn't reliably record things and Tivo's taking too long to get this resolved, IMO.


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## tim316

add me to the list of random channels not tuning.i have a tivo premiere 4 on time warner hawaii.
called tivo once and they say to check with time warner for this issue,i have to call tivo this monday to ask about the script.


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## sasmps

sasmps said:


> Hoping to clear up my confusing post
> 
> Yes I had the patch applied, and yes it did improve the situation dramaticaly. However I could still create situations where the tuner would not lock on the channel.....
> 
> The patch is a big improvment, but not a complete success. I think Tivo still has some work to do.
> 
> Mini has been out for a while, yes.... however pushes to the XL to support the mini have had specific content related to the tuners. I think perhaps Tivo created the problem wtih their last update. This is just a theroy.... but trying Josbone's trick has so far been 100%. Lets give it a week and I will report back.


Just tried all channels, basic, HDBasic, Digital, and HBO 1-10, all are locking on the first try.

How is everyone else making out?

I have applied the Script from Tivo, and Josborn's trick. (Guess we have to call it something, hope you dont mind Josborn).


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## shamilian

m_jonis said:


> Is anyone getting tuner problems if you do NOT have a Tuning Adapter? ie: Verizon FIOS?
> I'm either going to dump my Tivo or TW but I cannot pay a monthly fee for Tivo when it doesn't reliably record things and Tivo's taking too long to get this resolved, IMO.


This thread seems to be mostly TA problems.

Here is the thread for tuner problems not related to TA.

Losing all channels - Tivo Premiere 

They just started to admit this problem existed in the past few months.
(been happening to me for over a year)

For me on FIOS it happens a few times every 3 months or so. It will not happen for 3 months then it will happen once a week for 3 weeks....
( I think it has something to do with FIOS changing the lineup or running some other program at the head end)


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## mrizzo80

I got the script Friday. Installed it, rebooted, disconnected the TA and TA USB, reconnected the TA power, waited for the light to go solid, then re-connected the USB. Tested a ton of channels in succession, all of them tuned in. 

The next morning I began to lose channels again. Today has been fine though. I did also try the Josborn trick; that didn't seem to do anything for me Saturday. I need to give it some more time to make a better overall judgement I guess since my results have been mixed. 

I don't want to discourage anyone from trying either (or both) methods. My problems may be unique to me.


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## sharkster

Yesterday was particularly bad with one of my Tivos. (I'm pretty sure this is not a TA issue) I might try calling Tivo today. It's not cable and it's not my equipment. I'm convinced, at this point that it's Tivo software.

I had problems with different channels off and on for the whole second half of Sunday. I lost one show, but was able to get the rest of them recorded between the two Tivos. It took four times to get Mad Men and finally I set it up on both Tivos and the one with all the problems, this time around, never did get the whole show.

It's a crapshoot for me. One Tivo or the other has problems and sometimes both at the same time. It's never ALL the channels at once. Then it's fine for days and you get a false sense of security and stop monitoring the recordings. I'm so pissed that I don't know if it's a good time for me to call them. Like it will do any good anyway.


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## josborne

josborne said:


> A little background:
> Since the last Tivo software update ....sometime late last year I started having a lot of just blank (black) screens when I would attempt to tune in channels. I was missing recirdings as well. Prior to this update I would occasionally get the little message problem tuning in blah bah channel trying again or press ok to try again...or something like that. After the update last year this message rarely occurred and the channels randomly not tunning happened a lot. Channel up then down multiple times and sooner or later it might come it. I could pull my cc out and re-insert it and he channel would appear. Change the channel and go back and it was gone again.
> 
> After reading this thread and calling Tivo about this illusive script which they refuse to akcnowledge I decided to really dig in and look at this issue. I have 4 tuner Elite model.
> 
> I began changing channels until a channel would not tune in. When this happened I changed tuners and tried to tune into the same channel. What I observed is that the tuner that was on an untuned channel stayed on it and this new tuner refused to turn to it. It would just swap tuners on me. It took me a few minutes to realize this. I could not get any of the other 3 tuners to tune to the channel. Each time I tried it would just change tuners to the one that couldn't tune the channel in.
> 
> At this point I was convinced that maybe a tuner or maybe multiple tuners could be bad. Since I had bought a Tivo mini recently I had already allocated a tuner to my mini so I really only had 3 tuners to test. Before now I had decided to turn off tuner sharing to make all 4 available when I was doing my experiment above when I was trying to tune multiple tuners to the same channel that wold not tune.
> 
> Now I decided to go to the tuner allocation setting and decided to allocate 2 tuners for sharing basically leaving me with a 2 tuner tivo. At this point I started changing channels trying to find one that would not tune in.
> 
> Guess what? I couldn't reproduce the problem. Every damn channel tuned in. I tried them all. I then decided to change the tuner allocation setting back to none giving me all my tuners back. Again I was able to tune into everything I tried. I even swapped tuners and it continued to work. At ths point I decided to allocate 1 tuner to my mini again and ran through my channels again. No more tuning issues.
> 
> In summary:
> I'm convinced the winter update included support for the tuner allocation. I think the update created this issue from the get go. By going in and adjusting the tuner allocation the process fixed my issue. It obviously runs a process (maybe even a script ha ha) when u adjust this setting because it tells you anything being recorded on any of the tuners will be stopped.
> 
> There you go...... May not be a silver bullet for everyone. Part of me wants to call tivo and share. Part of me says screw'em. All they wanted to do was blame TWC and accuse them of bad business practices for sharing the ticket number that was given in this thread to help get the script pushed.
> 
> Hope this my help a few of you.
> 
> Later....


Well I had had a good 5 day run without any tuning issues. I'm sad to report that my previous tuning issues have now returned. What's really crazy is that if I do what I suggested others to try it doesn't seem to be helping at all like it did that day a week or so back. I have also noticed and I would appreciate others commenting as well....that it seem like sometimes I see a pattern of not being able to tune in successfully every other channel when I do hit a channel that fails to tune in. It's not everytime, but it's fairly consistent. This is such a software a problem. Tivo really needs to address this.


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## Teeps

josborne said:


> I have also noticed and I would appreciate others commenting as well....that it seem like sometimes I see a pattern of not being able to tune in successfully every other channel when I do hit a channel that fails to tune in.
> 
> It's not everytime, but it's fairly consistent. This is such a software a problem. Tivo really needs to address this.


My XL4 was experiencing the above symptom (red) this past weekend, and today.

Interesting observation a few minutes ago:
I checked for the problem and found the message to contact service provider as channel was not authorized. This happened on several channels in the upper 400 range of time warner torrance.

So I power cycled the T/A and discovered the authorization message did not display, but a new ch not available message was displayed. As I switched downward from ch469 there were SDV channels that would display, ch434 food/HD was one.
Then after tivo complained about a tuning adapter was now connected. I went back up through the channels and was getting the black screen, with no messages. Tuning up or down from a given black screen channel will finally tune the channel.

Note:
Had power outage this AM, but both TiVo and Tuning Adapter are on UPS.

This afternoon I checked the channels and all are working fine.
Another thing I noticed is the channel strength, as reported on the TiVo channel strength screen, on the channels that were black screen were less than 75%.
This afternoon, no channel reports less than 85%.


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## swarto112

I have XL4 & HD XL with NO problems on FIOS (no tuning adapters needed), moved to TWC area. Nothing but issues. The tuning adapter and the cable card do not lock frequencies in the SDV range. So around the Redzone channels and all the extra sports stuff is where it always fails for me. I tune to the channels there, it'll take out another group of channels some where else. Although if i goto SD channel version of same it'll be fine. 

Ive proved funtionality to the techs and tech supers that come out. Ive spent hundreds of hours troubleshooting this. Rotated out cablecards and tuning adapters. 

Poor quality routers. Poor quality phone service, etc. Prolly gonna sell the Tivos and cut the cord. Not gonna donate all that money for stuff i gotta work on all the time. Its not a Tivo thing, its TWC trying to do just enough to get by. If they only knew how people love FIOS because it just worked and awesomely so. They spent a few bucks on infrastructure instead of billions on content...might have had a FIOS killer.


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## thyname

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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## sharkster

Thyname - I hope so! 

I haven't called them but I haven't had a problem since the several hours on Sunday (prime time of course) when things went wonky. I hope they come out with a universal code, or whatever it is/takes, to make this problem go away for everybody.

I have vowed to myself that next time I'm calling them for sure. I imagine the handful of us here aren't experiencing the totality of this problem alone, and there are probably a lot of people thinking it's a cable, or cable equipment, problem and dealing with it from that angle.


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## compnurd

thyname said:


> 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.


Can you post the SW version you have?


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## jwmccnn99

I had the problem with one or two tuners not tuning occasionally and was taking out the Cable Card to get all tuners working again. This had happened only occasionally but since March had been happening more and more frequently. Last Tuesday I tried the Josborn trick of allocating a tuner to a Mini, even if you don't have one, and it worked great for five days. Sunday I checked all four tuners and one was out again. I tried the Josborn trick again and all four tuners have worked since (only 24 hrs). It seems that this is only a temporary fix and there is a software problem that needs to be addressed by Tivo but hasn't been.

I should note that I spoke with Tivo technical support and was told that was no "script" or "patch" to download that would take care of this, so I would like to know from others on here where they are getting this "script" that supposedly addresses this issue?? I have Comcast and therefore do not use a tuning adapter and also do not have a Tivo Mini, this problem started happening out of the blue.


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## mrizzo80

compnurd said:


> Can you post the SW version you have?


I had the script pushed to my box a couple weeks ago. I don't think the software version with the script is different than any other Premieres (20.2.2.1-01-2-758).

I've had mixed success with the script. Didn't fix my issues, but I think it may have helped. I continue to lose channels.

I've also had mixed success with the Josborn trick. Sometimes I do that and all my channels that won't tune come back instantly; sometimes it does nothing.

Sometimes it will fix itself on its own without doing anything once it successfully tunes a new station (as in... I could be missing 5 channels in a relatively small channel range, and once any one of those stations successfully tunes, all of them will come in).


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## sharkster

That's the same experience I've had in terms of it sometimes fixing itself. I hope I'm not jinxing anything, but it's been good since a week ago Sunday. 

Also, sometimes a given solution works, yet another time it doesn't. One of the last times, restarting either (or both) the TA or the Tivo didn't work. It finally resolved itself - of course AFTER all the evening's shows got screwed up and what I could had to be rescheduled.

I stopped streaming since then. While it doesn't make any sense that streaming would cause the problem (but, then, what DOES make sense?), I'm kind of paranoid to do MRS again. I did transfer a couple of shows and that went well.

I don't think they know what's wrong and that is why I don't think it will be fixed.


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## boxermansr

I've only had my Premiere 4 for about 5 days (had a Premiere 3 before that, or just Premiere, whatever they call the one that has just the 2 tuners, and is the model below the Premiere 4), and have had the issue of channels not tuning (just sitting at a black screen). Tried all the suggestions posted here (and on other threads), and sometimes they work, often times they do not. Been in touch with TiVo, as well as Time Warner about it, but ultimately I'm sure it's more of a TiVo issue then a TWC one.

TiVo says my SNR levels are too high (37-39 dBm), and Time Warner says they're fine; supposed to come out today and see if they can lower them, which I'm sure won't fix the issue - it seems that it's isolated to the Premiere 4 and 4XL, as my previous device (Premiere), never had the issue, so I suspect it has something to do with the 4 tuners, or something along those lines.

Nobody, thus far that I've spoken to at TiVo knows anything about a fix, or even admits that there's a chance it's an issue on their end, they want to point the finger at TWC.


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## sharkster

Just an FYI, for the record, my Tivo Premieres are both two-tuner models. But it seems like everybody else reporting this problem, here anyway, has four-tuner Premieres. 

I'm not surprised, though, that people are being told by both ends (Tivo and their cable provider) that it's the other. BTDT, in the past, with other problems that never were resolved with my two Series 2 Tivos.


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## boxermansr

I just had Time Warner out, and the consensus is that something has to be wrong with the TiVo itself (or at the very least the software). All of my signals (as I already knew) are/were within what Time Warner wants them to be. I showed them how I can change through channels, and end up hitting one with a "black screen". I also showed them how if I changed to a channel above or below the non-working channel, that sometimes the previously non-working one would start to work.

They connected a splitter to bypass the tuning adapter (coax in from wall to splitter, to TA, and the other coax from the splitter directly to the TiVo), and we still had the same issue. Also noted that if we tuned to a channel and got a black screen, then tuned to one of the other "active" tuners, when hitting "info" and viewing the list of what was on each other tuner, one of the 4 (or in this case 3, since it shows what's on 3 tuners, plus what you're actually watching), had vanished (example I tune to channel 9, channel 9 is blank, I hit "info" scroll down to the "three circle" icon or whatever, and click on one of the other tuners, I hit info and instead of it showing me "show a" "show b" "show c" in the list of "tuners", it only shows me "show a" and "show b" -- its as if the 3rd tuner that's on the black screen, and obviously not locked on a signal/show, no longer shows).

Time Warner again believes its the hardware, or software. TiVo called me shortly after, as I'd reached out their executive customer service, and they still insist that it's the signals being too high. They did offer to send me another device, which I declined, as Time Warner wants to try and work with them to see what's going on, and if they can't come up with something, then I guess I can try a replacement, but based on the # of posts of people who are/have had this issue, and the fact that it's obviously gone on for months (or what looks like it could be a year or more), I'm not too confident a fix will be coming anytime soon.


----------



## sharkster

Interesting info about bypassing the Tuning Adapter and having the problem persist. I have been having a feeling that it's not the TA, not the CC, and not cable. I'm really convinced it is a Tivo software thing.

One day I was watching live or semi-live TV and right at 5pm the other tuner changed the channel to record a program on that tuner (NOT the tuner I was on). Well, simultaneous to that, the channel I was on suddenly became unauthorized, along with many other channels. It was that exact moment that a problem started with channels. Something just isn't jiving with something else at times. I also tried seeing if some of the times when channels couldn't tune happened at the same times that the Tivos were connecting for guide updates or such. I did find an approximation , but never actually timed it out to the minute.

With mine it's always SOME of the HD channels - seldom all of them but usually just some of them within the 600-800+ channel number block. Sometimes it resolves itself in minutes and sometimes it's longer. Sometimes you can restart your Tivo and it stops but sometimes that doesn't work. Same with the TA.

All of these facts just must make sense to somebody in the tech field.


----------



## boxermansr

I'm 100% sure it's software related. I've tried all the tricks I've read on here (allowing 1 or 2 tuners for network devices, then going back and allowing 0, removing and reinserting cable card, unplugging and reconnecting tuning adapter, and a few others) and while they work for maybe a few minutes, they're certainly no permanent fix. The fact TiVo feels that this is not a widespread issue (maybe not many people have complained), is of great concern.

I'd suggest, that those having these issues, utilize this link --

http://www.tivo.com/abouttivo/investorrelations/managementteam/exec-customer-support.html

and make your concerns known, maybe if they get more than 2-3 people bringing it to their attention, something will get done.


----------



## jwmccnn99

I do not have a Tuning Adapter nor a Tivo Mini and I have had these problems, so it has to be a software issue. It's not a cable company issue because the channels always come back on just fine after the cable card is removed or I try the trick of allocating a tuner to a mini and then unallocating it. I've had to try that trick 3 times in the last week and a half. The first time, everything was fine for a week, second time it was fine for about 48 hours or so. Had to do it a third time about 6 hours ago. Tivo needs to address this and figure out a fix or they are going to lose customers.


----------



## thyname

thyname said:


> 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.


Another UPDATE:

The fix they presumably sent did NOT work. I had the same problem. So I called them again (TIVO).

I ran into a very knowledgeable older tech support. He seemed to know this issue. He did a three-way conference call with Cox, connect the coaxial cable directly from the wall to Tivo (and not Tuning Adapter, as it normally is) and had Cox send a "re-mapping" signal. According to Lester (Tivo tech support), the signal that Cox send does not go directly to the cable card is the tuning adapter is connected first. That is the issue with P4 only. I had to wait one hour before re-connecting the coaxial cables the way the were originally (wall to TA to Tivo)

This all happened last night. After all was done. I did not notice the problem last night and this morning. I must have changed channels a 100 times.

Hopefully is now fixed.

One thing that Lester told me to look is below:

1 - Tivo Central
2 - Help menu
3 - Cable Card for installers
4 - Cable Card Menu
5 - "your cable card name" CA
6 - Hit "select" twice

You should see something mentioning "ENT" and NOT "NA".

I hope this helps. Good luck to all of us!


----------



## Teeps

thyname said:


> Another UPDATE:
> 
> He did a three-way conference call with Cox, connect the coaxial cable
> 
> directly from the wall to Tivo
> 
> and had Cox send a "re-mapping" signal.


Interesting but, if it is a mapping issue, this fix is at best temporary, as suggested.

Many of us, here, have installed (high bandwidth) 2 way splitters at the cable source.
This splits the source signal sending one branch to the T/A the other to TiVo.
The cable "OUT" on the T/A is not used. 
With the TiVo connected in this manner. The problem of the remapping signal not hitting the cable card, is eliminated.


----------



## boxermansr

Today has been awful for my Premiere 4, I've rebooted it, the tuning adapter, pulled the cable card, and still it's giving me black screens on pretty much every other channel, by far the worst day so far. I'm very close to getting rid of it and going with DirecTV (as they're the only ones who offer the ability to record more than 2 shows at once, aside from Dish, and I won't even consider Dish).

I haven't heard anything back from Time Warner or TiVo executive relations, but I'm sure that no fix will come for this in a day, a week, or even a month, since it seems its been ongoing far longer.


----------



## mrizzo80

thyname said:


> Another UPDATE:
> 
> The fix they presumably sent did NOT work. I had the same problem. So I called them again (TIVO).
> 
> I ran into a very knowledgeable older tech support. He seemed to know this issue. He did a three-way conference call with Cox, connect the coaxial cable directly from the wall to Tivo (and not Tuning Adapter, as it normally is) and had Cox send a "re-mapping" signal. According to Lester (Tivo tech support), the signal that Cox send does not go directly to the cable card is the tuning adapter is connected first. That is the issue with P4 only. I had to wait one hour before re-connecting the coaxial cables the way the were originally (wall to TA to Tivo)
> 
> This all happened last night. After all was done. I did not notice the problem last night and this morning. I must have changed channels a 100 times.
> 
> Hopefully is now fixed.
> 
> *One thing that Lester told me to look is below:
> 
> 1 - Tivo Central
> 2 - Help menu
> 3 - Cable Card for installers
> 4 - Cable Card Menu
> 5 - "your cable card name" CA
> 6 - Hit "select" twice
> 
> You should see something mentioning "ENT" and NOT "NA".*
> 
> I hope this helps. Good luck to all of us!


I think this depends on what station Tuner 0 is on when you open this screen. When I originally called TiVo in mid-January about this problem, this is one of the first things the guy told me to check. I had NA, and he told me that meant this was a CableCARD issue. After we hung up, I did more troubleshooting on my own. When that tuner was on a non-encrypted station (local NBC/CBS/ABC/etc) I saw N/A. When that tuner was on an encrypted station, I saw ENT.

TiVo is supposedly monitoring this thread. Would be nice if someone from there would post in this thread to give us an update on where resolution of this issue stands. More and more people seem to be experiencing this.


----------



## boxermansr

mrizzo80 said:


> I think this depends on what station Tuner 0 is on when you open this screen. When I originally called TiVo in mid-January about this problem, this is one of the first things the guy told me to check. I had NA, and he told me that meant this was a CableCARD issue. After we hung up, I did more troubleshooting on my own. When that tuner was on a non-encrypted station (local NBC/CBS/ABC/etc) I saw N/A. When that tuner was on an encrypted station, I saw ENT.
> 
> TiVo is supposedly monitoring this thread. Would be nice if someone from there would post in this thread to give us an update on where resolution of this issue stands. More and more people seem to be experiencing this.


The problem is, TiVo says it's not a problem, at least not on their end. They insisted when I spoke to executive escalations yesterday that it HAS to be Time Warner and there's just NO way in the world it can be their equipment. I mentioned this, as well as several other posts about the issue, and it was shrugged off -- they told me they'd never heard of the issue (which I'm sure was a lie)..

Like I said, contacting the office of the president is a good means to get things started, if more than one person lets THEM know, maybe they WILL take some action..

http://www3.tivo.com/abouttivo/investorrelations/managementteam/exec-customer-support.html

or you can email Tom Rogers (CEO) direct too (I'm sure it goes to the same place as the ones sent via the previous link).. [email protected]

If people don't act, they can't (or won't) fix it.


----------



## MeInDallas

In my conversation with someone from Tivo engineering I had asked some questions, one regarding upgrading the hard drive after I had received the script, this was his answer:

"The script is purely a quick operation that is run on the unit that temporarily resolves a *software bug* and as long as the box does not repeat guided setup or change to another provider the issue should not happen again. Even so the newest software update which should be out soon resolves this issue permanently so there should be no further problems."

So as you can see, Tivo is aware of the software issue, and is working on it. I think any attempt to try and call your cable company is just a waste of time. Honestly I dont know why Tivo cant just come out and formally say that they know of the software problem and are working on it. This really has me puzzled in a lot of ways, but on the other side of the coin, after all I have been thru since January 2012 with this issue, and Tivo's insistance that it was not on their end, it doesnt surprise me at all. I just wish the spring update would come out soon so people can get the help they need, and stop having everyone jump thru hoops like a dog and pony show at the circus.


----------



## sharkster

I really hope what they told you was true, MeInDallas. I'm really tired of this. I'm still not having a problem, since a week ago Sunday, but I'm constantly on edge waiting for it to start up again. Once it stopped for a few weeks and I got a massively false sense of security. Now I have to constantly monitor that shows recorded properly each night before. Shouldn't have to babysit the Tivos.


----------



## tim316

called tivo,they are cluless,blaming time warners tuning adaptor,i replaced the TA and same problem..im gonna call tivo and try to get my money back,very frustrating for a 300 dollar DVR and a subscription bill.


----------



## jwmccnn99

I have tried different methods to get this to stop, none have really worked for longer than a few days. I have found that changing the channel, and then back to the original channel, as long as the channel you change to isn't already tuned in on another tuner, seems to fix the issue.....for a short period of time. Recently, it seems that every time I checked to see if everything was on, something wasn't .... and I mean EVERY TIME! Could be 5 minutes after I fixed it or 5 hours, it didn't seem to matter, it just seemed like every time I checked, something wasn't tuned in correctly.

However, on Saturday, out of nowhere, I received a message on my Premiere XL-4 saying that I had received a new service update. It said that I had received the Fall 2012 update, but I know I received this update back when it first came out back in October/November??..... Anyway, since this odd update over 82 hours ago I have not had one instance of a lost channel. Perhaps this new "update" had an updated script or patch, whatever you want to call it, that has fixed the problem of the lost channels???? Did anyone else receive an update that they thought they already had recently?


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## sharkster

I've had that work before - and then not work, so who knows! 

Right now I'm on my 4th week without problems. The only thing I haven't done during that time is stream between Tivos. Now I'm paranoid to stream so I've been 'transferring'. Of course, that is ridiculous as it makes no sense but who knows. Unfortunately, some shows cannot be transferred. 

I'm just waiting for the other shoe to drop ... again!


----------



## sasmps

Looks like activity on this thread has subsided... wondering how the roll out is working out for meindallas and sharkster? The update just hit my box last night, and I did have to call my cable provider to reinitialize my card. After that no problems so far.


----------



## sharkster

sasmps said:


> Looks like activity on this thread has subsided... wondering how the roll out is working out for meindallas and sharkster? The update just hit my box last night, and I did have to call my cable provider to reinitialize my card. After that no problems so far.


Hi! This is the first time in years I haven't signed up for the priority list to receive the update. I just figure that it's going well and I don't want to disturb anything.

So far I haven't gotten the update on either of my Tivos AND I've had weeks of no channel tuning problems (crossing fingers that I don't jinx it!).

I still don't know what the problem is but I'm convinced that it's some kind of weird combination of factors involving the Tivo software and not any of my hardware. Maybe it's just a perfect storm thing - who knows.

But the only time in several weeks I've had a problem was once when it started happening - screen paused (froze), then went black, then the 'not authorized' banner went up, then it was back - just that fast. (whew) Then one other time it happened and I changed tuners and went back, and it was back. So neither time was widespread, nor did it last more than a few seconds.

So, that's my experience of the past several weeks.


----------



## m_jonis

sharkster said:


> Hi! This is the first time in years I haven't signed up for the priority list to receive the update. I just figure that it's going well and I don't want to disturb anything.
> 
> So far I haven't gotten the update on either of my Tivos AND I've had weeks of no channel tuning problems (crossing fingers that I don't jinx it!).
> 
> I still don't know what the problem is but I'm convinced that it's some kind of weird combination of factors involving the Tivo software and not any of my hardware. Maybe it's just a perfect storm thing - who knows.
> 
> But the only time in several weeks I've had a problem was once when it started happening - screen paused (froze), then went black, then the 'not authorized' banner went up, then it was back - just that fast. (whew) Then one other time it happened and I changed tuners and went back, and it was back. So neither time was widespread, nor did it last more than a few seconds.
> 
> So, that's my experience of the past several weeks.


There's another thread discussing this as well and it seems that a few people have gotten the update and the issue still persists.


----------



## MeInDallas

sasmps said:


> Looks like activity on this thread has subsided... wondering how the roll out is working out for meindallas and sharkster? The update just hit my box last night, and I did have to call my cable provider to reinitialize my card. After that no problems so far.


Mine is fixed now as far as the lost channels are concerned. My only problem now is the suggestions issue. If they were to fix that I'd be going at 100% now. I wont complain too much though, as long as I can actually watch cable TV now, I'll be fine


----------



## sharkster

MeInDallas said:


> Mine is fixed now as far as the lost channels are concerned. My only problem now is the suggestions issue. If they were to fix that I'd be going at 100% now. I wont complain too much though, as long as I can actually watch cable TV now, I'll be fine


How so is it 'fixed'? Just curious. Did you find a solution, or did the update seem to fix it, is it just not happening lately? I just wonder because if there is a new solution out there i'm all ears.

I've not had it happen lately, as mentioned earlier, but I keep thinking it's going to happen again. I guess I need to not stress it. But it seems like it always happens at the worst time. Last episode was on a Sunday (several weeks ago) and I had to re-schedule quite a few shows. It was happening to different channels on one Tivo than the other that day, so I got some of the shows recored on the other one and some on different days. I did lose one show, though. Sundays are busy.


----------



## MeInDallas

sharkster said:


> How so is it 'fixed'? Just curious. Did you find a solution, or did the update seem to fix it, is it just not happening lately? I just wonder because if there is a new solution out there i'm all ears.
> 
> I've not had it happen lately, as mentioned earlier, but I keep thinking it's going to happen again. I guess I need to not stress it. But it seems like it always happens at the worst time. Last episode was on a Sunday (several weeks ago) and I had to re-schedule quite a few shows. It was happening to different channels on one Tivo than the other that day, so I got some of the shows recored on the other one and some on different days. I did lose one show, though. Sundays are busy.


Well since I got the script, and now the update, I havent had any instances of "lost channels" since. I have never been able to go this long without it happening since January of 2012. It would happen at least several times a day, sometimes even every few minutes. It was just a constant fight with the Tivo to get it to work. 95% of the time I was never able to make it thru an hour long program without the Tivo failing. When I got the "script" it worked fine and then maybe I would get "lost channels" after a few days, which for me that was great to be able to go that long. I was told by engineering that the script would be part of the spring update. Now since having the update installed, I've had no instances at all of failure. The Tivo works like it should 24/7 at this point, minus the suggestions not working. Usually every other day I just pull the USB from the tuning adapter late at night, and let them populate so they will record. So for me I feel like the issue of lost channels has been fixed here at my house. At this point I know Tivo engineering is monitoring my boxes because they are calling home every few hours, especially late at night and early morning, they seem to connect every 2 hours now. After closer monitoring of the times it seems like every 6 hours in the day, and then after midnight its about every 2 hours. What they are doing I have no idea but I gave them permission to do it.


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## sharkster

Me - Oh wow, you had it bad! I'm so glad it seems to be gone. 

Hopefully, they learn something from monitoring your boxes to make sure this stays corrected. Thanks for the info and best wishes!


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## MeInDallas

Oh yeah me and a couple of others had it really bad! So for it to actually work like it was designed to work, is a huge plus for me at this point. I see a lot of people complaining that this update didnt have anything relevant, or didnt have new apps, but I think there was a ton of stuff done that we cant see that they fixed as far as bugs in the software. I'm really really happy with this last update, I have no complaints at all. I'm finally getting to experience a 4 tuner Tivo for the first time that works!  I'm hoping that other people get their problems fixed too.

Heres a thread that was started a long time ago by a guy that lives close to me that had the same issues, I think unfortunately it wasnt fixed for him though.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=481894&highlight=tivo+elite+experience+log


----------



## dave13077

MeInDallas said:


> Oh yeah me and a couple of others had it really bad! So for it to actually work like it was designed to work, is a huge plus for me at this point. I see a lot of people complaining that this update didnt have anything relevant, or didnt have new apps, but I think there was a ton of stuff done that we cant see that they fixed as far as bugs in the software. I'm really really happy with this last update, I have no complaints at all. I'm finally getting to experience a 4 tuner Tivo for the first time that works!  I'm hoping that other people get their problems fixed too.
> 
> Heres a thread that was started a long time ago by a guy that lives close to me that had the same issues, I think unfortunately it wasnt fixed for him though.
> 
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=481894&highlight=tivo+elite+experience+log


Was not fixed for me either. Still having the blank channels when the Tivo has more than one tuner on the same channel. Very Frustrating.


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## sharkster

I'm curious as to why more than one tuner would be on the same channel. Maybe since my Tivos are only two-tuner that is never the case.

That said, however, I had a curiousity when I switched out the surge protector in my living room yesterday. Of course, that meant everything was unplugged and plugged back in. When the Tivo finished restarting I saw that both tuners were on the same channel. Yet, when I turned the TV, they were definitely NOT on the same channel. I've never had that happen before.


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## moyekj

Each time you reboot the TiVo all tuners initially start on same channel.


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## sharkster

moyekj said:


> Each time you reboot the TiVo all tuners initially start on same channel.


Oh I see. This was the first time mine ever did that. I always came back to the same two channels I had before I restarted.


----------



## fobia79

I am having this issue with my brand new Premiere 4. I have had the Tivo HD for years without any issues. I really don't think it's a TA or cable card issue.


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## fobia79

I swapped tuning adapter with my other tivo but still have the same problem. I called tivo support and they know of the issue but have no fix or anything to solve it. I am about to return the TiVo 4 if I don't get this fixed soon.
Anybody on the Orlando area having this issue?


----------



## Teeps

My XL 4 is tuning zero channels as of 2100 hrs last night.
All black screen, no messages, pressing select does bring up guide; but no picture.

Restarting TiVo resumed local channels 402 thru 413.
Still all channels above 413 which require a Cable Card and "explicative" tuning adapter did not work. Still with black screen. TiVo info would display when select button pressed.

Rebooted tuning adapter and some channels above 413 would tune in.

Also checked digital signal strength all are at 84%

TiVo you need to get this fixed...


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## m_jonis

Ever since switching from TW Cable to Verizon FIOS (no SDV, no tuning adapter) I've not had ANY channels not tune. However, at least 5 times/day now, I'm getting the:
This Channel is not authorized (V58 error) for about 20 seconds.

It doesn't seem to prevent recordings, but missing 20 seconds out of random shows is a bit annoying.

Guess time to call Customer service and request a credit again.


----------



## Teeps

Channel 468 Speed is not tuning today V53 error!


----------



## smhaus

I have had the problem for at least a year, but it seems to be getting worse and more frequent.

I have two tivos, and it happens on both, but it happens more on the first one (two tuner tivo xl) than the second one (four tuner premier xl). I do have the most recent software update (20.3.1).

I frequently can not tune to some channels because I get not authorized or problem with channel signal. It happens to some channels, but others remain usable. There are some channels for which this seems to occur most often. Rebooting the machine&tuning adapter often brings back most channels, but sometimes that does not work, or it will bring back most channels with a few still unusable.

I saw a post from TiVo Support (tivosupport_kaitlyn) which asked that I send a private message - but I haven't yet posted to this site often enough to be allowed to send private messages.

I saw suggestions about checking EMMs, and mine is at 4, when the poster suggested it should be at 40+

There are many threads on this issue, so I posted this message one more than one:
/showthread.php?t=497690&page=6
/showthread.php?t=476691&page=16


----------



## Teeps

Today the following channels are not tuning. no errors
474
460
456
454
452
451
443
441
434
418
416

Not happy...


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## tim316

i have random channels no show everyday.i have to reset the tivo box at least twice a day.the channel issue is so bad that my wife wont watch tv on the tivo anymore.might have to go back to the time warner cable box soon...
its to bad,i love the tivo channel guild and season pass.if tivo would fix the netflix and channel issue i would buy tivo boxes for my other tv's...but nooooo


----------



## JSY

Same here - this problem has been getting worse and worse for me throughout the year. I get error message V52 a lot. Searching for a signal on this channel. Depending on the time of day, I may or may not get the channel. My first thought is the tuning adapter, and maybe that is faulty but some SDV channels come in. I will see about replacing it - however reading these posts here does not make me confident. I've had a lot of failed recordings because of this.

The reason why I think it has to lie with my TiVo or the tuning adapter is because I have a cable STB connected to the exact same line (the coax in is split to feed both the STB and TiVo) - and the STB has absolutely no problems tuning any of these channels in. The STB is a Cisco Explorer 8640HDC. It sits right next to my TiVo.

My provider in Time Warner Cable in NYC... Sometimes it's SD channels, sometimes it's HD channels. I really love my TiVo but this is making any added benefit to having TiVo to be nil.


----------



## tim316

talked with tivo again for the 3rd time and they want me to change my tuning adaptor(for the 3rd time)and if that dosent work then they want to send me a refurbished tivo for my 10 month old tivo.i dont think they will ever fix this issue.they mentioned that the time warner tuning adaptor(cisco sta1520) sometimes causes problems with the tivo...no ****.they asked if there was a a diff brand of TA to try,time warner told me no.


----------



## MeInDallas

Funny you would say that. I was told the Motorola brand causes problems, and to try and switch over to the Cisco one and it would work better, and probably fix the "no suggestions" issue at the same time. I've been thru too many tuning adapters and cable cards now already as it is. I think its to the point where people can start realizing its just a Tivo software issue, and no matter how many times you switch the tuning adapter or cable card, its just not going to fix the problem.


----------



## tim316

MeInDallas said:


> Funny you would say that. I was told the Motorola brand causes problems, and to try and switch over to the Cisco one and it would work better, and probably fix the "no suggestions" issue at the same time. I've been thru too many tuning adapters and cable cards now already as it is. I think its to the point where people can start realizing its just a Tivo software issue, and no matter how many times you switch the tuning adapter or cable card, its just not going to fix the problem.


i agree


----------



## JSY

JSY said:


> The reason why I think it has to lie with my TiVo or the tuning adapter is because I have a cable STB connected to the exact same line (the coax in is split to feed both the STB and TiVo) - and the STB has absolutely no problems tuning any of these channels in. The STB is a Cisco Explorer 8640HDC. It sits right next to my TiVo.


I thought I'd give an update since I think I resolved my issue.. at least for now.

Rather than change the tuning adapter, I decided to get a signal booster and give it a try as I do recall that in the past I've had signal level issues and wondered if this was the case. I was skeptical because I could not figure out why TWC's set top box pulled in all the channels fine, but my TiVo would not be able to on some - getting the V52 error (which I don't know what that stands for).

I installed the signal booster and I have to say that I have not had a single issue with my TiVo pulling in the channels since installing it. Of course I probably just jinxed myself. lol - but I've been pleased so far.

If this was the reason and the solution, the cable company should be paying for this but I can see the tech seeing that since the set top box had no problem - that they wouldn't do much about it. Rather than endure the headache, I thought I'd just try this considering I'll move within the year anyway.

If anyone is interested, the amp I purchased is the "Motorola Signal Booster 4-Port Cable Modem TV HDTV Amplifier with Active Return Cable Modem Boost BDA-K4-RA"

Hope it lasts for a while.. don't like having to use another power outlet, but at least my issue seems to be resolved for now.


----------



## josborne

JSY said:


> I thought I'd give an update since I think I resolved my issue.. at least for now.
> 
> Rather than change the tuning adapter, I decided to get a signal booster and give it a try as I do recall that in the past I've had signal level issues and wondered if this was the case. I was skeptical because I could not figure out why TWC's set top box pulled in all the channels fine, but my TiVo would not be able to on some - getting the V52 error (which I don't know what that stands for).
> 
> I installed the signal booster and I have to say that I have not had a single issue with my TiVo pulling in the channels since installing it. Of course I probably just jinxed myself. lol - but I've been pleased so far.
> 
> If this was the reason and the solution, the cable company should be paying for this but I can see the tech seeing that since the set top box had no problem - that they wouldn't do much about it. Rather than endure the headache, I thought I'd just try this considering I'll move within the year anyway.
> 
> If anyone is interested, the amp I purchased is the "Motorola Signal Booster 4-Port Cable Modem TV HDTV Amplifier with Active Return Cable Modem Boost BDA-K4-RA"
> 
> Hope it lasts for a while.. don't like having to use another power outlet, but at least my issue seems to be resolved for now.


I was curious if you have an update since the last one you posted after installing the signal booster. I would hope you haven't seen this issue ever since you installed the cable booster. 
Thanks in advance....


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## aaronkn

We have been having this same problem. It started occasionally with our 2-tuner Premiere early this year (after we'd gotten the "Fall 2012" update), but has now gotten to the point where it is occurring daily. This is a significant problem because we have missed numerous shows that did not record because there was supposedly no channel. Like other people have said, if we go channel up/down then back to that channel we get the channel back. Of course it is too late by that point as the scheduled show did not record.

We have had this happen a few times recently on our Premiere XL4 as well.

The TiVo Premiere is not performing the job for which we purchased the box, and this is a big issue for such an expensive box. At this point, our old Series 2 boxes, running through digital adapters, are more reliable than the 2-tuner Premiere. Does anyone have any suggestions?

We are on Comcast of Garden State NJ, so there is no tuning adapter for the Premieres . . . just the cable card.

Thank you,
Aaron



sharkster said:


> I continue to have a daily problem with one of my two-tuner Premieres.
> 
> I have the living room TV on from somewhere around 11:30am to 1pm until around 10:30 or 11pm each day. When I come in to turn that TV on, pretty much every day, one tuner is either stuck in pause (of course I didn't leave it paused) on some show from mid-morning or it's just black with the 'channel not authorized' banner.
> 
> I have to think it must be the Tivo unit, and not other hardware (such as the TV, TA, or CC) because all I have to do is restart the Tivo and all is fine for the rest of the day - until the next morning. I don't think it's cable because I can go to my bdrm Premiere and those channels (whatever channels du jour that the living rm Tivo deems unauthorized) are just fine.
> 
> I hesitate to think it's the CC or TA because all it takes is a Tivo restart to render everything fine.


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## Teeps

Much to my surprise (or not) my XL4 has not recorded any thing since yesterday evening.
Reason: No Signal!

It's pretty sad when you need 2 tivos to make sure everything you want recorded gets recorded.

So here's what I did:
rebooted tivo (pulled plug, then reconnected); non encrypted channels returned.
rebooted cable card (removed waited 30 seconds, then reinstalled) encrypted but non sdv channels returned (Discovery and Food Network)
rebooted tuning adapter (pulled power cord, then reconnected) no improvement
disconnected then reconnected USB cable @ tuning adapter; some sdv channels will tune. (every other channel in the 400 range)

Interesting observation: after rebooting tivo, Discovery channel (418) would tune along with local stations (402 thru 413)
After rebooting the cable card and tuning adapter. Discovery ch (418) would not tune. Message problem with signal v53!


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## Juggs64

I am currently dealing with this issue. I actually had a Time Warner Cable Tech and Tivo Tech on the phone together chatting for a few minutes and they disagreed on "Signal" strength. Tivo said it wasn't strong enough and TWC said they could not make it any stronger for just one person in the neighborhood that had a Tivo. They settled on replacing the Tuning Adapters which I am still waiting on but I fear it will make NO difference. THE ONLY SOLUTION TO THIS ISSUE IS FOR TIVO AND THE CABLE COMPANIES TO GET TOGETHER AND GET RID OF THE CABLE-CARDS AND TUNING ADAPTERS. There is no solution the can be obtained when neither side will give ground to the other or support each other in any way. My understanding is that this is old technology and should be and could be done away with.


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## unitron

Juggs64 said:


> I am currently dealing with this issue. I actually had a Time Warner Cable Tech and Tivo Tech on the phone together chatting for a few minutes and they disagreed on "Signal" strength. Tivo said it wasn't strong enough and TWC said they could not make it any stronger for just one person in the neighborhood that had a Tivo. They settled on replacing the Tuning Adapters which I am still waiting on but I fear it will make NO difference. THE ONLY SOLUTION TO THIS ISSUE IS FOR TIVO AND THE CABLE COMPANIES TO GET TOGETHER AND GET RID OF THE CABLE-CARDS AND TUNING ADAPTERS. There is no solution the can be obtained when neither side will give ground to the other or support each other in any way. My understanding is that this is old technology and should be and could be done away with.


You can add an inline booster amp to the cable, probably best after you've already split off to send one cable to the cable modem and another to the TV part. Get the TWC guy to advise you.

The cable companies are never going to do what you're talking about, because they want you to use their boxes instead of the TiVo (more money and control for them that way), and it took the Federal government to force them to go the cable cards for other devices route in the first place.


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## skaggs

I have been having "black screen" issues for about a year with my Premiere XL4. I have TWC with a Cisco STA1520 Tuning Adapter.

Margret from TiVo posted in another thread instructions on how to report the black screen issue to TiVo.

The past Sunday, Nov. 24, 2013, I sat down at 1PM to watch the NFL Redzone channel and received the black screen. Using channel up/down didn't work and neither did the "put the 3 other tuners on non-SDV channels" trick. I did as Margret suggests in her post: 777 clear, 911 clear, connect to TiVo service twice. I also sent her a PM describing my issue and that I performed the process to report the issue to TiVo. She responded back that Cisco had identified a bug in their firmware and released a fix to the cable operators for their testing.

Last night I received the black screen again on several channels. This morning, I called the TWC Cable Card (1-866-532-2598), asked if they have received the firmware update from Cisco and if they are testing it.

The TWC rep initially responded that v16.01 is the latest firmware for the TA and explained how to check it in the TiVo menus.

After I re-explained what I was inquiring about, he placed me on hold. He called the "head-end", who told him that v16.01 is the latest version and they are not currently testing a newer version.

This has been so frustrating. As I explained in another thread, I had to resort to renting a TWC cable box so I could actually watch all the channels I pay for. So, I am paying a monthly rental fee in addition to my TiVo subscription and Cable Card fees.


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## pninen

I've been having these tuning problems for several months. Premiere XL4, Time Warner, San Diego.

The channels that fail to tune are most often 132, 133, 211, 65, but sometimes others. Some HD some SD. "playing" with the remote, trying again and again to tune different channels then come back to the desired channel will eventually succeed.

This is a really bad problem. It causes scheduled recordings to fail often.


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## skaggs

I have rebooted the Tuning Adapter, rebooted the TiVo, unplugged the TA's USB and plugged it back in, channel up/down, set the other 3 tuners to non-SDV channels. Nothing gets the channel to display. Yes, I pay for the Sports Package. :down:


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## Teeps

skaggs said:


> I have rebooted the Tuning Adapter, rebooted the TiVo, unplugged the TA's USB and plugged it back in, channel up/down, set the other 3 tuners to non-SDV channels. Nothing gets the channel to display. Yes, I pay for the Sports Package. :down:


I would call the cable provider next.

But yes this pisses me off (not the British way) too.
Even more so when the program in question does not have repeats...


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## mrizzo80

1.) I'd call TWC and ask for a credit since you can't watch channels you are paying them for.

2.) Have you tried the "extended" TA reboot process? Disconnect the TA power and USB. Wait 10 or 15 seconds. Plug in the power. Wait for a solid green light on the TA. Then connect the USB back up.

I've had success jumping thru those hoops when using the "quick" disconnect/reconnect doesn't work.



skaggs said:


> I have rebooted the Tuning Adapter, rebooted the TiVo, unplugged the TA's USB and plugged it back in, channel up/down, set the other 3 tuners to non-SDV channels. Nothing gets the channel to display. Yes, I pay for the Sports Package. :down:


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## skaggs

Teeps said:


> I would call the cable provider next.
> 
> But yes this pisses me off (not the British way) too.
> Even more so when the program in question does not have repeats...


OK, so I called the TWC cable card hotline. The woman who answered sent a "signal" to my tuning adapter and the light started to blink. She asked me to reboot my TiVo at the same time, which I did.

Once both had rebooted, still a black screen or "channel not available" message.

The TWC tech then said I was the 3rd person to call today that couldn't tune the Redzone channel.

She asked me to pull both the power cable and USB on my TA, which I did. I waited 30 seconds and plugged in the power cable. Once the light stopped flashing and was solid, I plugged in the USB cable. Still no Redzone channel.

As I explained before, I have been forced to rent a TWC cable box for times like these when I can 'to tune a channel I want to watch on my TiVo. the Redzone channel works with no problems via my TWC cable box.

The tech had me read her the signal levels from the TA diagnostic screen and she said they were "perfect".

I am the unsatisfied consumer, with nowhere to turn when I have an issue like this. TiVo says it's Cisco's TA or TWC's signal that is the problem. TWC says it must be the TiVo because I can receive the channel with their box.


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## mrizzo80

When you call the TWC National Cable Card number make sure you tell them that they need to report this bug to Cisco (since TiVo and end users are not actual customers of Cisco; only TWC is). Reference Margret's post since she does a good job of summarizing the issue and the fact that Cisco has acknowledged this as a fresh issue on Cisco's end that they need to address.

Also, from what I gathered when I called them 2 weeks ago, even if Cisco pushes a fix out to TWC, there is no guarantee that your individual TWC market will push it out to your box. Ask TWC that a ticket also be opened up in your name so that when the fix does get sent to TWC your market is on the deployment list because there are open trouble tickets for this issue. 

The more people that call TWC about this the better. It doesn't take that long.


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## skaggs

After I got off the phone with the TWC cable card hotline, I called the regular TWC customer service. The wanted me to remove my cable card so they could repair it, so I obliged. Still no Redzone channel. I asked for a month's credit for the SportsPass and they agreed.

I called TWC cable card hotline back and requested they start a ticket in my name with a request to get the new TA firmware from Cisco. The woman was basically clueless, but put everything in an email to her supervisor (Carlos) who will be calling me back to address my concern.


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## skaggs

I got a call back from TWC tech support supervisor named Mike this afternoon. We spent about 20 minutes discussing my issue and what has been done in the past.

He said that v16.01 is the latest available Tuning Adapter firmware and it was implemented in 2011. He would not escalate my issue to the head end and, in turn, Cisco because my last home visit by a tech was in August 2013 (when they swapped out my Tuning Adapters and cable cards). He insisted a tech had to visit my home and attempt to swap out the hardware to fix the problem within the previous 14 days before he could create a priority ticket and escalate the issue to Cisco.

I was very reluctant to have another tech look at my black screens and not know what to do, but I accepted his explanation that it needed to be done before being escalated.

My appointment is Thursday 3-4PM. I insisted he contact the tech's supervisor to make sure he has TA's and cable cards on the truck when he visits my house.


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## skaggs

Tonight's black screen:


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## mrizzo80

The black screen issues I get are literally nothing but a black screen. No error message whatsoever. 

When I having tuning problems, they are generally the black screen kind much more often than Vxx error messages. Hopefully the fix Cisco is working up fixes all our tuning issues.


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## wuss

Just found this thread. I'm a first time Tivo user. Recently purchased a Roamio (4 tuner) w/ lifetime, as well as a tivo mini w/ lifetime. I'm on TW in Austin, TX. The last week or so, every channel I turn to is just blank/black with a pause button. The only way I'm able to get the channel to appear, is if I go to another channel, then go back. This usually works, but the last couple of days, even this ridiculous fix doesn't seem to be working. 

I have a TA, and I've been rebooting it to fix the issue. However, I started just to reboot the TIVO, and that too, seems to fix the issue. Which leads me to believe this is an issue with the TIVO.

The last 5 years, I've been using a HD Homerun Prime w/ an HTPC. I've NEVER had this issue with that setup using a TA.

I'm pretty upset after reading this thread, because I'm not about to spend 6 hours back and forth with Tivo and TW, each blaming each other and having no fix. I just spent over $1,000 on this setup to find that I can't even tune channels.

If I had known about this issue prior to purchasing, I probably would have held off. Unfortunately, I'm outside my return window, so I guess I'll just have to sit here and deal with it. Pretty disappointed.


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## skaggs

The morning of my scheduled service call, I checked my TiVo and I was able to get all my channels, including NFL Redzone...no black screens. SO I cancelled my appointment.

Two days later, multiple black screens again. Ugh.


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## apwelsh

I have also noticed that recently if I change channels, I get an error that the channel is not available. If I channel up a few channels then back down, the channel may or may not tune in. 

In addition, I also noticed that I occasionally have the scenario where the channels do not return to a functioning state, and removing/inserting the Cable Card does not fix it. Powering off, and back on the tuning adapter, also does not fix the issue. in all cases, I wait until the cable card and tuning adapter are both visible to the Tivo. I have also tried removing the cable card, and powering off the tuning adapter, waiting a few minutes, then inserting the cable card, and powering on the tuning adapter. I wait for everything to come back online.. still I cannot tune the channel. I power off the Tivo by removing the power plug, and re-insert the power plug, leaving the tuning adapter powered on the whole time, and not removing the cable card, and everything comes back to life, and works perfectly.

I don't think this is the cable company, I think it is the Tivo. i have been through 3 cable cards, and 5 tuning adapters, and every time the problem returns. It must by the TIVO software.

I am on Charter Communications in the Southern California area.


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## JSY

josborne said:


> I was curious if you have an update since the last one you posted after installing the signal booster. I would hope you haven't seen this issue ever since you installed the cable booster.
> Thanks in advance....


I'm sorry I didn't notice this before. Not sure if you are still interested. I still no longer get the V52 error but sometimes I just think the TA is not reliable.

You see, I have a cable set set top box running in parallel and occasionally a SDV channel will come in on the box but not found on the TiVo. Sometimes it'll come in if I keep switching channels back and forth. It doesn't happen much but it has so it would seem like to me that the TiVo/TA combo doesn't seem to work as well as the cable box in terms of switching channels. I really hate having to use a TA.

Still, the booster I got is worth it.


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## gigaguy

I was having a lot of trouble with non-tuning channels yesterday for channels in a certain span of numbers, very annoying and unpredictable.

there are duplicates, say CNN HD tunes at 355 and 1630. Gonna see if I need to just delete the 1630. my problem is with the higher #s, I think these are geared more for the cable rental box tuners anyway.


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## ciper

Had anyone found the real fix for the v53 problem? I have missed many recordings because of this and I'm about to sell this piece of crap and go back to my series 3 which never had problems


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## mcf57

I am having a similar issue. Random channels not tuning in at times and then tuning in fine. I have swapped the Premiere with other Premieres in my home (that are totally working fine), but still the same problem for this one Premiere. There is no logic to any of it at all. I have all brand new coaxial lines that were professionally installed too. I have contacted TiVo and went through various diagnostics and all checked out. No sense in trying to get a tech out either cause I'm sure once they show up, all channels will tune in fine and I will then get slapped with a tech visit fee. 

I am with Comcast and initially felt this was a TiVo problem of some kind, but I now wonder if Comcast is pulling some secret shenanigans. However, if my other TiVos work fine, that wouldn't make sense either. Again, I am at my wits end trying to solve this problem so it seems ANYTHING is possible at this point. I am close to possibly selling this (lifetime) unit and just take the proceeds to get another lifetime TiVo mini.

I already have a 4-tuner Premiere with another Mini and both of them work WONDERFULLY. No channel tuning problems at all. I just wish I could some how get this V53 error fixed for this ONE unit. It seems like a lot of others are having a similar issue. I guess the real question now is what cable system are all of these V53 errors on. If they are ALL Comcast (which I doubt), then that could be telling. If its various cable companies then I think TiVo should look into this further.


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## CrispyCritter

mcf57 said:


> I am having a similar issue. Random channels not tuning in at times and then tuning in fine. I have swapped the Premiere with other Premieres in my home (that are totally working fine), but still the same problem for this one Premiere. There is no logic to any of it at all.


Did you try swapping cablecards between Premieres, or just swap the Premiere with cablecards in them?

It could be a bad cablecard, or one with old software on it that isn't updating for some reason.


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## mcf57

CrispyCritter said:


> Did you try swapping cablecards between Premieres, or just swap the Premiere with cablecards in them?
> 
> It could be a bad cablecard, or one with old software on it that isn't updating for some reason.


Actually, this is my next step as I still have a M-cable card from a previous Series 3 TiVo that I recently sold, but haven't turned in the cable card yet. I am REALLY hoping this will solve the problem as its about the only possible solution left.

Since its only 4 months old, TiVo offered to swap the unit out for a $49 fee, but I would rather not have to mess with that since in addition to the fee, it would involve shipping units back and forth and/or giving them a deposit.


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## CoxInPHX

thyname said:


> I also have the same problem. I have a Premiere 4 in living room connected to the router with ethernet, and tuning adapter, as well as a Tivo Mini in the bedroom connected to the internet via MoCa.
> 
> I had a Cox technician come to my home last Saturday. He spend 2 hours in my home, testing everything. He said everything is fine in my system: cable signal strength, tuning adapter, cablecard and connections. Could not figure out the problem. Tried also "re-mapping" and re-paring my cc and ta. Nothing happened.
> 
> I called TiVo yesterday. The technician was clueless and kept telling me is my cable signal. He then put me on hold for 15 minutes. When he came back, he said that the Level 2 tech support he talked to was aware of the problem and will contact me directly via email in 5-7 days. Let us hope they will have a solution.
> 
> Maybe this is just a coincidence, but my problem start happening after I installed my Mini in my bedroom. I do have one tuner from my P4 allocated to the Mini.


I realize I replied to an old post, but I just discovered the following, and it seems to fit. I was searching if anyone else had encountered the same issue.

I was doing some testing last night for a friend, and I decided to switch the Mini to use MoCA and bridge the Ethernet on the Roamio.

I split the incoming Coax to the TA and Roamio Pro (I usually use the RF pass-through which will not pass MoCA)
Turned on Ethernet + MoCA 
Connected the Mini to the Coax only and changed the Network configuration to use MoCA.

The Tuning Adapter immediately started failing the tuning requests of SDV channels. The channels would briefly display but immediately I was presented with the Select to View this channel message, which did not bring the channel back.

The Cox Cisco TA install sheet shows using a MoCA POE filter before the TA, I never understood why. I assume the excess noise caused by the MoCA was causing the TA to fail.
http://media.cox.com/support/print_...er_guides/cable_box/InstallingYourCiscoTA.pdf

After placing the POE filter on the TA, the TA started working again as normal.


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## UCLABB

For the first time ever I lost almost all channels. Just the main broadcast channels were there. Tried everything and finally called Charter. Got the robot. Sent a signal to the cable card and every thing was immediately copacetic. 

I had rebooted the TA, the TiVo, reset the M card all to no avail.

I hope this only happens every two years!


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