# Tivo Stream DOA



## markwellbe

Just got my TiVo Stream today, read the instructions and plugged it in. The fan powers on the Ethernet lights flicker for a second and then that's it. No lights nothing. Tried different cables switches power and nothing. Worked with TiVo support and no luck. They are shipping out a new one but will not see it until next week.


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## ThAbtO

I think it takes about 5 minutes to boot up, did you wait that long?


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## BlackBetty

It could have been operator error. Did this really need it own separate thread?


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## davezatz

ThAbtO said:


> I think it takes about 5 minutes to boot up, did you wait that long?


Also, the lights go off during a firmware upgrade I believe.


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## markwellbe

ThAbtO said:


> I think it takes about 5 minutes to boot up, did you wait that long?


Was plugged in for one hour the first time and multiple hours after that...


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## markwellbe

BlackBetty said:


> It could have been operator error. Did this really need it own separate thread?


Tivo Support was unable to get it working after an hour of phone support. I am also a network engineer so I hope it was not "operator error" Post was just for information take it for what you want, maybe a one off issue or may be a quality control problem.


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## aaronwt

It sucks to get a dead unit but every piece of electronics sold has a certain percentage of problem boxes. Unfortunately you drew the short straw.


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## smbaker

Assuming he was a sweepstakes "winner", they should have overnighted him a replacement. 

I agree there's a nonzero probability of DOA with getting any piece of electronics. However, how the company deals with it is important, particularly when it's during a period when they're trying to drum up good PR for a new product launch.


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## steve614

Yeah, it's not surprising this can happen.

The DOA factor applies to anything electronic. If you get a shipment of 500 fluorescent light fixtures and all 500 of them are flawless, then you got lucky.


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## generaltso

Mine had major issues as well. I got a replacement today, which works perfectly.


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## ellinj

At what point in the process should you see an ethernet link light? I plugged mine in, been in for almost 10mins and still nada. I hear the fan running and the box is getting warm though.


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## markwellbe

Well got a new one today from Best Buy. The new one powered up right away, and the status light turned orange then flashed white right away, my old one never even got that far (no status lights what so ever).


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## ellinj

markwellbe said:


> Well got a new one today from Best Buy. The new one powered up right away, and the status light turned orange then flashed white right away, my old one never even got that far (no status lights what so ever).


Sounds like I got a dud too, no lights whatso ever, fan on and some heat coming out of the box, but nothing else.


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## jfh3

ellinj said:


> At what point in the process should you see an ethernet link light? I plugged mine in, been in for almost 10mins and still nada. I hear the fan running and the box is getting warm though.


Wait at least 10 minutes. By then, it should be solid white. If it is still blinking orange or orange/white, I'd suspect something is bad. I had a similar problem with my first unit (that turned out to be bad).


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## ellinj

jfh3 said:


> Wait at least 10 minutes. By then, it should be solid white. If it is still blinking orange or orange/white, I'd suspect something is bad. I had a similar problem with my first unit (that turned out to be bad).


Nothing blinking anywhere.


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## miller890

markwellbe said:


> They are shipping out a new one but will not see it until next week.


Assuming it was purchased from TiVo, I think I would have asked them to over night a replacement or requested a refund since they are showing up in Best Buy stores. After reading another post regarding extended warranties, I would go that route with Best Buy. At $25 that is still cheaper than a replacement power supply. I have lost a number of external power supplies on net cams over the years with power in my area.


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## stevegs1

ellinj said:


> Sounds like I got a dud too, no lights whatso ever, fan on and some heat coming out of the box, but nothing else.


I received mine today-same issue. Called Tivo, they are sending a replacement.


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## russl

stevegs1 said:


> I received mine today-same issue. Called Tivo, they are sending a replacement.


Same thing here. I didn't want to hold for phone support so I sent an email. Hopefully I'll get a relatively quick response.

Russ


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## Dan203

Hmmm... DOA rate seems a bit high on these. I wonder if they got a bad batch of power supplies? Those stupid little power bricks can cause all sorts of problems with the device if they're bad. If any of you have a spare power brick that's the right size and rating you should try it and see if it works.

Dan


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## samaritan66

I worked with a TiVo customer support rep for quite a while yesterday. It was a good experience, and he was great. 

He said that there was an issue with the mac address (physical address of the network card) in the stream being different than the one printed on the cardboard and on the actual stream box. I noticed this when I was checking to make sure it got a DHCP address.

They said the first time it connects, it should update and correct this. Mine tried to connect and update 30 times, according to him. We gave up after we did quite a few things to try to get it to work.

This failed for me on Sunday night, on lunch yesterday I purchased a new one and left it unopened until I had tried to get the first one working yesterday evening with TiVo's help.

The second one launched with no problems. You have to run to the TiVo at some point to force a test connection, but other than that, no fuss.

My advice would be to make sure your iPad/iphone/ipod is plugged into power and do not leave the TiVo application until the process is complete.

I am enjoying it very much. I have a few food network shows and an episode of The Closer on it. A few shows transferred over (BBQ University) but did not play. I'll try to load them again tonight.

One nice surprise for me was that HBO recordings will stream to the iPad, but they of course won't transfer. HBO go kind of makes this a non-issue, though.

Good luck.


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## davezatz

samaritan66 said:


> One nice surprise for me was that HBO recordings will stream to the iPad, but they of course won't transfer. HBO go kind of makes this a non-issue, though.


*Everything *_should _*stream * (versus offload) as this is CableLabs approved - it's like any other dvr/tv combo when it comes to streaming. However, I do wonder if this will lead to CableLabs changes...


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## Dan203

davezatz said:


> However, I do wonder if this will lead to CableLabs changes...


I doubt it. As long as they don't allow streaming outside the home they should be fine. It's no different then an extender streaming to a secondary TV. Although we could hope that maybe Cable Labs would change things for the better and allow streaming outside the home too. That would be nice.

Dan


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## davezatz

Dan203 said:


> I doubt it. As long as they don't allow streaming outside the home they should be fine. It's no different then an extender streaming to a secondary TV.


Except every provider (Comcast, TWC, etc) that has an app has negotiated the live streaming of a subset of the channel lineup to a tablet or smartphone within the house. This is effectively an end-around. (Yes!) Then again, TiVo is a small player and maybe it's not worth making noise over.


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## morac

davezatz said:


> Except every provider (Comcast, TWC, etc) that has an app has negotiated the live streaming of a subset of the channel lineup to a tablet or smartphone within the house. This is effectively an end-around. (Yes!) Then again, TiVo is a small player and maybe it's not worth making noise over.


I'm not sure about other providers, but for Comcast channels that can be live streamed (and that number can be counted on one hand) can be streamed regardless of the location. At least that's how it works on my iPad/iPhone. I download the channel's app and then log in with my Comcast credentials and can then watch existing content and, in rare cases, watch live TV.

Edit: I forgot to mention that Comcast's own app only gives access to their VoD library, not live TV. That too is available outside the home. My brother has TW and their app does allow watching Live TV, but only in the home.


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## steve614

davezatz said:


> Except every provider (Comcast, TWC, etc) that has an app has negotiated the live streaming of a subset of the channel lineup to a tablet or smartphone within the house. This is effectively an end-around. (Yes!) Then again, TiVo is a small player and maybe it's not worth making noise over.


I don't see it that way. Not an end around. The cable companies negotiated with the content owners to allow it.
TiVo could do the same thing, only they are not a cable company that has negotiating power with the content owners.


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## Dan203

I think that's different. As morac said those apps allow streaming outside the home, and it's live TV not pre-recorded content. I think TiVo is well within their rights to stream content like this inside the home. It's really no different then streaming TiVo to TiVo to view on another TV. Outside the home might be a different story though, which may be why it's currently not allowed rather then technical reasons.

Dan


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## morac

Well actually most channel apps are pre-recorded content only (HBO2Go, TBS, TNT, etc). Until recently many could be used by anyone, but now they all require logging in with cable company credentials. If your cable company isn't on the list, you can't watch. For example Comcast won't support Epix, so I can't use their app.


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## ShayL

davezatz said:


> Except every provider (Comcast, TWC, etc) that has an app has negotiated the live streaming of a subset of the channel lineup to a tablet or smartphone within the house. This is effectively an end-around. (Yes!) Then again, TiVo is a small player and maybe it's not worth making noise over.


Does FIOS offer this?


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## davezatz

ShayL said:


> Does FIOS offer this?


They demo-ed it at CES 2010 and it looks like its in beta now. It's my understanding it had launched back then as they were negotiating rights.

http://www.engadget.com/2012/09/13/verizon-sends-invitations-to-closed-trial-of-fios-tv-app-for-ios/


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## ellinj

my replacement stream arrived today. It is doing the same thing the old one was doing. Been plugged in for about 15mins now, the fan is on and the unit is getting warm, but no lights are on. The ipad can't find the stream on the network.


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## Dan203

It requires DHCP, you do have a DHCP server on your network right? I'm pretty sure it also requires internet access right from the start as well, so make sure the network segment you're connecting it to can get on the internet.

Dan


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## ellinj

Dan203 said:


> It requires DHCP, you do have a DHCP server on your network right? I'm pretty sure it also requires internet access right from the start as well, so make sure the network segment you're connecting it to can get on the internet.
> 
> Dan


Check and check. I would at the very least expect a network link light.


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## ellinj

On the phone now with Tivo, 15min hold


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## morac

ellinj said:


> my replacement stream arrived today. It is doing the same thing the old one was doing. Been plugged in for about 15mins now, the fan is on and the unit is getting warm, but no lights are on. The ipad can't find the stream on the network.


You could check on your router to see if the Stream pulled an ip address. If so you can either ping it or go to its web page to see if it's "alive".


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## Dan203

ellinj said:


> Check and check. I would at the very least expect a network link light.


Are you sure the cable you're using is good and it's plugged into a good port on the router/switch? If I disconnect the cable plugged into mine on either end the network lights go out. And the white light doesn't turn on until it's connected and setup.

Dan


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## ellinj

Dan203 said:


> Are you sure the cable you're using is good and it's plugged into a good port on the router/switch? If I disconnect the cable plugged into mine on either end the network lights go out. And the white light doesn't turn on until it's connected and setup.
> 
> Dan


Headed to best buy to get unit #3.


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## D_bo

Just got my second stream as well... seems DOA too... Plug it in and no lights at all


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## ellinj

and it seems third time is the charm. I am getting a link light and the white LED.


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## stevegs1

stevegs1 said:


> I received mine today-same issue. Called Tivo, they are sending a replacement.


Received my replacement today. Connected, powered up, orange light within 30 seconds, flashing white for about 10 minutes, then steady. Works perfectly.


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## davezatz

ellinj said:


> my replacement stream arrived today. It is doing the same thing the old one was doing. Been plugged in for about 15mins now, the fan is on and the unit is getting warm, but no lights are on. The ipad can't find the stream on the network.


Wonder if it's a local network issue.


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## ellinj

davezatz said:


> Wonder if it's a local network issue.


The third unit powered up and setup no issues, so I don't think so.


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## davezatz

ellinj said:


> The third unit powered up and setup no issues, so I don't think so.


Wow, weird. Seems like a high failure rate or you're just super unlucky. Hm. Glad to hear you finally got one that works, though.


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## NYHeel

My stream wasn't DOA but it doesn't seem to be working properly. I got it Wednesday night and everything seemed great. The first night it worked to stream from one of my premieres but then didn't work to download. Also, after the attempted download it didn't stream anymore from that premiere. It did stream from the second premiere in my house but then wouldn't download or stream again. I rebooted everything but it didn't work until I rebooted the actual Tivo Premieres the next morning. 

Of course then last night, downloading wasn't working even after rebooting the stream. Streaming did work but there were some intermittent pauses. After streaming I was able to download but the downloads take much longer than Tivo seems to indicate. The App thinks a 1 hour show will download in 9 minutes at standard quality. My experience was more like 20-25 minutes. And I have a 25/25 down connection and the speed test indicated it was working correctly. This morning it again wouldn't download. So I rebooted the Stream and it still wouldn't download until I initiated a stream, canceled it and then downloaded again.

It seems like I need to reboot and then try to stream to get the downloading to work. I guess it could be a networking issue but I have both Premiere's hard wired and the stream seems to have a valid IP address so I'm not sure what's wrong. I think I'll call Tivo for a replacement.


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## morac

NYHeel said:


> My stream wasn't DOA but it doesn't seem to be working properly. I got it Wednesday night and everything seemed great. The first night it worked to stream from one of my premieres but then didn't work to download. Also, after the attempted download it didn't stream anymore from that premiere. It did stream from the second premiere in my house but then wouldn't download or stream again. I rebooted everything but it didn't work until I rebooted the actual Tivo Premieres the next morning.


The Stream won't download protected content, which for Time Warner and certain other cable companies, is virtually all channels. Attempting to do so appears to put the Stream in a weird state from what I've read, requiring the user to redo setup. Are your channels protected?


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## D_bo

D_bo said:


> Just got my second stream as well... seems DOA too... Plug it in and no lights at all


Picked up another new unit from Best Buy (the first two where from Tivo Directly)

Worked right away... Tried to hook up the two units from Tivo again, using the same power cord and network cable that worked with the unit from Best Buy..

No joy, they still don't work

Looking at the shipping invoices from the two units from Tivo they came from the same Bin# S97HH01A, don't know if they means anything


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## WindyCityGirl

I had the same problem with the unit I ordered from Tivo. What I am still sooooo pissed about is I have to pay to ship a defective unit back to Tivo!

You guys suck!!


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## Dan203

Could always just buy one at Best Buy and then return the bad one for a refund. Not the most honest thing to do but it would save you return shipping.

Dan


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## pbw

As a bit of a rant, I also received a defective unit directly from TiVo. After 3 emails where they simply told me to check and reboot my network (when I made it clear that wasn't the issue), I just went to Best Buy and bought one that actually works. But TiVo won't pay for return shipping and I wasn't totally convinced from the telephone rep that they would even refund the original shipping. Between the unhelpful email support (I couldn't call during their open hours) and refusal to pay return shipping, this was a rather disappointing experience.


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## Dan203

More likely it was just a bad initital run. There is a reason they limited that "contest" to 600 winners. They likely got a small initial batch before a bigger supply was produced for Best Buy. Plus, like someone mentioned above, TiVo is the first big customer for the maker of the chips used in these things so they could be working out some kinks in their manufacturing process as well. 

Dan


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