# TiVo Bot channel pixelated when recording



## web1b (Oct 3, 2006)

I was recording an OTA channel through the Bolt that was breaking up with lots of pixelation. I switched to the same channel live on another tuner and the picture was solid with no breaking up. Switch back to the recording in progress and the picture is still going out. 
What can cause this and how can I fix it?


----------



## Salacious Crumb (Jan 1, 2019)

I had the same prob - nobody had a resolution.

Recording question

oh & whats a bot channel ??


----------



## aspexil (Oct 16, 2015)

web1b said:


> I was recording an OTA channel through the Bolt that was breaking up with lots of pixelation. I switched to the same channel live on another tuner and the picture was solid with no breaking up. Switch back to the recording in progress and the picture is still going out.
> What can cause this and how can I fix it?


Call Tivo. The only reason I can think of is the tuner is beginning to fail. Normally the only time we have pixelation with OTA here is due to weather. But I would expect to see the same pixelation regardless of the tuner. Did you try to get a signal level report from each tuner? That might help narrow down the issue.


----------



## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Salacious Crumb said:


> oh & whats a bot channel ??


Configure a bot to run on one or more channels - Bot Service - Bot Service


----------



## Salacious Crumb (Jan 1, 2019)

aspexil said:


> The only reason I can think of is the tuner is beginning to fail.


But as was the problem on mine if its the tuner then why was the live tv ok but the recording of that same exact channel at that exact same time not ??

Ive now done 76 recordings since the problem -- all are ok.


----------



## aspexil (Oct 16, 2015)

Somewhere in the Tivo it has to be splitting the signals coming in the antenna into 4 tuners. It could be one of the tuners has a bad solder joint and the heat and humidity were just right to have the joint failing thus the broken signal. Which is why I asked if you tested the signal level on both tuners? Granted that would cancel your recording but it would give some data about the issue. 

But if you're not seeing the problem then alls well that ends well I guess.


----------



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

web1b said:


> I was recording an OTA channel through the Bolt that was breaking up with lots of pixelation. I switched to the same channel live on another tuner and the picture was solid with no breaking up. Switch back to the recording in progress and the picture is still going out.
> What can cause this and how can I fix it?


There is a way to test. You would need to setup 4 MANUAL recordings on the same channel (the channel you were having trouble with). You'd want them to start at slightly different times (like 12:56PM, 12:57PM, 12:58PM and 12:59PM). They can all end at the same time, whatever, say 1:30PM. Then it should use all 4 tuners on the same channel at the same time. Watch all 4 recordings, see if any have the pixelation. If so the tuner used for that recording could be bad. Have to do manual recordings, I don't think just setting up the same recording 4 times will record 4 times though I could be wrong.


----------



## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Or you could tune to the bad channel and do a restart. When it's done, all channels will be on that channel. The check the Diagnostics (under Help, System Info) and all tuners should be the same.


----------



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

aspexil said:


> Somewhere in the Tivo it has to be splitting the signals coming in the antenna into 4 tuners. It could be one of the tuners has a bad solder joint and the heat and humidity were just right to have the joint failing thus the broken signal. Which is why I asked if you tested the signal level on both tuners? Granted that would cancel your recording but it would give some data about the issue.


Maybe not if you check the diagnostics screen for signal strength?


----------



## aspexil (Oct 16, 2015)

I had forgotten about the diagnostics screen but yes. Good catch you two.


----------



## Salacious Crumb (Jan 1, 2019)

Well the other day i did have all 6 tuners recording something at the same time - all were ok.
So the tuner that had done the bad recording last wk had to have worked ok this wk.


----------



## jefny (Feb 13, 2008)

I had problems in the past with pixilation,and sometimes it would show up on the recording but not noticeable when simply viewing the channel. The problem involved signal strength and in my case too strong a signal. Used something called an attenuator that reduces signal strength and the pixilation was gone.

John


----------



## web1b (Oct 3, 2006)

aspexil said:


> Call Tivo. The only reason I can think of is the tuner is beginning to fail. Normally the only time we have pixelation with OTA here is due to weather. But I would expect to see the same pixelation regardless of the tuner. Did you try to get a signal level report from each tuner? That might help narrow down the issue.


I don't see any way to choose which tuner it uses when the signal test is run.

Also, I noticed one of the problem channels is listed twice in the list of channels and I unchecked the worse version of the channel from the list. However it doesn't go away when I use the remote when I use the up and down buttons on the remote. It still tunes to a channel that isn't selected in the channel settings menu.
How is that possible?


----------



## gregftlaud (Jun 16, 2004)

I had a similar issue today on a recording and then on rewind the channels would pixelate / tile and that recording was unwatchable. Restarted the tivo---all seems fine. For now.


----------



## RDIL (Dec 22, 2020)

web1b said:


> I was recording an OTA channel through the Bolt that was breaking up with lots of pixelation. I switched to the same channel live on another tuner and the picture was solid with no breaking up. Switch back to the recording in progress and the picture is still going out.
> What can cause this and how can I fix it?


I found my TV tuner was a better quality tuner than the Bolt tuner. I could receive more channels on my TV tuner than my Bolt. My antenna lead is new RG6 cable and about 35 foot long lead. I have a 35 year old Channel Master antenna that works fine (about 35 feet high on my roof). I purchased a Televes preamp/splitter with LTE filter and it took care of my problem. The Televes unit is self adjusting. Excellent unit. I still receive more channels on my TV tuner but the Bolt does not pixelate anymore on the channels it receives. Go to the Televes website and check out their product.


----------

