# TiVo intro animation clip?



## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

I have never seen this happen before... I came home from work today, turned on the amp and the tv, noticed it was recording two programs (two red leds), and pressed the left arrow button before the TV was finished coming on. A second later when it came on, I was greeted by the TiVo intro clip animation.

Did my TiVo reboot on its own between last night and now and was waiting for me to press a key? I checked my version, it is 14.8.U2-01-3-746. I don't know what it was before today, did it just change? It doesn't look newer than what others are reporting. I got the U2 something update on 06-01-2011 (I didn't write down the entire version number).

I don't think there is an "up time" counter anywhere that I could find, so I don't think there is any way I can know if it rebooted. And there are no messages (and never are after an update, that I have ever seen), so there is no way to know if my version changed.

Strange...


----------



## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

Try looking under Account & System Information / DVR Diagnostics*.
Page down to the last page and look for the line 'Time Since OOB Tune Start'. This will give you an approximate time since the last reboot in seconds. You will have to calculate the hours/days/weeks from that.

*This is how you find it with the TivoHD, I think the Premiere is similar.


----------



## HomeUser (Jan 12, 2003)

I don't know where you are located could there of been a power outage? I know here in Michigan there have been several power disruptions due to the high temperatures today.

If the DVR rebooted another tell-tail sign is the pointer in the menus would be reset to the top of the menu.

Or you may of unknowingly hit the '0' button on your remote when in TiVo Central pressing '0' plays the intro.


----------



## WrathWielder (Dec 12, 2007)

It probably wasn't your power...

My Premier started doing that a few days ago - I'd hit the left-arrow and up would come the animation. I figured I must have received an OS update or something.
Then it happened the next day as well.
I thought maybe it repeated because I didn't let it finish playing the previous day...so I watched the whole thing...that didn't help.
The next day (yesterday) it did it one more time.
Until I saw your message I thought maybe I had to switch off a new "intro" option or something that came with the latest update...

Tonight it didn't do it, so maybe things (updates) have settled down 

-Greg


----------



## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

crxssi said:


> I have never seen this happen before... I came home from work today, turned on the amp and the tv, noticed it was recording two programs (two red leds), and pressed the left arrow button before the TV was finished coming on. A second later when it came on, I was greeted by the TiVo intro clip animation.
> 
> Did my TiVo reboot on its own between last night and now and was waiting for me to press a key? I checked my version, it is 14.8.U2-01-3-746. I don't know what it was before today, did it just change? It doesn't look newer than what others are reporting. I got the U2 something update on 06-01-2011 (I didn't write down the entire version number).
> 
> ...





steve614 said:


> Try looking under Account & System Information / DVR Diagnostics*.
> Page down to the last page and look for the line 'Time Since OOB Tune Start'. This will give you an approximate time since the last reboot in seconds. You will have to calculate the hours/days/weeks from that.
> 
> *This is how you find it with the TivoHD, I think the Premiere is similar.


Ohh, a great use for Wolfram! In my case:

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=how+long+ago+was+556971+seconds

BTW, since the S2 I can always tell a reboot has occurred by the behavior of the SP manager. Since I make little tweaks to various season passes each week the list will "stick" to the last SP I was editing when I back out to the main list of season passes. If a reboot has occurred and I scroll down a few pages, enter a season pass without and editing it then back out of it to the main list it will always go to the top of the season pass list instead of the one I was in. On the flip side if I edit lets say Season Pass #20 by adding or deleting some shows then back out to the main list then every time I come back to the SP Manager it will be where I left off until a reboot has occurred. If there was a reboot it would be at SP #1. The only other thing I can think of that would cause the animation to occur is if you changed from SDUI to HDUI or the other way around or I guess if the system went ahead and did that for you for some strange reason. Also there is a SPS code to show the animation. Got cats that like playing with your remote?


----------



## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

This is a new "feature" of 14.8. Periodically I get the intro video even though the unit has not rebooted. (I can tell right away if there has been a reboot since my beloved S-P-S-P-S feature resets).

It's TiVo Premiere's way of keeping you guessing - I always wonder when I sit down to watch one of my Premieres if when I press the TiVo button either it won't respond to remote control at all or it will give me the intro video or even more shockingly just work like it is supposed to.


----------



## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

steve614 said:


> Try looking under Account & System Information / DVR Diagnostics*. Page down to the last page and look for the line 'Time Since OOB Tune Start'. This will give you an approximate time since the last reboot in seconds. You will have to calculate the hours/days/weeks from that.
> 
> *This is how you find it with the TivoHD, I think the Premiere is similar.


Great info! 586974 = 163 hours ago from now = almost 7 days ago. So it was not rebooted or restarted (I didn't think it was). So the mystery continues, but at least with more info.


----------



## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

rahnbo said:


> The only other thing I can think of that would cause the animation to occur is if you changed from SDUI to HDUI or the other way around or I guess if the system went ahead and did that for you for some strange reason.


Nope- was in SDUI, still in SDUI.



> Also there is a SPS code to show the animation. Got cats that like playing with your remote?


My cats love playing with things, but not the remote.... and had they, it would have been on the floor for sure, which is was not. Mystery!!!


----------



## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

moyekj said:


> This is a new "feature" of 14.8. Periodically I get the intro video even though the unit has not rebooted. It's TiVo Premiere's way of keeping you guessing - I always wonder when I sit down to watch one of my Premieres if when I press the TiVo button either it won't respond to remote control at all or it will give me the intro video or even more shockingly just work like it is supposed to.


Yep, I am beginning to think based on my experience and others posted here that this is another ANOTHER new software bug. Just what I needed, a new bug being added to the "Does not respond to remote" bug (just like you).

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=456559


----------



## randy1649 (Apr 18, 2011)

I dont understand the big issue. Just hit the tivo button right away and skip the cartoon.
You probably already have the remote in right your hand.


----------



## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

randy1649 said:


> I dont understand the big issue. Just hit the tivo button right away and skip the cartoon.
> You probably already have the remote in right your hand.


The issue is that it is not normal and indicates there is yet something else now "wrong" with the Premiere. It is far more disturbing than problematic.


----------



## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

randy1649 said:


> I dont understand the big issue. Just hit the tivo button right away and skip the cartoon.
> You probably already have the remote in right your hand.


There is no big issue its just discussion. This is a message board concerning everything Tivo related including anything unusual or trending in that direction. So perhaps he hits the button as you suggest and it never happens again. Or, on the other hand, hundreds of users suddenly notice the same thing. Then it is a big issue right? I don't think there is any topic too large or small here as any tidbit of information can help many people and even Tivo itself. It wouldn't hurt you a bit to leave the topic alone if you find it irrelevant. Or, perhaps the issue will affect you every single time you use your Tivo now but people here will not want to help you now. Your comment, according to the rules seems to fall under "Dont post flame-bait  That is a post just to provoke a reaction from other members. Those type of posts will be removed. "

See:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumrules.html


----------



## chrispitude (Apr 23, 2005)

Mine did this today. I'm glad it's not just me. It seems like a bug - why would I want to keep seeing it?


----------



## robby818 (Feb 28, 2008)

All four of my Premieres have been doing this since the last update (14.8). I've seen this movie at least four or five times on the bedroom tivo. I also experienced my first remote control lockup on one of my Tivos while watching a recorded program (Lemans) today.


----------



## ecoblue (Jan 2, 2009)

My two are doing it as well.


----------



## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

I feel left out because a new Tivo bug has been around a few days and hasn't happened to me yet.


----------



## plazman30 (Jan 23, 2005)

I don't see the initial videos, but the Premiere tours keep coming back down. One of my TiVos has a folder with 3 copies of each video.


----------



## Mike Pfeifer (Mar 17, 2011)

plazman30 said:


> I don't see the initial videos, but the Premiere tours keep coming back down. One of my TiVos has a folder with 3 copies of each video.


I'm in the same boat here. I have deleted the tour videos a few times, the most recent on Friday I think.


----------



## Stuxnet (Feb 9, 2011)

I'm seeing the animation at least every other day, randomly when I hit the home button. *I'm guessing this is a placeholder for a new ad placement* 

I'm also getting the TiVo welcome videos, but I think that only happens after I get an OS update (had 2 of those recently).


----------



## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

Stuxnet said:


> I'm seeing the animation at least every other day, randomly when I hit the home button. *I'm guessing this is a placeholder for a new ad placement*
> 
> I'm also getting the TiVo welcome videos, but I think that only happens after I get an OS update (had 2 of those recently).


Really? that's where you're going with this? talk about being pessimistic.


----------



## rainbow (Feb 8, 2008)

I have been experiencing that same issue as well. Sometimes when I hit the left button, the animation starts. I just hit the left button again, and it goes to the screen I was trying to get to. 

I haven't let the animation continue yet to see what would happen, since my intent at those times was to get to 'my shows' screen.


----------



## TheWGP (Oct 26, 2007)

dianebrat said:


> Really? that's where you're going with this? talk about being pessimistic.


I don't know about pessimistic... cynical maybe? Realist? Fatalistic? That IS kind of what Tivo does... why do you think they invented the HDUI? To show more ads, of course! 

(tongue in cheek if you couldn't tell)

Seriously though, if Tivo started forcing video ads on us that would be pretty serious. It would break a couple of custom commands on my Harmony remotes, and I don't even want to THINK about how my wife & kids would handle it. Easy to skip, sure, but just the idea of it... strikes me as seeing how much the camel's back can hold.


----------



## musictoo (Oct 8, 2003)

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=470321


----------



## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

musictoo said:


> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=470321


Good find. I even searched before starting this thread and didn't find that. Drat.


----------



## fungflex (Aug 28, 2010)

This has been happening to me for the past few days on my premiere as well. The video has played probably 5-6 times over the past week for no particular reason.

This particular unit received the last update and had the issue where the HD menus no longer function at all as well.

Of course my premiere xl got the update and then became stuck in a permanent green screen loop of death.

I am certainly on my last legs with tivo unless they do something drastic to make these devices actually useable again.


----------



## emcgrath (Jun 11, 2004)

Add two more Premieres that have this problem and unbearably slow HD menus.

I'm concerned that TIVO is more interested in partnerships (Adobe, HULU) and advertising than they are in the stability and usability of their product. I've bought 9 TIVOs over the years and the premiere is the only one where I feel like I've taken a step BACK in quality.


----------



## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

I get the THX logo and then intro on my XL that is in SDUI every day when I first go to use it. 

My XL using the HD UI never gets it.


----------



## jaredmwright (Sep 6, 2004)

I get the TiVo animation intro about once a day also since the last update on the SDUI on my Premiere but I never get it when I run in HDUI. The HDUI is too slow to use so I default back to the SDUI.


----------



## BigHat (Jan 25, 2004)

Me too. The THX crap and then the Tivo animation. I hope it stops soon, getting on my nerves.


----------



## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

BigHat said:


> Me too. The THX crap and then the Tivo animation. I hope it stops soon, getting on my nerves.


I believe pressing any button during the animation will stop it.


----------



## MaryJ76 (Apr 22, 2004)

innocentfreak said:


> I get the THX logo and then intro on my XL that is in SDUI every day when I first go to use it.
> 
> My XL using the HD UI never gets it.


Same for me. Don't think I can go back to HD UI though. Been using SDUI too long.


----------



## alexofindy (Apr 16, 2010)

I wonder if the user interface code is rebooting/resetting itself. Could be deliberate on Tivo's part to try to reduce lockups.

This explanation doesn't make complete sense since the animations are played in SDUI mode, while the lockups are more a characteristic of HDUI. But, who knows?


----------



## trailmix (May 18, 2009)

This happens to me too, but on the bright side I have had zero lockups/crashes since it started happening. I would rather have the intro videos which I can skip than have a crash/freeze


----------



## caddyroger (Mar 15, 2005)

Mine just did this yesterday. Can not use HDUI because it is to slow and does reboot.


----------



## curiousgeorge (Nov 28, 2002)

It was just our neighbor's Premiere that did it, but now one of our Premieres is doing it, too. SDUI mode is the only one used on that machine.

No one's figured out what triggers it?


----------



## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

curiousgeorge said:


> It was just our neighbor's Premiere that did it, but now one of our Premieres is doing it, too. SDUI mode is the only one used on that machine.
> 
> No one's figured out what triggers it?


Nope, and mine seems to be doing it daily now... when I first interact with it after getting home from work. It is irritating.


----------



## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

crxssi said:


> Nope, and mine seems to be doing it daily now... when I first interact with it after getting home from work. It is irritating.


I have upgraded TPs and have noticed this problem only a few times on a TP that my wife uses and thought she was hitting the 0 button after the TiVo button, but i guess it's another bug with 14.8u2. It only happened to me once on the TP I use the most but hitting the clear button makes complaining about this problem (to TiVo) trivial, as it is better than a 9 minute re-boot.


----------



## antidumb (Mar 12, 2006)

I've been having a back-and-forth with one of TiVo's customer support folks via email. There's at least one person looking into it and he seems genuinely interested in figuring out what's wrong. Here's hoping it gets fixed soon!


----------



## curiousgeorge (Nov 28, 2002)

crxssi said:


> Nope, and mine seems to be doing it daily now... when I first interact with it after getting home from work. It is irritating.


Had some messages that were still in the message queue that needed to be deleted on the Premiere this was happening on. Deleted them all this morning and it hasn't happened again so far. Maybe just coincidence, but I'll keep y'all posted. It's SUPER annoying, so I'd like to find a fix.


----------



## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

curiousgeorge said:


> Had some messages that were still in the message queue that needed to be deleted on the Premiere this was happening on. Deleted them all this morning and it hasn't happened again so far. Maybe just coincidence, but I'll keep y'all posted. It's SUPER annoying, so I'd like to find a fix.


I had no messages. I doubt it is related.


----------



## ducker (Feb 21, 2006)

I keep seeing crap like this, and it really makes me NOT want to get once of these boxes... ugh.


----------



## curiousgeorge (Nov 28, 2002)

crxssi said:


> I had no messages. I doubt it is related.


Six days and no premiere animation since I deleted all the messages in the folder.


----------



## Doh (May 18, 2001)

I don't have any messages but have also been getting this on a daily basis.


----------



## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Doh said:


> I don't have any messages but have also been getting this on a daily basis.


I tried telling curiousgeorge it is a coincidence, but he doesn't believe me 

Meanwhile, I still have no messages and it is still happening about once every day or so, usually when I first interact with the TiVo after having not touched it in a long time.


----------



## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

ducker said:


> I keep seeing crap like this, and it really makes me NOT want to get once of these boxes... ugh.


There are also boxes without these issues. I've never seen this issue with any of mine.


----------



## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

I've been getting it 3 or 4 times a week since the last software update, weirdest bug I've ever seen, and I know from the OOB that it's not rebooting, it's been up for 23 days.


----------



## L David Matheny (Jan 29, 2011)

dianebrat said:


> I've been getting it 3 or 4 times a week since the last software update, weirdest bug I've ever seen, and I know from the OOB that it's not rebooting, it's been up for 23 days.


The intro animation plays after a reboot, but it also plays after a change in menu styles, and when else? People mention that the TiVo button will stop it, but I would suggest not doing that. Presumably there is a flag somewhere that gets set when the software thinks the intro animation needs to be played, and the flag then gets reset when it actually plays. For some reason, the flag isn't always reset when it should be.


----------



## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

L David Matheny said:


> The intro animation plays after a reboot, but it also plays after a change in menu styles, and when else? People mention that the TiVo button will stop it, but I would suggest not doing that. Presumably there is a flag somewhere that gets set when the software thinks the intro animation needs to be played, and the flag then gets reset when it actually plays. For some reason, the flag isn't always reset when it should be.


I'm not changing menu styles, I'm always in SDUI, and I let it play every time, so I'm not cutting the "already played" flag short. Still gets my vote for "crazy bug of the decade" so far.


----------



## ducker (Feb 21, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> There are also boxes without these issues. I've never seen this issue with any of mine.


I know. and you're a huge banner carrier of those silent members who never show up here and have working boxes.

I need to keep this in mind.


----------



## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> There are also boxes without these issues. I've never seen this issue with any of mine.


 Because this is an SDUI issue and you use HDUI.


----------



## greg0422 (Jul 22, 2011)

I've seen the THX intro and little TiVo dude about 20 times now. I know it happens after a reboot, but my TiVo has never rebooted. 

I was hoping there might be some setting that I could change to stop this from repeatedly being played. It's not a huge problem but is mildly irritating.


----------



## L David Matheny (Jan 29, 2011)

dianebrat said:


> I'm not changing menu styles, I'm always in SDUI, and I let it play every time, so I'm not cutting the "already played" flag short. Still gets my vote for "crazy bug of the decade" so far.


Can we assume that the TiVo is not causing the animation to play by rebooting when you're not around? (And wouldn't the animation then also play when you're not around?) Maybe there are different "already played" flags for HDUI and SDUI. Try switching to the HDUI and letting the animation play to completion, then switch back to your preferred SDUI and let it play again there if it wants to. If that doesn't stop it, try doing it all again, but after each UI switch, play back some recording briefly and then do a manual reboot, again always letting the animation play to completion.


----------



## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

L David Matheny said:


> Can we assume that the TiVo is not causing the animation to play by rebooting when you're not around? (And wouldn't the animation then also play when you're not around?) Maybe there are different "already played" flags for HDUI and SDUI. Try switching to the HDUI and letting the animation play to completion, then switch back to your preferred SDUI and let it play again there if it wants to. If that doesn't stop it, try doing it all again, but after each UI switch, play back some recording briefly and then do a manual reboot, again always letting the animation play to completion.


I know it wasn't rebooting because of the "last OOB tune" stat in diagnostics.
This is prevalent enough now with this software revision that I think we can just flag it as "weird new bug"


----------



## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

Yeah, I'm getting the animation a lot lately too.

The one saving grace of this annoying bug... is that the animation on the Premiere is actually pretty cool.


----------



## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

Well, add me to the list of folks seeing the initial THX/TiVo Intro periodically on our Premiere XL using the SD UI. (And thanks to L David Matheny for pointing me to this thread! :up: ). 

I can confirm from checking the DVR Diagnostics that TiVo is NOT rebooting. This generally only happens when we switch from live TV to TiVo Central but once in a while when switching between recordings.

It happens when no recordings are in progress as well as when one or both tuners are active.

What's worrisome is that it was infrequent, perhaps once every three or four weeks but now it's happening more often, like Diane's at least three times a week or more.

I actually ordered a replacement hard drive thinking my current one was going south (although it's less than a year old), but now I can take some comfort in knowing that it's probably not a HDD issue. (Luckily I can put the new hard drive into a NAS.)

It appears that this is happening to folks using the SDUI only? Has anyone tried switching to the HDUI to see if the problem stops? (Apologies if I missed that part of the discussion...it's late.) The HDUI is still too slow and kludgy plus the whole interface is still half-baked in the Premiere IMHO so I'd prefer not to switch to the HDUI until TiVo puts some more horsepower behind it, but I was just wondering if that's part of the issue.

I'll keep an eye on things, but so far there doesn't seem to be any obvious trigger or pattern.


Thanks again David!


----------



## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

richsadams said:


> Well, add me to the list of folks seeing the initial THX/TiVo Intro periodically on our Premiere XL using the SD UI. (And thanks to L David Matheny for pointing me to this thread! :up: ).
> 
> I can confirm from checking the DVR Diagnostics that TiVo is NOT rebooting. This generally only happens when we switch from live TV to TiVo Central but once in a while when switching between recordings.
> 
> ...


We use only the SDUI and were getting this intro. bug, I changed to the HDUI for a few minutes than back to the SDUI and the bug seemed to go away. I did notice that the first time I switched to the HDUI I did get the intro, but the 2nd time I tried this switch I did not get the intro. Just something for people to try.


----------



## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

lessd said:


> We use only the SDUI and were getting this intro. bug, I changed to the HDUI for a few minutes than back to the SDUI and the bug seemed to go away. I did notice that the first time I switched to the HDUI I did get the intro, but the 2nd time I tried this switch I did not get the intro. Just something for people to try.


I shall give that a try and report back. Thanks Les...you've been a great resource here for years!  :up:


----------



## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

I just tried the same. I'll see if the TiVo Intro comes back again on its own anytime soon.


----------



## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

Maybe the 14.8b software update will fix this issue.

Unfortunately, the (unsupported) streaming feature has been disabled.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=473275


----------



## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

steve614 said:


> Maybe the 14.8b software update will fix this issue.
> 
> Unfortunately, the (unsupported) streaming feature has been disabled.
> 
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=473275


**perk** that gets my attention, i may wait it out another week


----------



## rakes5 (Sep 23, 2003)

I am having the same issue, when I simply turn on the TV. Not every time, but almost once a day for the last week.

I have been using the SD menu, bescause also starting about the same time, my discovery bar takes forever to load in the HD menu, and I get the enoying green circle.

I also just installed the new Tivo app on my iPhone, and had to change the remote settings on the Tivo. Don't know how that would effect it, but, maybee someone else has experienced the same thing.


----------



## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

Following up on my earlier post. It's been about a week now and I haven't experienced the THX/TiVo animation in the SDUI.

Back on the 22nd I switched from the SDUI to the HDUI on our TiVo Premiere XL. Ran it that way until the 25th. Switched back to the SDUI and so far so good. I've no idea if that will fix things...it could happen again any time, but...

FWIW I now vividly remember why I switched from the HDUI to the SDUI. It seems nothing has changed and it may be my imagination, it could have gotten worse. IMO the HDUI is pathetically slow in ever aspect from scrolling the NP list (or My Shows or whatever) to moving through various options to set up an SP, etc. Patience isn't my strong suit (just ask the wife  ) but I found the HDUI to be terribly frustrating (again). I really had high hopes for it when we got our PXL but found it almost unusable at the time. TiVo did eventually update it to make it at least useable as compared to the introduction date, but it's very sad that it is so cumbersome, slow and kludgy to use to this date. I don't know if putting the second processor to use would improve things, but I wish they'd do something to improve it. Plus the half-baked switching back and forth between the HDUI and the SDUI menus to access settings s/b embarrassing for TiVo. Perhaps they have bigger fish to fry, I don't know. I do know that I'm sticking with the SDUI until they address these things...and that's disappointing for what's supposed to be their top-of-the-line box now. 

[/RANT]

Fofer or anyone else that was going to trial the switch back and forth (from SD to HD menus) to stop the TiVo animations from appearing for no reason have the same experience? TIA!


----------



## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

I switched to HDUI and then switched right back to SDUI a few days ago (in an attempt to troubleshoot the animation issue.)

Just turned the TV on and the animation appeared again. I checked my last restart time and it looks like it was 7 days ago. <shrug>

I agree with everything else you said about the HDUI. TiVo's decision to make the menu system dependent on dynamic content downloaded from the internet was a VERY BAD one. That they didn't even have the time/resources/priorities in place to finish the HDUI so it's all complete and consistent is very embarrassing.

The good news is the SDUI feels super fast. And the intro animation clip I still don't mind terribly (so long as I know it's not because of a constantly rebooting unit  ) and easily dismissed with a hit of the TiVo button. Still would like it to go away though...


----------



## 1idjack (Apr 22, 2008)

My PXL plays the THX intro in response to me doing _nothing_.I will be watching a recorded program. The screen will suddenly turn blank gray for about 5-10 seconds, it will switch to live TV for about 20 seconds, then the THX intro plays. It has happened three times in the last week. (I use the SD menus)


----------



## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

1idjack said:


> My PXL plays the THX intro in response to me doing _nothing_.I will be watching a recorded program. The screen will suddenly turn blank gray for about 5-10 seconds, it will switch to live TV for about 20 seconds, then the THX intro plays. It has happened three times in the last week. (I use the SD menus)


That's different than what I'm seeing...and I think different from what others are seeing here. In my case at least the THX/TiVo animation appear when I either switch from live TV to TiVo Central or just turn the TV on...no rhyme or reason as to when and only when I'm using the SDUI. However it never happens while I'm watching a recording and there's never a gray screen or live TV in-between.

In your case it does sound more like a reboot of some nature...and not normal. Per this post have a look and see what you can find out:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=8560418#post8560418



> Try looking under Account & System Information / DVR Diagnostics*.
> Page down to the last page and look for the line 'Time Since OOB Tune Start'. This will give you an approximate time since the last reboot in seconds. You will have to calculate the hours/days/weeks from that.


Post back when you can.


----------



## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

My experience is the same as richsadams, except it's still happening. I see it typically it when I switch from live TV to TiVo Central or just turn the TV on.


----------



## chrispitude (Apr 23, 2005)

I'd love to say that I don't mind the TiVo animation since it fixes the hangs, but I get both the animations and the hangs.


----------



## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

Well...switching from the SDUI to the HDUI for a while and then back again to see if it would cure the problem of the animations showing up unexpectedly didn't work for me. I thought it had, but last night I turned the TV on, watched something live for about five minutes then hit TiVo Central on the remote and it's baaaaaack, THX/TiVo animation. 

As Fofer and others have mentioned, it's not a huge deal because you can just press TiVo Central on the remote again during the animations and it'll skip right to TiVo Central...but it is a bit of a PIA and unnerving for those of us that have upgraded their TiVo's. FWIW I used to enjoy cranking up the audio and playing the THX bit just for fun (much to the wife's chagrin), but now it's getting a bit old.

Now that I know that it's not uncommon I'll chalk it up to a bug that'll be addressed in the next update...I guess...if I have to.


----------



## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

crxssi said:


> Nope, and mine seems to be doing it daily now... when I first interact with it after getting home from work. It is irritating.


FINALLY. I caught what is happening. It was really late (like 12:30am) and while I was in the middle of watching a recorded program, I noticed the yellow light on my tuning adapter started blinking. A moment later, my program was interrupted with the "tuning adapter is missing" message. I let it sit, then the light stopped blinking and the screen was replaced with the one saying the tuning adapter is connected again. When I pressed the left arrow to try and go back to my program- the introductory TiVo animation started playing.

I suspect that the cable company is sending "hits" (as they call them) to the Tuning Adapters late at night. Then when the user uses the TiVo for the first time the next day- wham, animation. I can't prove it, but it seems logical.


----------



## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

crxssi said:


> FINALLY. I caught what is happening. It was really late (like 12:30am) and while I was in the middle of watching a recorded program, I noticed the yellow light on my tuning adapter started blinking. A moment later, my program was interrupted with the "tuning adapter is missing" message. I let it sit, then the light stopped blinking and the screen was replaced with the one saying the tuning adapter is connected again. When I pressed the left arrow to try and go back to my program- the introductory TiVo animation started playing.
> 
> I suspect that the cable company is sending "hits" (as they call them) to the Tuning Adapters late at night. Then when the user uses the TiVo for the first time the next day- wham, animation. I can't prove it, but it seems logical.


That's possible on your end, but we don't have a tuning adapter, so not in our case. This all started after the last update so I'm pretty sure it has something to do with that.

I haven't noticed it happening as much as it did for a bit (four or five times a week at the peak). It's happened twice in the last two weeks or so...


----------



## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

Same as richsadams. No TA here. Less TiVo animations lately.


----------



## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

Fofer said:


> Same as richsadams. No TA here. Less TiVo animations lately.


Drat, I thought I was on to something. Oh well.


----------



## SameerUCLA (Jul 15, 2009)

I too am getting the same problem:

TiVo Premiere (not XL)
Happens when I go from Live TV to TiVo central or My Shows
Cancelable with a button push
No reboot noted in DVR Diagnostics
Not using Streambaby or a Tuning Adapter

It's more annoying than anything else, but is a little troubling...


----------



## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

SameerUCLA said:


> I too am getting the same problem:
> 
> TiVo Premiere (not XL)
> Happens when I go from Live TV to TiVo central or My Shows
> ...


Yep...still happening on our PXL.  Maybe once or twice a week.

More recently I'm also running into a problem that probably doesn't have anything to do with this issue...but might. Periodically our cable card (Verizon, now Frontier :down: FiOS) seems to be acting up. On the rare occasion while watching live TV the picture will start to pixelate, audio drops in and out and it will progress until the signal is completely lost on all channels. It happens during recordings as well...same symptoms.

At first I thought it was my upgraded hard drive, but after experimenting with various "cures" I found I could pull the cable card (while TiVo is running) and reinsert it and everything comes back to normal. This has happened several times over a period of a few weeks now.

In my mind if the CC is the problem it should just stop working. If it's TiVo it also shouldn't be resolved just by pulling and reinserting the CC. 

Again, I doubt if it has anything to do with this other issue (THX/TiVo animations appearing for no reason), but it's coincidental to that issue.

I guess my next step is to try and pry a new cable card out of our cableco's hands (requires a truck roll and diagnostics, yadda, yadda...yuck!).

If anyone else has run into this I'd really like to know how (or if) it was resolved. TIA!


----------



## PIANOCRAT (Mar 8, 2009)

My 9 month old Premiere was doing the same thing-Tivo cartoon every time the Tivo was started each day. 

Last week, the Premiere began making a screeching noise. 

I had already purchased a new Western Digital WD 10EVDs 1Tb DVR optimized hard drive several weeks earlier, and cloned the Tivo 320gb original hard drive to the terrabyte unit last weekend. 

Since then, the only time the Tivo animation played was when I powered up the Tivo for the first time with the new hard drive (BTW, now have 156 hours of high def recording capacity).

So...now have tripled the recording capacity, and no more Tivo cartoon!

Don't know if the new hard drive, larger capacity, or a Tivo update was responsible for ending the daily Tivo cartoon, but I'm happy nonetheless.

FYI: The Western Digital EVDS series hard drives are manufactured to run 24/7, and are incredibly quiet--I can only hear it if I put my ear right up to the Tivo. Hope they last longer than the OEM WD "green" units they replaced in my S3 & S4 Tivos!


----------



## sbq (Feb 6, 2010)

steve614 said:


> Maybe the 14.8b software update will fix this issue.
> 
> Unfortunately, the (unsupported) streaming feature has been disabled.
> 
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=473275


I'm on 14.8c now and it still happens frequently to my premiere xl.


----------



## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

sbq said:


> I'm on 14.8c now and it still happens frequently to my premiere xl.


Stock or upgraded? Curious if there's any correlation. TIA!


----------



## Resist (Dec 21, 2003)

I am having the same issue with my new Premiere. It started within 30 minutes of getting the Tivo set up. I realized right away that pressing the Tivo button would stop it, but it's still annoying to turn on my TV and the animation video plays. Guess I just don't understand why Tivo can't fix this stuff in a timely manner, or better yet fix it before releasing it customers.

Tivo Chat support said there is a fix that should be released by the middle of this month.


----------



## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

Resist said:


> I am having the same issue with my new Premiere. It started within 30 minutes of getting the Tivo set up. I realized right away that pressing the Tivo button would stop it, but it's still annoying to turn on my TV and the animation video plays. Guess I just don't understand why Tivo can't fix this stuff in a timely manner, or better yet fix it before releasing it customers.
> 
> Tivo Chat support said there is a fix that should be released by the middle of this month.


Seems to be associated with the current OS version as it never happened prior to the last upgrade on our year plus old Premiere XL. I'd wager it'll be addressed with the next upgrade, but no idea when that will be.


----------



## Resist (Dec 21, 2003)

richsadams said:


> Seems to be associated with the current OS version as it never happened prior to the last upgrade on our year plus old Premiere XL. I'd wager it'll be addressed with the next upgrade, but no idea when that will be.


As I said, Tivo chat told me the fix will be release in the next update mid this month. They also said it was intentional for this to happen, something about it was suppose to only happen during setting up the HDUI but that it got out of control and spread. Seems odd to me but okay.


----------



## richsadams (Jan 4, 2003)

Resist said:


> As I said, Tivo chat told me the fix will be release in the next update mid this month. They also said it was intentional for this to happen, something about it was suppose to only happen during setting up the HDUI but that it got out of control and spread. Seems odd to me but okay.


Ah...missed that. The upgrade will be more than welcome then. It's only happening about two or three times a week now, but it still drives me nuts.

"Got out of control and spread"? That doesn't make sense...CSR speak for we don't know why...but okay...as long as they get it corrected.


----------



## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

Resist said:


> As I said, Tivo chat told me the fix will be release in the next update mid this month. They also said it was intentional for this to happen, something about it was suppose to only happen during setting up the HDUI but that it got out of control and spread. Seems odd to me but okay.


Yeah.. I'd take anything a CSR said with a grain of salt, they are not always the most accurate source of anything other than simple CS processes.
This bug popped up in 14.8U2 and continues in 14.8c of the bugs to have, this one is NBD. Like Rich said, I do not think it "got out of control and spread" it's not a cold..


----------



## L David Matheny (Jan 29, 2011)

richsadams said:


> "Got out of control and spread"? That doesn't make sense...CSR speak for we don't know why...but okay...as long as they get it corrected.


I guess we can all feel reassured that it's not the CSRs doing the programming.


----------



## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

Resist said:


> As I said, Tivo chat told me the fix will be release in the next update mid this month. They also said it was intentional for this to happen, something about it was suppose to only happen during setting up the HDUI but that it got out of control and spread.


Uh huh, yeah. This is an absurd explanation.


----------



## Resist (Dec 21, 2003)

Fofer said:


> Uh huh, yeah. This is an absurd explanation.


Well I may have not explained it exactly as they told me, but basically they said it's a bug that is being seen more and more frequently and they are working on a fix.

When I asked why they didn't know about this prior to the software release, they said they didn't know about it. I was like, so Tivo doesn't properly test their software prior to releasing it to their customers? Not like they have different hardware specs to deal with, as the hardware and software is theirs.


----------



## Illusion (Jun 1, 2008)

Just another data point to add.

Yesterday morning I was watching a recording of the morning local news shortly after it was recorded. An emergency alert test ensued and the Tivo came out of playback and automatically went to live tv, locking me out of control until the test was completed. When I regained control of the TiVo I wanted to go back to my shows so I could continue watching my program, not live tv. When I hit the back button the THX logo animation occurred.


----------



## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

THX logo animation? Isn't that on a Series 3? 

We're talking about the TiVo animation on a Premiere.


----------



## Resist (Dec 21, 2003)

Fofer said:


> THX logo animation? Isn't that on a Series 3?
> 
> We're talking about the TiVo animation on a Premiere.


The Premiere XL also has the THX animation, since it is THX certified just like the Series 3.


----------



## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

Resist said:


> The Premiere XL also has the THX animation, since it is THX certified just like the Series 3.


Gotcha. Thanks.


----------



## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

I thought this was fixed with 14.9, but it seems not. However, it has happened to me only once since the update, right after pressing the "TiVo" button a few days ago. In 14.8, it was happening much more frequently.

I am troubled by a report from Joe Siegler who says he has never seen the animation happen before (outside of rebooting) *until* the 14.9 update.

Time for people to start relaying their experience with this SDUI bug after the 14.9 update....
Choose one:

1) Has not happened at all since the update.
2) Seems to happen less frequently than before. ( <-- me )
3) Seems to happen about the same frequency.
4) Seems to happen more frequently than before.


----------



## trailmix (May 18, 2009)

2) Seems to happen less frequently than before. ( <-- me )


----------



## angel35 (Nov 5, 2004)

aaronwt said:


> There are also boxes without these issues. I've never seen this issue with any of mine.


Never happend to mine:up:


----------



## carpeperdiem (Aug 20, 2005)

This is happening to my premiere frequently (usually when going from live tv to tivo central), at least every day (or more) since last software push. TiVo support said they are aware of this and we can expect a fix at some point -- no timeline. Recording is NOT affected... for example, I was watching a recorded show, with both tuners in red, and I pressed live tv, and the lovely animation did it's thing... but both shows that were in record were just fine... so this is a playback thing... it does not appear to be a reboot.

PS -- while we're talking about the animation -- has anyone noticed the AUDIO LEVEL of the animation is WAY TOO LOUD (relative to all other programming)? If we have our audio level set for a broadcast show, the AVERAGE level of the tivo animation audio should meet broadcast standards... but TiVo animation behaves more like a trailer or a commercial, and is COMPRESSED to within .1 db of its life and is incredibly pig-headed -- "we're tivo, we're more important than your content"... shame on the audio engineer that decided this was ok.


----------



## Greg_R (Jan 30, 2008)

If the units are rebooting over and over, how are folks resolving the problem? Is there a specific kickstarter code that works?

My Series 3 is rebooting @ the THX intro over and over again. This is with a 3mo old drive and updated PSU. Also, my Tivo HD started having the same problem at the exact same time (Netflix streaming issues, decided to reboot, both units now can't boot). As you can tell, I'm reluctant to consider the possible HW issues when both units died at the same time... IMO there is a SW issue.

Link to my Series 3 and Tivo HD issue ->
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=489578


----------

