# Playback stuttering



## jeff92k7 (Jan 18, 2006)

I searched and don't see any threads mentioning a similar issue...

I'm having a problem with playback of shows stuttering on one of my Premieres. It acts as if the show pauses for a split second, then resumes, repeatedly. No displays/overlays show on the screen. It happens also when streaming to my other Premiere. I first thought that it might be a broken up signal in the original broadcast, but it shows no signs of blocking. It happens repeatedly with about half the shows on that particular Premiere. Typically, I can skip forward 30 seconds or a minute and watch the remainder of the show without issue. Sometimes, it freezes for a few seconds and I start to wonder if the TiVo is about to reboot, but then it starts playing back again.

My best guess at this point is that it may be a bad hard drive. Would this be consistent with a hard drive going bad? Are there any tests I can run on the TiVo to determine if the drive is having problems? I have rebooted the TiVo multiple times and it has made no improvement. The problem started after the 14.9.2 upgrade on that unit. That TiVo is currently on v20.

Thanks,
Jeff


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## SNJpage1 (May 25, 2006)

I have had that happen a few times along with the center channel od sound disappearing. Every time it did it, it was a show that I had recored from ABC. So I think it was on the senders end and not a problem with the Tivo.


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## harric (Apr 5, 2010)

I am having the same issue with playback (not transferring) with v 20.2. It is only happening to and from only 1 of my tivo premieres. I have it network connection as a powerline connection. I switched to wireless...same issue. I then switched out the tivo box for the one upstairs...ran the same tests again..wired and wireless. Still studdering two and from this location, not the box. Other boxes are powerline connections and they have no problems.

I connected a PC to the powerline and ran speedtests...Getting 20-25 mbps to the internet. Ran network utilization...never peaked past 1%.

I called Tivo Support....they told me that the MRS is still not officially released and that is the issue.

It appears to be a location issue of the box. I tested the network speed and connection...I do not see any issues...

Any ideas on how to fix/identify the issue?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

harric said:


> I am having the same issue with playback (not transferring) with v 20.2. It is only happening to and from only 1 of my tivo premieres. I have it network connection as a powerline connection. I switched to wireless...same issue. I then switched out the tivo box for the one upstairs...ran the same tests again..wired and wireless. Still studdering two and from this location, not the box. Other boxes are powerline connections and they have no problems.
> 
> I connected a PC to the powerline and ran speedtests...Getting 20-25 mbps to the internet. Ran network utilization...never peaked past 1%.
> 
> ...


Hardwire it or add an additional access point for a better connection speeds.


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## jeff92k7 (Jan 18, 2006)

My issue doesn't appear to have anything to do with MRS. It just shows up there too. The problem is primarily with watching shows locally on the one TiVo that contains the recordings. They stutter repeatedly for a minute or two, and then the rest of the show is fine.

It also has nothing to do with a particular channel. It happens on shows from abc, CBS, history, and any number of other channels.

One interesting thing though, I checked a recording on the computer to see if it had the same issue...it didn't. That show was transferred via kmttg from the same TiVo. When playing on the TiVo, it stutters, but when playing the transferred copy on the computer, it plays fine. This tells me that it may not be a hard drive problem, since I can copy the same shows elsewhere without problem. 

Could the TiVo be overloaded with something? It happens even if nothing is recording in the background.

Jeff


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## bunjicat (Jan 14, 2012)

I can confirm this. Before update I had no problem watching a show from the other Tivo. Transfers were fast. Now, on a hard wired ethernet network the download barely keeps pace with the viewing. Forget skipping commercials. The show will have to cache first. I can also confirm this downloading from a NAS to the tivos. They need to fix this fast.


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## MC Hammer (Jul 29, 2011)

aaronwt said:


> Hardwire it or add an additional access point for a better connection speeds.


:up:


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## andyf (Feb 23, 2000)

From a powerline perspective the explanation could be that the two TiVos are on different phases of your electrical supply. I don't know if Powerline adapters are affected by this but home automation switches and outlets that use the electrical wiring to issue on/off commands are.

"The majority of single-family homes in North America have two phases (or "legs") of 110 volts coming into their electricity panels. From the panel, they are distributed throughout the home, providing power to outlets and wall switches. These phases come together in some parts of the home to provide 220 volts of power to large appliances, such as an electric oven or pool pump."

You may need to bridge the two phases to get reliable communications.


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## harric (Apr 5, 2010)

Aaronwt:

I cannot run a hardwire to run limitations and actual location. 

Can you also explain what you mean by adding an additional access point?


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## bunjicat (Jan 14, 2012)

Before the update thetivo would report transfer speeds of close to wire speed. Around 90mb/s. Now its about 25mb/s. No one else experiencing this?


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## jeff92k7 (Jan 18, 2006)

Getting back on topic: This has nothing to do with networking. This post is about playback stuttering on the local TiVo.

A couple times now, the TiVo has begun stuttering/freezing repeatedly, then it will freeze for a minute or two, and then reboot itself. Again, does anyone have any ideas about what could be causing this on the local TiVo?

Thanks,
Jeff


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## cneubert (Aug 22, 2004)

Same problem for me. It will begin stuttering repeatedly, slow response to remote, and eventually will reboot. I am 99% sure that this started with the 14.9.2 update mid-December. Now I have 20.2 and it still happens. Additionally, and I think related, it seems to reboot every day near the time of the daily update. Not exactly at that time, but within 1-2 hours of the update.

Tivo support advised to check my signal strength and also to run a disk check (Kickstart 54) and everything passed. My other Premiere (with same signal strengths) does not have this issue.

I also tried removing my cablecard and disconnected the tuning adapter, so OTA only, and still had the issue. So it doesn't seem to be related to the cable channels or to a failing disk. Next I will try disconnecting the OTA and record from the cable channel, but I suspect the result will be the same.

This is very frustrating as this TiVo is now unreliable.


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## jeff92k7 (Jan 18, 2006)

Thought I would post an update for anyone else having this issue.

Since I got very few responses relating to my specific problem, I decided to go ahead and replace the hard drive to see what would happen. I pulled out my original 320GB drive from the closet, cloned it again (JMFS) to another 1TB drive, and put that into the problem TiVo in place of the 1TB drive that was in there. It started up okay, but everything was in the SD interface and it was way out of date (but still had my recordings from October from when I originally took out the 320GB drive - ha ha). I forced a connection update immediately, which took about 30 minutes, then it asked for a reboot. I rebooted and it began installing the 20.2 software (previous 14.8). After two and a half hours, I gave up on it and went to bed. It was clear that the software update was going to take a while. Checked on it the next morning and everything was up to date. Put it back in the HD interface, reloaded my current SP's from kmttg, and cleaned up my channel list, then left it to go to work. That was last Monday.

Since then, I have not experienced any stuttering. Granted, a lot of programs that I record on that one are still on break, but the ones I have watched have played fine.

I'm not totally convinced that the problem is completely resolved, but time will tell. It looks good so far. I will post back if I have any more stuttering issues.

Jeff


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