# Tivo+Netflix = Hard reset



## Lykaon (Dec 8, 2008)

So I just started playing with the new Netflix streaming today and it has been a nightmare. I'm able to get the code and view my queue quite easily, but no matter what movie I choose, the following happens:

* It says I have high quality and begins the bar at the bottom
* I get some audio that sounds like its from the middle of the movie (clearly not the beginning)
* The unit hard resets and goes through its extremely painful reboot process after less than 2 minutes of videoless playback (somtimes with odd 'beeping' throughout the audio).

I've done this 6 times now, all with the same result. Reading the other threads on the Netflix feature here, it sounds like most people are getting flawless results.

I don't have problems with anything else. I can stream YouTube, watch Amazon Unbox movies, and pretty much everything else I've tried with absolutely no issues.

I have Verizon FIOS, with 2 cable cards. I've had it running for almost a year now flawlessly. It is a TiVo Series 3.

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks in advance.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Is your Tivo running software version 11.0.x? If not then that may explain the problem. It sounds to me like your Tivo doesn't know how to decode the Netflix stream properly which is something that was added in 11.0 software.


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## Lykaon (Dec 8, 2008)

Yes it is. I don't think it would give me the Netflix option if it wasn't anyway.

But it is. I got the update, and the message about it and everything.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Strange one. If you have a PC it may be worth while trying Netflix streaming on it just to confirm that you can play streams that way. At least that would confirm that internet service is not the source of the problem if it works.


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## Lykaon (Dec 8, 2008)

That's a good idea. I have done that before as recently as yesterday. It works fine on my PC. And either way, it seems like pretty poor programming on TiVo's part to let whatever error is occurring to cause a hard reset. That basically should almost never happen, especially reliably.

I can reproduce the error every single time. Netflix streaming is 100&#37; unusable for me.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Just to rule out possibility that certain videos are causing this issue (highly unlikely given that you have chosen several already), try one that I know works for me:
Heroes Season 3, any of the episodes 1-7.

As a counter test, list one of the movies with which you have an issue and I can give it a shot on my S3.


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## dotorg (Jul 3, 2000)

I'm having similar issues -- I was able to get it to start playing, but while watching an episode of SD TV, I had it literally crash three times. 

The quality is pretty awful -- I have a 360, and the same show playing on the 360 is dramatically better. (I get half bars on the Tivo, versus full bars on the 360, both plugged into the same switch)

Unfortunately on the last crash, it seems to have hung something up on my account so I can't finish the show on the 360. 

It might be usable in a pinch in my bedroom, but in my living room I think I'll be sticking to the 360's Netflix support. Now if only Netflix would realize the Tivo *isn't* playing right now ...


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## djwilso (Dec 23, 2006)

Lykaon said:


> So I just started playing with the new Netflix streaming today and it has been a nightmare. I'm able to get the code and view my queue quite easily, but no matter what movie I choose, the following happens:
> 
> * It says I have high quality and begins the bar at the bottom
> * I get some audio that sounds like its from the middle of the movie (clearly not the beginning)
> ...


No ideas, just to comment that mine rebooted on me too.

I was going through testing which things were in HD and chose Heroes Season 3 - Episode 1. This worked fine. I clicked Left arrow out of the episode and went down to Episode 4.

This time, the time bar on the bottom appeared in a "paused" state, but the rest of the screen was black. The "testing" window never came up, and then the *ORANGE* light on the Series 3 unit's lower-right display (below the blue light that indicates network download activity) came on, and then in about another minute, the Series 3 crashed and rebooted.

Not good. Hope this does not keep up.

Dennis


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## jfischetti (Jan 3, 2000)

I'm having a similar issue.

I chose a movie to play, and I got it to start, but within 5 seconds of play,
it crashed and went back to the TiVo Central Menu.

Now, whenever i choose "Video on Demand" menu, it says 'Please Wait', then reverts back to TiVo Central.

I rebooted the unit, and it doesn't help reset the ability to view the 'Video on Demand' menu.

Oh well.


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## dig_duggler (Sep 18, 2002)

My unit has locked up 2x now while playing with it requiring a hard reboot (once with a black screen and once on 'Please Wait'). Didn't reboot itself, but nothing going so I had to.

Buggy.

Edit: make that 3x. I'm done with it for now.

Double Edit: make that 4x. Fool me once....


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## Bonanzaair (Aug 26, 2006)

Lykaon said:


> I've done this 6 times now, all with the same result. Reading the other threads on the Netflix feature here, it sounds like most people are getting flawless results.
> 
> I don't have problems with anything else. I can stream YouTube, watch Amazon Unbox movies, and pretty much everything else I've tried with absolutely no issues.
> 
> ...


Same problem here - mine just doesn't reboot. I hit the TivoGuy on the remote and I go back to the main DVR screen. I think it's just a problem with our download. I'm calling Tivo tonight.

Bonanza


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## lacsap (Feb 13, 2005)

Also, if you have a 4:3 display and you have HD content the playback squishes the picture rather than letterbox it... ick.


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## dig_duggler (Sep 18, 2002)

lacsap said:


> Also, if you have a 4:3 display and you have HD content the playback squishes the picture rather than letterbox it... ick.


Not always. Happened to me first time with 30 rock, but next time it was fine.

Thing is definitely quirky.


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## dig_duggler (Sep 18, 2002)

Can anyone get in now? I got a service unavailable screen and now I'm sitting at my 2nd 'Please Wait' with no response on the Video On Demand screen...


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## Lykaon (Dec 8, 2008)

Service unavailable screen for me too. I can only hope that means they're fixing something.

I'll try watching Heroes Season 3 when I get a chance to make sure I'm not just picking bad videos. That probably won't be tonight, though, because I don't want my TiVo restarting when it's supposed to be recording Chuck & Heroes.

With others having similar problems, perhaps a fix is imminent.

Also, do all of you who have it working have a Series 3 (versus HD or HD XL)? I was wondering if that might be related.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Lykaon said:


> Also, do all of you who have it working have a Series 3 (versus HD or HD XL)? I was wondering if that might be related.


 Last night it was working fine on 2 S3s and an HDXL for me (I activated all 3 with Netflix and tested out a few streams with each).


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## Millionaire2K (Jun 16, 2008)

Works for me.

BUT

My problem is audio related. If I watch with the audio going to tv via hdmi it sounds very bad. Kinda like its dragging. Like playing a record at the wrong speed. But if I use my stereo via optical it sounds fine.


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## bfdhe (Jan 1, 2003)

Was watching the first episode of the first Season of Star Trek. TiVo froze about 2 minutes into it. Had to Hard Reboot.....


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## jfischetti (Jan 3, 2000)

Following up on an earlier post....

I finally got in and played a few movies/TVshows

Overall, things looked good

1. The Office S4 HD looked great
2. 30 Rock S2 (says it was HD, but) didn't look HD
3. Pan's Labyrinth looked amazing in HD
4. Settled on Ratatouille and watched 15 mins before it stopped and got a Service Unavailable screen.

Hope they are load balancing the system.....


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## shelleye (Nov 28, 2002)

Same problems here: start playing a movie and after about 4 minutes I get bumped back to "Please Wait" screen, then to Tivo central. Choose Netflix again, choose same movie, choose "resume" and get another 4 minutes, then bumped. I'm using Tivo HD with Tivo wireless G adapter with Good reception. Netflix streams beautifully to Roku box in another room, also using wireless G. Oh well. It will be great when it works.


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## enthalpy (Oct 11, 2006)

This is why I come to these forums. It looks like I'm not the only one with problems. So -- is Netflix overloaded by all of us Tivo people?

My symptoms:
1) I've used Netflix "watch now" many times on my wireless laptop and it has worked very well.

2) I came home and fired Netflix + Tivo, very excited. 9 bars on the "quality" meter.

2 1/2) Huh. It worked for 10 minutes, then stopped. I went back to Tivo Central menu manually using the remote.

3) I chose a different movie from my watch now list. I only got sound.

4) I chose a third movie, watched fine for 20 minutes, boom, it crashed and it took me back to the tivo central menu.

5) Nice -- Netflix/Tivo knows where I stopped watching, it lets me start where it crashed.

6) Four more crashes, continue to watch the movie each time, but who wants to wade through the "please wait" stuff after each crash?

7) Now it is just stuck at "please wait" no matter what I do.

I feel like a beta user. Is this approved and released by Tivo?


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

TiVo is no doubt reading this thread, but if you don't at least mention the movie that caused problems for you, they can't duplicate the behavior and fix the problem.

If you are having a problem, please mention the *specific title* where you saw it.


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## mwp (Dec 8, 2008)

I think we took down the netflix streaming server. lol

Maybe they were not prepaired for the bandwidth.

They should have left it in with us beta testers for a bit longer.


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

mwp said:


> I think we took down the netflix streaming server. lol
> 
> Maybe they were not prepaired for the bandwidth.
> 
> They should have left it in with us beta testers for a bit longer.


Even a beta (assuming they had one) couldn't replicate launch traffic conditions.

It seems almost like the current version of the TiVo application was not written to properly handle poor and/or changing traffic conditions. I'm sure they will get it worked out in a few days.


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## mwp (Dec 8, 2008)

bkdtv said:


> Even a beta (assuming they had one) couldn't replicate launch traffic conditions.
> 
> It seems almost like the current version of the TiVo application was not written to properly handle poor and/or changing traffic conditions. I'm sure they will get it worked out in a few days.


im sure they will too.

Iv left it alone - what most should prolly do.

They will get it worked out.


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## djwilso (Dec 23, 2006)

mwp said:


> I think we took down the netflix streaming server. lol
> 
> Maybe they were not prepaired for the bandwidth.
> 
> They should have left it in with us beta testers for a bit longer.


No, I have to disagree there, because my Xbox and Roku boxes are both continuing to function perfectly. Wouldn't they be connecting to the same Netflix servers that the TiVos are using?

The Xbox is able to present content in HD easily with my Cox cable internet (12mbps down) where the TiVo (original Series 3, not HD/XL) is unable to in many cases, and the Roku, while it does not yet do HD, is as solid as a rock as always. No problem getting full-bandwidth streams going on it or the Xbox.

Twice today the TiVo left my Netflix account in a state where the other devices could not play since they thought that the TiVo was still playing something, even though it wasn't.

I thought I'd be able to sell my Roku box, but right now it's not looking that way at all. Hopefully TiVo will work out these problems as soon as they can.

Dennis


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## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

I've now watched 2 full movies (in SD) without a hitch. So they did SOMETHING right.


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## Lykaon (Dec 8, 2008)

Sorry that I haven't posted back with the movies that didn't work for me. That's obviously useful information that I failed to include in my original post.

I have tried to use the service with the following titles:
* Hatchet
* Finding Amanda
* I'm Reed Fish
* Eight Days a Week

All exhibited the same behavior indicated in my original post. They would sometimes produce audio, but eventually cause the entire unit to reboot itself -- not just exit to the TiVo scrreen -- completely reboot.

As one user suggested, I will try Heroes Season 3 this afternoon. The service was down last night when I tried.


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## shelleye (Nov 28, 2002)

We tried "Happy Valentines Day Charlie Brown."


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## jzachariasen (Feb 13, 2008)

I think it definitely had to do with us overworking the servers. They must not have properly anticipated how many TIVO users would watch a movie last night.

I was able to successfully without any problems watch Ghostbusters yesterday in the early afternoon (Pacific). At around 6pm I tried to watch another movie and never made it farther than about 4-5 minutes without being kicked back to the main menu. I think the time of day and server load was a majority of the problem considering how smoothly the first movie played.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Lykaon said:


> Sorry that I haven't posted back with the movies that didn't work for me. That's obviously useful information that I failed to include in my original post.
> 
> I have tried to use the service with the following titles:
> * Hatchet
> ...


I just tried "Finding Amanda" and it works fine for me (and I get HD quality according to quality meter).
Also just tried "I'm Reed Fish" (also HD quality) and it also worked fine.
Didn't try the others but you may also want to try non HD titles just to see if those work for you.

When you stream the above 2 do you get full 13 bars and the HD logo on the quality meter? If not then you are getting a different encoding than what I get which could be an important fact.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

djwilso said:


> This time, the time bar on the bottom appeared in a "paused" state, but the rest of the screen was black. The "testing" window never came up, and then the *ORANGE* light on the Series 3 unit's lower-right display (below the blue light that indicates network download activity) came on, and then in about another minute, the Series 3 crashed and rebooted.


This is almost exactly what happened to my S3 when I tried to watch Heroes Season 3: The Eclipse Part 2 except after getting into the "paused" state, I press play and instead of rebooting on its own, it locked up hard (the clock stopped updating). According to the Netflix site I didn't watch that video so I think it locked up before it had a chance to request the video from Netflix.

I'm using HDMI. I wonder if that has something to do with it.


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## fred2 (Jan 20, 2006)

Mine locked up just trying to select the two tivo options - instant play and code. I had to pull the plug which is not easy in my cabinet. I do which tivo would have the normal on/off switch (or is there a secret sequence to do this??)

And to add to this - just last night I streamed about 10 minutes on my computer for the first time. Pixelation in moving scenes was not very nice. If they come to the tivo that way, I don't think we will be using it.

Yup, darn thing needs and on/off switch - now it canNOT find my external hard drive - I must have moved something by a micrometer! Darn was not strong enough and my self-censorship is weak - DAMN!


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## djwilso (Dec 23, 2006)

morac said:


> This is almost exactly what happened to my S3 when I tried to watch Heroes Season 3: The Eclipse Part 2 except after getting into the "paused" state, I press play and instead of rebooting on its own, it locked up hard (the clock stopped updating). According to the Netflix site I didn't watch that video so I think it locked up before it had a chance to request the video from Netflix.
> 
> I'm using HDMI. I wonder if that has something to do with it.


I am using HDMI as well, with a Sony SXRD TV.

At least many people are experiencing what seem to be pretty widespread issues, so hopefully TiVo will be able to reproduce the issues and create a plan to resolve the issues soon.

It sounds like they might need to deploy about a thousand more HME servers to handle the load. 

Dennis


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## lew (Mar 12, 2002)

Yesterday morning I setup Netflix, and played about 10 seconds, just to see if it worked. No issues.

When I came home my tivo was locked in the now playing screen, I had to do a "hard reboot".


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## jhimmel (Dec 27, 2002)

Tried watching a movie (Cold Case? I think).
I paused it, and was dumped out of the Netflix app. Got back in, started it again, and was dumped out again, only now I can't get into the VOD menu at all any more - just bounces back out. I'm rebooting now - hope it fixes it.

Okay - re-booted and still can't get into VOD. Great, wonder what happens now?!?

Jim H.


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## Lykaon (Dec 8, 2008)

Just as an update. I tried Heroes Season 3 and got the same result. No video. No audio. Just a TiVo rebooting itself.

Then I tried deactivating the Netflix link and redoing that. I then started a movie, got some audio, got some weird beeping, and then a system reboot.

I don't know what's wrong with my TiVo but it is borked. Doesn't seem likely that I will have streaming netflix in my future.


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

Lykaon said:


> Just as an update. I tried Heroes Season 3 and got the same result. No video. No audio. Just a TiVo rebooting itself.
> 
> Then I tried deactivating the Netflix link and redoing that. I then started a movie, got some audio, got some weird beeping, and then a system reboot.
> 
> I don't know what's wrong with my TiVo but it is borked. Doesn't seem likely that I will have streaming netflix in my future.


Do you have a TivoHD or TiVo Series3?


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

I managed to get Heroes Season 3: The Eclipse Part 2 to play on my S3 tonight. Though it only played for 3 minutes and then dumped me back to the VoD menu, but it didn't reboot or lock up this time.


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## Lykaon (Dec 8, 2008)

bkdtv said:


> Do you have a TivoHD or TiVo Series3?


Series 3.


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## beerkensp (Dec 29, 2003)

I have tivo3 netflix problems as well.

The first couple of times I tried to watch a movie it would reset back to the main menu after a couple of minutes. The next time I tried it I got a grey screen. When I pressed the tivo button I got back to the main menu but it had a grey screen as well. Then I went to now playing and started to play a recording and got a full grey screen again but this time the tivo3 was locked and I had to remove the power plug to get it back.

I have not tried since then but it seems very buggy.

The couple of minutes I watched look good but I have not tried since then because I am sure that it will crash my tivo again.


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## talkingtiki (Dec 26, 2006)

I had 2 hard lockups today while watching a movie. After the first one I rebooted and tried again. When I noticed it wasn't going to work I exited to live tv and while watching live tv, hard lockup again. After a second reboot I'm not going to try it for a while.


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## memphislim (Dec 13, 2002)

My series 3 crashed and won't reboot. Watched 1/2 hour of netflix last night and this morniing it was locked up. When I took all the cc's out and unplugged the cable and network adaptor it still hangs on "a few more minutes" screen and won't go any further. Customer support was useless and now I have to pay the $49 fee plus $799 (refundable) for a replacement the would cost me $350 on the tivo site.

Anyone know how I can recover programs now or when the new box arrives?


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## Clemenza (Jan 4, 2003)

Hi memphislim:

I had the exact same problem--hanging on 'Almost There...' at bootup after a Netflix-related malfunction.

As posted elsewhere, try the Kickstart 57 fix:

"Kickstart 57" is TiVos built-in diagnostic program similar to Windows check disk. It triggers an MFS assert (GSOD), which marks the file system as being damaged. The repair process detects and repairs inode/data problems, and then runs mfscheck to clean up database and directory problems.
Kickstart 57  TiVo Diagnostics:

1. Go to TiVo Central
2. Select Messages & Setup
3. Select System Reset
4. Select Restart Receiver
5. Press Thumbs Down three times
6. Press Enter
7. While the system is restarting, during the initial screen, press and hold the PAUSE button until only yellow light(s) illuminate. [Do this just prior to the switch to the 'Almost There' screen; that's when the PAUSE press will be recognized.]
8. Release the pause button and immediately type in the numbers 5 and 7 on the remote (you have about 10 seconds to do this step).
9. TiVo will reboot and the GSOD screen will come on saying TiVo has encountered a serious error. It will then run the disk management tool. During this time it will look for and correct configuration problems as well as isolating any bad sectors on the hard drive so they can no longer be used.
10. TiVo will automatically reboot after the diagnostic program has completed. This may take a few minutes to a few hours.

This worked for me, and my Tivo booted normally after. If 57 doesn't work, try Kickstart 58 (same process as above, only enter 58 instead of 57)--this is a deeper-level error correction routine. If all else fails, try Kickstart 52, which will re-load the previous software version stored on the alternate partition.


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## memphislim (Dec 13, 2002)

I can't get to any of my Tivo screens because it hangs up so how can I do the Kickstarts? Where do I find the kickstart instructions other the the one so kindly posted above?


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## fchamber (Oct 26, 2006)

I didn't post the kickstart instructions, and I've never tried this, but based on the instructions posted, I think in your case you need to skip instructions 1-6 and go right to step 7 (1-6 are just about initiating a reboot).


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## memphislim (Dec 13, 2002)

I figured that out after my last post. Tried the 57 and 58, no luck. Will try 52 when I get home tonight.


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## Bonanzaair (Aug 26, 2006)

memphislim said:


> I figured that out after my last post. Tried the 57 and 58, no luck. Will try 52 when I get home tonight.


I tried it and reloaded the Service Update ver 11 and I still have the problem. I will switch from HDMI to RCA cables and see if that fixes my screen not displaying the Netflix movie. The fast forward works but not the movie.

Bonanza


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## chapmangeo (Jul 10, 2005)

First, as always, thank you TiVo for your continued intensive support of your product. Second, I love the basic TiVo/NetFlix framework. Once the bugs get out of it, it will be great - it looks much better than the XBOX one I've been using. Third - Why wasn't NetFlix sent through a good solid BETA trial? Market pressure? I hope it doesn't backfire.

I've had 3 occurrences of the following scenario:

Watch several (5+) minutes of a movie.
Make frequent use of pause/play/info.
The box stops responding to NetFlix controls. (TiVo button still works.)
The streaming continues.
After about a minute (after another button push) the box crashes. (Clock
stops, IR light no longer flashes, recordings in progress stop.) The box
needs a power cycle to restart (waited 15 minutes the first time to be
sure).
Two of those crashes happened today, one last night.

The app termination bug ( dropping back to live TV) happens often;
I have uploaded 911-Clear logs, although it sounds like you guys know
about this one and are fixing it.

Twice, I've gone into the app and tried to play a selection but I never get the conncting screen with the quality bars - just a gray screen. Eventually (after a couple minutes) I TiVO-Button out and go back in; it works OK.

TiVo Series3, 11.0-01-2-648 production load
HDMI/1920x1080i, Samsung LN-T4069F
Time Warner (Austin, TX) commercial DSL, average 14 Mbps

Again, thanks for all the support. 
I'm dropping back to the XBOX today, but I'll be back in a couple days. Hopefully it will be working better.


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## dig_duggler (Sep 18, 2002)

So, here's a new wrinkle. I tried out Netflix last night successfully for awhile. I went back in and the app locked up (unresponsive grey/black screen), so I got back to the Tivo Central via Tivo button. Shortly thereafter, my unit locked up. Strange. Pull the plug, everything is fine.

I try to use Netflix again around 10, same thing, grey screen. Hit Tivo Central button, back to Tivo central. I just now looked, but my unit locked up again (the clock froze) right after that. 

Failure of app to launch should not cause my machine to lock. Yes, it could be a hard drive issue, but I've had 0 problems until now and the timing is supremely suspect (both freezes occurred minutes after the app failure that I exited out of, the clock froze to indicate that). I will keep an eye on it, but fairly troubling.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Posted a theory about what might be the problem with these lockups/crashes in the large thread:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=6911843#post6911843


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## dizza (May 28, 2003)

My wife tried the new Netflix thing last night, 30 mins into the first movie it locked up. She came upstairs to get me to check it out. It was locked up hard, so I pulled the plug and plugged it back in. Hangs everytime at the "Almost there" screen. I tried it a dozen times. Called Tivo Support tonight and the guy was no help, "Well if it doesn't boot, its bad. Should I start the process of getting it replaced for you?" I'm thinking great! Then he starts asking for the $50 and goes on about how labor isn't covered and that it will take 2 weeks to get it to me probably. 

After explaining that this problem only occurred after trying the Netflix thing, he told me that there was "no chance that the Netflix thing can cause your Tivo to lock up and not function. It had to be your hard drive going out on you." Its only 11 months old!!! 

I'll try the kickstart things posted above to hopefully save this Tivo and my headache from my wife complaining about the dead Tivo.

-d


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## Lykaon (Dec 8, 2008)

Interesting theory you posted in the other thread, moyekj. If that is indeed the case, it sounds like we're probably out of luck on things we can do on our end.

One thing I haven't tried yet is the kickstart 57,58, and 52. I doubt 57 or 58 will help much, but 52 just might. Reinstalling the software may do something right that it didn't do the first time.

I feel like TiVo has been strangely silent on this issue. Though they have posted in the other thread numerous times about various issues I haven't seen these reboot/lockup problems be addressed head on by anyone at TiVo.

I hope that doesn't mean our problems are being ignored.


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## Lykaon (Dec 8, 2008)

Quick questions: 

1) If I do kickstart 57, 58, or 52 will any of those force me to have to contact Verizon to resync my cable cards? I really really don't want to have to do that.

2) If I do the kickstarts, will it delete my saved shows & season passes?


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## dizza (May 28, 2003)

Update: I tried doing the kickstart 57, 58 and 52 on my Tivo HD, but only 58 rebooted the Tivo and did anything. But it is still dead. 

Any other possible solutions that I could try?

-d


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## scurby2 (Feb 6, 2008)

My netflix locked up my tivo, had to unplug the power............and reboot tivo

My Xbox 360 netflix works great, and the display interface on xbox is WAY better than the Tivo version ...........hopefully tivo will update the interface when the bugs are fixed


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## uglie (Sep 23, 2008)

Same exact exact issue as Dizza. I can't get it passed "almost there" either.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

dizza said:


> After explaining that this problem only occurred after trying the Netflix thing, he told me that there was "no chance that the Netflix thing can cause your Tivo to lock up and not function. It had to be your hard drive going out on you." Its only 11 months old!!!


Well it's been shown numerous times by many people that Netflix can lock up the TiVo, so CSR is wrong.

I'm not sure how it would permanently screw it up the TiVo so it can't boot though. The boot up partition is never written to (except on a software upgrade) so it shouldn't get corrupted if the system locks up. I suppose the TiVo's database could be corrupted, but it should still boot in that case. Also the kickback that checks the databases (forgot which one) would fix a corrupted database.


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## memphislim (Dec 13, 2002)

Me three. Tivo dead after watching a netflix. Tried all 3 kickstarts like my post says above, still no reboot. Tivo sending me a new unit. THis really SUCKS. 

Love tivo but the customer support sucks big time. This is going to be my 
4th series 3. THey wouldn't waive the $50 or turn on my old series one box while I'm waiting for the new one to arrive. Wouldn't give me a supervisor to talk to either.


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## dizza (May 28, 2003)

memphislim said:


> Me three. Tivo dead after watching a netflix. Tried all 3 kickstarts like my post says above, still no reboot. Tivo sending me a new unit. THis really SUCKS.
> 
> Love tivo but the customer support sucks big time. This is going to be my
> 4th series 3. THey wouldn't waive the $50 or turn on my old series one box while I'm waiting for the new one to arrive. Wouldn't give me a supervisor to talk to either.


The guy refuses to waive the $50 for me as well. I think this is the last straw for me and my 3 Tivo's. They all might be heading to craigslist soon.

They obviously have issues with Netflix, but don't want to admit it to anyone.

-d


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## Lykaon (Dec 8, 2008)

I tried the kickstart stuff and it just plain didn't work. There is no point during boot up when only yellow lights illuminate. During the initial screen, there's a tivo character icon on the LCD and then 4 lights around him, 3 red and 1 yellow. They remain this way regardless of whether I hold Pause or not.

Then they all go away when it gets to the Almost There screen.


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## zookee (Dec 12, 2008)

I posted this on another thread but I thought I'd post here too so we can get all the issues documented on one thread. 

I'm having the same problem as well. We just got the latest software upgrade yesterday and tried viewing Netflix videos for the first time. After about 10 minutes it froze up. The remote became unresponsive and I finally got to the Tivo Central Screen. However, the background behind the menu was the frozen Netflix movie--not the usual Tivo graphics. Then I selected now playing and then picked a recorded show. It took it a long but it finally started, then froze after a few minutes. Then Tivo completely froze up and I had to unplug to reboot. I tried several times but never got past the "just a few minutes more . . ." screen. I'm now on my third call to Tivo tech support who have had me try various things (including decoupling my external hard drive so I've now lost all my recorded shows) to no avail. They were insisting it was a hard drive problem so I suggested running one of the kickstart tests (54 I think) to check the hard drive. The tech didn't know what that was but he researched it and said we should give it a try. We did and the test passed. The harddrive is fine. Its obviously a software issue. Then I got disconnected while he was putting me on hold and didn't call me back. So I phoned tech support again and am now talking with my 4th tech support person. I have wasted about 5 hours of my time so far trying to resolve this issue and am getting very frustrated. It seems that there are quite a few people having this same problem yet the tech's don't seem to know anything about it. Sad.


Update: Now they say its a hardware issue even though their own hardware diagnostic test said the hard drive was fine. They are sending me a new Tivo box. This is my third one in less than a year and a half. I love the product but the reliability and customer service is lacking.


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## Elarek (Dec 13, 2008)

I'm with the other people where Netflix locked up and now my TIVO will not reboot. It hangs on "almost there..." screen.

I was watching Heroes Season 1 episode 5. It locked. Now it will not reboot. I can't get the Kickstart thing to work either. (There are no yellow lights when I hold pause). I have a Series 3 (not TivoHD). 

TIVO has serious issues with this update and they need to make it right. I am not paying them more money for corrupting my OS image. If I have to pay someone I will purchase an internal drive upgrade or reimage the one I have with Instant Cake.

Does TIVO have any internal Quality Control anymore?


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## Elarek (Dec 13, 2008)

zookee said:


> I posted this on another thread but I thought I'd post here too so we can get all the issues documented on one thread.
> 
> I'm having the same problem as well. We just got the latest software upgrade yesterday and tried viewing Netflix videos for the first time. After about 10 minutes it froze up. The remote became unresponsive and I finally got to the Tivo Central Screen. However, the background behind the menu was the frozen Netflix movie--not the usual Tivo graphics. Then I selected now playing and then picked a recorded show. It took it a long but it finally started, then froze after a few minutes. Then Tivo completely froze up and I had to unplug to reboot. I tried several times but never got past the "just a few minutes more . . ." screen. I'm now on my third call to Tivo tech support who have had me try various things (including decoupling my external hard drive so I've now lost all my recorded shows) to no avail. They were insisting it was a hard drive problem so I suggested running one of the kickstart tests (54 I think) to check the hard drive. The tech didn't know what that was but he researched it and said we should give it a try. We did and the test passed. The harddrive is fine. Its obviously a software issue. Then I got disconnected while he was putting me on hold and didn't call me back. So I phoned tech support again and am now talking with my 4th tech support person. I have wasted about 5 hours of my time so far trying to resolve this issue and am getting very frustrated. It seems that there are quite a few people having this same problem yet the tech's don't seem to know anything about it. Sad.
> 
> Update: Now they say its a hardware issue even though their own hardware diagnostic test said the hard drive was fine. They are sending me a new Tivo box. This is my third one in less than a year and a half. I love the product but the reliability and customer service is lacking.


Zookee, I had this same issue and I have no external hard drive. I was able to get it to work again by using Kickstart code 52. I understand this reinstalls the last TIVO software. After it reinstalled the software and rebooted itself it still hung, so I tried a Kickstart code 57. After I did that TIVO rebooted and has worked since then.

Instructions for Series 3 and TivoHD Kickstart

I hope that helps.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

Wow I can't believe all the problems everyone is having. I Just got home from work tonight and saw where my LR Tivo has the update. I got a newsletter about it and I am off work for a week the beginning of January so I was going to do the 2 week trial then. Then I get home tonight and see the update so I was going to try it. Then I thought well let me come here 1st and read about it before I sign up. I am so glad I did. I will not be trying Netflix anytime soon. I hope they work the stuff out. But a few of you guys said the kick start didn't work and you had to get new boxed. I have to much on my Tivo that I can't afford to lose. I just won't try it anytime soon. 

I'll check back every couple days to see if they've found a fix for it yet. Rose


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## tpkidd3 (Dec 14, 2008)

Anyone know if there is a way to get our TiVo to under calculate our connection speed when streaming NetFlix? I am suffering the same as many in that TiVo reports my quality at 9 or 10 bars. but then on play the image is full of artifacts and freezes, presumably for the buffer to catch up. 
The solution to this problem would be to tell NetFlix to use a lower quality stream. While this is a feature on most internet streaming video sites, TiVo seems to have overlooked this in favor of an automated method. 
I assume TiVo / NetFlix will fix this, but is is very disappointing and frustrating until they do. 

At least it's free :up:


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## dizza (May 28, 2003)

Update: I called Tivo again to complain about this issue and the CSR rep got it approved to waive the $50 exchange fee for me and setup an exchange. Right after that I read in another thread regarding Netflix issues that if you lost your internet connection while watching a video, you had to establish that connection again before your tivo would boot up. Because I have a wireless router downstairs and the TivoHD was hooked up to it, I double checked and the access point didn't have a connection. I fixed that, which in turn gave an IP to the Tivo and then I booted up the Tivo successfully! woohoo!

I love the internet, I find the answer here yet Tivo couldn't give me that answer when I called their tech support.

-d


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## TiVoStephen (Jun 27, 2000)

Sorry to hear about those of you having hard resets.

Please see my posts in this thread:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=413339

Best regards,
Stephen


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## Golden (Dec 19, 2008)

Mephislim, the exact same crash you describe happened to me, and now we have a new box that is essentially useless. It won't reboot, and it happened at the beginning of an Instant Movie from Netflix. 

I hope we all complain to Tivo and Netflix about this very serious problem.


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## dropkey (Apr 16, 2007)

My series 3 receive a great signal from netflix but i get no audio or video. If i fast foward i see the movie only on the small window. once i goto regular speed a get a black svreen and no audio. This happens with any movie i try to watch. I have two other tivo hd's and they work fine. Any clues Thanks


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

The S3 appears to be more susceptible to "bad" encodings than the HD/XL which is why some things that play fine on the HD, don't work on the S3. At least that's my experience. It's most likely do to the different VC-1 decoder chips in the S3 and the HD/XL.

I'm still not sure if we are supposed to be reporting videos that have playback problem on the S3 to Netflix though since they play fine on the HD.


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## NuShrike (Dec 25, 2008)

Still happening regularly to me (few times a week) on my TivoHD, and still not solved. It's November 2009 now.

I really do NOT enjoy the hard-resets Netflix gives my TiVo just because the Netflix app is so fragile, any network hiccup or outage causes a total meltdown.

Do you have any idea how long it takes for a TiVo to reboot after each of these? I could reboot my Windows Mobile phone about 15 times in this space.

Ever heard of soft-fail?


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## jtreid (Jan 12, 2006)

NuShrike said:


> Still happening regularly to me (few times a week) on my TivoHD, and still not solved. It's November 2009 now.


I finally go so fed up with this issue even after adding a power-line ethernet connection that I gave up and bought a LG BD390. It handles network glitches just fine. It occasionally says it can't connect to Netflix, but a second try almost always connects. It also handles changes in network speed flawlessly. It is a much better Netflix experience. Once I see that Tivo attempts to fix the Netflix issues, I'll try it again. Until then, I won't even use Netflix on the Tivo.


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## DougJohnson (Dec 12, 2006)

jtreid said:


> I finally go so fed up with this issue even after adding a power-line ethernet connection that I gave up and bought a LG BD390. It handles network glitches just fine. It occasionally says it can't connect to Netflix, but a second try almost always connects. It also handles changes in network speed flawlessly. It is a much better Netflix experience. Once I see that Tivo attempts to fix the Netflix issues, I'll try it again. Until then, I won't even use Netflix on the Tivo.


Hmmm. I bought a BD370. The first time I tried it with Netflix, it froze hard, stayed frozen overnight, wouldn't power up even after several power cycles. Back to Amazon it went. Maybe I just had a bad one, but they are not immune to troubles either. -- Doug


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