# TV screen goes black for few seconds ...



## Simon B

Hoping I can get some help from the group. I am a long time Tivo user. I upgraded to the Bolt a year ago. Really happy with it. Recently, the TV picture would go black for a second or two, then come back. It was pretty random but would happen every 2 - 20 minutes. TV was a Toshiba 1080 I had been using all along. I tried a LG 4k TV and it does the same thing. I switched out HDMI cables and still get the same result so I think the issue is with the Bolt. Is anyone else having this issue? Any ideas on how to resolve? Thanks.


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## kpeters59

What output resolution is the TiVo set to?

As a test, maybe 'force' the TiVo to either 720p or 1081i 'fixed' output to see if it clears up?

-KP


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## mpf541

I have been fighting this issue also. I have spent a lot of time with support on the phone and they are not really much help.
After talking with them and having Comcast out to check the line they pull up the diagnostics and see that I have a SNR of 36. They are telling me that this is causing the issue. I did some checking and come to see that this may actually be causing this issue. While I am not sure If it will I did some checking on Amazon for what support says I need. A Attenuator. A lot of the reviews say this help people. And for 5.95 I figures I would try it. If not tivo is going to RMA the bolt for me. never had this issue with other tivos and I have a roamio with the same readings. But I am told the bolt tuners are more likley to have this issue. Will be a few days before I know though


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## JoeKustra

mpf541 said:


> I have been fighting this issue also. I have spent a lot of time with support on the phone and they are not really much help.
> After talking with them and having Comcast out to check the line they pull up the diagnostics and see that I have a SNR of 36. They are telling me that this is causing the issue.


I have two basic Roamio units and both have a Signal % of 90 and SNR of 36dB. No problems. They are idiots. I set my video output to:
1080p 24/25fps (pass thru)
1080i
and that's all. My TV prefers 1080i (Sony 1080p).


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## mpf541

And I am talking bolt which has a different tuner. My Roamio works fine


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## Dan203

Is your TV resyncing and showing the resolution? Or is the black part of the recording?

If it's part of the recording then I'd say it's the tuner or signal. If the TV is resyncing then it's probably an HDMI issue. You might want to try a different HDMI cable, perhaps one that's 2.0 certified.


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## zalusky

I get this once in a while. All my stuff is in a closet probably 30 feet of cable away. In order to HDR stuff I wound up getting a Celerity Fiber Optic cable that has a USB dongle for power.
It works pretty good but every once in a while I get the black flashes. I restart the TV and it seems to cure the problem.


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## ohboy710

The only way I was able to fix this was to change the TiVo output display from automatic back to 1080. I spent hours changing things and talked with both TiVo and LG support. Then I just gave up since I don't even get 4K channels anyway.


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## mpf541

Well turns out that the attenuators did not fix my issue. It stated doing it on amazon video and the great tivo tech I talked to still wanted to run diagnostics to check out the tuners. I had to complain and ask for a manager to get another tech. This one read the notes and said right away that they needed to swap the box. Nice when you finally get someone that know what they are doing.


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## 714TV

Help Please.

I been using my Tivo Bolt for about 7 months now on a Samsung 1080p tv. I just upgraded my tv to a 4K Samsung Mu7000. I be watching Live tv then all of sudden the screen is black and no sound for a sec or two. I tried watching dvr it did the same thing about 40min or 1hr into watching dvr it went black for a second.

My tivo is on ver 20.7.4Rc12


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## kpeters59

You _probably_ ought to start your own thread...or at _least _provide some equipment details...

-KP


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## PSU_Sudzi

714TV said:


> Help Please.
> 
> I been using my Tivo Bolt for about 7 months now on a Samsung 1080p tv. I just upgraded my tv to a 4K Samsung Mu7000. I be watching Live tv then all of sudden the screen is black and no sound for a sec or two. I tried watching dvr it did the same thing about 40min or 1hr into watching dvr it went black for a second.
> 
> My tivo is on ver 20.7.4Rc12


Try a different HDMI cable and see if that fixes it.


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## 714TV

Psu_Sudzi
Yes I have tried 3 drifferent Hdmi. I just returned the tv Samsung Mu7000. I am hoping this Sony tv will not the same problem with the tivo.


PSU_Sudzi said:


> Try a different HDMI cable and see if that fixes it.


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## bootman_head_fi

Are you rebooting your bolt when you swap out the tv?

You need to clear out the EDID info so that the HDMI handshake can properly sync.
Also list what settings you have on the bolt for video.
On the display is HEC enabled?
And you didn't mention what HDMI cables you used.
Swapping out for another cable you had on hand that worked before in a 1080p setup is no guarantee that is will now work with a 4k setup requiring much more data to pass through them. 
Lots of fun with HDMI.


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## 714TV

Thank you for your respones and help.

I have my tivo set to auto the tivo's resolution. 
I am using AudioQuest Cinnamon Series Hdmi cables. 2.0 
yes the Hec was enabled. I tried everything. just gave up and return the Samsung and got a Sony, no issues now.



bootman_head_fi said:


> Are you rebooting your bolt when you swap out the tv?
> 
> You need to clear out the EDID info so that the HDMI handshake can properly sync.
> Also list what settings you have on the bolt for video.
> On the display is HEC enabled?
> And you didn't mention what HDMI cables you used.
> Swapping out for another cable you had on hand that worked before in a 1080p setup is no guarantee that is will now work with a 4k setup requiring much more data to pass through them.
> Lots of fun with HDMI.


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## aaronwt

DId you only have one framerate and resolution set? Because multiple resolutions/framerates will cause any HDMI TV to resync when the resolution or framerate changes. Of course some TVs do it faster than others, but there is always a certain amount of time it takes for the switch. From a split second to a few seconds.


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## cwoody222

I’m having this problem as well with a new Mini 4K.

It’s not my cables, same cable works with my 4k blue ray and firetv.

How do I clear out whatever to fix the handshake?


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## baconNeggs

*Solved it for my set up.* btw: my set up is old - Series 3 TiVo and 2009 NAD T 747 receiver)

Had the same issue. I think bootman_head_fi, above, is correct in that the glitch is probably in the handshake- TiVo or the stereo/receiver have to make a decision about the format of the video, if either side patches their OS software, a little change can make that handshake/or video format-decision process buggy/lead to video drops.

After I read this string, I looked first at the Stereo/Receiver then the Tivo's settings. This is what I found and then changed to:

*Receiver settings: video was set to 1080p - I changed that to 1080i* (in part because my stereo's interface recommended 1080i as "the preferred TV signal"...with a note that it would ignore any signal going through "passthru" (i guess meaning 1080p or 4K)).

*Tivo settings: video was set to *all four of these formats* 480, 720, 1080i, 1080p - I changed that to "auto"*

Problem seems to be gone. Would not have figured it out without this thread. Because my equipment is older, I thought either TiVo or receiver was dying. Not a happy feeling, if I guess incorrectly, then I have to by a new TiVo and a new receiver. This thread totally helped me. Thx.


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## rfwaagner1

714TV said:


> Help Please.
> 
> I been using my Tivo Bolt for about 7 months now on a Samsung 1080p tv. I just upgraded my tv to a 4K Samsung Mu7000. I be watching Live tv then all of sudden the screen is black and no sound for a sec or two. I tried watching dvr it did the same thing about 40min or 1hr into watching dvr it went black for a second.
> 
> My tivo is on ver 20.7.4Rc12


I recently added the Tivo Bolt Vox to my Samsung 4K TV. I intermittently received the black screens for a second or two = very annoying. I first tried rebooting the Bolt and the TV several times and let the TV rediscover the Bolt. This did not help. I then moved the HDMI cable to the second TV HDMI port. This helped somewhat but the problem still existed. I then bought a new HDMI 2.0 cable for 4K with integrated ethernet. Since replacing the cable, the problem seems to be gone! Be sure to use the correct high quality 4K with ethernet HDMI cable.


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## tommiet

Interesting.. my Samsung TV (MU800) has been doing the same AND on one channel, sound drops out too for a second or 2. I do have a case open with Samsung now. but so far.... Zip help. I'm using quality HDMI cables (PowerBear HDMI Cable Ultra-HD (UHD) 4K HDMI 2.0 Cable [18Gbs Audio Ethernet])

My Tivo was set to "auto" for the video... Same issue.

Thanks for sharing.


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## jaselzer

I am glad I found this thread. I am having the exact same issue. When watching TV through my Tivo Bolt Vox, I will intermittently get video and audio drops for anywhere from a second or two to several seconds at least. This happens as far as I can tell randomly. I have a rather involved set up, a few sources all running through a Marantz AVR, and then from the Marantz to the TV I have HDMI to Atlona extender and back again because the distance between the Marantz and TV is too great for just HDMI. All the other sources seem to be working fine, but the Tivo has these drop outs. I thought it was the Atlona extender, but after reading this I am thinking it is with the Tivo source only. Perhaps my first step is to upgrade the HDMI cable from the Tivo to the Marantz and see if that helps. Thoughts? Also, what should I be setting my video output to on the Tivo. The TV and the Marantz accept 4k HDR.


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## jaselzer

Update: I now no longer set the tivo to output "auto". My whole system is setup for 4K output and therefore auto will scale up to 4K and send it through my Marantz AVR, across my Atlona extenders and back in to my Samsung UHD TV. All other sources, except for the Tivo, work perfectly fine sending through the 4K signal. I am not sure why the video and audio is so undependable when the Tivo specifically does the scaling. So I set video output to everything except the 4K settings and now it works without the screen going dark at random times.


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## jaselzer

Thanks, I missed that mistake.


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## Jrr6415sun

I am having the same problem, every 2 minutes black screen for a few seconds and audio goes out. It is the same experience you would get when "changing" the channel. I have the output on auto, I tried changing to 1080i, 720p, 1080p etc nothing fixed it.

It's not just the display that goes black but the live tv buffer gets deleted so I can't rewind live tv past the black out.

Restarting the tivo fixes it for a few hours, but then it goes back to black screen every 2 minutes.


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## jaselzer

Jrr6415sun said:


> I am having the same problem, every 2 minutes black screen for a few seconds and audio goes out. It is the same experience you would get when "changing" the channel. I have the output on auto, I tried changing to 1080i, 720p, 1080p etc nothing fixed it.
> 
> It's not just the display that goes black but the live tv buffer gets deleted so I can't rewind live tv past the black out.
> 
> Restarting the tivo fixes it for a few hours, but then it goes back to black screen every 2 minutes.


It has been my experience with tivos that they are particularly finicky when it comes to handshake issues. That being said, there is one more change I would make to your Tivo settings. Uncheck, eliminate, the output setting of 1080p so that only 720p and 1080i are set. See if that fixes the issue. If that does work, then go back again, and try enabling the 4K Pass Through also, but only the 4K Pass through, not 4K upscaling. If it starts to go on and off again, uncheck the Pass Through. Let us know.


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## JoeKustra

jaselzer said:


> It has been my experience with tivos that they are particularly finicky when it comes to handshake issues. That being said, there is one more change I would make to your Tivo settings. Uncheck, eliminate, the output setting of 1080p so that only 720p and 1080i are set. See if that fixes the issue. If that does work, then go back again, and try enabling the 4K Pass Through also, but only the 4K Pass through, not 4K upscaling. If it starts to go on and off again, uncheck the Pass Through. Let us know.


The "Pass Through" options only apply to streaming video.


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## jaselzer

JoeKustra said:


> The "Pass Through" options only apply to streaming video.


Yes, but we do not know if he is using the apps or not. So I was suggesting it just in case he does use them.


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## JoeKustra

jaselzer said:


> Yes, but we do not know if he is using the apps or not. So I was suggesting it just in case he does use them.


It's a Bolt. I'm surprised no question on ODT.


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## jaselzer

"I'm surprised no question on ODT.": I am not sure what that means? What is ODT?


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## JoeKustra

On Die Temperature. My signature has a link to a post full of abbreviations. Bolts have a temperature issue. Check the threads.

Bolt+ Overheating - Cooling Method? - Please Post Pictures

External Cooling Fan

My Awesome BOLT Cooling Mods ;-)


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## pgoelz

JoeKustra said:


> On Die Temperature. My signature has a link to a post full of abbreviations. Bolts have a temperature issue. Check the threads.
> 
> Bolt+ Overheating - Cooling Method? - Please Post Pictures
> 
> External Cooling Fan
> 
> My Awesome BOLT Cooling Mods ;-)


While I have seen a lot of posts about various cooling methods and resulting reductions to ODT (including my own efforts), I can't say I have seen anything that actually links high internal temperatures to anything other than potential HD life issues. Anecdotally, my audio dropouts SEEM to have vanished after I cooled the Bolt down (hard to prove a negative) but has anyone found an actual demonstrable / repeatable effect?

Paul


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## Jrr6415sun

JoeKustra said:


> It's a Bolt. I'm surprised no question on ODT.


the problem fixes itself for a few hours when I restart the tivo, I don't think that would fix it if it was a heat issue.


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## cliffeck

I HAVE THE SAME ISSUE IN TWO Premier's, one a 4, the other a 4XL. Both just go black, sometimes they come back on after a couple minutes, sometimes they are just gone. The only thing that brings them back to life is a reboot. I use IR's (USB powered) on both and find that disconnecting the IR's until the reboot is complete helps for while, but after a few hours the same thing happens. 

I am on SPECTRUM here in Tampa Florida, and they have been working on the issue for 5 Months. They tell me that all many of thier TIVO customers are having the same problem and they all started to have it about the same time , 5 Months ago. They have changed Tuning Adapters and Cable Cards 20+ times. The problem remains. 

I just bought a TIVO Bolt .... I received instructions that included a warning about finicky cable card hookups. They recommend getting 5 cards, will Spectrum charge me for all of those?

Spectrum has been attentive to the problem but so far unable to solve it with my Premier 4's. I hope my new Bolt doesn't have the same issue.


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## jaselzer

Cliffeck, without more info on your equipment and settings it is hard to tell. But the first thing to try is to go into your TiVo video settings and do not enable 4K upscaling in the the TiVo. Once you do that let us know the result. Let your TV do the upscaling. See if that fixes the problem before doing anything else. I'm not very technical, but I believe that the tivo's have a problem with their 4K upscaling when it comes to handshake issues.


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## JoeKustra

jaselzer said:


> Cliffeck, without more info on your equipment and settings it is hard to tell. But the first thing to try is to go into your TiVo video settings and do not enable 4K upscaling in the the TiVo. Once you do that let us know the result. Let your TV do the upscaling. See if that fixes the problem before doing anything else. I'm not very technical, but I believe that the tivo's have a problem with their 4K upscaling when it comes to handshake issues.


Premiere and Roamio boxes don't have 4k options. The Bolt does. Series 4 & 5:


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## Brian Bosak

I have the same problem. 
The issue seemed to be related to a failing hard drive. If I deleted a bunch of content to take the used capacity down from 65% to 58% or lower then the cutting in and out was solved. As soon as I recorded enough programs to get back to the 63-68% range the cutting in and out began again. This would point to the fact that as the hard drive is filled up with programs then the TiVo is reading and writting to a different sector of the hard drive. That sector I suspect is starting to fail.


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## Salacious Crumb

I get this too BUT only on 1 channel - accuweather.


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