# TiVo Premiere with Charter Tuning Adapter problems



## cdavidg (Sep 18, 2010)

I have had non-stop problems since I purchased my TiVo Premiere in April. I have Charter cable service and they have made about 10 visits and swapped out my tuning adapter 3 times, most recently yesterday. It is a Motorola tuning adapter. When I turn on my TV and AV receiver I get a TiVo message on the screen reading "A tuning adapter is attached to the DVR - to verify that your DVR is receiving all the channels in your subscriber package, test your tuning adapter" I skip this step and select "Continue" to test later. (When I do test, all the channels are received.)

Then, while watching TV - no matter what channel - the above message pops up again and the TV signal is dropped. If I am recording 1 program or 2 programs the recording is stopped. This happens whether I am watching TV or when TiVo is recording programs I have selected and I am not watching. I love the TiVo Premiere, but this has gone on for 6 months! Charter is clueless - the first techs who installed in April told me they had never installed a cable card in a TiVo - I gave them the instructions from the TiVo box!

Then I discovered I wasn't receiving all of the channels I subscribed to and they came back out and told me I needed a tuning adapter, again telling me they had never installed a TA with a TiVo but they installed it, and all the channels were being received. But the above problems began happening right away-dropping the signal. They came out again and the tech told me that the previous tech had installed the TA incorrectly, so he supposedly corrected that. Then the same problems again. 

Several subsequent visits by Charter techs have given me a variety of reasons for this problem. They have checked and verified all the lines in the house and are certain there is not a problem with the signal strength. They have told me that they have monitored the transmission and have seen fluctuations in signal strength but that the problem was not in the house, it was on the line coming to the house. None of the other TVs in the house drop the signal ever, but they are are not HD TVs, they are analog. I was told that the HD digital signal is very sensitive to fluctuations and that this is what is causing the signal to drop. HELP!


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## Ergolad (Mar 25, 2005)

Dude, I know you posted this ages ago, but did you ever get it resolved? I am having similar issues since Nov. I am about to drop Tivo and Charter altogether. It's a drag. HD channels drop out on me periodically, the Tivo saying the signal has dropped. Changing the channels or turing the Tuning Adapter on and off again seem to correct it, but make Tivo unreliable. Curious if you ever got it resolved.

A thread I started to try and get some feedback


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## sjpeer (May 1, 2011)

I too am having this same problem since I hooked up my Tivo Premiere. Here are a couple of other related issues that were not mentioned in the orginal post. 

First, with the Charter cable card, you CANNOT use their video on demand. Per Charter, the card is not as "smart" as the their cable box. Also, if you are thinking of changing to another service check with Tivo before you do. I found out that you cannot use the Tivo Premier with ATT Uverse.

I wish I had an answer for this problem, it is very frustrating.


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## sjpeer (May 1, 2011)

I should have mentioned that I live in North Georgia. I have had my Tivo Premier since April 1, 2011 (yes I know what day that was).


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## Beernutts (Jul 16, 2010)

I've noticed a few other people had some signal interference from the TA's with the TiVo's, so I would suggest making sure the TA is not sitting on the TiVo. Move it away from it and see if that helps any.


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## toadyboyy (Aug 3, 2011)

Just got a Premier. Called Charter and a tech came out to install the M-Card(cablecard).
He brought a Cisco TA along with him and says it's not working. I'm missing HD channels.

The tech says the green light on front should be solid but it's blinking. It's been two days, three different TA and three different M-Cards. Tech says I need a new Tivo (exchange it) because the USB is not communicating with the TA.

If I exchange the Tivo, how will my Tivo account switch to the new Tivo?

I'm doing a factory setting wipe so I can start over. I called Robert (Charter Tech) he said to bypass the TA when setting up the box. He said I'll get all the channels, just not HD... Anybody else run into this issue?

Beernuts, my TA is actually sitting on the Tivo. As soon as the erase finishes I'll try this...


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## jdmass (Dec 1, 2002)

FIOS has finally come to my neighborhood. In two weeks, I'll be dropping Charter and ending the tuning adapter nightmare. I can't wait!!!


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## Goober96 (Jun 28, 2005)

I don't know if this would be useful for anyone, but I thought I'd share my experience with Charter and Motorola tuning adaptor. It used to disconnect from the Charter servers all the time (blinking yellow light) and would have to be rebooted to get it to hook back up (solid yellow light). To solve this problem, I just put cheap appliance timers on them and have them power off sometime during the night and turn back on 30 minutes later. This has solved that problem.


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## toadyboyy (Aug 3, 2011)

I had this problem with my tuner adapter after purchasing a Tivo Premier. I had 3 service techs come to my house and they all couldn't get my TA to stop blinking and get my Digital Switch channels back. I called Charter one last time and scheduled another tech. He switched the TA and this didn't work. Finally he called Charter CS and they said the sequences weren't correct for my devices (phone, internet, cable). Once Charter corrected the sequence the light suddenly turned solid. I started getting my HD channels finally!


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## troasti (Nov 13, 2008)

Ive had tivo and charter for a couple of years but lately its become unbearable. Most HD stations work intermittently. Usually a reboot or two will fix it but obviously this is not practical. Im about ready to give up and just get the crappy charter dvr. I'd rather not do this but Im at my wits end. I've had two charter tech's out to the house. The first time it happend to be working while he was here and the second one I wasn't home but he just rebooted it and told my wife it was fixed.


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## jdmass (Dec 1, 2002)

I average about 2 involuntary reboots a week, and have about the same rate of occurrences of a black screen when tuning in channels requiring a tuning adapter reset. It's gone beyond ridiculous.

With the Verizon strike finally over, I've got FIOS scheduled to be installed on Friday. I can't wait!


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

Anyone with a Cisco Tuning Adapter, I have seen several reports were Charter is still running an older firmware on their Cisco TAs. This could be part peoples problems. You can check your Tuning Adapter firmware in the TiVo Tuning Adapter Diagnostics.

The FCC also mandated that all cable cos must be using the latest firmware as of Aug 8, 2011. Charter has not complied in many areas.

The new FCC mandated firmware is *STA1.0.0_1520_LR_F.1402*

The reason it was mandated was so that the Cisco TA would support 4 Tuners (for the Ceton Infinitv 4 and the Moxi 3-Tuner DVR) instead of just the 2 Tuners the old firmware supported. Cisco probably addressed other issues regarding stability of the TA.


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## jdmass (Dec 1, 2002)

CoxInPHX said:


> Anyone with a Cisco Tuning Adapter, I have seen several reports were Charter is still running an older firmware on their Cisco TAs. This could be part peoples problems. You can check your Tuning Adapter firmware in the TiVo Tuning Adapter Diagnostics.
> 
> The FCC also mandated that all cable cos must be using the latest firmware as of Aug 8, 2011. Charter has not complied in many areas.
> 
> ...


The version in my TA is: STA1.0.0_1520_LR_F.1001


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

jdmass said:


> The version in my TA is: STA1.0.0_1520_LR_F.1001


File a complaint with the FCC: http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm

and contact "Umatter2Charter" at either AVS Forums or DSLR Forums

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/member.php?u=8101092

https://secure.dslreports.com/forum/charterdirect~days=60~filter=Vid.Other

or http://www.charter.com/Umatter2Charter


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## Stuxnet (Feb 9, 2011)

toadyboyy said:


> Just got a Premier. Called Charter and a tech came out to install the M-Card(cablecard).
> He brought a Cisco TA along with him and says it's not working. I'm missing HD channels.
> 
> The tech says the green light on front should be solid but it's blinking. It's been two days, three different TA and three different M-Cards. Tech says I need a new Tivo (exchange it) because the USB is not communicating with the TA.
> ...


Do you have a Motorola M-card... if so, ask them to try a Moto TA.


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

Stuxnet said:


> Do you have a Motorola M-card... if so, ask them to try a Moto TA.


The MSO headend is either Motorola or Cisco/Scientific Atlanta and the CableCARD and TA will/must be the same vendor. You cannot use a Motorola TA with a Cisco/Scientific Atlanta CableCARD, and vice versa.


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## troasti (Nov 13, 2008)

I have firmware STA1.0.0_1520_LR_F.1001 as well. Try to get in touch with umatter2charter I will update when I hear back. Thanks for the help.


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## jdmass (Dec 1, 2002)

jdmass said:


> The version in my TA is: STA1.0.0_1520_LR_F.1001


Looks like Charter (in my area, at least) got on the ball -- I checked the TA today and firmware is now STA1.0.0_1520_LR_F.1402

Of course, for me it's a moot point as I am FINALLY getting FIOS installed on Friday ([email protected][email protected]@### Verizon strike!!!)


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## troasti (Nov 13, 2008)

I contacted Umatter2Charter - thanks CoxInPHX. They pushed the new firmware to both of my Tivo's with tuning adapters. The TivoHD with the software update is working perfectly now and the second Tivo (Premiere) is worse than before. I've written back to Umatter2Charter and hopefully they will try replacing the tuning adapter that still has the issues.


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