# Strange Roamio Basic bug--HDMI dead in the morning



## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

On a couple of different days now the first time I try to use my Roamio it's not outputting anything over HDMI; no video or sound. The green circle is on and the yellow circle flashes ever time I press a remote button. A cold restart restores function. Its HDMI output is routed through an Onkyo TX-NR515 AVR which has been in standby mode for several hours; the same hook-up worked fine with my basic Premiere. Has anyone else noticed this?


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## TiVoJerry (Jul 26, 2005)

Try pressing the standby (power) button to put it into standby and then again to come out.


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## tim1724 (Jul 3, 2007)

mikeyts said:


> On a couple of different days now the first time I try to use my Roamio it's not outputting anything over HDMI; no video or sound. The green circle is on and the yellow circle flashes ever time I press a remote button. A cold restart restores function. Its HDMI output is routed through an Onkyo TX-NR515 AVR which has been in standby mode for several hours; the same hook-up worked fine with my basic Premiere. Has anyone else noticed this?


Yep, it's a well known problem with the Roamio. Sometimes it fails to negotiate an HDMI connection.

Tap the green circle on the Roamio* to put it into Standby. (It takes a few seconds wait until the lights all turn off.) Then tap it again (or press the TiVo button on the remote) to bring it out of standby. If the screen is still black, do it again.

We were hoping the last software update would fix this, but it didn't.

* Plus/Pro only; on the Roamio Basic you have to just blindly use the remote to put in standby. Press Live TV, then TiVo, then Down five times, then Select, then Channel Down (Page Down), then Select. (If you have no ads at the bottom of the main menu, you can use Page Down instead of hitting Down repeatedly. Or if you think you do currently have an ad, hit Page Down and then Up once.)


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

Danke schön ! Blindly placing the TiVo into Standby state will be fun. I'd make a Harmony macro but there's only 5 steps per sequence on today's Harmony remotes (back in the day you could program a long macro in XML if you wanted). Since "Settings" is actually six lines down from the top (unless there's some way to get rid of the useless "What to watch now" menu item; if nothing else it should be moved to the bottom) so I can't even do it in two sequences. Two sequences plus manual "Select" will do it; it'll have to do. A TiVo + digit sequence to "Settings" and or "Standby" would be nice. Still nothing bound to TiVo + 7, 8 or 9.


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## tim1724 (Jul 3, 2007)

mikeyts said:


> Danke schön ! Blindly placing the TiVo into Standby state will be fun. I'd make a Harmony macro but there's only 5 steps per sequence on today's Harmony remotes (back in the day you could program a long macro in XML if you wanted). Since "Settings" is actually six lines down from the top (unless there's some way to get rid of the useless "What to watch now" menu item; if nothing else it should be moved to the bottom) so I can't even do it in two sequences. Two sequences plus manual "Select" will do it; it'll have to do. A TiVo + digit sequence to "Settings" and or "Standby" would be nice. Still nothing bound to TiVo + 7, 8 or 9.


oh right, they added a menu item so it's six now.

On my old Series 3 the "slow" button went to Settings. So slow, page down, select would put it into standby. But the slow button now toggles the video in the upper-right corner so that shortcut no longer works.

I've been tempted to use a third-party remote at times just to get a standby button, which some really old TiVo remotes had.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

tim1724 said:


> I've been tempted to use a third-party remote at times just to get a standby button, which some really old TiVo remotes had.


You reckon the IR code for Standby on an older TiVo would work with Roamio? I know that I had a code for STOP on my Series3 which the Harmony definition for the Premiere lacked so I include the old TiVo in devices required for the "Use TiVo" activity just so I could bind the STOP code to the remote's STOP key.

EDIT: Huh--the Harmony device definitions for TiVos includes a discrete "PowerToggle" code which goes to Standby state. (That's in both the Premiere and Roamio definitions; the Series3 definition included that and PowerOn and PowerOff--who knows what those are). I'm good to go .


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## RussW64 (Oct 21, 2013)

The new Roamio's have standby buried deep in the menu structure. Under "Settings and Messages" from main menu, and then bottom choice on second menu is "Standby". 
There are a few ways to put the Roamio Plus and Pro into Standby. One is to scroll through the menus, the second is to lightly touch the Green circle power indicator on the front left of the front panel of the Roamio. A third way is through a Logitech Harmony Remote. I had to redo my settings on my Harmony 650 because I added a new sequence (laptop connected thru HDMI to TV and audio to amp) and in the process I accidentally deleted all activities. So, I set it up again. In the past, when I pressed the "Power Off/System Off" button on the Harmony, all devices EXCEPT the TiVo would go off. But now the TiVo Roamio Plus gets put into standby.. and even MORE interestingly, the "dead" HDMI issue that I was having as noted here:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=508284
and here:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=510372

have disappeared. Go figure.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

This morning HDMI output was out again (it was fine when I first accessed the box yesterday). I put the unit in Standby and when it came back video returned but not audio. I tried going in and out of standby without joy. A warm restart restored the audio. At least I didn't have to get off my butt and unplug it.


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## 1283 (Sep 8, 2000)

mikeyts said:


> I put the unit in Standby and when it came back video returned but not audio. I tried going in and out of standby without joy. A warm restart restored the audio.


Did you try changing the channel or playback another program? Usually that would restore the audio.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

c3 said:


> Did you try changing the channel or playback another program? Usually that would restore the audio.


Yep--I tried everything that I could think of. On the Premiere usually just backing up a bit into the buffer would restore sound, but nothing worked. I changed channels, tried playing a recording and ran Netflix; no sound from anything.


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## keenanSR (Oct 13, 2004)

mikeyts said:


> Yep--I tried everything that I could think of. On the Premiere usually just backing up a bit into the buffer would restore sound, but nothing worked. I changed channels, tried playing a recording and ran Netflix; no sound from anything.


Have you tried feeding the Roamio HDMI output directly to the display and use optical/coax to the Onkyo for audio to see if the Onkyo is causing the problem?


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

keenanSR said:


> Have you tried feeding the Roamio HDMI output directly to the display and use optical/coax to the Onkyo for audio to see if the Onkyo is causing the problem?


No and I'm not going that far (wallowing around on the floor in front of my AV cabinet wrangling cables). This set up worked fine with Series3, Premiere and everything else running HDMI through the AVR (PS3, Panasonic PBD, Roku 3, WD TV Live, Xbox 360 and this PC). I'm pretty sure that the Roamio is at fault here. It will be interesting to see if I don't get sound back by toggling standby the next time it loses HDMI connection after being idle overnight.


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## keenanSR (Oct 13, 2004)

mikeyts said:


> No and I'm not going that far. This set up worked fine with Series3, Premiere and everything else running HDMI through the AVR (PS3, Panasonic PBD, Roku 3, WD TV Live, Xbox 360 and this PC). I'm pretty sure that the Roamio is at fault here.


Well that's unfortunate, and annoying I'm sure. Maybe swap it out for another, which is a pain in the A as well.

Maybe try a different HDMI cable, or a different HDMI input on the AVR? Shot in the dark, but maybe...


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

keenanSR said:


> Well that's unfortunate, and annoying I'm sure. Maybe swap it out for another, which is a pain in the A as well.


Others have seen the loses-HDMI-connection-after-overnight-idle problem so hopefully it's a bug that'll be fixed in firmware at some point. If I switched to S/PDIF for sound I'd lose DD+ out of Netflix (though the TiVo would probably convert to basic DD, losing significant audio "punch" in the process).


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## keenanSR (Oct 13, 2004)

mikeyts said:


> Others have seen the loses-HDMI-connection-after-overnight-idle problem so hopefully it's a bug that'll be fixed in firmware at some point. If I switched to S/PDIF for sound I'd lose DD+ out of Netflix (though the TiVo would probably convert to basic DD, losing significant audio "punch" in the process).


Forgot about that, I'm returning a Premiere XL4 I picked up new for $80 a week ago and spending the money on a Roamio Basic instead, one of the main reasons was your comment at AVS about it being the best Netflix experiences you've had so far.

I'm throwing ideas out there because while the units are new and probably do have issues, TivoJerry's comment above didn't seem as if it was something TiVo was honing in on as a problem on their fixit list.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

I've had other issues with devices losing HDMI connection while not used for a while; my WD TV Live often requires that I switch to it, then switch to something else and back after it's been long idle. Hopefully getting picture back w/o sound after toggling standby was a fluke. The problem hasn't happened every day; having to restart the box every time it happens would be annoying though probably not a deal breaker.

I bought the basic Roamio for 4 tuners; if I'd had a 4 tuner Premiere I probably wouldn't have bothered to upgrade.


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## keenanSR (Oct 13, 2004)

mikeyts said:


> I've had other issues with devices losing HDMI connection while not used for a while; my WD TV Live often requires that I switch to it, then switch to something else and back after it's been long idle. Hopefully getting picture back w/o sound after toggling standby was a fluke. The problem hasn't happened every day; having to restart the box every time it happens would be annoying though probably not a deal breaker.
> 
> I bought the basic Roamio for 4 tuners; if I'd had a 4 tuner Premiere I probably wouldn't have bothered to upgrade.


I've notice that very same behavior with my WDTV Live as well, although I have not tried it with the X4000 yet, maybe it will be better.

The reason I'm going with the Roamio is that I just picked up the XL4 a week ago, been playing with, and then decided that for $120 more I'd have a device that is fresh in the pipeline and not one that has been somewhat crippled since release and is nearing "has-been" status as far as TiVo is concerned.

Well, $220 more since the 2TB HDD cost just under $100, it just seemed like the smarter move to me.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

Seems like the not getting audio back after toggling standby thing was not a fluke as it happened again this morning. Annoying to have to warm restart; hopefully it's a bug that will be fixed by and by.


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## tre74 (Nov 12, 2010)

I had to unplug my basic this morning to reestablish an HDMI connection. The blind technic did not work after several tries. This is the second time this has happened to this box. Whatever problems my Premiere had, and they were many, it never had this problem. One step forward, two steps back...


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## dswartz (Oct 9, 2007)

Hopefully not thread-jacking here. I opened a thread elsewhere on this board about a similar issue. Brand-new samsung 53-inch TV. Worked perfectly through HDMI with a series3. With my new roamio plus, not so much. If I turn off the tivo with the off button, the tv goes off too (remote was programmed). As expected. If a bit later, I hit the button again, the tv will not come on - the red 'power' light cycles on and off and screen flickering. For the moment I am using component video cables and all is well. I will try with HDMI again and try the standby button trick and see if that helps.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

What do you mean by turning your tivo off? Do you mean standby?


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## dswartz (Oct 9, 2007)

Sorry, not sure what the correct terminology is here. The tivo remotes have a 'power button'. I have programmed it to 'turn off' the TV. I know the tivo doesn't actually turn off. I don't know if it goes into standby or not when I do that.


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## cherry ghost (Sep 13, 2005)

dswartz said:


> Sorry, not sure what the correct terminology is here. The tivo remotes have a 'power button'. I have programmed it to 'turn off' the TV. I know the tivo doesn't actually turn off. I don't know if it goes into standby or not when I do that.


Pressing the power button is doing nothing to the TiVo, just turning off the TV. When the TV's off, does the power button on the remote that came with the TV turn the TV on correctly? If yes, you might want to try a different Samsung code on the TiVo remote.


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