# Premiere front display lights - just a curiosity question



## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

When I upgraded to a 2TB drive and had my Premiere's case open, I noticed that where the led's on the main board had clear plastic/acrylic pieces to carry the light to the front display where they show the red, blue, green, and amber circles. There are 5 lights on the front display, but there are 6 of these acrylic pieces that go from the main board to the front panel. Why is there an extra one on the green and amber side? there doesn't seem to be anything visible from the outside?
There is also something similar for the ir input, but it's obviously different than the others and that's not what I'm talking about.

I've labeled each one with the appropriate color circle, but the green and amber circles may be in the wrong position, but there's still an extra piece.


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## rhettf (Apr 5, 2012)

scandia101 said:


> When I upgraded to a 2TB drive and had my Premiere's case open, I noticed that where the led's on the main board had clear plastic/acrylic pieces to carry the light to the front display where they show the red, blue, green, and amber circles. There are 5 lights on the front display, but there are 6 of these acrylic pieces that go from the main board to the front panel. Why is there an extra one on the green and amber side? there doesn't seem to be anything visible from the outside?
> There is also something similar for the ir input, but it's obviously different than the others and that's not what I'm talking about.
> 
> I've labeled each one with the appropriate color circle, but the green and amber circles may be in the wrong position, but there's still an extra piece.


 the blue download light is next to the green light on the premiere, not next to the red.

eEdit: Sorry was looking at Elite.


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## rhettf (Apr 5, 2012)

Check out This:

http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/355

The lights on the front panel provide important information about the status of your DVR. The table below shows the meaning of the lights.

Green	
Power is on

Amber/Yellow	
Light flashes when a signal is received from remote.
Light is steady when a phone call is in progress.

Red	
Recording in progress

Blue	
Transfer or download in progress
Light flashes when a transfer is interrupted. See General network troubleshooting for tips.

Maybe that the yellow one.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

Thanks, but you don't seem to understand the question.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

Scandia is correct... It seems that there is an unused indicator to the left of the green indicator (as you are looking at the box)

I wonder if it is a diagnostic or kick start light of some type?


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## WhiskeyTango (Sep 20, 2006)

Maybe that part only comes in sets of 3, so they had one left over. I don't know, I'm just throwing crap at the wall to see what sticks.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

It does not look like the Elite has an extra unused indicator light.


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## scandia101 (Oct 20, 2007)

WhiskeyTango said:


> Maybe that part only comes in sets of 3, so they had one left over. I don't know, I'm just throwing crap at the wall to see what sticks.


That could be it. However, I seem to remember that the extra one had what looked to be an led under it, just like the others. I very well could be wrong, it was last July when I did the upgrade and who knows what I actually saw.


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

TiVo actually thought ahead on something. They have an extra LED indicator that they can implement when the need arises. I guess they plan to have this design around awhile.


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## GoEagles (Dec 2, 2006)

I swear I was thinking about this today. The front panel of the Premiere seems to have some extra LED indicators? Also, ever notice the HD menu for the tuners show 4 red circles no matter what if it's a Premiere or an Elite? It would be really funny if the Premiere had the capability to record 4 channels out the box, but was hardware blocked.


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

GoEagles said:


> It would be really funny if the Premiere had the capability to record 4 channels out the box, but was hardware blocked.


Technically it probably does, the chipset is hooked up to four tuners. It's just two of them are ATSC (antenna) tuners and two are QAM (cable) tuners; TiVo just presents them in the user interface as a pair of tuners that can record from either source. 
So with a change of software the TiVo Premeire probably could record two shows from an antenna while recording two more from cable.

TiVo Elite just ditched the ATSC tuners for 2 more QAM tuners and tweaked the software. But AFAIK otherwise it's using the same chipsets as the Premiere.


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## GoEagles (Dec 2, 2006)

Jonathan_S said:


> Technically it probably does, the chipset is hooked up to four tuners. It's just two of them are ATSC (antenna) tuners and two are QAM (cable) tuners; TiVo just presents them in the user interface as a pair of tuners that can record from either source.
> So with a change of software the TiVo Premeire probably could record two shows from an antenna while recording two more from cable.
> 
> TiVo Elite just ditched the ATSC tuners for 2 more QAM tuners and tweaked the software. But AFAIK otherwise it's using the same chipsets as the Premiere.


I know remember reading this on a hardware site when it first came out, it does have four tuners built in. Even if they "turned on" two QAM tuners and one OTA tuner, I could fine with that. I wonder what kick it in. I imagine software of course. Pop in an Elite hard drive into a Premiere box and see what happens.


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## Series3Sub (Mar 14, 2010)

What about an indicator for the upcoming extender device., especially of the extender is presumed to use one of the tuners from the box for a live TV stream to the extender in the other room. It would certainly be nice to have an indicator light that the person in the other room is using one of "my" tuners while I watch from the main box.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Series3Sub said:


> What about an indicator for the upcoming extender device., especially of the extender is presumed to use one of the tuners from the box for a live TV stream to the extender in the other room. It would certainly be nice to have an indicator light that the person in the other room is using one of "my" tuners while I watch from the main box.


But then there would be an extra LED on the Elite models.. I mean XL4 models.
The extra LED is only on the two tuner Premieres. Unless they did change something with the XL4 boxes. But I would think all they will do is change the nameplate on the left side from Elite to XL4.


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## oViTynoT (May 18, 2007)

Those acrylic prisms are called "Light Pipes", btw...


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

I think the answer you seek is here.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=487183

Seems that the Premiere has an indicator light for when you have a Dolby Digital+ audio stream.


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## rhettf (Apr 5, 2012)

steve614 said:


> I think the answer you seek is here.
> 
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=487183
> 
> Seems that the Premiere has an indicator light for when you have a Dolby Digital+ audio stream.


They are not talking about the TiVo box in the other post but a AV Receiver's DD+ light turning on.

From Article:

"The good news is that both 1080p and 5.1 are supported and we even saw the Dolby Digital Plus light on our AVR get some action."


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

rhettf said:


> They are not talking about the TiVo box in the other post but a AV Receiver's DD+ light turning on.
> 
> From Article:
> 
> "The good news is that both 1080p and 5.1 are supported and we even saw the Dolby Digital Plus light on our AVR get some action."


Oops (Dammit). I even read that quote in the linked thread. 
I must have thought "AVR" was a typo.


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