# Official Tivo HD issues thread



## knownzero (Feb 26, 2001)

Since I'm having a couple issues at the moment, I thought I might as well get the ball rolling and start a thread for anyone experiencing any problems.

My first issue was audio dropping in the menu. Still haven't figured that one out but now that I have the cable cards in I can't recreate the problem.

The next is the issue of pixellation on channels and in the menu. The pixellation is still there after the reboot. In the Diagnostics under the Cable Card menu Cable Card 1 has a signal strength bouncing back and forth between 75 and 81 where Cable Card 2 has a steady 87. Not sure what to make of those number.

The third is one that just happened - I was in the Now Playing list changing the way the groups are sorted, I changed it to Groups - Off and it instantly rebooted as soon as I hit enter. Tried it again after the reboot and I can't reproduce it.

Also, after a reboot, I don't have any sound. I have to turn the tv off and on to get the sound back (HDMI handshaking issue?)

So there's the short list, anyone else experiencing issues?


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## aus1ander (Sep 17, 2004)

I have my TivoHD with OTA HD and standard analog cable (no CableCards). I've had two issues:

Intermittent pixelization of standard Tivo menus -- this seems to be completely random, and I saw it primarily with component hookups. Since I switched to HDMI, I haven't been able to reproduce it. It was happening just after selecting an item (say the Now Playing Listing from the main menu) and pixelates right as the screen is rendering. This is quite infrequent for me though, I have only seen it 3 or 4 times.

Random reboot while in the antenna signal strength menu.

As far as I can tell, the pixelization issue in programming is confined to CableCard and not OTA. The pixelizations I get are when I have multipath (helicopter flying by my line of site) or during storms. Both tuners work equally well on my OTA HD.


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## ldc3000 (Jun 24, 2004)

I can't be 100 % for certain, but I think some changes require a reboot, kind of like how Windows make you do a restart. When I first changed my video format it did a reboot. It only did it the first time I changed it and if I remember correctly it did the same thing on both units.


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## kennedy (Aug 16, 2006)

aus1ander said:


> Random reboot while in the antenna signal strength menu.
> 
> As far as I can tell, the pixelization issue in programming is confined to CableCard and not OTA. The pixelizations I get are when I have multipath (helicopter flying by my line of site) or during storms. Both tuners work equally well on my OTA HD.


I have the same Analog and OTA setup as you and can confirm the reboot while in the antenna signal strength menu. My reboots have occurred while checking the signal strength on one of our low band VHF channels (RF-2). The signal strength hovers around in the 50s for a few seconds and then jumps into the upper 80s (which is where the signal locks on my S3) and then reboots. Checking the signal on other OTA channels appears to be fine.

And like you said, I have seen no pixelation on any channels that is not consistent with a momentary multipath issue.


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## URPREY (Sep 12, 2003)

aus1ander said:
 

> Random reboot while in the antenna signal strength menu.


I experienced this as well.


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## brermike (Jun 1, 2006)

I have experienced some minor pixelation on the Tivo menu screens, as well as during some programming content. The weird thing is, I don't think it has anything to do with the programming source becuase if I rewind and rewatch for the pixelation it is not there. I'm using HDMI so maybe the pixelation is being caused between the Tivo and the TV, and not via the cable cards. The pixelation is generally infrequent.

Another issue I am having is slow Tivo menus and guide. I mentioned this in another thread and the consensus seems to be that it will be fixed whenever the Tivo HD is upgraded to 8.3 like the original Series 3.

Other than that, it is working great. No reboots or cable card issues.


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## aus1ander (Sep 17, 2004)

ldc3000 said:


> I can't be 100 % for certain, but I think some changes require a reboot, kind of like how Windows make you do a restart. When I first changed my video format it did a reboot. It only did it the first time I changed it and if I remember correctly it did the same thing on both units.


When a TiVo reboots, its almost always because it encountered an error/bug, and automatically thinks to reset itself. I would say that your reboot experience is not normal functionality.


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## drewpydog (Jan 10, 2005)

I have my TivoHD hooked up via component to an older HD monitor (480p/1080i only, no HDMI). I noticed yesterday that on some SD programs there seems to be a scaler artifact where lots of horizontal jags go across the screen. Then it happened again on a CNET Tivocast program last night - it was unwatchable. There was even horizontal roll (like on a 1960s TV) for several minutes. All HD programs are OK. 

The not-great solution was to change the format from fixed 1080i to hybrid 480p/1080i . Now I have a pause when I go from SD to HD or to menu, but the jags and roll are gone. Hopefully this is a software problem and can be fixed.


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## Sandlapper (Oct 26, 2003)

The pixelation issues my not be a Tivo issue. I get pixelation on my HD channels without a Tivo for no reason sometimes. I think it has something to do with signal strength.


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## bigusmfan (Feb 20, 2002)

Sandlapper said:


> The pixelation issues my not be a Tivo issue. I get pixelation on my HD channels without a Tivo for no reason sometimes. I think it has something to do with signal strength.


But why then would it appear in the Tivo menus? I've only had a few minutes to play with my HD since the 2d cablecard was installed. I did notice some pixelation when first tuning to a different station. Don't recall that when I only had 1 card installed.


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## Vespa (Jan 5, 2002)

I have the format indicators enabled on the front panel (480p/I, 720p and 1080i) and I am hooked up to my Bravia 47 LCD. I noticed that when I switch between content of different formats, that it causing a slight delay and what appears to be a signal reset to my TV. I can tell its a signal reset, because my TVs display (time, input and type) appears for 5 or so seconds each time the Tivo switches between format. Could this be a result of the HDMI connection sending a new handshake each time? Its really annoying.


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## Phantom Gremlin (Jun 20, 2002)

I also see pixellation during playback. Definitely a TiVo issue, not a problem with source material. How do I know that? Simple: I jump back 8 seconds and pixellation is gone.

My guess is that TiVo is using crappy hard drives (aren't all consumer grade hard drives crappy these days?). These drives occasionally get soft read errors on playback. TiVo chooses to ignore the error indication and displays possibly corrupt data. The alternative would be to pause the playback while re-reading the sector or applying ECC. Jittering playback would be far more annoying to many more people.

But given the relatively slow data rates (full HD is only about 2 MB/sec) I'm surprised that the TiVo doesn't buffer enough to be able to do at least a few read retries, and if those still fail, to apply ECC to the data block, all without jittering playback. Maybe this is something that will be improved over time.

I also see the random reboots during signal strengh tests. Not really a big deal. The only reason I mention it is to let TiVo employees who may be reading know that the problem is apparently quite widespread.


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

drewpydog said:


> I have my TivoHD hooked up via component to an older HD monitor (480p/1080i only, no HDMI). I noticed yesterday that on some SD programs there seems to be a scaler artifact where lots of horizontal jags go across the screen. Then it happened again on a CNET Tivocast program last night - it was unwatchable. There was even horizontal roll (like on a 1960s TV) for several minutes. All HD programs are OK.
> 
> The not-great solution was to change the format from fixed 1080i to hybrid 480p/1080i . Now I have a pause when I go from SD to HD or to menu, but the jags and roll are gone. Hopefully this is a software problem and can be fixed.


That's a problem with the deinterlace circuitry in your HD monitor. It's not a problem with the Tivo.

If you see a horizontal scrolling bar, that is a grounding issue, either with the cable or the power.


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

Vespa said:


> I have the format indicators enabled on the front panel (480p/I, 720p and 1080i) and I am hooked up to my Bravia 47 LCD. I noticed that when I switch between content of different formats, that it causing a slight delay and what appears to be a signal reset to my TV. I can tell its a signal reset, because my TVs display (time, input and type) appears for 5 or so seconds each time the Tivo switches between format. Could this be a result of the HDMI connection sending a new handshake each time? Its really annoying.


You have native mode set.

When you have native mode enabled, the Tivo outputs the original resolution of whatever channel it is on. It outputs 480i on SD channels, 720p on 720p channels, and 1080i on 1080i channels. Some displays can sync between different resolutions in 0.5 seconds while others may take 6.0 seconds or longer. The cheap deinterlace circuitry in your Sony XBR appears to take five seconds.

You can set the Tivo to process every format to a single resolution in Settings -> Display, thereby eliminating the need for your TV to switch between different source resolutions. Choose Fixed 720p or Fixed 1080i. That will eliminate the resyncs, but at some sacrifice in quality if your TV has a better scaler than the Tivo.


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## aus1ander (Sep 17, 2004)

Well, my 30-second skip was reset this morning, so I can only assume it rebooted during the night. SW version number is unchanged (8.1.7a).

CORRECTION: Now I know for certain it rebooted in the middle of the Daily Show, since I only have a partial recording of it.


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## Vespa (Jan 5, 2002)

bkdtv said:


> You have native mode set.
> 
> When you have native mode enabled, the Tivo outputs the original resolution of whatever channel it is on. It outputs 480i on SD channels, 720p on 720p channels, and 1080i on 1080i channels. Some displays can sync between different resolutions in 0.5 seconds while others may take 6.0 seconds or longer.
> 
> You can set the Tivo to process every format to a single resolution in Settings -> Display. That will eliminate the resyncs, but at some sacrifice in quality if your TV has a better scaler than the Tivo.


Indeed I do have Native mode set. Since my TV supports 720p/1080i (and 1080p) what is the consensus as the best mode to choose? Or is this one of personal preference? I set it to 1080i for now.

Update: I just checked, and my TV is doing the same thing on Hybrid mode set to 1080i.


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## kennedy (Aug 16, 2006)

Vespa said:


> Indeed I do have Native mode set. Since my TV supports 720p/1080i (and 1080p) what is the consensus as the best mode to choose? Or is this one of personal preference? I set it to 1080o for now.


It's a personal preference. Ultimately, what looks best to _you_. If you have a "Full HD" set that does 1920x1080, then the conventional wisdom would be to pick 1080i Fixed.


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

Vespa said:


> Indeed I do have Native mode set. Since my TV supports 720p/1080i (and 1080p) what is the consensus as the best mode to choose? Or is this one of personal preference? I set it to 1080i for now.
> 
> Update: I just checked, and my TV is doing the same thing on Hybrid mode set to 1080i.


Hybrid mode passes 480i as 480p, 720p as 720p, and 1080i as 1080i. In other words, there is still resolution switching.

If you want avoid the resolution switching, at some sacrifice in quality, then you need to use Fixed. Use fixed 720p for 720p displays and fixed 1080i for 1080p displays. If you have a 768p display, try both and see what looks better to your eyes.

Channels like ABC, FOX, ESPN, ESPN2, and NGC-HD use 720p, so will probably look better in Fixed 720p. Channels like CBS, NBC, PBS, HBO, Showtime, Starz, Discovery, MTV, Food, HGTV, and Universal use 1080i, so will probably look better in fixed 1080i.


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## Vespa (Jan 5, 2002)

Yup...I switched it to Fixed and 1080i and the switching is gone.

Anyone have any early comments on the how good (or bad) the video scaler in the HD is?


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## Illrigger (Jul 26, 2007)

I'm getting pixelization/dropouts caused by the THD as well, usually once or twice an hour. I tried the rewind trick, and indeed it's not in the signal, as it wasn't consistently in the same place in a recorded show. I've tried different output modes (I usually run in 1080i because my CRT HDTV has a pretty severe overscan in 720p) with no change in the number or severity of the dropouts. It happens on shows recorded on both CCards, so that's not the issue. It's not a HUGE deal (it lasts less than a second, and is infrequest), and is probably a software glitch, or at least can be fixed in software. Hopefully we see a patch soon.

I have NOT have any audio issues, or dropouts on the menus as some have reported.


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## drewpydog (Jan 10, 2005)

bkdtv said:


> That's a problem with the deinterlace circuitry in your HD monitor. It's not a problem with the Tivo.


You are right. I took the TivoHD downstairs and hooked it up to my 1080p TV and had no problems with fixed 1080i output. I guess I have to live with the 5s delay on switching with the hybrid mode - until I can convince the wife for a new tv!


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## shizle (Jul 31, 2007)

I'm no expert but to my eye, the picture quality is significantly better when using native with the panasonic 600u. The switching is a bit annoying though.


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## jrm01 (Oct 17, 2003)

That would mean that your $2000 TV does a better job of scaling and/or de-interlacing than the $300 Tivo. Not totally surprising.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

jrm01 said:


> That would mean that your $2000 TV does a better job of scaling and/or de-interlacing than the $300 Tivo. Not totally surprising.


The real question is does the Tivo do a better job than the Comcast Moto HD DVR box.


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## msgreenf (Sep 5, 2005)

I have a probelm with playing back recored tv. When a pause a show and leave it paused for over 1 minute to talk or something and then hit play, no sound comes back. you have to pause and then play again to get the sound back


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## megazone (Mar 3, 2002)

I asked TiVo about the macroblocking issue and they issued this statement:


> We are aware that a small subset of TiVo HD users have reported experiencing some macroblocking on certain channels. We are gathering appropriate information about the issue to understand possible causes and hope to be able to resolve any known issues as soon as possible. We released a software update on August 1st that should fix this issue for many users.


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## mph005 (Jul 24, 2007)

megazone said:


> I asked TiVo about the macroblocking issue and they issued this statement:


Could you define what the macroblocking issue is that people are having?

I had noticed that after I first hooked up my TivoHD (without cablecards), all the channels (standard analog) looked crappier than I have been used to with my time warner dvr. I hadn't been able to define it, but it's as if the whole screen is made up of little blocks. All channels are watchable, and it's not intermittent (it's constant over the whole screen), plus the issue didn't change once I got cablecards. Doesn't seem to happen on my HD channels, but all others.

When watching it, I keep getting that "somethings not right" feeling. So I was curious if this is something that other people are seeing, or maybe I should start looking into if I have a weak signal or crappy cables.


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## nocturne1 (Aug 17, 2004)

Currently experiencing HDMI/HDCP negotiation issues with my new Philips 47PFL7432D/37 TV. Any time I change to the input, there's a few minutes of signal/no-signal/HDCP error messages, but then it finally works. The error states my TV doesn't support HDCP, but it obviously does. Haven't tried component video yet, but it'd be nice if this issue could be resolved....

Also running into issues where my analog cable channels stop having audio quite often. FYI, my setup doesn't have cablecards yet (this tuesday install).

*edit* Happens in both native and forced 1080 modes...


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

mph005 said:


> Could you define what the macroblocking issue is that people are having?
> 
> I had noticed that after I first hooked up my TivoHD (without cablecards), all the channels (standard analog) looked crappier than I have been used to with my time warner dvr. I hadn't been able to define it, but it's as if the whole screen is made up of little blocks. All channels are watchable, and it's not intermittent (it's constant over the whole screen), plus the issue didn't change once I got cablecards. Doesn't seem to happen on my HD channels, but all others.
> 
> When watching it, I keep getting that "somethings not right" feeling. So I was curious if this is something that other people are seeing, or maybe I should start looking into if I have a weak signal or crappy cables.


Have you checked your display settings on your TV? If you are using a different input than before, its likely you haven't set the display settings for that input correctly (since most newer displays have different display settings per input).


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## megazone (Mar 3, 2002)

mph005 said:


> Could you define what the macroblocking issue is that people are having?


http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=315836&page=11&pp=50
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=316313&page=38&pp=50
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=359944
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=360771
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=360826
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=360840
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=361000



> I had noticed that after I first hooked up my TivoHD (without cablecards), all the channels (standard analog) looked crappier than I have been used to with my time warner dvr. I hadn't been able to define it, but it's as if the whole screen is made up of little blocks. All channels are watchable, and it's not intermittent (it's constant over the whole screen), plus the issue didn't change once I got cablecards. Doesn't seem to happen on my HD channels, but all others.


That is NOT what other people are describing. Are the TiVo menus affected or just video? If the menus are affected, it is probably the connection between the TiVo and TV. If it is just the video, I'd suspect the cable connection to the TiVo - bad coax, weak signal, etc.


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## ChrisFix (Jul 31, 2007)

mph005 said:


> Could you define what the macroblocking issue is that people are having?
> 
> I had noticed that after I first hooked up my TivoHD (without cablecards), all the channels (standard analog) looked crappier than I have been used to with my time warner dvr. I hadn't been able to define it, but it's as if the whole screen is made up of little blocks. All channels are watchable, and it's not intermittent (it's constant over the whole screen), plus the issue didn't change once I got cablecards. Doesn't seem to happen on my HD channels, but all others.
> 
> When watching it, I keep getting that "somethings not right" feeling. So I was curious if this is something that other people are seeing, or maybe I should start looking into if I have a weak signal or crappy cables.


Without Cable Cards, you are looking at Analog SD, and your HDTV is probably having problems displaying this with any quality, and could be the source of the Macro-blocking as well. Many HDTVs do a poor job with Analog SD - worse than the plain old analog CRT you replaced.

With your TWC DVR, you are getting Digital versions of these SD channels, which while not HD, are considerably better picture quality than the Analog version. The problem with TWC is that even with Cable Cards, they don't provide the Digital version of the Analog SD (Digital Simulcast), so those channels won't look any better with the Cable Cards than without.

I have TWC 83000HDs, as well as a new TiVo HD (with a digital STB sitting beside it for comparison purposes), and you are correct, the Analog SD looks pretty crappy by comparison to the Digital SD version of the same programming. TWC has made it so that you really have to sacrifice to go TiVo...no Digital Simulcast, no VoD, and no SDV channels. They claim they are planning to move all Digital Simulcast channels to SDV, which is why they don't support it on CCs, even though they haven't yet switched.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

ChrisFix said:


> Without Cable Cards, you are looking at Analog SD, and your HDTV is probably having problems displaying this with any quality, and could be the source of the Macro-blocking as well. Many HDTVs do a poor job with Analog SD - worse than the plain old analog CRT you replaced.
> 
> With your TWC DVR, you are getting Digital versions of these SD channels, which while not HD, are considerably better picture quality than the Analog version. The problem with TWC is that even with Cable Cards, they don't provide the Digital version of the Analog SD (Digital Simulcast), so those channels won't look any better with the Cable Cards than without.
> 
> I have TWC 83000HDs, as well as a new TiVo HD (with a digital STB sitting beside it for comparison purposes), and you are correct, the Analog SD looks pretty crappy by comparison to the Digital SD version of the same programming. TWC has made it so that you really have to sacrifice to go TiVo...no Digital Simulcast, no VoD, and no SDV channels. They claim they are planning to move all Digital Simulcast channels to SDV, which is why they don't support it on CCs, even though they haven't yet switched.


This can be proven by simply connecting the cable directly to the TV and tuning in an analog channel to see if it looks the same.

The idea that high end HDTVs have bad analog tuners is a new one to me. The tuner in the HDTV is probably as good or better than the one in the Tivo. It seems more like this is a tuner problem on the Tivo that will hopefully be fixed in SW.


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## ChrisFix (Jul 31, 2007)

jmpage2 said:


> The idea that high end HDTVs have bad analog tuners is a new one to me. The tuner in the HDTV is probably as good or better than the one in the Tivo. It seems more like this is a tuner problem on the Tivo that will hopefully be fixed in SW.


I wasn't trying to say that the HDTV tuner is the problem...but the video processing of analog 480i on an HDTV varies a lot from manufacturer to manufacturer, from awful to sorta okay...with the result looking worse to many people than the same source on an analog tv. The issue that was being described was that Analog SD channels look worse on the TiVo than TWCs DVR...I believe the reason for this is that the TWC DVR has digital simulcast, so there are no analog SD channels, only digital SD.


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## knownzero (Feb 26, 2001)

knownzero said:


> Since I'm having a couple issues at the moment, I thought I might as well get the ball rolling and start a thread for anyone experiencing any problems.
> 
> My first issue was audio dropping in the menu. Still haven't figured that one out but now that I have the cable cards in I can't recreate the problem.
> 
> ...


To update my issues so far: The audio issue that I originally experienced doesn't exist now as described. The only time I have an audio drop is after a reboot with the TV on. I'm going to chalk this up to HDMI handshaking issues.

On the pixellation issue, the update seems to have done something but I don't think it's completely fixed. Has problems around noon today but none right now for the last hour. Not sure what to make of that. Still need to unhook some coax and stuff and see if that makes a difference.

The random reboot in the Now Playing must have been a one time thing, I can't reproduce it at all.


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## Jedi4141 (Jun 20, 2006)

jmpage2 said:


> The real question is does the Tivo do a better job than the Comcast Moto HD DVR box.


I will say without a doubt - yes. Now I only had the Moto Dvr for 6 weeks and used it sparingly but after the cable card install on the S3- SD as a whole looks much better.


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## mike_camden (Dec 11, 2006)

For those who are seeing pixelation on the menus; I have experienced the same. I just hooked my Tivo HD this evening, and it is in the process of applying the update. Cablecard install in on Saturday. I noticed the pixelation only while repeatedly tasking the system. Specifically, I did a channel scan, and it found over 300 channels; I wanted to see what was on all of those unnamed channels and to see howmany were unencrypted (watchable without cable cards). I went into the channel list and just kept hitting select to tell it to show that channel. After about 30 seconds straight of me just hitting select, the menu started to pixelate (lower right hand corner). I switched cables to a very good set of AR component cables that I have in the basement and started doing the same thing again. Same pixelation cropped up. So in my case at least, I'm attributing the pixelation in the menus to the system being overworked while I was selecting multiple channels (not something that I would consider to be a major problem as long as I don't see it in programming).


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## thepcdoc (Jul 31, 2007)

mike_camden said:


> For those who are seeing pixelation on the menus; I have experienced the same. I just hooked my Tivo HD this evening, and it is in the process of applying the update. Cablecard install in on Saturday. I noticed the pixelation only while repeatedly tasking the system. Specifically, I did a channel scan, and it found over 300 channels; I wanted to see what was on all of those unnamed channels and to see howmany were unencrypted (watchable without cable cards). I went into the channel list and just kept hitting select to tell it to show that channel. After about 30 seconds straight of me just hitting select, the menu started to pixelate (lower right hand corner). I switched cables to a very good set of AR component cables that I have in the basement and started doing the same thing again. Same pixelation cropped up. So in my case at least, I'm attributing the pixelation in the menus to the system being overworked while I was selecting multiple channels (not something that I would consider to be a major problem as long as I don't see it in programming).


You will....


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## biosehnsucht (Feb 23, 2005)

I've had the "pixellation" in the menus and in recorded/live TV both. The visual artifacts look like slightly corrupted MPEG streams, with some macroblocks getting discarded and then the resulting bad image being used in subsequent P/B frames until another I frame comes along to correct the issue. This causes the erroneous portion of the image to shift around a bit for a moment before it goes away.

Does not appear to be related to cable cards because I saw it before TWC showed up to install the CC for me.

However if I rewind and play again, it always happens the same. If it was only on what I'm watching I'd assume it was quality issues with the cable signal, but it happens occasionally in the menu too. I'd suspect some form of data corruption, either due to bad hardware (HD, SATA cable, RAM) or overheating components (MPEG decoder, etc). I think my temps are hovering around 35-37c last I checked?

I'm using HDMI but I never had such problems with the same HDMI cable connected to that clunker DCT6412. It's not like the sort of error you'd get with bad HDMI connection anyways (sparklies etc) since its quite obviously decode/blocking errors.

I'm hoping either there's a software fix or they find a hardware fix soon and let us either trade in at the store we bought them at or replace/repair for free.


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## knownzero (Feb 26, 2001)

I woke up this morning and the screen was black, no picture at all. I changed the channel and the picture came up for a second and then locked onto that image (freeze). Changing the channel again would grab the image for a second then freeze again. Everything else worked fine, the unit didn't completely lock up. I noticed that my signal strength as reported in the diagnostics for cable card 2 went from 89 to oscillating between 87 and 95. I rebooted the unit and the picture came back but the signal strength is now 62 for card one and 0 for card two but all the channels work and I'm getting more channel pixellaiton and menu pixellation than I did last night when it was stable. 

Weird - I've had it on for a few minutes now and the signal strength is 93 and stable for tuner 1 (cable card 1) but no signal strength even shows up in the menu for cable card 2 but everything seems fine.


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## megazone (Mar 3, 2002)

If you tune to an analog channel then go back to digital, does it clear up?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

So has anyone noticed a problem with the analog channels audio not being in stereo? The receiver does receive t2 channels but they are identical like a mono signal spread between the left and Right. I just realized last night that all the recordings I made from the analog channels are like this. The same recordings on the S3 are in actual stereo. I even swapped connections with my S3 and also connected the TiVo HD straight to the TV and had the same result.

Has anyone else noticed this or is it just my box?


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## knownzero (Feb 26, 2001)

megazone said:


> If you tune to an analog channel then go back to digital, does it clear up?


Nope, nothing worked to get the picture back (changing to analog, antenna or digital channel) until I rebooted the machine.

I figured out why I didn't have a signal strength on one of them, I had the channel on an antenna station.  Doh!


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## aus1ander (Sep 17, 2004)

Just noticed intermittent pixelation while watching an Unbox video...


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## kochsr (Jan 28, 2002)

i am having a problem where my TivoHD just isn't tuning analog channels intermittently. reboot seems to help, but then it dies again shortly thereafter. i plan on getting a cc installed... hopefully that will fix things.


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## Phantom Gremlin (Jun 20, 2002)

aus1ander said:


> Just noticed intermittent pixelation while watching an Unbox video...


When you see pixelation you should hit 8-second-rewind and see if the problem repeats or fixes itself. That would determine whether bad bits are on disk or whether it's just the playback path that's screwing up.

Quite often when I see pixelation it's only playback, not disk.


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## WeBoat (Nov 6, 2002)

Has anyone had a constant rebooting problem? My HD has already updated to the 'b software and today it has rebooted 3 times. Something I have not hd before. Seems to be rebooting when I hit the Tivo button.....


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## gbronzer (May 19, 2006)

Anyone tried playing MP3's over their network on the Tivo? Every time I do the Tivo reboots after several songs. It starts out fine, but after the 6th song or so, it reboots.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Does it play WMA files? I don't have any MP3s.


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## thinny (Aug 3, 2007)

I have the pixelation issue with my tivo HD and 2 SA cards.


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## aus1ander (Sep 17, 2004)

Phantom Gremlin said:


> When you see pixelation you should hit 8-second-rewind and see if the problem repeats or fixes itself. That would determine whether bad bits are on disk or whether it's just the playback path that's screwing up.
> 
> Quite often when I see pixelation it's only playback, not disk.


Confirmed to be NOT bad data, but random pixelation on an otherwise good source (Unbox). This only happened twice in the 2 hour movie, and was limited to several lines at the bottom of the screen.


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## kennedy (Aug 16, 2006)

gbronzer said:


> Anyone tried playing MP3's over their network on the Tivo? Every time I do the Tivo reboots after several songs. It starts out fine, but after the 6th song or so, it reboots.


No problem here. I have made it through about 20 consecutive songs with any problems.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

aaronwt said:


> So has anyone noticed a problem with the analog channels audio not being in stereo? The receiver does receive t2 channels but they are identical like a mono signal spread between the left and Right. I just realized last night that all the recordings I made from the analog channels are like this. The same recordings on the S3 are in actual stereo. I even swapped connections with my S3 and also connected the TiVo HD straight to the TV and had the same result.
> 
> Has anyone else noticed this or is it just my box?


I tried the analog outs and it has the same problem. Has anyone checked for me to see if their analog recordings that should be in stereo do the same thing? I really don't want to have to exchange the box unless it's warranted. If other people have the same problem then I know it's not my box.

Otherwise it works fine for me for digital recordings. But since I don't have any cable cards I had planned on using my TiVoHD for any analog recordings and over for one third of my HD recordings.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

So can anyone check their audio from their analog recordings please. If it isn't doing what mine is doing I need to exchange it. Anyone? I'll wait until Friday though TiVo is supposed to get back to me by Friday.


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## AGBulls (Jul 30, 2007)

Well, i just connected my unit and am getting the gray background on every channel with the coax connected directly to the back. Any ideas?

Edit: my tv and cable modem are on a 3.5dB splitter (3.5dB for each cable and cable modem). when I disconnected the cable modem and ran the coax directly into the tivo from the wall, the channels finally showed up. 

I have a three way splitter that is 7bB, 7dB and 3.5dB ... is using the two 7dB slots going to give me better performance here?

My setup really doesnt make it possible to not have the modem and tv on this same line. yes, i know it sucks...but i really dont have a choice. help!


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## Phantom Gremlin (Jun 20, 2002)

AGBulls said:


> I have a three way splitter that is 7bB, 7dB and 3.5dB ... is using the two 7dB slots going to give me better performance here?


Higher dB numbers are *bad*. You're measuring signal *loss* in dB. A perfect splitter would lose 3 dB.

So in this case if your signal level is marginal you want to feed the TiVo with the 3.5 dB output.

What's happening internal to the splitter is the signal is split in half once, giving 2x 3.5 dB signals internally. One signal is brought out directly, the other is split again, giving two other outputs, each of which has lost 7 dB compared to the original signal.

Use the built-in signal strength test to guide you. Your numbers should be high, in the 90s. I see readings of 100 for many channels.


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## AGBulls (Jul 30, 2007)

Phantom Gremlin said:


> Higher dB numbers are *bad*. You're measuring signal *loss* in dB. A perfect splitter would lose 3 dB.
> 
> So in this case if your signal level is marginal you want to feed the TiVo with the 3.5 dB output.
> 
> ...


I'm seeing 80's on these local access channels, and 100's on nbc, cbs, fox, wgn. i suppose i wont really know if i have issues until i get the cable card in there.

i just can't figure out why the signal strength meter doesn't seem to match the channels numbers i have. something seems off...


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## Dogen (Jun 13, 2004)

2 things:

1) This may clear up tomorrow, since I guess maybe something is still downloading (my cablecard only got activated about 5 hours ago), but I am not able to see information for a lot of programs if I try to search for them by using 'Find Programs'. Weirdly, I am able to see this information if I manually use the programming guide to scroll to whatever the show is. For instance, I can manually scroll to a show in the guide and set it for season pass, but then I go to look at the To Do List and not even the show I used to setup the season pass is on there. What gives?

2) I am getting the pixellation on both menus and TV playback, but it's not the end of the world. It is neither frequent nor when it occurs is it that annoying.

edit: Turns out number 1 must have been some kind of thing where the guide data had to percolate to the Tivo's database or whatever, kind of like I thought. Still getting the occasional pixellation, but it's still not that annoying.


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## bhaas (Aug 5, 2003)

Does anyone know if Tivo has acknowledged the reboot issue in the antenna signal strength scan? 

I just picked up a HD yesterday and saw it as soon as I tried to get a OTA signal measurement.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I didn't have mine reboot the one time I looked at the signal strength from the antenna, but that was when I first got the TiVoHD and set it up.
I'm still waiting to find out if anyone else has the problem from stereo audio from analog recordings where the TiVoHD sends it as a mono signal on the L and R audio channels.


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## knownzero (Feb 26, 2001)

I just came home for lunch and my Tivo HD was frozen...kind of. It's the same problem I've had before, the Tivo wasn't frozen per se as I could change channels but only a frame of the video would show up on the screen and then the picture froze. No matter the channel it would do the same thing until rebooted. Anyone else seeing this?


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

knownzero said:


> I just came home for lunch and my Tivo HD was frozen...kind of. It's the same problem I've had before, the Tivo wasn't frozen per se as I could change channels but only a frame of the video would show up on the screen and then the picture froze. No matter the channel it would do the same thing until rebooted. Anyone else seeing this?


It shouldn't be doing that. I would recommend you swap it out while you still can.


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## knownzero (Feb 26, 2001)

jmpage2 said:


> It shouldn't be doing that. I would recommend you swap it out while you still can.


I'm kind of wondering about this one because my brother had an older Series 2 that used to have a similiar problem and I never figured out what it was. New hard drives, connectors, fans etc and it never solved the problem. I've still got some time to return if needed so I'm going to see how it plays out. I think this one is a software glitch because it's not *really* locking up like my brother's dd but just not catching the video stream. I may try hooking it up over Component and see if it still does it, could be an HDMI handshaking issue as well.


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## aus1ander (Sep 17, 2004)

knownzero said:


> I just came home for lunch and my Tivo HD was frozen...kind of. It's the same problem I've had before, the Tivo wasn't frozen per se as I could change channels but only a frame of the video would show up on the screen and then the picture froze. No matter the channel it would do the same thing until rebooted. Anyone else seeing this?


I've actually seen this problem too, but only on recorded content, and only after I got the "b" software (although its possible I didn't have "a" long enough to see it). It only happens on my digital OTA channels (analog channels are fine).

The tuner itself is not stuck, but the playback is. I can hit "30 second skip" and it will skip forward and resume fine. I've also noticed increased random pixelation on my OTA digital stations. In fact, I would say the random pixelation I have now is worse with "b" than with "a". I have a feeling whatever is the issue with these TiVos, its not confined to just cablecards, but probably the later have it worse.


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## aus1ander (Sep 17, 2004)

Just checked some of my HD "suggestions" that were recorded over the last 2 days, and the pixelation is MUCH worse on digital OTA than it was last week. Nothing has changed with my setup (antenna position, cabling, no bad weather, etc).

All the shows exhibit the same behavior now (from at least last Saturday) where OTA HD *and* OTA digital SD recordings can get "stuck" in playback and you need to fast forward or hit "skip forward" to get it unstuck. I've had this happen on multiple stations (NBC and FOX so far).

The TiVo itself is still very responsive and responds to remote commands.


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## aus1ander (Sep 17, 2004)

Just checked OTA signal strengths, and they're running in the high 80s for all of my channels, which is pretty good considering my sources are ~30-40 miles away.

After exiting the signal meter, I hit "Live TV", and it reboots. Grrrr.


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## Dogen (Jun 13, 2004)

Anyone got unbox working? I can't get it to pop up on amazon.com proper and if I try to order off the Tivo it wants me to link my account, but then it tells me that my account is already linked to another tivo or some such jazz. Is this because the current software kills the naming?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

My Unbox is working properly, even though my TiVoHD name isn't showing up on the sysinfo screen. It's working at least for picking the box on Amazon and the content downloading to the box. I haven't tried picking anything on the TiVoHD itself.

Also can someone check their audio from their analog recordings on the TiVoHD and tell me if it correct please? Is it proper stereo or mono spread across both channels.


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## Dan S (Aug 8, 2007)

gbronzer said:


> Anyone tried playing MP3's over their network on the Tivo? Every time I do the Tivo reboots after several songs. It starts out fine, but after the 6th song or so, it reboots.


I have run into this same issue with my new TivoHD on a hard wired network. It seems to vary with how many songs I'll get through before it will happen, but it always happens eventually. I made sure to call Tivo and report this bug, and they logged it as a trouble ticket.

Very frustrating, because I was hoping to show the music feature to the wife. She would have enjoyed having one common box for TV and music, as opposed to the previous (and apparently still necessary) solution of one box for TV, and a separate ROKU soundbridge for listening to music.

Thanks!


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## Dan S (Aug 8, 2007)

aaronwt said:


> Also can someone check their audio from their analog recordings on the TiVoHD and tell me if it correct please? Is it proper stereo or mono spread across both channels.


I was indeed able to reproduce this same problem, and gave the details in the other thread that was dedicated to this issue.

Thanks!


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## Hawkeye22 (Aug 8, 2007)

gbronzer said:


> Anyone tried playing MP3's over their network on the Tivo? Every time I do the Tivo reboots after several songs. It starts out fine, but after the 6th song or so, it reboots.


My Tivo HD does this. I don't know if it is the bit rate the mp3 is recorded at that causes this or perhaps a mp3 recorded using VBR. It seems pretty random though.


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## aus1ander (Sep 17, 2004)

Hmm, so now my OTA problems have all but resolved. Very weird.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Dan S said:


> I was indeed able to reproduce this same problem, and gave the details in the other thread that was dedicated to this issue.
> 
> Thanks!


Thanks! Now i don't need to worry about exchanging my unit since it should be a software problem that should be corrected in an update.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

Mine did something weird just hours after my cable card install. I was browsing to channels and browsed to a premium channel.

The box locked up completely. The little yellow LED that blinks when it recieves a remote command wouldn't light up when pushing buttons on the remote and I couldn't get it to respond in any way.

After rebooting it (pulling the power plug) the machine has no problems tuning that channel on either tuner.

For all of the crapping on the Comcast DVR that I see around here I certainly can't remember the last time it locked up requiring a hard reset to come back into service.

I'm starting to wonder if I just paid $600 to be a Tivo Beta tester.


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## URPREY (Sep 12, 2003)

jmpage2 said:


> I'm starting to wonder if I just paid $600 to be a Tivo Beta tester.


Did you buy 2 of them? I paid MSRP of $299 for mine :shrug:


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## mike_camden (Dec 11, 2006)

jmpage2 said:


> Mine did something weird just hours after my cable card install. I was browsing to channels and browsed to a premium channel.
> 
> The box locked up completely. The little yellow LED that blinks when it recieves a remote command wouldn't light up when pushing buttons on the remote and I couldn't get it to respond in any way.
> 
> ...


Sometimes I wonder how much easier/more convenient we willing are making our lives with some of these devices. I know my wife gets sick of the new gadget.

You were fortunate with your Comcast DCT-641x if you never needed to perform a hard reset. Mine required them frequently.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

URPREY said:


> Did you buy 2 of them? I paid MSRP of $299 for mine :shrug:


Well it doesn't do much without the $299 3 year service contract. :up:


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## URPREY (Sep 12, 2003)

jmpage2 said:


> Well it doesn't do much without the $299 3 year service contract. :up:


I guess I'm spoiled by my $6.95 MSD


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

URPREY said:


> I guess I'm spoiled by my $6.95 MSD


Yes, try to look at things the way a "new subscriber" will. I realize that the viewpoint on this board is heavily slanted towards folks with multiple Tivo boxes, lifetime service contracts, $6.95 a month service charges, etc.

The typical consumer buying one of these boxes TODAY will be paying $299 for the box and $299 for 3 yrs of service.

Many *many* consumers simply won't put up with this type of thing. As bad as the cable company DVR is, at least it produces a solid picture.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

I've seen what might be a new one (for me anyway).

Noticed audio sync issues on several HD channels tonight. It was pretty obvious where the audio/video were out of sync by a second or more creating a lip sync problem.

I've only seen it on HD channels and it does not coincide with pixelation, audio dropout, etc.

Anyone else seeing this?

I'm on Comcast with two Motorola cable cards and I have not seen this on my other Comcast HD tuners.


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## jordanz (Jun 21, 2004)

I'm getting the audio dropouts on over-the-air HD.


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## adrianblack (Jul 2, 2000)

I wanted to post here that my Tivo HD has audio dropouts problems when listening to any Dolby Digital audio source over optical. Probably 3-4 dropouts per hours. It's so frustrating that I had to switch the unit to PCM --- which fixes the problem. Of course, I'm pissed I have to give up the 5.1 sound on the channels that have it just to keep the dropouts from happening.

They aren't recorded - instant replay and I'll hear the dropped audio.

My stereo is a Sony STR-DE885 -- which has no problems with any of the other Dolby Digital devices including my old Motorola HD DVR. I would think if there were problems with the Tivo communicating to my receiver it would happen when it was sending a (higher bitrate) PCM 48Khz signal...

I still have a little time to return the unit to Circuit City is anyone thinks this isn't normal. I just don't know what to do.


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## knownzero (Feb 26, 2001)

After a couple days of minimal pixellization problems, yesterday had a boatload of them. The frequency of them just baffles me, there's no discernable pattern (to me) yet to say 'ah ha! that must be it!'.

Although there's one thing that I keep seeing that seems odd but I don't know if this just a coincidence or what. Whenever I fire up my laptop (wireless) or am on my laptop and I'm surfing heavy content pages, I usually start to get increased pixellization. It's not 100% of the time but it's happened enough times to make me wonder if there's something to it.


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## mike_sjc (Aug 14, 2007)

I have both cable and an antenna. When I look at the signal strength in either it will work ok for a while, then the machine reboots. As a brand-new buyer who just sunk $600 into this thing ($299 purchase, 3 year subscription) I'm worried I may have been too hasty to dump the Comcast DVR. Yeah it was a piece of junk that didn't respond reliably to the remote, recorded the same show over and over, and couldn't be programmed over the net. So I wanted to get my hands on something better. $800 for the S3 was hard to swallow, but I jumped at the Tivo-HD set. Except now it reboots itself, something the cursed Comcast box didn't do. As the not-so-happy owner of 3 days I'm wondering if I should try to exchange it because the unit is defective or just live with this and I'm not sure what else down the line. Looking thru this thread I see other people have the same reboot problem. Any advice?


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## jfh3 (Apr 15, 2004)

mike_sjc said:


> I have both cable and an antenna. When I look at the signal strength in either it will work ok for a while, then the machine reboots. As a brand-new buyer who just sunk $600 into this thing ($299 purchase, 3 year subscription) I'm worried I may have been too hasty to dump the Comcast DVR. Yeah it was a piece of junk that didn't respond reliably to the remote, recorded the same show over and over, and couldn't be programmed over the net. So I wanted to get my hands on something better. $800 for the S3 was hard to swallow, but I jumped at the Tivo-HD set. Except now it reboots itself, something the cursed Comcast box didn't do. As the not-so-happy owner of 3 days I'm wondering if I should try to exchange it because the unit is defective or just live with this and I'm not sure what else down the line. Looking thru this thread I see other people have the same reboot problem. Any advice?


1) Call Tivo and report the specifics of the problem. There are some issues with "toxic channels" that are still unresolved.
2) Note that it's far more likely to be a software issue than a hardware one.
3) If it only happens while you are in signal strength meters, don't lose too much sleep over it


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## kochsr (Jan 28, 2002)

well, i've finally got my tivoHD exchanged (first one wouldn't tune analog cable after ~1 hour). 

this one takes a REALLY long time to switch channels. every time it says it is searching for a signal, then decides to tune it in. pretty annoying. any suggestions?


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

kochsr said:


> well, i've finally got my tivoHD exchanged (first one wouldn't tune analog cable after ~1 hour).
> 
> this one takes a REALLY long time to switch channels. every time it says it is searching for a signal, then decides to tune it in. pretty annoying. any suggestions?


I think the S3 was very similar when you first started using the box. It seems to eventually speed up after initial caching. Give it another day and it probably will be much quicker.


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## Phantom Gremlin (Jun 20, 2002)

mike_sjc said:


> When I look at the signal strength in either it will work ok for a while, then the machine reboots. As a brand-new buyer who just sunk $600 into this thing ($299 purchase, 3 year subscription) I'm worried
> ...
> Any advice?


Simple advice: "*don't do that*"

My box also reboots frequently when I look at signal strength. But *I don't really need to* look at signal strength. I'm on cable and the signal is very very good, usually 100%. Once you get a good quality signal into your box you shouldn't need to look at the signal strength either.

If this rebooting is the only thing wrong, then just don't do that and consider yourself lucky that you don't have any of the pixelation problems other people are seeing.


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## Dr_Diablo (Nov 24, 2003)

mike_sjc said:


> I have both cable and an antenna. When I look at the signal strength in either it will work ok for a while, then the machine reboots. As a brand-new buyer who just sunk $600 into this thing ($299 purchase, 3 year subscription) I'm worried I may have been too hasty to dump the Comcast DVR. Yeah it was a piece of junk that didn't respond reliably to the remote, recorded the same show over and over, and couldn't be programmed over the net. So I wanted to get my hands on something better. $800 for the S3 was hard to swallow, but I jumped at the Tivo-HD set. Except now it reboots itself, something the cursed Comcast box didn't do. As the not-so-happy owner of 3 days I'm wondering if I should try to exchange it because the unit is defective or just live with this and I'm not sure what else down the line. Looking thru this thread I see other people have the same reboot problem. Any advice?


Mine is doing the same as yours is. When I reported this, among all the other issues the Tivo Tech had no comment other then to say they are aware of these "known" issues...

Best advise is to keep calling Tivo in the hope that with all of their customers with this "new" TivoHD product they might get motivated to find the solution to these problems.


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## mike_sjc (Aug 14, 2007)

Dr_Diablo said:


> Mine is doing the same as yours is (eg. the reboot in the antenna menu) When I reported this, among all the other issues the Tivo Tech had no comment other then to say they are aware of these "known" issues...
> 
> Best advise is to keep calling Tivo in the hope that with all of their customers with this "new" TivoHD product they might get motivated to find the solution to these problems.


Well, I guess not all the Tivo agents are reading these forums. I called and the agent said "gee, that's the first I heard of it". So no known issue to the guy I spoke with.

He did tell me, though, that a SW update was done within the past few days so I should try it again to see if it still happens.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

mike_sjc said:


> Well, I guess not all the Tivo agents are reading these forums. I called and the agent said "gee, that's the first I heard of it". So no known issue to the guy I spoke with.
> 
> He did tell me, though, that a SW update was done within the past few days so I should try it again to see if it still happens.


TiVo customer support doesn't read these forums so you should never assume reports here will ever been seen by them.


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## bdlucas (Feb 15, 2004)

Phantom Gremlin said:


> Simple advice: "*don't do that*"
> 
> My box also reboots frequently when I look at signal strength. But *I don't really need to* look at signal strength. I'm on cable and the signal is very very good, usually 100%. Once you get a good quality signal into your box you shouldn't need to look at the signal strength either.


And if you do need to look at signal strength you can see it (and more, including s/n and error rates) on the Diagnostics screen. That isn't quite as convenient as the signal strength meter overlay, but works just fine if all you want to do is check a problematic channel.


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## Dr_Diablo (Nov 24, 2003)

Mine does "restarts" for no apparent reason, five times now in ten days. Tivo has no clue why it does this.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

Mine did one restart shortly after the cable cards were installed. We were browsing channels and "poof" it locked up and had to be hard booted.

It has not locked up once since that time. If your box is rebooting frequently I would check the internal temperature, etc. You might just have a bad unit.


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## MoranJ2000 (Aug 7, 2007)

OK, so I just got off the phone with TiVo to tell them that the b2 update did nothing for me (two SA S-Cards, Comcast, getting macroblocking often) and she told me that no further updates are pending re: the macroblocking issue.

She basically told me to have the cable company hit the cards again and check on the signal strength (which is always at or near 100, since there is a powered repeater in my attic).

This scares me, because it sounds like they consider the problem solved, which it is clearly not. 

Anybody know what gives? How many people out there are still having the issue post-b2?


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## Mikef5 (Jun 4, 2007)

MoranJ2000 said:


> OK, so I just got off the phone with TiVo to tell them that the b2 update did nothing for me (two SA S-Cards, Comcast, getting macroblocking often) and she told me that no further updates are pending re: the macroblocking issue.
> 
> She basically told me to have the cable company hit the cards again and check on the signal strength (which is always at or near 100, since there is a powered repeater in my attic).
> 
> ...


Moran,
The one thing that struck me about what you said was that there was a powered repeater in your attic. It is quite possible that you are over powering the signal to your Tivo which will also cause you to have macro blocking, just like if the signal is to low. Try running a line with nothing on it not even the power repeater to the Tivo and see if that helps. Too strong of a signal is just as bad as to weak a signal when it comes to tv's. It's worth a shot 

Laters,
Mikef5


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## burningcedar (Aug 5, 2007)

MoranJ2000 said:


> OK, so I just got off the phone with TiVo to tell them that the b2 update did nothing for me (two SA S-Cards, Comcast, getting macroblocking often) and she told me that no further updates are pending re: the macroblocking issue.
> 
> She basically told me to have the cable company hit the cards again and check on the signal strength (which is always at or near 100, since there is a powered repeater in my attic).
> 
> ...


TiVo called me today with some follow-up questions regarding my post-b2 macroblocking issues. Specifically they wanted to know cablecard brand (SA), type (single), number of cablecards (2), firmware version (1), and signal strength levels (87 on the one channel we checked).

Since they initiated the call, that suggests to me that they're still trying to diagnose the problem -- but they are at least working on it.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

At least they are working on that. They don't seem to be working on the mono audio from the analog channels problem since they can't seem to understand the difference between mono and stereo. At least that the way it sounds when I've talked with them. It's been very frustrating dealing with them recently.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

aaronwt said:


> At least they are working on that. They don't seem to be working on the mono audio from the analog channels problem since they can't seem to understand the difference between mono and stereo. At least that the way it sounds when I've talked with them. It's been very frustrating dealing with them recently.


I wouldn't assume just because a customer service rep doesn't know of every issue in the TiVo HD that the engineers don't. In fact, it appears that it is the exact same issue that existed in the initial S3 launch.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

rainwater said:


> I wouldn't assume just because a customer service rep doesn't know of every issue in the TiVo HD that the engineers don't. In fact, it appears that it is the exact same issue that existed in the initial S3 launch.


I wasn't talking with the CSR. I was supposedly talking with one of the technical people on two different occasions. That was after going from the CSR, to the supervisor, to someone else then to the tech. At least that is what they told me unless they were lying which makes it even worse. Especailly after being on the phone for 1 to 1.5 hours on both occasions. Which was a big waste of my time.


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## Phantom Gremlin (Jun 20, 2002)

bdlucas said:


> And if you do need to look at signal strength you can see it (and more, including s/n and error rates) on the Diagnostics screen. That isn't quite as convenient as the signal strength meter overlay, but works just fine if all you want to do is check a problematic channel.


That's a good tip. I wish I had known about the Diagnostics screen earlier, when I was having signal strength problem.


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## MoranJ2000 (Aug 7, 2007)

Mikef5 said:


> Moran,
> The one thing that struck me about what you said was that there was a powered repeater in your attic. It is quite possible that you are over powering the signal to your Tivo which will also cause you to have macro blocking, just like if the signal is to low. Try running a line with nothing on it not even the power repeater to the Tivo and see if that helps. Too strong of a signal is just as bad as to weak a signal when it comes to tv's. It's worth a shot
> 
> Laters,
> Mikef5


Thanks for the tip. Comcast installed that thing about six months ago because I had a grainy picture using their non-HD STB. I'll pull the plug on it and see what happens. Although, it's hard to fathom how it would improve my picture with the old hardware and degrade it now. Also, I have an S3 in the house that isn't exhibiting any problems and never has.

Joe


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

aaronwt said:


> I wasn't talking with the CSR. I was supposedly talking with one of the technical people on two different occasions. That was after going from the CSR, to the supervisor, to someone else then to the tech. At least that is what they told me unless they were lying which makes it even worse. Especailly after being on the phone for 1 to 1.5 hours on both occasions. Which was a big waste of my time.


The tech isn't going to be someone on the TiVo HD dev team. They are only there to help trouble shoot issues in more detail than the standard reps. I feel confident they will fix the issue eventually since they have already fixed the exact same issue on the S3.


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## bmints (Aug 27, 2007)

bkdtv said:


> You have native mode set.
> 
> When you have native mode enabled, the Tivo outputs the original resolution of whatever channel it is on. It outputs 480i on SD channels, 720p on 720p channels, and 1080i on 1080i channels. Some displays can sync between different resolutions in 0.5 seconds while others may take 6.0 seconds or longer. The cheap deinterlace circuitry in your Sony XBR appears to take five seconds.
> 
> You can set the Tivo to process every format to a single resolution in Settings -> Display, thereby eliminating the need for your TV to switch between different source resolutions. Choose Fixed 720p or Fixed 1080i. That will eliminate the resyncs, but at some sacrifice in quality if your TV has a better scaler than the Tivo.


This worked like a charm! Thanks for the advice. Glad I searched before posting a new question. This was one of my biggest grievances with my new box.


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## qtheking (Aug 27, 2007)

I just picked up a 2nd Tivo HD. The first one is upstairs in the bedroom on a 1080i CRT, so i have it set on Fixed. Downstairs I have a Sony SXRD going through a Yamaha V1700 Reciever. Here is the problem:

When it is set in Native and I leave the TV on and change inputs, etc on the reciever, it stays in native mode. When I change TV inputs or turn the TV off while the reciever is still on, it goes back to fixed 1080i mode. If I turn the reciever off first then turn the TV off, it stays in native mode. Does anyone know of a way to fix this as it is very annoying to turn the tv back on and see 4:3 stretched (I also have it on smart scan as my tv auto-sideboxes)?

Thank you!

I get my CableCards (COX PHX) installed Thursday on both boxes. Let's see if they can get 4 SA S-Cards working!!


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## qtheking (Aug 27, 2007)

It appears if I change inputs before I turn the TV off it's also fine. So it appears to be an issue of the Tivo HD selecting a video output format when it has to re-handshake. It is running version A software. Is there a way to force an update?


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## qtheking (Aug 27, 2007)

Upgraded to Rev B. No change in HDMI functionality. This is one thing the cox box did properly =(


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## multiple (Aug 26, 2007)

My TiVo HD records repeat showings that are set up as "First Run Only". My S3 correctly does not record repeats when the season pass is set up exactly the same way. It happens to many shows I have set up this way, but not all.

The program descriptions show the program is a repeat on both the TiVoHD and S3.

So I doubt this issue is a guide data problem.


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## megazone (Mar 3, 2002)

multiple said:


> My TiVo HD records repeat showings that are set up as "First Run Only". My S3 correctly does not record repeats when the season pass is set up exactly the same way. It happens to many shows I have set up this way, but not all.


Is it within 28 days of the episode's first airing? And did the HD record it before?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

rainwater said:


> The tech isn't going to be someone on the TiVo HD dev team. They are only there to help trouble shoot issues in more detail than the standard reps. I feel confident they will fix the issue eventually since they have already fixed the exact same issue on the S3.


I'm glad i don't have to wait for them anymore to figure out what mono and stereo is. I hooked my TiVoHD boxes up to FIOS so all my SD channels are digital now. So now I have stereo again from the SD channels since I don't need to watch the Comcast analog channels anymore..I watched The 4400 tonight. There is a gigantic difference between the mono and stereo signal when you apply DPLIIx processing to go from 2.0 to 7.1


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## Frank Furter (Mar 28, 2006)

Hawkeye22 said:


> My Tivo HD does this. I don't know if it is the bit rate the mp3 is recorded at that causes this or perhaps a mp3 recorded using VBR. It seems pretty random though.


Count me in too. I use a Mac, could it be tied to that? Very random, though. I have a two year old that looooves her MP3's, and it's annoying to stop all the fun and wait for the Tivo to reboot. Wireless network, BTW.

I have reported this bug to a contact I have at Tivo, and based on their response (or lack thereof), they don't seem real interested in addressing it.

I've been a longtime Tivo user, and one thing that has always bewildered me about the company is the whining about market share, and profits, and this and that, but never any direct communication with the masses, or acknowledgment of problems. I think they suffer from we're-the-only-game-in-town-itus. (yeah yeah yeah, there's other DVR's out there, but come on, do they remotely compare to the Tivo?)

Which is the overall problem. A bad day with Tivo is better than a good day on my old Cox Motorola DVR. *shudders*.

But come on, Tivo, fix some stuff, will ya? You'll only sucker us in a few more times until we get tired of it (or your lawyers fail in suing competitors) and something better comes along.


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## Hawkeye22 (Aug 8, 2007)

Frank Furter said:


> Count me in too. I use a Mac, could it be tied to that? Very random, though. I have a two year old that looooves her MP3's, and it's annoying to stop all the fun and wait for the Tivo to reboot. Wireless network, BTW.
> ...


I use a PC so I don't think using a Mac is a problem. Also, I'm hard wired into the network.


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## Frank Furter (Mar 28, 2006)

I finally got around to turning on logging to level 20 on Tivo Desktop to see if I could log a crash. 

I let it play while we had dinner, all that stuff, it never crashed. Which is an observation, it doesn't seem to ever crash when you leave it alone. It's only when you pause, navigate to other songs, albums, artists, stop, start, etc.

Anyway, I did just that, tried to abuse it, and it crashed. I say abuse, but it's really nothing more than I usually do. I have ADD.....:^)

But the logs show nothing unusual, so I can quit blaming Tivo Desktop. And since it crashes on the PC and wireless or wired, it appears the Tivo HD is a piece of crap. -OOPS-. Did I say that out loud?

Acknowledgment would be nice, it's pretty much reproducible.

Oh well. I may be frustrated, but as it stands, if a competing company comes out with the next best DVR, it's not going to take much for me to switch. I love/have loved Tivo, but lack of innovation over the past 7 or 8 years is a bummer. I mean, isn't the interface more or less unchanged since day one? And please, don't call "Swivel Search' innovation. It's pointless, as is downloads from break.com. Who's brilliant idea was that? Add in weak Mac support, and the general sluggishness of the HD unit, I dunno. Just bummed, I guess. Maybe an axe to grind. I really just want a fun experience.


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## Hawkeye22 (Aug 8, 2007)

Frank Furter said:


> Anyway, I did just that, tried to abuse it, and it crashed. I say abuse, but it's really nothing more than I usually do. I have ADD.....:^)


Yeah, I tend to _abuse it too_. Funny thing is Live365 works like a champ. I would think that streaming off a LAN would be more ideal than streaming off the Internet.


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## Frank Furter (Mar 28, 2006)

I agree. I think it has to be a code issue (obviously), because I'd certainly think recording HD content was a little more intensive than streaming a 3MB MP3.

BTW - ALL the MP3's I listen to are my own rips (as opposed to DRM's iTunes stuff). All 256Kbps (not VBR).


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## Lenonn (May 31, 2004)

I don't know if it's an issue or not. I have the TiVo HD hooked up to both an antenna and our cable (I haven't ordered digital or HD yet from RCN); the same television also has a Series 2 hooked up. When I set up the unit, I selected both cable and antenna. But for some reason, when I go through the channels on the TiVo HD, I can only get video and audio on the antenna channels, and some of the digital cable channels that are unencrypted. The basic/extended basic channels have no audio or video whatsoever. However, on the series 2, the basic/extended basic channels are appearing just fine.

Any ideas what might be causing this?


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## jrm01 (Oct 17, 2003)

Lenonn said:


> I don't know if it's an issue or not. I have the TiVo HD hooked up to both an antenna and our cable (I haven't ordered digital or HD yet from RCN); the same television also has a Series 2 hooked up. When I set up the unit, I selected both cable and antenna. But for some reason, when I go through the channels on the TiVo HD, I can only get video and audio on the antenna channels, and some of the digital cable channels that are unencrypted. The basic/extended basic channels have no audio or video whatsoever. However, on the series 2, the basic/extended basic channels are appearing just fine.
> 
> Any ideas what might be causing this?


I would guess that when you hooked up the Tivo HD you added a coax splitter to the input, or changed a 2-way splitter to a 3-way splitter. Try connecting the cable directly to the THD (no splitters) and see if you get a signal.


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## Lenonn (May 31, 2004)

jrm01 said:


> I would guess that when you hooked up the Tivo HD you added a coax splitter to the input, or changed a 2-way splitter to a 3-way splitter. Try connecting the cable directly to the THD (no splitters) and see if you get a signal.


Regarding the splitter: yes, we used to have a two-way one hooked up (input into it, and then output to the TiVo Series 2 and separately to the coax hookup on the television itself), and yes, I switched it to a three-way splitter (the two TiVos and the television itself) when I hooked up the TiVo HD. I won't be able to test out removing the splitter until Saturday, though.


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## Lenonn (May 31, 2004)

Lenonn said:


> Regarding the splitter: yes, we used to have a two-way one hooked up (input into it, and then output to the TiVo Series 2 and separately to the coax hookup on the television itself), and yes, I switched it to a three-way splitter (the two TiVos and the television itself) when I hooked up the TiVo HD. I won't be able to test out removing the splitter until Saturday, though.


I managed to get a chance to try hooking the coax cable directly to the TiVo HD, and the basic/expanded cable channels are being received just fine. So something about the splitter is preventing me from accessing these channels on the HD when I have a cable split going to the t.v. itself and both TiVos.

If this is going to be a problem, I may need to move the series 2 to another room; unfortunately, it has a whole lot of stuff on it, so I wouldn't want to do that until TiVo gets MRV activated.


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## Phantom Gremlin (Jun 20, 2002)

Lenonn said:


> So something about the splitter is preventing me from accessing these channels on the HD when I have a cable split going to the t.v. itself and both TiVos.


Your splitter is of inferior quality. The HD channels are frequently up at about 700 MHz or so and your splitter can't go that high. Buy a good splitter or ask the cable company to give you one.

Even with a good splitter the TiVo HD is picky about the input level. It doesn't do as well as an S3 in that regard. So you may need to add a distribution amplifier to your setup. Add the amp ahead of the splitter.

Here are pointers to two different brands of distribution amplifiers. The Motorola one can frequently be found at Circuit City. I can attest to its quality. If you buy a bad distribution amplifier it will be like buying a bad splitter.

http://broadband.motorola.com/consumers/products/signal_booster/

http://www.dropamp.com/


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## Lenonn (May 31, 2004)

Well, I messed around with the cables earlier today (before leaving for work), tightening them all and suddenly the TiVo HD was picking up the basic/extended basic cable channels just fine. When I got home from work about forty minutes ago, again the channels have no video or audio (but I'm also not getting one of those "searching for" messages - I almost never see that message).

My splitter is (if I recall correctly) the one found here: link

I'll look into getting a signal booster/distribution amplifier.

*Addendum:* Whenever I restart the TiVo HD, it gets the cable signals properly.

*Second Addendum:* I've checked the diagnostics, and even when I'm clearly getting a good signal on basic cable channels, the diagnostics indicate a signal level of 0. The unencrypted QAM channels show a level of 50-60, and the antenna channels, generally in the high 80's range.


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## Smirks (Oct 7, 2002)

I've been having a weird audio problem that is kinda like the others mentioned, but not really.

It only seems to surface when changing channels or rewinding/fast-forwarding/un-pausing.

Full details can be seen here: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=365857

The problem has persisted for almost 2 weeks now. I'll be calling TiVo to report the issue on Monday.


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## theguru1974 (Apr 9, 2002)

My Tivo HD seems to crash/reboot a lot while viewing an HD channel - I have Comcast with 2 single-stream CableCards installed. Most ppl here seem to see crashes while in menus or other things - does it happen to you folks while just viewing?

How do I force an upgrade to get this new 9.1 software?

Thanks,
Eric


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## megazone (Mar 3, 2002)

theguru1974 said:


> How do I force an upgrade to get this new 9.1 software?


You can't. It has not been released yet, it is only in deployment trials so only a handful of people have it. In a couple of weeks, unless there are issues, they'll start deploying it widely and then you'll get it.


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## silypuddy (Jun 4, 2007)

megazone said:


> You can't. It has not been released yet, it is only in deployment trials so only a handful of people have it. In a couple of weeks, unless there are issues, they'll start deploying it widely and then you'll get it.


So is 9.1 a beta or what? Does anyone know what features are in 9.1?


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## megazone (Mar 3, 2002)

silypuddy said:


> So is 9.1 a beta or what? Does anyone know what features are in 9.1?


No, it is in a pre-release phase right now. And yes, we do - find the threads discussing 9.1 in this forum and the Coffee House.


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## lafos (Nov 8, 2004)

Lenonn said:


> Well, I messed around with the cables earlier today (before leaving for work), tightening them all and suddenly the TiVo HD was picking up the basic/extended basic cable channels just fine. When I got home from work about forty minutes ago, again the channels have no video or audio (but I'm also not getting one of those "searching for" messages - I almost never see that message).
> 
> My splitter is (if I recall correctly) the one found here: link
> 
> ...


I just got a TiVo HD and used it for a week or so with analog cable until the cards were installed. It worked fine without the cards, but now, when I get home from work, all the analog channels are blank, no video or audio. All the digital and HD channels work fine. When I reboot the TiVo HD, the analog channels come back. This has happened twice on consecutive days. Any idea on where I should look?

I have a TiVo DT on the same splitter (the splitter from the cable co.) and it receieves the analog channels just fine.


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## kirk1701 (Feb 5, 2007)

getting a little disgusted with my S3

First I have a 30 to 45 second freeze up in the line up menu when I go to search for shows, tonight I don't know WTF happened, we were watching a recorded show in the now playing list and two shows started recording at 8 PM. It was just a few minutes after 8 and we started to watch another show that was already recorded and all hell broke loose, I could access all the menus but no video, no live TV nor tell if the shows that were scheduled to record at 8 were actually recording. 

I played with it a little while and then the colorful background just went grey and the menu looked like freakin DOS!!!

OK, at this point I knew it needed to reboot but the red lights on the front looked like they were recording so figured Id wait till 10 because I had two more shows also recording from 9  10 PM. 

I rebooted it at 10 and it came back up fine, all 4 shows from the 8 til 9 and the 9 til 10 time slots were all recorded and saved but we still wasted the whole evening because we couldnt access anything. 

Havent decided for sure yet but I may RMA the thing, Im going to set my old one (series 2) back up and record the same shows on it that I am on the series 3 till I see if it happens again. This way Ill still have my shows on the old box if I decide to send the series 3 back with shows I didnt get a chance to watch at that point on the S3.


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## HDClown (Nov 2, 2003)

My TiVoHD is recording repeats on season pass, even though it's set to first run only. Not sure if I'm doing something wrong or it's a bug.


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