# Anybody else sick of Tuning Adapter issues?



## Saturn (Apr 10, 2001)

<rant>

I've got Time Warner (SE WI) and I'm really getting sick of the tuning adapter issues.

I had 2 cable cards installed 3+ years ago in a Series 3. They've worked marvelously until one of them failed recently (stuck in firmware upgrade mode) and needed to be replaced. That's fine.

The tuning adapters have been another issue. First, they were promised to us by the end of 2008, but it wasn't until an FCC complaint that I finally got one in March of 2009 (Cisco brand) and got all my channels back.

It worked fine for a few months but late 2009 it started going into an 8-blink cycle and needed to be kickstarted every 30 days (on the dot). That continued for about 6 months. By the end, one of the techs told me they (Time Warner) had to call in Cisco to get the issue resolved. A month or two later the Tuning Adapter was playing nice again, no longer needing manual intervention every month.

So I decided to get another HD TiVo to replace the aging Series 2 I had. Got another cable card and tuning adapter. That was a month ago. Two days ago the second tuning adapter has started the 8 blink cycle. 30 days. Again.

This is on top of Time Warner messing up the billing and double-billing me starting from the day I got the second TiVo setup... That was an hour phone call to resolve...

Anyway, I called to get the second tuning adapter reset. Spent 30 minutes on the phone, tuning adapter is stuck initializing. Tech says he's seen one take up to 2 hours to go to a solid light. 2 hours? Nothing takes two hours to boot. Windows 95 on a 386 with 4 MB of RAM doesn't take 2 hours to boot.

Here's my biggest frustration: Every time I call in, I get a completely different set of instructions. Most of the time they want me to unplug the power from the tuning adapter. Sometimes they want the USB unplugged. When I called today they told me to unplug the TiVo too. One had me leave the USB unplugged while it was initializing and wanted me to wait until it went solid before plugging in the USB. One time they sent a "hit" to the tuning adapter which rebooted it and made it come back to life all from their end. I think I may have had to hit the power button on the front once, but that's it.

Oh, and WHY oh WHY, Cisco, do I have to hit the power button on the front after it starts booting? Why does the damn thing even have a power button?

And now it seems all tuning adapter questions for Time Warner have to go to a specific "department" - sometimes they identify themselves as Tier 3. Today I was transferred twice before anyone even attempted to help me.

The tech I got last night told me I need a truck roll, and "scheduled" one for today. Called today but no tech had been scheduled... Problem still not resolved, tech scheduled for a house visit on Wednesday.

So half my problems are Time Warner, but the other half are clearly these stupid tuning adapters which seem to be unreliable pieces of junk with crap for software. Or something.

</rant>


----------



## pmiranda (Feb 12, 2003)

TiVo could reduce the impact of some of these issues by issuing tuning requests over and over until the channel actually tunes. And re-tune at the beginning of every recording to avoid the SDV channel from timing out and cutting off in the middle of a recording.

I think I need to just preventatively reboot the TA every week or two to avoid the other issue I see... it just stops tuning every once in a while... no errors in the diagnostic screens, just channel unavailable messages while the cable box next to it happily tunes anything.


----------



## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

All I can say is complain, complain, complain everytime there is an issue. Just make sure you are sending a copy to the FCC, see my sig, otherwise they have no reason to try and fix it.


----------



## parzec (Jun 21, 2002)

I gave my parents an HD Tivo, and tried for months to get it to work with the tuning adapter on a consistent basis without success. Calls to Time-Warner, truck rolls, rebooting, etc until we finally gave up. This kludge is a complete joke...


----------



## flyers (Dec 19, 2006)

I was sick enough to leave Bright House as soon as FiOS became available in my neighborhood.


----------



## Saturn (Apr 10, 2001)

parzec, you have an excellent point. While I'm persistent enough to stay on top of the tuning adapter issues, I can no longer recommend TiVos. My parents had an S2 that was dying and wanted HD anyway. I've been a TiVo customer since 2001 but I told them to get whatever crap DVR Time Warner offered. At least that one would work, and if there's any issues Time Warner can actually help them with it. When the box has a problem, my dad just takes it to Time Warner for a swap. He's back up and running in under an hour. I've spent longer on the phone with Time Warner this week than that for a tuning adapter issue and it still isn't working.

Cable cards were bad enough, but in my experience, after the initial install, they just sorta work. Tuning adapters are too finicky.


----------



## nrc (Nov 17, 1999)

innocentfreak said:


> All I can say is complain, complain, complain everytime there is an issue. Just make sure you are sending a copy to the FCC, see my sig, otherwise they have no reason to try and fix it.


This bears repeating. Complain to the FCC using the link below if your tuning adapters or cableCARDs are not working properly. The FCC is changing the rules. Cable providers are now *required* to provide you equal access to all their scheduled programming. They have threatened strict enforcement of this new rule. They can't follow through if you don't let them know about the problems.

http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm?sid=&id=d1e650


----------



## milo99 (Oct 14, 2002)

to answer the OP's question, YES. It's a driving reason i switched to FiOS as soon as i could after i moved to a house that it was available in this past summer.


----------



## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

pmiranda said:


> TiVo could reduce the impact of some of these issues by issuing tuning requests over and over until the channel actually tunes. And re-tune at the beginning of every recording to avoid the SDV channel from timing out and cutting off in the middle of a recording.
> .........


I agree. My biggest TA-related problem is missed recordings because the TiVo doesn't tune to the right SDV frequency and sits there recording blank video. TiVo does already re-tune (but just one try) at the beginning (and end) of recordings. Thus you can be sitting there with the channel intended for the recording already tuned, and it can still fail to tune that same channel when it retunes at the start of the recording.

I am on TWC with the Cisco TA and I've been a major complainer about TA problems on this forum. In my experience, I cannot definitely pin any problem on the TA itself. I know that one major problem has been because TWC fails to send required periodic authorization signals, which leads to the 8-blink-pause TA outage and requires (at a minimum) a call to TWC.

I've also seen (very seldom) the loss of several SDV channels. There's no way to tell whether the fault is the TA or TWC.

When I see the general ineptitude and lack of care of TWC regarding TiVo-related issues, I find it very tempting to blame them for most of the problems.


----------



## drevilkep (Aug 4, 2010)

No issues with my tuning adapter and TiVo here in N. Virginia with Cox. Not one reboot or missed recording in 3 months since I hooked it up. Fios just became available here but I don't know if I'll bother with the hassle of switching. Seems like TWC is one of the worst offenders when it comes to SDV issues so I'd blame them and their setups.


----------



## zowwie85 (Jul 25, 2010)

Complain to the FCC first and whatever franchise office next. It won't fix the technical problem, but the FCC has to hear from us. 

I have to reset my whole TiVo/tuning adapter contraption once a month, which is minor. The only other issue I have is the bug TiVo's ignoring - SDV kills suggestions.

They DO read everything that gets sent in.


----------



## rogmatic (Sep 17, 2009)

I had no issues for about 2 months, but last weekend I lost the tuning for no reason twice and had to reboot the TA. It works okay otherwise.


----------



## Saturn (Apr 10, 2001)

As icing on the cake the tech showed up today (right on time for once.) We went upstairs and the issue had been fixed. Tech said he fixed it remotely before he got here...

GRRRRR. I thought my TA was toast. 3 calls into support and nobody could send the proper hits to the thing to get it going again. I'm considering the FCC complaint now.


----------



## zowwie85 (Jul 25, 2010)

Saturn said:


> I'm considering the FCC complaint now.


Definitely complain. The FCC does read them. I think each well-written letter from a user who's had their time wasted by their cable company's lukewarm support for the product weighs more than polished submissions from big cable's law firms.


----------



## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

zowwie85 said:


> Definitely complain. The FCC does read them. I think each well-written letter from a user who's had their time wasted by their cable company's lukewarm support for the product weighs more than polished submissions from big cable's law firms.


I agree we should complain to the FCC -- I even started a thread (**here**) to promote that. I'd *like* to believe user complaints are given more weight than industry complaints. But I'm not aware of any actual evidence that is true. Are you?

I do notice a lot of filings that document face-to-face meetings between industry biggies and FCC biggies.


----------



## Saturn (Apr 10, 2001)

Well, the last time I complained to the FCC I was looking for a specific resolution (wanted the Tuning Adapter I was promised). In this case, the issue was resolved, it just took 3 days instead of a 15 minute phone call.

I'm not sure what a complaint would accomplish this time except possibly getting my account red-flagged by TWC.


----------



## zowwie85 (Jul 25, 2010)

Saturn said:


> I'm not sure what a complaint would accomplish this time except possibly getting my account red-flagged by TWC.


From my point of view, I don't care if an FCC complaint goes on my permanent record with the cable company. I'm a paying customer, right? If service was slower after the complaint I'd just file another claiming retaliation.


----------



## jonja (Feb 23, 2007)

pmiranda said:


> TiVo could reduce the impact of some of these issues by issuing tuning requests over and over until the channel actually tunes. And re-tune at the beginning of every recording to avoid the SDV channel from timing out and cutting off in the middle of a recording.


Pmiranda: Do you still have these issues with the Tuning Adapter? The problems you describe plague me a couple of times a month and sometimes I only find out about it later. Yesterday, it refused to tune into SyfyHD and record a show (had the same problem 3 weeks ago at the same time/channel) and over the weekend we missed a DISNHD recording that I had scheduled for my daughter.

I do not like having to monitor my recordings to see if they were recorded as scheduled. Last night I reminded myself to check Syfy, notice it was recording the Blank Screen of Nothing, cancel the episode and reschedule the showing for later that night (missed too much of it). As soon as I cancelled it, of course, the signal comes right through. But I only stumbled across the missing DISNHD show when my daughter asked to see it and I noticed it had not recorded. Too late.

I completely agree the Tivo should continue to poll the Tuning Adapter when it is clear to the Tivo that there is a missing video signal. Also, I would like to see the Tivo automagically schedule the next showing the way it does if the Tivo had been turned off when an episode was originally scheduled in a season pass. Since this only happens on SDV channels -- cable --- sometimes the same episode is replayed again and again. If the signal isn't available, then sign me up for the next showing of the same episode at the very least! 90% of the time this would solve the problem for me. I sent this feedback directly to Tivo---I am a beta tester---but got just generic "we'll pass it on" feedback.


----------



## pmiranda (Feb 12, 2003)

Yep, I still see this at least once a month. I had the same problem with a cableco DVR as well... it's a fundamental problem with SDV... sometimes the channel won't be available fast enough, so you either keep trying or you lose the program. TiVo is pretty good about picking up later airings of shows if I have a season pass or wishlist for them (which is most of what I watch), but if it just tried a little harder when first tuning, and/or was more "honest" about recordings (don't show that a recording is in progress if the video signal is unavailable!) and had a list of missed recordings (instead of going through the "to-done" list program-by-program) it would be less painful.


----------



## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

milo99 said:


> to answer the OP's question, YES. It's a driving reason i switched to FiOS as soon as i could after i moved to a house that it was available in this past summer.


'Definitely a temporary solution. Half of FIOS' bandwidth is already switched. Eventually, 100% will be.


----------



## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

Saturn said:


> The tuning adapters have been another issue. First, they were promised to us by the end of 2008


No, they weren't, actually. TWC never promised any date until right before release. Officially, they were under development until 2009. Speculation on the part of people who do not speak for a company is not a promise from the company. I'm no fan of TWC, but let's not blame them for something they didn't do.



Saturn said:


> but it wasn't until an FCC complaint that I finally got one in March of 2009 (Cisco brand) and got all my channels back.


Of what complaint, specifically, are you speaking? To my knowledge, no acceleration of the delivery of the TA was any result of any FCC complaint. That said, would one not expect a rushed delivery to be buggy? If anything, the FCC has caused far more problems than it has solved.



Saturn said:


> It worked fine for a few months but late 2009 it started going into an 8-blink cycle and needed to be kickstarted every 30 days (on the dot).


That sounds a little bit like a problem I had. It wasn't really related to either the TiVo or the TA, per se. Every time I paid the CATV bill on the web, the TAs - all three of them - would go belly up right after the billing cycle. Every time I would call in, the CSR would find problems with the account, fix it, and then the TAs would all start working immediately. If I paid via check, it never happened. My solution was to have my credit union pay automatically via check every month, now. It hasn't happened since.

More randomly, every once in a while one TA or the other would lock up. I haven't had that happen in a couple of months, though, so I am hoping the problem may be fixed.

Making the TAs USB based was a bad idea, and I publicly and privately said so before any development on the TAs had started.



Saturn said:


> So I decided to get another HD TiVo to replace the aging Series 2 I had. Got another cable card and tuning adapter. That was a month ago. Two days ago the second tuning adapter has started the 8 blink cycle. 30 days. Again.
> 
> This is on top of Time Warner messing up the billing and double-billing me starting from the day I got the second TiVo setup... That was an hour phone call to resolve...


Although it is impossible to tell, your problem sounds at least somewhat like the one I was having. If the billing isn't right, it can definitely screw with the channel mapping done by the TA.



Saturn said:


> Anyway, I called to get the second tuning adapter reset. Spent 30 minutes on the phone, tuning adapter is stuck initializing. Tech says he's seen one take up to 2 hours to go to a solid light. 2 hours? Nothing takes two hours to boot. Windows 95 on a 386 with 4 MB of RAM doesn't take 2 hours to boot.


They lied.



Saturn said:


> Here's my biggest frustration: Every time I call in, I get a completely different set of instructions. Most of the time they want me to unplug the power from the tuning adapter. Sometimes they want the USB unplugged. When I called today they told me to unplug the TiVo too.


There are definitely different lock-up modes. Some do indeed require a full reboot of both the TiVo and the TA. Speaking generally, I have found that if the TiVo can't receive any channels - not even analog - then it needs to be rebooted. If it is receiving all but SDV channels, then unplugging the USB and plugging it back in will usually clear the issue. If all digital channels are missing, then the TA usually needs to be rebooted. Better results seem to be obtained if the USB is removed and the TA allowed to boot fully - 3 or 4 minutes - before re-attaching the USB.



Saturn said:


> Oh, and WHY oh WHY, Cisco, do I have to hit the power button on the front after it starts booting? Why does the damn thing even have a power button?


I've wondered that, myself. Pressing it doesn't seem to trigger a reboot if the unit is live.



Saturn said:


> So half my problems are Time Warner, but the other half are clearly these stupid tuning adapters which seem to be unreliable pieces of junk with crap for software. Or something.


Things do seem to be getting better, and I would assign more like 75% of the blame to TWC, but the design is definitely poorly considered from the outset.


----------



## jonja (Feb 23, 2007)

pmiranda said:


> TiVo is pretty good about picking up later airings of shows if I have a season pass or wishlist for them (which is most of what I watch), but if it just tried a little harder when first tuning, and/or was more "honest" about recordings (don't show that a recording is in progress if the video signal is unavailable!) and had a list of missed recordings (instead of going through the "to-done" list program-by-program) it would be less painful.


I agree it should "try harder". I am trying a partial workaround for the one show on SyFy that has been unrecorded several times by this SDV issue. I have scheduled a 1 min manual recording that will occur right before the show comes on. I feel confident this will work (have had a recording at 8pm fail but the next show at 9pm record perfectly, same channel. Always the earlier recording is the one that fails for me.) but I can't do this for every show.

However, I would like more than just a list of missed recordings. I want it to find the next showing if there is one and record it (and yes, tell me it is doing that and why. Messages would be a great place for this).

Does your Tivo really automatically schedule the next episode if it is missed due to this SDV problem? I only use season passes/wishlists and my Tivo never tries to catch the next episode if the problem is due to "signal not available." I think it is because the Tivo counts the episode as having been recorded, even though it didn't work! I have had it pick up the next showing when the problem was not SDV related (for example, cable was out due to thunderstorm) but not once for this problem.

For SDV channels I may not get to a show for a couple of weeks, and then I find missing episodes even though most of these were shown on that channel several times the first week, but by the time I watch the show, I can't correct the problem manually. If I monitor the recordings the week they are recorded, I can manually force the Tivo to go for the next showing if I catch it in time...but wanting to avoid doing this stuff manually is why I bought a Tivo in the fair place.


----------



## Combat Medic (Sep 6, 2001)

My TiVo just decided to record a blank screen on two channels for 45 minutes again for the third time this week. I don't know if it is Time Warner's fault or TiVo's fault but I am getting ready to kick them both to the curb and get a DirecTV DVR. I'd get the new DirecTiVo but they can't even get that right.

I think I might be saying goodbye to TiVo.


----------



## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

Combat Medic said:


> My TiVo just decided to record a blank screen on two channels for 45 minutes again for the third time this week. I don't know if it is Time Warner's fault or TiVo's fault


Hmm. You're here in San Antonio, so it doesn't sound like a city-wide TWC issue. I haven't noticed any issues with any of my three TiVos, either. OTOH, it wouldn't have been too hard for me to miss, especially if this was very recent. When, exactly did it happen, and on what channels?


----------



## Combat Medic (Sep 6, 2001)

lrhorer said:


> Hmm. You're here in San Antonio, so it doesn't sound like a city-wide TWC issue. I haven't noticed any issues with any of my three TiVos, either. OTOH, it wouldn't have been too hard for me to miss, especially if this was very recent. When, exactly did it happen, and on what channels?


Tonight I flipped to Mythbusters as it was recording only to see that 43 minutes into it nothing had been recorded yet and there was just a grey screen.
Before that it went stupid at the end of House.
I can't remember what was before that.

Every time we power off and power on the UPS that supports the tuning adapter and the TiVo and after the long reboot all is well.

I did just have a thought about the cause. The UPS that supports this node for TimeWarner doesn't have any batteries in it. I wonder if I'm seeing the results of very quick power flickers that are upsetting the link between my node and my tuning adapter.

-Mike


----------



## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

Combat Medic said:


> Tonight I flipped to Mythbusters as it was recording only to see that 43 minutes into it nothing had been recorded yet and there was just a grey screen.
> Before that it went stupid at the end of House.
> I can't remember what was before that.


As it happens, I recorded Mythbusters tonight on two different TiVos. It's one of only a handful of shows I record on more than one Tivo. Both were OK.



Combat Medic said:


> I did just have a thought about the cause. The UPS that supports this node for TimeWarner doesn't have any batteries in it. I wonder if I'm seeing the results of very quick power flickers that are upsetting the link between my node and my tuning adapter.


Well, anything is possible, and UPS units are not made to run without batteries. I shouldn't expect so, though. Any sag of long enough duration to cause a failure condition in the power supply of the TiVo or the TA should be of sufficient duration to be noticeable to you. Of course, maybe the lights did flicker, and you just didn't notice. My house voltage sags every time one of the HVAC units starts up. I've gotten so I rarely notice.


----------



## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

Combat Medic said:


> Tonight I flipped to Mythbusters as it was recording only to see that 43 minutes into it nothing had been recorded yet and there was just a grey screen.
> .............


This is a known problem with TWC and Tuning Adapters, perhaps for other cable systems too. There are posts on it scattered over these forums. If you check the DVR Diagnostics and the Tuning Adapter diagnostics (in SDV SESSION INFO on the Cisco TA) you will probably see that there is no Program Lock and that the tuned frequencies differ between the two places, i.e., the tuner is trying to tune the channel on a different frequency than the SDV system indicates it should use. Usually if you retune the channel (e.g., channel up/down) it will come in, sometimes taking more than one retry.

TiVo is aware of this and their official position is that it's not a TiVo problem. However several of us believe this could easily be fixed by TiVo by sensing whether a tune succeeds and retrying if necessary. This also happens on Premieres so you would think the motivation would be there to fix it.

It may only happen to a small percentage of users. In my case I lose typically 1 to 3 recordings per week this way.


----------



## jonja (Feb 23, 2007)

Combat Medic said:


> Every time we power off and power on the UPS that supports the tuning adapter and the TiVo and after the long reboot all is well.
> 
> I did just have a thought about the cause. The UPS that supports this node for TimeWarner doesn't have any batteries in it. I wonder if I'm seeing the results of very quick power flickers that are upsetting the link between my node and my tuning adapter.
> 
> -Mike


I put my Tivo and Tuning Adapter on a 800 watt UPS (but not the TV). I no longer fear brownouts, which used to plague me during the summers. I highly recommend it.

My only remaining Tivo issue has to do with the missing video signal due to the SDV timing issues (Tuning Adapter) and alas this does not appear to be something that either the cable co's nor Tivo are working to actively address, each pointing to the other as the culprit.


----------



## scottc42 (Jan 5, 2006)

I'm in SE WI with Time Warner... the TA problems are a lot less often now, but the 8 blinks comes around every few months or so. However I just leave it alone. It resets itself after a couple days... just not worth the elevation in blood pressure points to deal with all the phone calls. I just sit back and wait for it to fix itself. The downside is that now, HD is pretty much for live viewing... wife does her season passes on non-digital/non-SDV channels; OR we double record on an S2 as a backup. I kinda' wish TiVo would give me free service on that 'backup' TiVo, since it's only purpose is to catch shows that get 'missed' on the HD set.

I am a true-to-heart TiVo fan, but I really marvel that TiVo continues to market their service in the same fashion. HD recording (season pass) is a hope, and MRV... what's that?


----------



## lamotte (Oct 11, 2004)

so far no issues for me. only problems i have had was getting my cable card installed properly. that took 4 trips and 2 no shows. what i am not looking forward too will be starting on tuesday here when they start SDV switching once and for all. crossing my fingers that all goes well.

my premier has been flawless and not without a single issue so far


----------



## Combat Medic (Sep 6, 2001)

jonja said:


> I put my Tivo and Tuning Adapter on a 800 watt UPS (but not the TV). I no longer fear brownouts, which used to plague me during the summers. I highly recommend it.


Got one.


jonja said:


> My only remaining Tivo issue has to do with the missing video signal due to the SDV timing issues (Tuning Adapter) and alas this does not appear to be something that either the cable co's nor Tivo are working to actively address, each pointing to the other as the culprit.


And for this reason I will be leaving both of them.


----------



## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

scottc42 said:


> I'm in SE WI with Time Warner... the TA problems are a lot less often now, but the 8 blinks comes around every few months or so. However I just leave it alone. It resets itself after a couple days... just not worth the elevation in blood pressure points to deal with all the phone calls.
> .................


I had the 8-blinks on average once per month for a year, and had my share of wasted time and elevated blood pressure. Now I've only had it once since last April. TWC is apparently running a script that updates our TA authoriizations. The last time, it only took a five minute phone call to get fixed -- no rebooting anything. The trick is to tell the CSR to go to "Screen 07" and hit the enter key. That screen is also called the "Customer Balancing" screen. I learned that from TCF user Grumock.

You can tell what date and exact time you will get 8-blinks. It's the "Sub expires" item in the third page of the "PowerKey" section of Tuning Adapter diagnostics (for a Cisco TA anyway). When things are working right, this date will always be 20 days or more in the future.


----------



## kkarhi (Mar 18, 2005)

I have the same problem. Here in Austin, TX at least, ATT markets their U-Verse service very aggressively. They call every now and then or drop by and try to get me to sign up. I keep telling them that I can not since they do not support TiVoHD.
One time recently a marketing rep called again and I explained once again that they do not support my system. This time the rep passed me on to a manager, who swore that ATT now supports TiVoHD. I was skeptical but then he started talking about it working through my computer via networking, so I thought maybe and scheduled an installation.
The installer came about three weeks later, so I guess they are expanding rapidly here. When I explained my setup to the installer, he right away said they do not support TiVoHD but, he added, they are working on a solution, probably out late next year. If they can come up with something, I WILL switch, I am so pissed off about this.


----------



## Combat Medic (Sep 6, 2001)

kkarhi said:


> I have the same problem. Here in Austin, TX at least, ATT markets their U-Verse service very aggressively. They call every now and then or drop by and try to get me to sign up. I keep telling them that I can not since they do not support TiVoHD.
> One time recently a marketing rep called again and I explained once again that they do not support my system. This time the rep passed me on to a manager, who swore that ATT now supports TiVoHD. I was skeptical but then he started talking about it working through my computer via networking, so I thought maybe and scheduled an installation.
> The installer came about three weeks later, so I guess they are expanding rapidly here. When I explained my setup to the installer, he right away said they do not support TiVoHD but, he added, they are working on a solution, probably out late next year. If they can come up with something, I WILL switch, I am so pissed off about this.


The thing that annoys me is that there is nothing at all keeping the TiVo from talking to U-Verse. Uverse is just an IP Stream carrying TV data. We are just a software change away from the TiVo being able to use its networking port as tuners and we are golden. But, as long as we pay out bills nobody cares about us.


----------



## lrhorer (Aug 31, 2003)

kkarhi said:


> The installer came about three weeks later, so I guess they are expanding rapidly here. When I explained my setup to the installer, he right away said they do not support TiVoHD but, he added, they are working on a solution, probably out late next year. If they can come up with something, I WILL switch, I am so pissed off about this.


There is a lot more than that stopping me. I frequently am recording three, four, even as many as six HD programs at once. Sometimes I am even downloading a movie to one TiVo or the other at the same time. U-Verse would croak and die in very short order. I think 2 is their limit for HD, or maybe even 1.


----------



## wisny (Sep 6, 2010)

The things are annoying. Can you use cablecards without them, or do you need a tuning adapter to use the cablecards?


----------



## pmiranda (Feb 12, 2003)

wisny said:


> The things are annoying. Can you use cablecards without them, or do you need a tuning adapter to use the cablecards?


You can use cablecards without a TA, but you won't get SDV channels.

I'm intrigued by the U-Verse on TiVo story, but very skeptical.


----------



## jonja (Feb 23, 2007)

wisny said:


> The things are annoying. Can you use cablecards without them, or do you need a tuning adapter to use the cablecards?


Every Tivo HD/Premiere needs cable cards unless you are going OTA only (over the air). If you have cable, you have to use a cable card.

On top of that, you need a Tuning Adapter if your cable company has moved to SDV: Switched Digital Video. Unlike FiOS or U-verse which use Fiber for much higher bandwidth, all cable will be forced to go to SDV because of limited bandwidth. So ALL cable customers (fiber is not cable) will be using SDV someday if they aren't presently (except for those who are still using 100% analog. No HD or digital.). And you MUST use a Tuning Adapter (free from your cable company) if want to access any (any!) SDV channel, which on Charter here in CT is almost all of my HD channels.


----------



## wisny (Sep 6, 2010)

pmiranda said:


> You can use cablecards without a TA, but you won't get SDV channels.
> 
> I'm intrigued by the U-Verse on TiVo story, but very skeptical.


Imma have to google that. I don't know what U-verse is.



jonja said:


> Every Tivo HD/Premiere needs cable cards unless you are going OTA only (over the air). If you have cable, you have to use a cable card.
> 
> On top of that, you need a Tuning Adapter if your cable company has moved to SDV: Switched Digital Video. Unlike FiOS or U-verse which use Fiber for much higher bandwidth, all cable will be forced to go to SDV because of limited bandwidth. So ALL cable customers (fiber is not cable) will be using SDV someday if they aren't presently (except for those who are still using 100% analog. No HD or digital.). And you MUST use a Tuning Adapter (free from your cable company) if want to access any (any!) SDV channel, which on Charter here in CT is almost all of my HD channels.


I was going to ask pmiranda how could you tell which channels were SDV, until I read your response. When I hooked up my TiVo at the end of August, I got all my channels up to 99, until TWC came and installed cards and the adapter. After they did that, I got no more suggestions. And some shows just don't record (particularly on Reelz) with any regularity. I was recording 3rd Rock from the Sun, and NewsRadio off Reelz. It was working peachy, until it just stopped. Sometimes it would record, sometimes it wouldn't. I'd walk in, and see it on gray screen, saying the tuning adapter wouldn't tune the channel, or something like that. Annoying. grrr.


----------



## jonja (Feb 23, 2007)

I filed an issue about this with Tivo and got back a response that says: this is not a Tivo issue. It is a Tuning Adapter issue. Crappy tuning adapters are not our problem.

The author compares my Tuning Adapter to cheap tires that I have put on a sports car (my Tivo) and says it is not the car's fault that the tires fail.

*Here was my response, which given I wrote it I am fine with re-posting here:*

Saying my "tuning adapter" are "cheap tires" really doesn't make sense. For a cable customer, they are the only tires sold at any price. It isn't like I can buy a better Tuning Adapter. They are provided by the cable company and you must use what they provide or nothing at all. Only one brand is sold and if you don't use them, you have to walk. If you want to sell cars, you have to design for the tires that exist not ones you wish would be manufactured some day.

Tivo absolutely can do something about this issue. It is explicitly a Tivo integration issue that all Tivo customers using cable will eventually be facing. ALL cable is moving towards SDV. And you don't get a choice because cable companies have local monopolies. And I don't believe my Tivo works with satellite, right? No FiOS in my area either -- nor in most areas and they stopped rollout. So Tivos must improve how they work with Tuning Adapters if they want happy customers.

I also suggested several things that Tivo could (and should!) do to improve support for Tuning Adapters, such as verifying that the channel was tuned and if it isn't, send another request. Instead my Tivo just locks up the Tuner for an hour or so, pretending to record a channel that is black, then after an hour it buries the failed recording in the log and deletes the recording. Does Tivo really not see where this could be improved?

Let me help out again with new requirements that would improve all Tivos that are forced to use Tuning Adapters (eventually ALL of your cable customers): 1) Verify a channel is tuned; resend the SDV request if it has failed. This is basic error correction protocol. 2) Let the user know something bad has happened. I only find out if I noticed a recording that should be there isn't. Bad. 3) Use Season Passes to schedule the next episode if the recording has failed. If I have a cable outage, you do this; if it is Tuning Adapter related, the Season Pass acts as dumb as a brick.​


----------



## wisny (Sep 6, 2010)

Good letter, jonja !


----------



## mdryja (Dec 24, 2002)

I'm a little nervous to say this, but after two weeks with our TA (Cox Phoenix), it's working perfectly. The Cox tech I reached when calling to activate it even knew what it was, and activation took two minutes.


----------



## BeeBee59 (Aug 10, 2005)

Saturn said:


> <rant>
> 
> I've got Time Warner (SE WI) and I'm really getting sick of the tuning adapter issues.
> 
> ...


I have the same problem....been an issue ever since I had to have one...half the time I can't get the HD channels and so the tivo doesn't record my show...I hate the gov


----------



## slyone (Jul 22, 2005)

wanta chime in...I got 2 Cisco t/a when they 1st came out-no worky! had em settin around for like 2 yrs. tried setup the other day, called level3 girl says "Remove USB wireless adapter" I did..it's been fine:up: tried the other 1 today-no go, so they're sending me out a new one..I'll let ya know. now I gotta hardwire(ethernet) my house


----------



## plazman30 (Jan 23, 2005)

<rant>
Reading this thread really annoys me. Not with TiVo, but with the cable companies. They all know they don't have enough bandwidth to deliver what they want to your house. So, rather than actually do something about by, I don't know, upgrading their infrastructure, they come up with SDV and put caps on total Internet bandwidth usage per month.

And then Verizon comes along with FIOS, finally opening up some damn competition with cable TV. You'd think at that point they'd wise up and start doing some upgrades. NO, instead they go spend money on politicians trying to make sure Verizon can't get a TV franchise in towns they are already in.

Screw them all and buy an antenna and get Netflix and Hulu Plus.
</rant>


----------



## Saturn (Apr 10, 2001)

lrhorer said:


> No, they weren't, actually. TWC never promised any date until right before release. Officially, they were under development until 2009. Speculation on the part of people who do not speak for a company is not a promise from the company. I'm no fan of TWC, but let's not blame them for something they didn't do.


I have a letter from TWC dated June 27, 2008:

"We expect to be able to offer Tuning Adapters to customers with compatible UDCPs later this year."

I concede it was not a "promise" but when I didn't have one 6 months later, I was pretty pissed.



lrhorer said:


> Of what complaint, specifically, are you speaking? To my knowledge, no acceleration of the delivery of the TA was any result of any FCC complaint. That said, would one not expect a rushed delivery to be buggy? If anything, the FCC has caused far more problems than it has solved.


I filed my own complaint with the FCC on 2/14/2009. I was provided a tuning adapter on 3/17/2009. I don't know for sure that the two events are related, but I suspect that complaint put me on the top of the list to get one at least.



lrhorer said:


> There are definitely different lock-up modes. Some do indeed require a full reboot of both the TiVo and the TA. Speaking generally, I have found that if the TiVo can't receive any channels - not even analog - then it needs to be rebooted. If it is receiving all but SDV channels, then unplugging the USB and plugging it back in will usually clear the issue. If all digital channels are missing, then the TA usually needs to be rebooted. Better results seem to be obtained if the USB is removed and the TA allowed to boot fully - 3 or 4 minutes - before re-attaching the USB.


I occasionally get these lockups too, that are resolved with a reboot of the TA, TiVo or both. However, in those cases the TA isn't blinking, but remains solid (and not working.) When it goes to 8 blinks, I've ALWAYS had to call in to get it fixed.



lrhorer said:


> Things do seem to be getting better, and I would assign more like 75% of the blame to TWC, but the design is definitely poorly considered from the outset.


Agreed. Since I had my account fixed and the tech fixed my TA remotely I haven't had any issues that a reboot couldn't fix (still annoying, but tolerable.)


----------



## HTH (Aug 28, 2000)

Sometimes I wonder that, with all these devices synced up to the exact same time server and making tuning switch requests at the exact same time, can the cable company really handle all those requests coming through at once, or are they dropping some of them? Apart from periods when the TA went into a coma (lights on, no signal at home), I don't think I've had a start-padded recording fail to tune.

Yeah, this does sound similar to my complaints about TWC's mystro software on their cable boxes. Why should I expect them to learn from their mistakes when they've never fixed them?


----------



## crusin_x1 (Dec 20, 2006)

I've also been plagued with problems. Ive been using a tuning adapter about about a year now. Not sure why I've stuck out this long. Maybe I've been hopping that the problems would be fixed. But I have Verizon FIOS available to me so I have no excuse. I will be making the switch asap. 

Shows not recording because it can't tune to the channel is just garbage. It's a constant problem for me also. i need to constantly check to make sure I'm still getting the SDV channels and restart things about weekly because it stops working.

The Tuning Adapters are junk and do not work properly.


----------



## tootal2 (Oct 14, 2005)

I got my tuning adapter 3 months ago and sdv still has not started here yet.
When sdv starts will they add more channels?


----------



## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

slyone said:


> wanta chime in...I got 2 Cisco t/a when they 1st came out-no worky! had em settin around for like 2 yrs. tried setup the other day, called level3 girl says "Remove USB wireless adapter" I did..it's been fine:up: tried the other 1 today-no go, so they're sending me out a new one..I'll let ya know. now I gotta hardwire(ethernet) my house


Have you trying just swapping the USB socket used by the Adapter and the TA? I seem to remember posts saying that can make the difference.

Hardwired is much better in general of course.


----------



## slyone (Jul 22, 2005)

dlfl said:


> Have you trying just swapping the USB socket used by the Adapter and the TA? I seem to remember posts saying that can make the difference.
> 
> Hardwired is much better in general of course.


 not sure..probably? well today I received my new tuning adapter and everything went ok so I turned off and installed usb wireless to update guide, reconnected everything and all seems ok..at least right now. Now I'll do the other HD upstairs and also try to run it with the Tivo wireless adapter and hope all goes and continues well!


----------



## Dr_Diablo (Nov 24, 2003)

Mines a Cisco tuner, an since it was added last June my system hasn't worked right since

Not to mention the dim wits at BH have no clue how to deal with a Tivo... BH won't train them, they want us to use their piece of **** DVR


----------



## DougJohnson (Dec 12, 2006)

crusin_x1 said:


> The Tuning Adapters are junk and do not work properly.


It's a shame you are having such troubles. But it seems to depend on the adapter, the system, and the local support people. My Motorola TA, on Time Warner Dallas, has just worked since they got it properly authorized in June. Not a lick of trouble. Knock on wood. --Doug


----------



## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

Dr_Diablo said:


> Mines a Cisco tuner, an since it was added last June my system hasn't worked right since
> 
> Not to mention the dim wits at BH have no clue how to deal with a Tivo... BH won't train them, they want us to use their piece of **** DVR


If you can't get all the channels you're paying for, then you're due a refund.


----------



## trackie999 (Sep 14, 2009)

I had a TA for years. Actually 4 because I keep having them replaced by Time Warner. 

For a long time I kept unhooking them after a month or two because I was sick of them going into 8 blink mode.

My issue is that TW keeps converting channels to SDV like there is no tomorrow. Last week Nickelodeon went to SDV, so now my kid can't watch his shows. I hooked up TA and got it authorized it's working for now.

I read that Cisco pushed out a FW upgrade to fix this issue and hope it will work, but if it doesn't, I will have no choise but to go with U-Verse or DirecTV. Unless, I can teach my 6 year old kid to explain TWC techs how to reset my TA.

To me it's obvious, this is a tactic by cable companies to force us to abandon Tivo and use their DVRs so they can charge an arm and a leg for a POS DVR.

This reminds me of Microsoft vs. Netscape. We should complain to FTC instead of FCC...


----------



## doubletee2 (May 10, 2008)

If you have a BH My Services account you can hit any of your equipment yourself, including a TA. Look under the Manage Equipment hot link and select Refresh. It works and you don't have to waste/spend time explaining to someone who doesn't or won't or can't understand your problem.


----------

