# "No Signal" from Tivo to Television



## Davidian (Jan 9, 2003)

All of the sudden today, I'm getting a message that says "No Signal" when I put my television on the Tivo input. I know that there is a cable signal coming into the Tivo, but it seems as if the Tivo isn't putting any video signal out to the TV. 

And here's the oddest part.. If I reboot the Tivo by unplugging it then plugging it back in, the "Starting Up" orange screen comes up, then after a minute or so, goes to "No Signal". 

Note: the "No Signal" screen I am seeing is the one from my TV, not the one from Tivo. 

Has anyone seen this before, and is there a solution?

Thanks.


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

How is your TiVo connected to your TV? Have you tried an alternate method? If this is an HD TiVo, maybe you've got it set to the wrong resolution for your TV? Try using the 'Format' button on the front of the DVR to cycle through the different formats (720p, 1080i, 480i, etc.).


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

Try using component cables instead of HDMI, and/or use a different HDMI input.


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## awluter (Apr 25, 2008)

I began experiencing the exact same issue last night. Everything was working fine until I switched my TV's input away from the TiVo. When attempting to switch back to the TiVo, I was greeted by my TV's "no signal" display. So, I rebooted the TiVo. I was able to see the "starting up" screen, then after a couple of minutes, it goes right back to "no signal."

I am using an HDMI connection and have tested other HDMI inputs on the TV.

This is driving me crazy!


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

HDCP sucks! Switch to component ... problem solved.


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## jbernardis (Oct 22, 2003)

I have a sharp aquos in the bedroom connected to the Tivo via HDMI. If the tivo reboots while the TV is left on, the screen will eventually come up as all snow (it looks like the old analog snow, but I imagine it is digital snow  ). I can usually solve this by either turning the TV off/on, by cycling through the TV inputs, or by cycling the format button on the Tivo. Maybe an action such as this will solve your problem.

Sometimes this also happens when watching downloaded CNET videos (no others - just CNET). Either at the beginning of the video, or afterwards when it is returning to the menus. This latter behavior I don't understand because I have the video output resolution set to 1080i fixed, but the same actions as above fix it every time.

Incidentally, I have another tivo HDMI connected to a sony TV in the family room. It does NOT exhibit this behavior.


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## turbobuick86 (May 3, 2002)

Davidian said:


> All of the sudden today, I'm getting a message that says "No Signal" when I put my television on the Tivo input. I know that there is a cable signal coming into the Tivo, but it seems as if the Tivo isn't putting any video signal out to the TV.
> 
> And here's the oddest part.. If I reboot the Tivo by unplugging it then plugging it back in, the "Starting Up" orange screen comes up, then after a minute or so, goes to "No Signal".
> 
> ...


Resurrecting a two month old post found through search.

Longish story.....

Yesterday, I thought I was losing my mind dealing with this exact thing.

Fedex delivered the 1TB WD My DVR I ordered from Amazon. I hooked it to the bedroom TivoHD per instructions which should have taken 15 minutes. Booted normally twice but still didn't get any indication of the Tivo recognizing the expander, so tried again. This time after the orange "welcome to tivo" introduction screen, it goes to "no signal". This is a TV error message, not Tivo. Repeated same thing. Originally on HDMI, I hooked up component. Same thing. At this point I removed everything except the TV to Tivo connection. Same thing. I called Tivo, explained this mess, and tech support told me, "You didn't buy the expander from us and the model number you provided isn't on our approved list. It sounds like the unapproved expander toasted your Tivo. Would you like to buy a refurb tivo from us for $169?" That is an exact quote as I remember it. I explained to him that Tivo is all over the box and Amazon wouldn't bootleg mechandise, but he was looking at short list and this one apparently wasn't there.

At that point I just said goodbye to tech Jason, he wasn't much help anyway, and told him to open a reference ticket in case Amazon's lawyers needed it. 

I then took the bedroom non-booting TivoHD and installed into the home theater with a Pioneer rear projection TV (hey, it's an oldie but still a great picture). When the orange "Welcome to Tivo" screen timed off, there was an extra stutter and a hiccup, but it successfully continued and finished booting. Took it back to the bedroom and same "no signal" again. After again trying HDMI and component without success, just for grins, I tried S-Video, and surprisingly it finished booting.

Is there a resolution transition at the point between "welcome to tivo" and "just about there" screens? There is a couple seconds of dead air there even on a normal boot, right?

I then took the XL tivo from the theater and hooked up to the bedroom TV and it booted fine/normal/no problem at all.

Now I'm totally perplexed. I have 2 tivos that work and 2 tv's that work. I just have to match them together correctly. Which, btw, is exactly what I ended up doing. I spent 4 hours swapping the tivos and reconfiguring everything from the remotes to the season passes.

So I still don't know if the bedroom TV (Vizio 32" VOJ320F) is too sensitive to get past the hiccup/stutter and declaring "no signal" and then it can't reacquire or if the TivoHD is suddenly heading south.

Oh, and the "unapproved expander"? Well, it's working just fine on the same unit the tech said was ruined by it. Ironically, once the XL unit was in the bedroom for the wife's use. I don't really need the expander in the home theater, but now I can be lazy about deleting stuff.

That's my saga. Still not sure what the hell happened, but for the time being all is well.


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## Andyw2100 (Oct 10, 2004)

I recently (past week or so) started experiencing a similar problem.

My Series 3 Tivo is hooked up via HDMI to a Sony AV system and then to a Sony Bravia TV. Everything was working normally with this setup until recently, when I started having issues with the Tuning Adapter rebooting. (I've posted about that problem in the Time Warner Tuning Adapter thread.) But two or three times now I have turned the TV on only to have that "no signal" message from the TV. The first time I spent a while checking connections, etc., and finally rebooted the Tivo (by unplugging it.) I never saw the normal starting up screen, but at the point that it switched to the "Almost There" screen my video came back. The video then was fine, until the exact same thing happened a couple of days later. Again, when I rebooted I did not immediately get the first start screen, but a few minutes later I saw the "Almost There" screen.

While this doesn't sound exactly the same as what other posters in this thread have experienced it definitely seems like it could be related.

Any ideas?

Thanks.


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## apercer (Mar 14, 2003)

I just started getting the same today. No #[email protected]# picture. The sound is coming out fine, but no picture to the TV. The TIVO is definitely working in the sense that I can navigate menus and can switch between live TV and the list. The TV HDMI port works fine (switch in the DVD and is fine). 

I never had an issue with my series 2, but the series 3 has really soured me on TIVO. Between the freezing from Netflix and now this, it is driving me nuts.


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## krbuck (Jan 6, 2006)

I am having exactly the same problem with my HD XL. We were watching recorded video when the Vizio plasma display went to blue screen with "No Signal". I tried switching inputs, rebooting. When rebooting I get the "starting up" screen" but it goes away similar to what is described here. 

This is all very frustrating. I'm not even sure if it is the TV or the Tivo. We only have one TV so swapping out is not possible without buying or borrowing a new set. 

A side story: I have an Onkyo switching receiver that I was using months ago. When I saw this very kind of behavior, I switched the HDMI input to come directly from the Tivo and it started working fine. Now I'm seeing the same problem.

Help!


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Drop the HDMI cable and install a component video cable.


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## krbuck (Jan 6, 2006)

jcthorne said:


> Drop the HDMI cable and install a component video cable.


I will if I really must. I'm going to get a test TV hooked up via hdmi and see if it works. I'm hoping this will tell me if its the Tivo or the TV.


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## StorkInSJ (Jan 29, 2006)

I'm seeing the same thing with my onkyo. The signal drops every time I play after a ff or 30 second skip.

Switching to component, mind you means switching audio too, no? That means 10 cables instead of 1!

Greg


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## degerb (Aug 13, 2011)

After eliminating all other possibilities, I determined that the HDMI out port failed on my TIVO, so ran the video output via component and audio thru composite to solve the problem. I'm not sure why an HDMI port would fail, but that is clearly what happened in my case.


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## amatheu (Feb 6, 2010)

Davidian said:


> All of the sudden today, I'm getting a message that says "No Signal" when I put my television on the Tivo input. I know that there is a cable signal coming into the Tivo, but it seems as if the Tivo isn't putting any video signal out to the TV.
> 
> And here's the oddest part.. If I reboot the Tivo by unplugging it then plugging it back in, the "Starting Up" orange screen comes up, then after a minute or so, goes to "No Signal".
> 
> ...


I have the same issue, Tivo want to replace my Tivo for 80.00, and this happened after a Tivo update few months ago, I have to live with this painful situation since I not want to pay Tivo 80.00 for this, what I do, is press the Live Tivo button, or press channel 3 and with signal should come in, that is what I have to do in my.


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