Tuner was unavailable??

[bmgoodman]

My sister called me last week and asked me why her Tivo wasn't recording a program that was on at that moment. It was set up in advance and appeared in the To Do List. I guided her to the recording history and she read out that the show wasn't being recorded because the "tuner was unavailable". She switched to live TV and saw the program had just started. She tried to record it. It looked like it was going to record, but she said the red light never came on. We went through this several times and I finally had her reboot the Tivo. Functionality was restored. Her Tivo is a non-modified Series 2.

Last night, I noticed Saturday Night Live wasn't recording on MY Series 2. It was on the To Do list. I switched over to Live TV and saw it was playing. I tried to record it and it acted like it was going to record it, but it never appeared on the Now Playing list. I looked in recording history and saw the "tuner was unavailable". I had to reboot to restore functionality. Now I notice my Tivo stopped recording on Wednesday of this past week. Everything since then was not recorded because the "tuner was unavailable". I've never seen this behavior before, but to see it on 2 different Series 2 Tivo units in two different locations (different town, different cable co.) in the span of a week?? It's an odd coincidence, don't you think? :eek:

OK, I am running 7.2.0. Anybody else see this lately?

[simonalope]

What's your signal source? Analog cable straight from wall into TiVo, or is there a cable/satellite box?

[bmgoodman]

Analog cable from the wall to the Tivo. And in no case have I seen any evidence of a cable outage.

[ZeoTiVo]

HAve not seen this error before. That is definitely worth calling in to CSR about.

[bmgoodman]

Do you think that it will help at all? Will I be able to get them to review my logs (assuming I *have* logs :D ). I really don't want to lose trust that Tivo will record things!

[simonalope]

Do you think that it will help at all? Will I be able to get them to review my logs (assuming I *have* logs :D ). I really don't want to lose trust that Tivo will record things!

Given that no one else here seems to have heard of this error, TiVo is really your only/best bet for getting this fixed. This seems like a hardware issue, and that's really their area. If the first CSR you talk to isn't helpful and won't connect you to someone who knows hardware, I would try PM'ing one of the TiVo employees who posts here.

[bmgoodman]

Well, I guess since nobody else has responded to this thread, these must be isolated and unrelated incidents. I have to say, though, it sure is an odd coincidence. Of course, if any of you later turns up some "tuner was unavailable" messages, feel free to pile on!

Thanks.

[ZeoTiVo]

Do you think that it will help at all? Will I be able to get them to review my logs (assuming I *have* logs :D ). I really don't want to lose trust that Tivo will record things!


once they have your TSN number - which they get when opening the trouble ticket - they can indeed review your logs. that is the whole point of a trouble ticket - gives them the go ahead and neeeded info to see what is going on inside your TiVo.

[hardnose]

Just wanted to let you know that I have had this same experience - twice now! Once in September, missing the season premiere of Smallville, and the second time we discovered tonight. It's like the system clock is frozen, preventing any recording from being done, either scheduled or manual. I think it's at the point where I'm going to have to make a call. :)

[Troy J B]

dangit, bad luck by reading this thread :(
since Monday (Jan 23rd) I've been getting the "tuner was unavailable" message :(
this on a 7.2.1-oth (sony with replaced/upgraded drives)

using with cable without a box

[hardnose]

That makes 3 of us out of....how many TiVo users now....1.1 million, or something like that? Pretty exclusive club....

[MegaHertz]

My S2 TiVo started doing this on Tuesday night of this week. I only noticed tonight so have missed several days worth of recordings. Have any of the other users reporting gotten a solution from CSR?

[bmgoodman]

I can gladly report I have not seen or heard of this issue since I reported it late last year. However, I still wonder if this is something that is under-reported?

[KellyR66]

I have a TIVO Series 2 with cabletv directly plugged in as well as a directv tuner. Yesterday, I checked that American Idol, Lost, and Invasion were in my "to do" list. I noticed at 10:25pm that Invasion was not recording. I looked at the history log and it said Invasion was not recorded because "tuner was unavailable". I went to live tv and changed to channel 25 and hit the record button which started recording Invasion. I've never seen this error before. Invasion is on directv 25 (not the cable). I'll check when I get home today that it is recording everything else it is supposed to record.

[TiVoStephen]

I can verify that we're not aware of this issue and I personally have never heard of it. Please do go ahead and call support. If it doesn't get escalated and solved, drop me an e-mail.

Sorry that you experienced this problem. Good luck!

Best regards,
Stephen

[KellyR66]

I called Tivo support and explained what happened. The CSR checked with the helpdesk and then told me that they have heard of this issue before. They don't have much info on it but the solution he gave me was to power cycle the tivo box. When I get home I will make sure it recorded what it was supposed to last night. If it didn't then I'll try the power cycle.

[Tricket]

I've had this problem on most of my Tivo units, but very sporadically. Generally on the HDVR2 units, I think. I've figured it was just a "system is corrupted after X days up," and a power cycle fixes it. It's happened maybe ... 4 times? ... over the course of 3 or 4 years. Enough to be very aggravating when it happens, but hasn't impacted me greatly, since the Tivos are still the most stable of my equipment :)

[MegaHertz]

Agreed in three years it has only happened once, but it would be nice if they could find a solution for the problem. I am calling support right now hopefully by opening a ticket they will be able to find something useful in my logs.

[timckelley]

I've had a series 2 for 3 years, and a series 1 for 2 years (analog cable straight to boxes) and AFAIK, this has never happened to me.

[KellyR66]

Followup on my post from yesterday...

It looks TIVO lost it's mind 53 minutes into Lost. The status bar shows the 1:03 but you can't view past 53 minutes.

I don't understand why tivo can't tell us what "tuner was unavailable" means. Obviously a programmer had to key in that verbage to show in the history log under certain conditions. I wonder what the conditions are.

When I talked to customer service, I specifically asked if they wanted to look at my box and examine the logs. He said no but did thank me for reporting the problem. I don't know how you can diagnose and fix a problem if you don't look at the data on the box.

Oh well, this is the first time this has happened to me in the over 2 years I've had this TIVO. Hopefully I won't see it for another two.

[TiVoJerry]

Stephen just talked to me about this issue. Aside from this thread, I only know of one case that made it to me for investigation. Luckily I was able to get logging from that incident and file an incident report for investigation. The initial information points to an accidental referral to a message that should only show up for combo DTV units. It should never show up on a standalone unit.

Where it goes from here is anyone's bet as the incident rate is low and there are no known steps to reproduce the issue at this time. Sorry it happened, but I'm glad it's such a low threshold.

This particular issue is completely unrelated to KellyR66's last post, which has been addressed here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=283908&page=3&pp=30)

[shawnrhode]

My Seris 2 80 hour Tivo experienced this issue on Wed and Thursday of this past week and still has data in the recording history section regarding it. This is the second time this has occured in the last 4 to 5 months and it can be quite frustrating as once the unit experiences the issue, it will not record anything more until it is rebooted. Since I don't watch TV every night, it can be frustrating to go to watch a show you were anticipating only to have it not recorded due to this error. I have an analog cable connection direct into the Tivo with no cable box.

If you want to pull the logs from the unit, let me know and I will open a case if that is required. Not sure if having them would be of any help to you or if the logs you already have are sufficient to fully understand the issue.

[ebf]

I've had my TiVo for a bit over a year and have seen this half a dozen times at least. The last time was just a couple of weeks ago. A syndicated episode of "King of Queens" showed in the "Now Playing" list, but when I hit "play" I got the "[dong] The program was not recorded because the tuner was not available." It has been this way each time I've noticed the problem. I do not know if any shows have simply not been recorded and only show the error in the history, as I've not noticed any "must see" shows not being recorded.

:confused:

[timckelley]

This sounds like a bad problem, and I hope it never happens to me. I also hope that TiVo, inc. gets to the bottom of it.

[bmgoodman]

Well, this issue has again reared its ugly head! Under 7.3.1. I kept being told the tuner was unavailable even though I was WATCHING THE SHOW I WANTED TO RECORD! After several failed attempts, I had to reboot. Anyone else?

[aadam101]

I have also has this issue a few times recently. Once it happened on a program that I watched live. I watched an episode of Seinfeld live and the red light was on and it appeared to record. When my roommate went to watch it he got that error message. I know the signal was available because I watched the show.

[bmgoodman]

You know, once the UI becomes slow and bug-filled and you add on that you MAY or MAY NOT get the shows you scheduled to record, what is Tivo's advantage over my cable company's DVR? For the first time ever, I am actually thinking of calling Comcast to see what deals they are offering for their DVR. After being with tivo since 2000 (and owning 4), this is a sad day. :(

[timckelley]

You know, once the UI becomes slow and bug-filled and you add on that you MAY or MAY NOT get the shows you scheduled to record, what is Tivo's advantage over my cable company's DVR? For the first time ever, I am actually thinking of calling Comcast to see what deals they are offering for their DVR. After being with tivo since 2000 (and owning 4), this is a sad day. :(

True. If TiVo is this unreliable, maybe you would indeed be better off switching to the competition.

[bmgoodman]

True. If TiVo is this unreliable, maybe you would indeed be better off switching to the competition.

Well, looks like Comcast wants $20/mo to go to digital and then $10/mo for the DVR. I'm paying $14/mo total for two single tuner models. So I guess the math doesn't work out so well, after all.

I'm STILL not happy about this "tuner was not available" business because it appears clearly to be a BUG. So I guess I'll reboot my Tivos once a week and see what happens. :(

[bmgoodman]

Well, I have rebooted my Tivo about once each week since my September post, and so far there have been no more "tuner was unavailable" issues. I should cringe each time I'm forced to reboot, but after years of working with Windows, it somehow seems "normal". :D

[Dan203]

My girlfriend had this happen on her TiVo a few weeks ago. She lost 3 days worth of recordings before she realized what was going on. A reboot fixed the issue. All of our TiVos are on UPSes, so prior to that it hadn't been rebooted since the 7.3.1 upgrade came down.

Dan

[djdawson]

We've had the "Tuner was Unavailable" problem a few times now, and it seems like one trigger might be canceling a recording before it finishes. I know at least two of the three or four times we're seen this problem that I had canceled an in-progress recording shortly before the problem happened, so it seems suspicious. I almost never do that, but since we have a single tuner unit (a Toshiba RX-60) sometimes it's what you need to do. I suppose we could start doing weekly reboots, but it'd be easier if they didn't take so long.

Anyway, just thought I'd share in case it helps lead to a resolution.

[timckelley]

It's the first hint I've seen. Somebody should experiment using your suggestion to see if they can recreate the problem. That would be the first step towards TiVo fixing it.

[tcp100]

I've been having the same problem ever since I finished the beta test of 7.3.1 and went to the final version.. Programs that I have -been watching- are later listed in history as "tuner not available", as well as ones I have not been watching. I do put the TiVo in standby when I'm not watching it; not sure if that has anything to do with it.

After coming back from vacation, it looks like my TiVo hasn't recorded a thing in two weeks because of this issue. Fabulous. Every single item in the history says "tuner not available".

I rarely, if ever, cancel a recording before it's completed.. so I don't think this is what caused it for me.

Let's see what a restart does. Arrgh.

[bmgoodman]

For what it's worth, I use Standby all the time. For other reasons, I have retired this Tivo to the closet. Hopefully Tivo can figure out what's causing this error, since it supposedly isn't an error message for single tuner Tivo units! :eek:

[tcp100]

For what it's worth, I use Standby all the time. For other reasons, I have retired this Tivo to the closet. Hopefully Tivo can figure out what's causing this error, since it supposedly isn't an error message for single tuner Tivo units! :eek:

Well, the reset didn't help me one bit. Still every recording is getting "tuner is not available". Not a single thing will record.

This is not good.

[Mars]

I had this "tuner not available" on my S2 dual tuner TiVo. It is set up for analog cable, no box. I was able to clear it with a stronger signal from the cable. My house, as many people here, has several splitters distributing the cable service. I moved the TiVo to a connection closer to the cable input with less splitter loss inline. Been ok now for 2 months. Might be the S2DT is a signal hog.

[CraigHB]

Since the beginning of last month, people have been experiencing problems with their DirecTV TiVo units, myself included. We've been having random reboots and issues with Season Passes. "Clear and Delete Everything" fixes the problem for a week or so, but it comes back. The consensus in the DTiVo forum is our problems are related to corrupt guide data. TiVoJerry mentioned something about the tuner error applying to DTiVo units only. I wonder if there is some connection between these issues?

[tcp100]

TiVoJerry mentioned something about the tuner error applying to DTiVo units only. I wonder if there is some connection between these issues?

Well, my unit seems plagued with it, and it's a standalone old-version Series 2, that has been working just dandy for about 3 years.

Seems to really have coincided with the 8.1 software (I know I said another version erroneously before).

The instructions from Tivo support were the same to me.. Clear and delete everything. I did, and it seems to be working for me - 48 hrs now.. but from what I read, this won't last.

Also had some very weird program guide issues mixed in with the tuner errors.. For example, one episode of Mythbusters (a new, first-run episode) didn't record because "The episode appears within 28 days in the to-do list." Well, being a new episode it didn't appear before that day, and there were no repeats coming up later (and you'd think the season pass would get the first showing, not a later re-run, right?)

Same issue with a new ep of the office.

I can't see what program guide data would have to do with the tuner - unless it tries to tune it to some wacky channel, or reading the program guide causes a single-tuner unit to try to tune a non-existing second tuner?? (Hmm???)

[CraigHB]

In general, data corruption can cause some strange things to happen. The issues you are experiencing with episodes failing to record is similar to the Season Pass issues us DTiVo users are having. One note, the guide data issue appears to have been corrected for us, however, it hasn't been long enough to verify the problems are no longer occuring.

[kettledrum]

I had this problem crop up this week. My TiVo didn't record anything for about 24 hours, when I rebooted it. Everything seems to be fine for now. But....I lost "Lost" this week. My internet is down too so I can't even watch it at abc.com! Everything is breaking all at once!

I have a single tuner standalone TiVo branded unit. Been working flawlessly since I got it 11/2003. I finally upgraded the HD sometime last year.

I also use analog cable with no box, and put the unit on standby when not using it.

[squirrelly girl]

I found this thread via a Google search - I'm glad we're not the only ones having this problem. When we go to a higher channel (HBO, for example, which is in the 300s) and then back to a lower-numbered channel, we see a message on the screen:

Searching for signal on: Basic Cable In.
Switch tuners for more info.

It started happening last weekend. The Sopranos was set to record, the light came on, and it showed in the to-do list, but the recording "froze" about 5 minutes in. We rebooted, which allowed us to record the next showing, but the error message is showing up daily now.

We're using a Series 2 DT with Comcast digital cable if that makes a difference. I'll give CS a call and see if they can assist. This TiVo is only a few months old, so it shouldn't be on the fritz already.