Tivo cutting off first minute or so

[toxic]

In the past week or two, my HDTivo has been cutting off the first minute or two of scheduled recordings (like if its set to record Survivor at 8pm, it starts at 8:01). You can see on the time bar at the bottom that it has cut if off, not just that the network started early or that its a slight time difference.

Has anyone else had this happen? Any suggestions?

Thanks

[Mark Lopez]

I've seen that quite a few times too. Not sure if the actual guide data told it to start late or what. I also have had a few incidents of it starting the recording early, but when you play it, the time bar is at the correct place. For example last night a SP recording of CSI:Miami showed a total recording time of 1hr 3 min. The 3 minutes were before the show (no I don't use any padding). When I played the show though, it started playback at the 3 minute mark right where the show started. <shrug>

[clueless2]

I've seen that quite a few times too. Not sure if the actual guide data told it to start late or what. I also have had a few incidents of it starting the recording early, but when you play it, the time bar is at the correct place. For example last night a SP recording of CSI:Miami showed a total recording time of 1hr 3 min. The 3 minutes were before the show (no I don't use any padding). When I played the show though, it started playback at the 3 minute mark right where the show started. <shrug>
I've had my first incidents of recordings starting 3 minutes early. It was CSI (Las Vegas) and 2.5 Men. Just like yours. Started 3 minutes early but it started playback right when the show started. I recorded CSI:Miami last night but it started recordeing right at 10. Very weird.

I had another HR10 that started missing the first 1-3 minutes of recording. It always seemed this happened when I was recording 2 HD programs and watching a third. It then started rebooting randomly. Since it was still under warranty I had it replaced and have not had the issues with the "new" (reconditioned) HR10. Of course now it is starting to record "early".

I have read on other threads that a "Clear and Delete Everything" has helped this problem.

[leftcoastdave]

In the past week or two, my HDTivo has been cutting off the first minute or two of scheduled recordings (like if its set to record Survivor at 8pm, it starts at 8:01). You can see on the time bar at the bottom that it has cut if off, not just that the network started early or that its a slight time difference.

Has anyone else had this happen? Any suggestions?

Thanks

You are seeing the first stages of a hard drive failure ...

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=285689

[kmp14]

I disagree that it is hard drive failure. It always happens (for me) when 2 shows are scheduled to record back-to-back. This is the only problem I have with mine - no reboots or freezing - common symptoms of a dying hard drive. I think the missing minutes is either a software or underpowered hardware problem. Based on how many people have had the problem, I don't see that many dying hard drives.

[ebonovic]

It could be a hard drive, but it is more likely a loss in signal. or for what ever reason your HR10-250 decided to reboot right at that point in time.


My local provider messed up American Idol last week on their end... so only had 45 minute recording of a 1 hour block.

[toxic]

I disagree that it is hard drive failure. It always happens (for me) when 2 shows are scheduled to record back-to-back. This is the only problem I have with mine - no reboots or freezing - common symptoms of a dying hard drive. I think the missing minutes is either a software or underpowered hardware problem. Based on how many people have had the problem, I don't see that many dying hard drives.

Yes, I don't have any reboots or freezing. And I think it only cuts off the first minute or so not when I have back-to-back recordings but simultaneous recordings.

Hope its not the hard drive :( I am waiting for DirecTV to release their MPEG4 DVR so I can switch over. It just needs to hold out until then.

Of course...when will Microsoft release Vista and will it be compatabile with DirecTV from the get go?

[thepackfan]

I've had this happen, for me it lasted a couple of weeks then for some reason its fixed. Just offering this as some hope for you that a correction of this is possible. I did not replace or rebuild any drives to fix the problem, it just got better.

[Ed Campbell]

Often, it's the network busting chops on TiVo users. Quite deliberately. Makes advertisers feel warm and fuzzy.

[kepper]

I've noticed that when I leave both tuners set to OTA channels for a few days that the clock drifts slightly and I miss the beginning of shows. I have tested and can replicate this, I guess the unit isn't getting time sych code from the satellite when both tuners are on OTA channels.

I know that once once a day in the early am hours the Tivo tunes to a transponder for a few minutes to download guide data and other stuff, but this doesn't seem to stop the clock drift problem here. Since I record almost all of my programs from the OTA channels, the Tivo could be tuned to OTA channels for several days in a row, especially when I'm away.

I now set a manual five minute program to record on one of the satellite channels at 5 am every day and I've noticed that the start time for my OTA recordings seems to be back to normal.

Kevin

[videojanitor]

Often, it's the network busting chops on TiVo users. Quite deliberately. Makes advertisers feel warm and fuzzy.

That can certainly happen, but what the original poster is describing it a problem that seems to be pretty common with the HR10-250 after about a year of use. If you look at the TiVo "time bar," you will see a "blank" space at the beginning when this happens -- ie: TiVo indicates that the program should have started recording at say, 9:00, but for whatever reason the TiVo did not go into record at the appointed time, so it misses a chunk.

This happens to me regularly, most often if I am recording two programs at the same time. This weekend I am replacing the hard drive in hopes of rectifying this. Folks around here say a "Clear and Delete Everything" will usually fix it, but I'm taking the brute force approach.

[toxic]

That can certainly happen, but what the original poster is describing it a problem that seems to be pretty common with the HR10-250 after about a year of use. If you look at the TiVo "time bar," you will see a "blank" space at the beginning when this happens -- ie: TiVo indicates that the program should have started recording at say, 9:00, but for whatever reason the TiVo did not go into record at the appointed time, so it misses a chunk.

This happens to me regularly, most often if I am recording two programs at the same time. This weekend I am replacing the hard drive in hopes of rectifying this. Folks around here say a "Clear and Delete Everything" will usually fix it, but I'm taking the brute force approach.

VideoJanitor, you described exactly what I am experiencing. Please let us know how the new drive works out.

[Mark Lopez]

Your hard drive is shot. There are several threads about late starts, partials and frequent reboots. This one is representative.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=264013

Nope, I'm not buying the hard drive is shot explanation. Maybe for reboot problems, but not for the late starts. If the drive was going, you would see problems happening other than just the beginning of recordings. Also in those threads some people say it's a loss of signal. I'm not buying that either. What - the signal disappears for the first minute or two at the start of shows and then comes back fine for the rest? I don't think so. Rain fade? Sort of hard to buy when it hasn't rained for months. I suppose a bad drive or loss of signal is also causing the early starts. :rolleyes:

[maldini]

I have never had a reboot or restart or any other issue with my Tivo and yet I experienced the exact same "start one minute late" on Survivor that the original poster mentioned and I was recording a second show at the time.

This is way too coicindental to be hard drive failure IMO and certainly smells more like a bug to me.

That being said, in over 15 months of constant recording, this was the first I had seen of it.

Maldini

[HiDefGator]

Mine also did this last night recording the daily show at 11:00. It started the recording at 11:01. I don't have OTA hooked up. I've never seen it do it before.

[videojanitor]

VideoJanitor, you described exactly what I am experiencing. Please let us know how the new drive works out.

Will do, though my experience will be posted in the main thread that's been following this problem:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=264013

You might want to subscribe to that thread. Like many here, I'm not 100% convinced this is a drive failure problem, but from the messages posted, everyone who has replaced the drive reported the problem was fixed, while only some of the people who did a "Clear and Delete" could say the same thing. I probably should have tried that first, but since I'm not the only one in the house using this thing, I want to get it back to normal ASAP. Also, mine is experiencing a lot of spontaneous reboots, which started around the same time I began missing the start of recordings.

[Sojourn]

For those of us (considering) replacing a hard drive, would anyone share their experience with replacements purchased from Weaknees/PTV?

[wxman]

Mine has also been starting a minute or two late on occasion. and lately it has been doing quite a bit of freezing during playback, especially while watching an HD program. Sometimes jumping out to live tv and then back to the recorded program will fix this temporarily, but often it comes back. On the other hand, very often I will get through an entire 1 hour program without a single glitch. Hard to figure.

If my hard drive is failing, how long has it been taking people to receive replacement units from Direct Tv? I actually bought mine at the now defunct Good Guys and it's still under warranty for another month or so. If I go through Direct Tv to replace it, what is the turnaround time from when I put it in the mail until when I have a replacement? I have no other receivers so I'm pretty much dead in the water until I get one back in the mail.

[pmturcotte]

This started to happen for me Tuesday or so of this week, Monday recorded 24 just fine, Tuesday House started a minute late and every show since then. This has never happened before. Have not rebooted the machine in quite sometime, dont know if that would help the problem or not, but this is really irritating.

[wedgecon]

I have noticed this on my SAT T-60 at times also, I am convinced that the clock sync is drifting on the transponders for the local LA stations. If both of my tuners are set to local stations my clock will drift off by up to 4 or minutes, but if I switch one of the tuners to one of the "core" stations like the weather channel the time will correct it self.

A couple of years ago this was a big issue on the dbsforums or dbstalk boards and somebody on the board who had an inside into DirecTV was able to get a hold of somebody in their operations center and get them to fix a server that was responsible for keeping the transponders in sync. I think what is happening is that nobody is paying attention to this server(s) and we are starting to have the problems agian.

I have a manual recording set for 5 minutes at 4:00 AM to the weather channel that mostly fixes this problem. I use the weather channel because they display the time and I can quickly see if the Tivo is in sync or not.

[pmturcotte]

Just happened again twice tonight, and I get my HD locals OTA.

[HiDefGator]

CSI recorded 46 minutes tonight and then stopped for no apparent reason. I'll try a reboot and see if that helps any.

[pmturcotte]

I had the same exact problem with CSI! Started recording late, stopped right in the middle of a scene, about 5 minutes from the end.

[abloch]

In my opinion, the late starting is related to the slow operation of unit.

My old HR-250 was cutting off the 1 - 3 minutes of many recordings. It was also slow as molasses, often taking several minutes in the "Please Wait" mode to program even a simple recording.

I got a new unit and the problem went away, and I was amazed at how quickly it performed all of it's functions.

[videojanitor]

In my opinion, the late starting is related to the slow operation of unit.

I agree with that. The question is, what is making it slow? It seems highly unlikely that something in the hardware (motherboard, RAM, etc.) would cause this, so the most likely culprit is the hard drive -- either a physical problem, or sort of like a Windows installation, the thing just becomes littered with garbage over time. This would explain why a "Clear and Delete Everything" has worked for a lot of people -- it's like reformatting and starting over. Assuming there are no hardware problems, it should be the same as getting a brand new unit.

As I mentioned earlier, I am replacing my hard drive this weekend and will report the results. Currently, my unit experiences the same problems mentioned here: missing the starts of shows, reboots, and very slooooooow operation when adding Season Passes, or even making minor changes to the recording schedule.

[fertree]

Mine does it constantly, but I think mine is a clock issue. I find that if a show starts a minute late and I have recorded the previous show, I will find my missing minute at the end of the previous show.