Turn ON Cable Box

[Robert112]

I have been running into this problem a lot lately. For some reason or another (power flicker/surge, update, etc) my cable box just powers off. But when it is off, it still sends a video signal, and my TiVo just records an hour of "Press Power to Turn On [CBL]". Is there any way for TiVo to detect this message or realize that there is noting happening and turn the cable box on?

[SeanC]

I'm sure there is a possible way but currently Tivo does not do this.

Have you gone into your cable box settings to see if you can set it to power on automatically? Or on a channel change? Or turn on at a certain time of day? These are all things that are available on some cable boxes.

[megazone]

There really isn't a way for TiVo to tell the current power state of the cable boxes. Many cable boxes bypass the RF video through then off, or generate some kind of standby screen, etc, so trying to look for video isn't reliable.

As SeanC said, some cable boxes have settings for things like "Power On on channel change" - my SciAtl 3200 boxes have that so I turned it on. That why if the TiVo changes the channel, which it always does before recording, it turns on.

[NewYorkLaw]

My box (scientific atlanta) with Time Warner New York has started turning itslef off, lately, too. I figured it was Time Warner trying to frustrate me enough to subscribe to their DVR service. My box has no option to make the box power-up on a channel change.

Pete

[lessd]

My box (scientific atlanta) with Time Warner New York has started turning itslef off, lately, too. I figured it was Time Warner trying to frustrate me enough to subscribe to their DVR service. My box has no option to make the box power-up on a channel change.

Pete

I run my cable box and TiVo on a cheep UPS (from BJ) will solve most of these problems.

[albrandwood]

My box (scientific atlanta) with Time Warner New York has started turning itslef off, lately, too. I figured it was Time Warner trying to frustrate me enough to subscribe to their DVR service. My box has no option to make the box power-up on a channel change.

Pete

To get Tivo to turn on the SciAtl boxes ...

Go into the advanced Setup for the SciAtl ... you can change it so it will power on with channel change ... (I'm on vacation in europe, so i can't tell you the menu sequence until nextweek ... but let me know if you want the information next week.)

Tivo always sends a channel change before recording anything, so worst case senario is you loose one show ...

As for TWC box turning itself off ... call TWC to check the signal strength being recieved by your box ... I used to have this problem ... turned out, the signal strength had dropped significantly ... they repaired the cable, and it stopped turning off.

@shley

[NewYorkLaw]

My box DEFINITELY has no option to power up on channel change, I triple-checked. With respect to the cable line, we did in fact have that changed in December (when I purchased the tivo & upgraded to digital cable) because the signal was so poor that the it was constantly getting pixelated. The new cable from the street to our house seemed to have done the trick.. but, as for turning itself off, I don't know...

Pete

[Stormspace]

I have a SCI ATL box and hitting the settings button twice brought up a menu with the option to power on with numeric. So, now the most I will see is one show blank as the tivo changes channel at the start of each recording. It would be nice though for the TiVo to detect the state of the Cable Box based on known behavior for the box specified during set up, and if multilple states are possible let the user define which one their box uses. In my case it's a black screen, but it's not an empty signal, so I record that.

[NewYorkLaw]

Because I was praying it would work (even though I knew it would not), I tried your suggestion. On my SciAtl box it definitely does not work.
Thanks anyway!
Pete

[votivo]

I just got TWC - Pioneer box - these are firmware updates that are sent to the box. Once they load, it powers off. They tell me there is nothing they can do. Not sure if a new box or better signal would make a difference. I am seriously considering going back to DirecTV. I can't take the feeling of having to wonder if your shows will be there.

[Stormspace]

Thats certainly understandable. I still don't like the idea of loosing a show with my setup. Power flutuation and the box is off until the next scheduled program. I may be able to address this with my ups behind the set, but I may be out of plugs. :)

[megazone]

Because I was praying it would work (even though I knew it would not), I tried your suggestion. On my SciAtl box it definitely does not work.What specific model of SciAtl do you have? And is there an info screen with your firmware revision?

[NewYorkLaw]

Scientific Atlanta Explorer 2100. There's no (obious) option to display the firmware. I unplugged the box and made it reset, but that did not display any useful info either.
My provider is time warner, Staten Island Cable.
Pete

[Diacritical]

I just got TWC - Pioneer box - these are firmware updates that are sent to the box. Once they load, it powers off. They tell me there is nothing they can do. Not sure if a new box or better signal would make a difference. I am seriously considering going back to DirecTV. I can't take the feeling of having to wonder if your shows will be there.

This is what they told me, too. It only happens regularly with the HDTV box -- the other one is quite stable. I suggested that one of the firmware updates should be to return to the power state and channel it was on before the update... but they seemed to think that was unlikely. They also seemed to think that scheduling it for the middle of the night was unreasonable. Since "most cable boxes are on and can receive updates during prime time" -- that's when they schedule the updates! Incredible.

The only solution on mine was a power-on time just before prime-time... that catches most scheduled stuff, but not all.

[mbklein]

As SeanC said, some cable boxes have settings for things like "Power On on channel change" - my SciAtl 3200 boxes have that so I turned it on. That why if the TiVo changes the channel, which it always does before recording, it turns on.

So, does anyone know the menu sequence to activate this on a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 2100? I need to talk someone through it over the phone, and I'd rather be prepared before I have them go hunting around the menus and reading things to me...

[Stormspace]

So, does anyone know the menu sequence to activate this on a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 2100? I need to talk someone through it over the phone, and I'd rather be prepared before I have them go hunting around the menus and reading things to me...

Using the STB remote hit the settings button twice to get the menu.