Background Static

[verses]

Hi,

My TiVo appears to have developed a fault and I was hoping for some advice and hopefully a solution :).

I currently run TiVo with normal analogue TV and Freeview. Due to my local area having poor Freeview reception, I tend to record channels 1 to 5 from analogue and use Freeview for the others. My TiVo has a Terbonet card which has been running faultlessly for over a year, I've installed a larger hard drive and I run TivoWeb and several hacks.

Recently analogue channels have had an intermittent static sound in the background, but the picture remains fine. It will all be fine for 10-20 seconds then there will be about 5-10 seconds of static and it continues in this pattern. The times I've mentioned are variable, and I've indicated what it's like at it's worst. The actual audio of the program can be heard alongside the static, but obviously not as clearly as the static is there too

I get the problem on recordings
I get the problem on live TV
I DON'T get the problem if I watch analogue directly (not via TiVo)
I DON'T get the problem on Freeview
A reboot had no effect

My main suspicion is that the built in tuner is faulty, is this likely, and if so is it a user replaceable part?

It's occurred to me whilst writing this that Mode 0 may be causing it, so I may try changing my Mode 0 settings back to the defaults and see what effect that has, does this seem likely?

Any comments on the above or other advice will be much appreciated.

Cheers,

Ian

[6022tivo]

On the early TiVo's you would get what they called "The Nicam Fault" which sounds like what you have. Only affected analogue channels.

Customer services used to arrange collection/mod/return free of charge.

I think it was on the 601E 601F and 6020 revisions???

I know they won't do this now, and it is not commonly know what the fix was??. I understand it was adding a capacitor or resistor to the tuner???

You may on the otherhand have some other problem completely different.

Have a search for the Nicam Mod

[verses]

I think it was on the 601E 601F and 6020 revisions???


Hi,

Thanks for the comments, I've heard the Nicam problem mentioned before and as I've had the TiVo about 4 years (from new, I got one of the last few Dixons sold off cheap) I'm surprised that it could possibly affect me late on. Although I've just had a nosey around the back and it's a 6021 model.

I've had the fault I mentioned for about a week, and as a temporary fix I've been putting up with the iffy reception of Freeview instead. Rather typically, given that I've just posted the problem on here, I've just been flicking through the various analogue channels and it wasn't displaying the problem behaviour.
I've had to stop now as it's recording Corrie for the missus (from Freeview), but I'll investigate later. I've not had chance to change the Mode 0 settings yet.

Cheers,

Ian

[Automan]

Have you had an aerial upgrade for Freeview?
Perhaps the signal is now stonger which is now causing the problem.
If so RF attenuators are availble to weaken the signal.

Automan.

[verses]

Have you had an aerial upgrade for Freeview?
Perhaps the signal is now stonger which is now causing the problem.
If so RF attenuators are availble to weaken the signal.
Automan.


I have a wideband aerial, and when I installed it a couple of years ago I put new coax in too. However I suspect that both are quite poor quality (A couple of elements have fallen off the aerial and my picture breaks up when cars turn around in the cul-de-sac outside my house), so I'll replace them when I get chance.

However, the signal being too strong definitely isn't the problem, my aerial cable passes through an adjustable signal booster and anything less than full strength kills the Freeview and makes the analogue picture snowy.

Cheers,

Ian

[verses]

Having seen a similar problem reported (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4832409) I felt I should update this thread with the outcome of my problem.

Unfortunately the outcome isn't very enlightening, in that the problem just disappeared all by itself after a week or so.

Cheers,

Ian

[ColinYounger]

Verses - it's likely that transmitter work was going on at the time. During transmitter maintenance time, the output is reduced. This usually happens overnight, but if it's a major upgrade to boost the power for DTV (for example) it takes longer and everyone gets a crappy signal.

The usual time for that kind of major maintenance? One week. :)

[verses]

Would that affect the TiVo's processing of Freeview? As Freeview was fine when viewed directly (via the Aux) button.

Ian

[ColinYounger]

Ian - Digiboxes have error correction in them which means they can display a picture even with a 'poor' signal. A poor signal on analogue will look much worse.

As an example, the aerial that feeds the kitchen TV became dislodged during the windy bits of last year. Analogue telly looks rubbish (Ch4 is black and white!), while the freeview adaptor displays pictures fine. Well, Ch4 is occasionally blocky, but I can live with that.

I don't know how TiVo reprocesses the signal, but I'm lead to believe that it does something like amplification as the output picture has more contrast, etc.

[PhilG]

I have (had?) a similar problem - static noise WHEN THE TIVO MENUS ARE SHOWING!!! I'll be hunting through the menus and as well as Tivos "beep"s and "boop"s I'll get static

My Tivo has also had the "Nicam fix" applied

I've been trying to ignore it, but I'd LOVE to know whether it's fixable :)

[Pete77]

I have (had?) a similar problem - static noise WHEN THE TIVO MENUS ARE SHOWING!!! I'll be hunting through the menus and as well as Tivos "beep"s and "boop"s I'll get static

My Tivo has also had the "Nicam fix" applied

I've been trying to ignore it, but I'd LOVE to know whether it's fixable :)

Try turning off the Tivo sound effects and I expect your problem may go away. Personally I turned off the sound effects years ago as all the blips and boops would have driven me completely round the bend.