Channels come and go

[ADG]

Series 3 worked fine for a couple of days then last night a problem arose. When I changed channels the screen went blank. Couldn't get most channels (one or two would come in). Once or twice I'd see a message that said "There was a problem during authorization of this device. Please call your cable provider". Switching between tuners showed the problem was intermittent on both. If I left it alone for a few minutes, the channel(s) would reappear and everything was fine. But when changing channels it continues to happen sometimes.

Any thoughts on whether this is a cable card or series 3 issue? Thanks.

[ejd65]

I have been periodically having the same problem in New Jersey (Cablevision) - I don't know if it is a Series 3 or CableCard issue. It happens about every other day. If you leave it alone it eventually comes back, or if you unplug the Tivo and it resets the missing channels come back immediately. Does not matter if it is standard or HD, regular cable or premium. Channels come and go to be replaced with a blamk grey screen.

Any help on this topic would be appreciated.

[ADG]

Yep, same thing. Cablevision in Piscataway.

[acej80]

What does the signal strength meter say for the problematic channels? When I first hooked my Tivo up, there was several channels that would "come and go", I figured out that the Tivo wasn't getting a strong enough signal for those channels, so I reconfigured a few cables and eliminated a tap & split and viola' the channels all come in rock solid now. Something to take a look at, of couse YMMV. :)

[ADG]

No, that's not it. We made sure we had an excellent signal (the Cablevision tech and I) before we set up the Series 3. Appreciate the thought though.

[Laserdoc]

Same thing here, Cablevision of Oakland,NJ. This is my second S3, seems to have started doing this after 8.0.1c

[ADG]

Last night I couldn't get 38 (which us USA on SD). Today 38 is fine but I can't get 160 (Biography Channel), but everything else seems to be fine. Called Cablevision - they offered to come out tomorrow but I told them there was no need to come during the Holiday - they are scheduled for Tuesday AM

[ADG]

I just rebooted the tivo and now everything is okay. Wouldn't that seem to indicate the problem is with the unit and not with the cable cards?

[Roderigo]

I just rebooted the tivo and now everything is okay. Wouldn't that seem to indicate the problem is with the unit and not with the cable cards?
Not necessarily... If you reboot the unit, you're also rebooting the cablecards.

[mbernste]

I'm in Piscataway also. On occasion I'd tune to a channel and it would be the blank green screen. All I have to do is hit chan up/down once or twice and they come back. The thing that concerns me is every couple of days my TiVo spontaneously reboots, even when in standby mode. Luckily its never when its doing a scheduled recording.

[ejd65]

ADG,

Please let us know how it works out after Cablevision comes back. I spoke to TIVO today about the problem and they were convinced that it was a Cable Card issue. I am not so sure. The intermittent nature of the problem, and the fact that resetting the unit always solves the issue... My single strength is also good.

[hookbill]

ADG,

Please let us know how it works out after Cablevision comes back. I spoke to TIVO today about the problem and they were convinced that it was a Cable Card issue. I am not so sure. The intermittent nature of the problem, and the fact that resetting the unit always solves the issue... My single strength is also good.

When you say your signal strength is good are you going by the TiVo strength meter or by having a tech test it? Having a tech test all your connections with a box is the best way to go. They can look for areas that are too week and maybe add a signal booster and if it makes it too strong in some areas of your home they can use splitters that are designed to lower power in certain directions. It's free to have them come out and check.

[ADG]

ADG,

Please let us know how it works out after Cablevision comes back. I spoke to TIVO today about the problem and they were convinced that it was a Cable Card issue. I am not so sure. The intermittent nature of the problem, and the fact that resetting the unit always solves the issue... My single strength is also good.
I will post back - I'm going to ask him to change cards. I also called Tivo and got the same response as you. And as mentioned above, I know for a fact our signal strength is excellent.

[ADG]

Since the reboot everything has been fine. If it's still okay tonight I'm going to cancel the service call.

[ejd65]

After a week of behaving, I lost all channels from 22- 701 on both tuners. I'll see if they come back by themselves, if not I will try a reset tomorrow.

This has been a frustrating experience.

[vietcat@yahoo.co]

After reading this thread saves me from having to swap my Tivo 3 because I'm having to reboot my box everyday to get the channels back just like some other people here. It takes at least 10-15 minutes each time to reboot. I lose the channels when I channel surf, and when I check the cable card CP screen in settings it says "CP auth failure". When I reboot the box, it would reacquire the channels and work again...So if many people are having the same issue then I don't think my particular box alone is defective...I have Cablevison service from Oakland NJ.

[ejd65]

After reading this thread saves me from having to swap my Tivo 3 because I'm having to reboot my box everyday to get the channels back just like some other people here. It takes at least 10-15 minutes each time to reboot. I lose the channels when I channel surf, and when I check the cable card CP screen in settings it says "CP auth failure". When I reboot the box, it would reacquire the channels and work again...So if many people are having the same issue then I don't think my particular box alone is defective...I have Cablevison service from Oakland NJ.


The channels all were back by this morning, no reset required. Can this be a Cablevision issue? I find it hard to believe that all of these Cablecards are bad.

[Mikala]

The channels all were back by this morning, no reset required. Can this be a Cablevision issue? I find it hard to believe that all of these Cablecards are bad.

I had the same problem yesterday. Lost all HD, HBO and Encore channels. When I went to those channels the screen was just black with no notices or anything, just black. By the time I called Comcast (Novato, CA) the channels had re-appeared on their own. Since I didn't have to reboot to get them back, and it seemed to be a defined set of channels, I'm wondering if my problem isn't different than those posted here.

[ADG]

Happened again yesterday. I set it up to record a show from a premium channel, but this time when it showed that it was recording I checked and found a black screen. I was not able to access the channel until I rebooted, and then everything was fine. The first time I lost channels there was a message saying "there was a problem during authentication of this device, contact your cable provider". However, now both cards show as working fine and as I said, after a reboot all channels appear to be there.

Has to be a problem with Cablevision, no?

[dbenrosen]

I've had this problem since I bought my T3 back in October. I actually had TiVo replace the box after going through 6 different CableCards on numerous visits from Cablevision of Rockland. Rebooting always fixes the problem. I have sent information specific to my TiVo regarding the problem and TiVo is investigating it. The problem with this problem is it is intermittent.

Cablevision has been in contact with TiVo regarding the problem as well. My signal strength was checked during each Cablevision visit and was deemed good.

I don't think it is all Cablevision's fault. It is some interaction between Cablevision's signal and the processing by the TiVo.

[ADG]

I've had this problem since I bought my T3 back in October. I actually had TiVo replace the box after going through 6 different CableCards on numerous visits from Cablevision of Rockland. Rebooting always fixes the problem. I have sent information specific to my TiVo regarding the problem and TiVo is investigating it. The problem with this problem is it is intermittent.

Cablevision has been in contact with TiVo regarding the problem as well. My signal strength was checked during each Cablevision visit and was deemed good.

I don't think it is all Cablevision's fault. It is some interaction between Cablevision's signal and the processing by the TiVo.
My instinct is that you are correct. The only thing keeping me from being 100% certain is that there are any number of Series 3 owners with Cablevision who apparently do not have this problem.

[gbastug]

As I posted in another thread about S3 quirks....

Now, the Cablevision tech who has visited me multiple times during this saga relayed information (and in fact, let me listen in on a two-way pager conversation with a senior Cablevision engineer in Long Island, who, not knowing I was listening, confirmed the story) that Tivo visited Cablevision just before Christmas and confirmed there was a problem on the Tivo side regarding this specific loss of CP Authentication, and that a fix would have to come from Tivo. There is no word when this is coming - I'm hoping it's part of the 8.1.0 rollout, which I've surmised is coming in the next few weeks. Also not clear if this is specific to Cablevisions CC cards (they mostly use Scientific Atlanta), or a more widespread issue with all CC cards.

According to Tivo, many of the fixes in 8.1.0 are supposed to address CC...

I would start calling Tivo, and let the complaints build up vis-a-vis the Cablevision issue, and let's see what we hear...

[ADG]

Just spoke w/Matt at Tivo Support and he is fairly certain that 8.1 (which is already being released) will alleviate the disappearing channel problem. We'll see.

[trafeng]

I have the same problem with either cc 1 or cc2 or sometimes both not working. A reset always instantly corrects the problem. If both cable cards stop working, I have to unplug the S3 unit for a few seconds. The unit then resets and every thing is ok for a day or two. I have tried many fixes but nothing solves this problem. Hopefully, the new software will correct the problem.
BTW I have Comcast of Howard County Maryland. The internet download speed seems to vary considerably at different times but I don't know if this is causing the problem. I am switching to Verizon January 3. Perhaps it will correct the problem. If not, at least it is less expensive and has many more channels. Internet speed is also faster than Comcast.

[Krenath]

Just got a Series 3 yesterday. Yesterday after setting it up, all channels worked fine.

I have software version 8.0.1a (8.0.1a-01-2-648)

Got up this morning and discovered that of the two tuners, 0 and 1, tuner 1 will absolutely not display analog channels. It displays HDTV channels just fine. It'll display the channel bar and progress bar over the top of the black screen, but there's no video or audio unless it's a digital channel.

Tuner 0 displays everything its told to.

Rebooting the Tivo through the "Restart or Reset System" menu option does not fix it.
Rebooting the Tivo by unplugging it, waiting, and plugging it back in does not cure it either.

Tivo tier 2 tech support (Heather) is convinced that version 8.1 (due out "soon") should fix this issue.

Meanwhile, any attempt to record a second show at the same time as another will generally result in a blank recording unless I'm lucky enough that the second tuner managed to get the digital channel.

[Espo]

Trafeng, I also have Comcast of Howard County Maryland & have this same problem. After using various friends systems with both Comcast & FIOS, I have a lot of thoughts on this problem. For 1 thing, it's never appeared on friends FIOS S3's. However, it's occurred on ALL the Comcast boxes with different S3's. These problems occur on all software versions & changing out the Tivo will NOT correct any of these. From what I read from others experience, I think the problem lies in how the S3 reads the S.A. CableCards Comcast & Cablevision uses. FIOS uses Motorola cards & I have yet to hear about them failing. It might be the Verizon activation method is much more simple & they generally are more knowlegable about their system. I also think Comcast is causing more dropouts from their overly compressed channels. I have yet to see someone suffer from missing channels using FIOS. When you get yours installed, I will be interested in hearing your thoughts.

[trafeng]

I changed January 3 from Comcast to Verizon Fios. So far, neither cc1 or cc2 have experienced any experienced any failures. I even did a fair amount of channel surfing (which almost always caused a failure) but the cards (Motorola) have worked perfectly. It is too early to predict success, but I have never gone this long without having to reset the Tivo.

For your information, I live in Howard County, MD. Persons experiencing Tivo 3 failures might want to consider Verizon Fios. It is less expensive than Comcast, offers more channels and is faster than Comcast. Several speed tests I conducted have given the exact same download speeds as well as the upload speeds. VOIP tests have also given excellent results. Comcast on the other hand had download and upload speeds which varried up and down constantly. VOIP tests sometimes failed.

I will repost my results in another week.

[ADG]

Well, in case it is the cards I'm having Cablevision switch them this week.

[mbernste]

I'm unsure if its TiVo or Cablevision. I wonder if Cablevision still sends out "hits" to screw up illegal boxes? I know with the advent of digital cable and encryption it is harder to use the "black boxes." I do wonder if they are doing it, if somehow the hits are "thinking" that the TiVo is a "black box" and causing it to become deauthorized and/or even worse, damaged?

[ejd65]

Well, in case it is the cards I'm having Cablevision switch them this week.

I do not want to jinx myself, but I am now over a week since the last reset and everything seems to be working fine - both tuners receive all Cablevision channels without the dreaded grey screen.

The improvement coincided with me disabling tivo suggestions, I have no idea if there is a connection or not. Let us know if the new cable cards improve your situation. Good luck.

[ADG]

If by disabling Tivo suggestions you mean disabling recording tivo suggestions then no, there is no relationship. I always have that disabled.

[alyssa]

Are the reported channel drops only for cablevision customers?

I'm also having a problem with channel drops but am a TimeWarner customer.

[ADG]

CV tech was here - very knowledgeable guy named Rob - replaced both cards. Took about 1/2 hour and keeping my fingers crossed.

[Espo]

ADG, did the new cards fix the problem? Are they Motorola or S.A. cards?

[squirrellyman]

I have experienced a very similar issue, so I'll post it here for posterity...

For what it's worth, I have several intermittent HD channels, only on my S3. My other TV, which uses a Comcast DVR receives the channels fine. For me, the issue is one of signal strength. Apparently the S3 with CableCards is less sensitive than the Comcast box.

I verified this was the issue by hooking up a 10dB signal amplifier to the cable line. After doing so, all channels came in fine.

Comcast is coming today to see what they see as far as signal strength. By the way, with the TiVo box, when the channels were out, doing a TiVo signal strength test simply reported no digital channel found. (TiVo signal strength was reported as 83-85 with the amplifier.)

[ADG]

ADG, did the new cards fix the problem? Are they Motorola or S.A. cards?
So far so good. They are SA - didn't know CV uses anything else.

[squirrellyman]

As a follow-up to post #35, Comcast installed a bidirectional 15dB signal amplifier and all channels work great (so far, anyway!). TiVo reports the signal on the previously unavailable channels as 95

[TiVolunteer]

Are the reported channel drops only for cablevision customers?

I'm also having a problem with channel drops but am a TimeWarner customer.

Also having the same problem on Time Warner. However, I was able to verify that when a given channel drops on one Series 3, I still have that channel on the other two. So, it doesn't appear to be a case losing the signal from the cable provider.

Same symptoms as above -- if I leave it alone, it eventually comes back. Or if I reboot, it comes back immediately.

I was able to check the CP Auth status during the last problem and both cards were authorized.

Signal strength has been checked at the S3 by Time Warner and determined to be "smack-dab" in the middle of their specs. However, I'm still trying to find out what is a "good number" to see at the S3 as far as TiVo is concerned.

I didn't think to check the signal strength on the S3 strength meter while it was happening. Will do that next time

[ADG]

Well, the problem just occurred again - kind of. Turned on the set this morning and couldn't tune to a couple of channels. "Scrolling" up and down the channels a couple of times "fixed" it, so I switched to the other tuner/card and ran into the same problem - and cure. The diagnostic screen shows both cards authorized, but I wonder what it would have said if I checked before regaining the channels. In my opinion this is CLEARLY a problem with Tivo and NOT the cable cards.

[trafeng]

Reference my posts #24 and #27.
Since I switched to Verizon Fios service from Comcast my cc failures have disappeared. It is now 10 days since the switch. BTW, Verizon Fios uses Motorola cable cards.
I check the upload and download speeds daily. Fios is rock solid at 5.19 mb download and 1.87 upload. Comcast was all over the place, ranging from 4 mb download to less than one 1 mb download. Sometimes Comcast upload was no better than telephone line usage.
I will post a final note on cc stability about Jan 20.

[alyssa]

Also having the same problem on Time Warner. However, I was able to verify that when a given channel drops on one Series 3, I still have that channel on the other two. So, it doesn't appear to be a case losing the signal from the cable provider.

Same symptoms as above -- if I leave it alone, it eventually comes back. Or if I reboot, it comes back immediately.

I was able to check the CP Auth status during the last problem and both cards were authorized.

Signal strength has been checked at the S3 by Time Warner and determined to be "smack-dab" in the middle of their specs. However, I'm still trying to find out what is a "good number" to see at the S3 as far as TiVo is concerned.

I didn't think to check the signal strength on the S3 strength meter while it was happening. Will do that next time

Thanks for verify TW is also having these types of problem.

I agree, my s2 still gets the channels that the S3 has lost. I, however do not get the channels back, they've been gone for a week now. A tech was out also & confirmed the channels were in the middle of the spec for strength.

I'm not seeing the missing channels in the cablecard 'test channel' mode so I can not even test them. The only thing I can think of is to get TW to bring a second set of cards out.

[gbastug]

I do not want to jinx myself, but I am now over a week since the last reset and everything seems to be working fine - both tuners receive all Cablevision channels without the dreaded grey screen.

The improvement coincided with me disabling tivo suggestions, I have no idea if there is a connection or not. Let us know if the new cable cards improve your situation. Good luck.


Funny, I was running fine four about eight days straight. On the second day, my replacement S3 arrived from Tivo, but after waiting three or fours days, everything was solid - so I sent the unit back without switching over.

Three days after that, the CP Auth failure/blank channel issue returned, and had happend three or four times over the past three days! Even redid the entire process (took out the CC, and started from Card 1, waited until the CP AUTH was received, then did card 2, blah blah blah...)

Cablevision/Oakland. Come on Tivo/CV, get this fixed already!

[ADG]

Yes, this is clearly a problem with Tivo and not the cable cards. One of their techs pretty much admitted as much to me.

[ejd65]

Not to jinx myself, but the S3 has performed flawlessly for almost two weeks - no dropped channels, grey screen or need to reboot.

I'm just curious if anybody else has had a smiliar experience. I've been on 8.01c for awhile, so thats not it.

[trafeng]

Reference messages 24 and 27: As I reported January 3, 2007 I switched from comcast to verizon fios video and broadband service. I had been having cc failures every day or every other day for several months. Since the switch, I have had no problems! My upload and download speeds have been rock solid. (it is my opinion that the constantly varying speeds have caused or at least contributed to the card failures.) Check ouit verizon if you can. It works for me and is less expensive to boot.

[edge64]

I have the same channels disappearing isssues in HD. I just got cable cards this week. My cards are from Knology and are Scientific Atlanta PowerKey. model PKM600. A reboot generally brings the channels back.

[TiVoJerry]

We have been working with Cablevision and Scientific Atlanta to understand this issue for some time now, but it is not easy to diagnose due to its intermittent nature. I would like to capture more examples, but need to clarify what I'm looking for so I don't get unrelated reports mixed in. If you are not seeing a CP AUTH failure, your symptoms may seem related but likely are something completely different.

For what we're currently investigating, the symptoms are:
1> Only digital channels disappear, accompanied by a CP Auth Failure message.
2> The failure message can be cleared with either a restart or reseating the CableCARDs.
**NOTE: A reseat is faster than a restart, and is an important data point in helping to narrow the focus of the issue.
**WARNING: Do not swap the cards or pairing will be lost, even if they are returned to the original slot. A call to the provider is the only way to re-pair/marry the cards to the slot again.

Currently, the only reports I have received that fall into this category are from Cablevision customers using Scientific Atlanta CableCARDs.

For those of you experiencing this, I would like to enable diagnostic logging to pass along to engineering. Please send me a PM with the following information:
15 digit TSN
Your name and contact information

I will then respond with instructions for you to perform the next time you see this happen.

Thank you for your patience. We know this an aggravating issue and we are doing everything we can to diagnose it.

[ADG]

Jerry, that was the issue I originally had. After Cablevision changed both cards I still get the same problem, but scrolling up and down the channels will fix it immediately. The problem has been less severe but in my opinion, whether or not the CP Auth Failure still appears (as it did initially) should not be the deciding factor in whether or not Tivo dedicates its efforts - the channels still disappear and need to be "reacquired" on a regular basis. Thanks for posting and letting us know that at least something is being done.

[dbenrosen]

This past weekend was one of the worst for this problem for me. I had an initial failure on Friday night. I was able to solve it by reseating the card (CC #2 in this case). It lasted all of 9 hours. When I checked again Saturday morning, back to "CP Failure" for CC#2. Again reseating got my back.

This worked for about 11 hours, when it failed again Saturday night. UgH!!! Reseating again fixed the failure. And it worked for a good long time, almost 14 FULL HOURS!!!! I know exactly what time it failed because the Series 3 was recording a show that just stopped when the card auth failed.

This time I had to reboot the TiVo to get my CP Auth back. That's the worst stretch of failures I've ever had, and I've been fighting this problem since October.

[Rolento76]

This past weekend was one of the worst for this problem for me. I had an initial failure on Friday night. I was able to solve it by reseating the card (CC #2 in this case). It lasted all of 9 hours. When I checked again Saturday morning, back to "CP Failure" for CC#2. Again reseating got my back.

This worked for about 11 hours, when it failed again Saturday night. UgH!!! Reseating again fixed the failure. And it worked for a good long time, almost 14 FULL HOURS!!!! I know exactly what time it failed because the Series 3 was recording a show that just stopped when the card auth failed.

This time I had to reboot the TiVo to get my CP Auth back. That's the worst stretch of failures I've ever had, and I've been fighting this problem since October.
Have you been contacted by TiVoJerry? Do you know if you can recreate the problem? I was able to recreate the problem and so TiVoJerry had setup logging on my account to try to get a better picture of what is happening. He said that TiVo and Cablevision are trying to work with Scientific Atlanta regarding this problem and SA is only now responding. I hope they can solve whatever is causing this. The whole reason I bought a S3 is to not have to babysit the SA8300HD I used to have.

[dbenrosen]

Yes. I've been working with TiVoJerry since November.

How are you able to recreate the problem? I've never had it happen while I was watching live TV, mainly because I never watch live TV (other than sporting events, which are on the network HD stations that I don't lose when CP Failure occurs).

[Rolento76]

Yes. I've been working with TiVoJerry since November.

How are you able to recreate the problem? I've never had it happen while I was watching live TV, mainly because I never watch live TV (other than sporting events, which are on the network HD stations that I don't lose when CP Failure occurs).
I noticed that the CCs would fail every time my wife channel surfed. Reseating the cards does not work for me. I always have to do a reboot. I tried bringing the cards back by reseating but then it asked me to go through guided setup again and I didn't. Then I noticed I had doubles of some of my HD channels and these doubles showed no picture. Redoing guided setup cleared that problem... but I digress.

One day I decided to channel surf using the Test Channels option of each cable card. I noticed that a handful of channels would make my CCs fail. I printed out a channel list for my area (Oakland, NJ system) and I marked each channel that made my CCs fail. It was only a handful of channels but two of the channels were Oxygen and Hallmark... channels that my wife likes to watch. Testing the channels was tedious since I had to reboot everytime I came across a "toxic" channel. And I can't prove that these channels cause the cards to fail every time. But I did make it happen when TiVoJerry asked and I put a time stamp on it so he can catch it in the logs. That night, my cablecard 1 was fine when watching the "toxic" channels but my cablecard 2 did fail. I hope my logs help.

I had assumed that I would come home to failed CCs because my TiVo suggestions attempted to record on one of the "toxic" channels.

[dbenrosen]

One day I decided to channel surf using the Test Channels option of each cable card. I noticed that a handful of channels would make my CCs fail. I printed out a channel list for my area (Oakland, NJ system) and I marked each channel that made my CCs fail. It was only a handful of channels but two of the channels were Oxygen and Hallmark... channels that my wife likes to watch. Testing the channels was tedious since I had to reboot everytime I came across a "toxic" channel. And I can't prove that these channels cause the cards to fail every time. But I did make it happen when TiVoJerry asked and I put a time stamp on it so he can catch it in the logs. That night, my cablecard 1 was fine when watching the "toxic" channels but my cablecard 2 did fail. I hope my logs help.

I had assumed that I would come home to failed CCs because my TiVo suggestions attempted to record on one of the "toxic" channels.

Is it usually CC #2 that fails?

On my S3, it is almost always CC #2. I would say more than 95% of the time. Only occassionally is it CC #1, and even then it usually ends up being both of the cards.

Yesterday it failed while recording Fox Soccer Channel, but I rarely see the failure while I am watching something. It just so happens that it failed while in the middle of a scheduled recording.

[Rolento76]

Is it usually CC #2 that fails?

On my S3, it is almost always CC #2. I would say more than 95% of the time. Only occassionally is it CC #1, and even then it usually ends up being both of the cards.

Yesterday it failed while recording Fox Soccer Channel, but I rarely see the failure while I am watching something. It just so happens that it failed while in the middle of a scheduled recording.
For me the problem isn't dominant on one card. I've had both cards fail probably the same amount of times. Nowadays I make sure each card has its authorization when I get home... especially on a heavy TV night (Thursdays).

[dbenrosen]

I don't lose the network or network HD stations, so the majority of my recordings still get recorded fine even with the failure. I have trouble on weekends with Fox Soccer Channel. Except where I have a conflict, all of my SD stuff is still recorded on my S1.

[mkinzie]

Rolento76, over on the thread titled "One channel (G4) I can't receive, messes up CableCARDs (Comcast, Howard Co., MD)" a few of us discussed a situation we were having where a tuning in to a particular channel would cause that cablecard to lose that channel and every channel below it (numerically). Yours is the only other post I've seen that's similar. Perhaps you could pass this on to TivoJerry. I won't be of much help now because I switched to Verizon FIOS, which uses Motorola cards, and haven't had the problem since.

[yanasina]

Tonight I lost all my HD channels, not digital, just HD, unfortunately when I was trying to record two of them. The cablecards read authorization received; rebooting returned the channels. Could this issue be a signal strength problem? If so why would rebooting fix it?What do I do if the cable company says my signal is fine? It defeats the purpose of having tivo is I have to constantly monitor it to see if it is recording what I have set to record. I am beginning to get REALLY frustrated here, as every day I seem to have a new problem with this box. I am fast approaching Amazon's 30 day return window, and as much as I love Tivo and the ability to record in high def, I am ready to cry about this. This is supposed to be fun, not a constant source of anxiety. Has anybody come up with an answer to this problem? (I am on Comcast BTW)

This is also different from the grey screen channel loss that changing the channel fixes, (another frustration) because changing the channels does not fix it.

[Blonde]

I've been having the same problem (although I lose all channels). I also have SA cards from Cablevision (NJ). I reported my problem in this thread: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4887179

I'm glad Tivo is at least aware of the problem.

[nascarfan]

My channles come and go too (Cablevision). Yes re-booting will reset and then they work. Sometimes if I channel change they reappear. Missing can be analog,digital or HD. More often than not they are lower analog. This was the case on Monday the 19th. They are all back this morning (no boot)! I have have many calls to Tivo and Cablevision as well as tech visits to no avail. I do have the newest software this morning as well. 8.1.1-01-648. I hope this channel issue gets cleared up. It is bad,very very bad.

[yanasina]

Almost a week later and still no HD. It's the only reason I got digital cable in the first place.

[edge64]

I have the same channels disappearing isssues in HD. I just got cable cards this week. My cards are from Knology and are Scientific Atlanta PowerKey. model PKM600. A reboot generally brings the channels back.


I have finally given up to Knology due to pricing of cable cards and the afforementioned dropped channel issue. I turned in both cable cards last week and I now use my OTA antenna to get the local HD channels and my Series 3 to get the clear QAM unencrypted digital channels (w/o mannual mapping of course). That allows me the full use of the dual tuners and I have had no problems since even without the new release.

[DCIFRTHS]

I've been having the same problem (although I lose all channels). I also have SA cards from Cablevision (NJ). I reported my problem in this thread: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4887179

I'm glad Tivo is at least aware of the problem.

Have you contacted TiVoJerry regarding your problem? Do you fit the description that he listed in his post?

[Blonde]

Have you contacted TiVoJerry regarding your problem? Do you fit the description that he listed in his post?

Yes, the problem he described is exactly mine. I contacted him, and they enabled the diagnostic logging on my box. I hope it's fixed soon.

[rcr2]

To knock this thread up a bit, I'm experiencing these issues. I've sent TiVoJerry a PM, as requested.

I'm Comcast in Central NJ. I believe I have SA cards. Everything was good the first week, then I had intermittent outages, mostly on Card 2, but Card 1 has acted up, as well.

It seems to be blocks of channels that probably correspond to the different subscriptions Comcast has set up. But if they go gray, whether or not I get the error screen, if I check the CP status, it has reverted to a 'CP Failure' status.

Reboots bring it back to 'Auth Rec'd' and that lasts anywhere from as long as a couple days to as short as a couple hours.

I've already hammered Comcast pretty well over other issues, so I'm hoping this is something I can get resolved without involving them again.

[bezoar]

Anyone with news on a fix for this issue yet? I'm having the same problem, all digital channels dropping out from both cablecards, fixes after restarting. Mines occurring almost daily now requriing restart, its very irritating. I PM'd TivoJerry yesterday but I'm curious if anyone's had this problem resolved.

[Blonde]

Anyone with news on a fix for this issue yet? I'm having the same problem, all digital channels dropping out from both cablecards, fixes after restarting. Mines occurring almost daily now requriing restart, its very irritating. I PM'd TivoJerry yesterday but I'm curious if anyone's had this problem resolved.

No fixes yet. FYI: You can usually just pop the cards out and back in for a second instead of restarting to save a couple mins.

[bezoar]

Is this a Tivo problem or a cablecard issue? I assumed it was a Tivo 3 problem since both cards go out. Thanks for the tip about the cards, but it's a headache to get around my speakers and into the back of the media cabinet to get to the cards, easier just to reboot for me. I got so tired of reprogramming the 30 second skip hack every time I just programmed my Protno remote with a button that does the whole sequence. Still, despite the annoyance it is a great box.

[dbenrosen]

Is this a Tivo problem or a cablecard issue?

It is some combination that I believe TiVo can remedy once they determine the cause of the problem.

[ejd65]

I was an early poster to this thread, experiencing the same problems that still seem to be occurring. 8.1 cleared up the issue for me, I have not had to do a reset in about a month. However, in the last week or so, something new has be showing up. When the TV is turned on and live TV selected, it brings me to a black screen, no picture. Tuning up or down or selecting a channel corrects it. Not a big problem in the scheme of things and certainly better than what I was experiencing. Recording is fine.

[KurtONeill]

I have started having the same problem with my cable cards via Fios in Howard County Maryland. Only on cable channels. The antenna channels always work fine. I set it to record a couple of shows and just a blank screen has shown up for about 10 seconds. If I reset the cards it always fixes it.