TiVo recording wrong channels

[Faith Smith]

Sorry if this is a repeat issue that has already been dealt with, but I've reviewed a good portion of this forum (and a few others), and can't find any other info on it.

Our TiVo has been recording the wrong channels for about the past month - month and a half, and we don't know how to fix the problem. It's gotten to the point that we need to leave it on the channel we want to record, which kind of defeats the point of having the TiVo, IMO.

Here's a basic example of what I mean: On Friday night, I set the TiVo to record the airing of "Most Haunted" on the Travel Channel at midnight CST. When I went to watch the program on Saturday, TiVo had instead recorded a program on Fox. Even though it thought it had recorded the program I had asked it to, and had labeled the recording as "Most Haunted."

Also, sometimes, when we're watching a program and TiVo alerts us to it's need to change the channel to a different channel to record a program we have requested it record, and we choose to change the channel at the time necessary, it will stay on the same channel we're watching and start recording, even though it appears to think it's changed the channel to the appropriate location to record. We have to then ask it to stop recording the program, and then change the channel to a different channel before we can switch to the proper channel to watch the program we wanted to have recorded in the first place.

Example of this scenario (to make it as clear as possible): We are watching a program on ABC (channel 12 here in KC) at 8:55 p.m. while we wait for our favorite program to air at 9 p.m. on The Travel Channel (channel 50 here in KC). TiVo alerts us to the impending start of our favorite program on channel 50, and asks us if we want it to change the channel at 9 p.m.? Yes, we answer. And then TiVo does it's thing at 9 p.m. on the nose. However, we're still watching something on channel 12, and TiVo thinks it's recording channel 50. We have to then stop the recording, change the channel to channel 13, and THEN change the channel to channel 50 in order to watch our program.

Is there a fix for this issue? Has anyone else experienced what we're dealing with?

Thanks!

[pdhenry]

Need more info on your setup. I assume you're connected though a cable box with the IR emitters. Have you experimented with the placement of the emitters? Have you "tented" the cable box?

[hyachts]

What's your setup? Are you using a cable box? If so, what control for the cable box are you using (IR/Serial)?

In your example scenario, why do you have to "change the channel to channel 13, and THEN..."? What's stopping you from simply entering channel 50 once you cancel the recording?

EDIT: Yeah, what pdhenry said...

[Faith Smith]

Oh, sorry about leaving that stuff out! We use cable (specifically Time Warner, as we're in the KC area), and I'm not sure about the other things you all asked about.

The TiVo has been working fine all year (we originally purchased the box and the service in February 2006). It's just the basic unit that was available at the time...we didn't need a huge amount of memory for the stuff we were recording, so we went with what Best Buy was selling back then for $150, I think. (That's post-rebate, of course...)

We have to change the channel before we can switch to the actual channel we want to watch because TiVo thinks it's already on that channel! So we can punch in "50" but it won't go anywhere. Even though we're still on channel 12. So we have to switch to an entirely different channel before we can switch to the channel we want to see. It sucks.

Does this info help at all? I'm at work, and don't have access to my TiVo info, but am still interested in solving this very annoying issues ASAP!

Thank you for whatever help you can offer!

[hyachts]

You don't know if you have a cable box, though? I suspect that you must, as it's not very likely that Tivo would be missing channel changes if it was doing the tuning itself. One way we can be certain that you do use a box is if you recieve and "premium" channels like HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, or use any pay-per-view programming. All those things would require that you have a cable box.

Assuming that you do, what pdhenry was getting at is that the Tivo (usually) controls your cable box with a device called an IR blaster that sits right in front of the window on your cable box that normally recieves commands frrom the remote control. If that window (on the cable box) is getting interference, for example from another remote, it can cause it to miss commands sent by the tivo. This is (obviously) something you can't check on now, but when you get home you should look at "tenting" the IR blaster (covering it with something opaque) to cut out any interference.

[Faith Smith]

Oh no, of course I have a cable box! I just assumed that you'd understand that answer when I said we have cable (as opposed to a satelite service, or something...), so I'm sorry I wasn't clearer on that!

Thank you both for the suggestions. I'll see if that IR blaster has been knocked out of whack for any reason, or maybe even try "tenting" it, as suggested, and perhaps that will help us with this issue from now on.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!! Here's to hoping our TiVo will return to being our favorite invention ever very soon! :)

[hyachts]

By the way, there are a lot of potential sources for IR interference in the average home. You can do a search on this forum for ways people have had the most success tenting their cable box IR window (if that's what the problem turns out to be, anyways, which it certainly sounds like).

[Mike38W]

If it's an IR Blaster problem, then you'd also have problems manually changing channels (which you may have).

I haven't had this problem but I would also check that your TiVo settings correctly lists your cable box manufacturer.

[jheydt]

I have this problem also which is sporadic. I would say that maybe 5% of the stuff I want to record is not recorded because tivo did not go to the channel that the requested program was on. I have a series 2, directtv, and use a serial cable. From what I can tell the problem in our case is mostly switching to the local channels which are 2,6, and 9. This never happened to us until the last service upgrade. I think that maybe this problem is a little more widespread than believed.

John