No Picture, Stuttering Sound on unsub TiVo

[asfafa]

Hi

I purchased a TiVo on ebay last summer, and put in a new hard drive, and it runs the 2.5.5a software as I have a Sony TV. It is unsubbed and doesn't have a cachecard or network card. It's hooked up to a STB.

Recently I have come back from work to find no picture, and sound blanking out every other half second. If I change the channel on the STB, it doesn't make a difference. But if I switch off the STB, then switch it back on, then the picture returns and the sound is okay.

But it only seems to be temporary as this problem re-occurs the next day and I'm at a loss why it is happening. The hard drive is less than a year old, so I don't think it is that. :( :confused:

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

paul

[mikerr]

Sounds more like a crap/overheating STB. Pace?
Many of us put STBs on a mains timeswitch to reboot them every day :)

[Automan]

To confirm have you tried pressing AUX on the Tivo remote?

If the picture is still bad this does point to the STB being the cause of the problem as pressing AUX bypasses "Tivo"

Automan.

[Pete77]

Sounds more like a crap/overheating STB. Pace?
Many of us put STBs on a mains timeswitch to reboot them every day :)

MY Panasonic TU-DSB 20 Digibox gave me couple of recordings with a frozen stuttering picture but sound countinuing that were definitely its fault (as I caught it frozen and had to restart it) a few months ago but no repeat performances since.

I think my muttering about sending it the great Sky box scrapheap in the Sky must have scared it back in to working. I do turn it off for 5 minutes at 5 am every day though on a timer.

[healeydave]

Recently I have come back from work to find no picture, and sound blanking out every other half second. If I change the channel on the STB, it doesn't make a difference. But if I switch off the STB, then switch it back on, then the picture returns and the sound is okay.

But it only seems to be temporary as this problem re-occurs the next day and I'm at a loss why it is happening. The hard drive is less than a year old, so I don't think it is that.

Presumably a Sky set-top-box?

What Make?

How old?

Sky's set-top-boxes are prone to this type of failure after a few years. Its usually caused by crap capacitors used in the Power Supplies. This is such a common problem that you can actually buy repair kits for each type of set-top-box which literally consist of several capacitors and a couple of other common component failures!

The advice above asking if it still does it after AUX being pressed is to identify if the problem exisits when Tivo is bypassed. This will then confirm the problem to be the satellite set-top-box.

If your not in a position to repair it yourself, it would probably be cheaper to pick up a cheap second hand STB off ebay, there are usually many good boxes for sale after people have downgraded to Sky+.

Regs
Dave.

[asfafa]

Thanks for everyone's reply. I will return home and find out if it is the STB.

Actually, the STB is not a Sky-based one, but is a HVB (?) one and it's mainly used for recording Chinese Channel programmes for my parents. There are a few other channels available on it, and they exhibit the same problem. The STB is 5+ years old, so it may be time for a new box...

Thanks again