1-second recording

[Cainam]

I have my Tivo connected to Sky digital, and it has all worked for a few years with no problems. But twice in the past week I have experienced a problem, and I am just trying to work out the probable culprit.

The problem is that 2 of the things it tried to record this week (Stargate SG1 on Sky One on Thursday at 4pm, and Eastenders on BBC1 on Friday at 8pm) it has started to record, and you get about a second of it before it all just stops, and asks if I want to delete the recording.

The progress line along the bottom is all black, so it has definitely not recorded OK. Subsequent programs have recorded correctly.

I think these symptoms are when Tivo is not seeing a signal when it tries to record, and if so I am trying to work out the cause.

Have there been any Sky updates in the past couple of days that could have caused the SKy box to reboot? Any way of knowing how long the Sky box has been up for?

For added information, a couple of times in the past month the picture has been a bit 'glitchy' which I just put down to poor weather conditions or a problem with the transmission. Never seen it before, but it happened quite a lot on the penultimate Prison Break a couple of weeks ago (in case anyone else can confirm there was a general problem!)

So I guess there could be a problem with my dish being slightly out of alignment or a loose connection or something that may be responsible?

Could a hard disk problem have the same sort of effect?

Any advice or thoughts gratefully received!

[cwaring]

This is a known glitch. It doesn't happen often (and is most annoying when it does) but, as far as I know, there's nothing that can be done about it. It's nothing to do with anything; it just happens.

[Cainam]

Hopefully that is all it is. Does seem a coincidence it has happened twice in 2 days though!

Thank you!

[cwaring]

Does seem a coincidence it has happened twice in 2 days though!
Indeed. Don't recall that ever happening to me.

[Ashley]

I wonder that at the time the recordings started there was very heavy rain so the signal suffered from rain fade just as the wrong moment.

I've lost transmissions in my job because of this.

[6022tivo]

Not a known glitch as such, but this is what happens when tivo is getting no input signal...

The sky box may of upgraded to go automatically into standby overnight (New green idea..) and the remote codes you are using do not send the SKY key before the numbers to switch back on..

Re the Sky Green saver, I understand on most boxes this can be switched off..

Has anyone tried to monitor the watts used on the box, in standby, and non in standby??

A

[BrianHughes]

...
Has anyone tried to monitor the watts used on the box, in standby, and non in standby??

A

For my standard digibox I got 18 Watts when on and 17 in standby. Not a lot, but as it was pointed out to me, multiply that by 6 million digiboxes and that adds up to quite a lot.

[cwaring]

Given that this also sometimes happens with my cable service, which never 'loses the signal', I think it's not that as much as a simple software bug or something.

[Pete77]

I would suggest putting your Sky box on a timer that turns it off at 5am for 2 minutes daily and then to have a short manual timed recording just after that using the main Sky box code that does bring the box out of standby by sending the Sky key before a recording starts. This avoids any problems with the Sky box eventually hanging due to no signal message etc.

If you still get problems I would suggest replacing the LNB on your dish or getting Sky to replace it as they do deteriorate after a few years. Also your Sky box could potentially need replacing as they too can fail after 2 or 3 years with 24/7 use depending on the brand and model.

[TCM2007]

The OP says he got "about a second of it" before it stops. That suggests that a) it's not a signal problem as he would have got the "No signal detected error" and b) that the problem is somehow related to the channel change,a s you usually get a glimpse of the screen before the change.

Cainam - do you see the change start?

[Cainam]

Cainam - do you see the change start?

By coincidence (?) it has already been on the correct channel each time and so has not needed to change. But even then it normally comes up with the Sky mini-guide at the bottom that tells me what it is about to record, and it does not get that far with both these short recordings.

[Cainam]

OK, it has not happened again for over a week now, so I will probably just ignore it for the moment.

I have had more 'glitchy' recordings though. Still not sure if it is Tivo hard drive or Sky dish issue though.

The following is the output of /var/hack/bin/smartctl -a /dev/hda.

I don't really understand it though...anything I should be concerned with?

[Ian_m]

OK, it has not happened again for over a week now, so I will probably just ignore it for the moment.

I have had more 'glitchy' recordings though. Still not sure if it is Tivo hard drive or Sky dish issue though.

The following is the output of /var/hack/bin/smartctl -a /dev/hda.

I don't really understand it though...anything I should be concerned with?As long as reallocated_sector_count is zero (or at a push stay low for a long time, months) then the drive is fine and is not failing. However I did have a Seagate drive that gave glitchy recordings on the TiVo (and playback), passed Seagate Tools diagnostics but you could hear it seeking all the time and SMART figures looked fine. Sent back to vendor and replacement is still going fine 2 years later.....