TIVO HD - Signal Output Problem?? HELP Please...

[AFG]

TIVO HD Problem

HELP…. I am trying to determine the source of my problem with my TIVO HD and my Samsung 61” rear projection 1080p HD TV. I have looked through the various threads on the forums and have not managed to find any descriptions of similar problems. I am hoping that the collective wisdom of the forum members can help me identify the course of action to fix the problem.

My setup is a TIVO HD connected to my relatively new Samsung 61” rear projection 1080p HDTV via component video cable. The television is new from the August 2007 period and I have had no problems with it. The TIVO HD is a new one provided to me directly by TIVO as part of the upgrade offer for lifetime subscribers to the new HD model around the end of 2007. I have Comcast service and have two single-channel cable cards in the TIVO HD. The problem is intermittent and not repeatable on-demand.

As an “for instance example” – I might be watching the television evening news on Channel 9 on one of the two cablecard tuners off the TIVO and suddenly I loose the display to the television. This occurs at intermittent times, my television will appear to loose its signal and display the blue screen with either one of two messages – UNSUPPORTED MODE or WEAK OR NO SIGNAL. This appears to be a normal television message. This can occur at random times for anywhere from a couple of seconds to ten minutes or even more. During this random non-predictable outage, I can change the television to a cable input that bypasses the TIVO and cablecard tuners and see that the channel is not interrupted or affected. The only impact is via the TIVO cablecard tuners and the problem is random between both tuners/cablecards.

During this problem outage time, I get no response from the TIVO when using the remote to attempt to make any changes on the TIVO such as bringing up the channel info display, changing channels or any response to any remote control action. No audio cues are audible and no front panel lights on the TIVO give any indication of the TIVO sensing the remote control signals. When the television goes back to displaying the television video signal, I am able to backup the time shifted television program on the TIVO and *successfully* see the program that occurred during the outage period. It would appear that the television signal is not interrupted and is in fact being correctly recorded during the display outage. This leads me to believe that the problem is in the TIVO and its output display to the television.

The problem outage appears random and I cannot seem to influence its occurrence across either cablecard tuner or at any particular time of the day or on any channel(s). Rebooting the TIVO does not appear to lessen the random occurrence of the problem.

Does anyone have any ideas here or has anyone seen any similar problem occurrence? I anticipate that I may need to contact TIVO and relay these problems to them to have them send me a new TIVO but wanted to see if I can first identify any similar problems.

Thank you in advance for any assistance or guidance that anyone could offer.

Andy Gamponia

[ddonohue]

This problem is reported all over the place. There is one thread in particular with close to 300 posts offering information about the problem.

I can reproduce it on demand by doing a Tivo S2->Tivo HD transfer. I am not using cablecards and I don't get any HD channels, so you can rule those out. Look around and you'll find a lot of info on it. Tivo says they are aware, but it's been going on for a long time and there's no resolution yet.

EDIT: For example, look here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=365824).

[mypape]

Does this happen with the series 3 as well?

[AFG]

DDONNOHUE

I had seen the thread you had referenced but had discounted this as being the same problem since the circumstances and symptoms are sufficinetly different. On another review, perhaps the problem could be related but im still not sold on that thought.

I actually followed the thoughts in the thread you refernce to see if I could influence my situation with any of the suggestions or if I had anything in common other than what appears to be a video output dropout - no such luck.

Im not getting any menus or any response from the TIVO when the dropout occurs. Still...the problem could certainly be related.

I am using 1080i fixed output for refernce.

Perhaps I will be at the mercy of having to contact TIVO and seeing what they tell me since it appears that I can at least pinpoint the problem to be directly attributeable to the TIVO and not the cable cards, TV or cabling.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Should I pray:(

Thanks

[ddonohue]

I was desperate enough to actually wade through all 270+ posts in that thread, hoping for some insight into the problem. I hope you didn't go that far.

I can summarize for you this way - most people talking to tivo 1st level CSRs got no satisfaction and were often told that tivo was unaware of any such problem. They usually cited a hardware problem and suggested a replacement box. But tivo reps actually posted in the thread and said they were aware, had reproduced the problem and were working on a fix.

There didn't seem to be any commonality as far as cablecards, output device, type of connection to output device, type of programming, or program resolution. About the only significant element that many pointed to was network activity (TTG, My Pictures, etc.). And there was some anecdotal theory that newer HD boxes had a modification that resolved the problem, therefore tivo's offer to replace the box was worthwhile, but I don't believe that's been proven. At least one or two people claim to have been having this problem through 3 software updates now. That's all I've got.