Does TiVo Service Number Series 648 Cause Channel Loss?

[MyMeta4]

Hi -

I have a refurbished Series 3 which I received 2 weeks ago. Periodically each card will lose a few channels. The local Cox Cable techs have been out 3 times. The signal level has been boosted and they state is is a "4" on their meter and that is not the problem. I usually can get the channels back for a few days by rebooting TiVo. The service tech read the "EMMs" which had dropped from a reading in the 30's to 4. He said they have had calls on several Series 3 boxes with this problem and they had one thing in common.

He said all the problem TiVo boxes had TiVo Service Numbers that start with 648.

The Cox tech said they have a 6 week old Series 3 in their own office which does not have this problem of losing channels and that their very new unit has a TiVo Service Number beginning with 653 prefix.

Has anyone heard anything about this? The Cox techs has seemed very through and all of them called their home office and spoke with several IT people because they assumed TiVo would offer the opinion that the TiVo box was fine and that the cable cards were the problems or something about installation was wrong.

The Cox tech suggested I use my 30 day return option to insist on a newer machine with Service Number 653 prefix. Before I go to that inconvenience (!) I wonder if anyone has experience or can comment on this problem. (If this were the problem, it would make the savings of buying a somewhat older refurbished box very dubious.)

Thank you!
Andrew

[Martin Tupper]

ALL Series 3 boxes have TiVo Service Numbers that start with 648. It stands to reason that all problematic Series 3 have that TSN, because ALL Series 3 have that TSN.

The word on the street is that the Series 3 is no longer being produced. There is no newer version Series 3 on the street.

The "new" TiVo is the TiVoHD, which has TSN's starting with 652.

To my knowledge, there is no model TiVo with had TSN's that start with 653.

[ewilts]

He said all the problem TiVo boxes had TiVo Service Numbers that start with 648.
Because all of the original boxes started with 648, it is highly likely that all of the problem boxes start with 648. That does *NOT* mean that all of the 648 boxes have problems - just that the ratio of installations is likely 99.9% to .1% in favor of them being 648 so the odds of the problem system starting with 648 is significantly higher.

There are many, many systems out there with 648 serial numbers that do not have this issue. That suggests that it's likely not a design fault.

.../Ed

[Rolow]

My tivo HD suffers from the same problem. I'm cox Phoenix customer. Im actual thinking about canceling my cable service. Its becoming a pain to have a tech come out.

Every thing was fine at first then I lose a hand full of channels. Reboot the tivo and every thing is back to normal. Then every 3-4 days I lose channels and have to reboot after a month of rebooting every 3-4 days that stopped working and i had to have a tech come out. If it continues on schedule ill need to call for another tech soon.

[MyMeta4]

Hi -

I posted this question - thanks for comments so far. It sounds like perhaps the notion there is a 653 TSN that won't lose channels is a myth...

I'm entirely new to all of this - others must have had a similar problem - what fixes have succeeded?

Thanks -
Andrew