black screen, menu still works, no picture

[HappyHiker]

Hi,

Had my tivo for years now with no problems, upgraded HD 3 years or so ago, no problems, But recently its been playing up. Once the screen just froze and nothing worked needed a reboot. Then screen was black, no picture and menu still worked, playback worked but no live feed, again reboot fixed it. And over the last 3 weeks its needed 3 reboots. Prior to that 3 reboots in 3 years. Any one know whats going on? I did a search but it seemed people just reboot the tivo quite a lot. Have I just been lucky all these years or is something about to break...

[Automan]

Most likely the hard drive is on the way out.
Second most likely cause is power supply unit
Or third, both :)

All can be replaced either DIY or pre-configured.

Automan.

[HappyHiker]

thanks for the info. i think if the tivo is going to need a new hard drive and or psu, its time to 'up'grade to something else, especially since the picture quality on a plasma is not great even in mode 0.

I have a topfield upstairs but it won't record sky,or I guess I can get sky +, anyone know which is closest to the faithful tivo ? I could always lose sky, its only got Lost worth watching now anyway ?

[speedyrite]

I did a search but it seemed people just reboot the tivo quite a lot. Have I just been lucky all these years or is something about to break...

Two TiVos here - one rarely reboots itself, the other can't seem to go more than a week or 10 days at most without rebooting itself!

TiVo #2 has had both an upgraded HDD and a replacement PSU, it runs Mode 0, but it still reboots itself more often than seems necessary (same as it did before it was ever modified). I have learned to live with it now...

[Pete77]

I have a topfield upstairs but it won't record sky,or I guess I can get sky +, anyone know which is closest to the faithful tivo ? I could always lose sky, its only got Lost worth watching now anyway ?
You might want to wait for the launch of Freesat in a couple of months time assuming you are happy with only FTA channels on Sky/satellite and don't need Sky Sports or Sky Movies channels?

Freesat PVR boxes should support HD programs on BBC, C4 and ITV, be dual Tuner, have Series Link, be PDC equivalent (program record time shifts if it is running late) etc but with no monthly sub to pay. However C4 definitely and Five (probably) are in the final stages of moving to broadcasting FTA on satellite. Before this happens it isn't worth changing to a Freesat box and as yet the official launch hasn't happened, although it will probably happen in the next 2 or 3 months.

There will definitely be a Humax and probably a Topfied Freesat PVR.

Of course if you don't mind paying at least another £26 per month (£312 per annum) to Sky in subs and need to watch pay Sky and Sky HD channels then you may be just as well off with Sky HD.

See www.freesat.co.uk for more info.

If you want to keep your Tivo going for now and have a Lifetime Sub you might be surprised how cheap the base level replacement fully prepared hard drive now is at www.tivocentral.co.uk Tivocentral are also cheapest for replacement power supplies, although I rather doubt that is actually your problem.

[HappyHiker]

That is actually much cheaper than I'd expected.
I still have the old 40gb drive around so I can experiment to see if that fixes the problem before I buy.

So far everythings been fine this week though....so fingers crossed (once it actually fails to record something I really want I'll soon be whipping out the screwdriver though)

Mode 0 = near Dvd Quality ? Really ? Must be a very bad DVD player than ;-)

[blindlemon]

That is actually much cheaper than I'd expected.Prices of hard drives keep falling, and so therefore do prices of pre-configured drives.

And even though I try to stick to my 'monopolistic ultra-capitalist' principles ;), even my drive prices are surprisingly reasonable these days - and I don't use Maxtor drives :up:

Mode 0 = near Dvd Quality ? Really ? Must be a very bad DVD player than ;-)Mode 0 gives the the same resolution as a SD DVD - 720x576px - therefore the claim that it is 'near' DVD quality could actually be said to be under-egging the pudding :D