Ron-retread
01-21-2009, 04:25 PM
I have a Tivo HD connected to a Sony 42V4100, on Comcast with the Digital Starter Package. The cable from the wall goes to a splitter with one output going to the TiVo, the other going to the Sony Tv. The TiVo is connected to the Sony TV with an HDMI cable.
I Received the TiVo HD Jan. 19, 2009. I Replaced the old TiVo 2DT, and went to the "Connect To TiVo Service Now" 3 times before the software was finally upgraded from 8.1 to 11.0. I Noticed that quite often when changing channels, I either got a "Searching For Signal" message or I got the channel I was attempting to tune to, with the signal sometimes dropping out. I hadn't installed the M-CableCard yet, I wanted to test the TiVo for a while before jumping into that. I finally gave up and went to bed.
The next morning (Jan. 20, 2009) I decided to take the leap and install the cable card I'd picked up at the Comcast store. After putting in the card, I called the 1-800-COMCAST number, and proceeded to exchange information. the CSR said he had an error message when he tried to send it a signal, so we went through the numbers I'd given him, and he had made a typo. He corrected it, and tried again, worked like a charm. The whole process took about 10 minutes, and I was receiving all the NTSC, Clear QAM and scrambled channels in my Comcast package.
I started checking the various channels, because there were a number of scrambled HD channels I hadn't been able to watch with my Sony TV since it only handles NTSC and Clear QAM signals, but not the scrambled HD signals. The problem of sometimes getting a channel and sometimes not was driving me nuts. I eliminated the CableCard as the source of the problem, because it happened before the CableCard was installed. It didn't seem to matter whether I was tuning an NTSC, Clear QAM or scrambled channel, I tried them all. The TiVo HD has also been rebooted numerous times without fixing it. I also tried to see if it was only the lower channels (2-99), higher channels, low frequencies or high frequencies. It made no difference.
I discovered the hack to turn on the display on the bottom of the screen (Select-Play-Select-InstantReplay-Select), which is invaluable for troubleshooting this problem. It turned out that "Tuner 0" always worked properly, and "Tuner 1" was the culprit. it usually it took up to 20 seconds for Tuner 1 to display a signal, at one point I gave up after 20 minutes with no signal.
On the tuner I had problems with, I went to the Message & Settings > Accont & System Information > Diagnostics page, where it shows several pages of information, among them the signal level on Tuner 0 and Tuner 1. On the good tuner (tuner 0) it was always between 93-100. On Tuner 1 when it finally picked up a signal, it was always at 87 and occasionally dropped out. Both tuners get their inputs from the one cable into the TiVo, so it can't be a problem with my cables or Comcast, it is definitely internal to the TiVo. Also, when I was having the problem I went to the Sony TV, which also shows the signal level, and there was no problem, good signal on all channels.
It appears that something some kind of problem with Tuner 1. Since numerous people have been reporting this problem since at least 2007, with numerous software updates, I can't see how it's a software problem, especially with the differences in signal levels between the good and bad tuners.
I called Support and spoke to Dave. He had me try several things, then offered to exchange the TiVo, so we'll see if that takes care of it.
Hope this helps, I've seen numerous posts going back to 2007 regarding this problem.
Ron
I Received the TiVo HD Jan. 19, 2009. I Replaced the old TiVo 2DT, and went to the "Connect To TiVo Service Now" 3 times before the software was finally upgraded from 8.1 to 11.0. I Noticed that quite often when changing channels, I either got a "Searching For Signal" message or I got the channel I was attempting to tune to, with the signal sometimes dropping out. I hadn't installed the M-CableCard yet, I wanted to test the TiVo for a while before jumping into that. I finally gave up and went to bed.
The next morning (Jan. 20, 2009) I decided to take the leap and install the cable card I'd picked up at the Comcast store. After putting in the card, I called the 1-800-COMCAST number, and proceeded to exchange information. the CSR said he had an error message when he tried to send it a signal, so we went through the numbers I'd given him, and he had made a typo. He corrected it, and tried again, worked like a charm. The whole process took about 10 minutes, and I was receiving all the NTSC, Clear QAM and scrambled channels in my Comcast package.
I started checking the various channels, because there were a number of scrambled HD channels I hadn't been able to watch with my Sony TV since it only handles NTSC and Clear QAM signals, but not the scrambled HD signals. The problem of sometimes getting a channel and sometimes not was driving me nuts. I eliminated the CableCard as the source of the problem, because it happened before the CableCard was installed. It didn't seem to matter whether I was tuning an NTSC, Clear QAM or scrambled channel, I tried them all. The TiVo HD has also been rebooted numerous times without fixing it. I also tried to see if it was only the lower channels (2-99), higher channels, low frequencies or high frequencies. It made no difference.
I discovered the hack to turn on the display on the bottom of the screen (Select-Play-Select-InstantReplay-Select), which is invaluable for troubleshooting this problem. It turned out that "Tuner 0" always worked properly, and "Tuner 1" was the culprit. it usually it took up to 20 seconds for Tuner 1 to display a signal, at one point I gave up after 20 minutes with no signal.
On the tuner I had problems with, I went to the Message & Settings > Accont & System Information > Diagnostics page, where it shows several pages of information, among them the signal level on Tuner 0 and Tuner 1. On the good tuner (tuner 0) it was always between 93-100. On Tuner 1 when it finally picked up a signal, it was always at 87 and occasionally dropped out. Both tuners get their inputs from the one cable into the TiVo, so it can't be a problem with my cables or Comcast, it is definitely internal to the TiVo. Also, when I was having the problem I went to the Sony TV, which also shows the signal level, and there was no problem, good signal on all channels.
It appears that something some kind of problem with Tuner 1. Since numerous people have been reporting this problem since at least 2007, with numerous software updates, I can't see how it's a software problem, especially with the differences in signal levels between the good and bad tuners.
I called Support and spoke to Dave. He had me try several things, then offered to exchange the TiVo, so we'll see if that takes care of it.
Hope this helps, I've seen numerous posts going back to 2007 regarding this problem.
Ron