Audio dropout - 2 tivos, only 1 affected...

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I have 2 Tivo HD units, both of which have the WD My DVD expander unit attached and are both about 18 months old.

Just this week, I started getting "dropouts" of audio from both live tv and recorded TV. Basically when I play, I get short dropouts of audio (maybe 1/2 second) every 1-2 seconds over and over again. If I rewind and then try to play forward I get 1-2 seconds of audio and then no more audio at all.

this only happens on one of the two units - the other is totally normal. They both have the same cablecard on time warner cable.

Interestingly if I transfer a show from the affected tivo to the normal one, it will then play normally, which makes me think the digital files are ok.

So I'm not sure if it's a bad hard drive, or a bad tivo unit. From what I understand if I disconnect the DVR expander I'll lose everything, so I'm reluctant to do that.

I have rebooted the tivo twice, with no change.

Appreciate any advice or suggestions. I bought them refurb from Tivo and I don't remember what warranty I got, but I expect it was only a year. They do have lifetime service however so I'm a bit panicked about that - the last tivo I had lasted 5+ years without any problems at all.

 

They both are being sent through the same modulator over RG cable to multiple TVs in our home. One unit (the one being affected) is also hooked up via HDMI to our theater room, but we rarely watch it there.

I should have mentioned that - the audio in question is being output from the RCA jacks into a modulator but both units go into the same modulator and only one is having the problem. I did switch out the RCA cable initially as I thought it may have been intermittently bad, but it made no difference and the regular almost rhythmic audio dropout points to another cause.