Bad audio from Tivo? / "Intermittent" "squealy" audio / "Kazoo" Audio

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As I said on page 1 of this thread in 7/02 (having purchased in 1/02), I rebooted and haven't had it occur since.

 

Well I'm currently at my wits end.

I first had the Kazoo audio problem around January of this year after having the Tivo for over a year. It took me two weeks to find the problem, figure out it was the TiVo and then find this thread to figure out I needed to reboot. At the time the Kazoo problem would last for about an hour or possibly more and then the audio would go back to normal. One reboot fixed the problem.

...until two weeks ago. I now get the Kazoo audio problem for around 5 seconds at a time before the audio goes back to normal. This happens roughly every 10 minutes. It's driving me completely nuts. I've rebooted 4 or 5 times now... even unplugged the TiVo three times and left it unplugged for a few minutes before letting it boot up.

My TiVo is an AT&T 40HR with a 2nd 120GB drive added. I have TW digital cable with a Scientific Atlanta 2100 cable box sitting on top of the TiVo. Temperature is 46C but I doubt that has anything to do with it.

When I watch a digital source (50%+ of the channels with digital cable are actually analog) the audio does not occur. It is an analog only problem (which doesn't make a lot of sense because the sound comes into the TiVo the exact same way). Changing the channel directly on the cable box (not the TiVo) during the few seconds i have causes it to instantly go away. Changing the channel on the TiVo might cause it go away too, but channel changes take a few seconds so I can't say for sure. I wasn't completely convinced that it was the TiVo (I had to switch out my cable box two weeks ago) but I confirmed that it was when the sound occured in one of the downloaded trailers TiVo has on the main screen.

Any help you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated. I don't even know what to try anymore.

 

Guess nobody had any ideas either.

I suppose I should have pointed out that I have the TiVo output hooked up to the TV and the output from the cablebox going to the receiver. Unfortunately with the way I have everything configured I don't get any sound when I'm bypassing because I'm using a Coax digital cable to hook up to the receiver for 5.1 surround, and for some reason it only outputs digital audio. That means I can't hear the standard bypass sound when watching an analog channel because it doesn't have digital audio... which is of course the only place the problem occurs.

Seriously anybody with anything they can suggest would be appreciated.

 

As mentioned above in this thread, TiVo has had difficulty fixing this bug because it's not reproduceable on demand. If your TiVo unit truly develops the problem every ten minutes, then you should contact TiVo to send them your unit in hopes that it will finally help them find a solution for everyone.

 

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While I'm not adverse to sending TiVo my box... I do have some serious reservations about it, particularly when I've got over 50 hours of shows recorded and not watched yet. There's a reason I have 160 GB in my TiVo, I use it. Also, while the thought of them ripping apart my box to fix the problem for everyone warms my heart, I really don't want to do without it for 6 months while they fix the problem. I TiVo which pisses me off for 5 seconds out of every 10 minutes is bad... not having one is worse.

If you can tell me who to contact at TiVo then I'll do it. However, I'm really not in the mood to go calling their customer service after their ignorance of the issue in this thread.

Thanks.

 

I would start with TiVoBill, who posted earlier in this thread.

Also, have you listened to the audio sample to be sure you are hearing the same problem as the other posters? Wouldn't want you to sacrifice your TiVo if you're not really having the same problem, after all.

 

Yeah I'm pretty positive it's the same problem. Like I said, I've had it once before for a week before I found out that rebooting fixed it.

I'll contact TivoBill today.

 

I just had the problem with one of my Series 2 80 hour. My other Tivo doesn't have the problem. Also this happened to me after a reboot, but not on every recorded program. I have also been having bad freeze up and pixellation of pictures at the same time. So I assume my hard drive is going bad and it is a result. I haven't had a problem of either issue on my second Tivo. I think I may take it back to BB since I still have an extended warranty.

 

/

 

Great topic.... 5hitty answer to people's problems.....

I have the exact same hissing sound as the mp3 that has been posted.


It is obvious that a reboot clears most of the hiss up...(not all, I know)

If it takes a reboot every once in a while... that is fine. I just wish Tivo would have some type of say in the matter of this 2 year old issue.


Thanks

Matt

 

I think I've managed to fix my "kazoo" problem when reboots wouldn't do it. For those people who are having the same problem I was hopefully this will help.

My TiVo would do the kazoo sound for about 5 seconds then go back to normal, and this would happen around every 10 minutes. I have a Time Warner digital cable box and the kazoo problem would only happen on analog channels... I never had a problem with digital. No matter how many times I rebooted nothing was fixed. I've been living with this for about 2 months and nothing has helped. I tried wiring things differently to no avail.

Last night at my wife's suggestion we rearranged things in our entertainment center (due to various wiring issues, constricted space and lack of good access this is not an easy task for me). I had had the TW Cable box sitting on top of my TiVo. The TiVo ran consistently at 46-47C which is high but still normal. Last night we moved it off the TiVo. This had the effect of not only reducing the heat near the TiVo, but also straightening some of the wires in the back and possibly reducing some interference.

So far after watching about 90 minutes worth of analog TV on multiple channels, the problem hasn't resurfaced. I'm seriously doubting that the heat problem was with the TiVo, because it shouldn't have any idea whether it's recording analog or digital signals. The temperature on the TiVo has come down from 47 to 44 this morning but the problem stopped happening instantly after rehooking up the cable box. My initial guess was that the heat of the TiVo was adversely effecting Time Warners box which might explain the analog/digital difference. However my wife reminded me that we once heard the 5 second "kazoo" problem on one of the TiVo downloaded movie trailers, which unless i'm grossly mistaken come during the daily call-ins. Maybe one of the wires was causing some kind of strange RF intereference that was affecting the TiVo, although then I would expect to have heard the kazoo problem consistently, much like people who have a ground loop problem do.

At this point I have no answers, I only know that the TiVo appears to have been fixed. For those who are problem saying that I had a different problem than the "Kazoo" audio you are right. I did. However the sound was exactly the same. I did have a Kazoo problem that was fixed with a reboot in January. This sounded exactly the same and I even redownloaded the .mp3 in this thread to make sure I wasn't crazy. Anyway, I'm just throwing all this information out there in the hopes that it might save some one with a kazoo problem that won't go away several months of headache.

Mordred

 

Hi.

I just bought my second TIVO and immediately experienced the tinny 'kazoo' sound. After calling TIVO they told me my unit was defective and needed replaced. I replaced it and had the same problem. I have noticed that the problem only occurs on non-digital channels.

Anyway, after reading some suggestions on this forum, I decided to swap the cable box out for a new one. My problem was solved. It was the digital cable box causing the tinny 'kazoo' sound.

By the way, I'm using the Left and Right red and white audio cables to connect the digital box to my TIVO.

I hope this helps everyone solve their problem. It appears the problem is wide-spread.

Don Naegele

 

Hi.

I just bought my second TIVO and immediately experienced the tinny 'kazoo' sound. After calling TIVO they told me my unit was defective and needed replaced. I replaced it and had the same problem. I have noticed that the problem only occurs on non-digital channels.

Anyway, after reading some suggestions on this forum, I decided to swap the cable box out for a new one. My problem was solved. It was the digital cable box causing the tinny 'kazoo' sound.

By the way, I'm using the Left and Right red and white audio cables to connect the digital box to my TIVO.

I hope this helps everyone solve their problem. It appears the problem is wide-spread.

Don Naegele

 

In an earlier post I documented by problems with kazoo audio. I'm glad to say I no longer have this problem. I stopped using my cable box, and now I wire my cable directly into my Tivo. No more kazoo audio.

 

This just happened to me today! I figured a re-boot might help, and it did. Should I worry about it coming back or getting worse? Has Tivo said anything about this? Seems to be a littel too common.

 

See the earlier posts in this thread.

 

It's been two years since I purchased my TiVo Series2 60hr, and the kazoo sound (which first occurred a few months after I had bought it) has come back in the right channel. Rebooting did solve the problem (at least, for now), but I thought (er, had hoped) I would never have the problem again.

About 4 months ago I had started regularly rebooting my TiVo once a week, because it seems to keep oddities from occurring. (I had rebooted it about 3 days ago.) Oddities include problems with the To Do list (like an empty or a list that only shows a few days worth of shows).

(Hopefully, people who are posting are not confusing the 'kazoo' sound with a 'fuzzy' sound or 'ringing' sound, usually caused by ghosting or multiple signals.)

Has anyone with a newer TiVo box (like a 140hr) received the problem? Maybe a minor 'inconsequential' hardware change has caused the problem to no longer occur in newer TiVo boxes???

 

Well I just started getting this whine / kazoo noise problem exactly like the one in the mp3 provided in this thread (posted by Kaokulk).

I have an series2 40gb (2.5 years old?). Never had a problem with it until
I rearranged my living room (had to unplug things).

It randomly comes and goes but when it whines its stays that way for 1 hour + ???. Have to turn off TV when it whines.

I thought it might be a cabling issue and since I recabled everything.
However I did try unpluging the feed from my Tivo straight into the TV and the whine went away.

Shows recorded without the whine play back fine.
The whine now appears on live TV and recorded programs.

So I started wondering if it was the cable box.

I just found this thread so I will try the power off "fix" and see if that helps.

Will report back. I guess there is no official answer to this problem yet?

 

Please don't hold your breath. Official announcements from TiVo are few and far between. Hopefully they'll prove me wrong.....

 

I'm almost positive I know the problem...it's a signal strength issue. That would explain a number of things. It's certainly possible for the dB rating to be different on different channels. If the signal doesn't fall into the acceptable range, such as around 23dB, when TiVo samples the audio, you're going to get problems.

This would also explain why for several people, removing the digital cable box from the equation fixes it...it removes the extra impedence of another coax connection creating a drag on the signal.

This would also explain why TiVo can't reproduce it...they are most likely using correct signal strength, and therefore don't have the trouble in their facilities.

This would also explain why rebooting helps...it clears the buffer out, which would make a big difference if the recorder uses a dynamic VBR encoder.

We can all positively decide, based on certain tests, that the problem is in TiVo's sampling/compression algorithm. It's not the jacks, it's not the cables, and it's only partially the cable feed (if your cable company provided a stronger feed, the problem wouldn't happen).

The fix? Go down to your local radioshack and buy an in-line cable signal amplifier for 30 bucks. I just about guarantee this will fix the problem for you. But the amplifier between the wall jack and the feed that ultimately goes to your TiVo...the squeal should then go away.

Much luck, and thanks to all the posters in this forum...hopefully this means we can all finally squash this bug!