Roamio Pro HDMI output disappearing

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Happened twice in the last week. I'll turn on the entertainment system, and there's nothing coming down the HDMI cable from the Roamio - no video, no audio. Box seems to work otherwise - Minis are connected and running, and the front panel responds to remote button pushes.

Rebooting brings video/audio back.

Since I can't see any output, I just have to pull the power cord, but it just occurred to me that next time I'll try pressing the "Resolution" button on the back, see if that's relevant.

Anyone else, or is my hardware failing?

 

When this happened, I've fed the Roamio HDMI directly to the TV with a fresh cable, bypassing the AVR.

It's definitely the HDMI output of the Roamio just not being there. I've eliminated the cable, AVR, and TV as possibilities.

Rebooting the Roamio by cycling its power without doing anything else solves the problem immediately.

 

Never put the TiVo in standby. HDMI cable has been replaced, different inputs on TV tried.

It is without question something inside the TiVo. There have been a few weird updates from TiVo lately that have introduced strange bugs, and I was thinking it may be that when I posted.

But since no one else seems to be seeing the issue, at the moment I think it's a hardware problem here.

Next time it happens, I'm going to try the Resolution button in the back, and also the component outputs to see if those are working.

 

I had tried both those in case it was an HDMI handshake issue or some other weirdness of that sort.

I've had those on occasion on other devices, and the screen never goes blank/black, you get this obnoxious HDMI error message on the screen.

When it happens once, it's maybe some digital glitch. Twice in a week, and there's something going on. Rebooting the box in the evening before sitting down to watch TV is not on my list of fun activities.

 

OK, more info.

Happened again this morning. Instead of rebooting, I started pressing the RESOLUTION button on the back, waiting about 5 seconds between presses to let things resync and stabilize.

After a few presses, the screen sprang to life in 480i mode. Not ideal, but I could then go to the video settings to see what was what. Of the various formats offered, only 480i was checked.

So I ran through the 'test all resolutions' scenario, and all the available resolutions displayed. When the test ended, all the resolutions were checked, and when I went back to live TV, it was at 1080i, which is what that channel was sending. Everything was back to 'normal'.

I'm beginning to suspect that the problem is in software, and that it is triggered when the Roamio calls in.

 

See my post #11, and if happens again, try that before rebooting.

I wish I had tried the 'up-arrow' on the remote before I tried the RESOLUTION button to see if I could force the 480i from the remote instead of having to go behind the cabinet.

 

Yes, more than likely.

I forced a connect to 'mom', and when it was all done, I still had video and audio output, so it seems it's not about calling home. Maybe.

 

I have the Yamaha TSR-7810, but it's not relevant. When the HDMI output dies, it goes just as dead when the TiVo is connected directly to my LG TV or a small 24" Samsung I have.

 

I still have the same Roamio, but haven't had the blank screen issue at all for a few years now. I had put it down to an aberrant software update from TiVo that was eventually cleared up.

As for unplugging, I've never had an issue. The TiVo OS is quite robust (based on Linux, I think) and recovers well for me. I have two 4TB drives I use in there, cloning them back and forth in a cloning dock every 60-90 days and swapping in the other drive. Been doing that for 3 or 4 years now. I power down with everything running several times a year to do that, and haven't seen any issues with doing that, ever.

Also still on TE3. Frankly, with the proliferation of streaming services and content sending FAR superior quality images than Spectrum Cable, this will be my last TiVo after twenty years or more. I always cringe a little when returning to the TiVo's 1080i or 720p in MPG2 after watching something in UHD with DolbyVision and Dolby Atmos sound on my AppleTV4K or NVIDIA Shield Pro. Or even the Amazon Firestick4K, which is pretty crappy but still better and more responsive than the streaming capability of the Roamio.

 

The only difference AFAIK between the Roamio and Pro version was the size of the hard drive at the time of sale. Once you put that 3TB drive in, your Roamio became a Pro.