TiVo Mini setup - Pain in the ass

todd_j_derr -
Did you ever get the problems solved?

 

I did not. I sent 2 of them back and they extended the 30 day trial on the other 2. I got an email on Saturday "We have prioritized your case XXXX to hopefully receive a resolution faster." Hopefully indeed! Nothing since then.

I was at my mom's house over the weekend; I meant to take a mini up there to see what would happen (although they're no longer on the same account, sort-of), but I forgot..

 

Hallelujah! Yesterday I got an email "We believe that we may resolved the issue you were having. Please attempt to setup the TiVo Mini again". Lo and behold, I got to the red-slash screen of death and there were no red slashes to be seen! I nearly wept.

So, no idea what the issue was but clearly it was on Tivo's end. Total time to resolve: 35 days.

[Edit: both minis are now set up and working fine... finally!]

 

Yeah, that's crazy. Solidifies my belief that TiVo's beta tests are really alpha tests, and the early adopters are the real beta test.

 

By any chance did you get service transferred from an older TiVo model to your 4 tuner unit? I transferred a 3 year pre-pay to a Premiere and the back end was configured all wrong on that Premiere (it was configured as a series 3 unit). If I had to guess your problem was similar. It's crazy how little we know about the back end configuration of our units. There should be a summary of the configuration at tivo.com IMO so we have a chance to verify it ourselves.

 

moyekj - I did not but my own suspicions are along those lines. My TiVo account has existed since June 2000 so who knows what kind of crud has accumulated there, how many backend upgrades it's been subjected to, etc. Maybe some field was set to something unexpected that the CSR tools ignored but the Mini puked on. I've certainly been in the situation before of having to diagnose a customer problem that "can't possibly be happening" and I know it's frustrating, but 35 days...

Anyways, I had a S1 lifetime which *still* shows up under ”Active TiVo devices" despite the fact I sold it on eBay and transferred the sub - I certainly didn't get any discounts on my first Elite. My mom's TiVo still shows up there as well, though it's now gone from "device preferences". So, plenty of extra stuff floating around, and that's just what I can see myself. I know one or two of the CSRs were kind of "thinking out loud" talking about various permissions and other configuration we have no way of seeing.

 

I have been keeping an eye on this thread to see the outcome.

I can't believe it actually took 35 days to resolve this. Wow.

 

Your avatar pic fits perfectly with that statement.

 

BTW, when I asked what the issue was the answer I got was "we didn't do anything"... I wrote back basically saying I didn't believe that; no response, they closed the case. So, who knows, maybe something with transferring boxes or processing RMAs somehow fixed my account, maybe whoever really fixed it couldn't be arsed to add any notes to the case, maybe it was a benevolent alpha particle.

I don't really care - my Minis are working and now I can get on with "normal" Mini owner problems like wanting to configure the timeout or be able to use Netflix. All my refunds are processed, I sold my Moxis (for 80% of what I paid new 3 years ago, FWIW), and I'm generally happy.

 

It should be TiVo's new corporate logo.

 

BTW, someone from TiVo contacted me privately with an explanation, which I thought was very cool. It turns out it was indeed related to the Xfinity On Demand stuff I speculated about here.. So, it's certainly nice to get a little closure on that, and if anyone else runs into the same issue hopefully they'll see this and be able to get the problem resolved.

 

Thanks for the update! Seems to clarify that the issue was a backend accounting snafu which is good from the perspective that they were able to isolate and figure out the problem.

 

I ordered a TiVo XL4 and a mini. The mini would not connect. They blamed the ethernet so I connected via MoCA and it still failed. I read through this thread so was dreading the struggle. I was getting the V70 screen.

I went on the XL4 and under the help menus it could see the mini. I did the login trick with the MAK with both the mini and the XL4 and they had the same MAK key and both were obviously talking on the network.

After a week and a call everyday to TiVo they finally agreed to send me a new mini to try out. It worked first try.

 

I was having the same troubles (v70) last night. I went to TiVo's website and registered the TiVo Mini, since it wasn't showing up on my account. I also enabled 1 tuner from my TiVo Premiere 4 to be shared for the Mini.

I had to go somewhere, so I came back to it two hours later. It still wasn't working when I checked it out. I rebooted a couple of times... still no luck.

I took it upstairs to the same room as my other TiVo, and made sure it was plugged into the same hub. This time, it found it on the first attempt. Once I get the breakout cable delivered today for composite support, I can put it in the guest bedroom (it's final destination.) Hopefully it won't have any trouble connecting, now that I've made the initial connection.

 

For the record, everything network related worked once I plugged it into the old TV in the guest bedroom (with the help of the breakout cables.)

It refuses to output stuff in 4:3, but I've got a ticket in with TiVo for that. They've acknowledged that it's a known issue, and they're "working on it".

 

I think I'm in the same boat w shared account and xfinity issue.
Any advice? I keep getting the red do not enters.

 

I just set up my mini and was getting the same V70 error. I followed all the instructions (activating, setting up the tuner sharing, etc.) and it just would not work. Multiple reboots, etc. Found this thread, changed the name of my XL4, reconnected to Tivo, and the Mini picked it right up. Very strange. Would never have tried it without this thread. All in all, about an hour of work.