Well....
Now that Tivo has wasted an entire day of mine making me troubleshoot an issue with Cablevision that was obviously a Tivo software issue and not a Cablevision issue I now move on to Problem No. 2, Pixelation (or macroblocking to some) on some stations intermitently. For me it is most prevalent on HBO HD, but occurs on other digital stations as well.
So I call Tivo Support today to begin yet my second day of product development and quality assurance at Tivo, oh wait I forgot I am the consumer I don't work for them. I got confused becuase I spend more hours on this than I do at work.
Anyway so I call and Tech. 1 listens for a minute, puts me on hold where I wait for about 5 minutes before getting disconnected.
So I call back, and get Tech. 2, a guy who when I explain the problem tells me that the patch from yesterday had nothing to do with issues on Card Slot 2 and macroblocking on channels, and that macroblocking is generated at the cable company. Eventually when I explained graphically what I meant, he told me I meant pixelation which is entirely different. I understand the difference between the two, and until it can be proven that signal strength is not a factor I am not sure you can differentiate, but what the heck (although I bet he was thinking macrovision or something). So Tech. 2 now puts me on hold, where I wait for 20 minutes before I am disconnected.
So, I call back for the third time and get Tech. 3, a woman who again listens to the issues and wants to put me on hold. I tell her I would prefer not to do that as I have been disconnected 2 times already. She gives me a hard time, but eventually agrees to keep me on the line while she "researches the problem". After about 10 minutes she states she needs to check with some people and as I was not in front of my Tivo to aid in troubleshooting, could she call me back at home this evening. I told her that would be OK, so she gave me a ticket no. for the complaint. We agreed that she would call at 6 pm EST, and here I sit at 7:15 pm, with no call back.
So I decide to watch some TV, so I start a copy of DL.TV I downloaded from TivoCast and about 2 minutes in my screen goes blank for a second, then it happens again. so I rewind the show thinking possibly it has file issues, but the screen blanks at different spots in teh show then it did originally --> Hardware/Software problem (either decoder for Tivocasts files has an issue, or hardware issue), I try another and same problem with another TivoCast file. I am not using HDMI currently as I was concerned this might play a role in some of my issues so I connected by component to remove 1 digital handshake from the equation.
So to sum up, Tech. Support is unreliable at best, at worst will point you at the cable company when they knew they had issues with SA cards in slot 2. Hardware is unreliable, and has intermitent bugs which now include;
1. Pixelation (or if you prefer macroblocking) randomly on digital channels with both tuners, most obviously on HBO HD for me.
2. Loss of Picture while playing back TivoCasts.
I have not had this much trouble with a new product ever that I can remember. Even when hacking hardware, like my XBox, or my original DirecTivo it was / is more reliable and performs better (XBMC on my XBox is bullet proof).
I feel bad for Tivo on this, they have now lost 2 addtional sales; 1. my Cable installer was planning to buy one when he intially arrived at my house and heard the price, but after 5 hours and no joy, he has decided against it, 2. a co-worker was going to pick one up today, but made the mistake of asking me about my 2, he will be staying with his S2 and SA 8300 HD for now.
Now that Tivo has wasted an entire day of mine making me troubleshoot an issue with Cablevision that was obviously a Tivo software issue and not a Cablevision issue I now move on to Problem No. 2, Pixelation (or macroblocking to some) on some stations intermitently. For me it is most prevalent on HBO HD, but occurs on other digital stations as well.
So I call Tivo Support today to begin yet my second day of product development and quality assurance at Tivo, oh wait I forgot I am the consumer I don't work for them. I got confused becuase I spend more hours on this than I do at work.
Anyway so I call and Tech. 1 listens for a minute, puts me on hold where I wait for about 5 minutes before getting disconnected.
So I call back, and get Tech. 2, a guy who when I explain the problem tells me that the patch from yesterday had nothing to do with issues on Card Slot 2 and macroblocking on channels, and that macroblocking is generated at the cable company. Eventually when I explained graphically what I meant, he told me I meant pixelation which is entirely different. I understand the difference between the two, and until it can be proven that signal strength is not a factor I am not sure you can differentiate, but what the heck (although I bet he was thinking macrovision or something). So Tech. 2 now puts me on hold, where I wait for 20 minutes before I am disconnected.
So, I call back for the third time and get Tech. 3, a woman who again listens to the issues and wants to put me on hold. I tell her I would prefer not to do that as I have been disconnected 2 times already. She gives me a hard time, but eventually agrees to keep me on the line while she "researches the problem". After about 10 minutes she states she needs to check with some people and as I was not in front of my Tivo to aid in troubleshooting, could she call me back at home this evening. I told her that would be OK, so she gave me a ticket no. for the complaint. We agreed that she would call at 6 pm EST, and here I sit at 7:15 pm, with no call back.
So I decide to watch some TV, so I start a copy of DL.TV I downloaded from TivoCast and about 2 minutes in my screen goes blank for a second, then it happens again. so I rewind the show thinking possibly it has file issues, but the screen blanks at different spots in teh show then it did originally --> Hardware/Software problem (either decoder for Tivocasts files has an issue, or hardware issue), I try another and same problem with another TivoCast file. I am not using HDMI currently as I was concerned this might play a role in some of my issues so I connected by component to remove 1 digital handshake from the equation.
So to sum up, Tech. Support is unreliable at best, at worst will point you at the cable company when they knew they had issues with SA cards in slot 2. Hardware is unreliable, and has intermitent bugs which now include;
1. Pixelation (or if you prefer macroblocking) randomly on digital channels with both tuners, most obviously on HBO HD for me.
2. Loss of Picture while playing back TivoCasts.
I have not had this much trouble with a new product ever that I can remember. Even when hacking hardware, like my XBox, or my original DirecTivo it was / is more reliable and performs better (XBMC on my XBox is bullet proof).
I feel bad for Tivo on this, they have now lost 2 addtional sales; 1. my Cable installer was planning to buy one when he intially arrived at my house and heard the price, but after 5 hours and no joy, he has decided against it, 2. a co-worker was going to pick one up today, but made the mistake of asking me about my 2, he will be staying with his S2 and SA 8300 HD for now.
