New software- odd behavior?

1747 Views 18 Replies 9 Participants Last post by unitron, Feb 6, 2012

larrs

Discussion Starter · Feb 3, 2012

my Premieres got the new software last week. Love the new UI, etc. however, I am seeing some weird things since the update that have not happened before (won't say "never", but certainly not recently).

On one of my Premieres, I have lost channels twice since the update and had to reset the system. Every channel says "problem acquiring signal". So far I have had no missed recordings- which indicates whatever is happening is doing so in the middle of the night as I have noticed it first thing in the morning, before work both times.

On the other Premiere, I have been getting the "PC Contains no recorded programs" message when trying to play videos saved on my RAID array (HTPC). Both times required a reboot of the computer. This has never happened before but has happened twice since the upgrade. This has also happened once on the other Premiere mentioned above, but doesn't happen on my other Tivos.

Anyone else see this kind of behavior since the upgrade?

1 - 19 of 19 Posts

mlippert

· #2 · Feb 3, 2012

I haven't noticed lost channels, but I did notice that some of the shows that I had transferred to my PC using TiVo Desktop were showing on my TiVo as having a duration of 0:00, and then when I tried to transfer and play them on my TiVo Elite they didn't play.

Those shows were still playable on my PC however.

Interestingly older shows that were transferred from my replaced TiVo HD had the correct duration and could be transferred and played.

I haven't tried rebooting everything yet. If I understand correctly that may fix the problem?

MeInDallas

· #3 · Feb 4, 2012

This is happening on the Elite also with some of us. After anywhere from 2 to 6 hours my channels are lost and then when you do a manual reboot everything works fine again for awhile. Did you go look in your diagnostic screen and see if there are a lot of RS errors? I get around 5000 to 6500 and then it skyrockets after a few hours more, and then mega pixelation, and everything goes black and I have to reboot, then everything is fine again.

Of course Tivo says its the cable and vice versa. I have 2 other Tivo HD's and I never have any issues with them. I even switched the cable cards around and re-paired them and the problems always occur with the Elite. Whatever jack I hook the Elite up to in the house the problems stay with that Tivo while the others work great on any jack I hook them to.

I've got to where I just do a reboot about 10 minutes before primetime shows begin so my recordings wont mess up right in the middle.

Wolfowitz

· #4 · Feb 4, 2012

Same problem with my Premier Elite.

larrs

Discussion Starter · #5 · Feb 4, 2012

MeInDallas said:
This is happening on the Elite also with some of us. After anywhere from 2 to 6 hours my channels are lost and then when you do a manual reboot everything works fine again for awhile. Did you go look in your diagnostic screen and see if there are a lot of RS errors? I get around 5000 to 6500 and then it skyrockets after a few hours more, and then mega pixelation, and everything goes black and I have to reboot, then everything is fine again.

Of course Tivo says its the cable and vice versa. I have 2 other Tivo HD's and I never have any issues with them. I even switched the cable cards around and re-paired them and the problems always occur with the Elite. Whatever jack I hook the Elite up to in the house the problems stay with that Tivo while the others work great on any jack I hook them to.

I've got to where I just do a reboot about 10 minutes before primetime shows begin so my recordings wont mess up right in the middle.

Noticed I am having the mega-pixelated issue as well. I thought that was something to do with the cabe co, but now I am not so sure. I'll need to verify with my S3 over the weekend, but I don't remember it having an issue.

Walter Lambert

· #6 · Feb 4, 2012

You might want to check the DVR Diagnostic screen. On my Elite, the SNR was running 36/37 db on each tuner, and I had pixelation problems on most channels. Adding an attenuator reduced the SNR to 31/32, and the problem was solved.

Walter Lambert

· #7 · Feb 4, 2012

Sale on attenuators at http://www.smarthome.com/_/ProductResults.aspx?Ntt=attenuator
I purchased the mixed bag, and tested the various combinations to reduce the SNR to acceptable levels to eliminate pixelation.

MeInDallas

· #8 · Feb 5, 2012

Walter Lambert said:
Sale on attenuators at http://www.smarthome.com/_/ProductResults.aspx?Ntt=attenuator
I purchased the mixed bag, and tested the various combinations to reduce the SNR to acceptable levels to eliminate pixelation.

I actually got those same ones off Amazon, except I got them individually instead of the "variety pack" that you did. Wish I had seen that and saved a few dollars. The -6db one actually works a bit to buy me a few more hours of up time, but somehow theres still a massive flood of pixelation at some point and then all channels are lost. After a reboot everything comes back. I just cant figure this one out. I'm on my 4th cable card in the Elite.

larrs

Discussion Starter · #9 · Feb 5, 2012

larrs said:
Noticed I am having the mega-pixelated issue as well. I thought that was something to do with the cabe co, but now I am not so sure. I'll need to verify with my S3 over the weekend, but I don't remember it having an issue.

I checked the S3s and there are no pixelation issues whatsoever. I will check teh S/N on the premieres later.

aaronwt

· #10 · Feb 5, 2012

I have a variable attenuator that I used with a TiVoHD when I had Comcast. Much easier to be able to adjust the attenuation. So far I have not needed it with FiOS, even with my Elite.

MeInDallas

· #11 · Feb 5, 2012

aaronwt said:
I have a variable attenuator that I used with a TiVoHD when I had Comcast. Much easier to be able to adjust the attenuation. So far I have not needed it with FiOS, even with my Elite.

See my 2 Tivo HD's (TCD652160) work perfect on every jack in the house. I dont get any RS uncorrected or corrected errors at all, for weeks at a time. Whatever room I move them to they work great, but the Elite it dont matter what jack or room I take it to I get the same issue. I'm starting to wonder if maybe there is some incompatibilty with the Motorola cable cards. I wish there was some way I could go back to the previous version of the software and see how that works.

aaronwt

· #12 · Feb 5, 2012

MeInDallas said:
See my 2 Tivo HD's (TCD652160) work perfect on every jack in the house. I dont get any RS uncorrected or corrected errors at all, for weeks at a time. Whatever room I move them to they work great, but the Elite it dont matter what jack or room I take it to I get the same issue. I'm starting to wonder if maybe there is some incompatibilty with the Motorola cable cards. I wish there was some way I could go back to the previous version of the software and see how that works.

The Elite has always had those errors when first tuned to a channel. While the two tuner Premieres don't typically show any.

larrs

Discussion Starter · #13 · Feb 5, 2012

Walter Lambert said:
You might want to check the DVR Diagnostic screen. On my Elite, the SNR was running 36/37 db on each tuner, and I had pixelation problems on most channels. Adding an attenuator reduced the SNR to 31/32, and the problem was solved.

What should I shoot for? Is 30 the goal? If I have 36 should I try a -6db attenuator?

L David Matheny

· #14 · Feb 5, 2012

aaronwt said:
The Elite has always had those errors when first tuned to a channel. While the two tuner Premieres don't typically show any.

An Elite has to handle twice as much live-TV buffering data as a Premiere. Exactly which model 2TB drive does TiVo install in an Elite? And which models are in your Premieres that typically don't show a burst of errors when first tuned to a channel? Did your Premieres act the same before you upgraded the hard drives? I'm looking for correlation between the tendency to show a burst of errors when changing channels and hard drive cache size. Thanks.

Walter Lambert

· #15 · Feb 5, 2012

An attenuator reduces the SNR, and also reduces the signal strength. You are looking for a sweet spot that keeps the SNR near 30/31 and the signal strength around 80. It will vary for everyone, but for me the sweet spot required an attenuator -20db to reduce an SNR from 36/37 to 30/31.

larrs

Discussion Starter · #16 · Feb 5, 2012

Walter Lambert said:
An attenuator reduces the SNR, and also reduces the signal strength. You are looking for a sweet spot that keeps the SNR near 30/31 and the signal strength around 80. It will vary for everyone, but for me the sweet spot required an attenuator -20db to reduce an SNR from 36/37 to 30/31.

Just the reason i love these boards.

Thanks. I'll order that pack listed above and see what I can do.

crxssi

· #17 · Feb 5, 2012

I was having increasing problems with my cable modem dropping on Cox and occasional (but increasing) pixelization on the Premerie, for months. I asked my neighbor to check the signal levels on his cable modem. Like me, he was getting a receive power level anywhere from -13 to -19 dB with an SNR of 29. The power levels were out of spec. Finally got Cox to send someone out and told them they had a pole problem. He was nice, but an idiot- he was trying to convince me to install a plug-in, signal amplifier! I sent him away and called Cox again telling them they had a POLE PROBLEM and please send someone that was not a sub-contractor TO THE POLE to fix the problem; I had no interest in amplifying my noise. I have one short coax run, high quality, with compression fittings, and a single Cox-supplied splitter. The next guy did exact what he was supposed to do- the distribution thing on the pole had water in it and was ruined (even has a fairly large circuit board in it). He threw it away in my trash can, installed a new one, and my problems immediately disappeared. Cable modem signal of -3 and SNR of 37 (same for neighbors); solid connection with no more drop offs, Premiere had no more pixelation.

Your cable company is supposed to supply a correct signal to your house (not your living room or through your house). If it is too weak, too strong, or too noisy, they are supposed to fix it to be within [usually fairly secret] standards.

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aaronwt

· #18 · Feb 6, 2012

L David Matheny said:
An Elite has to handle twice as much live-TV buffering data as a Premiere. Exactly which model 2TB drive does TiVo install in an Elite? And which models are in your Premieres that typically don't show a burst of errors when first tuned to a channel? Did your Premieres act the same before you upgraded the hard drives? I'm looking for correlation between the tendency to show a burst of errors when changing channels and hard drive cache size. Thanks.

Whether my two tuner Premieres had an upgraded drive or not makes no difference. The norm is for them to have zero errors while the norm for my Elite is to have errors. But they don't increase any from the error count on the inital channel change. My SNR is typically between 35dB and 37dB on most of my FiOS channels. Although some are a little higher and some are a little lower. But either way I'm not having any pixelation issues.

unitron

· #19 · Feb 6, 2012

Walter Lambert said:
An attenuator reduces the SNR, and also reduces the signal strength. You are looking for a sweet spot that keeps the SNR near 30/31 and the signal strength around 80. It will vary for everyone, but for me the sweet spot required an attenuator -20db to reduce an SNR from 36/37 to 30/31.

It may reduce the signal and it may reduce the noise, but I suspect that the ratio of signal to noise remains the same.

Although deciBels involve weird math, so maybe not.

1 - 19 of 19 Posts

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