[beaster]

I recently got my mom a TivoHD. I'm having trouble getting it to display her analog cable channels. After a reboot, the analog channels will display for a little while, then just disappear, and won't come back until another reboot. Nothing wrong when I plug the coax directly from the wall into the TV. Same cable into the back of the TivoHD = problem. Digital TV is fine OTA, no problems.

Any ideas? I'm assuming this is bad hardware, but before I swap it out I want a sanity check. We'll also probably try to call Tivo Support together. Software is fully up to date - Tivo is connected to broadband internet and I've forced all the updates, etc.

Thanks,
Sean

P.S. For additional data (trying not to complicate matters): all of the above was true when she had nothing but analog cable and that was directly connected into the TivoHD (no cable box, nothing). In an attempt to debug, we went and got a CableCard from Comcast and installed it. Same problem. Digital and HD channels are fine; analog have problems (actually some are OK, others don't display at all, and some have picture and no sound).

 

[HDTiVo]

Tune to some digital channels and use diagnostics to see your signal strength, SNR and RS errors, corrected and uncorrected to get an idea of whether you have a good signal from the cable.

 

[aaronwt]

Attenuate the signal. If the signal is too strong it will cause those problems with the analog channels. When I had my TiVoHD connected to comcast I had similar problems. My Series 3 boxes with the same connection had no problems.
I bought a variable attenuator from Radio shack and it solved my problem. I switched my TiVoHD boxes to FIOS where everything is digital and haven't seen any more problems.

 

[beaster]

Tune to some digital channels and use diagnostics to see your signal strength, SNR and RS errors, corrected and uncorrected to get an idea of whether you have a good signal from the cable.

We ended up calling Tivo Support. They had us check the signal strength. Her analog signal strength was in the low- to mid-90's. Her digital signal strength was in the high 60's. We have no problems with the digital channels - no pixelation, etc. Only probs with analog channels, and they're either working or they're not, nothing in between.

Thanks,
Sean

 

[beaster]

Attenuate the signal. If the signal is too strong it will cause those problems with the analog channels. When I had my TiVoHD connected to comcast I had similar problems. My Series 3 boxes with the same connection had no problems.
I bought a variable attenuator from Radio shack and it solved my problem. I switched my TiVoHD boxes to FIOS where everything is digital and haven't seen any more problems.

I'll have to see if FIOS is available in her area. Adding an attenuator is probably not an option since I don't live locally and I'm afraid of trying to walk her through something like that on the phone.

Thanks,
Sean

 

[HDTiVo]

They had us check the signal strength. Her analog signal strength was in the low- to mid-90's.

How was analog signal strength determined?

 

[rhowser]

My analog channels (dual tuner series 2) went out over the weekend, too. I got the new fall download/update sometime Sunday. Wonder if that had anything to do with it.

Digital channels work same as before. Haven't touched anything since I replaced my 3rd cable box (in the first 3 weeks of adding digital cable) back in May or June.

It worked Friday after work. didn't work Sunday morning.

Going to try something else...would be nice if I had a small TV or if my computer with the tuner card wasn't 50 feet away from any cable.

 

[beaster]

How was analog signal strength determined?

Basically the same way as the digital - using the signal strength screen in the Channels menu. I forget the exact menu choices to get there - I was only on the phone for this, so the Tivo tech walked my mom through the specific button presses. I could hear the signal strength tone in the background, and they had us use the same test for both digital and analog. Digital was in the high 60's, analog was in the 90's.

-Sean