I recently purchased a HD TiVo and am not able to receive two of the Digital channels that are available on my Vizio HDTV.
My Configuration:
- TiVo HD
- Cable only input with no cablecards
- Vizio 47" TV
- Cable Provider: Oceanic Time-Warner
The missing channels are 83-3 and 120-12 which are near the bottom and top respectively of our digital channel range.
When I do a scan, the entire 83-0000 series and entire 120-0000 are not recognized.
Is there a way to force the system to tune directly to these channels.
Are you getting any other QAM channels? It might just be a signal strength problem. Do you have any extra splitters involved in the Tivo connection.
You can tune the channel directly by pressing the channel number and the sub number, for example 83-3. The dash is entered with the Forward Advance button. You can check the signal strength of that channel by using the Diagnostic menu. Don't use the Test Channel Strength menu, I think it still causes the THD to reboot.
Thanks very much gastrof and jrm01 for your helpful responses.
I get many other QAM channels --- in fact all that appear on my TV other than the ones noted above as missing.
Based on your suggestion jrm01, I removed the splitter which split the signal from the wall to the TiVo and TV and went into the TiVo directly from the wall. Did another channel scan with the same result. When I try to tune the channel 83-3, it is not accepted guess because it is not on the channel list -- so I can not check the signal strength.
I will give TiVo a call in the morning as suggested by gastrof. I am hoping that it is a software issue and not hardware as it skips the entire 83- and 120- ranges while it registers all of the subchannels in the other ranges. I have checked the signal strength for channels which have no reception, but were recognized --- and there is good signal strength on all I checked. Seems a bit strange, but then I am dealing with Oceanic (Time Warner)
Just thought I would close this thread out with my results:
1. Called Tivo support and was escallated two levels to "Research" which required a callback. When research called "David" informed me that there was nothing he could do. He would not call Oceanic Time Warner to determine if there was anything wrong in the information included in the signal for the missing channels.
2. Mysteriously channel 83-3 appeared when I tried another scan a couple of days ago.
3. Reading postings from a search of this forum I found the following:
"Originally Posted by clark_kent
...
And, speaking of QAM channels: I have no doubt that QAM tuners are not all created equal. Some work better then others and it will take several generations before they all become proficient and equally capable. BUT, when a stupidly cheep QAM tuner can correctly identify a given QAM frequency and present the correct QAM channel for that frequency and my $800 S3 gives me goose eggs (0) for channel number for that same QAM frequency, that, is inexcusable! Theres a lot of chatter about the PSIP being this or that (and perhaps) not being correct, and thats is the problem, not the TiVo. But, Ive had 6 different QAM capable devices on the same identical cable source and not one of them has given me any 0 QAM channel numbers. How in the world are all those QAM tuners able correctly identify a given QAM frequency/channel and the $800 S3 lays a bunch of eggs???"
I suspected that my remaining "missing" channel might be under one of the "0s" at the beginning of the channel list. Turned on the signal strength monitoring (which is the only way I found to check out multiple channels of the same number (0)). Found 120-12 (PBS Hawaii) under the second "0" --- so I am now able to get all the channels. It is obviously an Oceanic TW problem --- so will call and report it as an issue --- PSIP not being properly populated.
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