The picture look like a shiny negative?

3307 Views 17 Replies 9 Participants Last post by rich2007, Dec 27, 2011

Ament96

Discussion Starter · Dec 23, 2011

I'm getting a negative picture from one of my tivos. I have switched the cables, both in and out, with a second unit that works fine and by chance (?) I have even switched the hard drive on that tivo when the updated hard drive failed and I put the original back in. It does not happen all the time but often enough. It seems to be getting worse. It's a very old series 1. Any ideas?

1 - 18 of 18 Posts

steve614

· #2 · Dec 23, 2011

Sounds like it could be a power supply problem. I would check that first, because it is easily replacable. First thing is to unplug the Tivo and open it up. Look over the power supply closely and check for bad capacitors.
They should all be leak free and flat on top. If you see any bulging on top, the cap is going (or has gone) south.

Here's a pic that shows how subtle the difference can be:

Also, if you have the means, check the output voltages to see if they are up to specs.

If the power supply has good voltages, looks okay and the Tivo works fine except for the picture problems, I would suspect the video module on the MB.

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wmcbrine

· #3 · Dec 23, 2011

Ament96, can you post a pic of what you're seeing?

Ament96

Discussion Starter · #4 · Dec 24, 2011

wmcbrine said:
Ament96, can you post a pic of what you're seeing?

I will attempt to -- here goes...

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cannonz

· #5 · Dec 24, 2011

Try the coax output see if it does it there too.

LoadStar

· #6 · Dec 24, 2011

Is the TiVo currently connected via S-Video, composite, or coax?

Ament96

Discussion Starter · #7 · Dec 26, 2011

Okay, so finally time to respond the family and turkey all gone. To steve614, I took a look and the capacitors all look normal, no bulging. I do not have the ability to check the output voltages. In all honesty, I am only able to tell you that the capacitors aren't bulging because you were kind enough to send a photo showing what the item looked like.
To cannonz, I moved the tivo to another tv and checked that it happens when the coax output is used. Yes, it does.
To LoadStar, the only input being used is coax. The outputs used have been A/V, S-Video and coax.
My totally uneducated mind is zeroing in on the coax input as the common denominator. This never happens on any of the Tivo screens. What do you guys think?

steve614

· #8 · Dec 26, 2011

It's possible that the coax cable on the input could be the cause.
Do you have another cable to replace it with?

Ament96

Discussion Starter · #9 · Dec 26, 2011

steve614 said:
It's possible that the coax cable on the input could be the cause.
Do you have another cable to replace it with?

I didn't mean the cable itself, I have changed it out, more than once. I mean the part that the cable attaches to on the Tivo itself. Could that be bad?

shwru980r

· #10 · Dec 27, 2011

Have you tried the coax input going directly to the TV and tune the channels directly on the TV?

Ament96

Discussion Starter · #11 · Dec 27, 2011

shwru980r said:
Have you tried the coax input going directly to the TV and tune the channels directly on the TV?

No, but I have 2 tivo units hooked up to the tv and I have switched the inouts and also the outputs between the units and only the one unit has the problem. When I moved the tivo upstairs to try out the coax output, I noticed that a program I had recorded had the issue at the same place as it did with different hookups on the other TV. That means the problem is in the recording, right? It's not in the outputs. I know this is a very old unit and not worth much. It's also the unit that got me hooked on tivos to start with. I am looking into buying a used series 3 and that would mean I don't need this one but I hate to just put it in a closet.

Thanks to all of you willing to take a little time to help a newbie.

Resist

· #12 · Dec 27, 2011

Ament96 said:
I'm getting a negative picture from one of my tivos.

Looking at the picture, I wouldn't call that a "negative" picture. Almost like you're missing a color stream to the input.

shwru980r

· #13 · Dec 27, 2011

Ament96 said:
No, but I have 2 tivo units hooked up to the tv and I have switched the inouts and also the outputs between the units and only the one unit has the problem. When I moved the tivo upstairs to try out the coax output, I noticed that a program I had recorded had the issue at the same place as it did with different hookups on the other TV. That means the problem is in the recording, right? It's not in the outputs. I know this is a very old unit and not worth much. It's also the unit that got me hooked on tivos to start with. I am looking into buying a used series 3 and that would mean I don't need this one but I hate to just put it in a closet.

Thanks to all of you willing to take a little time to help a newbie.

Did you try making a new recording on the tivo in question after changing the input? When you watch live tv on the tivo in question is the picture bad?

Ament96

Discussion Starter · #14 · Dec 27, 2011

shwru980r said:
Did you try making a new recording on the tivo in question after changing the input? When you watch live tv on the tivo in question is the picture bad?

Yes and yes.

rich2007

· #15 · Dec 27, 2011

i have seen the same thing you are seeing (at least it looks similar to me) but in my case it has more than one color. in my case, i see it every once in a while (and not recently) on one of my tivo hd units (but never on the other one which is attached to the same tv). it does show up on recorded or live tv. it doesn't happen much (it did happen the first day that i set it up) so i didn't bother to return or exchange it. the tivo hd unit that this occurs on is setup for OTA only and has not been modified in any way. i did once take some pictures of it with my digital camera and i have attached one of them (please ignore some of the white vertical pixels smears, as that was an unrelated problem with my tv at the time). i wondered for a long time why no one else seemed to be seeing this, but your post has prompted me to finally make my first post (after many years of lurking and reading much valuable information).

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Ament96

Discussion Starter · #16 · Dec 27, 2011

rich2007 said:
i have seen the same thing you are seeing (at least it looks similar to me)

It looks similar to me too. Perhaps this is an unusual problem. I had hoped to find the solution, but perhaps this is the Tivo Gods telling me it's time to get a series 3?

unitron

· #17 · Dec 27, 2011

rich2007 said:
i have seen the same thing you are seeing (at least it looks similar to me) but in my case it has more than one color. in my case, i see it every once in a while (and not recently) on one of my tivo hd units (but never on the other one which is attached to the same tv). it does show up on recorded or live tv. it doesn't happen much (it did happen the first day that i set it up) so i didn't bother to return or exchange it. the tivo hd unit that this occurs on is setup for OTA only and has not been modified in any way. i did once take some pictures of it with my digital camera and i have attached one of them (please ignore some of the white vertical pixels smears, as that was an unrelated problem with my tv at the time). i wondered for a long time why no one else seemed to be seeing this, but your post has prompted me to finally make my first post (after many years of lurking and reading much valuable information).

Your picture looks like a low bandwidth/low resolution problem, which may mean the problem was at the source and not in your TiVo.

rich2007

· #18 · Dec 27, 2011

unitron said:
Your picture looks like a low bandwidth/low resolution problem, which may mean the problem was at the source and not in your TiVo.

All i can say for sure is that i have observed this effect using OTA on one of my Tivo HD's. But from the things that i had tried when it did occur (more than once) (though i can't remember anymore what i did at the time), i did suspect it was a Tivo problem. But i don't really know (and probably will never know) what the problem was.

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