[Steven L Mass]

As has been reported many times before, my TiVo minis keep losing their connection to the main Tivo....

Scenario:
Tivo Bolt Vox, 2 TiVo Mini voxs, connected over MOCA
FiOS Internet and TV
Tried rebooting, resetting routers, updating TiVos, PoE filter...
Amazon, Netflix, YouTube all stream HD flawlessly
Recorded TV and Live TV keep stopping with V872 error. If I press live TV button the TiVo goes back to what I was watching. Recorded TV I have to back through the menus...

I'm starting to wonder if the "Network Error" is misleading, and the real issue is the data can't be read of the 5400 RPM hard drive fast enough... If streaming services are fine, there's obviously the bandwidth needed, and I'm not having any packet losses or interruptions, so I don't think it's really the network. How could I test this? Would love any ideas / thoughts?

 

[krkaufman]

If streaming services are fine, there's obviously the bandwidth needed

Not at all. TiVo "whole home" streaming requires much more bandwidth (and is less resilient) than what is needed for streaming HD quality content via Internet streaming services. See >this post< for some out-of-date bandwidth requirements for streaming services, and what's needed for TiVo MRS or Mini streaming.

 

[mb117]

I’m having the same exact issue only since introducing a couple of mini vox into my set up about a year ago. I have gigabit Fios so bandwidth is definitely not an issue, probably like the OP. I have a bolt that’s the host for two mini vox and I get v872 errors constantly - a couple times an hour at least while watching live tv - have even gotten it while watching recorded shows.

In my home I have a roamio plus (moca off, wireless) the host for 4 1st gen minis and there has never been an issue with anything in that setup. Never.

The bolt (moca off, Ethernet) is the host for the 2 mini vox and those are the ones I get the error. The quantum gateway is the moca bridge for everything in my house and for the most part it all works except for this nagging issue that won’t seem to go away. My POE filter is right before the first split from the ONT through a new holland splitter which feeds the coax to the quantum gateway and a couple other rooms . I’m going out of my mind trying to troubleshoot, but to no avail.
My wiring is all new within 10 yrs old. Anyone have any suggestions? This issue only started when I got the two mini Vox so I could watch in HD.

 

[Redbird19]

Same issue here, TiVo Bolt with 1 Mini connected via MOCA was working great for over a year. Added a Mini Vox to another room, seemed to work fine at first, but have been getting very frequent V872 errors on both my original Mini and new Mini Vox now. Streaming services work fine, but watching live tv or recorded shows causes these V872 errors to pop up all the time. Hitting live tv button allows me to continue watching tv until the next error pops up, which could take anywhere between 5 seconds to 10 minutes. TiVo phone support has been horrendous so far, first call had me running all over the house rebooting things for about 2 hours before they gave up and said they'd call me back after doing more research. Second call had me repeat same steps even though I told them I already did this for over 2 hours previously and had a case #...it became quickly apparent that the second support person didn't know anything when she asked me to replace the hdmi cable!?!?

 

[EWiser]

What I have found that works is keeping the main bolt unit on and playing live tv muted in living room if I want to watch the TiVo mini in bedroom.
My theory is that the Bolt goes into power saving mode and the network connection is lost.

 

[JoeKustra]

What I have found that works is keeping the main bolt unit on and playing live tv muted in living room if I want to watch the TiVo mini in bedroom.
My theory is that the Bolt goes into power saving mode and the network connection is lost.

Why not just disable power saving mode? The Bolt doesn't have a four hour timeout. My TiVo's only power off on the last day of the month unless TiVo pushes out an update.

 

[Redbird19]

I don't think it's the power saving mode for me, I get the error on both Minis even when the Bolt in the living room is being actively watched by someone else.

I'm trying various things now...one thing I noticed when examining my coax cables running along the outside of my house is that an unbalanced 3 way splitter is being used to send cable to 1) the Bolt and router in the living room 2) Upstairs bedroom Mini 3) Downstairs office Mini Vox. The splitter is unbalanced, meaning it reserved the "fastest" of the 3 outputs (-3.5dB) for the Bolt/router, with the Minis using the other 2 "slower" outputs (each is -7dB). I have no idea if that really matters, but I'm going to try replacing the splitter with a balanced one where all outputs are the same speed (-5.5 dB). It might make my internet speed take a hit but we'll see...

 

[kpeters59]

Document all your MoCA, QAM and DOCSIS Levels prior to making any wiring changes.

-KP

 

[Redbird19]

Just replaced the unbalanced splitter with a balanced one, but it made no difference, I'm still receiving frequent V872 errors on both Minis.

 

[fyodor]

For the people having this problem, how hot are your Bolts? You can look it up on the ODT value in the setting menu. Where are they located (i.e. In enclosures?) I had persistent connectivity issues when my Bolt was too hot.

 

[Redbird19]

I'm unable to find the ODT value. I checked everywhere I could, figured it'd be under Menu->Help-->Account & System Info->Diagnostics but don't see it. My Bolt is enclosed in a cabinet, but I have a thermostat and fan setup to keep things cool, the cabinet never gets above 85 degrees.

 

[Redbird19]

Oops, finally found the ODT value in Menu->Help-->Account & System Info->System Information, it's 64.

 

[JoeKustra]

Oops, finally found the ODT value in Menu->Help-->Account & System Info->System Information, it's 64.

Remove the cover from the cable card access. It may drop it a few degrees.

You don't have to go this far: My Awesome BOLT Cooling Mods ;-)

 

[Redbird19]

I don't think the problem with the Minis is due to the Bolt getting too hot. The ODT value of 64 seems to be in line with what is expected. I also checked my Mini Vox's temperature which was 61, and the Mini Vox is located on top of a shelf with plenty of air flow, so 64 for the Bolt seems reasonable to me. Out of curiosity I opened the Bolt's cabinet doors and let it run like that for a few hours, but the ODT value remained at 64, and the Minis still got the V872 errors. The Bolt does not feel hot or even warm to the touch, so I think it's ok. Really this error feels like a TiVo error/bug, with maybe a recent update(?), as they didn't use to get these errors, and nothing I've tried has had any impact.

 

[Redbird19]

Finally got the time to test more. This time I moved the Mini Vox to the living room and split the coax cable that went to the Bolt to go to both the Bolt and the Mini Vox, then watched tv in my living room using the Mini Vox (to determine if the problem was caused by some issue with the coax cable going around the house to the office where the Mini Vox was). After watching about 15 mins of TV in the living room the V872 errors starting popping up again following the same random pattern (sometimes taking 2 mins, sometimes 10 mins, sometimes 10 seconds, etc). So I'm no closer to solving this except for ruling out the coax cable or splitters as the root of the problem (which is somewhat of a relief since replacing those outside cables would be a pain).

 

[kpeters59]

Maybe consider a Clear and Delete All on the Mini?

-KP

 

[Redbird19]

Just tried that, still no dice, same V872 errors keep popping up. It's weird because my old non-Vox Mini upstairs seems to be ok. It never had an issue until I got the Mini Vox downstairs, and even then everything worked fine with both Minis for about a month. But it started getting frequent V872 errors like Mini Vox was as well. But now it seems to be ok, meanwhile the Vox is almost unwatchable.

 

[Redbird19]

I got help from another thread and seemed to have fixed the problem. I'll post the solution here in case others need help.

The fix was simply adding another POE filter to the back of my Xfinity gateway router/cable modem. I already had a POE filter on the main cable line coming in from the street, so I wouldn't think I'd need one anywhere else, but I guess (?) the Xfinity router was sending data/interference back up the coax cable which was causing problems with my Moca network. Once the POE filter was added, everything is working as it should. Sheesh...what a headache this was.

 

[mb117]

I got help from another thread and seemed to have fixed the problem. I'll post the solution here in case others need help.

The fix was simply adding another POE filter to the back of my Xfinity gateway router/cable modem. I already had a POE filter on the main cable line coming in from the street, so I wouldn't think I'd need one anywhere else, but I guess (?) the Xfinity router was sending data/interference back up the coax cable which was causing problems with my Moca network. Once the POE filter was added, everything is working as it should. Sheesh...what a headache this was.

I have the same issue - I tried adding a POE filter to the back of my fios quamtum gateway router since someone had success with their xfinity router and every TV in my house went blank and lost all connections until I removed it. I don't think FIOS quantum gateways liked that, at all. There's another thread that I posted my setup:
V872 Error - Mini losing connection - help?

This fix didn't work for me. Any help would be much appreciated. It's been going on over a year now.

 

[Jim DeMichael]

I got help from another thread and seemed to have fixed the problem. I'll post the solution here in case others need help.

The fix was simply adding another POE filter to the back of my Xfinity gateway router/cable modem. I already had a POE filter on the main cable line coming in from the street, so I wouldn't think I'd need one anywhere else, but I guess (?) the Xfinity router was sending data/interference back up the coax cable which was causing problems with my Moca network. Once the POE filter was added, everything is working as it should. Sheesh...what a headache this was.

Thanks for your post. Same issue started on May 5th after a Spectrum update. I would have never guessed to add a PoE filter to the Spectrum modem. That worked immediately.