Slowness and IR

[1downunder]

Hi

Have recently got my sony tivo up and working and have schedualed some recordings, however the programs recorded have jittery video and actually freeze up at times. I have rebooted the tivo and it is not still in maintaince mode, so I may buy a new harddrive to see if the harddrive is the problem..

Also is there any way to extend the length of the IR transmitter cable. My specific setup requires the IR to be stretched a long way and I am just wondering if it is possible to splice the cable and extend it?

Cheers,
Dane

[petestrash]

Have recently got my sony tivo up and working and have schedualed some recordings, however the programs recorded have jittery video and actually freeze up at times. I have rebooted the tivo and it is not still in maintaince mode, so I may buy a new harddrive to see if the harddrive is the problem..

You have not mentioned what your source is, but obviously it is worth checking the signal coming into the tivo is not corrupted. A poor signal into a digital STB will also cause the effects you mention. otherwise the next is a harddrive fault like you already suspect. Third may be a faulty mpg decoder, this will also usually cause defects on the tivo menus with moving backgrounds.

Also is there any way to extend the length of the IR transmitter cable. My specific setup requires the IR to be stretched a long way and I am just wondering if it is possible to splice the cable and extend it?

I don't know what the practical limit is, but a few metres should be fine. It just drives an led, so there is nothing overly technical.

Peter.

[1downunder]

Hmm it could possibily be the decoder. The menus on the tivo are slow and jitter alot of the time.. Should it be the decoder, will this require a new motherboard?

[petestrash]

Hmm it could possibily be the decoder. The menus on the tivo are slow and jitter alot of the time.. Should it be the decoder, will this require a new motherboard?

Slow menus are normal if the TiVo has a lot of recordings or is busy doing other things.

But If the animations in the background are breaking up, then it is either a hard drive or the decoder. Try a hard drive first as it's the most common failure, even just a few gb's should be ok for testing.

If it is the decoder, we have a resident hardware guru called Darren King, and he may be able to change the chip if he has some in stock.

Peter.

[Darren King]

Peter is correct on all accounts. However one thing Peter does not know is that this TiVo came via me direct from the USA for modification. This being the case I can shed the following light on this unit:

* TiVo was modded for 2nd A/V input only so an external input is being used

* TiVo was tested with my test hard disks (note plural) before AND after modifications with no sign of above symptoms

* TiVo came with a 30GB hard disk that was untested but loaded with the OzTiVo image and booted up to the point of beginning Guided Setup. As always with these old hard disks they are an unknown quantity, although the background animations were OK while sitting idle in Guided Setup.

I'm assuming the old 30GB hard disk is being utilised and therefore my advice is like Peter's: Try another hard disk. This is the most common cause for the problem described. If however this does not fix the problem then I will have to take another look at the TiVo for a hardware fault that did not reveal itself while I had the unit.

[1downunder]

Thanks Darren and Pete. I will image a new HDD today and let you know how it goes

[1downunder]

OK, after trying a different HDD I think my problem has to do with the reliability of my tivo after it has been on for a while or i.e. after it has heated up.

The tivo is reporting a temp of 36C, however its hard to know if that is right. Hopefully a new hdd won't faulter under warm temp's

A quick question - If I get a SATA HDD and a sata-ide adapter, will this speed up my tivo (with the faster capabilities of SATA drives) or will the HDD still be bound to the slow bus transfer speed of the tivo?

[petestrash]

OK, after trying a different HDD I think my problem has to do with the reliability of my tivo after it has been on for a while or i.e. after it has heated up.

Can you explain what you mean? are the faults the same with different hard drives?

The tivo is reporting a temp of 36C, however its hard to know if that is right. Hopefully a new hdd won't faulter under warm temp's

Temp's into the 40's is quite common and normal. this alone is not a reason for problems.

A quick question - If I get a SATA HDD and a sata-ide adapter, will this speed up my tivo (with the faster capabilities of SATA drives) or will the HDD still be bound to the slow bus transfer speed of the tivo?

The TiVo will always be limited to ata33 regardless of the drives interface. actual drive speed does not vary between sata and pata versions of the same drive, so there would be no benefit in buying the sata version. In fact the convertor would likely introduce a delay making the sata+convertor slower then a pure pata. Though this delay may not be noticable on a TiVo.

Peter

[1downunder]

Thanks for your reply.

The replacement HDD seemed to fix the problem, however when I put the original HDD back in to retest, it worked fine for an hour or 2 until the tivo heated up abit and then it started stalling again.

So yes I can be quite confident in saying the problem was the original HDD after it had warmed up.

Goin out to buy the replacement now and will let you know how it goes

Thanks,
Dane

[1downunder]

All goes well after a day of the new 200gb HDD being in. The Tivo is alot faster and there has been no stalling. I also put headsinks on the mpg decoder chips as a safety.

Cheers for all the help