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Thread: Damn Tivo now has garbled video

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Melbourne
    Posts
    53

    Damn Tivo now has garbled video

    I'm struggling to find the words to describe the dismay I am feeling about my hunk of junk Tivo.

    I have had (and am still using) a series 1 for many years and it for the most part works perfectly.

    However I just cant use my Series 3 reliably.

    If ever the power fails or I have to reboot it, it won't start and I have to leave it off for 24 hours before it will recover.

    Going to some menu items causes it to lock intermittently then of course I can't reboot.

    And now the video has started breaking up, and of course rebooting it has caused it to not restart.

    If I knew of an equivalent or better alternative I would run over the thing in my car.

    Ringing support is like talking to children, who never call back or actually offer anything useful (like a fix or a new one).

    I have been through all the signal strength garbage with no effect, I can alter the displayed signal strength from 98+ down to nearly nothing and it makes no difference. It's not too weak, It's not too strong all my other stuff works with it except the Tivo.

    I feel completely ripped off.

    Rohan

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    Perth, Western Australia
    Posts
    3,037
    Do you still have the original drive in it and is it still under warranty?

    Peter.
    Please search this forum and our Website for your TiVo questions before starting a new thread. Thanks!

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Melbourne
    Posts
    53
    Yes it has the original drive.

    It's only 8 months old.

    I would gladly void the warranty (as it's useless anyway) to resolve the issue if I could.

    Has there been enough data gathered to point to a likely culprit like the HDD for example?

    Is it possible to get a new drive and load the original image on it?

    Regards

    Rohan

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    Perth, Western Australia
    Posts
    3,037
    I only asked those questions to see if it was still under warranty and had not been voided.

    Due to the number of issues you are experiencing, it may not only be the hard drive (but likely to be).

    If I was you I would struggle through with support to get it swapped out.

    You will need to push them for a swap out, and complain more about the menus locking up and not being able to reboot.

    That should keep them off chasing signal strength issues (BTW 98 is quite high).

    Peter.
    Please search this forum and our Website for your TiVo questions before starting a new thread. Thanks!

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Melbourne
    Posts
    53
    Your right of course in the correct way of resolving the issue is with their support, but I just feel it's not worth it.

    Do I feel ripped off, of course. Do I think they should fix it, absolutely. But going on my own experience and that of others here it seems to be an extremely painfull path to take, and that just replacing the disk myself would be much easier (assuming it's the likely culprit).

    I just have the feeling that trying to get them to sort it out, will take me forever and then they are likely to either want to take mine and repair it (so I will be without it for sometime) or send me a "refurbished" replacement. I get a bit funny about getting someone elses ex-broken (and perhaps still broken) unit in place of mine that I paid $700 for.

    I realise there is no guarantee, but if the feeling is the disk, then I might as well go ahead and change it. I found the WinMFS instructions which I assume will work for me?

    BTW the WinMFS assumes you have a working disk to begin with, If mine is somewhat broken and I cant get the image off it, is there somewhere it can be obtained?

    Regards

    Rohan

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2004
    Location
    Perth, Western Australia
    Posts
    3,037
    A couple of things before you go that route.

    If it is not just the drive that has become faulty you will end up with a TiVo that is no longer covered by warranty.

    The TiVo reports it's drive details as part of the daily call, so if you connect with a replaced drive you do run the risk of not getting any assistance from them for the other hardware issues.

    Hybrid do not repair your TiVo, they exchange it for another one. From the reports I have seen, the replacements have all appeared to be new units (the refurbs are sold on eBay via premium home theatre).

    WinMFS is designed to be used to copy a TiVo Drive to a larger replacement drive. As long as there is no non recoverable corruption on your drive it will work.

    Peter.
    Please search this forum and our Website for your TiVo questions before starting a new thread. Thanks!

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Melbourne
    Posts
    53

    Angry

    Ok, I'm just about at the end of my leash on this one.

    I have been constantly emailing Tivo for 14 days now (because that is the only way they can be contacted) and I hear nothing.

    They are the worst company I have ever dealt with ever .

    I have no option but to make a formal complaint against them with the Dept of Fair Trading.

    How can a company have no way of contacting them for warranty?

    I assume I will have to try and fix it myself.

  8. #8
    I have been waiting over 7 days for a responce to my email to them too.

    There must be a way to contact

    Hybrid Television Services (ANZ) Pty Limited. 02 89861700

    write a letter to

    Hybrid Television Services (Anz) Pty Ltd
    Ste 52/ 26 Pirrama Rd
    Pyrmont NSW 2009

    Are they going out of business ? Tivo profitable in Australia ?

    I have stopped recommending Tivo to my friends due to their poor service.

    Can you complain to TIVO US that Hybrid Television Services (ANZ) Pty Limited. are giving TIVO a bad name in AUS. Do they care ?

    Charles

  9. #9
    I got a reply today.

    "We're sorry about the delay in responding - we migrated to a new support system just before Christmas and have also had a significant increase in customer enquiries over the holiday period."

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Melbourne
    Posts
    53

    Angry

    Well, I finally received an email back from Tivo after 26 days. This is their excuse.

    Thanks for your e-mail. We apologise for the delay in responding - your e-mail was incorrectly assigned to an unmonitored queue and so slipped through the cracks.

    Yeah right every email I sent magicly ended up in the same place....... I think not.

    However they just said they will be sending out a replacement unit.

    11 days later I got it, after it was delivered to the wrong address (not Tivo's fault but Australia Post).

    So I thought I would finally setup the Home Networking that I ordered in July last year, so I could get some of the recorded shows off, but guess what, no networking enabled on my account, even though I got an email confirming my order.

    So now I have to email them again and get that sorted out. Hopefully that email won't get put into the too hard basket like my last 10.

    Rohan

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