Garbled picture or no sound

[Skolink]

I replied to the support email and mentioned that the fault could be caused by a faulty HDD. They advised we do a clear and delete all. Well that's not going to fix a faulty drive so I didn't bother, and we haven't seen this fault again at all in the last 3 weeks.

[Skolink]

Its been more than 2 months and we haven't seen this again even once. Nothing I can think of has changed, not the signal strength, not anything connected to the TiVo, not the TiVo software version.
Perhaps the TiVo automatically marks bad HDD sectors when they are detected.

[finethen]

I have joined the S3 crew with the purchase of a unused TiVo from a telecom victim (no reception, no refund).

I too am experiencing the garbled picture and sound drop outs. Its only on one tuner if they both have the same channel selected. Flicking out and back into the channel resolves the problem so I'm picking it may not be the signal? Signal strength is round the 75 mark. It looks like processing overload, would be interested to hear from anyone else or any suggestions.

[petestrash]

Sounds like it's an MPEG issue, but have not seen this myself over here.

If you rewind is it being recorded this way?

Peter.

[CheshireCat]

If the problem is in the actual recording (IE, its with the tuner) then I'd suggest putting a signal booster on the aerial, 75 may be too low. The TiVo tuners (at least, on my tivo) seem not to be so sensitive; a booster should push the signal up to over 80.

Alternatively, if the problem is on playback only then that would indicate HDD or software problems... you could test it by transferring the file to your PC via the network and seeing ifit plays OK - if not then it was garbled on reception.

Steve

[finethen]

Sounds like it's an MPEG issue, but have not seen this myself over here.

If you rewind is it being recorded this way?

Peter.

Yes its being recorded identically to the way it appears live

[finethen]

If the problem is in the actual recording (IE, its with the tuner) then I'd suggest putting a signal booster on the aerial, 75 may be too low. The TiVo tuners (at least, on my tivo) seem not to be so sensitive; a booster should push the signal up to over 80.

Alternatively, if the problem is on playback only then that would indicate HDD or software problems... you could test it by transferring the file to your PC via the network and seeing ifit plays OK - if not then it was garbled on reception.

Steve

Booster on aerial already so may be just too many buildings, thing is it goes away if I flick in and out of channel, and plays back the same way as it appears live, again tho problem not on both tuners if they are showing identical content.

[finethen]

Finally getting a response from the TiVo helpdesk,under their instructions have plugged TiVo into its own special power point, run through the install again (losing all recorded programs) and seem to have resolved the blocky picture. However machine still stopping dead and restarting, boot up seems to be 10 to 12 minutes! Appears to be usually when recording two channels or recording and watching. so something is feeling the strain.

Have sent latest report to helpdesk and await their reply.

I love switching back to the Series 1 machines, no missing Maori and Prime epg's, no bugs (apart from occasional remote freeze), no gaps in programs when the machine has taken 10 plus minutes to reboot and alot more predictable with program conflicts.

I will report back in but seems like machine may need to be replaced.

[finethen]

Still waiting a reply, we appear to have finished the diagnosing exercises with Support, the machine shuts down on average once an hour, switching off overnight may correct it for 5 or 6 hours and then its back to its old tricks. Support is veerrrry slow with a replacement. :-(

[petestrash]

Support is the Achilles heel of of TiVo Downunder.

All I can suggest is pushing them to escalate it.

Peter.