Anyone come across this? TiVoHD slow menus and bad record / playback

[iCandy]

I have had my TiVo 320 since December 2010 and it is now giving me problems which I believe come from the same root cause. Anyone know of a solution for these?

No record or viewing live TV. Latter gives grey screen. May occasionally receive intermittently. Signal verified as a Zinwell set top box works perfectly and shows good signal strength when connected to the same antenna connection.

Playback is broken. Previously recorded programs in the Now Playing list will typically play for 1/2 to 1 second, pause 2 to 3 seconds, cycling indefinitely. Picture remains clean with no pixellation.

This same play / pause cycling is also seen on the dynamic wallpapers of the menus that have them.

Navigation through menus is VERY slow. Moving up and down on the same page is OK, but scrolling or moving left or right into different menus takes 2 to 3 minutes to complete. Also, if I try to scroll beyond the top or bottom, the normal 'boong' navigation sound does not play, and all navigation sounds stop completely for 2 to 3 minutes, after which all navigation sounds work again until the next menu change.

When opening "Pick Recordings to Transfer" in Tivo Desktop, it shows a message "There was an error while attempting to retrieve data from the selected DVR" though a count of the total number of recordings does appear.

Resetting clears all symptoms, but only for 15 minutes or so, at which time all the symptoms reappear.

I suspect high loading on an embedded processor, but will listen to all suggestions.

I don't have much faith in getting a meaningful response from HTS before going overseas in a few days time, I will probably have to blow the dust off my old analogue TV HDD recorder if I can't sort the TiVo out by then

Thanks, Simon

[Skolink]

The TiVoHD needs a very strong signal, so while reception is perfect on your Zinwell it may not be enough for the TiVoHD. The other symptoms may be caused by the tuners dropping in and out in the background (since the TiVo is always recording a buffer on both tuners). Too strong a signal can also cause a TiVo to lock up, so don't overamplify the signal if you intend to go that way. Have a look at the diagnostics screen to see what the TiVoHD reports the signal levels as. I think you need at least '80%' to get reliable reception.