TiVo Series 3 - "Official" Thread - Page 171

So is "Cashback" any good? I selected it because it lists Emilia Fox and I've watched her from her UK TV "Silent Witness" series. Only watched about 15 minutes to check out the service last night, notice it has Michele Ryan(Bionic Woman) in it as well.

I rated it 4 stars . It's a quirky dark comedy in which the main character, an art student, can't sleep after breaking up with his girlfriend and takes a job in a supermarket. He starts to believe that he can stop time, a power which he uses in the market, disrobing various frozen young women so that he can sketch their bodies (hence the cover art). Not quite as dirty as it sounds .

I hadn't noticed Michelle Ryan, but you're right--she plays the girlfriend he broke up with.

EDIT: Check out the flash presentation which starts the movie's curiously uninformative website. It features the cover art with the text removed .

Thanks, I'll check it out.

Aw great michaelscott. My kid walked up to my computer and your thread was there. So he clicks on it!





JUST KIDDING

Maybe I missed this, but do these Netflix movies include closed captions? That's a deal-breaker for many of us who are hearing impaired.

No, about halfway down the page,

http://blog.netflix.com/2008/11/enco...streaming.html

Un-freakin-believable....in this day and age...un-freakin-believable...

Are there any network video source with closed captioning? (Actually, I've run across some on Hulu, but no large percentage of what I've played on Hulu has had it).

I can easily understand how someone who may be hearing impaired may find this a tough go.

You know nothing goes perfect from the go get on any of these things. First, no HD on Amazon Unbox, now I'm looking at the "opportunity" to streamline shows that I already have seen.

And of course somewhere along the line they will make it more accessible or cheaper for PC's the MAC.

Isn't there an organization that looks out for these type of discriminatory practices? I'd launch a complaint if I was affected. While Mac and PC are one thing certainly to deny hearing impaired close captions just seems unfair.

Yous should have been watching HD back in 2001. Many more problems then and no CC.

I've had the S3 since February of this year. I am now waiting for the fourth replacement box. It works for a week or two, even a month then the problems start. Pixelization, video freezing and lock up requiring a reboot.

Hours and hours of time spent with comcast techs at my house trying multiple cable cards. Tivo always says it's the cards, Comcast always says it's the Tivo.

This really sucks! If I didn't love the ergonomics and features of the Tivo and it's service I would abandon it.

What really makes me angry is they came out with a 1tb version and I asked if I could switch to that. "We don't have a way to do that,"

Cable card shcmable card, I'm really tired of this.

These are characteristics of a failing hard drive. It is not normal to have one failed box in two years, let alone four in one year.

It is possible you have the world's worst luck, and have received four units in that 1% (or whatever it is) that fails within the first year. However, I think it is far more likely that there is something in your home that is causing these problems.

Does your TiVo has adequate ventilation? Do you have the TiVo connected to a modern surge protector and/or power supply? I would recommend some form of battery backup to minimize the effect of electrical issues.

As far as the 1TB drive...you can upgrade your existing TiVo with the same model used in the TivoHD XL, if you want. That would cost cost you about $120. Instructions for that are in the first post of this thread (FAQ #30 at the bottom).

Thanks for the link. The only downside in upgrading to xl is the loss of the oled. I'm not sure I would miss it. The Tivo is plugged into the best power conditioner Furman makes. An IT Reference 20. Ventilation is great. Good questions to ask though.

One point is that I bought the unit directly from Tivo and it was under their refurbished offer. I have asked many times if this might be the problem and they swear that these units are exactly the same as a brand new unit. Most of them are returned after a short period of use and some not used at all.

I think the problem lies with cable card incompatibility. I wonder why it works for awhile then quits. I asked if errors can cause these units to fail with no good answer.

I;m going to look into the upgrade. I've offered to pay the difference between the refurbished unit and a brand new one. They say no.

I can't find the upgrade info you suggested. The link is to a chopped versiuon of the faq and even the original thread doesn't show it.

Maybe it's my imagination but it seems to me that Comcast seems to have more problems with TiVo then just about anyone else. I'll bet it's Comcast. I've had my S3 for over 2 years and have had no problems.


I would be upset too, but after two years of the SA 8300 I was willing to shell out 900.00 for my S3. I had no idea what real HD was suppose to look like. I thought the constant warped pictures were broadcast issues. Couple that with the fact that the SA 8300 (SARA) was not capable of handling conflict issues and it constantly either did partial recordings or no recordings, I was more then happy to get the S3.


OK, but even you are not convinced this is TiVo's fault. And they really are not obligated to replace it with something other then what you bought.


Yep, it's probably cable card.

Just curious. Are you working with M cards or S cards. It shouldn't make a difference but I'm curious.

Also when these techs come out and blame TiVo do they test your signals at every connection out to the pole or box (main source)? And do they ever talk with anyone at head end? Until I got a contact with head end I was told it was TiVo's fault but once I spoke to someone who knew anything at all about TiVo I found out it wasn't TiVo's fault. My problem wasn't the same as you are having. I was not receiving channels.

I have a little pixelation now and then but nothing worth complaining about. I'm not saying you don't have an issue but there are some people who seem very intolerant, IMHO.

The signal tests strong outside and in. I spent 26 years in the telecommunications construction industry and I'm better than most at troubleshooting. That experience leads me to think it's the Tivo because a newer box will work for awhile with the same cards the previous boxed quit with.

Again I wonder if small errors can add up after a period of time and cause the box to fail.

Another symptom the box had was even without the cards installed the video looked snowy, with the cable directly into the tv it was fine. That tells me the problem was the tuner inside the Tivo.

The box before this one would only have these problems on HD channels. That also points toward the tuner.

I can't argue with your logic. I can say that the vast majority of people with TiVo S3 do not have the problems you are experiencing. I can also tell you you are not the first I've heard say they had problems.

Sorry to hear you're having a tough time. 4 boxes is 2 two many. Have you tried to email TiVoJerry over at the TiVo Forum? He may be able to help.

Here's my TiVo experience:
(2) SD D* TiVos - Both failed about 1 1/2 years in
(2) HD D* TiVos - Both failed less than one year in
I had D* Maint program so replacement cost was $0

Since Moving to Fios a year and a half ago:
My original S3 just failed (same symptoms as above) 1 1/2 years in
My Tivo HD is still fine after 9 months.

All units are well ventilated and are on UPS.

Comcast has more everything than "just about anyone else". Comcast is the largest cable company in the country. There has been no objective evidence released indicating that any cable company has proportionally more or less problems with CableCARDs and TiVo. More people want there to be such evidence, because there are more Comcast subscribers overall, and therefore more folks who are having trouble are Comcast subscribers, and many among this greater number of people feel a visceral need to have their own problems in this realm ratified by the assertion that Comcast is evil ... but that doesn't constitution proof of their ranting and raving.

If we're going by anecdotal information, there is more than enough showing that the TiVo S3 and TiVO HD are far far more sensitive to variances in signal quality than the cable companies' CableCARD-equipped DVRs. This cannot help but raise the very legitimate question as to why the allegedly superior electronic device fails when the allegedly inferior device performs.

Just curious, how many cable company CableCARD equipped DVRs are actually in service? There's no question the TiVo seems to be more sensitive to signal variations than the cable DVRs, but I wasn't aware there were that many CC-equipped DVRs in service to make such a comparison.

I'm not sure the CableCARD itself would have anything to due with signal variance issues.

I have personal experience with only two, the Motorola DCH-series, and the SA 8300HDC.

I suspect that you're right about CableCARD not being the issue, but comparing the Motorola DCT-series (for example) to the TiVo S3 sometimes gets people's dander up as being what they claim is an apples-to-oranges comparison.

I don't think anyone can answer that question, however I'm pretty certain that no more DVR's are going out without cable cards. Plenty of people still have ones that don't use them and won't need them.


I think you're right. The signal comes from headend, and it's up to them to make the cable card capable of receiving it. I know I personally had to have them change things in the stream to make my TiVo capable of receiving the signal properly for either no sound or no sound or picture.

I don't know the details of how a CC decrypts the signal, but I'm nearly 100% certain that it doesn't affect signal strength/quality. Although it is possible that it may affect whether the CC will "trigger" the decryption of that signal.

The TiVo's tuners seem to operate in a narrower band of strength/quality than the Moto, etc boxes. Comcast signals do vary on a regular basis, checking your cable modem diagnostics randomly over a few week period will reveal different quality/strengths of signal at different times. So in that respect you could say that the lack of a stable quality signal is Comcast's problem, but OTOH, the ability of the TiVo to deal with those variances is certainly TiVo's problem. Much like a modern power supply can handle wide variances of voltages and still produce a desired voltage at the output regardless. I suspect that the TiVo was built to specific/tight parameters and the signal from the cableco, on occasion, does not adhere, or stay "within bounds" of those parameters and that's where trouble may arise.

Personally, I think it's the actual provisioning and pairing with the headend that is the source of most all CC related issues, not signal strength/quality.

I also think that the TiVo tuners are too sensitive in that they seem to react badly to signals that are too "hot", such behavior is exhibited much the same way as a signal that is too low and that this is mis-diagnosed all the time. If you have pixelation, the first thing I would try is putting a splitter in the line to see if that helps, I know I've had to that in the past with my setup, and as noted above about signal variances over time, I haven't needed to do it recently, actually removing the splitter to get a "good" signal.

Certainly. What could cable cards have to do with signal strength?


I have no experience with any other cable card equiped box so I really can't comment one way or another on this statement. However I will say that SA, Motorola, certainly have their problems just as TiVo does trying to create a box that works with many different cable companies and signals.

[quote=hookbill;15266509]Certainly. What could cable cards have to do with signal strength?
QUOTE]

Cable cards get thier authorization via a signal called OOB (Out of Band). My OOB is at 75MHz. With an attenuator in to fix the "too strong" signal, my OOB becomes intermittant. This was a huge problem at the original installation getting the cards up and running until Verizon Tech #7 removed the attenuator that Verizon Tech #1 had installed ahead of the splitter.

I'll answer my own question.

I recieved my replacement S3 yesterday.
I booted it up and then placed a call to Verizon to re-pair the cards.
The Tech I got (without any wait) was fully up on all things S3 and informed me that the cards can simply be moved to a new S3 and don't need re-pairing at all. I did the move with success.

Getting a Fios tech without a wait - priceless
Getting a Fios tech who knew TiVos - priceless
Not needing a Fios tech premisis visit - TRUELY priceless

[quote=JohnMc;15272402]
I'm glad you're install went well. Isn't comparing Verizon to cable like apples and oranges?

From what I've been reading about pixelation problems with TiVo and FiOS, I'm not so sure.

No, the TV side of Fios (past the ONT, and minus VOD) works just like standard digital cable.

I got caught in this thing this morning and I thought my S3 was dead in the water. It's a good thing I have a contact in headend because it turned out NOT to be my S3 but that a cable card had to receive a hit and it was not paired properly.

This was after noticing that I had lost some HD channels and local digital channels. I called regular customer service and they asked for my box ID and all that! Told them it's a TiVo. The guy finally got it and figured out what box I was talking about but only after I pulled the cards.

So maybe this constant reboot thing isn't always disk failure, but cable card related.

hook -- As you and I both know, CableCARD stability has been a big problem in the past, although I think most of that has been attributable to the cable companies' tech people not being well enough trained on configuring them. I hope I am not jinxing myself here but I haven't seen even a temporary card glitch with my S3 for several months.