Tuning Adapter issues

[Skaggs]

I powered down my 2 tuning adapters 3 times each AND restarted both TiVo HD units. Nothing got my SDV channels back. Still have flashing lights on both tuning adapters. Looks like I'll have to call TWC when I get home from work.

[hurnik]

So far, the 11.0g update for the Tivo seems to have fixed my pixellation problems on SDV channels.

[Skaggs]

I didn't know anything about the 11.0g update. When did we receive it?

This morning, I finally found some time to dedicate to my tuning adapter issues. I figured I would be on the phone with TWC for an hour or so. However, before I called them, I decided to try and reboot the Tuning Adapters once more.

When I looked at the 1st tuning adapter, the power light was off. I just pressed the power button on the front of the TA and waited 2 minutes. The SDV channels reappeared.

I did the same thing for my other TA and it started working, too.

[hurnik]

The 11.0g update is for the Tivo. It may still be on the rollout phase (I'm not sure how Tivo decides who gets updated when). But I went into my system information and saw I had 11.0g version (the usual clue is that your Tivo tells you it got an update or hangs on the powering up phase --apparently a side effect of this particular update a lot of people complained it hung on the power up after the unit auto-restarted).

I'm not sure if it fixes other TA issues, but the SDV pixellation is fixed in my case.

[bruces]

Well it sure doesn't fix the problems on re-start for my S3. That appears to hang every time I try to re-start it.

However, I suspect it may be more an HDMI handshaking issue than anything else. After the S3 shows the time on it's front panel indicating that the boot has completed, I seem to be able to get my video back by switching to another input on my A/V receiver and then back to the one used by the S3.

[hurnik]

Very rarely, (2-3 times maybe) on my TivoHD, it's failed the handshake. I think the initial versions of hdmi were flawed somewhat (another DRM scheme by hollywood gone bad).

I'm hoping this updated Tivo version also fixes the issues I've had where all of a sudden I'll lose either all SDV channels, or the opposite (all non-SDV channels). Usually have to either disconnect the USB cable to the TA or reboot the TA alltogether.

[Chris Miller]

Friday night, I lost all of the SDV channels on my TiVo for a few hours. They were also seriously degraded on my 4250set top box. On the cable box, the video was constantly tiled and the audio was distorted.

After a few hours, the problem cleared itself up. During that "event", I tried calling TWC Albany, but they were swamped. I tried their "echat" online chat. I'll file that experience under "Oh God, I will do that again". Their echat is handled in India and apparently believes in time travel.

Then I tried TWC on Twitter. The main tech support account is @twcablehelp. That was surprisingly helpful.

[bruces]

Since I cannot drive for medical reasons, when I got my new Tivo Premiere, I asked Time Warner to ship me a Tuning Adapter.

At first they didn't want to do so, but when I explained that I cannot drive, I live in Albany, the cab fare to the Schenectady office is $40 round trip and would be even worse to the Clifton Park office, they finally agreed to ship me one.

Why can't they carry them in the Albany office as well? I understand that there may not be much demand for them, but I certainly am not the only person who has a Tivo and is served by the Albany office.

Of course, when the TA finally arrived last Thursday, I attempted to install it and it would not initialize correctly. The status on the DVR Diagnostics screen kept cycling through "Initializing", "Fatal error - timeout no reply", and "Not connected".

Friday I scheduled a service call and the specifically requested that they bring a replacement TA. Naturally, when the TW service technician arrived he didn't bring a TA and wasn't able to get any farther than I did.

At least while he was here, he switched the other TA that I had connected to my S3 to the Premiere and the new box was able to access all the SDV channels. This was enough to indicate to me that the problem was with the new TA.

This morning I decided to bite the bullet and took the TA that didn't work to the Schenectady office to exchange it.

After I got the replacement TA connected and called TW so they could send it a hit, it seems to work fine.

I am tempted to send TW a bill for the $40 cab fare it cost me to get one that works correctly.

[hurnik]

I don't understand them sometimes. They'll ship you a cable modem for RR self-installs and you can send BACK a cable modem and even cable for return if you're ending service. But they won't ship you a TA? What a bunch of morons.

Of course, they still lie and say they don't have M-cards available either and then you have to go through the hassle of scheduling the appointment and calling someone else afterwards to get an M-card.

[bruces]

Oh, they shipped one originally.

It just was a bad one and I was too impatient to wait another week for a replacement to be received.

Of course, if they just had them available in the Albany office, I could have got it for half the cost.

[Chris Miller]

Has anyone had any tuning adapter issues tonight? My TA stopped working sometime this evening. I had to power cycle the TA to get it back again.

[Skaggs]

At the very end of the Yankee game...bottom of the 9th when the Mets scored and were threatening to tie, I had severe pixellation on YES HD. My computer also lost its internet connection (RR).

After the game, all the SDV channels were gone. I had to reboot the tuning adapter to get the SDV channels back AND reboot my cable modem to get internet back.

[Chris Miller]

Interesting. TWC Corporate (via Twitter) thinks that problem was the TA had not received a new authorization signal during it's lease period.

The next time this happens, I'll check the Tuning Adapter Diagnostics page. If I am reading it correcting, the subscription expires on "0617.172000", which I read as June 17 3:30pm or June 17 4:07 am (depending on they are encoding the time). That seems like an odd date to expire, it's one day less than 4 weeks from when I reset the TA.