TiVo® HD DVR jumpy picture - reboot frequently

[Overbyte]

the best software to check a drive is Spinrite 6.0 from grc.com..
Just my opinion, but if tossed in another box, and bios sees it, Spinrite can test it..

[mrfixit454]

Ok.. switched to a backup drive and problem still exists, so I switched back. BTW.. I am not getting pixelation. I am getting flickering and picure roll like a veritcal hold problem. Happens most on channel 692, the others just flicker... like when you watch movies stars walk the red carpet and the photographers take pictures and you get the brightness of the flash. I have taken video of it that I can post on photobucket I guess. From the svideo to my big screen I get the picture roll and flicker, with the coax line out to an LCD in my kitchen, I get the flicker. The same coax split to a bedroom crt tv gives me a flicker and roll.

Guess I need to swap the tuner lines again. I did it many months back and it made no difference. Does not matter how many video out I use 1, 2, or 3 (svideo, RCA) it still happens. I am sure its the unit but I guess I can hook up another receiver to each sat line in and see if those channels exhibit the same feature to rule out the lines or the multiswitch box.

Also, thanks for the link to the repair section. Did not know you guys fixed them. I bought a drive from you for another Tivo a while back but I thought you only sold drives.. thanks.

I need to get this fixed soon as baseball season is coming and we rely on Fox sports west quite a bit.

[WK-Michael]

If it's only one channel, it pretty much has to be in the tuner unless you have some bizarre interference problem. But swapping the cables and moving parts around in general is the best bet to isolate this. Try the unit in a different room, and try another unit in this room.

[mrfixit454]

Thanks Michael. that's my plan. It's actually about 5 channels that we know of since we watch them regularly, there could be more. Since my problem is a little different than most repairs, I am not sure how Weeknees would address it if I send it in for repair. Are there guarantees? flat rates or maximum fees for repair.

Here is a video link of the problem.... it is more pronounced watching it live than with the video camera. Pay no attention to the color of the video since its a product of videotaping TV's

http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c2...t=MOV00088.flv

It may be a while for me to report back because I may use a sat box from my RV and I have to go get it.
Thanks
Fixit

[WK-Michael]

What's the exact model number of the unit?

Do you use S-video?

We don't charge on tuner repairs if we can't fix the unit. We just charge for return shipping.

[mrfixit454]

Michael,
It's a Hughes SD-DVR40. I use svideo direct to my bigscreen, rca to my receiver then VCR(which I don't really use anymore) , and coax , amplified and split to a few tv's throughout the house. I have tried removing these one by one and using just one of each with the same result.

Ramon

[WK-Jeff]

Sounds like you need a tuner repair.

[mrfixit454]

more testing

Ok.. today I did more testing. I got the Sony receiver from my bedroom and brought it out to the living room with the Directivo. I did a picture beside picture on my 65" and tested each tuner line. Since 692 is my worst channel, I chose that one. Both lines tested fine with the Sony box. So one picture on my bigscreen was good (the sony) and one was bad (the DTivo with the jumpy picture). Same result when I swapped the lines. I realize I probably have a tuner problem, I am just curious why some channels are worse than others and some show no issue at all. I tried to view channels that share same transponders as the bad channels but some were good and some bad so I guess no link there.

The strange thing that happened was while tuned to channel 692 on the DTvio, I removed SAT2 line and I lost the picture (somewhat expected). The minute I hooked SAT 2 line to the Sony receiver, the picture came back on the DTivo and the Sony box was off. This was puzzling and I think it is just the way the LNB, Multiswitch and the receivers work together, or at least the dual tuner DTivo with the multiswitch?

Thought about running the lines direct from dish to Dtivo (eliminate multiswitch) but since the Sony tests out OK on the 2 Dtivo lines and works fine on the 3rd line in my bedroom, I think this may be a waste of time. Especially since you guys say these units are notorious for tuner problems.

Thanks for the help everyone

Ramon

[WK-Jeff]

Feel to try the test, but I suspect you'll conclude, as we do, that you have a bad tuner.