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Jumped out of my chair!
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Posted by: DVD Man

So last night, I was settled in watching "The Last Action Hero" on my trusy old TiVo when all of a sudden the recording hit a loss of signal which gave me nothing but 100% gray pixelation and white noise at twice the volume level of the movie. Ouch!!! This happened about 3 more times in the next minute or so. I think it was recorded during a thunder storm, with the loss of signal coming from brown-outs to my power. (either that or my cable was doing it)

I know, I know - Get a UPS and be done with it. Problem is, I have no room in my current setup to put a UPS. I have problem enough fitting a surge protector behind my cabinet. Unless there is a UPS that is really thin, like 2 inches, this is not an option.

My suggestion here, for TiVo, is to be able to detect this loss of signal as it is playing and Mute it. (audio mute at the very least)
I know this is asking for a lot. But watching last night was really a shock to my system.

Any thoughts?

Posted by: Dave Crane

quote:
Originally posted by DVD Man:
So last night, I was settled in watching "The Last Action Hero" on my trusy old TiVo when all of a sudden the recording hit a loss of signal which gave me nothing but 100% gray pixelation and white noise at twice the volume level of the movie. Ouch!!! This happened about 3 more times in the next minute or so. I think it was recorded during a thunder storm, with the loss of signal coming from brown-outs to my power. (either that or my cable was doing it)

I know, I know - Get a UPS and be done with it. Problem is, I have no room in my current setup to put a UPS. I have problem enough fitting a surge protector behind my cabinet. Unless there is a UPS that is really thin, like 2 inches, this is not an option.

My suggestion here, for TiVo, is to be able to detect this loss of signal as it is playing and Mute it. (audio mute at the very least)
I know this is asking for a lot. But watching last night was really a shock to my system.

Any thoughts?

Sounds more like a cable outage than a power problem. That's exactly what happens when watching live TV and the cable goes out at my place. But it doesn't happen with TiVo, so I'm bemused by your experience. When live TiVo detects a loss of signal, it puts the frowning TiVo character on the screen. When TiVo is recording, it quits recording, leaving an unexplained gap in the show. (That could be better handled, but rapid, frequent interruptions might cause more clutter than desirable).

I wonder if anyone else has had your experience. I'm at software level 1.3 if that matters.

Posted by: DVD Man

quote:
Originally posted by Dave Crane:
Sounds more like a cable outage than a power problem. That's exactly what happens when watching live TV and the cable goes out at my place. But it doesn't happen with TiVo, so I'm bemused by your experience. When live TiVo detects a loss of signal, it puts the frowning TiVo character on the screen. When TiVo is recording, it quits recording, leaving an unexplained gap in the show. (That could be better handled, but rapid, frequent interruptions might cause more clutter than desirable).

I wonder if anyone else has had your experience. I'm at software level 1.3 if that matters.

They were definitely spikey outages that only lasted a second or less. I even went back and paused one, so I could examin the screen. Totally dark gray, large pixellation. Very odd. The white-noise was very loud.
This has never happened to me while watching live TV. Only this one recording so far.

Posted by: Dan203

quote:
Originally posted by DVD Man:
I know, I know - Get a UPS and be done with it. Problem is, I have no room in my current setup to put a UPS. I have problem enough fitting a surge protector behind my cabinet. Unless there is a UPS that is really thin, like 2 inches, this is not an option.

APC makes a UPS that is only slightly larger then a standard power strip. It's called a Back-UPS Office. Check out their site for the exact demensions.

Dan

Posted by: Thinkology

I get this with the satellite...during rain fade. It sounds like your cable output, not a power problem. It seems, as you suggest, the TiVo could filter out and mute the awful sound.

Posted by: TomCat

My TIVO is about 9 months old, running v1.3, and it handles cable/satellite outages very elegantly. If I'm watching, it puts up a graphic saying that the signal is lost and gives steps on what to do. If I'm recording, it seems to actually pause recording during an outage and then pick up again when the signal returns. In any case, it mutes audio during an outage. Occassionally my PPV signal scrambles and unscrambles a couple minutes before a program airs. TIVO handles this like a champ.