TiVo Community Forums Archives - New TiVo owner! Channel change flicker/slow?

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New TiVo owner! Channel change flicker/slow?
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Posted by: honey

I'm the happy recipient of one of Mr Tonks last batch of TiVo's and so new around here! I've been thinking of buying one for years, but couldn't resist it at Ł149 so finally paid up - just to see if all the gushing reviews by other TiVo owners was true - and I'm very pleased! Feels like I've joined a cult... I'm hoping you all have mysterious midnight TiVo ceremonies in the woods and daub each others foreheads with little smiling TV's on legs, right? Can't wait to dress up in a toga and dance around a fire chanting "Now Playing! Now Playing!" :)

So everything's working ok except for... changing channels is slow and I'm wondering if it's a remote problem. I've done a lot of reading here, and I understand that there's the issue of the buffer of reading from hard disk which will of course create a delay, and of course a STB will have some too. And the dongle I bought for my PACE 1000 of course gives me a slight delay too. But what I get on my setup with Telewest is:

1. Hit "Chan/page" on remote
2. Dongle sends first digit to PACE 1000 and *screen goes blank* while the TiVo banner shows the next channel name
3. Dongle sends second and third digits and the *original* channel flashes back up on to the screen, but the TiVo banner is saying the new channel name and description
4. Channel finally changes to the destination channel, by which time the TiVo banner has just about disappeared!

Is this what everyone sees with a similar setup? I'd guess that it takes 3-4 seconds to change a channel. I know channel surfing is slower with a TiVo, so please don't suggest I never watch live TV! I guess I'll do that less but still...

The above sequence of events really does make changing channels a momentarily confusing process - and the funny thing is that when I set up the IR (code 20004-fast) and you test the channel change you *don't* get the intermediate blank screen! I've tried changing other parameters like medium and slow, and the digit issue of leading zeros etc, and it doesn't make any difference.

Also, it's clearly an issue of the interaction between the TiVo and the PACE, because if I tune into terrestial channels via my aerial (using UHF? numbers) I don't get anything like the delay or the intermediate blank screen.

One thing that springs to mind is the issue a lot of US people have had with the "older" remotes supplied with Philips TiVo's: a lot of people report that the remote buffered commands, and you could get a replacement remote that solved this: apparently the new ones didn't have "Chan page" on that button, but just "Chan" - a sign that it was an ok one. Is this an issue with the Thomson TiVo's too? Mine says "Chan page" - what does yours say?

I have also noticed another supposed symptom of the US "old remote" problem - sometimes when I hit left-arrow I get a down-arrow. So I'm suspicious that I'm seeing the same problem.

Sorry this is so long. In summary:

* Do others see the "blank-screen -> back to original channel" flicker when changing channels?

* Is this and the left/down arrow problem an issue with Thomson's TiVo remotes like it is in the US with Philips?

* What does the channel button say on your remote if you have a relatively new one? "Chan page" or just "Chan"?

* Does it take 3-4 seconds to change channels for everyone?

Thanks for any helpful comments for a new cult member!

Posted by: cwaring

quote:
Originally posted by honey
I'm the happy recipient of one of Mr Tonks last batch of TiVo's and so new around here! I've been thinking of buying one for years, but couldn't resist it at Ł149 so finally paid up - just to see if all the gushing reviews by other TiVo owners was true - and I'm very pleased! Feels like I've joined a cult... I'm hoping you all have mysterious midnight TiVo ceremonies in the woods and daub each others foreheads with little smiling TV's on legs, right? Can't wait to dress up in a toga and dance around a fire chanting "Now Playing! Now Playing!" :)

I haven't read the rest of your post yet, but I know who gets my vote for 'Oddest New Member of the Month' :D

Posted by: Hornet

Hi,

I'm also a new user here, and also the lucky recipient of one of Mr. Tonks Ł149 TiVo's (TiVii?)

I can confirm that I have a similar response when changing channels and just assumed that was the way of things, but I'd be interested to know if this is normal.

I have a Pace 2000 box and am also using Telewest.

Hornet.

Posted by: MrPhil

quote:
Originally posted by honey

* Do others see the "blank-screen -> back to original channel" flicker when changing channels?

Yes, the parental controls cause this. It blanks the screen, checks that it is allowed to show the channel, then shows the live picture. You see the previous channel for a second because sadly a lot of STBs take forever to change channels.

quote:
* Is this and the left/down arrow problem an issue with Thomson's TiVo remotes like it is in the US with Philips?

No.

quote:
* What does the channel button say on your remote if you have a relatively new one? "Chan page" or just "Chan"?

No Idea

quote:
* Does it take 3-4 seconds to change channels for everyone?

Yes.

quote:
Thanks for any helpful comments for a new cult member!

Have you bought a cape to wear in woods yet?

:D

Posted by: cwaring

quote:
Originally posted by honey
So everything's working ok except for... changing channels is slow and I'm wondering if it's a remote problem. I've done a lot of reading here, and I understand that there's the issue of the buffer of reading from hard disk which will of course create a delay, and of course a STB will have some too. And the dongle I bought for my PACE 1000 of course gives me a slight delay too. But what I get on my setup with Telewest is:.... <snip>

I have the exact same system as you (TW with Pace1000 STB) and this behaviour is normal. You just have to get used to it. That said, it hasn't failed to change channels when reuired for unattended recordings in the month or so I have had one. I haven't missed a programme yet :)

Posted by: MrPhil

quote:
cwaring
senior member

Since when? :D

Posted by: doubledrat

quote:
Originally posted by honey
I have also noticed another supposed symptom of the US "old remote" problem - sometimes when I hit left-arrow I get a down-arrow. So I'm suspicious that I'm seeing the same problem.

I found that the directional control on my tivo could be flakey. I think it's more down to the design than anything else - it's far to easy to get down instead of right, up instead of left etc etc.

Shortly after getting the tivo, I got a pronto, and that irritation disappeared. Months later, I visited my brother and was using his peanut, and there it was, back again.

Maybe I'm just ham-fisted? :)

Posted by: TwiceNightly

quote:
Originally posted by doubledrat

Shortly after getting the tivo, I got a pronto, and that irritation disappeared. Months later, I visited my brother and was using his peanut, and there it was, back again.

Maybe I'm just ham-fisted? :)

Out of interest, what Pronto CCF are you using? Is it the Dan Haddix one, or one you did yourself? I'm going to program my Pronto this weekend.;)

Posted by: doubledrat

I think I took the official tivo one and modified it.

BTW it'll take more than a weekend to finish programming your pronto ;)

TIP: Instead of creating different "device panels" for tivo tasks, create different "devices". That way you can have different functions on the hard buttons for each layout. You can't do this with multiple panels within one device.

e.g. I have a navigation layout and a playing layout. On the nav one, the L & R hard buttons do Left&Right and mute does [clear][0.5secdelay][select], whereas on the playing layout L&R do FF & REW and mute does mute

Posted by: TwiceNightly

Great, Cheers! I'll have a play around this weekend.:)

Posted by: JonMace

I'm using the Dan Haddix CCF and it's pretty good, if you really wanted to you could down load it, then split the panels and put them into seperate devices to do the above but IMHO it's not worth it. Tivo was then only CCF file i downloaded did the rest from scratch only took about 2 hours, but no origional art work that would take a lot longer.

Have fun this weekend

Posted by: doubledrat

BTW, maybe this is old news, but I've just heard of a programme called "TONTO" which someone's working on as a replacement for pronto edit. looks pretty good already. probably best to stick with the standard program initially, but for the more seasoned pronto editors tonto might be worth a look

http://giantlaser.com/tonto/?x=about

Posted by: doubledrat

quote:
Originally posted by JonMace
you could down load it, then split the panels and put them into seperate devices to do the above but IMHO it's not worth it.

splitting the panels into different devices is very quick and easy to do...

Posted by: DaveP

quote:
I have also noticed another supposed symptom of the US "old remote" problem - sometimes when I hit left-arrow I get a down-arrow. So I'm suspicious that I'm seeing the same problem.

I also bought one from Mr Tonks, this problem is driving me crazy!!! I zoom off to alsorts of strange menus and then spend ages getting back to where I want to be only to zoom off again at the next press of the key:mad:

The other thing that irritates me is the lack of a numbered menu system. If I could press say 6 to get to the sixth item on the menu it would save me messing with that awful joystick thing!

DaveP

Posted by: doubledrat

quote:
Originally posted by DaveP

The other thing that irritates me is the lack of a numbered menu system. If I could press say 6 to get to the sixth item on the menu it would save me messing with that awful joystick thing!

DaveP

yes, that would be good. I don't know why they havn't done that. Perhaps it's because they're concerned that people would get used to the numbers and prevent them from reordering the menus in the future?

Posted by: TwiceNightly

You can use the ch/page up/down button to go straight to the top or bottom of a menu, I've used that a fair bit.

Posted by: cwaring

quote:
Originally posted by MrPhil
Since when? :D

I was wondering that myself. Wasn't me, it just appeared! Must be something to do with my 200+ posts :)

Posted by: doubledrat

yeah but just think what you could do if all the menus were numbered. Once you'd got used to it, you could just hit e.g. 145 and get straight to where you want to be

Posted by: iankb

quote:
Originally posted by cwaring

I was wondering that myself. Wasn't me, it just appeared! Must be something to do with my 200+ posts :)

Yes. If you don't insert your own title, you get this at 200 posts.

God knows what you have to post to get a large member :D Maybe MrPhil can tell us.

Ian.

Posted by: cwaring

quote:
Originally posted by iankb

Yes. If you don't insert your own title, you get this at 200 posts.

God knows what you have to post to get a large member :D Maybe MrPhil can tell us.

Ian.

To be honest, I'm not entirely certain that I want to know that :D

Posted by: Olly

quote:
Originally posted by DaveP
The other thing that irritates me is the lack of a numbered menu system. If I could press say 6 to get to the sixth item on the menu it would save me messing with that awful joystick thing!

DaveP

From Gary's "New forum members read this!" thread:-

TiVo has some undocumented shortcuts - try pressing the "TiVo" button then a numeric digit - eg "TiVo", "2" goes to the "ToDo" list.

Posted by: iankb

quote:
Originally posted by Olly
TiVo has some undocumented shortcuts - try pressing the "TiVo" button then a numeric digit - eg "TiVo", "2" goes to the "ToDo" list.

Unfortunately, these are fixed options rather than dependent on the currently-displayed menu.

Ian.

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