TiVo Community Forums Archives - tivo latency rendering useless! help, pls!

TiVoCommunity.com
(c)opyright 1995-2005 All rights reserved
indexcheckTC
This area is a static history of posts in the TiVo Community Forum Archive.
This archive history was made for the simple indexing of search sites like Google.

Pages:1

tivo latency rendering useless! help, pls!
(Click here to view the original thread with full colors/images)

Posted by: jhotra

I have trawled the postings looking for someone else experiencing this problem, to no avail...

I have a philips 30hr that I upgraded with a 120gb about a month ago. It worked fine for the first 2-3 weeks. Recently, however it has been "sluggish" (to say the least) at times. (fyi, using IR blaster w/Motorola DCT2000)

For example:
hit <guide>, page thru channels, pick one, hit <select>

guide disappears from screen but channel does not change (picture and sound are fine--but on the old channel). Tivo is completely unresponsive to commands during this time.

anywhere from 1 to 30 minutes later, the IR blaster finally transmits the channel number. Cable box changes channels, and all is well.

if I hit <guide> again, the tivo responds immediately. However attempting to change channels again results in the same problem.

If I attempt to change channels by typing a channel number without the guide on screen, upon hitting <enter> the tivo channel banner goes blank and the screen goes black (no pic, no sound). Again, after 1-30 minutes (usually 1-15) channel changes.

This problem happens about 50-75% of the times I try to change channels (during the past week)

Even WORSE example:

I go to watch my recorded episode of <show a>. For the first 10 minutes of the recording, I am looking at whatever channel the tivo was tuned to before the recording started. Then at minute 10 during the recording, the cable box changes channels, and I get <show a> for the next 50 minutes.

Not only is my live tv watching affected, but unattended recording is too!

I HAVE ATTEMPTED:

unplugging the tivo while it is "hung". I unplugged for 10 seconds, 2 mins, or 10 mins. Upon reconnecting the Tivo, it goes through the normal setup and eventually lands me on the Tivo Central page. The unit will not respond to remote control, however (until it extricates itself from the "hang"). After enough time lapses, the unit goes back to "normal" for a little while.

I know 9thtee sells a memory upgrade which it says helps with menu sluggishness following a HD upgrade, but I also read the MFSTools pitch which says it performs upgrades in such a way as to make the menu latency a non-issue.

However, my problem sounds worse than mere sluggishness...

Any thoughts please?!

Thanks very much.

Jason

Posted by: Otto

Try this: change the channel on the Tivo, then block the IR receiving port on the front of the Tivo with your hand or something. See if the channel change actually occurs immediately. If it does, then you have something sending a bunch of random IR into the air, like a remote under a couch cushion or one of those stupid pyramid things or something.

Posted by: drewman

I have had the same problem with my Philips 112 upgraded with an 80GB hard drive. Also a Scientific-Atlanta Exlplorer 2100.

The problem seems to have started when I was upgraded to 3.0.

Most of the time it is fine, but sometimes it simply stops responding to infrared commands. If I leave it come back to it later, it will act fine.

I also have shows where TiVo is recording whatever channel it was on and several minutes into the show, it will finally enter the channel number and then switch to the show.

I can undertstand an IR 'storm' stopping me from using the remote, but would it also slow down the interface enough that it would miss doing the channel change (yet still split the recordings on the hour properly)?

Andrew

Posted by: Otto

The IR interface won't send out IR when it's receiving IR, I think. So, an IR storm would cause that extreme delayed reaction.

Another possibility: restart the digital cable box. This one happened to me when my cable company was beating the hell out of the digital cable box trying to update it's software. Rebooted it, it started up, downloaded new firmware for half an hour, and then worked great. Appearantly, whatever the hell the cable company was sending down the line was killing the box.

Posted by: jhotra

I do have one of those IR extenders, which I have now disconnected for the time being. I only used my Tivo for about 20 mins after doing so (without incident) so that might be the solution. I'll have to sit on the couch tonight for a couple hours doing "research" into the problem!

Thanks for the suggestion... I love having the IR extender (i have the RF out of the tivo running up to my bedroom) so if the solution is to not use it, I'd be disappointed. Maybe I can cover the IR emitting "dome" with some sort of IR-translucent material that will cut down on the junk coming out of it...?

Posted by: dsmdriver

it's definatley the IR-extender. Does it every time.

Try removing the antenna from the IR extender that's in the same room as the TiVo. It worked for me. The real issue is that the IR extender is always picking up stuff from the airwaves and a shorter antenna helps prevent that. It still works when I use the remote in the other room.

Posted by: pinballfan

The pyramid IR extenders are widely trashed in the forums, but I have found them an effective (not to mention cheap) solution to remote IR. I have used them for many years and currently have transmitters in 4 different rooms...

The problem with them, as already stated in this thread is that they can be a source of IR "noise". I have hit this problem several times when I made changes to my system (added another transmitter, etc).

In all cases re-positioning the transmitters or reciever has solved the problem for me. I'm not sure why they have the problem, but as an example, setting a transmitter on top of a TV often (almost always) causes me problems. If it is just a few inches away on the side, it is usually fine. Another thing to watch out for (and I don't think it is pyramid specific) is direct sunlight. I guess the wide spectum of sunlight overlaps with the IR they are sensitive to.

To solve the problem, watch the LEDs in the pyramids. If they are flickering (even just barely), they are picking up noise. Reposition them until the flickering stops. You will probably be fine...

-- Doug

Posted by: eastwind

I use a remote extender that is actually wired and doesn't transmit on IR or radio waves. It's made by Memorex and it grabs the signal with a receiver and recodes it and sends it on the shielding of the coax where it re-xmits it kinda like the TiVo's IR blaster through a little dongle that you pu in front of the TiVo's IR receiver. I haven't seen any trouble with this set up so far, and it lets me keep the TiVo and one Dish receiver in a room where no one bothers it. -- John

Posted by: raeiken

I also use a wired IR extender which works great. I use the Xantech Xtra link which I think you can now get for around $55 if you look at a bunch of websites. It installs in 5 minutes and works great.