Sick of TIVO not working (1 Viewer)

[Grant B]

About every 2 weeks my wife's TIVO (if it was mine, I would have thrown the damn thing out) stops changing channels. Other times I got it to work by reseting it. This time that wont work. I am tired of something I pay a monthly fee that works so spordically. It wont even record local channels even though we get them from directv.
Anyone have any ideas before I cancel this worthless service?
Thanks
Grant

 

[Stephen Tu]

There shouldn't be any problem recording local channels. You are using a DirecTV receiver along with a standalone Tivo? Serial connection or IR?

To get local channels you might have to rerun guided setup and make sure you have the right lineup selected. If your DirecTV receiver remaps the channel numbers onto their local OTA number (1 / 2 digit channel rather than 3 digit), you want the lineup that says "DirecTV - (your city here)", not "DirecTV national".

Channel changes - use serial if your receiver supports it. Sometimes channel changing problems are issues with the satellite receiver, not the Tivo; you might try yanking the power on that. Try different remote codes as well. This thread over at www.tivocommunity.com might have some useful info for your specific receiver.

Any reason you are using standalone Tivo rather than the DirecTV combo model?

 

[Grant B]

Thanks Stephen
We tried what you said many times and it never worked properly.
We finally fixed it.... canceled the service altogether. Never had any electronics work so bad in my life...

 

[Stephen Tu]

That's a shame. Perhaps you just had a defective unit.
Your experience is a rare exception, not the norm, as satisfaction rate for Tivo users is sky high, much higher than other electronics. I can't help but wonder if it's just user error. If you provided more specific problem descriptions (what model DirecTV receiver, is the Tivo standalone, what sort of control connection, are the local channels not appearing as selections under "channels you receive", or are they listed but the receiver just won't change to them), it might have been possible to go through and fix things rather than throwing in the towel.

 

[HomerG]

Grant, did you throw it away?

 

[LDfan]

My tivo unit has worked flawlessly for over 2 years now. It has been the best electronic device I've ever purchased by far.


Jeff

 

[Jim Wilke]

Without TiVo, my life would not be worth living.