Won't record question - New User

New Series 2 (80 hour TIVO).
Comcast Dig Cable with Coax connections (Fort Lauderdale)
Genreal Inst cable box

I can schedule OK, I see the guide OK. IR blaster thing changes the channel
OK, The TIVO seems to change the channel on the CATV box when it is supposed
to. However:

1) When I go to play the program the cable TV image says program will be
available shortly (it never is and it goes like this until the end of the
program). I can go the program and watch it using "watch live TV" though.
2) Or I set it to record and it tries to but only seems to record the first
few seconds of the show. There is a bunch of static and then TIVO asks if I
want to delete.
3) Or the show starts to record (this happened one time) and when I tried to
play it the first couple of minutes of the show played, the rest of it (2
hours) was like a freeze frame.

Any hints?

Thank, I am new to this but I walked throught the set up OK and everything
else (which is not much I know with record and play ability) seems to be OK.

Joe

On 9/8/03 5:38 AM, in article , "Joseph
Giuliano" wrote:

New Series 2 (80 hour TIVO).
Comcast Dig Cable with Coax connections (Fort Lauderdale)
Genreal Inst cable box

I can schedule OK, I see the guide OK. IR blaster thing changes the channel
OK, The TIVO seems to change the channel on the CATV box when it is supposed
to. However:

1) When I go to play the program the cable TV image says program will be
available shortly (it never is and it goes like this until the end of the
program). I can go the program and watch it using "watch live TV" though.
2) Or I set it to record and it tries to but only seems to record the first
few seconds of the show. There is a bunch of static and then TIVO asks if I
want to delete.
3) Or the show starts to record (this happened one time) and when I tried to
play it the first couple of minutes of the show played, the rest of it (2
hours) was like a freeze frame.


Possibly the signal from the cable box to the tivo is very bad and static-y,
or there is a loose RF cable connection. If the signal is very bad, tivo
will stop recording and you'll get behavior similar to (2), and occasionally
(3). Have you tried using RCA or S-Video cables? (They're superior anyway.)

Otherwise... yikes, picture freezing is the classic symptom of a defective
hard drive. Perhaps your cable box messages could be freezes of a message
that actually went away. In this case, you might have to replace the tivo---
but it should be under warrantee.

Thanks for the speedy reply. I don't think the HDD is bad as I can record
while I watch (i.e., select record while watching live TV and then be able
to play the whole thing back later.) I did reset my coax stuff a minute ago.
My comcast box does not have S connection and when I tried the RCA type
jacks I could not get it to see the channel guide but I think that may have
been because I had the input from the TV set to the wrong setting (ant not
vid). Anyway thanks again. If something else comes to mind feel free to
e-mail back.

Joe

"ZikZak" wrote in message
...
On 9/8/03 5:38 AM, in article , "Joseph
Giuliano" wrote:

New Series 2 (80 hour TIVO).
Comcast Dig Cable with Coax connections (Fort Lauderdale)
Genreal Inst cable box

I can schedule OK, I see the guide OK. IR blaster thing changes the
channel
OK, The TIVO seems to change the channel on the CATV box when it is
supposed
to. However:

1) When I go to play the program the cable TV image says program will be
available shortly (it never is and it goes like this until the end of
the
program). I can go the program and watch it using "watch live TV"
though.
2) Or I set it to record and it tries to but only seems to record the
first
few seconds of the show. There is a bunch of static and then TIVO asks
if I
want to delete.
3) Or the show starts to record (this happened one time) and when I
tried to
play it the first couple of minutes of the show played, the rest of it
(2
hours) was like a freeze frame.


Possibly the signal from the cable box to the tivo is very bad and
static-y,
or there is a loose RF cable connection. If the signal is very bad, tivo
will stop recording and you'll get behavior similar to (2), and
occasionally
(3). Have you tried using RCA or S-Video cables? (They're superior
anyway.)

Otherwise... yikes, picture freezing is the classic symptom of a defective
hard drive. Perhaps your cable box messages could be freezes of a message
that actually went away. In this case, you might have to replace the
tivo---
but it should be under warrantee.

In article ,
Joseph Giuliano wrote:
New Series 2 (80 hour TIVO).
Comcast Dig Cable with Coax connections (Fort Lauderdale)
Genreal Inst cable box

I can schedule OK, I see the guide OK. IR blaster thing changes the channel
OK, The TIVO seems to change the channel on the CATV box when it is supposed
to. However:

1) When I go to play the program the cable TV image says program will be
available shortly (it never is and it goes like this until the end of the
program). I can go the program and watch it using "watch live TV" though.

I admit that being able to watch it with 'watch live TV' doesn't really
fit with this...

but I got some of these kinds of recordings if I split the coax going
into the digital cable box.

Are you splitting the signal? If so, try NOT to, try putting the coax
directly into the digital cable box.

For me, the box required a much much stronger signal, even for the analog
stations, than any other tuner (TVs, VCRs) I've ever seen before.
That was one of the main reasons I got rid of digital cable after the promo
period wore off (I want/need to split the signal to other devices, but not
enough to pay them for another installation.. I'll just do without digital
cable).