(no subject)

[rhienelleth]

I am pissed off at our cable.

Ok, so we got this new TV.  This AWESOME new TV.  We hooked it up to our receiver and Tivo exactly the same way our old TV was hooked up.  We used the same cords.  And yet.  When we first hooked it up and turned it on, the picture was crap.  Fuzzy, all these little pixelations.  So we fiddled with the cords to make sure they were tight and poured over our TV manual to see if we'd done something wrong.  Nada.  Then, whilst flipping through the channels for the thirtieth desperate time, they suddenly cleared up to perfection.  I am not lying.  I have NO IDEA why the picture was suddenly better, and remained better for days and days.

Last night I went to watch some of the shows Tivo recorded over the weekend.  I turned on the televeision and went "Oh, no.  Why is the picture crap again?"  Shows that recorded Friday night look perfect.  Shows that recorded Sunday are so crappy I can barely stand to watch.  What's wrong with our TV?  Our cable??  Why, oh why, can't it all just work?  What's the point of having all these electronic godsends if they don't record a decent picture?? 

The cable on the TV in the bedroom, by the way, looks perfect.  So do DVDs on the new TV in the family room.  Hence, it has to be the cable hooked up to that TV somehow.  *cries*

NCIS is on tonight.  Help!

Comments

[kistha.livejournal.com]

If you have Comcast cable - CBS shows are now available "on demand" so if it comes out ugly you have 4 weeks to pick it up again if you have the "On Demand" feature.

If not I don't know what to tell you, except that if it's HD, and the program isn't it looks nasty...or so I've heard. I'd call either the cable, or the place you got the TV.

Either way, good luck!

[ms-pie.livejournal.com]

Okay... So my questions:

1. What kind of cable to you have? Digital w/ HD?
2. What kind of cable tuner do you have?
3. What kind of TiVo do you have? HD-TiVO? Or old school?

Basically, I'm thinking there is an issue with how the broadast via cable is being presented by your TiVo.

For example, when we went to HD TV (over sattellite) & We got a new HD-TV, we had to update our TiVo / decoder box (or whatever it is called)

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

We just have basic cable, not digital, and I don't believe the Tivo is HD Tivo. It's a Humax 80-hour Tivo w/DVD burner. About a year old. Yes, it is an HD TV, but Mark's parents have a nearly identical set up, minus the Tivo (HD TV with regular cable) and their picture has never had any problems. And our picture was really good for over a week, and now suddenly is all pixelated and fuzzy again.

I really hope we don't have to spend the money to bother with digital cable (an extra $50 a month) AND an HD Tivo box, just to get a decent picture.

[ms-pie.livejournal.com]

Hmmm -- You shouldn't have to... The only time you need to upgrade is when you are trying to do HD to HD type stuff.

I assume it is working with a straight DVD? It is just the TV that is off?

That is really bizarre... Sorry I can't be of more help!

[rhienelleth.livejournal.com]

I fixed it! Apparently even though the cable to the wall feels tight, it really wasn't, cause I completely unscrewed it and then put it back, and now it works again, crystal clear.

The cat probably lossened it somehow going back there.

Thanks, though. :)

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

Hi, I run tivolovers. If you can watch recordings from before and they're clear, while new recordings are poor, that's an important indicator. It means the cabling between the TiVo and TV, and the TV itself, are fine. Otherwise all recordings would look the same.

So it sounds like the cable feed into the TiVo. It could be the physical connection, or a bad coaxial RF cable from the wall to the TiVo. It could also be a problem with the cable feed itself - corrosion on the cable, wildlife gnawing on the insulation, etc. If changing the cables and checking the connections don't help, you may need toi have the cable company come out and check the signal level on that jack.