Playback and live tv cutting out TiVo 6

[Ben-Cal90]

Hi

got set up three weeks back and had some signal issues with the tv that has been fixed by engineers.

However now that i can watch live, I’ve been having problems where the program will screen will go black for a few seconds then resume. Also when trying to watch programs on catch up  the screen will flicker and kick me back to live tv and sometimes the Tv will loose the HDMI signal until the TiVo box is put on standby and turned back on.

tried different HDMI cables and either slots on the tv and doesn’t have any effect. I’ve also tried swapping between a Ethernet connection and wireless connection but the catch up error  persists.

The equipment I have is TiVo 6 (mini/360) and a super hub 4.

error message I sometimes get is CS2318 - playback not possible.

hoping I might get some help on here rather than going through the call centre again

[japitts]

Firstly just by means of general advice, you don't have TiVo, you have a 360. Same hardware, but totally different software.

Is this flickering happening with any particular channel? Or any particular broadcaster OnDemand?

If your TV is losing the HDMI connection, that's clearly a fault on the HDMI chain - either a duff port on your 360 and/or TV, or a faulty cable.

The immediate thought that springs to mind - can you try swapping your master & mini-360 around, but keep all the other equipment in-situ and see if the flickeing problem follows the box or not? That's a quick way to eliminate the box vs the cable & TV.

[Ben-Cal90]

Thanks

It happens on various channels for live tv, catch up I’ve experienced on the Iplayer and Sky witness, it also occurred with recorded programs, which was channel 4.

I take it by master and mini you’re referring to the fibre connection going into the hub and 360?

if so I’ll give this a try

[japitts]

So in the world of 360, you have a master box with the hard drive and mini boxes without HDDs. The hub is what provides your broadband connection, and is irrelevant for this exercise.

In order to diagnose whether the 360 main box, your TV or the HDMI cable is causing this - we need to take one of them out of the equation, and given you have multiple TV boxes, I presume you also have a TV with the second box.

So using that second TV or 360-mini to narrow down where (what seems to be a potential HDMI fault) could be stemming from, is as good a diagnostic exercise as anything - and will also save needless replacements.

[Ben-Cal90]

Ah right,

I Only have and was only given the one 360 box

[japitts]

Just for clarity then, you mentioned in your first post "The equipment I have is TiVo 6 (mini/360)"

Can you check on https://www.virginmedia.com/help/virgin-tv-box which box you have. The 360 mini runs the same software as the main box - there's a picture of the two boxes here 

I think what you're saying is that you have one box, and it's a 360 - TiVo doesn't even come into it. Can you confirm?

[Ben-Cal90]

Yeah it’s the 360 tv box, the one on the left side of the picture with the remote.

[japitts]

Great, so we have a single 360. In that case, scratch the idea of swapping kit.

Have you proven all the TV HDMI ports as good with alternate equipment? I'm thinking games console, DVD player, whatever... Same question for HDMI cables.

Given the TV is reporting that "connection lost" error, that could potentially be causing the dropped pictures and is certainly worth eliminating first.

The error message you've quoted for "playback not possible" - is that on recorded programmes? Or OnDemand/streaming stuff? (which uses the 'net connection)

[Ben-Cal90]

Yeah the alternative HDMIs I’ve tried are from games consoles that work without issue.

The playback failure is exclusive to catch up. Recorded programs will flicker to black and kick me out back to live tv.

[japitts]

So two separate issues then. Picture issues are likely (but not guaranteed) HDMI related. OnDemand issues could well be connectivity.

What's your 360 reporting the connection quality as? Think it's under Settings > Network > Diagnostic.