FIOS and Tivo problems

Dasnyd · 11-06-2007, 03:19 PM

To begin with I am fairly new to this forum and live in Riverside County in Southern California. I was a former Directv customer who switched to FIOS because Direct wanted to give me their new box in order to get the new HD channels. I had an HR10-250 receiver w/ Tivo and absolutely wanted to keep Tivo. I purchased a new HD Tivo receiver and a three year subscription for a total cost of $600, give or take a few cents. I had the FIOS people out on October 22 to install. They sent a guy who knew nothing about a Tivo and he called another installer nearby and together they spent 5 1/2 hours and couldn't get it to work and said there was nothing more they could do.I had them hook up their receiver and remote (horrible) until I could figure out what to do That same afternoon I called FIOS again and told them that after all those hours of incompetence where unexceptable. They sent a new installer out the next morning, the 23rd, and he also knew nothing about Tivo but said he was willing to learn on the job and after just 1 hour had the 46' Samsung and Tivo HD receiver up and running. The very next day we started getting pixulisation on various channels at various times. Out comes yet another FIOS guy who claimed not to be familiar with TIVO and checked signal stength and such and determined that the problem is with the Tivo, not FIOS. I had long conversations with Tivo and they determined nothing is wrong with Tivo it is FIOS !! Called FIOS again today and they determined there was nothing they could do so I got a supervisor on the phone and the bottom line is they are coming out again on Thursday November 8. What I want to know is, is anyone else who happens to be a Tivo/FIOS customer experiencing these pixelization problems that make watching TV almost unwatchable? This pixel/blocking out problem happens on different channels both HD and standard channels at different times but not all channels at the same time which would lead me to believe this is not a Tivo problem, Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated before Thursday. Thanks for your patience in reading this way to long complaint and hopefully thanks in advance for any help.

demon2313 · 11-06-2007, 08:56 PM

I agree with you that the fios installers are very poorly trained they are basically phone people that were not sufficiently trained on their new job,that said i do not own a tivo but i also had very bad pix elation on a samsung lcd(lnt4066f)it turned out that samsung lcd's (especially the 1080p models)are very bad ad processing and up scaling standard def,so i returned it and bought a 720p samsung plasma and hooked up svideo for standard def and hdmi for hidef and that eliminated the problem.Im not saying that is the problem but its a possibility.Good luck

JPL · 11-07-2007, 08:52 AM

Out of curiosity, is there an attenuator on your Tivo? I don't know how cable cards are installed... but I'm guessing that the coax gets connected somehow. Many times verizon will put an attenuator on their boxes to tone down the signal. It's too strong in many cases. If they do have one on your box (it'll be a connection between the coax and the terminal on your box), try removing it.

I understand that tivos are somewhat more sensitive to signal drop-offs than the moto boxes that verizon uses. If you're getting the pictures just fine with the stb that verizon gave you, then it could be due to this sensitivity.

Also, do you have any amplifiers attached to your coax at any point coming from your ONT? If so, you definitely want to remove it - I've heard of amplifiers causing these types of problems too (not just with tivo, but with fios in general). Just a couple things to try.

JPL · 11-13-2007, 06:37 AM

I wanted to follow up on this thread - after reading a number of posts at dslreports on pixellation with tivo, the concensus is that tivo IS more sensitive than the moto boxes with regard to signal strength. If the signal is too strong then the tivo boxes will pixellate. The solution that I keep seeing is an attenuator. If you don't have on one your tivo, and your tivo is pixellating, then it's probably that your signal is too strong. Adding an attenuator should get the signal down in the range that's necessary for tivo.

Dasnyd · 11-15-2007, 03:44 PM

JPL---as it turned out I had FIOS out to the house 4-times and after blaming Tivo constantly I finally got a FIOS Tech who seemed interested in solving the problem. He suggested that we do one thing at a time to see if that solved the problem. He first put attenuators on and left his bus. card to call him direct with the outcome. Didn't work so he came back and put new attenuators in, I assume they were more powerful? That didn't work so he suggested taking out the cable cards and swapping slots with them, I did that and re-configured the cards and lo and behold the tieling stopped for 5 days until last night for about one hour we got a mess again. The CC switching seems to have solved problem except for last night so I'm not sure what the future brings. I CAN tell you I am happy with the FIOS picture when operating properly and I LOVE my Tivo HD box but I am not thrilled with the FIOS service and trouble shooting except for one tech----they are very quick to not want to get into Tivo and want to immediately pass the buck to Tivo. Thanks for your interest and response.

11-06-2007, 03:19 PM	#1
Dasnyd What is HD? Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 2	FIOS and Tivo problems To begin with I am fairly new to this forum and live in Riverside County in Southern California. I was a former Directv customer who switched to FIOS because Direct wanted to give me their new box in order to get the new HD channels. I had an HR10-250 receiver w/ Tivo and absolutely wanted to keep Tivo. I purchased a new HD Tivo receiver and a three year subscription for a total cost of $600, give or take a few cents. I had the FIOS people out on October 22 to install. They sent a guy who knew nothing about a Tivo and he called another installer nearby and together they spent 5 1/2 hours and couldn't get it to work and said there was nothing more they could do.I had them hook up their receiver and remote (horrible) until I could figure out what to do That same afternoon I called FIOS again and told them that after all those hours of incompetence where unexceptable. They sent a new installer out the next morning, the 23rd, and he also knew nothing about Tivo but said he was willing to learn on the job and after just 1 hour had the 46' Samsung and Tivo HD receiver up and running. The very next day we started getting pixulisation on various channels at various times. Out comes yet another FIOS guy who claimed not to be familiar with TIVO and checked signal stength and such and determined that the problem is with the Tivo, not FIOS. I had long conversations with Tivo and they determined nothing is wrong with Tivo it is FIOS !! Called FIOS again today and they determined there was nothing they could do so I got a supervisor on the phone and the bottom line is they are coming out again on Thursday November 8. What I want to know is, is anyone else who happens to be a Tivo/FIOS customer experiencing these pixelization problems that make watching TV almost unwatchable? This pixel/blocking out problem happens on different channels both HD and standard channels at different times but not all channels at the same time which would lead me to believe this is not a Tivo problem, Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated before Thursday. Thanks for your patience in reading this way to long complaint and hopefully thanks in advance for any help.

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11-06-2007, 08:56 PM	#2
demon2313 hidef or death Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 37	I agree with you that the fios installers are very poorly trained they are basically phone people that were not sufficiently trained on their new job,that said i do not own a tivo but i also had very bad pix elation on a samsung lcd(lnt4066f)it turned out that samsung lcd's (especially the 1080p models)are very bad ad processing and up scaling standard def,so i returned it and bought a 720p samsung plasma and hooked up svideo for standard def and hdmi for hidef and that eliminated the problem.Im not saying that is the problem but its a possibility.Good luck

11-07-2007, 08:52 AM	#3
JPL High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: West Chester, PA Posts: 1,427	Out of curiosity, is there an attenuator on your Tivo? I don't know how cable cards are installed... but I'm guessing that the coax gets connected somehow. Many times verizon will put an attenuator on their boxes to tone down the signal. It's too strong in many cases. If they do have one on your box (it'll be a connection between the coax and the terminal on your box), try removing it. I understand that tivos are somewhat more sensitive to signal drop-offs than the moto boxes that verizon uses. If you're getting the pictures just fine with the stb that verizon gave you, then it could be due to this sensitivity. Also, do you have any amplifiers attached to your coax at any point coming from your ONT? If so, you definitely want to remove it - I've heard of amplifiers causing these types of problems too (not just with tivo, but with fios in general). Just a couple things to try.

11-13-2007, 06:37 AM	#4
JPL High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: West Chester, PA Posts: 1,427	I wanted to follow up on this thread - after reading a number of posts at dslreports on pixellation with tivo, the concensus is that tivo IS more sensitive than the moto boxes with regard to signal strength. If the signal is too strong then the tivo boxes will pixellate. The solution that I keep seeing is an attenuator. If you don't have on one your tivo, and your tivo is pixellating, then it's probably that your signal is too strong. Adding an attenuator should get the signal down in the range that's necessary for tivo.

11-15-2007, 03:44 PM	#5
Dasnyd What is HD? Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 2	JPL---as it turned out I had FIOS out to the house 4-times and after blaming Tivo constantly I finally got a FIOS Tech who seemed interested in solving the problem. He suggested that we do one thing at a time to see if that solved the problem. He first put attenuators on and left his bus. card to call him direct with the outcome. Didn't work so he came back and put new attenuators in, I assume they were more powerful? That didn't work so he suggested taking out the cable cards and swapping slots with them, I did that and re-configured the cards and lo and behold the tieling stopped for 5 days until last night for about one hour we got a mess again. The CC switching seems to have solved problem except for last night so I'm not sure what the future brings. I CAN tell you I am happy with the FIOS picture when operating properly and I LOVE my Tivo HD box but I am not thrilled with the FIOS service and trouble shooting except for one tech----they are very quick to not want to get into Tivo and want to immediately pass the buck to Tivo. Thanks for your interest and response.