Posted on Tue 05/10/05 in Technical Interleude
So I was lended a TiVo unit with “lifetime service” a few years back. While I was using it, the on-board modem was taken out by a surge.
I was recently able to rig it up with an old external USRobotics 14.4Kbps modem I had lying around. Just weeks later, we started having another problem: The Tivo would not change to any channel which had a ‘6’ in it. So, channel ‘165’... would end up recording channel ‘15’. I know… WTF?
The way the Tivo works is this: You enter a channel with the Tivo remote, it sends an IR signal through a cable to the cable box, and the cable box changes to the channel you entered.
So, i figured it had to do with the transmission of the signal. But, why only the ‘6’ key?!!?!? What the hell? The cable box remote changed the channel fine, so I knew it was not the IR receiving end.
Figuring this was a unique problem because it didn’t logically make any sense, I didn’t really research it too much and figured it was a lost cause. But, before I gave up, I took one last chance.
On www.tivocommunity.com , I found out that this is a common problem with Comcast Digital Cable using Motorola cable boxes. My problem was caused by a recent automatic firmware update. Great!??!! The firmware updates are supposed to fix problems, not create them. I guess it was to be expected given the 3rd grader talent that goes into programming the Comcast user interface. I solved the problem by changing my cable box remote control setting to a different code. I feel like the programmers played a prank on me and were laughing at me through their little spy camera they placed inside the box when they installed it.
Tell you what I’ll do. I’ll call them up again (I did call them to ask for help, but they just screamed ‘Tivo’) and tell them the solution. Then, I’ll call them back in two weeks and see if they know the answer. If they do, then good. If not, then, well… they must not care about me.
BTW, the moral of this story is:
Somebody out there has had your problem before, so don’t assume yours is something special.
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