TiVo HD suffering from teething CableCARD glitches
updated 04:15 pm EDT, Fri August 3, 2007
TiVo HD Launch Trouble
TiVo's just launched TiVo HD DVR may have shipped with a chronic defect, according to various reports from TiVo users. The CableCARD slots in particular are said to be generating pixelization with digital broadcasts; slot 2 produces enough visual artifacts as to be virtually unusable, one user said. In some cases, many of the subscribed digital channels also fail to register on the second slot. The cards are known to work with previous DVR units and on strong TV signals.
The issue is not universal but has been reported by a disproportionately large number of TiVo subscribers, including those who have had their TiVo HD boxes replaced at least once. Some users have reported the flaw being traced to a consistent problem with Scientific Atlanta CableCARDs offered by some TV providers, as those from Motorola and other companies appear to escape both the channel range and visual errors.
TiVo has officially recognized the issue and says that an August 1st firmware update should resolve the problems, but additional reports indicate that the flaw persists for at least some users with Scientific Atlanta cards. The company already recommends that any user experiencing the problem get in touch with technical support to report the issue.
