Tivo Stream 4K - July 2020 Update - Corrupt OTA streams

Channels Android TV
#10

I didn't go check everything that was disabled, but Tivo Stream app came back and I'm guessing everything came back.

The good news is that the remote stuff seems to be greatly improved. They added more settings and I was able to move back and forth between my Sony TV and LG TV and it worked with both, and also correctly configured for my Sonos on one of them. What wasn't obvious is the LG was showing the Sonos audio system which is not connected to that TV. If I started the configuration of the audio system, and then immediately stopped it, then it forgot the Sonos. The first time I sat there for several minutes while it was trying to figure out my audio system and eventually canceled it. So minor usability problem, but it works on both and was a nightmare before and I never got it to work for audio on the Sony before.

On the Sony, when video is set to 1080p 60hz, it has a red lined down the right side of the screen. If I configure it for 4K 30hz, that goes away. It didn't do that before this update.

So for me, its more usable now since the remote is working. I guess I will hang on to it.

#11
#12

Maybe MX Player?

#13

I bet they blocked this on purpose

1 Like
#14

According to a Reddit post, the disabling of the developer options was "accidental", and should not have happened. It was expressed that it would be fixed in the next update, but no timeline was given. So, the TS4K is subpar until TiVo can demonstrate they care about their users ... or until Google releases their consumer version of the ADT-3.

#15

This is exactly why I didn't buy the TiVo Stream. I wanted to so badly, but I don't trust TiVo. I've used their products since 2002. In 2019 I dumped the entire line of products I was using. They are not trustworthy. I guess we'll see if they make the update.

1 Like
#16

yea. i only got one for my mothers bedroom tv cause it was the cheapest and best choice...wasn't going to risk one of those China generic Android tv boxes off ebay/Amazon. And not worth spending $200 on aanohter Shield for TV use maybe a few times a month.

I knew it was new device, and it does not surprise me at all, that they put out an update to make it more locked down and less possible for the user to de-bloat it into a non tivo device.

#17

Did anyone submit diagnostics from the TiVo in hardware mode? Does it fail completely or pixelate with blocks of content missing?

#18

It looks like this:

2 Likes
#19

I didn't submit diagnostics because its not a problem with Channels. It fails in the HDHR app the same way. Its completely pixelated or sometimes a mostly solid colored screen.

#20

Well, when Nvidia released their first update for the 2019 Shield TV's it broke some things for folks, most notable for me was LDAC Bluetooth Codec support.

That was 6 months ago now...and they still have not fixed it.
I read in their forms, the next pre-update available, "HotFix" as they call it, which is NOT reversible and not fully certified....breaks a tons of things. Like Disney+ and PeacokTV app.

Point is, seems it is a common thing for companies of stream boxes, to take ages to push updates, and when they do, it breaks things, u have to wait many months, to get a fix, if ever. Only stream box that seems stable is Roku, but that is so limited and locked down, not much to screw up in that. (And i refuse to deal with Amazon's extreme bloat and forced ecosystem OS.)

#21

No argument here with your points about Amazon, but on the other hand their Fire stuff just works and I don't have to give a single thought to it, so I just live with the other aspects.

#22

Last year Roku had an update that borked a lot of things and pretty much made it unusable for many. The support threads I read actually got shut down because the things broken were so numerous. Went searching because people were so quick to whine about how bad tivo sucked, Yada Yada Yada. There isn't one company and one device that's hasn't had issues at launch (this is still a new product) or released a bad update that screed things up to a decent degree, even as a mature device. Heck, Apple crippled phones with old batteries, Samsung designed a toasty Note and has broken things in firmware updates quite a few times. No mfg is immune from screw ups and mishaps.

Actually just signed up to beta test the TS4k, so hopefully will be able to head off at the pass any future issues that could affect Channels users.

#23

I did too before the last update came out and was never given anything to test. Hopefully you have better luck with that.

I think the issue with Tivo and this device is the time that it is taking them to fix things, and the random things they are fixing. While the TS4K is a new device the platform is not, and I don't even think the SOC they are using is new. The stuff that was broken like remote functionality is stuff they've done for years.

In the examples you gave, Samsung paid dearly for the "toasty" Note. And they came back with another product that hit it out of the park. I bought a Note 8 right after launch and it was amazing... and essentially still is. Apple is Apple. They screw something up every once in a while, but they also are pretty quick usually to get things fixed when we are talking about bugs. The battery thing was as designed. And they also eventually paid dearly for it.

I still can't figure how Tivo is going to make money with the TS4K to justify them fixing and maintaining this device. They are all about subscription fees, or large upfront investments. This is neither, and also not a proprietary platform. If you are going to release a device that is the same platform that many competitors are using, the bar is a little higher that basic functions will work out of the box, like the remote for example.

#24

I believe the same way everyone else makes money, data mining. Plus they make money licensing out their software. Apparently cable companies are using this for their next Gen boxes and tivo will be driving them behind the scenes with an AndroidTV based box.

Their DVR side was never the big money maker, and I'm assuming why they seemed to have no interest giving us loyal dvr users a box that truly married the dvr and streaming.

We'll see about the beta thing. I just filled out the info yesterday. Will keep bugging tivopm on Reddit.

#25

tivopm is the one that invited me to beta test. No one knows if this person is really any official Tivo voice. For example, he's the one that said the lock out of developer mode was an accident, and everyone believes it. We will see, but hard to imagine Tivo would be OK with this informal online persona is communicating such an embarassing issue.

#26

Do you expect differently from tivo? I always consider us consumers to be an afterthought to them. If he is an official rep for them, I'm sure he just got tossed into it and is doing what he can.

And I also think the developer mode could've been intentional, and they just replied the way they did because they didn't expect the venom they received. Who knows. It's always a crap shoot with them.

And your screen name reminds me of the old forum site pdaphonehome. That's was about 12+ years ago.

#27

Small world... I was the creator of that site! Good times.

2 Likes
#28

Wish I had thought to look for this before I spent a day trying to figure out how I broke my TS4K so it couldn't play OTA channels suddenly...lol
And now today I try to go to developer mode AND I can't remember setting a darn pin...2 hours later after trying all kinds of pin numbers and factory resets I find reddit and this post and realize maybe I ain't as forgetful as I thought I was becoming...And still I can't make the darn things wifi work with my centurylink router for some reason...just connects/disconnects over and over. Everything else connects great...no issues...and when I take the TS4K to another house it connects fine...oh well...that's why I got a ethernet adaptor I guess. :joy:

1 Like
#29

10 posts were split to a new topic: PDA diversion