Tivo8k not working? Find the fault by what you hear, see or read

When Tivo8k misbehaves, the symptom tells you where to look before you touch a setting: silence on one channel, a picture freezing at the busiest hour and a refused login all have different causes. Pick what your eyes or ears report and follow that section in order.

Start from the symptom

Is Tivo8k down, or is it this screen? A two-minute test

1. Change channel. Try two neighbors in the same group and one from another country. If they play, jump to a single channel.
2. Change screen and connection together. Sign the login into a phone with Wi-Fi off. On a one-screen plan, stop the television first, or the phone will be refused.
3. Read the result. Phone fine, television not: our side works and the fault is in that room. The same message on both: see the sign-in messages. Nothing anywhere, no message: possibly ours, so send support the time.

What you hear: sound and subtitle faults

Voices arrive before or after the lips move

• Every channel, by the same amount: the room adds the delay. Motion smoothing holds the picture back; soundbars, receivers and Bluetooth headphones hold the sound back. Turn off motion smoothing, then look for an AV sync or audio delay setting.
• One channel, every time: the offset is probably in that feed. Leave your settings alone and send support the channel and the time.
• One film only: some players, VLC among them, can nudge the audio by fractions of a second. Otherwise report the title.

A picture with no sound on one channel

1. Open the audio menu during playback and choose another track; the first one listed is sometimes empty.
2. Try the HD or FHD copy of the channel, which may carry a different sound format.
3. Set the device's audio output to PCM or stereo for a minute. Sound returning means your television or soundbar could not decode the surround format; an output setting that matches your equipment fixes it.
4. Silent on every device: report the channel.

Surround that arrives as stereo is covered in our soundbar setup guide.

A dub when you wanted the original, or the wrong commentary

• Live channels mostly carry the one language their broadcaster chose. Another country's channel showing the same event may carry the commentary you want.
• Films and series either hold several tracks in one file or appear as separate original and dubbed entries. One track in the menu? Look for the other entry.
• Roku and many television apps play whichever track the feed lists first. A stick running IPTV Smarters Pro or TiviMate usually restores the menu.

Track codes and commentary choices are explained in the guide to switching audio language.

Subtitles absent, in the wrong language or out of step

• A live channel without subtitles is not an account fault: the broadcaster has to send them, and the player has to be able to draw them.
• Library titles carry the subtitle tracks they were supplied with; the subtitle list during playback shows which.
• Visible on the phone but not the television? Two different players, and the television one hides the control.
• Mistimed in every player: report the title and the minute. Mistimed in one player: look for its subtitle delay setting, which VLC and several others have.

Each player's subtitle switch is pictured in the subtitles guide.

What you see: picture and player faults

Buffering, freezing or a picture that keeps stepping down

1. Open the HD or FHD copy of the channel. Smooth in HD means 4K is more than the line can manage at the moment; what 4K asks of your line gives the numbers.
2. Wire the device to the router (a stick needs an Ethernet adapter for that), or use the 5 GHz band with the router in the same room.
3. Stop large downloads elsewhere: game updates, cloud backups, a laptop syncing photos.
4. Power the router and the device off at the wall for thirty seconds; standby is not a restart.
5. If the player offers hardware and software decoding, switch to the other.

One channel pausing on a wired connection while the rest play is a feed problem: note its name and the minute.

One channel black, missing or saying unavailable

Type part of its name into the player's search, since renamed channels change groups. Then reload the channel list (most players call this refreshing the playlist), open another quality copy if one exists, and compare with the Tivo8k channel list by country. Still dark, or apparently blocked where you live? Leave your network settings exactly as they are and send support the channel name, its group and the time. The reply says whether it moved, has a fault we are fixing, or is no longer carried.

A player that closes, hangs or shows an old list

Force stop it, unplug the device for a minute, and reopen. Next, clear the cache: Fire OS keeps that button under Manage Installed Applications (Settings, Applications), Android TV under Apps. Clearing data also removes the saved login. Still failing? Try the login in a different player; if that plays, reinstall the first. An "update" sent under our name is never genuine, as why there is no Tivo8k app explains.

What the screen says: messages and the guide

Login refused, expired or full

• "Invalid username or password": one character differs from the chat. Retype with the chat beside you, or paste where you can; watch for a capital the keyboard added, or a zero typed as the letter O.
• "Cannot connect" or "server not found": the server URL is missing its http:// start or its port number, or has a stray space at the end. Where each login field goes shows the boxes.
• "Account expired": the 24-hour trial or your term has ended, and plans never renew automatically. Tivo8k prices by term and screens show the options.
• "Maximum connections reached": more screens are playing than your plan allows, whether one, two, three or five. Stop one, or move to a bigger plan.
• Blank or blocked portal on a MAG box: the MAC address is not active yet, or a character was misread. Photograph the MAC sticker on the box and send it.

Guide empty, hours out, or no replay

• Empty after a first sign-in: listings arrive after the channels. Give it a few minutes, then update the guide; playlist-based players also want the guide link from the chat as their EPG source.
• Every listing hours out: set the device date, time and time zone to automatic, refresh the guide, and zero any guide offset in the player.
• Some channels send no listings and show only their name.
• No replay button: catch-up runs only on channels that offer it, inside players that support it. How Tivo8k catch-up works shows where to look.

Loading and time zones are covered in depth on the Tivo8k TV guide page.

What to send Tivo8k support

1. A photo of the screen, with any message on it.
2. The device by make and model, and the player with its version if shown.
3. The channel and group, or the film or episode, plus the time.
4. For a sound fault, the route the sound takes: television speakers, soundbar, receiver or headphones, and which HDMI port.
5. The checks on this page you have already done.

Support answers on WhatsApp at +1 917 793 9264, day and night, in the chat that holds your login. When the fault is ours we say so, and if we cannot get it playing on your device in the first 7 days, the Tivo8k refund policy covers it.

Step-by-step Tivo8k fixes