Last month I bought a new Philips DirecTV TiVO DVR here on Weaknees. I actually was shipped a bad unit and you swapped it out.

Everything has been working fine until this past weekend. I'm starting to get pixellation again (the reason I needed a new unit). Does this always mean the tuner is failing?

We did have horrible winter weather this past weekend. I'm not sure if there is a build up of ice on the dish. I should have checked that, but now it is midnight. Could that be a cause of the pixellation and audio drop? I am not getting a message that the receiver has lost satellite reception.

I have a dual LNB dish with both lines coming into my attic and into an unpowered multiswitch. I then run from the multiswitch downstairs to my family room and the TiVo; another line goes to the bedroom and an OLD RCA DirecTV receiver. No problems with that one. My question here is: Could the fact the multiswitch is in a very cold attic be the cause of the pixellation?

I'm just trying to avoid sending the unit back. The last time I didn't have the TiVo for two weeks. I also don't want to fight with DirecTV again over the access card if, for some reason, I'm sent a new unit.

Please help. It's been a rough couple of days with my wife telling me we should have just switched to Verizon FIOS instead of buying a new TiVO unit.

Frankly, if Weaknees had a more liberal return policy I'd probably just ship the unit back and call Verizon, but you don't and I'm not willing to pay $289 to use a DirecTV TiVo unit for a month.