# Tivo Rolling Out TE3 Software Upgrade 20.7.4d.RC13



## SteveD (Oct 22, 2002)

During one of my many daily manual connections, Tivo downloaded and updated the software on my TE3 Bolt from 20.7.4d.RC8 to 20.7.4d.RC13.
Again, I'm not sure what if anything was fixed or changed.


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## kdmorse (Jan 29, 2001)

I just did a quick connection, and my Roamio Pro just updated from RC8 to RC13 as well. So whatever is in it, Roamio's are getting it as well. It was a *very* quick update.


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## gor88 (Jan 3, 2008)

Got the update on my Roamio OTA Series 5 this afternoon. At first glance, I don't see any noticeable difference. Too bad the new TiVo corporation doesn't publish release notes like they used to...


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## Larsenv (Jun 8, 2020)

Thanks for the heads up. I just tried making a few manual calls to the TiVo Service on my Premiere (TCD746320) and haven't received any updates. Still on version RC8.


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## jlb (Dec 13, 2001)

Just checked my Bolt and it was pending restart. Did that and updated. Can't notice anything. I am sure it's just my crazy brain but it felt a wee bit snappier.


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

My TE3 Bolt and Roamio both were Pending Restart this morning, and ended up going from RC8 to RC13 after the restart. No idea if there's any changes. Looks the same to me.



jlb said:


> I am sure it's just my crazy brain but it felt a wee bit snappier.


Before this morning, when was the last time you restarted?  Maybe it's just the reboot that helped -- I know it does for my PCs and phone.


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## SteveD (Oct 22, 2002)

My Roamio Plus was "Pending Restart" this morning, and I forced a connection on my Roamio Pro, so both have now updated to RC13.
Still haven't noticed any changes.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

I think this is a change: In 1P manager, if you move right on a program, there is a large thumbnail above the options.


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## samccfl99 (Sep 7, 2013)

JoeKustra said:


> I think this is a change: In 1P manager, if you move right on a program, there is a large thumbnail above the options.


HEY! There You Are (I haven't been here for a long time)...LOL. I usually keep a good record of the updates, but the last one I had in my log was 4b.RC3 on 11-19-2019, but I actually have 4d.RC8. IDK what happened. Do you know when that one was released, Joe? I was going to do a connect because the stupid guide did not have info for Bill Maher tonight and I saw the update (I was shocked, but Not excited or hopeful). I can't reboot it till around 1 am..it's busy...LOL. Is this a long update or a short one?

Hope you are well and got your shots, Despite "our" "governor"!!! I got my 2nd last week. I am 65. Weird, I Never get a flu shot, but I got this one. No side effects with the Phizer one.

OK, take care Joe and be safe and well.


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

samccfl99 said:


> Is this a long update or a short one?


Super short. The restart on my Bolt and Roamio seemed to take as long as just a normal restart without an update. Going from RC8 to RC13.


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## SteveD (Oct 22, 2002)

samccfl99 said:


> HEY! There You Are (I haven't been here for a long time)...LOL. I usually keep a good record of the updates, but the last one I had in my log was 4b.RC3 on 11-19-2019, but I actually have 4d.RC8. IDK what happened. Do you know when that one was released, Joe? I was going to do a connect because the stupid guide did not have info for Bill Maher tonight and I saw the update (I was shocked, but Not excited or hopeful). I can't reboot it till around 1 am..it's busy...LOL. Is this a long update or a short one?
> 
> Hope you are well and got your shots, Despite "our" "governor"!!! I got my 2nd last week. I am 65. Weird, I Never get a flu shot, but I got this one. No side effects with the Phizer one.
> 
> OK, take care Joe and be safe and well.


RC8 was released around 01-20-2021.


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## samccfl99 (Sep 7, 2013)

SteveD said:


> RC8 was released around 01-20-2021.


Really? I did not even notice..LOL. LONG LIVE TE3 (I always wanted some of the features in TE4, BUT NAW! NO TRUST!).

Thanks for the info!


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

Was wondering why my guide is out of date and noticed my Roamio Pro was pending restart, so I rebooted it. It was done in about 3 minutes. 

I haven’t watched an update in a long time, so I don’t know how they work these days, but there was no additional reboot as part of the process. Just one and done.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

There are more changes to the 1P manager. Seasons of Manifest now lists "2019,2020 and 2021". The new L&O doesn't display Season 1, only Year 1". These may change.


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## SteveD (Oct 22, 2002)

A *major fix* in this release is that you can now correctly connect to a TE3 box that is in standby from another Tivo. I also noticed that the Tivo App also connects again to a Tivo that is in standby.
I tested this connecting to a Roamio Plus and a Roamio Pro from both my Bolt and Android App.
We've been waiting for this fix since 2018! I hope it sticks around for a while.


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## reneg (Jun 19, 2002)

My Roamio & Bolt updated. My Premiere is still on RC8.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

SteveD said:


> A *major fix* in this release is that you can now correctly connect to a TE3 box that is in standby from another Tivo. I also noticed that the Tivo App also connects again to a Tivo that is in standby.
> I tested this connecting to a Roamio Plus and a Roamio Pro from both my Bolt and Android App.
> We've been waiting for this fix since 2018! I hope it sticks around for a while.


Will need to see if it resolves similar Mini issues when trying to connect to a host DVR in Standby mode.

Thanks for the heads-up.


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## jlb (Dec 13, 2001)

justen_m said:


> My TE3 Bolt and Roamio both were Pending Restart this morning, and ended up going from RC8 to RC13 after the restart. No idea if there's any changes. Looks the same to me.
> 
> Before this morning, when was the last time you restarted?  Maybe it's just the reboot that helped -- I know it does for my PCs and phone.


I rebooted a month or so ago when I was doing some rerouting of coax cables


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

JoeKustra said:


> There are more changes to the 1P manager. Seasons of Manifest now lists "2019,2020 and 2021". The new L&O doesn't display Season 1, only Year 1". These may change


I've seen this before with some shows on TE4. Horrible, IMO, I like seeing shows broken down by season, not year. With year some season 1 could be say 2019, some season 1 could be 2020. And so on. So 2019 could have season 1, 2020 some season 1 and some season 2, 2021 some season 2 and some season 3. Have seen this with some older shows too, from 60s, 70s, 80s etc. A total screw up IMO, why would they even consider doing that, majority of shows run in two years, start in fall, end in April/May whatever. When looking for a show where I recorded the entire series I am usually looking for an episode from a specific season. Have no idea what specific YEAR/years that season was. Was only TE4 before, if now migrating to TE3 bummer..........................


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

SteveD said:


> A *major fix* in this release is that you can now correctly connect to a TE3 box that is in standby from another Tivo. I also noticed that the Tivo App also connects again to a Tivo that is in standby.
> I tested this connecting to a Roamio Plus and a Roamio Pro from both my Bolt and Android App.
> We've been waiting for this fix since 2018! I hope it sticks around for a while.


Just curious, why put a Tivo into standby? I USED to, thinking there would be power saving. But tested with a kill-a-watt, almost no difference. So I stopped using it since it could cause issues like the one I guess they fixed with this update. Can't say if standby could increase drive life, it does not completely shut down the drive, some say it's better for the drive to leave it running "normally" at all times but again I can't say.


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## tim1724 (Jul 3, 2007)

tommage1 said:


> Just curious, why put a Tivo into standby?


A TiVo that's in standby won't have recordings interrupted by emergency alerts. That was my main reason.

Different cable companies implement emergency alerts differently, so not everyone will run into the problem of CableCards forcing tuners to the emergency broadcast channel.


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## morac (Mar 14, 2003)

tim1724 said:


> A TiVo that's in standby won't have recordings interrupted by emergency alerts. That was my main reason.
> 
> Different cable companies implement emergency alerts differently, so not everyone will run into the problem of CableCards forcing tuners to the emergency broadcast channel.


I have Comcast and they force a tuner change on an EAS message, but Tivo made some kind of change at some point so only the active tuner changes (rather than all tuners). The background tuners do not, so unless 6 shows are being recorded (which almost never happens), none of my recordings get interrupted.


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## humbb (Jan 27, 2014)

morac said:


> I have Comcast and they force a tuner change on an EAS message, but Tivo made some kind of change at some point so only the active tuner changes (rather than all tuners). The background tuners do not, so unless 6 shows are being recorded (which almost never happens), none of my recordings get interrupted.


Awesome, I didn't know that. I was wondering why my recordings never were EAS interrupted (although my live TV occasionally would). Yay TiVo ... brilliant!


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

humbb said:


> Awesome, I didn't know that. I was wondering why my recordings never were EAS interrupted (although my live TV occasionally would). Yay Comcast ... brilliant!


Yeah, I didn't know that either. I've never had a recording interrupted by EAS. I have been interrupted while watching a recording. It breaks to show the message, and when the message is over I am booted back to live TV, but then just resume watching the recording. I rarely have all 6 tuners recording.


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## tim1724 (Jul 3, 2007)

morac said:


> but Tivo made some kind of change at some point so only the active tuner changes (rather than all tuners).


Oh, cool. I've been in the habit of using Standby for so long that I never noticed the change. Before I used standby I had many recordings disrupted. And for several years I frequently had six tuners recording at once, so I'm sure standby saved at least a few recordings.


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

tim1724 said:


> A TiVo that's in standby won't have recordings interrupted by emergency alerts. That was my main reason.


That is very good info for me. I record entire series of some vintage shows. Can be hundreds in a series, and can literally take years to get them all. So if can avoid those EAS messages would be great, in many cases I would not even know for quite awhile, when I get around to watching those series (watching Laramie right now, 120 or so to go.) Gunsmoke has the most episodes of any series I have recorded, over 600, 20 seasons. Though technically the first 6 or 7 seasons were originally called "Marshal Dillon" and were 1/2 hour vs 1 hour for actual Gunsmoke episodes. May go back to standby as long as it doesn't cause any other issues.


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## reneg (Jun 19, 2002)

reneg said:


> My Roamio & Bolt updated. My Premiere is still on RC8.


My Premiere finally updated to RC13.


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## NorthAlabama (Apr 19, 2012)

reneg said:


> My Premiere finally updated to RC13.


so did mine, yesterday - it was a lengthy download, about 2:30, when the usual update is around 90 seconds. the update installed normally, but i couldn't tell it was any faster of an installation as mentioned upthread.

just glad it's done, and te3 is still being actively supported - it's the first bit of positive news out of tivo in a long while...


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## DVR_Dave (Apr 19, 2017)

It appears that captions changed from case text to all caps with this release.

Roamio Plus - TE3
Verizon FiOS


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

DVR_Dave said:


> It appears that captions changed from case text to all caps with this release.
> 
> Roamio Plus - TE3
> Verizon FiOS


Not for me. I'm watching Superman&Lois, CW Sparklight Cable, Boise, ch 1035, on my Roamio Plus, and checked out The Goldbergs, KIVITV Boise, ch 6-1, on my Bolt. Both 20.7.4d.RC13. Normal upper and lower case in the captions. Wonder why the difference?

Same for SEAL Team, Chopped, and from what I remember, Batwoman, Charmed, etc, that I've recorded and watched since getting RC13.


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## DVR_Dave (Apr 19, 2017)

justen_m said:


> Not for me. I'm watching Superman&Lois, CW Sparklight Cable, Boise, ch 1035, on my Roamio Plus, and checked out The Goldbergs, KIVITV Boise, ch 6-1, on my Bolt. Both 20.7.4d.RC13. Normal upper and lower case in the captions. Wonder why the difference?
> 
> Same for SEAL Team, Chopped, and from what I remember, Batwoman, Charmed, etc, that I've recorded and watched since getting RC13.


Thanks for responding. It looks like it's just certain channels that are upper case. I noticed the all upper case captions but didn't notice that some are still upper/lower case. 

So ...


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## Larsenv (Jun 8, 2020)

I'm not exactly sure when it did it, but my Premiere automatically updated to RC13.


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## DBrunetti (Dec 6, 2016)

Three TiVo Minis updated to RC13 early Friday morning.


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## jlb (Dec 13, 2001)

One thing I may have noticed....and I say may because it happened fast....

One thing that irks me is when I turn on my TV and there’s a TiVo message, that I read and say delete, but then when I go back to the menu it’s still there and then I have to go into the read menu and delete it for real. 

There was one message today about channel lineups and after reading that when I turned on the TV, it was gone for good.


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## SteveD (Oct 22, 2002)

jlb said:


> One thing I may have noticed....and I say may because it happened fast....
> 
> One thing that irks me is when I turn on my TV and there's a TiVo message, that I read and say delete, but then when I go back to the menu it's still there and then I have to go into the read menu and delete it for real.
> 
> There was one message today about channel lineups and after reading that when I turned on the TV, it was gone for good.


Yes, I just noticed that, too. They fixed the message delete, so when a message pops up and you delete it, it really is gone.
Before you had to still go into messages and delete the message again to actually clear it.
I'm glad to see they are finally getting around to fixing things they broke years ago.


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## jlb (Dec 13, 2001)

You said more succinctly than I did, LOL


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## tim1724 (Jul 3, 2007)

Oh good. That message bug has been really annoying the past couple of years.


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## kdmorse (Jan 29, 2001)

I'm really quite surprised that TE3 is picking up TE3 specific bugfixes. If my pet TE3 bug is ever fixed, I may have to buy a feinting couch.

* Wishlist folders sorted internally by Name (instead of by date), don't show up in the right place in the Now Playing list. They show up based on the date of whatever is alphabetically first, ie, the top of the list as sorted by Name.
** They sort correctly after a reboot. Then they sort incorrectly the next time the Now Playing list changes. 
*** Fools me every couple of updates. They Fixed It!... Wait... no they didn't...


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

tommage1 said:


> That is very good info for me. I record entire series of some vintage shows.


You do realize you're not seeing the entire show, right?

Especially for the very old shows you're recording, there's probably AT LEAST 10 minutes cut out of every episode for more commercials. (e.g. Star Trek episodes were ~51 minutes in the late 60s.. heck, this is forever ago now, but 'er' episodes were usually 43 minutes in the early 90s.. and current Young Sheldon episodes (half hour show I realize) are sometimes UNDER 20 minutes.)

You'd be better off buying the DVDs, or hopefully streaming services' versions would be the entire show.


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## NorthAlabama (Apr 19, 2012)

one of the advantages i appreciated when bbca re-aired star trek tos, is that each ep was on their schedule for 1:10 - they aired the eps uncut, like when i watched them as a kid.

i still keep the 1p, just in case they air them again.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

kdmorse said:


> *** Fools me every couple of updates. They Fixed It!... Wait... no they didn't...


feinting couch, indeed


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

NorthAlabama said:


> one of the advantages i appreciated when bbca re-aired star trek tos, is that each ep was on their schedule for 1:10 - they aired the eps uncut, like when i watched them as a kid.


Sci-Fi aired the uncut eps too (with tiny segments of new interview bits), but they added in commercial breaks in weird times. I still videotaped them (this was way back then). Nowadays I'd just buy the DVDs (err, I guess I have them all available on Paramount+)


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## jlb (Dec 13, 2001)

So I had previously posted about my upgrade to RC13 on my bolt and I didn't really see anything different. Well today I now don't see the menu/icons that would be at the top of the home screens


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## NorthAlabama (Apr 19, 2012)

jlb said:


> So I had previously posted about my upgrade to RC13 on my bolt and I didn't really see anything different. Well today I now don't see the menu/icons that would be at the top of the home screens


they've disappeared once on my pxl following an upgrade, too - unfortunately, they will likely return without intervention within a day or so.


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## jlb (Dec 13, 2001)

They have already reappeared...LOL

I’d really prefer not having them there and just have more real estate to use for the NPL and TDL, etc


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## NorthAlabama (Apr 19, 2012)

jlb said:


> They have already reappeared...LOL
> 
> I'd really prefer not having them there and just have more real estate to use for the NPL and TDL, etc


hah!  i have them narrowed to "my shows" and "top picks," much less annoying.


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## chiguy50 (Nov 9, 2009)

NorthAlabama said:


> hah!  i have them narrowed to "my shows" and "top picks," much less annoying.


I have always had all Discovery Bar list categories deselected, FWIW. Do you find that selecting only one or two culls the offerings better?


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

chiguy50 said:


> I have always had all Discovery Bar list categories deselected, FWIW. Do you find that selecting only one or two culls the offerings better?


Yes. I think deselecting them all is the same as selecting them all? I have just TopPicks, TiVoSuggestions and MyShows selected, and that is all that appears. I don't need/want any LiveTV or OnDemand.


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## NorthAlabama (Apr 19, 2012)

chiguy50 said:


> I have always had all Discovery Bar list categories deselected, FWIW. Do you find that selecting only one or two culls the offerings better?


yes, far less annoying, it's mostly my recordings that appear.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

I would pay (a tiny bit) for that stupid thing to go away.. (and would pay a tiny bit more for reliable episode #s)


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## jlb (Dec 13, 2001)

justen_m said:


> Yes. I think deselecting them all is the same as selecting them all? I have just TopPicks, TiVoSuggestions and MyShows selected, and that is all that appears. I don't need/want any LiveTV or OnDemand.


After deselecting all, do you need to reboot to remove what's there? I deselected and still it persists, at least some seem to....


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

krkaufman said:


> feinting couch, indeed


"feinting" rather than "fainting"? Was that a clever double entendre or just a spelling error?


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

mattack said:


> You do realize you're not seeing the entire show, right?
> 
> Especially for the very old shows you're recording, there's probably AT LEAST 10 minutes cut out of every episode for more commercials. (e.g. Star Trek episodes were ~51 minutes in the late 60s.. heck, this is forever ago now, but 'er' episodes were usually 43 minutes in the early 90s.. and current Young Sheldon episodes (half hour show I realize) are sometimes UNDER 20 minutes.)
> 
> You'd be better off buying the DVDs, or hopefully streaming services' versions would be the entire show.


Well some of the shows may be cut. For sure there are commercials. And some channels more than others. The "Virginian", they were 1.5 hour episodes (including commercials). On one channel the show is 1.5 hours so some may be cut for commercials or maybe not since the original had commercials also. But one channel they run 2 hours per episode. So 1/2 hour EXTRA commercials plus original amount of commercials. And even then some might be cut.

Yeah I know I can buy DVDs but it's more of a fun project for me. Plus a lot easier to access on the Tivos  I have all the Star Trek episodes (all series except the new pay ones on CBS) on Tivos. And I do have the first two series on DVD or VHS. So I could compare uncut to recordings with commercials for fun if I get bored


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

jlb said:


> After deselecting all, do you need to reboot to remove what's there? I deselected and still it persists, at least some seem to....


No reboot needed. Just ran a test. After changing selections and returning to TiVo Central, it took about 10 seconds for the Discovery Bar panels to update to match my changes. Deselecting them all seemed to give me ON CH XXXX NOW on all panels.


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## yesno (Jun 27, 2003)

New update today. 20.7.4d.RC15 Roamio OTA


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## NorthAlabama (Apr 19, 2012)

yesno said:


> New update today. 20.7.4d.RC15 Roamio OTA


new thread (for what it's worth)...

20.7.4d.rc15 (te3) | TiVoCommunity Forum


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## Chuck43 (Jun 1, 2017)

Can anyone send me the latest software release ISO for a Tivo Roamio Model #TCD846500? I am installing a new blank hard drive and for some reason, it's now stuck on Welcome! Starting up... It never did that until recently. If I can install an image onto the new hard drive, I am hoping that it will boot fine.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Chuck43 said:


> Can anyone send me the latest software release ISO for a Tivo Roamio Model #TCD846500? I am installing a new blank hard drive and for some reason, it's now stuck on Welcome! Starting up... It never did that until recently. If I can install an image onto the new hard drive, I am hoping that it will boot fine.


First, the "image" is in NVRAM on the motherboard. If you can connect the new drive to a PC, check that it is really blank.

I may get flack for this, but I have installed 4 drives in my Roamio boxes. I performed an NTFS, non-quick format on them and did not make them bootable. Same model Roamio and the drives are 1TB and three 3TB. What's the model of your new drive?

Software is only needed if you are going over 3TB.


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## Chuck43 (Jun 1, 2017)

The hard drive is a WD Purple 8TB drive. What I understand is that it should format the first 2TB (or is it 3TB). After that MFS tools CD is utilized to boot into Linux. I will format the drive to NTFS (and won't make it bootable) and see if the latest image is still in NVRAM. How are you formatting the drive? Through the command line, via disk manager or some other took? Do you initialize it with MBR or GPT?

I believe the battery inside the Roamio is dead. Will that make a difference keeping the image? I tried initializing it with GPT and I heard the hard drive come up but it just stays on the Welcome! Starting up... window. I will reformat with MBR and see what happens.

Much appreciated.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Chuck43 said:


> How are you formatting the drive? Through the command line, via disk manager or some other took? Do you initialize it with MBR or GPT?


I have a USB 3.0 cradle that windows sees as a normal drive. As to other items: no clue. Try the update forum: HDD upgrade in Tivo Roamio OTA 8TB? Help?


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## kpeters59 (Jun 19, 2007)

What specific model Hard Drive?

-KP


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## ClearToLand (Jul 10, 2001)

Chuck43 said:


> Can anyone send me the latest software release ISO for a Tivo Roamio Model #TCD846500? *I am installing a new blank hard drive and for some reason, it's now stuck on Welcome! Starting up*... It never did that until recently. If I can install an image onto the new hard drive, I am hoping that it will boot fine.


"_I may get flack for this..._"  but folks who don't know how to do their own proper research should not be attempting tasks for which they are (apparently) not qualified. You can't just swap *any* HDD into a TiVo and expect it to work.  The TiVo is a computer, just like a PC, and it expects certain conditions to be met before it will operate as designed (more in my next paragraph)...



JoeKustra said:


> First, the "image" is in NVRAM on the motherboard. If you can connect the new drive to a PC, *check that it is really blank*.
> 
> I may get flack for this, but I have installed 4 drives in my Roamio boxes. *I performed an NTFS, non-quick format on them and did not make them bootable.* Same model Roamio and the drives are 1TB and three 3TB. What's the model of your new drive?
> 
> Software is only needed if you are going over 3TB.


I can't understand what a Windows (or Mac, or 'some flavor of' Linux format has to do with preparing a HDD for use in a TiVo. And, I certainly cannot understand how folks can just take a HDD, or some RAM, (new or used) and think that they can just plug it into a device and expect it to work *WITHOUT* running some sort of diagnostics on it first.

I would never think of depending on new RAM in a PC without first running MEMTEST86+ on it for AT LEAST 24 hours. I would never think of depending on a new HDD in a PC (or TiVo) without first running Western Digital Data Life Guard Diagnostics on it (I use mainly WD HDDs; each vendor has their own diagnostic software):
Full surface READ
Full surface WRITE ZEROS
Full surface READ (again)


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