# Mini with 2 Tuner TiVo only



## berkshires (Feb 22, 2007)

Is there a reason tivo doesn't let the mini be associated with a 2 tuner tivo? The mini does everything with the Premiere2, but must have a Roamio or Premiere4 associated. Couldn't Tivo allow a mini to associate with a Premiere2 without access to liveTV, but have everything else?


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

They could, but they won't.


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## eaadams (Apr 25, 2000)

I'd buy a mini tommorow if they did. But j am more likely to buy a romeo this way.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

I think the general reason is that two tuners are not enough for an appropriate user experience. it may sound odd to you - because you have a Premiere and you would "accept" the limitations - but the overall experience would be diminished under that scenerio.


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## berkshires (Feb 22, 2007)

bradleys said:


> I think the general reason is that two tuners are not enough for an appropriate user experience. it may sound odd to you - because you have a Premiere and you would "accept" the limitations - but the overall experience would be diminished under that scenerio.


I agree with the idea that the 2 tuner set up is inadequate for allowing liveTV on a Mini, however allowing the mini to be used without liveTV on a two tuner setup is appealing...there is vast functionality available other than liveTV. TiVo from its inception, and even more so today, diminishes liveTV viewing and its value to the point that a large portion of its customers virtually never watch liveTV.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

berkshires said:


> I agree with the idea that the 2 tuner set up is inadequate for allowing liveTV on a Mini, however allowing the mini to be used without liveTV on a two tuner setup is appealing...there is vast functionality available other than liveTV. TiVo from its inception, and even more so today, diminishes liveTV viewing and its value to the point that a large portion of its customers virtually never watch liveTV.


Agreed, but then you have to deal with the user confusion... I suspect the decision to not allow mini setup against a 2 tuner TiVo is simply the "path of least resistance"

Now, rumors have it that TiVo is working on a stream based Roku / Fire style extender. If it truly is stream based, I would expect that to work in support of both the integrated and stand alone stream devices.

Maybe we will hear something during CES - I hope so.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

Priorities.


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## PCurry57 (Feb 27, 2012)

berkshires said:


> I agree with the idea that the 2 tuner set up is inadequate for allowing liveTV on a Mini, however allowing the mini to be used without liveTV on a two tuner setup is appealing...there is vast functionality available other than liveTV. TiVo from its inception, and even more so today, diminishes liveTV viewing and its value to the point that a large portion of its customers virtually never watch liveTV.


Agreed there are reports of successfully side loading the Android Tablet app on the Amazon Fire Stick using the game controller and with a TiVo Stream watching recorded programs on your TV.

The advantage is that this will work away from home also provided you have a Wi-Fi connection. The Fire Stick plus game controller is much cheaper than a Mini. Though it does require you have a Stream either a Roamio built in or stand alone.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Don't even need a game controller. There is an Android app you can load on a phone/tablet that acts like a mouse and allows you to use touch apps like the TiVo app. The experience for the whole setup isn't ideal, but it's OK. I'll definitely be using it next time I travel to get my TiVo recordings on the TV rather then having to watch them on my iPad.


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## berkshires (Feb 22, 2007)

Thank you for those interesting alternatives - emerging and future.


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## Series3Sub (Mar 14, 2010)

Yeah, only 2 tuners in the hands of Joe Blow and Joe Sixpack would make for those people kicking TiVo in the nuts and ranting about how bad the experience is and how "lame" the Mini is. A lot of companies choose to do this to ensure the best possible user experience. I can see a LOT of family fights using a Mini with only a 2 tuner TiVo as a host DVR.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

With the addition of dynamic tuner allocation there is really no excuse. Originally when you had to dedicate a tuner to the Mini it made sense, since even with 4 tuner units they only allowed you to allocate 2 tuners to Minis, thus leaving at least 2 for the host. However with dynamic tuner allocation you can borrow all but one of the tuners for Minis so a two tuner unit with 1 Mini would have the exact same user experience as a 4 tuner with 3 Minis or a 6 tuner with 5 Minis. There is really no reason they can't enable Minis to work with 2 tuner units now. They probably don't because they printed "compatible with units with four or more tuners" right on the box, and they don't want to go back on that.


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## Pacomartin (Jun 11, 2013)

berkshires said:


> The mini does everything with the Premiere2


Does the mini work with all three of these models? Are the tuner dynamically allocated?


TCD746320 (aka TiVo Premiere, 2010 model) 320 Gb
TCD746500 (aka TiVo Premiere, 2012 model) 500 Gb
TCD748000 (aka TiVo Premiere XL) Terabyte 

If I understand correctly when watching shows recorded on the hard disk, the mini does not engage either of the two tuners.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Mini needs a four tuner model, they all work. If there is a two tuner in the network, it can pull from that as well.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Pacomartin said:


> Does the mini work with all three of these models? Are the tuner dynamically allocated?
> 
> 
> TCD746320 (aka TiVo Premiere, 2010 model) 320 Gb
> ...


No. You wont even be able to set up the Mini if the only TiVo you have is one of those models. The only way to complete the initial setup is to have a 4 tuner TiVo for it to pair too on your network. After that you can select the 2 tuner unit from My Shows and then stream recordings from it to the Mini, but the Mini requires a 4 tuner unit to be it's primary host.


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