# New Roamios with clear QAM?



## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

The title says it all, will these work with clear QAM and no Cablecard?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Probably not. TiVo has never worked properly with clear QAM and I don't expect them to have changed that.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

I knew that but was hoping maybe the base model would have it since it supports atsc ota. A guy can dream can't he?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

The base model supports OTA or Cable, it does not support both. It only has one coax input and you have to pick OTA or Cable during setup.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Yeah I realize that, but I'm asking if when you select cable you can set it up without a Cablecard and use it with whatever clear qam signals you can pickup on your cable line.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I seriously doubt it. In the past you could setup a TiVo without a CableCARD and manually tune the QAM channels but you couldn't get any guide data for them so it wasn't very useful. The guide data is all keyed to the mapped channel numbers used by the CableCARD not the actual QAM channels.


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

If it does work without a cablecard, chances are it'd be the same as before and it wouldn't have guide data for the clear QAM channels.

Edit: what Dan said.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Yeah I remember that. I was hoping maybe it'd be like most PC QAM tuners and allow you to tell it which qam channel maps to each real channel manually.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

That's more of a software change. I doubt there is enough demand for that for TiVo to ever invest the development resources to add it.


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## bucm4sko24wle2mi (Aug 17, 2009)

HarperVision said:


> I was hoping maybe it'd be like most PC QAM tuners and allow you to tell it which qam channel maps to each real channel manually.


My thoughts exactly!


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## apw2607 (Nov 17, 2012)

Dan203 said:


> I seriously doubt it. In the past you could setup a TiVo without a CableCARD and manually tune the QAM channels but you couldn't get any guide data for them so it wasn't very useful. The guide data is all keyed to the mapped channel numbers used by the CableCARD not the actual QAM channels.


The new Roamio work exactly like that too. You get the channels fine but no mapping to actual channels means no channel data and everything else that's dependent on it, like what to watch now


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## alansh (Jan 3, 2003)

TiVo has decided that the way to map clear QAM is... install a cable card, which does it automatically.

Anything else means software development and support costs, and they just don't think it's something that will sell more TiVos.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

There was no logical reason to expect this in the Roamio, and there is no reason to expect it in any future model of TiVo, either.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

wmcbrine said:


> There was no logical reason to expect this in the Roamio, and there is no reason to expect it in any future model of TiVo, either.


On the other hand, you can do this.


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## jonnyfive (Jul 7, 2014)

So if I plug my TV straight into the wall, I get a bunch of channels (I'm assuming this is from the digital tuner in my TV??). However, I can't get my tivo connected because it won't work at all without a cablecard (I don't pay for any cable service, just COX internet). If I get one of the ebay cablecards, will I then be able to tune my tivo to all these same channels as my TV is getting?!


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

jonnyfive said:


> So if I plug my TV straight into the wall, I get a bunch of channels (I'm assuming this is from the digital tuner in my TV??). However, I can't get my tivo connected because it won't work at all without a cablecard (I don't pay for any cable service, just COX internet). If I get one of the ebay cablecards, will I then be able to tune my tivo to all these same channels as my TV is getting?!


Possibly.


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## Farplaner (Jun 9, 2014)

I just did this with FiOS. While waiting for the installer with the CableCard I was able to get clearQAM channels with the Roamio Plus. I just needed to do a channel scan.

Also iPad streaming didn't work directly. But I can do recording and them stream it manually.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

Farplaner said:


> I just did this with FiOS. While waiting for the installer with the CableCard I was able to get clearQAM channels with the Roamio Plus. I just needed to do a channel scan.


You can tune the channels without a card, but they won't be mapped to their correct numbers, so the guide data will be useless. (They also have a tendency to go missing after a while, requiring a rescan, at least with the non-TiVo tuners I've tried with Fios clear QAM.)


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## jonnyfive (Jul 7, 2014)

wmcbrine said:


> You can tune the channels without a card, but they won't be mapped to their correct numbers, so the guide data will be useless. (They also have a tendency to go missing after a while, requiring a rescan, at least with the non-TiVo tuners I've tried with Fios clear QAM.)


So with an ebay cablecard, it will add guide functionality?

I tried scanning channels back when I got the Roamio using the "add cablecard later" option. It found hundreds of channels, but after flipping through a bunch and none of them working, I figured they'd all be that way. Are you saying some of them do work?


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

jonnyfive said:


> So with an ebay cablecard, it will add guide functionality?
> 
> I tried scanning channels back when I got the Roamio using the "add cablecard later" option. It found hundreds of channels, but after flipping through a bunch and none of them working, I figured they'd all be that way. Are you saying some of them do work?


Of those hundreds of QAM channels you found, most (maybe all?) of them were encrypted, and therefore not *clear* QAM channels. Some cable companies do send through the local broadcast channels unencrypted (aka "in the clear"), so it is likely that if you had tuned to those channels they would have tuned properly.

A CableCard bought off ebay should do the channel mapping which will make the guide data functional, assuming that you have an active TiVo subscription.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

jonnyfive said:


> Are you saying some of them do work?


Yes. You don't have to scan, either.


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## jonnyfive (Jul 7, 2014)

wmcbrine said:


> Yes. You don't have to scan, either.


Man, I feel dumb. I KNEW it could work if I spent more time on it. Thanks for the help guys, I'll try it out again this week. My Mohu Leaf has really been getting worse lately for HD channel availability.

And yes, I have a tivo subscription; lifetime.


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