# Mini: "Can't watch live TV now" messages coming up lately



## marklyn

I'm starting to get these messages on my Tivo Mini as of late (within the last week or so).

The rest of the message says " Live TV is temporarily unavailable because the LivingRoom DVR is using a setting that requires all tuners.

I don't know about having changed any setting on my Roamio, so I don't know why this is now coming up occasionally.

I've tried rebooting the mini, no luck. It only takes rebooting the Roamio to 'fix' this issue.

The tuning adapter light is solid, so that's good and I am able to watch stuff on the Roamio without the error.

Anyone have any idea why I'm now starting to get this occasionally on the mini? Any troubleshooting tips?

Oh, and NOTHING in my Tivo configuration or network has changed in the last year. Nothing.


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## Diana Collins

How many recordings were running? The TiVo reserves one tuner for itself, and of course needs one for each simultaneous recording. So if there were 5 channels recording, you'll get that message.


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## marklyn

Diana Collins said:


> How many recordings were running? The TiVo reserves one tuner for itself, and of course needs one for each simultaneous recording. So if there were 5 channels recording, you'll get that message.


There is nothing recording on the roamio at the time this happens.


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## Diana Collins

Sounds like a Roamio problem then, particularly since a reboot solves it. It seems like the Roamio is not releasing tuners after a recording, so when the Mini asks for one, there are none available.

What do the front lights on the Roamio show? Are there any red lights (IOW, does the Roamio think it is recording)?

Another thing to check is DVR diagnostics - it shows you the status of your cablecard. Check how many tuners it thinks it has, and if they all show as active. Also look for problems at the end of the list for SDV.


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## marklyn

Diana Collins said:


> Sounds like a Roamio problem then, particularly since a reboot solves it. It seems like the Roamio is not releasing tuners after a recording, so when the Mini asks for one, there are none available.
> 
> What do the front lights on the Roamio show? Are there any red lights (IOW, does the Roamio think it is recording)?
> 
> Another thing to check is DVR diagnostics - it shows you the status of your cablecard. Check how many tuners it thinks it has, and if they all show as active. Also look for problems at the end of the list for SDV.


No lights are on the Roamio and I don't think it's a tuner issue because the second time this happened I turned on the Roamio and switched to all of the channels for which there are tuners.
Next time I'll check the status of my cable card.


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## Dan203

I've never heard of that message. In addition to the CableCARD you may want to check the Tuning Adapter if you have one. If it's connected and malfunctioning it can cause all sorts of strange tuning issues.


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## marklyn

Dan203 said:


> I've never heard of that message. In addition to the CableCARD you may want to check the Tuning Adapter if you have one. If it's connected and malfunctioning it can cause all sorts of strange tuning issues.


I've got my TA set to power cycle once per week but the next time this happens I'll cycle it then and see if that makes a difference. I guess I eliminated that since I can get on the Roamio right off and switch channels, etc, without any issues.


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## webcrawlr

I ad a similar error happen a couple times when I enabled power savings on the Roamio. Disabling power savings made it go away.


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## marklyn

webcrawlr said:


> I ad a similar error happen a couple times when I enabled power savings on the Roamio. Disabling power savings made it go away.


Thanks, I never had the power savings on.


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## pfiagra

See this thread for a possible solution:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=526388


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## marklyn

pfiagra said:


> See this thread for a possible solution:
> 
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=526388


The fix for this looked promising but I never get a V112 error, just the message I posted.


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## LISWNY

I'm having the same problem. It just started last week. Has anyone solved this yet?


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## stiles1337

Same issue here... Annoying.


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## jmeray

I have the same issue out of the blue. No tuners are being recorded on, None! Yet the mini complains that there are no tuners available for LIVE TV. I reboot the Roamio, and it works again, for a little while, then in the middle of watching a live TV show at 4:19pm Eastern, that popup came up again, and still, no tuners are being recorded on with the Roamio.

Was there some recent software update that is causing this?

My Roamio & Mini are ethernet connected with static IP's. (except for that 1 random dynamic 2nd IP address that the ROamio takes up, not sure why).

This was working fine for 10+ months, now, can't watch live TV.


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## dereksmall

I am having the same problem. 6 tunner Roamio Pro with 2 Tivo Minis. You can watch live TV few a few seconds to a few minutes on the Minis, but then you get the message that no tuners are available due to a setting on the Roamio. Also if you are watching or trying to record something on the Roamio, the screen goes blank for a few seconds every couple minutes. It's like something is cycling through all the tuners, taking each one over in turn. All this happens while the Roamio is NOT recording anything (no recordings and no red lights on the front of the Roamio). I've tried power cycling everything (Romio, Tuning adapter, Minis), even in different sequences. I've check network connections, and cable connections. I've even popped the cable card out and back in. Power cycling the Roamio fixes the problem for a little while (hours), but it always returns.


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## dereksmall

UPDATE: I called Tivo tech support. They believe the problem is related to a high signal-to-noise ratio. All 6 of my tuners were showing SNR values fluttering between 37 and 45 dB, with signal strength fluttering between 90-100% (in system settings> diagnostics, on the Tivo). I added a longer cable between my tuner box and my Tivo and the SNR has dropped below the maximum they recommended of 35. The signal strength is now around 77%. They had me reboot my Tivo while they were working with me which has cleared up the issue temporarily in the past, so I'll have to wait and see. The tunner box seemed to re-amplfy the signal because I had an amplifier upstream of the tuner box, but by-passing it made no diff in the signal strength seen by the Tivo. Tivo did caution me that this kind of problem is sometimes due to tuner hardware issues in the Tivo, but we'll see if the longer cable helps first.


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## dereksmall

Update: The longer cable didn't make a difference. The problem ended up being my Tuning Adapter from my Cable company. The TA was not communicating with he head-office correctly, which caused it to send a reset to the Tivo over the USB cable for each tunner on the Tivo. I by-passed the Tuning Adapter completely, and the problem went away. (BTW, don't forget to disconnect the USB cable too. I only bypassed the coax connection which did nothing to correct the problem because the TA was still sending a reset over the USB cable). After I got a new TA from the cable company (After Time Warner sent 2 different techs on 2 diff scheduled appts without one, I finally drove to their office and swapped it myself, thanks for nothing loosers.....)


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## krkaufman

dereksmall said:


> Update: ... The problem ended up being my Tuning Adapter from my Cable company.


Great info; thanks.

I'm curious... has your "DVR is using a setting that requires all tuners" issue remained fixed, with the replacement of your tuning adapter?


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## RadarLove

marklyn said:


> I've got my TA set to power cycle once per week but the next time this happens I'll cycle it then and see if that makes a difference. I guess I eliminated that since I can get on the Roamio right off and switch channels, etc, without any issues.


Realize this is an old thread, but how do you set the Tuning Adapter to power cycle? I've seen this same problem recently on my TiVo minis. Is this something you can set on the TiVo - can you connect directly to the Tuning Adapter?


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## fcfc2

You get one of those little AC outlet timers from a hardware store or online and program it to go off and on for 3AM or whenever it suits. Power cycle always means to do that, pull the power cord and plug it back in. The timer does it so it won't interfere with your watching or recording.


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## ohmark

dereksmall said:


> The problem ended up being my Tuning Adapter from my Cable company. The TA was not communicating with he head-office correctly, which caused it to send a reset to the Tivo over the USB cable for each tunner on the Tivo. I by-passed the Tuning Adapter completely, and the problem went away. (BTW, don't forget to disconnect the USB cable too. I only bypassed the coax connection which did nothing to correct the problem because the TA was still sending a reset over the USB cable).


Some 4 1/2 years later, you have my thanks (which you probably won't see). Identical problem;identical solution;pulled power plug on the Tuning adapter, and disconnected the usb connector. Now awaiting Spectrum to replace the tuning adapter. Note:have a Bolt+.


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## ldarbonne

Another two years later and I had the same issue. Unplugging the power and USB from the TA seemed to fix it. I plugged them both back in and it's working now. I'm hoping I don't have to replace it - and that this TA reset will fix the issue.


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