# All you need is TiVo?



## zexel (Aug 4, 2012)

Tivo is a good DVR but as a streaming box it is a failure. My bolt will not stream anything on Youtube longer than fifteen minutes without locking up. It will not stream any 4K video on Amazon longer than 10 minutes. I have contacted Tivo support and all they offer as a fix is the same spiel every time. Remove app, add app back, restart box and so on and it doesn't help at all. I even got a replacement Bolt and it does the same thing. I also have a Roku and an Amazon Fire that play all the content perfectly, so it is not my internet connection. Has anyone had this problem and found a solution? If so please help me as Tivo support has been useless in this matter.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

No TiVo model has been as good a streaming box as Roku or Fire TV. There has been lots of discussion of this on these forums.


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## zexel (Aug 4, 2012)

dlfl said:


> No TiVo model has been as good a streaming box as Roku or Fire TV. There has been lots of discussion of this on these forums.


I understand it maybe not being as good but mine almost useless as a streaming device when it won't play a video longer than 15 minutes.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

zexel said:


> I understand it maybe not being as good but mine almost useless as a streaming device when it won't play a video longer than 15 minutes.


There is something wrong somewhere in your system (most likely something with your Bolt). Bolts generally work fine for streaming, while I don't watch many YouTube videos over 15 minutes, or have a 4K TV my Bolt has no problems with Amazon or Vudu Movies in 1080p, or streaming hour long shows via Plex channels.

Unfortunately I don't have any advise on what to do beyond calling TiVo support.


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## kazak99 (Feb 10, 2015)

zexel said:


> ...Youtube longer than fifteen minutes without locking up.


Same thing happens on my Tivo Bolt - 15 minutes in (on Youtube) and it freezes up. I don't do 4K so I can't comment on the Amazon issue.

There was another post on the Tivo Forum: YouTube Freezing After 15 min | TiVo Troubleshooting | TiVo Help Forums - but no resolve, just the same info you got from Tivo already.

Unfortunately, no solutions that I have found so far.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

kazak99 said:


> There was another post on the Tivo Forum: YouTube Freezing After 15 min | TiVo Troubleshooting | TiVo Help Forums - but no resolve, just the same info you got from Tivo already.


It's the same poster. I would not expect a lot of help from TiVo when being called useless on their home turf. But, like you, I seldom watch YouTube over 15 minutes, don't have Amazon 4k and I use a Roamio.


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## kazak99 (Feb 10, 2015)

JoeKustra said:


> It's the same poster.


Different, unless they are using 2 different names/accounts. Here is the OP's (zexel) post on the Tivo Forum: All you need is TiVo? | TiVo Troubleshooting | TiVo Help Forums


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

kazak99 said:


> Different, unless they are using 2 different names/accounts. Here is the OP's (zexel) post on the Tivo Forum: All you need is TiVo? | TiVo Troubleshooting | TiVo Help Forums


Same name, same post.

I should have said the OP here is the same OP there. What am I missing?


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## zexel (Aug 4, 2012)

JoeKustra said:


> Same name, same post.
> 
> I should have said the OP here is the same OP there. What am I missing?


Check the link from kazak99. Different poster. Also after four online chats and three phone calls to Tivo support with the same results each time, all they do is the same routine, remove app, add app, reboot, and then close the case as solved when it is not. I would call that useless. I posted in the forums hoping to get some help from actual Tivo users. By the way I thank the posters who actually responded to my post with the intention of helping.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

zexel said:


> I would call that useless.


No argument there. I'm glad that here you did get some feedback. TiVo support still has not responded to your post.

All you need is TiVo? | TiVo Troubleshooting | TiVo Help Forums

I see you received a response.


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## Gavroche (May 27, 2007)

kazak99 said:


> Same thing happens on my Tivo Bolt - 15 minutes in (on Youtube) and it freezes up. I don't do 4K so I can't comment on the Amazon issue.
> 
> There was another post on the Tivo Forum: YouTube Freezing After 15 min | TiVo Troubleshooting | TiVo Help Forums - but no resolve, just the same info you got from Tivo already.
> 
> Unfortunately, no solutions that I have found so far.


Same thing here. Longer YouTube videos lock up my bolt regardless of resolution. It's random tho... Sometimes it happens, sometimes not. I've never found a solution.

Sometimes I get the "loading" message forever and I can back out of it, and other times the picture freezes and it just locks up.

As others have stated, TiVo is not a good streaming solution if you rely on streaming heavily. Roku will give a much better and more issue-free experience.

I mostly just use Plex on my bolt though (as far as apps go) and I rarely have issues with that, though indeed it is much slower than it's Roku counterpart.

Bottom line is that if streaming is super important to you you would be served best by having a backup alternative such as Roku.

I understand that TiVo is marketed as a good streaming solution, but I don't know why.

This is just my own experience of course! Your mileage may vary!

Sent from my G8441 using Tapatalk


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## reds91185 (Jun 7, 2017)

My Bolt streams Netflix and Amazon just fine but YouTube freezes on me as well. I have the Apple TV hooked up specifically for YouTube and iTunes movies.


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

I think many Bolts are returned for the Youtube issue and the HDCP handshake issue and then just resold again as refurbished.


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## Dr_Zoidberg (Jan 4, 2004)

Yeah, this weekend, I was streaming YouTube videos while playing an online game, and I thought it was a bandwidth issue. I could pause the video, and it would eventually start streaming a few minutes later. I didn't consider it a problem, but I guess it is. Meanwhile, even though the TiVo interface to it seems a lot better, my Smart TV will do YouTube fine


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## AU Lax (Nov 30, 2017)

New to the forum and to Tivo. I have a Bolt (non-VOX) and 3 Mini's and have found the experience to be good. However, I have noticed that the streaming apps, and in my case Hulu, have issues with streaming. It seems to be after about 30 minutes or so into a "1 hour" show. For example, last night we watched the latest episode of This Is Us, at about 30-35 minutes in, the video began to stutter. I have found the only way to clear it, is by going back and re-starting the episode and then fast forwarding to were we left off. 

In my opinion, I think that this is a buffer issue within Tivo. I have an Apple TV (Gen 2) and an Amazon Fire Stick, and both do not have the same issue.

It would be interesting to know how others, who are experiencing this problem, have their Tivo's connected, either wired, wireless, or MoCA. I have all of my Tivo's using MoCA until I can get network drops pulled to each location. My Apple TV and Amazon Fire Stick are using WiFI


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## Kathryn Birstein (Dec 23, 2017)

zexel said:


> Tivo is a good DVR but as a streaming box it is a failure. My bolt will not stream anything on Youtube longer than fifteen minutes without locking up. It will not stream any 4K video on Amazon longer than 10 minutes. I have contacted Tivo support and all they offer as a fix is the same spiel every time. Remove app, add app back, restart box and so on and it doesn't help at all. I even got a replacement Bolt and it does the same thing. I also have a Roku and an Amazon Fire that play all the content perfectly, so it is not my internet connection. Has anyone had this problem and found a solution? If so please help me as Tivo support has been useless in this matter.


I totally agree. I have a TIVO Bolt and it locks up on Amazon Prime constantly and YouTube will only play for 15 minutes then it says LOADING and never starts back up again.

I'm going to get a ROKU Ultra today at BestBuy for streaming apps and remove them from TIVO. Roku has tons of apps now and if they work can cancel my cable. Is there any way I can then connect the Tivo to the ROKU so I can record the streaming content from the Roku? I'm paying for the content so I don't know why this shouldn't be possible. I would like to keep my investment in the TIVO!


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

Not possible to record streaming to Tivo from Roko or from Tivo Apps.


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## Kathryn Birstein (Dec 23, 2017)

Thanks Tony, guess I was getting to ambitious. . .


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