# OTA and Cable



## mlcarson (Dec 31, 2007)

I'd like to have both a Cable and an OTA Roamio but there's no good way of integrating them. The Mini locks itself to one Roamio so the only way I see of doing a bedroom + living room setup is with two mini's in the bedroom on two different TV inputs with one paired to the Cable source and one paired to the OTA source. The living room would then have two Roamio's each on different TV inputs. Is there a better way?


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

mlcarson said:


> I'd like to have both a Cable and an OTA Roamio but there's no good way of integrating them. The Mini locks itself to one Roamio so the only way I see of doing a bedroom + living room setup is with two mini's in the bedroom on two different TV inputs with one paired to the Cable source and one paired to the OTA source. The living room would then have two Roamio's each on different TV inputs. Is there a better way?


Hi,
Unusual problem, is it that the cable company does not provide local channels or are you just trying to make use of a spare OTA Roamio?


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## mlcarson (Dec 31, 2007)

The cable company doesn't supply all of the local channels. 
Ex:
Antenna TV
Retro TV
Heroes & Icons
Get TV
Weathernation
Tuff TV
REV'N
They just added Cozi TV but that was another they didn't provide until just two weeks ago.

It's also nice having the antenna as a backup for when Comcast has issues for the normal network channels.



fcfc2 said:


> Hi,
> Unusual problem, is it that the cable company does not provide local channels or are you just trying to make use of a spare OTA Roamio?


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## series5orpremier (Jul 6, 2013)

If everything is hard wired on your Ethernet network you can stream any recording from either Roamio using only one mini in the bedroom. Pair it to the cable Roamio so you can see the vast majority of your channels in a live guide, as well as manage/schedule recordings and watch live TV from your cable Roamio. You just have to manage/schedule your new OTA recordings/OnePasses from the living room, but if something is already recording or recorded on the OTA Roamio the same mini hosted by the cable Roamio can stream it to the bedroom.

I have the same setup except a Premier in the bedroom instead of a mini. I can't see either Roamio's live guide, nor manage neither Roamio's new recordings from the bedroom, but from the bedroom I can certainly watch and manage anything on either Roamio that has already recorded or is the process of recording.

That at least saves the cost of one mini.


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## mlcarson (Dec 31, 2007)

Everything is hardwired on my network via CAT5E cabling. I have a TivoHD that I could use too instead of a mini but it's getting old and doesn't stream so am thinking of just retiring it. For the few channels that are OTA only, I guess I can work without a guide and stream anything that I recorded OTA on the main unit. 

For Live TV, I can just connect the Antenna to the TV and use that as an input I guess. The Mini's are so cheap though that it was making sense to just use two.


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

mlcarson said:


> For Live TV, I can just connect the Antenna to the TV and use that as an input I guess. The Mini's are so cheap though that it was making sense to just use two.


If you want to use 2 then by all means use 2. It's your money.


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## mlcarson (Dec 31, 2007)

Just evaluating options and hoping somebody might have one that I haven't considered. I've not had a two Roamio environment and might be missing something. 


tarheelblue32 said:


> If you want to use 2 then by all means use 2. It's your money.


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## series5orpremier (Jul 6, 2013)

Yeah, if you're not cost sensitive and/or plan to spend a lot of time with your bedroom TV get two minis. 

I'm generally only in the bedroom during the late night OTA talk shows and have OnePasses for all of them as well as anything else I might want to watch, so I effectively watch live TV anyway by streaming the recording in progress. Plus in that time frame I have a tendency to fall asleep and don't feel like taking the time to do all of my schedule exploration and scheduling of new recordings.

So if you are a little cost sensitive or like me are in a semi-conscious state in the bedroom you could try it out with one mini at first and if not satisfied always get a second one.


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

mlcarson said:


> Just evaluating options and hoping somebody might have one that I haven't considered. I've not had a two Roamio environment and might be missing something.


Well I think your solution of using 2 Minis at the same TV would work the best for what you described that you want to do. If you do go that route though, you may want to get 1 of the old Minis and 1 of the new Minis so the remotes are easier to tell apart.


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## series5orpremier (Jul 6, 2013)

Yes, I actually have two minis as well as two Roamio's in the living room (where there are two TVs) and easily tell the remotes apart with cheap color coded stickers I bought at Wal-Mart.


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## ej42137 (Feb 16, 2014)

Minis aren't "locked" to a particular TiVo; it's only a little bit harder to change the mini from one TiVo to another than it is to change channels. And if you are watching recordings it doesn't matter which TiVo you are connected to, they stream just as well from either TiVo.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

ej42137 said:


> Minis aren't "locked" to a particular TiVo; it's only a little bit harder to change the mini from one TiVo to another than it is to change channels. And if you are watching recordings it doesn't matter which TiVo you are connected to, they stream just as well from either TiVo.


That's what I was going to suggest. Why have 2 minis when its super easy to just switch host Roamios on the one mini?


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Roamio basic/OTA can only do either OTA or cable and not both at the same time.

The last Tivo that can do both OTA and cable is the Premiere 2 tuner models.


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## mlcarson (Dec 31, 2007)

I'm well aware of that fact which is why I was suggesting a Tivo Roamio Plus for Cablecard and a Tivo Roamio Basic for OTA and then using Mini's to access both.

I currently have a TivoHD, a Tivo Roamio Plus, and a Tivo Mini. I just purchased a refurb Tivo Roamio Basic with lifetime to add to the collection. I may retire the TivoHD and get another Mini, or use the TivoHD in the bedroom as another OTA tuner, or just sell off the TivoHD and see if my existing mini meets my needs.



ThAbtO said:


> Roamio basic/OTA can only do either OTA or cable and not both at the same time.
> 
> The last Tivo that can do both OTA and cable is the Premiere 2 tuner models.


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## ncted (May 13, 2007)

Sorry if I missed this somehow, but why not put 1 Roamio in the Living Room and one in the Bedroom? They can stream to each other. Why do you need any Minis at all?


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

ThAbtO said:


> Roamio basic/OTA can only do either OTA or cable and not both at the same time. The last Tivo that can do both OTA and cable is the Premiere 2 tuner models.


Actually they can do both at the same time. The limiting factor is only having one RF coax input and some OTA and cable channel's frequencies overlapping and interfering.


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## series5orpremier (Jul 6, 2013)

ncted said:


> Sorry if I missed this somehow, but why not put 1 Roamio in the Living Room and one in the Bedroom? They can stream to each other. Why do you need any Minis at all?


Speaking for myself, the best TV is in the living room where I do 90% of the watching, so I want access to either live guide/to do list/one pass setup conveniently at my fingertips from the couch.


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## mlcarson (Dec 31, 2007)

OTA vs Cablecard. For Live TV, the channels available would not be the same and guide data would not be available for both. For content that's already recorded, the Mini works great. A Mini connected to the Roamio with the Cable Card gets me 90% of what I want since I can always connect the Antenna directly to the TV for Live OTA TV. The only thing missing then is the guide and the ability to select from the bedroom what to record.

Purchasing a basic Roamio when I already have a TivoHD that I could use for 2-tuner OTA was the hard decision. I could have put a cable card in that Tivo and also connected it to the antenna and had every channel available in the bedroom and also had the ability to transfer recordings from the Roamio. It just didn't have streaming, the cable card wouldn't be free, and it would have required running two coax connections to the bedroom. Seeing a Roamio at the summer sales price of $400 with lifetime service made the decision of retiring the TivoHD an easier one. Being able to browse the old TivoHD with the Mini and seeing the shows but not being able to play them because of the inability to stream was kind of the last straw.

I love the concept of the Mini. I just wish Tivo made it easier to do both CableCard and OTA at the same time with their new equipment.



ncted said:


> Sorry if I missed this somehow, but why not put 1 Roamio in the Living Room and one in the Bedroom? They can stream to each other. Why do you need any Minis at all?


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## UCLABB (May 29, 2012)

mlcarson said:


> OTA vs Cablecard. For Live TV, the channels available would not be the same and guide data would not be available for both. For content that's already recorded, the Mini works great. A Mini connected to the Roamio with the Cable Card gets me 90% of what I want since I can always connect the Antenna directly to the TV for Live OTA TV. The only thing missing then is the guide and the ability to select from the bedroom what to record.
> 
> Purchasing a basic Roamio when I already have a TivoHD that I could use for 2-tuner OTA was the hard decision. I could have put a cable card in that Tivo and also connected it to the antenna and had every channel available in the bedroom and also had the ability to transfer recordings from the Roamio. It just didn't have streaming, the cable card wouldn't be free, and it would have required running two coax connections to the bedroom. Seeing a Roamio at the summer sales price of $400 with lifetime service made the decision of retiring the TivoHD an easier one. Being able to browse the old TivoHD with the Mini and seeing the shows but not being able to play them because of the inability to stream was kind of the last straw.
> 
> I love the concept of the Mini. I just wish Tivo made it easier to do both CableCard and OTA at the same time with their new equipment.


Just out of curiosity, do you have the OTA in addition to cable because there are OTA channels that are not on your cable system? I found many sub channels and I think every broadcast channel, however obscure, in my cable lineup. Does yours not do that?


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## mlcarson (Dec 31, 2007)

No, see post 3. Comcast kind of sucks.



UCLABB said:


> Just out of curiosity, do you have the OTA in addition to cable because there are OTA channels that are not on your cable system? I found many sub channels and I think every broadcast channel, however obscure, in my cable lineup. Does yours not do that?


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

ej42137 said:


> *Minis aren't "locked" to a particular TiVo*; it's only a little bit harder to change the mini from one TiVo to another than it is to change channels. And if you are watching recordings it doesn't matter which TiVo you are connected to, they stream just as well from either TiVo.





HarperVision said:


> That's what I was going to suggest. Why have 2 minis when its super easy to just switch host Roamios on the one mini?


What these guys said. And switching a Mini between host DVRs isn't much more taxing than switching TV inputs. (edit: especially since you wouldn't then have to deal w/ multiple Mini remotes in the bedroom)



ncted said:


> Sorry if I missed this somehow, but *why not put 1 Roamio in the Living Room and one in the Bedroom?* They can stream to each other. Why do you need any Minis at all?


Assuming the bedroom DVR in your suggested scenario is a Roamio basic configured for OTA-only (per the OP's requirements)... you *could* stream recorded content from the living room's cable/CableCARD Roamio, but you'd be prevented from watching any live cable TV nor would you be able to watch Xfinity On Demand content in the bedroom.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

UCLABB said:


> Just out of curiosity, do you have the OTA in addition to cable because there are OTA channels that are not on your cable system? I found many sub channels and I think every broadcast channel, however obscure, in my cable lineup. Does yours not do that?


Answered in post #3.


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## mlcarson (Dec 31, 2007)

I haven't had a Mini with two Roamio's that it could connect to yet. I'll definitely give this a try when the second Roamio arrives.



krkaufman said:


> What these guys said. And switching a Mini between host DVRs isn't much more taxing than switching TV inputs. (edit: especially since you wouldn't then have to deal w/ multiple Mini remotes in the bedroom)


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

mlcarson said:


> I love the concept of the Mini. I just wish Tivo made it easier to do both CableCard and OTA at the same time with their new equipment.


Concur.


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## mlcarson (Dec 31, 2007)

Changing the DVR to watch via the settings menu on the Mini is better than another Mini. Thanks to those for suggesting this option.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

mlcarson said:


> I'd like to have both a Cable and an OTA Roamio but there's no good way of integrating them. The Mini locks itself to one Roamio so the only way I see of doing a bedroom + living room setup is with two mini's in the bedroom on two different TV inputs with one paired to the Cable source and one paired to the OTA source. The living room would then have two Roamio's each on different TV inputs. Is there a better way?


You can switch the host for the mini in just a few seconds. Then you can watch the channels from the other TiVo.


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## Wil (Sep 27, 2002)

UCLABB said:


> Just out of curiosity, do you have the OTA in addition to cable because there are OTA channels that are not on your cable system? I found many sub channels and I think every broadcast channel, however obscure, in my cable lineup. Does yours not do that?


In addition to the reason he stated, if you have good screens you might like to have the best possible picture and that's from direct OTA rather than the Cable-company-degraded version.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

The only reason to even change the host of the Mini is to watch live TV. For recordings you can access those on the Mini from either TiVo no matter which one is the host. But you can also easily change the host in literally a few seconds. I have done it between my Roamio Basic and my Roamio Pro.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

aaronwt said:


> The only reason to even change the host of the Mini is to watch live TV. For recordings you can access those on the Mini from either TiVo no matter which one is the host. But you can also easily change the host in literally a few seconds. I have done it between my Roamio Basic and my Roamio Pro.


Unless you have a mix of CableCARD & OTA DVRs, and have access to your cable provider's on-demand library through TiVo, in which case you'd need your Mini connected to a CableCARD TiVo to watch on-demand.

Also to setup recordings & OnePasses, manage the channel list, recover deleted shows, review ToDo, etc.


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