# Going from Bolt to Bolt VOX?



## treblah (Aug 22, 2005)

Hello,

I have a Bolt and two Mini's on TE3 using a Moca network in my house. My yearly subscription is about to renew and I was considering picking up one of the Weaknee's Bolt Vox with lifetime sub instead. I'm assuming we'll lose all of our recording/One passes/etc. which isn't that big of a concern. My main concern is the new Bolt running TE4 and not being able to downgrade. I've got little kids and a lovely wife who has absolutely no interest in learning a new UI.

Anyone done this before? Guessing I'll have to call Charter to get the Cablecard paired with the new unit? Any glaring issues I'm not considering?

Thanks!


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

treblah said:


> Hello,
> 
> I have a Bolt and two Mini's on TE3 using a Moca network in my house. My yearly subscription is about to renew and I was considering picking up one of the Weaknee's Bolt Vox with lifetime sub instead. I'm assuming we'll lose all of our recording/One passes/etc. which isn't that big of a concern. My main concern is the new Bolt running TE4 and not being able to downgrade. I've got little kids and a lovely wife who has absolutely no interest in learning a new UI.
> 
> ...


Hmm, well as far as I know you can still go from TE4 to TE3. Would lose all recordings on the TE4 device but since you are starting "fresh" with that one should be no issue? As for keeping current recordings etc, depends if you get the Vox before the subscription ends on your current Tivo. If you do, well if both on same acct could transfer non protected shows to the Vox. First step would be to switch the Vox to TE3. The you could actually directly copy/transfer the shows from your old Bolt to the Vox since both will be on TE3. And you should be able to backup season passes using Tivo online. Should not be a tough process, again assumes your old Bolt will still have service when the new one arrives, make sure both are on your acct, switch the Vox to TE3, then do direct transfers of shows you want to keep before subscription on old Bolt expires. You could probably backup season passes now with Tivo online.

Note, I have not switched a Tivo from TE4 to TE3 myself but have read it can be done fairly easily, Unless something has changed, and yes, Tivo is constantly changing things, not usually for the better................ Someone who has actually switched a device from TE4 to TE3 recently could chime in, would be helpful. Note, I do not say "downgrade" to TE3, yeah, I prefer TE3, for me TE3 is an upgrade from TE4, won't get into details 

Oh, I supposed you could backup recordings on your TE3 Bolt right now. To computer. Then can go from computer back to a TE3 device (once you get the Vox and switch it to TE3). Cannot go from computer back to a TE4 device (just one of the things I don't like about TE4). But better to go Tivo to Tivo if you will have time with current subscription and arrival date for the Vox.


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

Oh, if your current subscription will run out before you get the Vox you could always pay for one more month to give you more time to accomplish all this.


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## treblah (Aug 22, 2005)

Thank you for all the details I was unaware of. The new Bolt gets here Monday and the old Bolts service doesn’t end until mid February so I should have enough time to get it sorted. I’ve never had two Tivos connected at the same time before and I’ve never even looked at “Tivo online” so thank you for the ideas about being able to keep some of our shows and One passes! 

Cheers!


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

treblah said:


> Thank you for all the details I was unaware of. The new Bolt gets here Monday and the old Bolts service doesn't end until mid February so I should have enough time to get it sorted. I've never had two Tivos connected at the same time before and I've never even looked at "Tivo online" so thank you for the ideas about being able to keep some of our shows and One passes!
> 
> Cheers!


Good luck! Sounds like the key for you is getting TE3 on the new machine so that should be the first thing you try. There should be some threads here on how to do that. And moving the Vox to your account of course


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## Pokemon_Dad (Jan 19, 2008)

@treblah this is the main thread on rolling back from TE4 (Hydra) to TE3:

How to Rollback Hydra from Roamio and Mini's v1

I used those instructions with Bolts and v2 Minis. (I never let my Roamio Pro "upgrade", so it's still on TE3.) Beginning with this post there are confirmations and discussion regarding Bolt models.

pyTivo Desktop is another a way to transfer to or (with TE3) from a computer. I have used it to put videos of my kids and other content on our TiVos as well as transfer between them. But TiVo Online is much easier for simple transfers.


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

treblah said:


> Thank you for all the details I was unaware of. The new Bolt gets here Monday and the old Bolts service doesn't end until mid February so I should have enough time to get it sorted. I've never had two Tivos connected at the same time before and I've never even looked at "Tivo online" so thank you for the ideas about being able to keep some of our shows and One passes!
> 
> Cheers!


This might be fun for you. Once you get the new Vox fully setup with TE3, all the transfers, the minis and cable card you should still have some time left on your original Bolt. Maybe switch the ORIGINAL to TE4, just to see what it's like. Won't be able to record since the cable card will be in the new Vox however you could see how the menus work, watch some recordings etc. I definitely prefer TE3 but do have a couple Tivos on TE4 just to test and get used to it in case they ever totally can TE3. Resale value of a Bolt with no subscription is about nil but you could save the remote, the power brick and the hard drive for possible future use.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Once you have the new BOLT VOX running and active on your account, perhaps TiVo would agree to moving the Lifetime/All-In subscription between units … to save you the hassle of migrating? (May not be prudent, if the newer box has an active warranty and the older box not.)


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Re: recording transfers… Using color highlighting, KMTTG provides a quick way to identify shows that are copy-protected, and so won’t be eligible for transfer.

That said, any shows that are not transferred will still be viewable directly from the older box (via its video outputs) once the box’s service plan expires; you just won’t be able to stream or transfer any of those recordings once the old box is no longer on an active service plan.


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## treblah (Aug 22, 2005)

krkaufman said:


> Once you have the new BOLT VOX running and active on your account, perhaps TiVo would agree to moving the Lifetime/All-In subscription between units &#8230; to save you the hassle of migrating? (May not be prudent, if the newer box has an active warranty and the older box not.)


The old one is almost 6 years old now so the warranty has definitely expired, right? The new Bolt has six tuners vs. four we have now, so I'm definitely going to use the new one if I can get TE3 working on it. New model is getting delivered today so wish me luck.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Luck!!

Also, yes, old warranty is LONG since expired, even if you’d purchased an extended warranty. As for 6 vs 4 tuners, the only pro of the 4-tuner BOLT that you have is that it would be capable of tuning OTA were you to abandon cable (or cable abandon you). We were a (2x) 6-tuner Roamio Pro family w/ a 4-tuner Roamio for OTA-specific recording.


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## treblah (Aug 22, 2005)

Thank you everyone. Upgrading to the new Bolt was a great success.

If anyone is interested, I plugged the new Bolt into the old Bolt via Ethernet, went through guided setup, it was on TE4 so I immediately downgraded using the two thumbs/two rewind trick. Went through guided setup again now on TE3. Contacted TiVo support chat and got it moved to my account. Moved the One Passes over using TiVo online. Copied over everything we wanted to keep by starting the transfers on the new Bolt. That was the most time consuming part. Unplugged everything, swapped the cablecard, moved the TA and coax to the new Bolt and then rebooted. Called Charter and took maybe two minutes to give them the new Host/Data ID and get the new Bolt paired. Definitely the best/easiest interaction I’ve ever had with support. I did have to make the Minis “call home” so they could connect to the new Bolt. All in all, a couple hours well spent as long as Charter continues to support us for another couple years. 

Thanks again!


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Great to hear. Thanks for looping back and posting the success story; nice to see/hear good news on this front, nowadays.


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

treblah said:


> Thank you everyone. Upgrading to the new Bolt was a great success.
> 
> If anyone is interested, I plugged the new Bolt into the old Bolt via Ethernet, went through guided setup, it was on TE4 so I immediately downgraded using the two thumbs/two rewind trick. Went through guided setup again now on TE3. Contacted TiVo support chat and got it moved to my account. Moved the One Passes over using TiVo online. Copied over everything we wanted to keep by starting the transfers on the new Bolt. That was the most time consuming part. Unplugged everything, swapped the cablecard, moved the TA and coax to the new Bolt and then rebooted. Called Charter and took maybe two minutes to give them the new Host/Data ID and get the new Bolt paired. Definitely the best/easiest interaction I've ever had with support. I did have to make the Minis "call home" so they could connect to the new Bolt. All in all, a couple hours well spent as long as Charter continues to support us for another couple years.
> 
> Thanks again!


That's great, nice to hear went smoothly, even the cable card pairing. As I mentioned, might be fun the switch the old Bolt to TE4 while it still has a subscription. Just to play with, see what you think of TE4 (I don't like it much myself but some do). When subs runs out just keep remote, power brick and maybe remove the hard drive, the drive is probably still good.

I think the switch to TE4 is under apps, "get new experience".


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## treblah (Aug 22, 2005)

tommage1 said:


> That's great, nice to hear went smoothly, even the cable card pairing. As I mentioned, might be fun the switch the old Bolt to TE4 while it still has a subscription. Just to play with, see what you think of TE4 (I don't like it much myself but some do). When subs runs out just keep remote, power brick and maybe remove the hard drive, the drive is probably still good.
> 
> I think the switch to TE4 is under apps, "get new experience".


I tried out TE4 for fun on the old Bolt for about 15 minutes. Having to use the back button to navigate is a non-starter (who thought this was a good idea?). It was also hilarious for the Sports section of "Apps" to be completely empty. There's a joke in there somewhere re: Tivo's retail customers.

One last question, my old Bolt annual sub expires Feb. 17th. If I cancel it now will it still work normally until the 17th or is it cut off immediately?

If we can get another couple of years out of this new Bolt and TE3 I'll be happy and then will probably just go full YTTV/Hulu/Sling/etc. Thanks again for all the helpful posts!


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

treblah said:


> One last question, my old Bolt annual sub expires Feb. 17th. If I cancel it now will it still work normally until the 17th or is it cut off immediately?


I've never had monthly/yearly so can't answer for sure. I doubt you'd get any refund (for a month or so no biggie anyway) since you got a discount for yearly vs monthly. Only concern I would have is some auto renewal thing, that would be the reason to cancel it before 2/17. Maybe wait until 1st week in Feb to cancel, or now if you are comfortable with everything as is, ie will not need the old Bolt for anything. Can't record with it anyway since no cable card, though you could try OTA.

I don't think they let you remove a credit card from your acct. I was never comfortable with that. Since your "new" Vox has lifetime, credit card no longer needed. Only way I can think of to get rid of the Card would be to create a new Tivo acct. Move your current devices (none need Ccard) to the new acct. Then close the old acct. So you should end up with new acct and no credit card info out there (would not move your "old" Bolt to the new acct.) Your media access key would change since new acct, probably not an issue for you, mostly for someone who saved shows to computer with old media access key, could not transfer back.


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

Not your TSN, your media access key, sorry.


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## permanentpress (Oct 31, 2003)

When your subscription from the old Bolt dies, it won't be able to record new programs and your minis probably won't talk to it, I don't think that you'll be able to see shows on it from another TiVo ( but I've always bought lifetime so I don't know that one.)

However I can tell you from a friend's old expired Roamio that *everything* on *it will still play*. Because you're on T3 you can fill it up with anything copies from your existing bolt leave your favorite shows on it, grab some mpeg or MP4 files How many kids favorite movies or shows if you wanna rip DVDs with Handbrakeand transfer them with PyTivo or kmttg real quick, fill it up and put it on the kids TV and just tell them never to delete anything (if they do pull it out of recently deleted, With nothing recording do you want have a bunch of deletions pushing out the old stuff anyway). It's still a Digital video player&#8230;. Heck I put a bunch of home movies on mine when I still had version 3.


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