# Tuner Questions



## jangell2 (Jan 22, 2002)

I have some tuner questions. When I use the right arrow and up or down arrows I find 5 tuners, so I presume the tuner the Edge is currently on is not listed?

Some days I look at the 5 tuners and every single tuner is tuned to a station selected by my wife’s mini including the Edge’s tuner. If i have shut down my system and gone to bed, can the Mini use all the tuners, and why would it? I have a hard time believing the mini needed 5 or 6 tuners at once. This irritates me because I now have no buffer for my channel.

When I was a DTV customer (almost 20 years, I think) their tuners had a 90 minute buffer. The Tivo buffers are 30 minutes only. Have you ever wanted longer? I’ll watch CNN quite a bit and the 30 minute buffer doesn’t get me thru a day of fast forwarding thru CNN’s frequent commercials. I even submitted a request to expand at least one buffer. Do they implement user suggestions?

This is not a tuner question. I use a harmony remote to shut down my system at night. It is not designed to turn off the Edge. Usually, if I take notice, the green light is still on after shut down. Sometimes the next morning when I turn all on, the Tivo is in the off mode, the green light is off. I use the Tivo remote to turn the Tivo on and of course there’s no buffer.

Does something happen during the night to shut the Tivo off. Do system updates do that? I think this happens a little too often to be system updates.

Thanks.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

jangell2 said:


> I have some tuner questions. When I use the right arrow and up or down arrows I find 5 tuners, so I presume the tuner the Edge is currently on is not listed?
> Some days I look at the 5 tuners and every single tuner is tuned to a station selected by my wife's mini including the Edge's tuner. If i have shut down my system and gone to bed, can the Mini use all the tuners, and why would it? I have a hard time believing the mini needed 5 or 6 tuners at once. This irritates me because I now have no buffer for my channel.
> When I was a DTV customer (almost 20 years, I think) their tuners had a 90 minute buffer. The Tivo buffers are 30 minutes only. Have you ever wanted longer? I'll watch CNN quite a bit and the 30 minute buffer doesn't get me thru a day of fast forwarding thru CNN's frequent commercials. I even submitted a request to expand at least one buffer. Do they implement user suggestions?
> This is not a tuner question. I use a harmony remote to shut down my system at night. It is not designed to turn off the Edge. Usually, if I take notice, the green light is still on after shut down. Sometimes the next morning when I turn all on, the Tivo is in the off mode, the green light is off. I use the Tivo remote to turn the Tivo on and of course there's no buffer.
> ...


In reverse order. Check Menu, Settings, Remote Cable Card & Devices, Power Saving Settings. It saves little but does turn off the tuners and their buffers. Read the text on the upper right for more detail.
Green LED goes out during Standby (Power Saving).
Buffer rewind is always 30 minutes. If you decide to record the channel after 30 minutes you may get more content, depending on the bit-rate of the channel.
I never heard of a user suggestion being enabled.
Yes, the host is not shown when you view the tuners (except you see it while looking at the other tuners ).
A Mini will use an existing tuner if that tuner is on that channel. The buffer is not affected. But it will change that tuner's channel if needed and you lose the buffer.


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## jangell2 (Jan 22, 2002)

JoeKustra said:


> In reverse order. Check Menu, Settings, Remote Cable Card & Devices, Power Saving Settings. It saves little but does turn off the tuners and their buffers. Read the text on the upper right for more detail.
> Green LED goes out during Standby (Power Saving).
> Buffer rewind is always 30 minutes. If you decide to record the channel after 30 minutes you may get more content, depending on the bit-rate of the channel.
> I never heard of a user suggestion being enabled.
> ...


I think you misunderstood. I don't want to put the Tivo in standby, but sometimes it seems to go there. I wanted to know why. BTW, I have power saving off and I've never changed it. Does the HD keep on spinning in stand by?


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## XIBM (Mar 9, 2013)

Your harmony remote may be programmed to turn the TiVo off/standby, check your programming. If you want buffers the disk has to be spinning.


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## philco782 (Sep 28, 2014)

I've been a little over an hour into a movie, then decide to record it, and it started the recording at the beginning, so internally there is more then a 30 minute buffer, its just limiting the trickplay buffer to 30 minutes.


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## jangell2 (Jan 22, 2002)

Say I’m watching a tuner on my Edge and then go into the bedroom where my Mini is. Can I tell the Mini to watch the same Tuner as I used on the Edge and thusly be able to use the buffer that was built up on the Edge?

I’ve seen no way to do it. When I use the numeric buttons to go to the channel, sometimes I get the buffer, but most of the times I don’t.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

jangell2 said:


> Say I'm watching a tuner on my Edge and then go into the bedroom where my Mini is. Can I tell the Mini to watch the same Tuner as I used on the Edge and thusly be able to use the buffer that was built up on the Edge?
> I've seen no way to do it. When I use the numeric buttons to go to the channel, sometimes I get the buffer, but most of the times I don't.


No, but there's no law that prevents the host and Mini using two tuners & buffers on the same channel. That would be the reason you sometimes have a buffer.


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## jangell2 (Jan 22, 2002)

JoeKustra said:


> No, but there's no law that prevents the host and Mini using two tuners & buffers on the same channel. That would be the reason you sometimes have a buffer.


Your answer aligns with my experience. This seems like a software limitation and a significant one, IMHO. It shouldn't be a big deal to update the software to allow selecting a tuner.

From what I've seen on the forum, TiVo is not very responsive to customer requests. One person wrote that he'd never seen TiVo implement a customer suggestion. I've sent a suggestion in back when I first got the TiVo to increase the buffer length to 60 or 90 minutes. Nothing but crickets. When my TiVo fails, I won't get another TiVo, I'll go with Xfinity's DVR.


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## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

jangell2 said:


> When my TiVo fails, I won't get another TiVo, I'll go with Xfinity's DVR


Understandable in many ways. And I'm sure Xfinity will like that considering the prices they charge to rent equipment.


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## chiguy50 (Nov 9, 2009)

I am not a proponent of equipment rental of any kind, but in all fairness it should be pointed out that Comcast STB rental fees, when not included in the service charge, are pretty much in line with what you can expect to pay for monthly or yearly TiVo service. In fact, in some areas, an X1 DVR can cost as little as $5.00 p.m. as an add-on, although the typical charge in most areas under the Simple & Easy system is $7.50 for a STB w/cloud storage and $15 for a full-fledged 4K DVR, both including streaming app access (something which is woefully under-supported on TiVo DVRs). In still other areas, it can cost more depending on the amount of cloud storage selected.


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## jangell2 (Jan 22, 2002)

chiguy50 said:


> I am not a proponent of equipment rental of any kind, but in all fairness it should be pointed out that Comcast STB rental fees, when not included in the service charge, are pretty much in line with what you can expect to pay for monthly or yearly TiVo service. In fact, in some areas, an X1 DVR can cost as little as $5.00 p.m. as an add-on, although the typical charge in most areas under the Simple & Easy system is $7.50 for a STB w/cloud storage and $15 for a full-fledged 4K DVR, both including streaming app access (something which is woefully under-supported on TiVo DVRs). In still other areas, it can cost more depending on the amount of cloud storage selected.


We are currently paying over $15 monthly to TiVo. Per your info, depending what I want, I could save money or it would be a wash to use Xfinity's equipment. I don't want to come of as some sort of troll on a TiVo forum. I end this part of my discussion by saying I'll continue to use my TiVo because I paid big bucks for it and when circumstances require a decision, I've already made it.


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## PSU_Sudzi (Jun 4, 2015)

jangell2 said:


> Say I'm watching a tuner on my Edge and then go into the bedroom where my Mini is. Can I tell the Mini to watch the same Tuner as I used on the Edge and thusly be able to use the buffer that was built up on the Edge?
> 
> I've seen no way to do it. When I use the numeric buttons to go to the channel, sometimes I get the buffer, but most of the times I don't.


Yes you can, I do this all the time. If you have ESPN on a tuner on your Edge, and you want to watch that with the buffer on your Mini, change the Edge to another tuner. Do not change the channel though. Go into room with Mini and then select ESPN from the guide and you will have the channel buffer. It works every time.


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## jangell2 (Jan 22, 2002)

PSU_Sudzi said:


> Yes you can, I do this all the time. If you have ESPN on a tuner on your Edge, and you want to watch that with the buffer on your Mini, change the Edge to another tuner. Do not change the channel though. Go into room with Mini and then select ESPN from the guide and you will have the channel buffer. It works every time.


I tried it an it works. So the two TiVo's cannot share a tuner at the same time?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

jangell2 said:


> I tried it an it works. So the two TiVo's cannot share a tuner at the same time?


It's easy to check. Just check Diagnostics. All tuners and their channel assignment are displayed.


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## PSU_Sudzi (Jun 4, 2015)

jangell2 said:


> I tried it an it works. So the two TiVo's cannot share a tuner at the same time?


Correct. You can have two different tuners on the same channel but no sharing. I use the method above every day as I start a show in my living room and then head into another room to finish watching.

But beware! You may have many, many people here tell you that you are using your TiVo improperly by watching live TV and wanting to switch between locations, etc. Ignore them and use your equipment as you best see fit. Dare to be different.


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## pfiagra (Oct 13, 2014)

jangell2, you are using your TiVo improperly by watching live TV and wanting to switch between locations


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## mattyro7878 (Nov 27, 2014)

The TiVo police will take that tuner away if used improperly!


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