# Is anyone using a Mini cause you like it better than the Bolt?



## btann (Sep 17, 2016)

There are two things I like about the Mini that the Bolt doesn't offer: 1) the Mini makes zero noise (the Bolt's harddrive can make noise). 2) the Mini has a screen saver instead of reverting to Live TV like the Bolt does. I like being able to go to Tivo Central and have a screen saver activate INSTEAD of going to Live TV.

So I'm considering leaving the Bolt in the networking closet and using the Mini as my "main" Tivo device. Any thoughts? Anyone else doing this?


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## mark1958 (Feb 13, 2005)

btann said:


> There are two things I like about the Mini that the Bolt doesn't offer: 1) the Mini makes zero noise (the Bolt's harddrive can make noise). 2) the Mini has a screen saver instead of reverting to Live TV like the Bolt does. I like being able to go to Tivo Central and have a screen saver activate INSTEAD of going to Live TV.
> 
> So I'm considering leaving the Bolt in the networking closet and using the Mini as my "main" Tivo device. Any thoughts? Anyone else doing this?


Do you know that the Mini will not work without a base Tivo unit ??
And if I'm not mistaken you can silence the Bolt in the menu.


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## btann (Sep 17, 2016)

mark1958 said:


> Do you know that the Mini will not work without a base Tivo unit ??
> And if I'm not mistaken you can silence the Bolt in the menu.


As you can see in my original post: the Bolt will be in the networking closet (ie, connected and running but not attached to a TV).

What do you mean the Bolt can be silenced in the menu?


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

I think the poster is referring to the box's sound effects--the bloops, etc.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

btann said:


> As you can see in my original post: the Bolt will be in the networking closet (ie, connected and running but not attached to a TV).


Please check all menus first. You have no Channels on the Mini. If you have a small TV on the host your idea is fine.


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## btann (Sep 17, 2016)

JoeKustra said:


> Please check all menus first. You have no Channels on the Mini. If you have a small TV on the host your idea is fine.


I don't understand "no Channels on the Mini." The Mini can watch Live Tv and change channels, right?


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

btann said:


> I don't understand "no Channels on the Mini." The Mini can watch Live Tv and change channels, right?


No Channels MENU. So no ability to manage your channel list from the Mini. As Joe says, dig through the other settings menus on the Mini to see what else is unavailable.


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## btann (Sep 17, 2016)

mdavej said:


> No Channels MENU. So no ability to manage your channel list from the Mini. As Joe says, dig through the other settings menus on the Mini to see what else is unavailable.


Ah, thanks for pointing this out.



mdavej said:


> If you have a small TV on the host your idea is fine.


I'm thinking if I need to make a change or even get the cablecard up and running, I will attach a laptop computer via HDMI and use that display to see what I'm doing. That's the plan anyway, unless someone points out a flaw that I'm not seeing in that plan.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

mdavej said:


> No Channels MENU. So no ability to manage your channel list from the Mini. As Joe says, dig through the other settings menus on the Mini to see what else is unavailable.


1) The displayed streaming apps are controlled by the 'My Video Providers' screen on the host DVR.

2) Be aware of a long-standing bug where the channel list accessible on a Mini is constrained by what is set on the host DVR:


solutionsetc said:


> The Mini's guide is constrained by the settings on the Bolt. If the Bolt is set to 'all channels', I can successfully set the Mini's guide to all, my channels, or favorites. If the Bolt is set to 'my channels', I can successfully set the Mini's guide to 'my channels', or 'favorites', but not 'all'. If the Bolt is set to favorites, any setting on the Mini's guide shows only favorites.





btann said:


> I'm thinking if I need to make a change or even get the cablecard up and running, I will attach a laptop computer via HDMI and use that display to see what I'm doing. That's the plan anyway, unless someone points out a flaw that I'm not seeing in that plan.


I'm mostly interested in what video driver or package you're running on your laptop that enables video input/capture via the HDMI port. (Most laptops only have an HDMI "Out" port; your laptop also has a HDMI "In" port?)


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Yeah, laptops with HDMI INPUTS are practically nonexistent. A better plan would be a computer monitor.

There's another little quirk with Mini that may annoy you if you channel surf a lot. CH+/- goes through EVERY channel, not just those in your current favorites list. CH+/- on the Bolt would be constrained to the favorites list. And if you like to flip between all your live buffers, that's also not possible on Mini (mostly).


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## zarphlob (Sep 2, 2002)

mdavej said:


> And if you like to flip between all your live buffers, that's also not possible on Mini (mostly).


Can you expand on this?


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

zarphlob said:


> Can you expand on this?


On Roamio/Bolt, every press of LiveTV switches to another tuner, preserving the live buffer. Mini doesn't do this. If you switch tuners from a Mini, you lose the buffer and can't rewind. Sports fans and News junkies like multiple live buffers since they can switch among many live events and rewind/ffwd as desired without setting up any recordings. There is one exception on Mini for the current buffered tuner, but I don't remember the details.

Personally, I never do this. I just record what I want to watch.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Let's say the host has four tuners and therefore four buffers. Call them A, B, C and D.
Host user is watching channel A.
You hit Live TV button on the Mini, you will get one of the three remaining. Which one is not predictable past the first access after a restart. It will be B then.
You have the buffer from the selected tuner, let's say B.
You change to channel C - you get its buffer.
You change to channel D - you get its buffer.
This can be done forever as long as you stay on B, C, or D.
Change to channel E - no buffer. You now have your tuner and a buffer and you can't go back. Even if you select channel A you get a second tuner on channel A and start your own buffer. The channel you were on, B/C/D, is now on channel E. If you remember the channel you started with, you can select it and the host will go back to A/B/C/D, but the buffer will start at zero.

As you know, the buffer is 30 minutes. However, if you hit the red Record button after an hour, you will get at least 30 minutes and possible much more. It depends on the bit rate of the channel and how far you are into the show. That red button is program specific, not buffer specific.


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## btann (Sep 17, 2016)

Thanks for pointing all this stuff out, guys. I was not aware of all of it.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Good explanation. Another problem is, you won't have any idea what channels B, C and D are. So you'll go to channel E and lose all buffers right off the bat.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

mdavej said:


> Good explanation. Another problem is, you won't have any idea what channels B, C and D are. So you'll go to channel E and lose all buffers right off the bat.


Color me OCD. I check my tuners on the host first. Actually, I never follow the above procedure since I use my Mini in the morning while I eat breakfast. I hit Live TV and note the channel. When I'm done I go to that channel and put the Mini into Standby. I have one Roamio that is NBC, CBS and Comedy Central. The other box does everything else and I seldom use its TV. But I do have a Mini 10 feet from me, one in kitchen and two next door. It gives me the advantage of two different lineups since I never watch the same channels as my sister. It's really much simpler than it sounds.


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## scottchez (Dec 2, 2003)

CON- Mini does not work with Hulu. Bolt does. Known bug confirmed by Hulu. Been going on for half a year. See other threads. Search error 5003. Worst on Hulu produced shows with the comercial free account


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## zarphlob (Sep 2, 2002)

mdavej said:


> On Roamio/Bolt, every press of LiveTV switches to another tuner, preserving the live buffer. Mini doesn't do this. If you switch tuners from a Mini, you lose the buffer and can't rewind. Sports fans and News junkies like multiple live buffers since they can switch among many live events and rewind/ffwd as desired without setting up any recordings. There is one exception on Mini for the current buffered tuner, but I don't remember the details.
> 
> Personally, I never do this. I just record what I want to watch.


Thanks. I switch between buffers on my TiVo Premiere and TiVo HD, but I'm not certain it'll be a deal-breaker not having it. I'll have to figure out which is going to be my "primary" viewing room and put the Bolt there, in order to take advantage of the extended features.



scottchez said:


> CON- Mini does not work with Hulu. Bolt does. Known bug confirmed by Hulu. Been going on for half a year. See other threads. Search error 5003. Worst on Hulu produced shows with the comercial free account


Thanks. Not a Hulu subscriber but that has to be annoying.


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

I used to have my old Premiere in my bedroom to use as a poor man's mini talking to the new Roamio. Not only did the fan make noise, but when it decided to load updated software at 2 AM the fan would go to ultra-high speed and the front LEDs would start blinking bright enough to read by, waking me up thinking that Mars had attacked . I finally decided the no fan mini was a much better fit for the bedroom. The Premiere is now on the shelf as an emergency backup should the Roamio die.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

You also lose a tuner to the Bolt host. At all times, the Bolt keeps a live tuner for itself. That means if you have three recordings happening on a regular bolt, the mini can only watch streaming or recorded events. 

As for Hulu, I have no issues with Hulu on a mini.


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## jg123 (Mar 14, 2003)

The Netflix app on the mini is an older version than the one on the bolt. I kind of prefer the older version though, as the bolt version often starts playing an episode before I want it to (i.e. you don't have to select "play episode" on the bolt. It just starts playing whether you are ready or not). The mini doesn't do this yet.


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