# Does playing a recorded show or streaming take a tuner?



## Kash76 (Jul 29, 2001)

Thanks


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Kash76 said:


> Thanks


Connecting to the host requires a tuner to watch live TV. Yes. Streaming, like Moviefone or Recordings - No.


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## Kash76 (Jul 29, 2001)

Got it


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

Moviefone? Huh?

If you use Xfinity on demand, that uses a tuner on the source DVR. Other streaming sources like Netflix or Amazon don't use a tuner.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

Correct, It doesn't keep the tuner if you are streaming a tivo recording. It absolutely uses a tuner if you are watching live tv - but that is it. As soon as you go to tivo central it releases the tuner. When you select something recorded, it transfers via MRS.


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## Kash76 (Jul 29, 2001)

Wonderful!


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## Gsxrguy750 (Mar 19, 2015)

Hello everyone. Sorry to beat a dead horse but does each tivo mini take up its own tuner then? If I have 3 tivo minis and each one is watching live tv, are 3 diff tuners being used, 1 for each mini? thanks


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

How else would it get live TV? The tuner is not needed for existing recordings.


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## Kash76 (Jul 29, 2001)

Gsxrguy750 said:


> Hello everyone. Sorry to beat a dead horse but does each tivo mini take up its own tuner then? If I have 3 tivo minis and each one is watching live tv, are 3 diff tuners being used, 1 for each mini? thanks


Correct. I was worried about the same but our family watches mostly previously recorded content. For us, it's not likely that we would have a problem. This of course would vary for each family.


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## BBHughes (Dec 26, 2006)

What if multiple minis are all watching the same live channel at the same time? I'm guessing each one still uses its own tuner but it would be cool if they made it so they would share one in that instance and only use more if one of them changed the channel to a different channel.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

BBHughes said:


> What if multiple minis are all watching the same live channel at the same time? I'm guessing each one still uses its own tuner but it would be cool if they made it so they would share one in that instance and only use more if one of them changed the channel to a different channel.


What would happen if one user hit rewind? Or changed the channel?

That's why each Mini gets its own tuner.


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## BBHughes (Dec 26, 2006)

Arcady said:


> What would happen if one user hit rewind? Or changed the channel?
> 
> That's why each Mini gets its own tuner.


Seems like neither of those issues would be a problem. If both are watching the same live channel they both should have access to the buffer that the tivo has kept and should be able to rewind independently. Just as if two different minis were playing the same recorded show, they can rewind independently. And if one changes the channel, it should just assign a tuner for the one that changed the channel on the fly, if no tuner is available, it should then tell the user that. I think this would be ideal for someone using the OTA model or base Roamio with OTA. For the most part you've got 5 major networks, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and CW. So the chances of trying to watch more than 4 different live channels not matter how many minis you may have would be pretty low. Basically what I'm saying is anything watching the same channel should share a tuner, it should only get a tuner of its own when accessing a different channel and I don't think there is really any technical reason it couldn't be done.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

The Mini is viewing the output of the tuner's buffer. The buffer is stored on the host TiVo.


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