# A little bummed with mini...



## lapdog12 (Dec 14, 2013)

I just got my mini and I have installed it in my living room. My base tivo is a roamio pro (in my bedroom). I got it so I could watch my recordings in the living room, which is great by the way.

But... The "live tv", I was expecting something different. I thought it was going to be more like a slingbox in a sense where not only could I watch my recordings I was hoping to be able to hit the left arrow button or info button and be able to scroll through all my tuners and switch between them as well.

Having just one tuner is just not enough. I really like flipping through different tuners while watching a few hockey games or tv shows at the same time. I was hoping I'd be able to do that with the mini, unfortunately you can not.

Does anyone know if this is a functionality that the mini could have if the software was updated? Is this something I should put in the "suggestions" section?

That's all, just saying this so that people who are thinking about getting a mini understands that it doesn't do this.


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## AdamNJ (Aug 22, 2013)

No you can't do what you are looking for. The mini is using only one tuner. In order for it to be able to see the others, that would mean it would need to be able to control them as well. While it might not apply to your situation, think about this from an implementation standpoint. What if you had someone watching channel 100 on the roamio. then you are watching channel 50 though the mini, now you switch to the tuner that has 100, now you pause the program, or change the channel. The person in the other room on the roamio now gets mad.

If you need multiple tuners on the second tv, then you will need to get a 'full box', and therefore pay a higher service fee.

You other option could be that if you don't need multiple tuners for bedroom viewing, switch the locations of the roamio and mini.


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## lapdog12 (Dec 14, 2013)

I know and I totally get it. since i'm the only one using this entire setup i was just hoping to have the full functionality of another box by using the mini (without it storing information)

I think I would have liked the option to use at least use two tuners to swap back and forth while i'm watching live tv in the living room.

I'm in an apartment with one other person and they don't use my set up at all. it's just in my room and i put the mini out into the living room for when i want to watch stuff of mine out there.

thanks for replying and giving me a more detailed understanding of how it works.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

FOr a person that watches a bunch of live TV, the Mini is not a good option. Instead of a Roamio Pro six tuner box and Mini, two Roamio Basics with four tuners each, would have served you better. The costs would have been somewhat similar. Although if you pay for cable cards that would be an extra monthly fee from you cable provider if they charge for them.


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## tatergator1 (Mar 27, 2008)

While not as straight-forward to switch tuners as doing it directly from the Roamio, one solution would be to initiate recordings of all the "live" shows you plan to toggle between and then go into the My Shows list of the mini to switch between shows.


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## lapdog12 (Dec 14, 2013)

tatergator1 said:


> While not as straight-forward to switch tuners as doing it directly from the Roamio, one solution would be to initiate recordings of all the "live" shows you plan to toggle between and then go into the My Shows list of the mini to switch between shows.


That's a great little workaround, i'll have to remember that. thanks!


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

It's more of a PITA solution to the problem. Since there are many extra steps involved. What TiVo should do is have the option to dedicate a number of tuners to the Mini for people that want to switch between tuners like a regular TiVo. That would certainly solve the issue.


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

lapdog12 said:


> Having just one tuner is just not enough. I really like flipping through different tuners while watching a few hockey games or tv shows at the same time. I was hoping I'd be able to do that with the mini, unfortunately you can not.


I really wish the Mini could also show and toggle between all available tuners. That would be a great feature.

I wish you could also release a tuner in use by a Mini from the DVR.


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## lapdog12 (Dec 14, 2013)

People should have the ability to customize it the way they want it. Hopefully over time they'll come up with something in the near future.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

They should at least let you switch between tuners that are recording stuff like you can on the main unit. I can't imagine trying to watch the earlier parts of March Madness on a Mini. It would be rather aggravating. It's relatively easy on the main unit, as you can switch between channels that are recording...


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

CoxInPHX said:


> I really wish the Mini could also show and toggle between all available tuners. That would be a great feature. I wish you could also release a tuner in use by a Mini from the DVR.


I take it you mean..... "I wish you could also release a tuner in use by a Mini from the (main/host) DVR (TiVo)."?


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

HarperVision said:


> I take it you mean..... "I wish you could also release a tuner in use by a Mini from the (main/host) DVR (TiVo)."?


I think that is what he means, and I too have often wished that I could "pull back" a tuner that is being used by a mini from the host DVR. There really should be a way to do this directly. The only way I have found to do this remotely from the host DVR is by setting more recordings that I have tuners available for.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Simple solution... Stop watching live TV.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

Dan203 said:


> Simple solution... Stop watching live TV.


Sports!!!


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

If you truly only care about what's live, and not the buffer, you can use the Enter button to jump back and forth between the last two channels you tuned. Or you could get two Minis and use them for PIP.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

Dan203 said:


> If you truly only care about what's live, and not the buffer, you can use the Enter button to jump back and forth between the last two channels you tuned. Or you could get two Minis and use them for PIP.


If you have a display that supports PIP...

The problem is, you then lose any trick play abilities like when you're on the main box, and you are recording the channels...


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