# Three tuners go to same channel



## montivette (Sep 7, 2006)

Every morning when I turn on Tivo three of the four tuners are on the identical channel. Last night they were on a channel which I had unchecked from channel list as I do not receive the channel. If I change them to be on unique channels stop watching Bolt and come back hours later they switch to the identical channel (not the same channel as before.) Seems like a random channel is chosen each night for all three tuners to tune in. Is this normal behavior? 

I would think preferred behavior would be for all tuners to be on the last channel they were tuned to. Even cooler would be allowing user to define default channels. For example you would wake up and they would be on fox, cbs, nbc and ABC so you could select channel and rewind 30 minutes to catch something you just missed. Or toggle back and forth to check news on each channel and rewind to traffic or weather. Having all default to same channel seems dumb to me.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Only if you plan on watching something live. The first thing I do when I go to a TiVo is to check the My SHows list for something to watch. I'm not going to be watching anything live so it doesn't matter what channel they are on. I know I use standby and when coming out of standby I've seen them on the same channel before and on different channels. But I haven't really paid much attention to it. The ROamio did that at one point. But they also will show up on the last channel used for each tuner when coming out of standby.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Do you have your Tivo automatically go into standby after a certain time? This was a pref added to the Roamios for example.. I presume it's still there in the Bolt.

After I wake my Tivo up, most of the tuners are set to the same channel.. (Possibly the last one that was on the active tuner.)


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

mattack said:


> Do you have your Tivo automatically go into standby after a certain time? This was a pref added to the Roamios for example.. I presume it's still there in the Bolt.
> 
> After I wake my Tivo up, most of the tuners are set to the same channel.. (Possibly the last one that was on the active tuner.)


I just put my Roamio into Standby. When I woke it up all tuners were on the channel I left them. The Time Since Tune Start was reset on each. The Time Since OOB Tune Start was not affected.

Only ways I can get all four tuners on the same channel is with a restart, power cycle or signal diagnostic. Even with a firmware update the restart uses my lowest checked channel. Having the tuners on an unchecked channel is very strange.


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## DaveLessnau (Nov 10, 2000)

On ours, the number of identically tuned channels varies. My wife says that almost always, two of the tuners will be tuned to the same channel. I just took a look a few minutes ago and, like the OP, three of the tuners were tuned to the same channel. I don't know how the Bolt manages that since, AFAIK, tuning to a channel that's already on a tuner will just switch tuners.

It sure is annoying.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

If you use Suggestions, this can happen. Unless your TiVo is rebooting (which will set the tuners to the same channel), there really isn't anything to worry about.


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## Player1138 (Oct 1, 2015)

Is there a way to manually set the tuners?

I could see myself using this during college football season.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

Player1138 said:


> Is there a way to manually set the tuners? I could see myself using this during college football season.


Switch to a tuner via info, select the tuner you want. Then change the channel. Go to next one. You can pick the game you want from the info pop up or via live tv button.

I used it a lot during the bowls.


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## bonscott87 (Oct 3, 2000)

My Bolt is always on the same channel I left it on, even days later, unless it used all 4 tuners to record stuff. I don't ever put it on standby and I have suggestions off.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Player1138 said:


> Is there a way to manually set the tuners?
> 
> I could see myself using this during college football season.


What Tony said is good. You can not manually set two tuners to the same channel. A Mini can cause that, as well as procedures I listed in a previous post ( # 4).


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## gespears (Aug 10, 2007)

I believe if you set recordings that overlap it will tune 2 tuners to the same channel.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

gespears said:


> I believe if you set recordings that overlap it will tune 2 tuners to the same channel.


That is true. If you have scheduled a recording for a program that you are watching, it will cause the same thing.


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## DaveLessnau (Nov 10, 2000)

gespears said:


> I believe if you set recordings that overlap it will tune 2 tuners to the same channel.


Yesterday afternoon, I turned on the TV and 3 of the Bolt's tuners were tuned to the same news channel. No recordings (planned or Suggested) done there in almost 12 hours (the wife's morning fix of "news"). They hadn't been tuned there a couple of hours previously. It's really annoying to have 4 tuners and not be able to take advantage of their buffers on the off-chance they were sitting on something good.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

DaveLessnau said:


> Yesterday afternoon, I turned on the TV and 3 of the Bolt's tuners were tuned to the same news channel. No recordings (planned or Suggested) done there in almost 12 hours (the wife's morning fix of "news"). They hadn't been tuned there a couple of hours previously. It's really annoying to have 4 tuners and not be able to take advantage of their buffers on the off-chance they were sitting on something good.


Since a restart can cause tuners to all be on the same channel, check the time on each tuner. If all have the same run time, you probably had a restart. If you have cable, the end of TiVo box Diagnostics has Time Since OOB Tune Start, which is how long the box has been running.


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## sm4194 (Jan 30, 2016)

Can someone let me know how on the Bolt how I can see what channels the tuners are currently on, and more importantly, which Mini's are currently using a tuner for live TV. I got my first message yesterday telling me all tuners were in use so I couldn't watch live TV and I wanted to figure out which Minis were using the 3 tuners.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

sm4194 said:


> Can someone let me know how on the Bolt how I can see what channels the tuners are currently on, and more importantly, which Mini's are currently using a tuner for live TV. I got my first message yesterday telling me all tuners were in use so I couldn't watch live TV and I wanted to figure out which Minis were using the 3 tuners.


Hit Info, then Down. The tuners and their assignments will display. You can move to one of the entries, hit Select and you will move to that tuner.

A tuner in use by a Mini will be dim and the Mini's name will be displayed.


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## DaveLessnau (Nov 10, 2000)

JoeKustra said:


> Since a restart can cause tuners to all be on the same channel, check the time on each tuner. If all have the same run time, you probably had a restart. If you have cable, the end of TiVo box Diagnostics has Time Since OOB Tune Start, which is how long the box has been running.


Nope. Not restart related. That OOB number shows the TiVo's been up for about 19 days. The TiVo's just being persnickety with its tuners.


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