# Tivo Mini / Powerline problems



## jhnversion1 (Oct 25, 2013)

Hi Everyone, I figure I'd post here before calling Tivo Support and being asked to reboot my system over and over. I never had any problems using my Tivo Mini in my bedroom in my apartment. I recently moved to a new house and connected the Tivo Mini using an ethernet cable from a powerline adapter. As of last week, my Tivo stopped connecting to my roamio and keeps getting the following errors depending on where I go - C422 or V70. 

I've done my share of rebooting, forcing the connection to the TIVO servers, power cycling, changing the network configuration to a static IP to no avail. Hopefully someone can shed some light before I have to make the dreaded call to Tivo support. 

p.s I'd like to stay away from MoCA as I'm going to be moving soon and I don't want to spend money on a new solution. 

Thoughts?


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Try connecting a PC/laptop to that ethernet. Does it connect?


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## jhnversion1 (Oct 25, 2013)

Yep it works, I used to swap between my laptop to do work and the Tivo to watch TV. As of right now, it's permanently on the computer as I cannot get the mini to connect


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

jhnversion1 said:


> Hi Everyone, I figure I'd post here before calling Tivo Support and being asked to reboot my system over and over. I never had any problems using my Tivo Mini in my bedroom in my apartment. I recently moved to a new house and connected the Tivo Mini using an ethernet cable from a powerline adapter. As of last week, my Tivo stopped connecting to my roamio and keeps getting the following errors depending on where I go - C422 or V70.
> 
> I've done my share of rebooting, forcing the connection to the TIVO servers, power cycling, changing the network configuration to a static IP to no avail. Hopefully someone can shed some light before I have to make the dreaded call to Tivo support.
> 
> ...


Hi,
Even though you get a PC to connect, I suspect you may not be getting enough throughput to support the use of the powerline adapter. I suggest you use the pc not just to do an internet speed test but use software which will actually get the max network speed. You can get a free version here, http://www.totusoft.com/downloads.html 
Powerline adapters are very susceptible to the house wiring and anything else that happens to be on that circuit. 
If you results are not so good, consider either ethernet or MoCA.


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## jhnversion1 (Oct 25, 2013)

Would checking internet speed with speedtest.net suffice? I ran it and i hit speeds of approximately 25 Mbit/s


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

jhnversion1 said:


> Would checking internet speed with speedtest.net suffice? I ran it and i hit speeds of approximately 25 Mbit/s


Not at all. That measures the speed from your modem to the ISP. There is no way to test the link between the host and the Mini, which only needs to be at the most 20Mbps.

You said you didn't want to spend money so I haven't suggested to go wireless. Both my Roamio and Mini are wireless. But it's not cheap and you need a good environment and router.


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## jhnversion1 (Oct 25, 2013)

Would any speed below not cause the roamio to show up? I would think if it's slow the quality of streaming would be poor but the DVR would still show up no?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

jhnversion1 said:


> Would any speed below not cause the roamio to show up? I would think if it's slow the quality of streaming would be poor but the DVR would still show up no?


I'm not sure how to answer that. I thought your problem was the host to Mini problem. That's the baseline. If that doesn't work, then Amazon, Netflix, etc. will have the same issue only because the host gets the content from the internet then sends it on to the Mini. Actually, it will be worse since to feed a Mini, the host has to use some of its horsepower to send the content to the Mini. One Mini and one Roamio have the juice to work well. If you had more than one Mini or a Premiere trying to get content from the Roamio that would be an issue.

Forget the internet. Does the Mini have connection problems when playing recorded content? If true, then you can focus on why your powerline adapters are having a problem and ignore any internet issues.

I have poor power and everything is on a UPS. I am also very comfortable with wireless. My router is ugly but fast and I'm a single user. But I also may be moving and can't run Ethernet or Coax without doing damage. It wasn't easy to get solid, reliable connections. My router is in one room. My Mini is two rooms away. My Roamio is on a different floor. It has taken a while, but I have no mystery disconnects.


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## jhnversion1 (Oct 25, 2013)

so maybe streaming was the wrong word choice. I cannot seem to connect to the roamio, but I can connect to the internet no problem.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

jhnversion1 said:


> so maybe streaming was the wrong word choice. I cannot seem to connect to the roamio, but I can connect to the internet no problem.


OK! So, let's pretend you are connected to the Roamio via Ethernet or MoCA. Now, how does the Mini connect to the internet? I think it's a safe bet that the Roamio is doing the internet connection. While internet streaming does not need a tuner like "live" TV, it still needs the internal streaming ability of the Roamio to access that content, just like a recording.

I'm not really sure what all this means. Let's think about power. Your adapters used to work, now they are not working so good. In your breaker box, some are on the left and some are on the right. That's because your house gets 220VAC from the pole and it gets split with half to some outlets and half to the others. If I was having power problems I would try to insure my network is on the "same side" of the circuit box. Otherwise your signal has to travel out to the pole (or transformer) and get fed back. I'm sure you have large 220VAC breakers that need both sides of the feed. If the Roamio's power line adapter and the Mini's adapter are on different feeds, that may be your problem. Fixing it is beyond my pay grade.

Since I have no experience with power line adapters, I would suggest you make that call to TiVo. I might be missing something obvious. I could be completely wrong in my approach.


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