# Roamio OTA cable card slot?



## RonH

I guess this is disabled in software for the OTA model? Was surprised to find it during the unboxing and even more surprised that I was offered Cable OR Antenna during setup.


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## foghorn2

Its just in the common software.

But the guy who Envisions People who Play Harps (  ) here said his OTA had the pinouts for the cable card without the actual bracket.


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## Dan203

Yeah it's got a cover for a CableCARD slot and a pin adapter on the bottom where it looks like a bracket for the card should go, but no actual slot. I wonder if there is a way to buy a slip in bracket for the slot so that you could use it with a CableCARD?


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## HarperVision

foghorn2 said:


> Its just in the common software. But the guy who Envisions People who Play Harps (  ) here said his OTA had the pinouts for the cable card without the actual bracket.


Hey, I resemble that remark! 



Dan203 said:


> Yeah it's got a cover for a CableCARD slot and a pin adapter on the bottom where it looks like a bracket for the card should go, but no actual slot. I wonder if there is a way to buy a slip in bracket for the slot so that you could use it with a CableCARD?


Yes, it has the board connection. I tried ordering a bracket for it to test it out but I ordered the wrong thing and haven't pursued it any further since.

What led me to this is that I hooked up my Tuning Adapter from TWC and it popped up a message asking if I wanted to also setup my Roamio for cable broadcast as well. Of course the curious side of me said yes, so I did guided setup and it allowed me to have simultaneous cable and OTA (just like the experiment on my base Roamio), but of course it only has one RF coax input and no cablecard bracket.

The Roamio OTA is just a Roamio basic with its cablecard bracket ripped out and nice silk screened green "Roamio OTA" label on the front.


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## Dan203

Was the bracket you ordered something that would just plug into that pin connector on the bottom? Did you ever find the right part? 

P.S. I edited your post to fix your malformed color tag


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## telemark

Last I checked the motherboards are also different board Revisions, with the OTA being newer, rev G1.

I couldn't tell if that's just because theres new stock of Roamio OTA and old stock of Roamio Basic.


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## HarperVision

Dan203 said:


> Was the bracket you ordered something that would just plug into that pin connector on the bottom? Did you ever find the right part? P.S. I edited your post to fix your malformed color tag


As I said in the post, I haven't pursued it since. I thought I was ordering the whole bracket for a PCMCIA card, but I only got part of a metal bracket. The pictures on the site I ordered from showed the entire bracket though. Maybe I'll check into it further. I'll report if I do.

Thanks for fixing that color tag. Guess I didn't need the actual color again in the "/" part! I bet you're the one that put the kibosh on my Al Jazeera post too? You must eat that stuff up huh, haha?


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## Dan203

I found some pictures online of the CableCARD slot on both units and they are the same with the exception of the little bracket that the CableCARD actually plus into. The OTA has the pin connector for the bracket and the holes for the screws that hold it in place, so if we could actually find a source for the bracket we might be able to convert our OTAs to Basics.


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## HarperVision

telemark said:


> Last I checked the motherboards are also different board Revisions, with the OTA being newer, rev G1. I couldn't tell if that's just because theres new stock of Roamio OTA and old stock of Roamio Basic.


I'm going to go look at it again. It's been awhile.


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## HarperVision

Dan203 said:


> I found some pictures online of the CableCARD slot on both units and they are the same with the exception of the little bracket that the CableCARD actually plus into. The OTA has the pin connector for the bracket and the holes for the screws that hold it in place, so if we could actually find a source for the bracket we might be able to convert our OTAs to Basics.


That was EXACTLY my thoughts Dan! :up:

I was thinking I could start a little mod business for people with the OTA model. Maybe Weaknees can do it?


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## Dan203

HarperVision said:


> I bet you're the one that put the kibosh on my Al Jazeera post too? You must eat that stuff up huh, haha?


No idea what you're talking about here, but if it was a post deleted for actual content then it was likely Mike Lang. He's the one who mostly enforces the rules. I mainly use my mod powers to delete SPAM, move posts that are in the wrong forum and fix people's formatted vB tags.


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## HarperVision

Dan203 said:


> No idea what you're talking about here, but if it was a post deleted for actual content then it was likely Mike Lang. He's the one who mostly enforces the rules. I mainly use my mod powers to delete SPAM, move posts that are in the wrong forum and fix people's formatted vB tags.


Yeah that's cool. It probably needed to be "kiboshed", I was in quite a worked up state at the time I posted, although I still stand by what I believe.


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## Dan203

Shot Weaknees an email. If they respond I'll let you know what they say.


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## RonH

Thanks everyone. Silly me, I forgot there's only one coax input 

Yeah, that green label seems a little tacky. 

Given their intent/pricing with the OTA model, I'd expect them to lock down that slot. Maybe they don't really care though - they certainly hit it out of the park by allowing us to upgrade the Roamio so easily. That was just too good to be true. I wasn't even in the market for a Roamio until I stumble across the discussion here about how simple the upgrade process was.

I wonder if the newer motherboards got a speed bump of any kind - or is this unit just 'fresh'. The Web Video Hotlist seemed quicker on it - so the nausea of using it is reduced a bit . Or maybe it's because it's only at 20.4.6a.


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## Dan203

Weaknees said they looked into it once, but they never found a supplier for the CableCARD adapter. Doesn't sound like they put a ton of effort into looking though, so there may be someone out there that has them.

Anyone have a Roamio Basic that can open it up and look to see if there is a part number on that piece that we could use to track it down?


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## HarperVision

Dan203 said:


> Weaknees said they looked into it once, but they never found a supplier for the CableCARD adapter. Doesn't sound like they put a ton of effort into looking though, so there may be someone out there that has them. Anyone have a Roamio Basic that can open it up and look to see if there is a part number on that piece that we could use to track it down?


OK thanks. Maybe I'll look some more when I get the chance.


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## Dan203

I wonder if this would work?

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1PCS...face-connector-68P-1CA4A5AG1/32305349347.html


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## HarperVision

Dan203 said:


> I wonder if this would work? http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1PCS-Original-FORFoxconn-CARDBUS-G2-deck-CI-decoding-PCMCIA-interface-connector-68P-1CA4A5AG1/32305349347.html


Seems like it may! Of course the pictures of that look like the one I ordered and I only ended up getting that metal bracket part. 

It was only $8 so I didn't bother seeking any refunds, etc.

Who's going to bite the bullet and give it a go?


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## Dan203

I'm considering it, but I'm kinda afraid to fry my $300 lifetime OTA.


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## HarperVision

Dan203 said:


> I'm considering it, but I'm kinda afraid to fry my $300 lifetime OTA.


My OTA is just sitting there collecting dust with no service on it. I got it for $10 using My Best Buy rewards points, mainly for the remote, hard drive, etc as parts.

You buy the bracket and I'll risk the OTA and be the guinea pig?


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## Dan203

Nah, I'm mainly just curious. Not worth it just to try it. I don't really need another CableCARD device anyway


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## HarperVision

Dan203 said:


> Nah, I'm mainly just curious. Not worth it just to try it. I don't really need another CableCARD device anyway


That's cool. Maybe I'll pull the trigger. Maybe I should start a poll to see if there's any interest?


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## telemark

Since the time the OTA came out, I've tried locating this part 3 times, and gave up 3 times.

I have a lead on the manufacturer now but it's been removed from their catalog, not a positive sign.


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## reckless37

Hi-

I've purchase the connector/bracket previously listed...

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1PCS-...305349347.html

It will be within a couple weeks, so we'll see then...

- Marty


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## HarperVision

reckless37 said:


> Hi- I've purchase the connector/bracket previously listed... http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1PCS-...305349347.html It will be within a couple weeks, so we'll see then... - Marty


Very cool. Definitely keep us updated.

PS - I'm getting a 404 Page Not Found Error on your link.


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## lessd

RonH said:


> Thanks everyone. Silly me, I forgot there's only one coax input
> 
> Yeah, that green label seems a little tacky.
> 
> Given their intent/pricing with the OTA model, I'd expect them to lock down that slot. Maybe they don't really care though - they certainly hit it out of the park by allowing us to upgrade the Roamio so easily. That was just too good to be true. I wasn't even in the market for a Roamio until I stumble across the discussion here about how simple the upgrade process was.
> 
> I wonder if the newer motherboards got a speed bump of any kind - or is this unit just 'fresh'. The Web Video Hotlist seemed quicker on it - so the nausea of using it is reduced a bit . Or maybe it's because it's only at 20.4.6a.


I though the tuner for OTA is different than QAM, do we know if the OTA Roamio has a QAM tuner as does the basic cable card Roamio. ??


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## Dan203

lessd said:


> I though the tuner for OTA is different than QAM, do we know if the OTA Roamio has a QAM tuner as does the basic cable card Roamio. ??


Guided setup still offers cable as an option and I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that someone had tried it and was able to tune clear QAM channels.

Based on some pictures I found of the boards online it seems they are basically identical just with the CableCARD adapter part removed and the green OTA silk screened on the front of the case.


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## HarperVision

Dan203 said:


> Guided setup still offers cable as an option and I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that someone had tried it and was able to tune clear QAM channels. Based on some pictures I found of the boards online it seems they are basically identical just with the CableCARD adapter part removed and the green OTA silk screened on the front of the case.


That would be me, and yes it works for QAM. Since it doesn't have a cablecard slot you can't kick it into cable setup automatically, but I found that you can do that using a tuning adapter also. It will also remap the channels for your clear QAM channels to their proper places/channel numbers. As soon as you plug in the TA, it pops up a msg saying it detects a TA and asks if you would like to also setup cable tv as a source, in addition to your already setup antenna channels, just like a Premiere would.


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## lessd

HarperVision said:


> That would be me, and yes it works for QAM. Since it doesn't have a cablecard slot you can't kick it into cable setup automatically, but I found that you can do that using a tuning adapter also. It will also remap the channels for your clear QAM channels to their proper places/channel numbers. As soon as you plug in the TA, it pops up a msg saying it detects a TA and asks if you would like to also setup cable tv as a source, in addition to your already setup antenna channels, just like a Premiere would.


OK so if someone finds a cable card holder that can be mounted in Roamio OTA you can save what $96 - the cost of the cable card mounting hardware, not such a big savings. The Roamio basic is now $145 on Amazon, the OTA is $49. For what you are going to spend on TiVo service I don't think it is worth the risk that TiVo could refuse to download any cable information if too many people did this.


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## HarperVision

lessd said:


> OK so if someone finds a cable card holder that can be mounted in Roamio OTA you can save what $96 - the cost of the cable card mounting hardware, not such a big savings. The Roamio basic is now $145 on Amazon, the OTA is $49. For what you are going to spend on TiVo service I don't think it is worth the risk that TiVo could refuse to download any cable information if too many people did this.


I'd have to agree, but it's just too much fun playing with it!


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## b-ball-fanatic

HarperVision said:


> I'd have to agree, but it's just too much fun playing with it!


Some people are just so irrepressible that way.....thank goodness!


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## foghorn2

HarperVision said:


> I'd have to agree, but it's just too much fun playing with it!


Keep it to yourself, your wife may find out


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## ncted

HarperVision said:


> The Roamio OTA is just a Roamio basic with its cablecard bracket ripped out and nice silk screened green "Roamio OTA" label on the front.


My OTA does not have the green silk screened logo. It just says "Tivo Roamio" on the front. There is no cablecard connector though.


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## HarperVision

ncted said:


> My OTA does not have the green silk screened logo. It just says "Tivo Roamio" on the front. There is no cablecard connector though.


Are you sure? Look real close, it's hard to see. If not, that's weird.


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## HarperVision

foghorn2 said:


> Keep it to yourself, your wife may find out


She doesn't care, it keeps me from bugging her during The Bachelorette!


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## Dan203

lessd said:


> OK so if someone finds a cable card holder that can be mounted in Roamio OTA you can save what $96 - the cost of the cable card mounting hardware, not such a big savings. The Roamio basic is now $145 on Amazon, the OTA is $49. For what you are going to spend on TiVo service I don't think it is worth the risk that TiVo could refuse to download any cable information if too many people did this.


If you can get the $300 lifetime OTA deal it's a big savings. In that case there is a $220 difference between the two. With that you can buy a 3TB HDD and a Stream to go with the TiVo.


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## b-ball-fanatic

Dan203 said:


> If you can get the $300 lifetime OTA....


Speaking of....

I'm sure this has probably been discussed elsewhere, but has TiVo completely discontinued Lifetime on new OTAs? Ever since that $299 disappeared, I haven't even seen Lifetime listed as a service option on those.


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## Dan203

They never had it. Originally it was $50 for the hardware and $15/mo for service. That lifetime deal was special. There was one other one that offered lifetime for $400 in addition to the $50 hardware, but I think that's gone now too. All the other offers involved some variation of a monthly or annual fee in addition to the hardware.


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## ncted

HarperVision said:


> Are you sure? Look real close, it's hard to see. If not, that's weird.


Yep. Positive. I looked very closely when I got it, and checked again before I posted that. I will take a picture when I get home. Perhaps they were running short of OTA silk-screened cases when mine was built, or perhaps the wrong case got mixed in accidentally.


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## HarperVision

ncted said:


> Yep. Positive. I looked very closely when I got it, and checked again before I posted that. I will take a picture when I get home. Perhaps they were running short of OTA silk-screened cases when mine was built, or perhaps the wrong case got mixed in accidentally.


Strange. Maybe yours was a first gen before they started applying the "green wonder paint"?


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## ncted

I got mine in November. Hopefully the upload worked from my phone.


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## Dan203

That's the standard faceplate for the Basic Roamio. The OTA ones saya "Roamio OTA" in green. Yours must have got the wrong faceplate, or maybe was manufactured before they started doing that.


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## HarperVision

ncted said:


> I got mine in November. Hopefully the upload worked from my phone.


You must've gotten the TiVolab's experimental "FrankenTiVo"!!!


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## ncted

HarperVision said:


> You must've gotten the TiVolab's experimental "FrankenTiVo"!!!


Either way, it works great even if it is a poser, so I am not complaining.


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## break19

Ok. So. here's my question.

I bought a Roamio OTA from bestbuy.com and picked it up at my local store. But the box it came in does NOT say OTA, and said box CLEARLY states that it supports a CableCARD, and has the slot.

The device itself does not have OTA on it anywhere either. Also, when I activated the thing TiVo.com it never said anything about OTA either.

Did I luck out here? I think I did..


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## telemark

Sure sounds like it. There's a rather official model number on the back label.

Also the cardboard boxes are different colors anyway.
OTA is green/white
Basic is full color.


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## HarperVision

break19 said:


> Ok. So. here's my question. I bought a Roamio OTA from bestbuy.com and picked it up at my local store. But the box it came in does NOT say OTA, and said box CLEARLY states that it supports a CableCARD, and has the slot. The device itself does not have OTA on it anywhere either. Also, when I activated the thing TiVo.com it never said anything about OTA either. Did I luck out here? I think I did..


Yep. This sounds like it may be a case of "Ooops well, we don't have that model in stock so we have to give him the next higher up model instead"........or they just basically screwed up!

Only thing that could be an issue is possibly any future returns or warranty work. What does it say on your receipt?


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## break19

Receipt says OTA, but it's registered with tivo, and I'm paying monthly, which includes that warranty thing, right, so that should be good?


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## HarperVision

break19 said:


> Receipt says OTA, but it's registered with tivo, and I'm paying monthly, which includes that warranty thing, right, so that should be good?


I would compare the model number on the receipt with the one on your box.


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## NCSU2008

Any updates? Figured that one user got his by now. If i guinea pig this, is it simply plug and play or do i have to solder or something a little more difficult than merely buying this part and putting in my cable card


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## Dan203

We don't even know for sure if that part fits. But if it does then it should just be plug and play. It appears from the photo to have the right kind of connector and screw holes to hold it in place just like the Roamio Basic


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## krkaufman

FYI... Refurb Roamio Basic for $80 via Woot, per Roamio Deals thread post, in case that price inspires someone to experimentation.


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## Dan203

reckless37 said:


> Hi-
> 
> I've purchase the connector/bracket previously listed...
> 
> http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1PCS-...305349347.html
> 
> It will be within a couple weeks, so we'll see then...
> 
> - Marty


Did you ever get the part and try it out? Just wondering how it went.


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## krkaufman

HarperVision said:


> reckless37 said:
> 
> 
> 
> Hi-
> 
> I've purchase the connector/bracket previously listed...
> 
> http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1PCS-Original-FORFoxconn-CARDBUS-G2-deck-CI-decoding-PCMCIA-interface-connector-68P-1CA4A5AG1/32305349347.html
> 
> It will be within a couple weeks, so we'll see then...
> 
> - Marty
> 
> 
> 
> Very cool. Definitely keep us updated.
> 
> PS - *I'm getting a 404 Page Not Found Error on your link.*
Click to expand...

Looks like Marty copy/pasted the readable text from the previous posts, rather than the actual URL/link. I've corrected it in the above quoted text, based on Dan203's original suggestion.


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## krkaufman

For reference, here's a pic of the Roamio Basic's CableCard adapter...








... from geewhy's Flickr Photostream, at:

__
https://flic.kr/p/14870783846
​


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## krkaufman

Ok, this unit might be a good box to scavenge for a test CableCard adapter, so long as its price doesn't jump much.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/tivo-roamio-/221803086706

High bid as of 6/19, 3pm is $10 (+ $10 shipping)​
Please let me know via PM if you're bidding on it for similar purposes, so we don't drive-up each other's bids.


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## Dan203

Did you bid on it already?


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## krkaufman

Dan203 said:


> Did you bid on it already?


No, that's why I posted here. I saw someone else had already placed the $10 (or more) bid, and I didn't want to drive the price up if it was "one of us."

We've got 4 days until the auction ends.


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## Dan203

Not me.


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## krkaufman

Dan203 said:


> Not me.


If I don't hear from anyone else before the auction ends, I'll place a bid. Just not sure how high I'm willing to go.


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## foghorn2

Yeah but what will happen if or when if Tivo's firmware disables the CC bracket unless its serial is one associated with a non OTA Tivo?

The basic roamio was just as low as $109.99 recently and the PLSR code can get you a lifetime for $399.


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## Dan203

Yeah I wouldn't expect this to be a permanent solution. I'm mainly just curious if it'll work.


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## Dan203

krkaufman said:


> If I don't hear from anyone else before the auction ends, I'll place a bid. Just not sure how high I'm willing to go.


I wouldn't spend more then $30, shipped.


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## HarperVision

It wasn't me bidding either. I haven't done anything further with this. I thought someone said that they already ordered a bracket awhile ago? They should've received it by now I'd think.


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## krkaufman

Dan203 said:


> Yeah I wouldn't expect this to be a permanent solution. I'm mainly just curious if it'll work.


^This^

I certainly wouldn't have any expectation of it not breaking at some point. I'd probably be less than thrilled if TiVo pulled a Microsoft, ala their Xbox LIVE service management, if they nullified the OTA's Lifetime service if they found such a hardware mismatch -- though I'm not sure I'd have any foundation for outrage.


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## krkaufman

HarperVision said:


> It wasn't me bidding either. I haven't done anything further with this. I thought someone said that they already ordered a bracket awhile ago? They should've received it by now I'd think.


Yeah, Dan pinged them (Marty/reckless37) earlier today via this thread.

No word back, yet. (Though the estimated delivery time of between 15-39 days may be part of the delay.)


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## krkaufman

foghorn2 said:


> The basic roamio was just as low as $109.99 recently and the PLSR code can get you a lifetime for $399.


Yeah, and that's if I'm looking for a NEW Roamio Basic. You make a good point. That reminder may make me less willing to get that parts-only Basic if I can get a used, working non-Lifetime Basic for only a bit more.


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## krkaufman

krkaufman said:


> Ok, this unit might be a good box to scavenge for a test CableCard adapter, so long as its price doesn't jump much.
> http://www.ebay.com/itm/tivo-roamio-/221803086706​


I'm out. Current bid+shipping is up to $35, w/ 4 hours remaining.


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## NewTronB

RonH said:


> I guess this is disabled in software for the OTA model? Was surprised to find it during the unboxing and even more surprised that I was offered Cable OR Antenna during setup.


I know this thread has kind of gone stale, but I'm still interested in seeing if anyone has salvaged or purchased a cable card adapter for the Roamio OTA, and made it work.

Weakknees does not carry the part, and believes it's not supported in software. I just don't see that. I think the Roamio OTA is nothing more then a basic without the adapter.


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## lessd

NewTronB said:


> I know this thread has kind of gone stale, but I'm still interested in seeing if anyone has salvaged or purchased a cable card adapter for the Roamio OTA, and made it work.
> 
> Weakknees does not carry the part, and believes it's not supported in software. I just don't see that. I think the Roamio OTA is nothing more then a basic without the adapter.


It would not take much software to disable the cable card interface, and just leave the rest as is, would be hard to complain to TiVo if the OTA unit did not work with a cable card, and is not the OTA tuner different than the QAM tuner ? if so the unit may not even have a QAM tuner installed.


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## Dan203

I contacted that guy who bought the part I linked to via email and he wrote me back that it did not fit. So at this point I think the only hope is to salvage one from a real Roamio Basic.


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## HarperVision

NewTronB said:


> I know this thread has kind of gone stale, but I'm still interested in seeing if anyone has salvaged or purchased a cable card adapter for the Roamio OTA, and made it work. Weakknees does not carry the part, and believes it's not supported in software. I just don't see that. I think the Roamio OTA is nothing more then a basic without the adapter.





lessd said:


> It would not take much software to disable the cable card interface, and just leave the rest as is, would be hard to complain to TiVo if the OTA unit did not work with a cable card, and is not the OTA tuner different than the QAM tuner ? if so the unit may not even have a QAM tuner installed.


It works. I have already run clear cable QAM on my OTA. All I had to do was connect a TA to the USB and it popped a screen up asking if I wanted to do guided setup for Cable TV to go along with the OTA signals. So it not only has both QAM and ATSC tuners, but it can do them concurrently contrary to what the specs say. The limiting factor is that it only has one RF coax input.


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## 4d3fect

HarperVision said:


> It works. I have already run clear cable QAM on my OTA. All I had to do was connect a TA to the USB and it popped a screen up asking if I wanted to do guided setup for Cable TV to go along with the OTA signals. So it not only has both QAM and ATSC tuners, but it can do them concurrently contrary to what the specs say. The limiting factor is that it only has one RF coax input.


Thanks, good news.


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## Sweeney

HarperVision said:


> It works. I have already run clear cable QAM on my OTA. All I had to do was connect a TA to the USB and it popped a screen up asking if I wanted to do guided setup for Cable TV to go along with the OTA signals. So it not only has both QAM and ATSC tuners, but it can do them concurrently contrary to what the specs say. The limiting factor is that it only has one RF coax input.


Can you explain that in non-techie talk. I have a Roamio OTA connected to a roof top antenna and it works great. Now I'm thinking that I might want to move it to another house that gets no reception OTA but has Time Warner basic cable. There I have one tv with the cable box and one with the coax cable going right into the tv. It works fine without the box. If I use the Roamio with this TW cable, can I just plug in the coax cable and set it up? What's the limiting factor of having only one RF coax input?


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## tarheelblue32

Sweeney said:


> Can you explain that in non-techie talk. I have a Roamio OTA connected to a roof top antenna and it works great. Now I'm thinking that I might want to move it to another house that gets no reception OTA but has Time Warner basic cable. There I have one tv with the cable box and one with the coax cable going right into the tv. It works fine without the box. If I use the Roamio with this TW cable, can I just plug in the coax cable and set it up?


You might be able to get the basic cable channels to come through alright, but the main problem you will run into is that without a CableCard to remap the channel numbers, you wouldn't be able to get the guide data to line up correctly, so you wouldn't be able to set recordings.

However, if you got a Tuning Adapter from TWC and connected it to the USB port on the Roamio, it would probably be able to remap the channels to the correct channel number. I can't say for sure since I've never tried it. Hopefully one of the above posters who has will confirm that a Tuning Adapter alone will remap the clear QAM channels correctly.

So if that is the case, just go down to your local TWC office and ask for a Tuning Adapter. Usually Tuning Adapters and CableCards come together, so they might insist that you take a CableCard also. If they do, just take the CableCard with the TA, and you can return the card later to get the $2.50/month CableCard rental fee off your bill.



Sweeney said:


> What's the limiting factor of having only one RF coax input?


Inability to do OTA and digital cable simultaneously. Cable and OTA signal frequencies overlap, so they would interfere with each other if you try to do them simultaneously through the same RF input.


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## HarperVision

tarheelblue32 said:


> You might be able to get the basic cable channels to come through alright, but the main problem you will run into is that without a CableCard to remap the channel numbers, you wouldn't be able to get the guide data to line up correctly, so you wouldn't be able to set recordings. However, if you got a Tuning Adapter from TWC and connected it to the USB port on the Roamio, it would probably be able to remap the channels to the correct channel number. I can't say for sure since I've never tried it. Hopefully one of the above posters who has will confirm that a Tuning Adapter alone will remap the clear QAM channels correctly. So if that is the case, just go down to your local TWC office and ask for a Tuning Adapter. Usually Tuning Adapters and CableCards come together, so they might insist that you take a CableCard also. If they do, just take the CableCard with the TA, and you can return the card later to get the $2.50/month CableCard rental fee off your bill. Inability to do OTA and digital cable simultaneously. Cable and OTA signal frequencies overlap, so they would interfere with each other if you try to do them simultaneously through the same RF input.


Yes, the tuning adapter works to remap channels correctly on the Roamio OTA.


----------



## sp44

This would be great if it worked. I really don't feel like paying the $75 termination fee and buying a Roamio Basic to use a cable card.


----------



## HarperVision

sp44 said:


> This would be great if it worked. I really don't feel like paying the $75 termination fee and buying a Roamio Basic to use a cable card.


 If you have an OTA then just buy a used Roamio basic on eBay or something and then pull out the cablecard bracket/connector and mount it in your OTA.......voila', a Roamio basic without terminating your contract. Just use the rest of the base model as a spare parts machine.

It works, believe me. I just plugged in my OTA again and set it up with concurrent cable QAM and ATSC reception.


----------



## krkaufman

HarperVision said:


> It works, believe me. I just plugged in my OTA again and set it up with concurrent cable QAM and ATSC reception.


How're you doing that, again, given the single coax-IN connection?


----------



## HarperVision

krkaufman said:


> How're you doing that, again, given the single coax-IN connection?


Using a splitter to connect the QAM from my ZeeVee QAM Modulator and my OTA antenna. You can do the same with a cable feed and an antenna as well, but as mentioned some channels will overlap and interfere so you'd need some sort of notch filter.

I posted that mainly to show that the software does indeed support both QAM and ATSC on the OTA unit, the same as the basic, and can also be setup for both on the Roamios, contrary to what the specs say with once again the limiting factor compared to the Premiere and older lines is it only having one RF coax instead of two separate (1 antenna, 1 cable).


----------



## Sweeney

Thank you guys. This is good to know in case I do move the Tivo to the other house with no OTA service.


----------



## dsenela

My Non-OTA Roamio got fried recently. So I picked an OTA Roamio from eBay for $10 (just the box, no remote or power supply). I removed the Cable Card bracket from the dead Roamio and fixed it on the OTA. To cut a long story short I successfully activated the cable card and the Roamio. I am on Comcast (No tuning adapter necessary). In addition, I replaced the HDD with a 3TB WD series HDD. Everything works like a charm.


----------



## Dan203

Thanks for trying. Glad to hear that it works. Would be nice if we could source the part somewhere.


----------



## tarheelblue32

Dan203 said:


> Thanks for trying. Glad to hear that it works. Would be nice if we could source the part somewhere.


I think the market for broken base Roamios just got a little stronger. I wonder if any other TiVo models or other CableCard devices use the same CableCard bracket.


----------



## cagenjo

I just (carelessly) bought a TIVO OTA with the lifetime sub. I thought I could use cablecard, and when I plugged it in to the slot under the bottom cover, it did offer to set up cable. The card I had wouldn't bind to the TIVO, so I am about to go swap it at my Optimum cable store. Now I realize I made a stupid mistake buying it - but from what I read here, it seems that some of you are successfully using the OTA model with cable cards. Is that true? If so, do you have any tips or suggestions? Thanks for any replies, I'd rather not return this unit if possible.


----------



## Dan203

The OTA doesn't have the proper slot to insett a cable card. It's got the hole on the bottom but it's missing the bracket tomactually plug the card in. You need a Base Roamio if you want to use a CableCARD.

Are you sure that's not what you bought? If it offered to setup cable after you installed the card, then it must have the plug. If that's the case it's a base Roamio not an OTA. (the Base Roamio can do either cable or OTA, the OTA can only do OTA)


----------



## cagenjo

DAN203...

Great! Maybe I lucked out? It definitely has a slot which accepts the card, and the screen reports "M Card inserted."  It is model tcd846500, which seems to be a Roamio Basic! I will swap the card and see what happens - thanks so much for such a quick response


----------



## krkaufman

cagenjo said:


> DAN203...
> 
> Great! Maybe I lucked out? It definitely has a slot which accepts the card, and the screen reports "M Card inserted."  It is model tcd846500, which seems to be a Roamio Basic! I will swap the card and see what happens - thanks so much for such a quick response


The model number does indicate it's a basic Roamio.

Out of curiosity, what does the sticker on the front of the product say? TiVo Roamio or TiVo Roamio OTA?


----------



## cagenjo

krkaufman said:


> The model number does indicate it's a basic Roamio.
> 
> Out of curiosity, what does the sticker on the front of the product say? TiVo Roamio or TiVo Roamio OTA?


The sticker says Tivo Roamio. i got the new card, but so far, 3 different techs have been unable to bind it to the machine. This happened the last time I added a new machine also, many of the techs are not good at cablecard installs. i am on phone with 4th tech now, they say card is bad and i need to get another one!!!  Guess I'll try again tomorrow. This is Optimum Cable service in suffolk county, Long Island, NY in case that gives anyone a clue as to what I (or they) are doing wrong here.

Thanks again...


----------



## HarperVision

cagenjo said:


> The sticker says Tivo Roamio. i got the new card, but so far, 3 different techs have been unable to bind it to the machine. This happened the last time I added a new machine also, many of the techs are not good at cablecard installs. i am on phone with 4th tech now, they say card is bad and i need to get another one!!!  Guess I'll try again tomorrow. This is Optimum Cable service in suffolk county, Long Island, NY in case that gives anyone a clue as to what I (or they) are doing wrong here. Thanks again...


It's not the card, it's the ignorance and lack of training on the part of the techs and CSRs. Don't accept that answer and keep pushing it up the chain until you get someone who knows what they're doing!


----------



## tarheelblue32

HarperVision said:


> It's not the card, it's the ignorance and lack of training on the part of the techs and CSRs. Don't accept that answer and keep pushing it up the chain until you get someone who knows what they're doing!


And if that doesn't work, file a formal complaint with the FCC and that should get someone at the cable company that actually knows something about CableCards to contact you and fix it (eventually).


----------



## cagenjo

HarperVision said:


> It's not the card, it's the ignorance and lack of training on the part of the techs and CSRs. Don't accept that answer and keep pushing it up the chain until you get someone who knows what they're doing!


I tried one more time - 5th tech couldn't bind the card, says he kept getting a java error (???) so I finally caved and agreed to wait till a tech can come, but I said be sure and bring a few cards... just in case! I'll post the results.


----------



## tarheelblue32

cagenjo said:


> I tried one more time - 5th tech couldn't bind the card, says he kept getting a java error (???) so I finally caved and agreed to wait till a tech can come, but I said be sure and bring a few cards... just in case! I'll post the results.


Watch him show up without a single one.


----------



## HarperVision

cagenjo said:


> I tried one more time - 5th tech couldn't bind the card, says he kept getting a java error (???) so I finally caved and agreed to wait till a tech can come, but I said be sure and bring a few cards... just in case! I'll post the results.


Why is the tech trying to bind the card anyway?!?!? He's supposed to just install it on your TiVo and then call their office's provisioning folks who are the ones that "bind" and authorize the card into their system.

Does your cable co have a dedicated Cablecard hotline? A lot do. I would also call TiVo and have them do a three way call with them to help walk through it.

If they keep giving you the run around if report to the FCC as suggested!


----------



## tarheelblue32

HarperVision said:


> Why is the tech trying to bind the card anyway?!?!? He's supposed to just install it on your TiVo and then call their office's provisioning folks who are the ones that "bind" and authorize the card into their system.


I think he meant he was talking to do a self-install, but the "tech" on the phone wasn't able to pair the CableCard, so they are sending someone out to attempt the install.


----------



## HarperVision

tarheelblue32 said:


> I think he meant he was talking to do a self-install, but the "tech" on the phone wasn't able to pair the CableCard, so they are sending someone out to attempt the install.


Yeah thanks. Was thinking that after I posted.


----------



## cagenjo

cagenjo said:


> I tried one more time - 5th tech couldn't bind the card, says he kept getting a java error (???) so I finally caved and agreed to wait till a tech can come, but I said be sure and bring a few cards... just in case! I'll post the results.


Harpervision & Tarheelblue32: I decided to give it one more try this morning by phone, and this time, the CSR's supervisor came on, and said he successfully bound the card. But - still no good, so I'll see what happens tomorrow when the tech comes to the house. I may just have to give up and return the Tivo  It's not worth the hassle of dealing with Optimum's service.


----------



## HarperVision

cagenjo said:


> Harpervision & Tarheelblue32: I decided to give it one more try this morning by phone, and this time, the CSR's supervisor came on, and said he successfully bound the card. But - still no good, so I'll see what happens tomorrow when the tech comes to the house. I may just have to give up and return the Tivo  It's not worth the hassle of dealing with Optimum's service.


Don't do that, Report to the FCC as mentioned!


----------



## Dan203

cagenjo said:


> Harpervision & Tarheelblue32: I decided to give it one more try this morning by phone, and this time, the CSR's supervisor came on, and said he successfully bound the card. But - still no good, so I'll see what happens tomorrow when the tech comes to the house. I may just have to give up and return the Tivo  It's not worth the hassle of dealing with Optimum's service.


The tech will likely fix it. They have a direct line to a tech support group that has much more experience with CableCARDs and should be able to figure out the issue. If not then he'll have a second card they can try. If that still doesn't work the. It's up to you how far you want to press it. I had one TiVo that took 3 tech visits to finally get working. Sometimes it takes a lot of patience to deal with them.


----------



## cagenjo

Dan203 said:


> The tech will likely fix it. They have a direct line to a tech support group that has much more experience with CableCARDs and should be able to figure out the issue. If not then he'll have a second card they can try. If that still doesn't work the. It's up to you how far you want to press it. I had one TiVo that took 3 tech visits to finally get working. Sometimes it takes a lot of patience to deal with them.


Yes, my last Tivo took 3 or 4 different people/cards to finally get it working. The successful tech said the other guys just didn't have the necessary training to take care of cablecards. This time I asked for experienced people, and each one said he was  I fully understand that not everyone can be an expert at everything, but I wish they had cablecard specialists! We'll see what happens tomorrow. Thanks for all the input, everyone


----------



## cagenjo

cagenjo said:


> Yes, my last Tivo took 3 or 4 different people/cards to finally get it working. The successful tech said the other guys just didn't have the necessary training to take care of cablecards. This time I asked for experienced people, and each one said he was  I fully understand that not everyone can be an expert at everything, but I wish they had cablecard specialists! We'll see what happens tomorrow. Thanks for all the input, everyone


Success!! An Optimum tech came to my home, and was able to pair the cablecard to my Roamio right away. He even brought 3 cards as I had requested, but the original one was fine. He was great, and skilled, but admitted that some guys are just not familiar with the cards or even with Tivos. I must add that any time I call Optimum (aside from Tivo stuff  with a question or problem, they are here that day or next, or giving me a solution in a text chat. Their customer service is usually great. And - this supposed refurb $50 Roamio OTA has turned out to be a Roamio Basic - even better!!! Happy ending all around. Thanks to all those who responded to my questions.:up:


----------



## Dan203

The "refurb" is a Roamio Basic. The OTA is the same price new. But the Roamio Basic is a better deal because it can do cable or OTA.


----------



## spaldingclan

so is there a plug for the cable card in the ota model? or is it more than that? is there just NO WAY to do cablecard in the base ota model?


----------



## ChrisFix

spaldingclan said:


> so is there a plug for the cable card in the ota model? or is it more than that? is there just NO WAY to do cablecard in the base ota model?


Roamio OTA doesn't have the cable card hardware required to use a cablecard.
If you want an OTA capable Roamio that can also use a cablecard, then the Roamio Basic is your only choice.


----------



## krkaufman

spaldingclan said:


> so is there a plug for the cable card in the ota model? or is it more than that? is there just NO WAY to do cablecard in the base ota model?


From the previous page of this thread: It works!


----------



## foghorn2

The bracket is just a right angle pcmcia male to male (priests-dont get excited now) 68 pin adapter. Im sure you can order it from china or just make your own with a ribbon cable and pins.


----------



## snerd

ChrisFix said:


> Roamio OTA doesn't have the cable card hardware required to use a cablecard.
> If you want an OTA capable Roamio that can also use a cablecard, then the Roamio Basic is your only choice.


The only missing hardware is the bracket that holds the CableCard. TCF people have converted TiVo OTA to TiVo Basic by adding the bracket, and have confirmed that it works.


----------



## tarheelblue32

foghorn2 said:


> The bracket is just a right angle pcmcia male to male (priests-dont get excited now) 68 pin adapter. Im sure you can order it from china or just make your own with a ribbon cable and pins.


If anyone ever finds a place to order them from, many people around here would like to know about it.


----------



## krkaufman

The BOLT's CableCARD adapter appears to be visually similar (identical to my eyes) to that in the basic Roamio, so that's something to test.
http://www.erebos.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/RC-2-e1444012602119.jpg​


krkaufman said:


> For reference, here's a pic of the Roamio Basic's CableCard adapter...
> 
> https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/64866067/RoamioBasic_CableCard.jpg​
> ... from geewhy's Flickr Photostream, at:
> 
> __
> https://flic.kr/p/14870783846
> ​


----------



## Dan203

What's that G logo in the upper right?


----------



## mr.unnatural

foghorn2 said:


> The bracket is just a right angle pcmcia male to male (priests-dont get excited now)


That is just wrong on so many levels.


----------



## Dan203

Does anyone recognize that logo? Maybe it'll lead us to the manufacturer. Here is a quick recreation I did in an attempt to do a Google image search, but it didn't turn anything up.


----------



## foghorn2

, I don't know


----------



## MikeBear

Dan203 said:


> Does anyone recognize that logo? Maybe it'll lead us to the manufacturer. Here is a quick recreation I did in an attempt to do a Google image search, but it didn't turn anything up.


Here it is: http://www.trademarkia.com/g-86721352.html or http://www.trademarkia.com/company-genesis-technology-usa-inc-1383392-page-1-2

Genesis Technology USA, Inc. http://www.genesistechnologyusa.com/ That logo is in the lower right-hand corner of this homepage.


----------



## HarperVision

MikeBear said:


> Here it is: http://www.trademarkia.com/g-86721352.html or http://www.trademarkia.com/company-genesis-technology-usa-inc-1383392-page-1-2 Genesis Technology USA, Inc. http://www.genesistechnologyusa.com/ That logo is in the lower right-hand corner of this homepage.


Great find!!! :up:

I don't see the Cablecard/PCMCIA card connector on there anywhere in my limited searching.


----------



## MikeBear

HarperVision said:


> Great find!!! :up:
> 
> I don't see the Cablecard/PCMCIA card connector on there anywhere in my limited searching.


It might be an OEM part only, and not available to the general public.


----------



## foghorn2

MikeBear said:


> It might be an OEM part only, and not available to the general public.


Only these guys?


----------



## heifer624

.... and NO doubt they both entered the country on K-1 visa's and smuggled the PCMCIA adapters in with them!


----------



## MikeBear

foghorn2 said:


> Only these guys?


They look like Milli Vanilli 'The NEXT generation"...


----------



## Dan203

I sent them an email with the picture krkaufman posted ans asked if it's something they make and if it's something I can buy. I'll let you know if they actually respond.


----------



## elborak

Just make sure you send krkaufman's picture and not foghorn2's picture...


----------



## krkaufman

elborak said:


> Just make sure you send krkaufman's picture and not foghorn2's picture...


chuckle! That's the first thing I thought when reading Dan's message... ("I didn't post THAT!")... and then remembered the context.


----------



## Dan203

I sent them the right one.


----------



## Dan203

Never heard back on this, so I guess the answer is no.


----------



## Tweak42

After copious amounts of searching, the closest thing I could find that may work is this:
http://www.globalsources.com/si/AS/...11414674/pdtl/PCMCIA-Connector/1092650828.htm

Obviously the height is to tall, but the pins on both ends I believe are the correct thickness. The riser shield behind the pins, and the screws on the sides lends credence this is meant to friction connect with a matching connector.

Various search terms I used:, pcmcia, 68pin, right angle, deck, 1.27mm, male to male.
I haven't figured out how to differentiate the pin thickness to eliminate the wrong sizes. Also you want to avoid "through hole" and "surface mount" types.


----------



## herbf

Folks, if there's a way to get this working, Amazon has the Roamio OTA on sale w/ lifetime for $299.


----------



## mr.unnatural

I just ordered three more of them today. FYI - the other three units I purchased previously and posted on ebay with upgraded drives and cablecard slots never sold in that configuration. I guess my honesty scared too many people off by listing them with the cablecard bracket and the potential of getting blacklisted. I ended up selling them with just the upgraded drives and removed the cablecard brackets. Now I've got three donor Roamio Basics that I've got to put back on ebay, but with new drive upgrades.


----------



## darklyte

Any thoughts on if the cable card hardware from a series 3 would work in an OTA Roamio? 

Plenty of cheap series 3 units on eBay if they would fit.


----------



## Dan203

Hmmm good question. I have like 4 in my closet. I should open one and see.


----------



## HerronScott

darklyte said:


> Any thoughts on if the cable card hardware from a series 3 would work in an OTA Roamio?
> 
> Plenty of cheap series 3 units on eBay if they would fit.


I thought someone else had already indicated it wasn't the same but I can't find the post in this thread.

Scott


----------



## mr.unnatural

It won't work. IIRC, the slot pins in the series 3 are surface mount whereas the Roamio is a socket header.


----------



## SomeRandomIdiot

mr.unnatural said:


> I just ordered three more of them today. FYI - the other three units I purchased previously and posted on ebay with upgraded drives and cablecard slots never sold in that configuration. I guess my honesty scared too many people off by listing them with the cablecard bracket and the potential of getting blacklisted. I ended up selling them with just the upgraded drives and removed the cablecard brackets. Now I've got three donor Roamio Basics that I've got to put back on ebay, but with new drive upgrades.


From my observation (and I did see that unit for $649 iirc) was that used Roamios with Lifetime were going for less than $550. 1 even went for slightly over $300 a week or so ago.

And I am not talking about the OTA only Roamios.

I also think its hard for some who have never used a DVR to understand Hard Drive capacity until they find out for themselves - especially as ATSC 1.0 is MPEG2 - and especially if coming from MPEG4 DVR, they are up for a RUDE awakening.

Never having used the TiVo OTA, does TiVo record the whole 19.2Mbps ATSC 1.0 stream or does it just strip out the individual programming/audio (ie, 7.1 and not 7.2)?

If it records the whole 19.2 Mux, then it will REALLY blow their mind how small 500GB is.

Even a cable company DVR using MPEG2 would have smaller files if that is the case.


----------



## mr.unnatural

SomeRandomIdiot said:


> From my observation (and I did see that unit for $649 iirc) was that used Roamios with Lifetime were going for less than $550. 1 even went for slightly over $300 a week or so ago.
> 
> And I am not talking about the OTA only Roamios.
> 
> I also think its hard for some who have never used a DVR to understand Hard Drive capacity until they find out for themselves - especially as ATSC 1.0 is MPEG2 - and especially if coming from MPEG4 DVR, they are up for a RUDE awakening.
> 
> Never having used the TiVo OTA, does TiVo record the whole 19.2Mbps ATSC 1.0 stream or does it just strip out the individual programming/audio (ie, 7.1 and not 7.2)?
> 
> If it records the whole 19.2 Mux, then it will REALLY blow their mind how small 500GB is.
> 
> Even a cable company DVR using MPEG2 would have smaller files if that is the case.


Local broadcasters rarely utilize the full bitrate for transmitting programs. A one hour HD program is typically anywhere from 6-8GB. Audio for ATSC broadcasts has never been more than 5.1. Dolby Digital is the standard they use. A DVR records whatever is transmitted on a given channel and doesn't strip anything out. It just records the entire digital stream to the hard drive as is.

The digital cable standard actually provides for almost twice the bitrate for broadcasting channels, but rarely uses anywhere near close to it. They're pretty much on a par with ATSC broadcasters in that respect.

FYI - the Roamios I was selling were new and not used, as were the 4TB hard drives I installed in them. I also included the original 500GB drive with the Tivo, which hardly anyone ever does when selling an upgraded unit. The $649 price tag was for the modified units and not the ones I ended up selling at a reduced price. By the time I deducted the initial costs, shipping costs (I included free shipping), and all fees from PayPal and ebay I think I might have made about $50 on each one I sold.


----------



## SomeRandomIdiot

mr.unnatural said:


> Local broadcasters rarely utilize the full bitrate for transmitting programs. A one hour HD program is typically anywhere from 6-8GB. Audio for ATSC broadcasts has never been more than 5.1. Dolby Digital is the standard they use. A DVR records whatever is transmitted on a given channel and doesn't strip anything out. It just records the entire digital stream to the hard drive as is.


I am aware of this but a Broadcaster must have a constant 19.2 Mbps rate, even if stuffed with Null Bits, which is why I stated if the TiVo Records the entire 19.2Mbps Mux - as opposed to the the individual channel, someone is really going to be surprised.

The Audio is generally 360kbps, though Turner and Fox use 480kbps (per program).

From your description above, it sounds as if the entire 19.2Mbps Mux is being used, which would really eat up the disk space and make a larger drive a must.



mr.unnatural said:


> FYI - the Roamios I was selling were new and not used, as were the 4TB hard drives I installed in them. I also included the original 500GB drive with the Tivo, which hardly anyone ever does when selling an upgraded unit. The $649 price tag was for the modified units and not the ones I ended up selling at a reduced price. By the time I deducted the initial costs, shipping costs (I included free shipping), and all fees from PayPal and ebay I think I might have made about $50 on each one I sold.


I believe a several new Roamios (not the OTA) with Lifetime went for around $550 last week.


----------



## atmuscarella

SomeRandomIdiot said:


> From your description above, it sounds as if the entire 19.2Mbps Mux is being used, which would really eat up the disk space and make a larger drive a must.


While I can not give you a certain answer on what happens on channels where the whole frequency is used for one channel - which is pretty rare at this point (none of my OTA frequencies/channels is used for only one actually channel). For frequencies where there are multiple channels TiVos breaks out the stream for the individual channel and only records that. The size of a one hour recording varies greatly depending the channel for me I have one hour HD shows as small as 2.8 GB and as large as 6.8 GB (+/-). I don't record much SD stuff but I have some 1/2 hour shows that are around .8 GBs.


----------



## mr.unnatural

SomeRandomIdiot said:


> I believe a several new Roamios (not the OTA) with Lifetime went for around $550 last week.


I seem to recall that it was mentioned where Tivo was offering the Roamio Basic with lifetime for about $399 a while back. I believe some people heard about it thru an e-mail sent out by Tivo. I believe you could also receive the deal if you were a long time Tivo subscriber and called Tivo and inquired about it. I don't believe any of these units were sold thru Amazon like the OTA.

The comments about the utilization of the full bitrate has me wondering if some of that isn't being used for sub-channels. I may be confusing bandwidth for bitrates so bear with me. There's one UHF channel in my area that broadcasts ethnic programming on ten different sub-channels, but they're probably all SD programming. There are some HD channels here with as many as 3 or 4 sub-channels so I'm wondering if that impacts the bitrates used on the primary HD channel. I had a handle on this stuff once upon a time, but I've forgotten most of it and need a refresher.


----------



## mdavej

mr.unnatural said:


> I seem to recall that it was mentioned where Tivo was offering the Roamio Basic with lifetime for about $399 a while back. I believe some people heard about it thru an e-mail sent out by Tivo. I believe you could also receive the deal if you were a long time Tivo subscriber and called Tivo and inquired about it. I don't believe any of these units were sold thru Amazon like the OTA.


It was $299 direct from Tivo and available to anyone. It's the only reason I even have a Tivo right now. The $900 for a 4 tuner Bolt plus All-In is insane.


----------



## KimHedrick

So I guess the only place to get the bracket still remains a donor Roamio, right?


----------



## Dan203

mdavej said:


> It was $299 direct from Tivo and available to anyone. It's the only reason I even have a Tivo right now. The $900 for a 4 tuner Bolt plus All-In is insane.


They don't want you to buy "all-in". They want people to get into the habit of paying annually. But they didn't want to create an uproar by taking away lifetime, like they did back when the S3 was released, so instead they just raised the price to make it prohibitively expensive.


----------



## giodelgado

New member here just registered to chime in and *confirm I just converted a Roamio OTA with Lifetime to Cablecard support*, I'm using Cox.

I bought a used base Roamio from Craigslist just to remove the Cablecard slot, very easy to swap, be careful with the pins!!!



*One question:*upon trying to create account on website/register device it says I already registered the serial number, I never did, I just plugged the Roamio OTA and it activated automatically.

I'll have to call Customer Service, will I get blacklisted if they notice my "hack"? I just want to use the smartphone app...

*Another question:*Can I use my spare Base Roamio on a second room without paying for subscription for that box and see content from my main box?


----------



## unitron

Where's that other thread that had at least one picture of an OTA motherboard showing the place where a cable card bracket would plug in?


----------



## Tweak42

giodelgado said:


> New member here just registered to chime in and *confirm I just converted a Roamio OTA with Lifetime to Cablecard support*, I'm using Cox.
> 
> I bought a used base Roamio from Craigslist just to remove the Cablecard slot, very easy to swap, be careful with the pins!!!
> 
> 
> 
> *One question:*upon trying to create account on website/register device it says I already registered the serial number, I never did, I just plugged the Roamio OTA and it activated automatically.
> 
> I'll have to call Customer Service, will I get blacklisted if they notice my "hack"? I just want to use the smartphone app...
> 
> *Another question:*Can I use my spare Base Roamio on a second room without paying for subscription for that box and see content from my main box?


If you bought your OTA from Amazon, I believe you need to call them to transfer ownership to your Tivo account (they are shipped pre-registered to Amazon).
https://support.tivo.com/articles/F...our-Pre-Activated-TiVo-Roamio-OTA-from-Amazon

As for your spare no-service basic, Tivo's can only connect to boxes on the same account it's linked to, and it cannot access your account without service. You may consider looking for a deal on a Tivo Mini, if you want access in another room.


----------



## mr.unnatural

unitron said:


> Where's that other thread that had at least one picture of an OTA motherboard showing the place where a cable card bracket would plug in?


It's in the compartment on the underside of the Roamio. Just turn it over and lift up the lid. You'll see right where the connector plugs in.


----------



## mr.unnatural

giodelgado said:


> I'll have to call Customer Service, will I get blacklisted if they notice my "hack"? I just want to use the smartphone app...


Unplug your cablecard prior to calling Tivo. They may not even notice that you activated it with a cablecard. They can't tell if the bracket is installed or not until you insert the card. If they say anything just tell them that you accidentally selected cable as your source when you ran guided setup and that you need to rerun it for OTA. Chances are they won't even notice or say anything.



> *Another question:*Can I use my spare Base Roamio on a second room without paying for subscription for that box and see content from my main box?


Probably not. Tivos generally don't allow most functions to work without a paid subscription. I think you have to have all of your Tivos registered on your account for them to be able to work with each other over a network.


----------



## unitron

mr.unnatural said:


> It's in the compartment on the underside of the Roamio. Just turn it over and lift up the lid. You'll see right where the connector plugs in.


I'll do that as soon as you buy one and send it to me, but I'm talking about another thread where the possibility of cannibalizing 648s or 652/658s was discussed where someone finally posted a picture of what the place in the Roamio OTA looks like without the cable card socket the regular Roamio has.

I'm reasonably sure it existed and that I didn't just see it in an antihistamine induced dream.


----------



## mr.unnatural

unitron said:


> I'll do that as soon as you buy one and send it to me, but I'm talking about another thread where the possibility of cannibalizing 648s or 652/658s was discussed where someone finally posted a picture of what the place in the Roamio OTA looks like without the cable card socket the regular Roamio has.
> 
> I'm reasonably sure it existed and that I didn't just see it in an antihistamine induced dream.


I'll save you the trouble. There are no cablecard brackets in any other existing Tivo models that will work in a Roamio. I have looked into all of them and they all have soldered contacts whereas the Roamio bracket uses a plug-in connector.


----------



## Tweak42

unitron said:


> I'll do that as soon as you buy one and send it to me, but I'm talking about another thread where the possibility of cannibalizing 648s or 652/658s was discussed where someone finally posted a picture of what the place in the Roamio OTA looks like without the cable card socket the regular Roamio has.
> 
> I'm reasonably sure it existed and that I didn't just see it in an antihistamine induced dream.


I couldn't find a picture specifically here on the forums but there is one in a cnet review of the Roamio OTA.

http://cnet4.cbsistatic.com/hub/i/r...c12b6b72/tivo-roamio-ota-product-photos07.jpg



mr.unnatural said:


> I'll save you the trouble. There are no cablecard brackets in any other existing Tivo models that will work in a Roamio. I have looked into all of them and they all have soldered contacts whereas the Roamio bracket uses a plug-in connector.


Actually if you go back and look at pictures in post 109 it looks like the Bolt uses the same cablecard bracket. Which harkens good news in a years time when Bolts start coming off contract and people maybe unloading them for cheap.


----------



## hummingbird_206

unitron said:


> I'll do that as soon as you buy one and send it to me, but I'm talking about another thread where the possibility of cannibalizing 648s or 652/658s was discussed where someone finally posted a picture of what the place in the Roamio OTA looks like without the cable card socket the regular Roamio has.
> 
> I'm reasonably sure it existed and that I didn't just see it in an antihistamine induced dream.


I thought maybe I had the same dream, but I think this is the post I (we?) are remembering http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10709662#post10709662


----------



## unitron

hummingbird_206 said:


> I thought maybe I had the same dream, but I think this is the post I (we?) are remembering http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10709662#post10709662


Thank you!

That is indeed the thread and post I was remembering.


----------



## mr.unnatural

Tweak42 said:


> Actually if you go back and look at pictures in post 109 it looks like the Bolt uses the same cablecard bracket. Which harkens good news in a years time when Bolts start coming off contract and people maybe unloading them for cheap.


That is correct. The Bolt does use the same bracket. I didn't mention it because unitron was asking whether any older models are compatible, which they aren't. The Bolt is far too new to expect any of them to show up on ebay on the cheap.


----------



## Dan203

mr.unnatural said:


> That is correct. The Bolt does use the same bracket. I didn't mention it because unitron was asking whether any older models are compatible, which they aren't. The Bolt is far too new to expect any of them to show up on ebay on the cheap.


Especially since they include a years worth of service.


----------



## giodelgado

mr.unnatural said:


> Unplug your cablecard prior to calling Tivo. They may not even notice that you activated it with a cablecard. They can't tell if the bracket is installed or not until you insert the card. If they say anything just tell them that you accidentally selected cable as your source when you ran guided setup and that you need to rerun it for OTA. Chances are they won't even notice or say anything.
> 
> Probably not. Tivos generally don't allow most functions to work without a paid subscription. I think you have to have all of your Tivos registered on your account for them to be able to work with each other over a network.


Thanks

Just did that and activated my Tivo under my name.


----------



## scubastevexj

thoughts?


----------



## lpax

http://media.digikey.com/photos/Hirose Elect Photos/IC7-68PD-1.27DS-EJR.jpg


----------



## giodelgado

Um I think Tivo blocked me, I get the C501 error, called and they said to be fixing it on everyones boxes which I don't think it's true.


----------



## Tweak42

scubastevexj said:


> thoughts?


Very close, hard to tell the from the blurry detail. It is the correct manufacture though.


----------



## Tweak42

lpax said:


> http://media.digikey.com/photos/Hirose Elect Photos/IC7-68PD-1.27DS-EJR.jpg


Definitely not. The right angle pins are thicker and are 3 interleaved rows instead of 2 rows very close together. This is designed to be soldered through holes in a PCB board.


----------



## thompsr2

scubastevexj said:


> thoughts?


Where did you get that drawing? With the low resolution it's hard to tell, but it looks like that could be it


----------



## scubastevexj

thompsr2 said:


> Where did you get that drawing? With the low resolution it's hard to tell, but it looks like that could be it


I could not upload the pdf to big. here is a public drop box link to the pdf.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/nzwnzjaunrmnlke/GTI08-30357_PCMCIA_ASSEMBLY.pdf?dl=0

looking at it again, it looks like this one might be SMT? I'm not familiar enough with the schematics.


----------



## lpax

There are only two rows, but I agree that the pins are too thick. 
Here is the spec for the connector.










Tweak42 said:


> Definitely not. The right angle pins are thicker and are 3 interleaved rows instead of 2 rows very close together. This is designed to be soldered through holes in a PCB board.


----------



## giodelgado

Not trying to be out of topic but my tivotogo status is a,a,a,a , can't access suggestions and don't see netflix and other streaming features.

Called Tivo for support and they just told me it takes more than 24 hrs to propagate after switching the account ownership from amazon to my name.

Anyone experienced this if purchased through Amazon?


----------



## unitron

giodelgado said:


> Not trying to be out of topic but my tivotogo status is a,a,a,a , can't access suggestions and don't see netflix and other streaming features.
> 
> Called Tivo for support and they just told me it takes more than 24 hrs to propagate after switching the account ownership from amazon to my name.
> 
> Anyone experienced this if purchased through Amazon?


At first a lot of people ran into TiVo apparently not honoring the lifetime sub, and that turned out to be because the units were all put on a single account owned by Amazon when Amazon bought the units and the lifetime subs, so you're lucky to have gotten in on this after they figured out that the account ownership even needed to be switched.

So relax and wait a day or so.


----------



## Dan203

scubastevexj said:


> I could not upload the pdf to big. here is a public drop box link to the pdf.
> 
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/nzwnzjaunrmnlke/GTI08-30357_PCMCIA_ASSEMBLY.pdf?dl=0
> 
> looking at it again, it looks like this one might be SMT? I'm not familiar enough with the schematics.


That looks like it could be it to me. Do you actually have a way to order that part?


----------



## scubastevexj

Dan203 said:


> That looks like it could be it to me. Do you actually have a way to order that part?


no, i used way back time machine on genesis technology site. I called them but they never called back. may try again tomorrow.

here is URL...
http://web.archive.org/web/20150513...roducts/files/GTI08-30357_PCMCIA_ASSEMBLY.pdf

another one that looks promising if it was not raised due to the apparent 2 rows of pins
SC-10360 may be the mating piece in the TIVO....

http://web.archive.org/web/20150513...technologyusa.com/Products/files/SC-10359.pdf

Edit: - I believe i have found something that will work. When i arrives. I'll write back. Not sure on ETA yet.


----------



## lessd

Is it possible that TiVo had a custom cable card bracket made for just them, and told the manf. they can't sell it to anybody but TiVo ?


----------



## unitron

lessd said:


> Is it possible that TiVo had a custom cable card bracket made for just them, and told the manf. they can't sell it to anybody but TiVo ?


I suspect that the sockets to pins header in the bracket could be any of a number of configurations (surface mount, through hole, etc.). In other words, they make the part that hold the cable card, and it has a place for a header to be attached, and there are different headers from which to choose, depending on what the customer wants, and those headers can be used with other different bracket designs as well, again depending on what the customers want.

So part #1000 and part #2000 when combined together are carried on the books as part #3000.


----------



## mr.unnatural

I suppose it's possible. The only difference Ive seen between between the Roamio cablecard bracket and most other brackets is that the Roamio pins plug into a socket rather than being soldered via surface mount contacts. The pins in the bracket conform to the PCMCIA card standard. I suspect Tivo had them made specially for them so they could use the same basic platform for both the OTA and basic versions. Plugging in the bracket turns an OTA into a Basic with only one or two extra steps on the assembly line. The bracket and the bottom case with the logo on the front panel for the specific model are the only differences between them.


----------



## giodelgado

unitron said:


> At first a lot of people ran into TiVo apparently not honoring the lifetime sub, and that turned out to be because the units were all put on a single account owned by Amazon when Amazon bought the units and the lifetime subs, so you're lucky to have gotten in on this after they figured out that the account ownership even needed to be switched.
> 
> So relax and wait a day or so.


All working now 😁


----------



## lpax

mr.unnatural said:


> I suppose it's possible. The only difference Ive seen between between the Roamio cablecard bracket and most other brackets is that the Roamio pins plug into a socket rather than being soldered via surface mount contacts. The pins in the bracket conform to the PCMCIA card standard. I suspect Tivo had them made specially for them so they could use the same basic platform for both the OTA and basic versions. Plugging in the bracket turns an OTA into a Basic with only one or two extra steps on the assembly line. The bracket and the bottom case with the logo on the front panel for the specific model are the only differences between them.


It is important to see the Roamio side of the connector where the cablecard bracket attaches to. What does it look like? If it is the same as the cablecard but male, then can we just insert cablecard into the roamio at right angle? and may be keep the roamio on its back? 

Can someone post a pic of the roamio side of the bracket?


----------



## kvn

I was able to mount the cablecard using a double row Samtec right angle header. 1.27 mm on center pinout. It perfectly aligns on the cable card side, but they have to be spread a bit for the Roamio side. It is a bit of a finger buster to push onto the cable card, but pops right into the Roamio header. 

Samtec PN FTSH-134-04-L-D-RA

The Samtec pins are a bit large when I compared to other cablecard connector pins, they are square 0.42 mm, making them 0.59 mm across the diagonal, most cablecard pins are 0.52 round. Round pins are pricey as they have to be machined so I gambled when ordering the Samtec.

My first cable card had "Authorization Failure 1200", Comcast said it was a Tivo issue, obviously Tivo help desk said OTA has no CableCard. I convinced Comcast to give me another cablecard, put it in, and after about 20 minutes it was paired.


----------



## scubastevexj

kvn said:


> I was able to mount the cablecard using a double row Samtec right angle header. 1.27 mm on center pinout. It perfectly aligns on the cable card side, but they have to be spread a bit for the Roamio side. It is a bit of a finger buster to push onto the cable card, but pops right into the Roamio header.
> 
> Samtec PN FTSH-134-04-L-D-RA
> 
> The Samtec pins are a bit large when I compared to other cablecard connector pins, they are square 0.42 mm, making them 0.59 mm across the diagonal, most cablecard pins are 0.52 round. Round pins are pricey as they have to be machined so I gambled when ordering the Samtec.
> 
> My first cable card had "Authorization Failure 1200", Comcast said it was a Tivo issue, obviously Tivo help desk said OTA has no CableCard. I convinced Comcast to give me another cablecard, put it in, and after about 20 minutes it was paired.


I went with HPT-134-01-L-D-RA. it's made for pcmcia.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/1cwhsxuzbv0q6tc/HPT-134-01-L-D-RA.jpg?dl=0


----------



## Dan203

lpax said:


> It is important to see the Roamio side of the connector where the cablecard bracket attaches to. What does it look like?


http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10709662#post10709662


----------



## kvn

scubastevexj said:


> I went with HPT-134-01-L-D-RA. it's made for pcmcia.
> 
> https://www.dropbox.com/s/1cwhsxuzbv0q6tc/HPT-134-01-L-D-RA.jpg?dl=0


Oh wow, I looked all over on Samtecs site for something like that. Basically the same, but it extends the pwr/gnd. But since I was statically installing, then applying power later, I didn't think it matter.


----------



## lpax

Dan203 said:


> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10709662#post10709662


Thanks.


----------



## lpax

Where is a good place to order these connectors? I could not find them in any online shopping stores.



kvn said:


> Oh wow, I looked all over on Samtecs site for something like that. Basically the same, but it extends the pwr/gnd. But since I was statically installing, then applying power later, I didn't think it matter.


----------



## dzenc

lpax said:


> Where is a good place to order these connectors? I could not find them in any online shopping stores.


https://avnetexpress.avnet.com/stor...art&catalogId=500201&langId=-1&storeId=500201


----------



## scubastevexj

dzenc said:


> https://avnetexpress.avnet.com/stor...art&catalogId=500201&langId=-1&storeId=500201


I actually got mine direct...

whats weird is i stumbled on this add on digikey, but they didn't have anything listed under hot pluggable, so i just went to samtec.

Very nice to deal with and they are in Indiana!

here was the digikey media.

http://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data Sheets/Samtec/HPT_Series.pdf


----------



## mr.unnatural

lpax said:


> It is important to see the Roamio side of the connector where the cablecard bracket attaches to. What does it look like? If it is the same as the cablecard but male, then can we just insert cablecard into the roamio at right angle? and may be keep the roamio on its back?
> 
> Can someone post a pic of the roamio side of the bracket?


The connector on the Roamio is a dual-row female header that is identical to the connector interface on the cablecard itself. The bracket just has two rows of pins that are bent at 90 degrees to line up with both female headers. Note that a normal PCMCIA/cablecard connector will have some pins that are longer or shorter than the rest. These are usually the power and ground connections to allow for hot swapping the card. If you use a header with pins that are all the same length then you should insert the cablecard with the Roamio unplugged from the AC outlet.


----------



## scubastevexj

here is a couple pic of the hpt installed. it needs to be a bit taller as the metal plate causes it to angle the card a bit. Door still closed with no issues yet... I also had to widen the tivo side a hair. i just used an old pcmcia network adaptor card to plug the hpt in to prevent bending any pcmcia side pins and then a credit card to softly bend the row apart. didn't take much, but this option is not a plug and play exactly.


----------



## dwatt

dzenc said:


> https://avnetexpress.avnet.com/stor...art&catalogId=500201&langId=-1&storeId=500201


They are out of stock and on back order now at avnet.


----------



## mr.unnatural

I ordered several of them over the weekend to play around with and they are apparently not a stocked item. It's not that they're out of stock. They just have to special order them. I was surprised that they would accept orders for small quantities given the stock situation. Usually you have to order minimum quantities for special order items.


----------



## scubastevexj

dwatt said:


> They are out of stock and on back order now at avnet.


Probably a good thing, its a delicate situation with that part. after dealing with comcast for several hours to pair the card, we're all good, but I'm afraid one smack from the kids and the card may dislodge.

I have found an alternative that is likely perfect. Once I receive it and confirm it fits better, I'll post details. i recommend holding off on any HPT parts for now unless you're desperate.


----------



## mr.unnatural

scubastevexj said:


> Probably a good thing, its a delicate situation with that part. after dealing with comcast for several hours to pair the card, we're all good, but I'm afraid one smack from the kids and the card may dislodge.


I had thought about that if using just a bare right angle adapter such as the one discussed here. Once you get the card set up and running, put a dab of hot melt glue on each side of the card to hold it in place. You can easily remove the glue if you ever need to disconnect the card, but it should hold it securely and keep it from dislodging. OTOH, if you're concerned about the kids causing it physical harm, might I suggest placing it out of their reach so that it cannot happen?


----------



## dwatt

scubastevexj said:


> I have found an alternative that is likely perfect. Once I receive it and confirm it fits better, I'll post details. i recommend holding off on any HPT parts for now unless you're desperate.


I just placed an order for the part last night but I look forward to information about this new likely perfect part when you get it. The part itself was not expensive but it could be posted in the shipping costs more than the part thread.


----------



## lpax

I recommend ordering directly from samtec website. They are super nice people with great service. You might have to order a bunch of them though.  I think all their parts are made to order. Maybe it is possible to increase the length of the pins or height of the insulator for better fit.


----------



## Mikeyis4dcats

scubastevexj said:


> Probably a good thing, its a delicate situation with that part. after dealing with comcast for several hours to pair the card, we're all good, but I'm afraid one smack from the kids and the card may dislodge.
> 
> I have found an alternative that is likely perfect. Once I receive it and confirm it fits better, I'll post details. i recommend holding off on any HPT parts for now unless you're desperate.


were the comcast issues related to the card mounting or just an unrelated comcast issue?


----------



## scubastevexj

Mikeyis4dcats said:


> were the comcast issues related to the card mounting or just an unrelated comcast issue?


Comcast. It just is barley hanging in there and at the angle of the 134 it has some pressure when the door is closed. so if it were to push the back end of the card completely flat (up into the tivo) I imagine that the card would leverage the pins right out of the socket.

I am expecting the delivery of the other part Wednesday...

I think someone also mentioned that the Samtec folks are nice. they were very helpful.


----------



## scubastevexj

mr.unnatural said:


> ... OTOH, if you're concerned about the kids causing it physical harm, might I suggest placing it out of their reach so that it cannot happen?


LOL! If you have kids, I assume from your comment that you have well behaved perfect angels.  mine on the other hand, are capable of destruction that the mother of a wrecking ball could be proud of!.

in all seriousness, it is tucked away in the cubby, but I'm not as worried about the device, just that the card would hang in there.

no issue yet.:up:


----------



## scubastevexj

Ok, I think the new part i picked up is the next best thing to the original bracket... 

It's still not exactly Plug and Play, but I don't have any fear of it falling out now.

There may be other configurations that fit better, but this one works and i'm done messing with it.

Oh and if you fry your device or your cable company or Tivo or anyone else in the galaxy causes you grief, sues you, shuts off your device or your lifetime sub or sends aliens to your house, don't come bothering me. You assume all risk when YOU mess with your stuff. Please use common sense when attempting anything I share about my experiences...


Here is the part number, I ended up getting 4 of them incase I broke em, but the 1st was a success. 

PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL 
specs
suddendocs.samtec.com/catalog_english/pcmt.pdf

photo 1 modifications
photo 2 installed
photo 3 reference
photo 4 specs diagram from the link above with my markings

First, my PCMCIA (M card) was a tight fit. For some reason the pcmcia slot was making contact with the guide on the card that prevents it from being installed upside down. I don't think there is any other option for the part that would alleviate this any further and it might be perfectly normal. It just required a bit more force than I expected it to need in order to install it. I suppose you could cut the guard off and it would go on easier, but i had extras, so i just used force with no issues. It kind of snapped into place and that's possible a side effect of no ejector?

I had to cut the support feet off to allow the pins to mate correctly. (See Photo 3) There doesn't appear to be another part option where the pins are longer. (see photo 4).


----------



## scubastevexj

The distance between the pin rows is actually greater than needed. (see photo 1) Again, there doesn't appear to be another option to order that could make this any narrower. (see photo 4). At first i tried to insert the outside row and then press the card in, but i ended up just manually using a straight edge to bend the pins inward a little to narrow the gap. That allowed it to align much better, but it's definitely not plug n play.

Once it was mated with the tivo, i used 4 dabs of hot glue to hold it in place (see photo 2/3) 

then I inserted the M card, replaced door cover and plugged back in device. 

ta-da


Notes:

PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-03-SL might be a better fit for the card. As mentioned I had a little trouble actually inserting the pcmcia side. From what i can tell this is simply a length difference and nothing to do with the guides, but it was out when i tried to order.


----------



## Tweak42

scubastevexj said:


> Ok, I think the new part i picked up is the next best thing to the original bracket...
> 
> It's still not exactly Plug and Play, but I don't have any fear of it falling out now.
> 
> There may be other configurations that fit better, but this one works and i'm done messing with it.
> 
> Oh and if you fry your device or your cable company or Tivo or anyone else in the galaxy causes you grief, sues you, shuts off your device or your lifetime sub or sends aliens to your house, don't come bothering me. You assume all risk when YOU mess with your stuff. Please use common sense when attempting anything I share about my experiences...
> 
> Here is the part number, I ended up getting 4 of them incase I broke em, but the 1st was a success.
> 
> PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL
> specs
> suddendocs.samtec.com/catalog_english/pcmt.pdf


Sweet mod!  How much and where did you order your parts from?


----------



## lpax

Great find! Are the pin on the tivo side long enough? 
From the drawing they seemed a bit short.



scubastevexj said:


> Ok, I think the new part i picked up is the next best thing to the original bracket...
> 
> It's still not exactly Plug and Play, but I don't have any fear of it falling out now.
> 
> There may be other configurations that fit better, but this one works and i'm done messing with it.
> 
> Oh and if you fry your device or your cable company or Tivo or anyone else in the galaxy causes you grief, sues you, shuts off your device or your lifetime sub or sends aliens to your house, don't come bothering me. You assume all risk when YOU mess with your stuff. Please use common sense when attempting anything I share about my experiences...
> 
> Here is the part number, I ended up getting 4 of them incase I broke em, but the 1st was a success.
> 
> PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL
> specs
> suddendocs.samtec.com/catalog_english/pcmt.pdf
> 
> photo 1 modifications
> photo 2 installed
> photo 3 reference
> photo 4 specs diagram from the link above with my markings
> 
> First, my PCMCIA (M card) was a tight fit. For some reason the pcmcia slot was making contact with the guide on the card that prevents it from being installed upside down. I don't think there is any other option for the part that would alleviate this any further and it might be perfectly normal. It just required a bit more force than I expected it to need in order to install it. I suppose you could cut the guard off and it would go on easier, but i had extras, so i just used force with no issues. It kind of snapped into place and that's possible a side effect of no ejector?
> 
> I had to cut the support feet off to allow the pins to mate correctly. (See Photo 3) There doesn't appear to be another part option where the pins are longer. (see photo 4).


----------



## scubastevexj

lpax said:


> Great find! Are the pin on the tivo side long enough?
> From the drawing they seemed a bit short.


Yes, that's why i removed the feet on the bracket so that the pins seated well into the tivo. It fits great and allows the bracket to be glues to the metal frame easier.


----------



## scubastevexj

Tweak42 said:


> Sweet mod!  How much and where did you order your parts from?


Thank you. I just googled the part number after I put it together based on the diagram. Says 6 week lead time now, I might have bought the last ones?

Anyway, they were about $10 each plus shipping.

I suppose if someone wanted one of my extra's I could work something out, pm me if interested?


----------



## aebarto11

I have been researching this topic for awhile now on the forums. Just a quick question. I have two brand new Roamio OTA's, our cable service provider is Cox. Will I be able to install the PCMCIA adapters, insert the card, and go though normal setup steps just as if I had a regular Tivo that came with cable card ability? Or are there any additional "tricks" to make the OTA units work with cable? 


Thanks for the valuable information - hoping this works!


----------



## scubastevexj

aebarto11 said:


> I have been researching this topic for awhile now on the forums. Just a quick question. I have two brand new Roamio OTA's, our cable service provider is Cox. Will I be able to install the PCMCIA adapters, insert the card, and go though normal setup steps just as if I had a regular Tivo that came with cable card ability? Or are there any additional "tricks" to make the OTA units work with cable?
> 
> Also - I found the adapters here: www.onlinecomponents.com. It says they have over 5000 in stock and can ship same day at $6.15 each plus shipping.
> 
> Thanks for the valuable information - hoping this works!


Setup is the same, just select cable during guided setup. You can connect a mini to the Roamio OTA as well. I had to go into settings and make the Roamio contact tivo in order for the mini to see it on a hardwired network. After that everything worked including on demand.

Myy only issue now is to find a good hdmi switching device i can control with my tivo remote or my tv remote so i can have my PC, Tivo and Fire TV all connected with only two physical tv inputs.

good luck...


----------



## NCSU2008

aebarto11 said:


> I have been researching this topic for awhile now on the forums. Just a quick question. I have two brand new Roamio OTA's, our cable service provider is Cox. Will I be able to install the PCMCIA adapters, insert the card, and go though normal setup steps just as if I had a regular Tivo that came with cable card ability? Or are there any additional "tricks" to make the OTA units work with cable?
> 
> Also - I found the adapters here: www.onlinecomponents.com. It says they have over 5000 in stock and can ship same day at $6.15 each plus shipping.
> 
> Thanks for the valuable information - hoping this works!


6 week wait now. and $50 minimum order. and price went up to 8 and change now. triple whammy


----------



## NCSU2008

Scuba, only have 3 as of now posts so i cant respond. I logged on to message you though, so your message was well timed, lol.

Interested. $20? I was going to respond with "i am guessing one with cut legs is better"

If 25 firm, still interested. Message me at jay o sssss h period marc zero(minus the z) at gmail or three 3 six 6 eight 4 5 0ne 44

First name.last [email protected]

Or just pm me again here with what you think is my contact info and i will post si o no


----------



## scubastevexj

NCSU2008 said:


> Scuba, only have 3 as of now posts so i cant respond. I logged on to message you though, so your message was well timed, lol.
> 
> Interested. $20? I was going to respond with "i am guessing one with cut legs is better"
> 
> If 25 firm, still interested. Message me at jay o sssss h period marc zero(minus the z) at gmail or three 3 six 6 eight 4 5 0ne 44
> 
> First name.last [email protected]
> 
> Or just pm me again here with what you think is my contact info and i will post si o no


Shipping Monday thx


----------



## NCSU2008

Cant wait to get this hooked up when i move to austin thanks


----------



## dmort

does anyone have an extra one of these they'd be willing to sell? i'd be willing to do $25 or so to cover the part and shipping.

i tried ordering one from AVNet however it appears they've cancelled my order.


----------



## scubastevexj

dmort said:


> does anyone have an extra one of these they'd be willing to sell? i'd be willing to do $25 or so to cover the part and shipping.
> 
> i tried ordering one from AVNet however it appears they've cancelled my order.


pm sent


----------



## cp2k

Does transplanting the cable card adapter from a Roamio Basic require any special tools, or just standard screwdrivers? It's taken me awhile but I finally have rounded up two Roamio basics to be donors for my Roamio OTA's with lifetime. I figured if I need any special tools I need to round those up before they arrive.


----------



## foghorn2

mini philips is all you need


----------



## dwatt

I ordered my PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL from Quest Components and it arrived yesterday. Getting ready to do the mod and noticed that all of the pins on mine are the same length. The end and center pins are NOT longer than the others as shown in Scuba's pictures. Is there anything I need to do different or anything that I can't do because of the pin lengths?


----------



## mdavej

I think the different length pins are so the contacts make/break in the correct order when hot swapping. To be on the safe side, unplug your Tivo before inserting the card.


----------



## dwatt

I wonder why I received different pin lengths than Scuba for the same part number?


----------



## lpax

dwatt, on the tivo side all the pins are same length. Are you talking about them?


dwatt said:


> I wonder why I received different pin lengths than Scuba for the same part number?


----------



## dwatt

Just looked at the part again. The tivo side does have the same pin lengths and the card side does have the differing length pins. I confused myself with the 90 degree pin adapter part also shown in Scuba's pictures which I also bought but am choosing not to use because I bought the part with the card holder.


----------



## lpax

FYI, I was not able to insert this part successfully on the Tivo side. Even on Cablecard side it is a bit tough. I am continuing using the old part, only issue is that I have to keep the tivo upside down. I will be looking out for cheap tivo basic(for parts) on ebay/craigslist etc.



dwatt said:


> Just looked at the part again. The tivo side does have the same pin lengths and the card side does have the differing length pins. I confused myself with the 90 degree pin adapter part also shown in Scuba's pictures which I also bought but am choosing not to use because I bought the part with the card holder.


----------



## dwatt

lpax said:


> FYI, I was not able to insert this part successfully on the Tivo side. Even on Cablecard side it is a bit tough. I am continuing using the old part, only issue is that I have to keep the tivo upside down. I will be looking out for cheap tivo basic(for parts) on ebay/craigslist etc.


I got it successfully inserted on the tivo side but did not have the cable card side in far enough. Turns out it had to push in another eighth to 3 sixteenths to seat the cable card and I had to put the bracket against the kitchen counter and push really really hard to get it there. After I got it seated on the card side I have been unable to get the tivo side seated. And that is after 6 to 8 hours of multiple attempts and pin bending.

I will try the other old part for now. I wonder if Scuba can pass along any learned techniques so as to shallow/shorten our learning curve.


----------



## scubastevexj

dwatt said:


> I got it successfully inserted on the tivo side but did not have the cable card side in far enough. Turns out it had to push in another eighth to 3 sixteenths to seat the cable card and I had to put the bracket against the kitchen counter and push really really hard to get it there. After I got it seated on the card side I have been unable to get the tivo side seated. And that is after 6 to 8 hours of multiple attempts and pin bending.
> 
> I will try the other old part for now. I wonder if Scuba can pass along any learned techniques so as to shallow/shorten our learning curve.


For PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Don't force the card in and don't push the pins against anything trying to force the card in. I used my thumb and index finger on each side of the adapter and card to squeeze it together. You should hear a snapping click sound when it's fully seated the grounding strip also is nearly not visible once it's fully inserted. I took mine out and shaved a bit of plastic where I thought it was contacting, but it didn't change anything. It's why they make them with ejectors!

As for the TiVo side do not just try to force it. What I did was I bent the pins a little bit but pressing them (outside row/front side away from the card) toward the inside row. Don't try to bend the inside row. They don't need to go far. What I did was use a straight edge and pressed them in a bit. This take a lot of force to do them all at once, so I ended undoing groups of 2 or 3. Press closer to the bend and press the pin end inward to the point where they meet the back row. That seemed to be the sweet spot to get them to actually bend. They have a pretty good memory and wanted to bounce back. They don't need much. Dry fit to check alignment and repeat as necessary. That process took me about 5 minutes for reference.

After you get them bent and in a fairly straight row, start but approaching the TiVo at 45 degrees. Do this to align the front row in the TiVo, start them in the holes and then swing the card and back down like a hinge to align the back row. Press them in firmly, but don't force and bend a pin. You might be able to use this process without bending the pins, but it would be difficult.

Good luck.


----------



## tino1968

Do you have any of these left, I would do $25 as well. Cannot PM directly.



scubastevexj said:


> For PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Don't force the card in and don't push the pins against anything trying to force the card in. I used my thumb and index finger on each side of the adapter and card to squeeze it together. You should hear a snapping click sound when it's fully seated the grounding strip also is nearly not visible once it's fully inserted. I took mine out and shaved a bit of plastic where I thought it was contacting, but it didn't change anything. It's why they make them with ejectors!
> 
> As for the TiVo side do not just try to force it. What I did was I bent the pins a little bit but pressing them (outside row/front side away from the card) toward the inside row. Don't try to bend the inside row. They don't need to go far. What I did was use a straight edge and pressed them in a bit. This take a lot of force to do them all at once, so I ended undoing groups of 2 or 3. Press closer to the bend and press the pin end inward to the point where they meet the back row. That seemed to be the sweet spot to get them to actually bend. They have a pretty good memory and wanted to bounce back. They don't need much. Dry fit to check alignment and repeat as necessary. That process took me about 5 minutes for reference.
> 
> After you get them bent and in a fairly straight row, start but approaching the TiVo at 45 degrees. Do this to align the front row in the TiVo, start them in the holes and then swing the card and back down like a hinge to align the back row. Press them in firmly, but don't force and bend a pin. You might be able to use this process without bending the pins, but it would be difficult.
> 
> Good luck.


----------



## scubastevexj

tino1968 said:


> Do you have any of these left, I would do $25 as well. Cannot PM directly.


Only 1, I want to hang onto it for now, sorry.


----------



## dmort

I have a couple extra of these now as well.. would do $25 each

Email:

<my username>@thenullroute.net

since I'm not able to PM.


----------



## tboydva

So, a lightning strike on my house (and subsequent fire and 10,000 gallons of water) left me without any tivos (fried my two minis and my bolt). Ordered the OTA with pure ignorance (every Tivo I've ever had came with cable card slot). I was dumbfounded... I never remembered removing the bracket, but figured that's what was needed. Anyway, in this case, ignorance is bliss. Fit perfectly. Perhaps purchasing a "dead" bolt or other TiVo from eBay would be an option?


----------



## crableg

I have a Roamio OTA. I want to try to pick up a used Tivo to scrounge the cable card bracket from it and add it to my OTA. 

Can anyone tell me which older Tivo models have a cable card bracket that would be compatible with the OTA (besides the Romio Basic)?
Thanks for any help


----------



## HarperVision

crableg said:


> I have a Roamio OTA. I want to try to pick up a used Tivo to scrounge the cable card bracket from it and add it to my OTA. Can anyone tell me which older Tivo models have a cable card bracket that would be compatible with the OTA (besides the Romio Basic)? Thanks for any help


Any of the non OTA Roamio series boxes and a Bolt.


----------



## Richdmoore

I have been reading this thread with interest. Recently I just put in (and it was accepted) an offer on a new house on the other side of town.

Looking at antenna web, there is no way an indoor antenna will work, so i was thinking of getting the comcast internet bundle with 10 channels instead for an extra $10 (on top of the internet fees.)

The issue is that I have a lifetime roamio ota. Has tivo still blocked this mod of adding a cablecars slot? is there any good way to get these parts other than buying a $70-$90 used tivo from eBay yet? How easy is this mod for a non technical person to do?

Thanks for any help?


----------



## scubastevexj

Richdmoore said:


> I have been reading this thread with interest. Recently I just put in (and it was accepted) an offer on a new house on the other side of town.
> 
> Looking at antenna web, there is no way an indoor antenna will work, so i was thinking of getting the comcast internet bundle with 10 channels instead for an extra $10 (on top of the internet fees.)
> 
> The issue is that I have a lifetime roamio ota. Has tivo still blocked this mod of adding a cablecars slot? is there any good way to get these parts other than buying a $70-$90 used tivo from eBay yet? How easy is this mod for a non technical person to do?
> 
> Thanks for any help?


If you read through the thread, there are several options for your lifetime Roamio OTA. 
No tivo Interruption at this point


----------



## HarperVision

Richdmoore said:


> I have been reading this thread with interest. Recently I just put in (and it was accepted) an offer on a new house on the other side of town. Looking at antenna web, there is no way an indoor antenna will work, so i was thinking of getting the comcast internet bundle with 10 channels instead for an extra $10 (on top of the internet fees.) The issue is that I have a lifetime roamio ota. Has tivo still blocked this mod of adding a cablecars slot? is there any good way to get these parts other than buying a $70-$90 used tivo from eBay yet? How easy is this mod for a non technical person to do? Thanks for any help?


I just did this last night with a Roamio OTA that I got with lifetime. It all went off without a hitch activating a Motorola cablecard through Comcast. Super easy with four screws on the bracket and called their cablecard hotline. I was up and watching cable tv on it within half an hour.


----------



## Richdmoore

scubastevexj said:


> If you read through the thread, there are several options for your lifetime Roamio OTA.
> No tivo Interruption at this point





HarperVision said:


> I just did this last night with a Roamio OTA that I got with lifetime. It all went off without a hitch activating a Motorola cablecard through Comcast. Super easy with four screws on the bracket and called their cablecard hotline. I was up and watching cable tv on it within half an hour.


Thanks. I will just have to try and snag a dead/used tivo on eBay/craigslist when I have the time then.


----------



## Tweak42

Richdmoore said:


> I have been reading this thread with interest. Recently I just put in (and it was accepted) an offer on a new house on the other side of town.
> 
> Looking at antenna web, there is no way an indoor antenna will work, so i was thinking of getting the comcast internet bundle with 10 channels instead for an extra $10 (on top of the internet fees.)
> 
> The issue is that I have a lifetime roamio ota. Has tivo still blocked this mod of adding a cablecars slot? is there any good way to get these parts other than buying a $70-$90 used tivo from eBay yet? How easy is this mod for a non technical person to do?
> 
> Thanks for any help?


I bought a Roamio Basic off Craigslist because I could physically verify that the bracket was included. The guy didn't have the correct power supply or remote, but he dropped the price to $35 when I mentioned that. Our OTA has worked fine ever since.


----------



## hicksville

Several part numbers were mentioned in the thread. Is there any consensus now about the best one to try to order? Thx


----------



## scubastevexj

hicksville said:


> Several part numbers were mentioned in the thread. Is there any consensus now about the best one to try to order? Thx


IMO

1. Salvage roamio

2. PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL


----------



## OCCanuck99

Has anyone else had luck getting this to work? I bought an old Roamio from ebay and transferred the Cablecard plug into my lifetime OTA. After completing the guided setup it gets stuck downloading the channel listing at 72%. I have tried three different cablecards from Time Warner with the same results. They now want to send a technician to see if there is a problem with the line. I don't want to get charged for the visit when they see that I am using a modified device. 

Thanks.


----------



## HarperVision

OCCanuck99 said:


> Has anyone else had luck getting this to work? I bought an old Roamio from ebay and transferred the Cablecard plug into my lifetime OTA. After completing the guided setup it gets stuck downloading the channel listing at 72%. I have tried three different cablecards from Time Warner with the same results. They now want to send a technician to see if there is a problem with the line. I don't want to get charged for the visit when they see that I am using a modified device. Thanks.


I recall reading there's a known issue involving getting to 72% and it failing. Search for "72%" and see what pops up. I don't think it's related to cablecard, other than a provisioning or pairing issue. Doing what you did should work fine. I just did it for my daughter and it went extremely well. Time Warner has no way of knowing you're using a "modified device". Heck, they barely even know what a TiVo IS let alone the model differences!


----------



## hummingbird_206

OCCanuck99 said:


> Has anyone else had luck getting this to work? I bought an old Roamio from ebay and transferred the Cablecard plug into my lifetime OTA. After completing the guided setup it gets stuck downloading the channel listing at 72%. I have tried three different cablecards from Time Warner with the same results. They now want to send a technician to see if there is a problem with the line. I don't want to get charged for the visit when they see that I am using a modified device.
> 
> Thanks.


I have Comcast, and I saw the same thing, the cable card reporting 72% complete. However I just ignored that, did the guided setup, and things are working fine. Note though that I have limited basic cable (mostly just the locals and no paid channels.)


----------



## OCCanuck99

Thanks Harper. 

Maybe I will put the OTA into the regular case so that the tech won't know 

Getting the cablecard to work is a frustrating endeavor. I have read the other forum posts on trying to get them validated and/or paired and the troubles that others have had.


----------



## HarperVision

OCCanuck99 said:


> Thanks Harper. Maybe I will put the OTA into the regular case so that the tech won't know
> 
> Getting the cablecard to work is a frustrating endeavor. I have read the other forum posts on trying to get them validated and/or paired and the troubles that others have had.


Don't even bother. I guarantee you they won't notice!

Have you tried calling the time warner Cablecard hotline to have it provisioned and paired properly? Google search it as I'm not able to myself while I'm running around at work! Or someone here may chime in.


----------



## dlfl

HarperVision said:


> ............
> Have you tried calling the time warner Cablecard hotline to have it provisioned and paired properly? Google search it as I'm not able to myself while I'm running around at work! Or someone here may chime in.


866.532.2598

Fingers crossed that Spectrum keeps this unit going. It must cost a lot because they told me it has ~30 employees. (I find this high number hard to believe, but they do keep long hours, I.e., multiple shifts.)


----------



## HarperVision

dlfl said:


> 866.532.2598 Fingers crossed that Spectrum keeps this unit going. It must cost a lot because they told me it has ~30 employees. (I find this high number hard to believe, but they do keep long hours, I.e., multiple shifts.)


Thanks! Maybe it's still cheaper than the costly truck rolls some of these easy to fix over the phone cases would've caused?


----------



## Dan203

Charter doesn't currently offer a CableCARD line and if the tech on the phone can't get it paired on the first try you usually have to deal with a truck roll as subsequent attempts to call will also fail. In my experience the tech will show up, call some special tech line on their phone and it will be working in a couple minutes. Why they don't allow customers to call that special tech line directly I don't know.


----------



## series5orpremier

Dan203 said:


> Why they don't allow customers to call that special tech line directly I don't know.


So they can try to charge you a ridiculous amount for the truck roll, which they will unless you complain.


----------



## Dan203

They no longer charge for the truck roll. Or at least they haven't for the last few I've had. But it's still a PITA to deal with when you know the tech on the phone just screwed something up.


----------



## OCCanuck99

After fighting with half a dozen tech support staff they want to roll a truck. It will cost $40 if it is something that isn't their fault. I don't care about the money, I am just annoyed at Time Warner's (now charter) incompetence. 

With the Cablecard removed the Tivo finds 400+ stations, so I am getting a signal. I am guessing that something isn't setup correctly in the billing department.


----------



## HarperVision

OCCanuck99 said:


> After fighting with half a dozen tech support staff they want to roll a truck. It will cost $40 if it is something that isn't their fault. I don't care about the money, I am just annoyed at Time Warner's (now charter) incompetence. With the Cablecard removed the Tivo finds 400+ stations, so I am getting a signal. I am guessing that something isn't setup correctly in the billing department.


Your guess is most likely 99.9% correct. Have you called their Cablecard hotline number or was this with just the plain old CSR line?


----------



## Bluerhino

Hi, I am new to this forum. I am wondering whether I should buy a TiVo OTA with life time and try the cable card in it or a regular TiVo OTA will do the tRick?


----------



## atmuscarella

Bluerhino said:


> Hi, I am new to this forum. I am wondering whether I should buy a TiVo OTA with life time and try the cable card in it or a regular TiVo OTA will do the tRick?


A Roamio OTA does not have a cable card reader in it, but does have the physical space to put one in. What is being talking about is removing one from another model and putting it into a Roamio OTA. Unless you want to do that you need to buy a different model if you want to use it with digital cable. With the exception of the Roamio OTA, all other Premiere/Roamio/Bolt models will work with digital cable (and they all require a cable card to do so).


----------



## scotisle

I can attest that transferring bracket from Roamio to OTA will work. 

I also have a PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL part. It just arrived, but the wife wasn't content to wait. $25 + shipping to first person to IM me. 

I ordered from Digikey. I ordered on 7/22 and the part came on 8/27.


----------



## Richdmoore

I just wanted to report back that robbing the part from an out of service Roamio and then adding it to the Roamio OTA worked perfectly for me.

I simply put in the card, saw the numbers needed on the screen, and went to the Comcast cablecard internet web site (on my iPad) to activate the card.

Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## JBinSD

Does anyone have a pic of the back of their Roamio OTA with the cable card inserted? I'm not seeing where I can do this on my OTA, . . .
[sorry, I know pic is upside-down]


----------



## krkaufman

JBinSD said:


> Does anyone have a pic of the back of their Roamio OTA with the cable card inserted? I'm not seeing where I can do this on my OTA, . . .
> [sorry, I know pic is *upside-down*]


Not upside-down enough!!  You'll want to be careful (or avoid!!) shifting the DVR around while it's powered-on, but you're looking for the door on the underside of the Roamio.

Once you open it up, what you'll see is similar to a pic posted up-thread, here -- but lacking the CableCARD bracket.

edit: p.s. Ah, you can find a pic of the Roamio OTA's empty CableCARD bay in post #147, here; and a pic of the BOLT's also usable CableCARD bracket, here.


----------



## JBinSD

Thanks, I didn't think to check underneath (duh). So if the cablecard bay is under the unit, how would I feed it two RF's? or would I need to elect either OTA or Cable? (This is probably in the referenced-thread).


----------



## dwatt

The Roamio OTA with a cable card is either/or not both at the same time. You will need to chose cable channels with the card or ota channels without. Choice is made during guided setup.


----------



## krkaufman

JBinSD said:


> Thanks, I didn't think to check underneath (duh). So if the cablecard bay is under the unit, how would I feed it two RF's? or would I need to elect either OTA or Cable? (This is probably in the referenced-thread).


What dwatt said, unlike the earlier models, it's either/or.

You'll want to double-check but I just wanted to make clear that your Roamio OTA likely will NOT have the necessary CableCARD bracket; you'd need to scavenge a bracket from a basic Roamio or a BOLT, and transplant it into your OTA.


----------



## JBinSD

Roger that, thanks guys. Guess my debate is whether its worth about $25/mo. to avoid being subject to meteoric changes and pixelated TV. . . usually the answer is "yes", but its always a tease to get clean, clear, uncompressed pics free OTA.


----------



## JBinSD

Just googled the part "PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL", most are out of stock, and the one I found didn't have pics, can anyone confirm this will work for a Roamio OTA? Its only $11 plus shipping, seems better than buying a used basic. . .


----------



## krkaufman

JBinSD said:


> Just googled the part "PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL", most are out of stock, and the one I found didn't have pics, can anyone confirm this will work for a Roamio OTA? Its only $11 plus shipping, seems better than buying a used basic. . .


You'll want to hear from someone with actual experience, but my recollection is that, even if/when available, those adapters don't necessarily ship too quickly.

There's always Craigslist or eBay as sources for basic Roamios or BOLTs. Or maybe post to the "buy/sell" thread and someone with a basic in OTA mode might be willing to part with their adapter.


----------



## HarperVision

JBinSD said:


> ..... . . usually the answer is "yes", but its always a tease to get clean, clear, uncompressed pics free OTA.


Why do people always say that? When I worked at our local NBC affiliate we broadcast our main NBC channel at about 12.5Mbps of the 19.2Mbps available. Sounds pretty compressed to me. We threw an SD sub channel in the remaining area. I'm sure it's much worse now since they cram a lot more sub channels in there than they did back then.


----------



## JBinSD

Most of my major networks have about 3-5 sub channels, but the image (when I get a clean signal) is better than the alleged 1080p of TW. I have a 120" 1080p front projector and a 70" 4k TV, so clarity is great, but the pixelation/distortion is also amplifed. . . I need to brush up on increasing my antenna amplification, or ditching to go back to cable. . .


----------



## HarperVision

JBinSD said:


> Most of my major networks have about 3-5 sub channels, but the image (when I get a clean signal) is better than the alleged 1080p of TW. I have a 120" 1080p front projector and a 70" 4k TV, so clarity is great, but the pixelation/distortion is also amplifed. . . I need to brush up on increasing my antenna amplification, or ditching to go back to cable. . .


Yeah I'm sure it is. FYI, TWC doesn't broadcast cable channels in 1080p, it's 1080i. (Or 720p, 480p). If you're getting pixelation and distortion it could be a low signal OR a signal that's too high. How close are you to the towers and what does your signal strength meter say?


----------



## OCCanuck99

Quick follow up. I left the Tivo with cablecard installed running for a few weeks without using it. Checked the other day and it was suddenly working with the local channels . Logged into twc.com/cablecard and input the info it required and a few hours later I am good to go. 

It took forever but this does work. Worth it to save $25 a month on their crappy dvrs


----------



## JBinSD

HarperVision said:


> Yeah I'm sure it is. FYI, TWC doesn't broadcast cable channels in 1080p, it's 1080i. (Or 720p, 480p). If you're getting pixelation and distortion it could be a low signal OR a signal that's too high. How close are you to the towers and what does your signal strength meter say?


Sorry, have been away from TCF for a bit. I"m about 45 miles from the major towers, so my signal strength is in the 60's for most major networks. Its a tease, as I "mostly" get a clear signal. My family mostly watches Netflix,some sitcoms and I watch football on Sunday, so our needs are fairly simple, but we are on the fringe for reception. I have a CM 4228 bowtie and a VHF with an amp, but its not quite enough. Will consider going back to basic cable if I can get the Roamio OTA to accept a cable card I guess. . .


----------



## buyerseller

I see that basic Roamio and Bolt have correct pcmcia adapter. Any other unit have correct cable card bracketry?


----------



## Mikeyis4dcats

are there any current places to get the bracket? I've googled and came up OOS everywhere I checked


----------



## cnewsgrp

All - Today there is a great deal on Tivo Roamio OTA with ALL-IN for 200. I jumped in with the intent of converting my OTA to Basic. After reading this thread here is what I think I need to do. Please let me know if anything is incorrect
1) Buy Tivo Roamio Basic from ebay (DONE: I bought TIVO Roamio Basic from ebay)
2) Open Back of my OTA and transfer bracket from Tivo basic to OTA
Question: Should I plug in and activate my Tivo first? or I just put the bracket in directly and then activate Tivo)
3) Run cable setup


----------



## krkaufman

cnewsgrp said:


> 2) Open Back of my OTA and transfer bracket from Tivo basic to OTA


The door for the CableCARD bracket is on the bottom of the 4-tuner Roamios, but the above should get you there. Makes sense to get the bracket installed and do it all just once, if you can, especially since the bracket install isn't too risky.


----------



## cnewsgrp

krkaufman said:


> The door for the CableCARD bracket is on the bottom of the 4-tuner Roamios, but the above should get you there. Makes sense to get the bracket installed and do it all just once, if you can, especially since the bracket install isn't too risky.


Thanks.

Anyone think its a bad idea for me to first transfer bracket from Another Tivo and then activate my Tivo?

To summarize here is what I will do

1) Open the TiVo I bought from Ebay. Take the bracket out
2) Open the TiVO OTA with lifetime. Install Bracket and Put Cable Card in.
3) Start Tivo - I have not used Tivo for 10 years now, but I expect it will first walk me through Cable Card Activation and then Channel Setup

All - Please let me know if I am what I am planning will not work. New to Tivo so help is appreciated


----------



## NoVa

Will this mod work on VZ FIOS?
Trying to see if I can work on this for my parents so they can get out of their Fios STB by Xmas.


----------



## mdavej

cnewsgrp said:


> Thanks.
> 
> Anyone think its a bad idea for me to first transfer bracket from Another Tivo and then activate my Tivo?
> 
> To summarize here is what I will do
> 
> 1) Open the TiVo I bought from Ebay. Take the bracket out
> 2) Open the TiVO OTA with lifetime. Install Bracket and Put Cable Card in.
> 3) Start Tivo - I have not used Tivo for 10 years now, but I expect it will first walk me through Cable Card Activation and then Channel Setup
> 
> All - Please let me know if I am what I am planning will not work. New to Tivo so help is appreciated


That will work fine.



NoVa said:


> Will this mod work on VZ FIOS?
> Trying to see if I can work on this for my parents so they can get out of their Fios STB by Xmas.


This will also work fine.


----------



## krkaufman

cnewsgrp said:


> I have not used Tivo for 10 years now, but I expect it will first walk me through Cable Card Activation and then Channel Setup


When going through Guided Setup for the first time, you can skip the CableCARD activation steps. Once the box is fully updated (through any initial software updates, etc) you can then perform the CableCARD setup.

Either way will work.


----------



## krkaufman

NoVa said:


> Will this mod work on VZ FIOS?


Verizon FiOS requires a CableCARD-capable TiVo. The above mod relates to transplanting a compatible CableCARD bracket into a Roamio OTA to make it CableCARD-capable.


----------



## Nickie

Does anyone have any of these brackets around that they would be willing to sell? I have checked the websites mentioned here and all are out of stock. Also checked ebay for a used Roamio but the cheapest I could find was about 80 with shipping. We just bought the Roamio OTA and were not at first going to continue cable but comcast gave us a good deal, now we have the Roamio OTA but cannot use it with a cable card as is. Thank you


----------



## NoVa

mdavej said:


> This will also work fine.


Thanks for the confirm!



krkaufman said:


> Verizon FiOS requires a CableCARD-capable TiVo. The above mod relates to transplanting a compatible CableCARD bracket into a Roamio OTA to make it CableCARD-capable.


Yeah, I wasn't sure if VZ used cable card as I am on CC myself but parents are on VZ.

Thanks for info!


----------



## rockstar72

Nickie said:


> Does anyone have any of these brackets around that they would be willing to sell? I have checked the websites mentioned here and all are out of stock. Also checked ebay for a used Roamio but the cheapest I could find was about 80 with shipping. We just bought the Roamio OTA and were not at first going to continue cable but comcast gave us a good deal, now we have the Roamio OTA but cannot use it with a cable card as is. Thank you


I've got some due to arrive on Monday. Had to order several to meet the minimum order. Check with me next week.


----------



## themaxx69

I ordered some extra brackets also. I should have a few if someone wants them. Will update later. Just got the tivos in today. Will play with them tomorrow maybe.


----------



## namwen

Hi themaxx69,
Can you please tell me where you ordered the brackets from and the part number? Thanks!


----------



## themaxx69

namwen said:


> Hi themaxx69,
> Can you please tell me where you ordered the brackets from and the part number? Thanks!


Avnet PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL


----------



## gilbreen

themaxx69,

I would be interested in a bracket. I have sent you a PM.

Thanks!


----------



## mikey1299!

I ordered the bracket, installed it and the cable card and went to set it up and I am getting a 'No cable card installed' message. Any tips?


----------



## dwatt

mikey1299! said:


> I ordered the bracket, installed it and the cable card and went to set it up and I am getting a 'No cable card installed' message. Any tips?


 The pins may not be all seated correctly. Remove it and reinstall until it shows installed. This is the main issue with the third party different from the OEM bracket. The pins are shorter and at a different spacing between the rows and it is lacking the attachment points to the case.


----------



## ZRO

themaxx69 said:


> I ordered some extra brackets also. I should have a few if someone wants them. Will update later. Just got the tivos in today. Will play with them tomorrow maybe.


Hello to themaxx69 and rockstar72,

I'd be interested in buying a bracket if you have one available, will PM.

Thanks!


----------



## JohnKimble

just installed that samtec bracket and it was really annoying. I'd definitely recommend looking for a unit to salvage first if the price is right just to avoid the frustration.

Before you start make sure you have a dremel and a pair of magnifiers.

A dremel to remove the feet on the bracket and to smooth the insides of the tracks so the card slides in. If I were to start over I'd probably focus more on this first since I didnt realize how deep the card needs to slide into the bracket.(all the way)

Since the gap between the pin rows is slightly larger than the connector on the tivo you'll need to bend the pins slightly in (don't mess with the pins closest to the bracket) Using a pair of magnifiers to see better and align the pins is easy after that. I also individually pressed the outer pins in deeper into the holes with a small flathead screw driver, not sure if this is needed but afterward the bracket was pretty snug and definitely not going anywhere.

good luck


----------



## cnewsgrp

themaxx69 said:


> I ordered some extra brackets also. I should have a few if someone wants them. Will update later. Just got the tivos in today. Will play with them tomorrow maybe.


Which one did you order? samtec?
PM me I am interested


----------



## themaxx69

Yes, this is turning out to be very frustrating. In addition to cutting the posts on the bracket and bending the pins, I had cut a notch on one side of the cable card to get it to go in the bracket. And popping the card in the bracket is a [email protected]#ch! Cannot be done with the bracket in the box. So every time I need to remove the card, I have to pull the bracket off which means carefully realigning the pins while putting it back in! 

So, got it all in, done right?? NOT! Card is detected and did some kinda multi screen firmware update, but after 3+ hours of tech support and 2 cards, no channels work. 

BAM! As I am writing this, I was trying this all in the second roamio I got and it worked! Great. Now I need to figure out why the other one didn't work. I don't wanna risk unpairing this working card and box just to have them possibly screw it up again......


----------



## Treyyy

rockstar72 said:


> I've got some due to arrive on Monday. Had to order several to meet the minimum order. Check with me next week.


Any luck? If you've still got an extra bracket I'd love to buy it from you


----------



## pluto

scubastevexj said:


> For PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Don't force the card in and don't push the pins against anything trying to force the card in. I used my thumb and index finger on each side of the adapter and card to squeeze it together. You should hear a snapping click sound when it's fully seated the grounding strip also is nearly not visible once it's fully inserted. I took mine out and shaved a bit of plastic where I thought it was contacting, but it didn't change anything. It's why they make them with ejectors!
> 
> As for the TiVo side do not just try to force it. What I did was I bent the pins a little bit but pressing them (outside row/front side away from the card) toward the inside row. Don't try to bend the inside row. They don't need to go far. What I did was use a straight edge and pressed them in a bit. This take a lot of force to do them all at once, so I ended undoing groups of 2 or 3. Press closer to the bend and press the pin end inward to the point where they meet the back row. That seemed to be the sweet spot to get them to actually bend. They have a pretty good memory and wanted to bounce back. They don't need much. Dry fit to check alignment and repeat as necessary. That process took me about 5 minutes for reference.
> 
> After you get them bent and in a fairly straight row, start but approaching the TiVo at 45 degrees. Do this to align the front row in the TiVo, start them in the holes and then swing the card and back down like a hinge to align the back row. Press them in firmly, but don't force and bend a pin. You might be able to use this process without bending the pins, but it would be difficult.
> 
> Good luck.


If I followed this thread accurately - no one has an exact replacement for the Tivo TCD 846500 cable card holder?


----------



## ph7

rockstar72 said:


> I've got some due to arrive on Monday. Had to order several to meet the minimum order. Check with me next week.


 I'd like to purchase an extra bracket from you or anyone else offering. Pls PM me.


----------



## pylo

Hello everyone, I have a delema trying to figure out if my unit it bad, I have an Roamio OTA with all in, I also got a cable card bracket off a Roamio. After 4 cable cards later, various trips to comcast to return and get replacement cards, plenty of time on phone with techs, various setup as cable I have not been able to pair this unit. It works perfect in atenna. I have read and checked all the info on this forum in regards to the mcard menu / status. All the testing / attempted pairing was done on the cable line that I have a bolt now working on. 

I also have a bolt with all in and the one paired first try.

Only thing I have not tried is remove the paired (working card from bolt) and try on the OTA


----------



## krkaufman

pluto said:


> If I followed this thread accurately - no one has an exact replacement for the Tivo TCD 846500 cable card holder?


Other than scavenging a bracket from a base Roamio (TCD846500) or a BOLT, no.


----------



## eric102

pylo said:


> Hello everyone, I have a delema trying to figure out if my unit it bad, I have an Roamio OTA with all in, I also got a cable card bracket off a Roamio. After 4 cable cards later, various trips to comcast to return and get replacement cards, plenty of time on phone with techs, various setup as cable I have not been able to pair this unit. It works perfect in atenna. I have read and checked all the info on this forum in regards to the mcard menu / status. All the testing / attempted pairing was done on the cable line that I have a bolt now working on.
> 
> I also have a bolt with all in and the one paired first try.
> 
> Only thing I have not tried is remove the paired (working card from bolt) and try on the OTA


I wonder if Tivo is doing something to disable the cable card function on these recent OTA refurbs? Has anyone succesfully done it on the White Sale units?


----------



## pylo

Finally got it working, 3 days on this hour or so a day... This is what I ended up doing. Still on same 4th cable card. I removed the card one last time, removed an original roamio bracket and checked to make sure no pins were damaged. All was good, reinstalled it and placed screws back in. Did a complete delete and clear or whatever its called and started a new set up. Choose cable, typed in settings on web to pair and it failed, nothing new. Figured I call comcast one last time since I was just going to send tivo back at this point cause I had spent to much time on this. Plan was to ask comcast to swap my cards from working unit but, I never got to that as the tech on the second try paired it... WTH

Only thing different was I removed and reinstalled bracket... comcast did have trouble getting all the channels working at first but a few min later it was fine. So, I have no idea? Just lost time. 

Debating on keeping bolt or sending it back...


----------



## krkaufman

Congrats, pylo; way to persevere and thanks for the followup & feedback.


----------



## gsu13

I have 4 extra brackets (PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL) that I could sell for $12 each (with free included shipping using USPS). I can confirm they work (in my Roamio OTA TCD846000 that I got off eBay for $215), but they do take a bit of work, maybe 20-30 minutes. 1st- must bend the pins to fit the pin slots and make sure all are seated correctly, 2nd- use a utility knife to cut the legs off so the pins will be long enough to stay seated, 3rd - then depending upon your cable card, a bit of fiddling to make the card fit inside the bracket. I had to do a bit of cutting on the bracket's insides to make sure the card sat all the way in. 4th - you might want tape or something to ensure it doesn't move, although if all the pins are seated correctly, it seems to say in place by itself without tape or screws. See the pictures









The pins are bent and legs cut halfway off. This allowed the pins to reach into the holes far enough









My cablecard from Fios went in, ran Guided Setup for cable only and worked fine. Didn't even need to call Verizon.

PM me and we can figure out payment and shipping. I have 100% feedback on eBay, if you want to check me out


----------



## themaxx69

My experience was pretty close to Pylo. Just gotta keep trying. I have countless problems with getting cable cards to work with tivos. Many saying it just took a bunch of cable cards to get it working. Too many factors WE can't see. Mine were white sale units. 1 works, 1 doesn't. Need to get try some more cable cards.


----------



## gsu13

gsu13 said:


> I have 4 extra brackets (PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL) that I could sell for $12 each (with free included shipping using USPS). I can confirm they work (in my Roamio OTA TCD846000 that I got off eBay for $215), but they do take a bit of work, maybe 20-30 minutes. 1st- must bend the pins to fit the pin slots and make sure all are seated correctly, 2nd- use a utility knife to cut the legs off so the pins will be long enough to stay seated, 3rd - then depending upon your cable card, a bit of fiddling to make the card fit inside the bracket. I had to do a bit of cutting on the bracket's insides to make sure the card sat all the way in. 4th - you might want tape or something to ensure it doesn't move, although if all the pins are seated correctly, it seems to say in place by itself without tape or screws. See the pictures
> View attachment 27379
> 
> 
> The pins are bent and legs cut halfway off. This allowed the pins to reach into the holes far enough
> View attachment 27380
> 
> 
> My cablecard from Fios went in, ran Guided Setup for cable only and worked fine. Didn't even need to call Verizon.
> 
> PM me and we can figure out payment and shipping. I have 100% feedback on eBay, if you want to check me out


Photos for Step 4 (I didn't want to remove mine from the tivo so this bracket hasn't been cut). Two edges of the cablecard has different slots. This side with one in the middle was fine and did not need to be modified - might be tight, but firmly shoving in seemed to work.









The other side has a slot on the edge and what worked for me was to shove hard, then I could see how much to shave down with a utility knife. See the red circle










If seated properly, the gold band at the top of the cablecard is almost all covered by the bracket










Hope this helps. I have one left to sell. Maybe I am being picky, but the Roamio does not allow both Antenna and Cable channels at the same time, like the old Tivos, it is one or the other. But still, this bracket works great.


----------



## gsu13

Actually have two left to sell. I know it is $11 on the avnet website, but with shipping it ended up being like $21, so my offer of $12 is still pretty good


----------



## cnewsgrp

Richdmoore said:


> I just wanted to report back that robbing the part from an out of service Roamio and then adding it to the Roamio OTA worked perfectly for me.
> 
> I simply put in the card, saw the numbers needed on the screen, and went to the Comcast cablecard internet web site (on my iPad) to activate the card.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Got my Tivo yesterday. Quickly added cable card bracket from another Roamio I had bought from Ebay. Added Cable Card and activated over phone. Its been 24 hours, but things are working well so far.

I would like to upgrade Tivo Drive as well. Does anyone know if hard drive upgrade will require cable card activation again? Does the Data field change?


----------



## cnewsgrp

gsu13 said:


> Actually have two left to sell. I know it is $11 on the avnet website, but with shipping it ended up being like $21, so my offer of $12 is still pretty good


I will buy for $11 shipped. Please send me a PM with paypal email address to send payment


----------



## ClearToLand

gsu13 said:


> *Actually have two left to sell*. I know it is $11 on the avnet website, but with shipping it ended up being like $21, so my offer of *$12* is still pretty good


I will buy one for $12. I'll also send you a PM.

Thanks.


----------



## gsu13

I am all out - thanks.


----------



## bill875

If you still have 1 left, I will take it and I will offer you $14 for it via Paypal or your preferred method of payment.


----------



## Mitch_Allen

If anyone has cable card brackets need one to try thanks

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk


----------



## beezer86

cnewsgrp said:


> I would like to upgrade Tivo Drive as well. Does anyone know if hard drive upgrade will require cable card activation again? Does the Data field change?


No problem upgrading HD...it will run through the setup again. 20 min for the drive install, 20 min for the setup...done no issues.


----------



## SlavaSk

mdavej said:


> That will work fine.
> 
> This will also work fine.


I've also got the Roamio OTA, and ordering the mcard bracker. I've connected the Roamio to TV and internet for the first time, and the wizard ask to choose OTA or cable setup. Will I be able to run the wizard again later on to choose cable, if I'd now choose OTA?

Thanks!


----------



## mdavej

Yep. Several of us have done it many times.


----------



## cnewsgrp

beezer86 said:


> No problem upgrading HD...it will run through the setup again. 20 min for the drive install, 20 min for the setup...done no issues.


Will I need to activate cable card again? Do I need to pair cable card again?


----------



## gsol

bill875 said:


> If you still have 1 left, I will take it and I will offer you $14 for it via Paypal or your preferred method of payment.


I have a couple of these I will sell.


----------



## ClearToLand

gsol said:


> I have a couple of these I will sell.


I'm interested in one. I just sent you a PM.

Thanks.


----------



## themaxx69

I have 5 brackets left. $25 each, USPS 2-3 day shipping included.


----------



## jppffff

Samtec sells the brackets. $25 shipped, they sent me 4 of them ($9 for the parts, $15 to ship)

Connectors, Cables, Signal Integrity, Customs, Free 24 Hour Samples | Samtec
^^ click the above link then search for "PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL"
and then click "add to cart"

as gsu13 said on page15 of this thread, you have to bend the pins a bit and tear the feet off to make it fit. no glue or soldering required. i broke my first one trying to jam the cable card in, but got the 2nd one to work. the hardest part is getting the cable card in without damaging the pins. i used a large set of channel locks to squeeze it in. i have 2 left if anyone wants them


----------



## Mikeguy

jppffff said:


> Samtec sells the brackets. $25 shipped, they sent me 4 of them ($9 for the parts, $15 to ship)
> 
> Connectors, Cables, Signal Integrity, Customs, Free 24 Hour Samples | Samtec
> ^^ click the above link then search for "PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL"
> and then click "add to cart"
> 
> as gsu13 said on page15 of this thread, you have to bend the pins a bit and tear the feet off to make it fit.  no glue or soldering required. i broke my first one trying to jam the cable card in, but got the 2nd one to work. the hardest part is getting the cable card in without damaging the pins. i used a large set of channel locks to squeeze it in. i have 2 left if anyone wants them


Thanks for the source info.! Very considerate of you.


----------



## themaxx69

Just saying. If someone needs one and doesn't want to wait. I had to wait 3 or 4 weeks to get them.


----------



## ph7

sold my brackets- thanks


----------



## anddroid

I've also got an extra bracket, PM me if interested. $25


----------



## Nelson2009

hi all ,
I just want to ask some of you for experience installed bracket on Roamio OTA I have asked question other thread. 
is worth install bracket OTA lifetime ? how well does it work so far ? Also i saw Amazon having deal on 1TB OTA roamio for $314. seem a nice deal I'm going to pick up new Roamio basic that never been activate before I did called Tivo Sale if there any discount for lifetime doesn't look it. they said there might be way if i subscription either 1 or 2 year then could get discount on lifetime but I doubt it it is guaranteed. 
anyway i hope to heard some of you experience and knowledge. 
thank you


----------



## Nelson2009

anyone experience ? how well it work so far ?


----------



## Mikeguy

Nelson2009 said:


> anyone experience ? how well it work so far ?


I think that you can read the generally positive comments in the above.


----------



## Nelson2009

Thanks Mikeguy I apprentice it. One person just remind me pins are really hard to see. I saw thread talk about it how difficult pins can be. I already picked up brand Tivo Roamio Basic never been activated before. no discount.


----------



## Mikeguy

It sometimes just can be easier, and safer, spending a little more and not having to handle the extra stuff yourself. Congratulations!


----------



## etiger13

I have two extra if anyone wants them, $18 shipped. I can precut the feet if you want.

Wasn't too hard to install it. I didn't have to cut the pins. It gets to use a credit card or something similar to push the to row in with tweezers for fine tuning. I can see how using a magnifying glass would help but I need both hands to align the pins and push them in. Oh, I did have to shave the inside guard rail down so the card would fit. Used a small screwdriver and it shaved pretty easily

Programming went smoothly. I think there may be a problem with my premium channels but I programmed it late at night so I need to check with a fresh brain.

I wonder how hard it would be to fabricate a bracket to fit it perfectly. Thinking 3d printed with screws/plugs to go in the holes already there.

Thanks for showing me this was possible! Saved so much money


----------



## Nelson2009

thanks i have picked up New Roamio basic on CL and keep it for spare parts as backup. Will move card over to OTA I ordered from Amazon and give it try.


----------



## TheChad

Does anyone have any extra brackets for sale for quick shipment or for pickup in the DC area? Thanks!

Edit: One popped up on ebay after I posted this and I bought it. Thanks!


----------



## JBinSD

Just sent a message to eTiger, I'd like to convert my OTA to cable as well. . .


----------



## ph7

First, for those looking to buy a bracket, I'll give you a tip I learned after the fact. The Samtec bracket is sold by Avnet.com, and they seem to get stock in steadily. The bracket is $11, and shipping is $8. BUT, if you open an account with Avnet, they will send you a free shipping code within the first 24 hours. So, open account, then order the bracket the next day, and you've got it for $11 shipped to your door. Good deal!

Second, thanks to the advice here, my bracket install went fast and easy. There are three steps: (1) shave the feet off the bracket, (2) remove the slot edge described in gsu13's post, and (3) bend the rows of pins towards each other so they line up with the pin holes on the Roamio.

A dremel tool makes steps 1 and 2 super easy. I used a cutting wheel to cut off the four plastic feet. Took 10 seconds each foot. For step 2, I removed the thicker raised slot that touches the edge of the track, unlike the slot on the other side, which is narrower and centered in the middle of the track, not touching the track edge. See gsu13's image for the correct one to remove (http://www.tivocommunity.com/community/index.php?attachments/20161207_073549-jpg.27385/) .

This raised slot came right off using the dremel engraving cutter (https://www.dremel.com/productimages/107lg.jpg) , which comes with most dremel kits. Took down the edge in a few seconds, and, importantly, did not travel into the pins.

With the bracket ready, the next step was to line the pins up properly to the Roamio pin receiver. This wasn't hard, but I recommend going slowly and patiently. I did it by using a hard table edge. I bent each one row of pins inward towards each other by placing the pins evenly on the table while pushing down on the bracket, then flipped it over and bent the other row towards the one I just slightly bent. I bent each row a little bit at a time, probably 5-6 times, checking the alignment with the receiver holes on the Tivo each time. If you do it this way, and check alignment after each round you will see eventually see all the pins line up, and it will basically fall right in the holes when applying slight pressure. For the final push of the pins into the receiver, I recommend using a tool to apply pressure to the pins evenly - I used a bamboo skewer laid across this pins, but any long, thin edge should work. Once the pins are decidedly seated (I didn't have a magnifying glass, but it would have helped!) I then again used the bamboo skewer lengthwise across all pins simultaneously, this time pushing harder to make sure the pins were pushed down deep into their receiver sockets. The bracket held tight into the receiver - no tape needed. I then took the cablecard and slipped it into the bracket using almost no pressure. It booted up and recognized the card.

I read here someone used a channel lock to press the pins together - I did not attempt this, as I was concerned that approach ran the risk of bending individual pins out of row alignment. By applying pressure to all pins evenly on a table edge, the pins all bent in more or less perfect alignment.

good luck, hope my words makes sense.


----------



## JBinSD

Wow, thanks, thats a lot of useful info, I will give it a try.


----------



## JBinSD

Just FYI, AVnet only had one left, and I bought it. Not sure how fast they ship, but the code they sent only took 10% ($1) off the price, and the shipping was still $8. Now I see why people bought extras. . .


----------



## JBinSD

Interesting, both Samtech and Avnet charge a bundle for shipping, but the unit price for a single connector is either $9.xx(Samtech) or $11.xx(Avnet), each, plus shipping. Is there a secret to getting multiple cards cheaper? Quantities over 500 drop down to $6.xx apiece, but I don't need that many. Was hoping to pay it forward if I had extras, but it looks like each one will not be cheap. . .


----------



## Manish Kale

I am interested in knowing if any one tried using IDE 68 Pin Male to Female connector?


----------



## hokietivo

I got a bracket installed, a bit tricky but got it in. Also listed a couple extra brackets on ebay search PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL there are multiple one now 19.99 shipped


----------



## JBinSD

Interesting, there is a "used" bracket on ebay that has the sides completely removed, is that an easier way to do it? 








I know there are helpful posts here, but someone should do video. If you guys bought a bunch and are trying to resell to make a few bucks, I might consider buying one thats already fabb'd to drop into the box. . .


----------



## hokietivo

I think the cable cards can vary some, it was a bit tricky, but not that bad. I dont think I would want a "fabbed" one... look at those pins... some are uneven bent. I just used the bottom cover of the tivo and levered over the pins. You can see on that pic that the inner pins are bent in to close the gap


----------



## elorimer

I got one of the $20 brackets on ebay. It wasn't at all like the picture as it has the Samtec piece soldered to a phenolic board that has a straight pin header on it. It was a little tricky to seat so that it registered, but it seems to work now.


----------



## etiger13

I have two more brackets left. I can ship them out USPS priority tomorrow. $18 each shipped.


----------



## TK978

etiger13 said:


> I have two more brackets left. I can ship them out USPS priority tomorrow. $18 each shipped.


Do you still have the brackets....maybe interested in one of them?


----------



## Dave1291

TK978 said:


> Do you still have the brackets....maybe interested in one of them?


Highly recommend buying this. No issues worked flawlessly. 
PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Adapter for cable card | eBay


----------



## Schwa

In case anyone else was procrastinating like I was, AVNET now has a $0.17 shipping promotion going on through January 31st. Total price only $12-13 based on tax.


----------



## ph7

Dave1291 said:


> Highly recommend buying this. No issues worked flawlessly.
> PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Adapter for cable card | eBay


That photos does not show the PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL. It's a different part. I would be interested to know the part no., as an alternative part source. But I can confirm the PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL, which is currently $12 shipped from Avnet, does work perfectly.


----------



## Dave1291

ph7 said:


> That photos does not show the PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL. It's a different part. I would be interested to know the part no., as an alternative part source. But I can confirm the PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL, which is currently $12 shipped from Avnet, does work perfectly.


Ask the seller.. But this thing was plug and play. Pretty sure he just modded the bracket. Well worth the $30 if you ask me.


----------



## sfhub

Dave1291 said:


> Ask the seller.. But this thing was plug and play. Pretty sure he just modded the bracket. Well worth the $30 if you ask me.


It look like he soldered onto a board used as a bridge instead of doing the mods on this thread.


----------



## Mikeguy

Schwa said:


> In case anyone else was procrastinating like I was, AVNET now has a $0.17 shipping promotion going on through January 31st. Total price only $12-13 based on tax.


Thanks for pointing this out! Gets away from the high shipping charges (/high reseller offers, for whatever the reason) one sees.


----------



## krkaufman

Dave1291 said:


> Highly recommend buying this. No issues worked flawlessly.
> PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Adapter for cable card | eBay


Did he include the screws (pictured in the auction details) with the bracket?






​


----------



## Dave1291

krkaufman said:


> Did he include the screws (pictured in the auction details) with the bracket?


No screws, but none are needed. I think it lined up where it could be screwed, but I wasn't worried about it.


----------



## TK978

Wondering is someone could help me out, I recently bought a 
PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL bracket from 
etiger13 from this thread. He sent the bracket with the feet already moded. I moded the rail bump-outs using a 
dremel as previously mentioned earlier in this thread. I think I got it seated and mounted properly. Here is my question, I have a Comcast M-card that is activated to a Roamio(call it Roamio 1) I took that card and placed in Roamio 2 with the moded cablecard bracket. Long story short- I cant get Roamio 2 to see it? Does anyone know if a M-card from Comcast that is activated and placed into another Tivo will show up ( Pop up diagnostics page with card #, serial number, etc,,,) The Roamio 2 shows "no cablecard inserted" . Just wondering if it is a card issue or is the bracket not seated right or does a activated card just not show up? The M-card works perfectly in the Roamio 1. Dont know if the moded bracket is somehow corrupted ...bent pin, all pins not seated...etc... Anyone got an educated guess on this? Thanks


----------



## fcfc2

I believe you should get some channels and the Tivo should detect the cable card no matter what if it is connected properly. I think your guess that the issues is that one or more of those darn pins are not making a good connection. I would remove the bracket and very carefully check that none of the pins appear to be tweaked in anyway and try reseating it, then test. And then continue to rinse and repeat until you get success....or give up.


----------



## TK978

fcfc2 said:


> I believe you should get some channels and the Tivo should detect the cable card no matter what if it is connected properly. I think your guess that the issues is that one or more of those darn pins are not making a good connection. I would remove the bracket and very carefully check that none of the pins appear to be tweaked in anyway and try reseating it, then test. And then continue to rinse and repeat until you get success....or give up.


Thanks...it took a half an hour to get it seated the first time ...giving up might be an option...lol


----------



## JBinSD

OK, its stormy in San Diego today, and my fringe OTA signals are driving me nutz (NFL playoffs), I'm going cable again tomorrow and will pick up a cable card. I only bought one bracket from Avnet, so I better get it right. I'm going to dremel off the feet, and wait for the card to shave the inside of the sleeve, but I was trying to bend the pins together, is there a certain way to get a uniform angle? That seemed to be the major challenge when I did a dry-run before. . .


----------



## TK978

Yes ...I spent a half an hour trying to seat the bracket. When I thought I had it, when tested, it showed no cablecard. ****OBSCURE TOOL WARNING!!!!!*** I used one of these hand-held metal seamers from Harbor Freight, I know not many people have these lying around but I had it from a sheet metal project. I would not buy one specifically for the pins on the bracket but if you know a welder or sheet metal guy they might have something similar. The one I used is not that well machined but it seemed to sqeeze the pins down in a uniform fashion.


----------



## ph7

JBinSD said:


> I was trying to bend the pins together, is there a certain way to get a uniform angle? That seemed to be the major challenge when I did a dry-run before. . .


As you know, there are two rows of pins. The goal is to slowly bend each row towards each other, until they align with the spacing on the Tivo receptor.

To make sure all the pins in each row bent in alignment, I simply put one row of pins _evenly_ on a hard table, and while grasping the bracket, apply pressure. The entire row of pins will bend slightly. Then flip the bracket over and do the same to the other row. This has the effect of making the two rows of pins move slightly toward the other. After each cycle, check the alignment against the Tivo receptor. Each time you check, you will see the pins getting closer to alignment with the Tivo receptor. Be patient, don't attempt to force the pins down into the receptor holes before the are in full alignment with the receptor. Just go slowly; for me, it took 5-6 cycles of pressing the pins against the table. The pins in each row remained in perfect alignment after each cycle, and eventually, the pins will align perfectly with the Tivo receptor, and the bracket pins will essentially drop in their receptor holes with almost no pressure. No special tools needed. Once the pins fall into the holes, then you can use a tool to push the pins deeply into the holes to make sure they are seated and secure. I used a bamboo skewer, which allows you to apply pressure to both the upper and lower level pins (the skewer fits between the two rows).


----------



## JBinSD

Thank you for the more thorough explanation I think that will really help.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk


----------



## ran77man

I got my bracket from a poster in this thread many weeks ago, and just got around to the mod.

I had never booted the tivo up until i had the pins set and the card in as far as I could press it, and I tried to press hard. Then I read this "the hardest part is getting the cable card in without damaging the pins. i used a large set of channel locks to squeeze it in" I'm wondering which pins he is talking about? I think he means that while you are trying to put in the cable card to the set of pins on the inside of the bracket, it is easy to accidentally bend a few of the outside pins that eventually go into the roamio. If so, I concur, I bent a few and had to bend back.

My modded bracket seats sturdy all on it's own, but it is difficult to tell if the inside row has all the rows seated or in far enough. The gap between the two rows when seated is very small.

Upon initial boot, I got a welcome screen, then eventually it asked for my an internet connection, and I chose WiFi, which it correctly detected. I put in my password and all seemed well. Then it got to a downloading screen that took 20 mins or so. I chose Cable and it was displaying 'No Card'. I have a Cisco Card from Charter.

My card does NOT fit in as far as this one in this picture: http://www.tivocommunity.com/community/index.php?attachments/20161207_073955-jpg.27386/. And that might be my problem.

I used, ironically, the same dremel bit that I just read someone else used, and it works good. I also modded an old flat head screw driver to fit in the side 'tracks' of the bracket, and whittled every bit of plastic out I could see. So, I'm not sure why the card doesn't slide in farther, but once 'in', I can't remove it with my hand, I need to use a flat head against a raised edge on the card to pry it back out.

So, skipping that whole process, I simply tried to get the OTA to finish setup in Antenna mode, and my setup is in an infinite loop :-(! It won't go past: Begin Network Connection -> Getting Info - Downloading. I've since hard wired the ethernet cable as well. Also, strangely, the first selection that can be made with the remote is the Country, and it takes several seconds, several select button pushes for that to even register. After that, everything selects just fine. It has remembered my zip code, and that is about it.

Any ideas? Stumped and a complete Tivo Newb. Oh, and I bought the unit from Tivo during the Black Friday sale for $199.

Thanks!


----------



## JBinSD

Anyone know if the cablecards are universal? I noticed many of the Motorola Cablecards on ebay for around $5-10, and they look just like the ones I used with TW (now Spectrum). Wondering if there is an issue with the cableco. activating a card they didn't issue. The CC's are only like $2/mo., but why not buy if they're that cheap?

Just checking. . . . 
thanks,
Joel


----------



## fcfc2

JBinSD said:


> Anyone know if the cablecards are universal? I noticed many of the Motorola Cablecards on ebay for around $5-10, and they look just like the ones I used with TW (now Spectrum). Wondering if there is an issue with the cableco. activating a card they didn't issue. The CC's are only like $2/mo., but why not buy if they're that cheap?
> 
> Just checking. . . .
> thanks,
> Joel


Different providers use different cable cards....none of them will activate a card that you don't rent directly from them.


----------



## JBinSD

Thanks, probably why they are so cheap. . .


----------



## ran77man

Kind of a newbie question, but, if my roamio ota is having issues, and I'm not able to read the cablecard, does that mean it will be impossible to complete setup without an OTA Antenna connected? There is an option for CableCard, I don't have one but will install later... if one chooses that, what is supposed to be connected to the coax input? Up until now, I've either used no coax connection or my current spectrum cable input.


----------



## fcfc2

ran77man said:


> Kind of a newbie question, but, if my roamio ota is having issues, and I'm not able to read the cablecard, does that mean it will be impossible to complete setup without an OTA Antenna connected? There is an option for CableCard, I don't have one but will install later... if one chooses that, what is supposed to be connected to the coax input? Up until now, I've either used no coax connection or my current spectrum cable input.


You need to have something connected to the coax on the OTA, either an OTA antenna, or the cable from the cable company. You should be able to complete the setup with the cable company coax, just skip the cablecard install.


----------



## JBinSD

Wow, after all this prep work to switch from OTA to cable, I went to the cableCo (Spectrum) today to pick up a cable card and start service. Minimum package was about $65/mo.??? I use them for internet too, and the best "bundled" price was $89/mo. Kinda offensive, I used to pay TW $14/mo. for the lowest tier. 

At that cost, I'd rather spend the money on an even bigger, even uglier antenna on my roof (I'm on the fringe between San Diego and LA). I shoulda priced it out first, lol.


----------



## ran77man

fcfc2 said:


> You need to have something connected to the coax on the OTA, either an OTA antenna, or the cable from the cable company. You should be able to complete the setup with the cable company coax, just skip the cablecard install.


Thanks fcf, I'll try that when I get the unit replaced. Turns out it was defective :-(.


----------



## GabeN

I'm in the market for a new TiVO after about 15 years of cable only... And I want to make sure I'm clear on something. If I buy an OTA Lifetime, and mod it with the cablecard slot, I will essentially have a Bolt? I still won't be able to have both the OTA channels and my cable co. channels (Verizon)? Or is there a way to shift one of the inputs so that I can record OTA and Verizon from teh same guide?


----------



## krkaufman

GabeN said:


> I'm in the market for a new TiVO after about 15 years of cable only... And I want to make sure I'm clear on something. If I buy an OTA Lifetime, and mod it with the cablecard slot,* I will essentially have a Bolt*? I still won't be able to have both the OTA channels and my cable co. channels (Verizon)? Or is there a way to shift one of the inputs so that I can record OTA and Verizon from teh same guide?


What you would be doing is effectively making your Roamio OTA a base Roamio. *ONLY* in terms of being able to configure the Roamio to record from either one of cable or OTA, yes, the modded device's tuning capability would be similar to a BOLT; in all the other ways the two series/models are different, no.

You can toggle the tuning behavior of your modded Roamio OTA (as you could a base Roamio or 4-tuner BOLT) by running it through Guided Setup, choosing either antenna or CableCARD.


----------



## TK978

I am selling a PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Bracket that I bought off a forum member less than two weeks ago. The bracket has been fully modded (feet cut off, bump-outs on cablecard rails have been Dremeled, and pins have been tapered to fit into Roamio CC jack). The bracket was installed and tested in Roamio. Here is the reason I no longer need the bracket; I had a $12.99 subscription Roamio, during the Holiday sale, I bought the Lifetime Subscription Roamio OTA refurb. I used the bracket from the subscription Roamio as a donor to the lifetime Roamio. I installed the Samtec bracket in donor Roamio so I could sell on Craigslist. Turns out buyer of donor Roamio didn't need the bracket, as he was going to use it as OTA Roamio, so I removed prior to selling. I will sell for what I paid for it $18 which includes shipping. I will try to load pics&#8230;.please message me if interested.


----------



## ran77man

TK, did you try that bracket with an actual CableCard? I have a Cisco CableCard and I'm wondering how far it need to slide in to be seated properly and read from the Roamio OTA. I wasn't able to get my card read, but I also have a unit that won't setup. Getting a call from Tivo support today. Hoping the two are related. IOW, get the setup working, get the CableCard to be recognized.


----------



## krkaufman

ran77man said:


> I also have a unit that won't setup


FYI... A solution for your setup issue may be available. >See here< (and the linked posts).


----------



## TK978

ran77man said:


> TK, did you try that bracket with an actual CableCard? I have a Cisco CableCard and I'm wondering how far it need to slide in to be seated properly and read from the Roamio OTA. I wasn't able to get my card read, but I also have a unit that won't setup. Getting a call from Tivo support today. Hoping the two are related. IOW, get the setup working, get the CableCard to be recognized.


Don't know if this photo helps...I too had issues and it is hard to tell if problem is from the pins into the Roamio or the pins hitting the cablecard. I ended up pushing pretty hard against seated cablecard to the point where I think the pins that were seated were bent a little more ...this may have seated them a little deeper...don't give up it does work, it is just very difficult!


----------



## ran77man

Kr, Thanks! I've in fact been in touch with Margret and a 2nd member of support. I haven't heard from him as of yet today, but he is on PST, so he may call yet today.

TK, from that pic, I notice how how much distance there is from the gold plated section on the card. 8 'rivets' align the edge of the gold plate, then there is some gold space prior to the beginning of the black edge. I've seen cards where the space was smaller than what you depict here, so I was wondering how much for my Cisco to be sure it is in far enough.

I measured and the space between the rivets and the black edge is a full 1/16th, but less than 2/16th, so I'd say close to 3/32, which seems similar you the gap in your picture.

The picture definitely helped, thanks much!


----------



## ClearToLand

Schwa said:


> In case anyone else was procrastinating like I was, *AVNET now has a $0.17 shipping promotion going on through January 31st.* Total price only $12-13 based on tax.


I'm all registered, the part is in my cart, and I only see 2 choices for shipping:
$8.00 - UPS
$9.00 - Fedex
Where do I find the *$0.17 shipping promotion?

products dot avnet dot com* right?


----------



## Mikeguy

ClearToLand said:


> I'm all registered, the part is in my cart, and I only see 2 choices for shipping:
> 
> $8.00 - UPS
> $9.00 - Fedex
> Where do I find the *$0.17 shipping promotion?
> 
> products dot avnet dot com* right?


Did you add the 17shipping promo code?


----------



## ClearToLand

Mikeguy said:


> Did you add the 17shipping promo code?


Over a half hour of fruitless GOOGLE'ng and '_somehow_' I was in a new tab with my cart sitting in another tab and on their HomePage, IIRC, at the top of the screen was a tiny announcement for "*$8.00 Flat Rate Shipping - Click for details*". That took me to both the:
*17¢ Shipping Promotion*
and
*Flat Rate Shipping*
Certainly would have been much easier if someone posted this. 

Well, thanks *schwa*! :up: Promotion ends tomorrow, January 31, 2017



Avnet said:


> Promotion applies to web orders placed on the Americas website from January 9, 2017 through January 31, 2017.
> 
> *17¢ Ground Shipping*
> All domestic orders up to 10 pounds qualify for 17¢ ground shipping when thepromo code 17SHIPPING is used. Shipments will arrive within 7 business days. Must select UPS "Ground up to 7 days" during shipping method selection.


_(sic)_


----------



## Mikeguy

ClearToLand said:


> Certainly would have been much easier if someone posted this.
> 
> Well, thanks *schwa*! :up: Promotion ends tomorrow, January 31, 2017


I guess I didn't have your issue when I tried. I went to the website, there was a banner listing the shipping offer and promo code, I put the part no. PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL in the search box, go to the product page, add the product to my cart, go to the cart, put the shipping code in the coupon code box, and then go through checkout--the shipping promo offer is there.


----------



## hapihakr

I have a dead TiVo Roamio, model TCD846500, and a working TiVo Roamio OTA, model TCD846510. I pulled the CableCARD bracket from the dead unit and put it in the OTA. It works!


----------



## ran77man

Update: 1) I got the Tivo Setup to finish by following reboot instructions from support. 2) My card was not being read because it was simply not pushed into the bracket far enough. While trying to widen out the bracket sides, I broke one side off. After that, I was able to seat the card much farther, right up to the gold rivets. 3) The Tivo noticed the inserted card right away! 
4) The card was paired by Tivo support, I can tell this by looking at the Diagnostics for the Card, which is a Cisco Powerkey 803. 5) I can not watch any channels :-(. I'm getting not authorized, V58 errors on every single channel 6) Charter Support is coming out today to take a look as it is on their end.


----------



## ran77man

All is now working! Tech came out and eventually, he called another tech and that tech asked for the MAC address so that he could update a tar file. After that, everything worked!


----------



## Kif

ran77man said:


> All is now working! Tech came out and eventually, he called another tech and that tech asked for the MAC address so that he could update a tar file. After that, everything worked!


Has everything been working good without any hiccups. Also, do you have an extra bracket that is ready to go because I am looking to buy one.


----------



## Kif

hapihakr said:


> I have a dead TiVo Roamio, model TCD846500, and a working TiVo Roamio OTA, model TCD846510. I pulled the CableCARD bracket from the dead unit and put it in the OTA. It works!


What cable service do you have? I have comcast and trying to see if people got it work with the comcast cable card.


----------



## ran77man

Kif said:


> Has everything been working good without any hiccups. Also, do you have an extra bracket that is ready to go because I am looking to buy one.


Everything is fine, learning my way around in Tivo Land. I do not have an extra bracket, I bought my from a user within this thread several months ago.


----------



## TK978

If anyone needs a bracket I have 3 listed on EBAY search TIVO Roamio Cablecard Bracket and/or PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL. These are just about the same as the OEM version I think the only difference is the lack of the little green plastic piece on the ejector tab. I used the Samtec number for search purposes...thanks for looking....


----------



## Agrajag

Has anyone seen this? I went to Comcast and got a free cablecard from them, ordered the bracket from ebay (arrived today), hooked it all up and TiVo says, "Non-M-Card Inserted".

What the hell? Is the Comast card simply not compatible or do I need to go back to Comcast and get a different Multi-Card? 

Soooo close....


----------



## JoeKustra

Agrajag said:


> Has anyone seen this? I went to Comcast and got a free cablecard from them, ordered the bracket from ebay (arrived today), hooked it all up and TiVo says, "Non-M-Card Inserted".
> 
> What the hell? Is the Comast card simply not compatible or do I need to go back to Comcast and get a different Multi-Card?
> 
> Soooo close....


If it's a Motorola card, what's the part number? (It's really tiny print).


----------



## Agrajag

Part Number: 469140-003-00
Motorola Media Cypher

A quick Google search makes this appear to be an S (single stream) card. I called Comcast and have an appointment in 2 hours to change out this card for an M card. Here's hoping that's right.

Thanks for the help.

One other question: I have a great antenna for OTA channels. Can I not have both active via a splitter or some such? Do I actually have to choose one over the other? That's a potential deal-breaker for me. Comcast is downgrading their channels to 720P. My antenna feed is wonderful.


----------



## JoeKustra

Agrajag said:


> Part Number: 469140-003-00
> Motorola Media Cypher
> 
> A quick Google search makes this appear to be an S (single stream) card. I called Comcast and have an appointment in 2 hours to change out this card for an M card. Here's hoping that's right.
> 
> Thanks for the help.
> 
> One other question: I have a great antenna for OTA channels. Can I not have both active via a splitter or some such? Do I actually have to choose one over the other? That's a potential deal-breaker for me. Comcast is downgrading their channels to 720P. My antenna feed is wonderful.


The M-Card from Motorola should have -017- (or higher) where you have -003-. Sorry, no idea about combining OTA and cable. Others have done it.


----------



## Agrajag

The replacement is 018 and appears as green text "M Card Installed" so I think I'm on my way. At the moment I can't get Test Channels to do anything other than to list channel 1 and 19. Comcast has sent the signals from their end and we verified the four sets of data twice. Maybe it just takes time?


----------



## JoeKustra

Agrajag said:


> The replacement is 018 and appears as green text "M Card Installed" so I think I'm on my way. At the moment I can't get Test Channels to do anything other than to list channel 1 and 19. Comcast has sent the signals from their end and we verified the four sets of data twice. Maybe it just takes time?


My pairing worked while on the phone with my feed. Check your cable card screen "Conditional Access" for Con: Yes, and Val: 0x0C. You numbers may vary. Also, in Network Setup, the VCT ID should be non-zero, and the OOB Messages should increment when you hit refresh.

I'm not a cable card expert. I thought Comcast has a special number for pairing.

When I ran Test Channels, I saw the channel I was on. I've never used that option before.


----------



## Agrajag

Getting there. Now I have about 30 basic channels. Clearly some authorization still needs to get through. Val: is 0x00. The rest matches. We'll see what CS can do.


----------



## elorimer

Don't know why, but I have often found it takes a day or two for channels to settle down with Brighthouse.


----------



## Agrajag

Customer Service got it going. I now have all the channels. It had the wrong authorizations. 

One curiousity: TiVo believes I should get Xfinity VOD on channel 1 and I see that in my channel list, but I get a V52 error when I go there. Should I be getting that channel?


----------



## mdavej

Agrajag said:


> Getting there. Now I have about 30 basic channels. Clearly some authorization still needs to get through. Val: is 0x00. The rest matches. We'll see what CS can do.


Val 0x00 means still not actually authorized. They have made some sort of error, and you need to call them back. It will work immediately after a successful hit while you're still on the phone. Some say the Data string and Host ID don't matter, but I've never gotten a successful pairing without them.

EDIT: I see we posted at the same time. Glad you got it working. No, you should not get VOD channel 1. That is normal.


----------



## krkaufman

Agrajag said:


> One curiousity: TiVo believes I should get Xfinity VOD on channel 1 and I see that in my channel list, but I get a V52 error when I go there. Should I be getting that channel?


That channel, along with a number of other "on demand" channels will appear in the channel line-up, and you'll want to remove them as they're not of any use to a TiVo. You'll access Comcast On Demand through the Xfinity On Demand for TiVo app (or searches, or OnePass bookmarks), which should have (hopefully) appeared among your list of streaming apps once your box was fully configured by Comcast.



Agrajag said:


> One other question: I have a great antenna for OTA channels. Can I not have both active via a splitter or some such? Do I actually have to choose one over the other?


One or the other. Theoretically you could use notch filters to merge some specific OTA channels with your cable lineup, but not without affecting your cable channel lineup and/or your Internet connectivity/speed. And no telling how the cable frequency allocations change over time. Or just buy a separate OTA-dedicated-DVR.


----------



## Agrajag

Didn't realize there even was an Xfinity On Demand TiVo app. Nice.

I posted another thread on some odd differences I'm seeing in this App on the TiVo, but it's far more useful of a user interface than what you get on the Roku that I'd been using previously.

Thanks so much for all the help everyone. It appears I'm finally going to get some real use out of my Roamio OTA to the point of likely wanting to upgrade the storage.


----------



## mattsi

Hi there,
I'm late to the party, but am looking to get a hold of one of these brackets. Do any members have one for sale?


----------



## Mikeguy

mattsi said:


> Hi there,
> I'm late to the party, but am looking to get a hold of one of these brackets. Do any members have one for sale?


A good/economical source: Avnet - Electronic Components Distributor and Services

part no. PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL by Samtec

Approximately $11 plus shipping and any tax. Note: will require minimal modification (shaving away of some plastic pieces) and pin-bending, achievable by mere mortals.  As explained and outlined above in this thread.


----------



## ClearToLand

mattsi said:


> Hi there,
> I'm late to the party, but am looking to get a hold of one of these brackets. *Do any members have one for sale?*





Mikeguy said:


> *A good/economical source:* Avnet - Electronic Components Distributor and Services
> 
> part no. PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL by Samtec
> 
> Approximately $11 plus shipping and any tax. Note: will require minimal modification (shaving away of some plastic pieces) and pin-bending, achievable by mere mortals.  As explained and outlined above in this thread.


@mattsi,

Avnet has been an ideal source of this bracket / socket for many of us, especially when they ran a FREE SHIPPING Special a little while back. Many just bought the 1, or 2, that they needed, but a few '_entrepreneurs_' bought several @ ~$11 and then began selling them both here and on eBay for ~$20-30. 

Don't be concerned that Avnet is more of a B2B / Industrial customer site like Digi-Key and Newark Electronics and not especially consumer-oriented like Newegg and BestBuy. What I mean by that is that even the item page is geared to the person who already knows what he/she is looking for.

Service was excellent. :thumbsup:

P.S. Does anyone else remember buying '_all sorts of goodies_' from Lafayette Radio? or Allied?? or Berstein-Applebee???


----------



## Mikeguy

Yep, Avnet especially good for a small purchase like this if there's a free (or near free) shipping offer, as there was in January.  I really was impressed with Avnet's professionalism and care: they were out of the bracket when I ordered but had some on order, and estimated the date--they then took my order, fulfilled before the date, and shipped the bracket (a pretty much non-fragile part) in a plastic case with foam inside. Amazon.com could learn from them.


----------



## uuu1234

Hi, I'm wondering anyone has experience hooking up moded OTA to a tuning adapter?


----------



## Tweak42

uuu1234 said:


> Hi, I'm wondering anyone has experience hooking up moded OTA to a tuning adapter?


 We have a tuning adapter and cable card for our Roamio OTA. It's been year and half since setup, I don't recall anything unusual, just running guided setup, selecting cable for source and follow the prompts.


----------



## 1idjack

I have 4 of the PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL I will sell for $16 each shipped (the only place that had them in stock had a $50 minimum purchase).

Make that $14; I now know shipping is less than I thought.
Just sold the last one.


----------



## queenofgeek

1idjack said:


> I have 4 of the PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL I will sell for $16 each shipped (the only place that had them in stock had a $50 minimum purchase).


Oooh I'd like one! Will pm you


----------



## donrull

I would appreciate it if one of you might have time to answer some questions about the Roamio OTA and using it with Comcast. I recently was having an issue with my internet speed and called Comcast. They sent a tech out to fix the issue, but not before offering me 12 months of higher speed internet with TV and HBO for the same price as I am on now for 12 months with no contract (I am on internet only 25mbps promotion now for $29 a month). Since my current 12 month offer is almost up I went ahead with the deal thinking I could just stick with my OTA as I have been, but they required me to pick up a box (or cable card) so that my service would be activated (which includes the upgraded speed). I pick up the card today as I had read this post and other about the hack to use the OTA with the cable card, thinking at the time that I could use one of my old series 2 or 4 Tivos to take the bracket out and use on the OTA. However, it seems like this assumption was wrong.

1. Can you verify if the only swapable bracket would be from another Roamio (non OTA series 5 Tivo)?
2. Several people discussed a TA. Can I just use the Comcast set top box as a TA? Why would I want to do the OTA hack if the TA seems to be a more simple solution?
3. Am I going to be forced to use only cable or OTA, but not both? I get limited HD channels OTA for local, but not with Comcast? 

Thank you!


----------



## Tweak42

donrull said:


> 1. Can you verify if the only swapable bracket would be from another Roamio (non OTA series 5 Tivo)?
> 2. Several people discussed a TA. Can I just use the Comcast set top box as a TA? Why would I want to do the OTA hack if the TA seems to be a more simple solution?
> 3. Am I going to be forced to use only cable or OTA, but not both? I get limited HD channels OTA for local, but not with Comcast?
> 
> Thank you!


1. The correct bracket can only be found on a Roamio Basic (not the Plus or Pro) and newer Bolt. The above mentioned part can be adapted to fit and function in lieu of a authentic bracket.

2. Tuning Adapter (TA) is not the same as a Set Top Box (STB). A cable card alone cannot add SDV support to a Tivo that a STB has. Thus a Tivo requires an external TA when using a cable card.
https://support.tivo.com/articles/F...l-a-Tuning-Adapter-for-Switched-Digital-Video

3. Correct. Starting at series 5 (Roamio) and newer, Tivo cannot do OTA and Cable simultaneously. Rerun the setup wizard to switch modes.


----------



## donrull

Has anyone seen this part number that I found while searching through other posts?

Samtec HPT-134-01-L-D-RA

It looks like it might fit...


----------



## Mikeguy

donrull said:


> Has anyone seen this part number that I found while searching through other posts?
> 
> Samtec HPT-134-01-L-D-RA
> 
> It looks like it might fit...


This is the part number (as well as source) I typically have seen referenced for this, as mentioned above. https://www.avnet.com/shop/us/p/int...pcmt-134-02-l-d-ra-02-sl-3074457345627565717/


----------



## HerronScott

Tweak42 said:


> 2. Tuning Adapter (TA) is not the same as a Set Top Box (STB). A cable card alone cannot add SDV support to a Tivo that a STB has. Thus a Tivo requires an external TA when using a cable card.
> https://support.tivo.com/articles/F...l-a-Tuning-Adapter-for-Switched-Digital-Video


Just to clarify that Comcast does not use SDV so no Tuning Adapter is required.

Scott


----------



## scandia101

Mikeguy said:


> This is the part number (as well as source) I typically have seen referenced for this, as mentioned above. PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL by Samtec | Connector Memory Card | Avnet AMERICAS


Why does that bracket not have a circuit board but this one on ebay does? PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Adapter for cable card | eBa
Does the bracket you mentioned need to be modified to fit in a Roamio? I'm almost tempted to buy another bracket just in case I'm lucky enough to find another 'can't pass it up' deal on a 1TB Roamio OTA.


----------



## Mikeguy

scandia101 said:


> Why does that bracket not have a circuit board but this one on ebay does? PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Adapter for cable card | eBa
> Does the bracket you mentioned need to be modified to fit in a Roamio? I'm almost tempted to buy another bracket just in case I'm lucky enough to find another 'can't pass it up' deal on a 1TB Roamio OTA.


It requires some lesser mods (shaving of some plastic with a utility knife, the bending of the angle of the pins), as described in this thread above.


----------



## scandia101

Mikeguy said:


> It requires some lesser mods (shaving of some plastic with a utility knife, the bending of the angle of the pins), as described in this thread above.


Bending 68 pins and then getting them to all lineup for insertion when you can barely see where they go isn't for everyone and I'd certainly pay 3x as much for one that's ready to go.


----------



## Mikeguy

scandia101 said:


> Bending 68 pins and then getting them to all lineup for insertion when you can barely see where they go isn't for everyone and I'd certainly pay 3x as much for one that's ready to go.


To me, the bending of the pins doesn't seem hard at all, as described: simply place them all uniformly against a straight surface, such as a table surface, and push; it's not as if they individually need to be bent at different angles.


----------



## sfhub

scandia101 said:


> Why does that bracket not have a circuit board but this one on ebay does? PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Adapter for cable card | eBa
> Does the bracket you mentioned need to be modified to fit in a Roamio? I'm almost tempted to buy another bracket just in case I'm lucky enough to find another 'can't pass it up' deal on a 1TB Roamio OTA.


I believe the green board in that picture is there to convert the micro leads on that particular bracket into pin sizes that can plug into the TiVo socket. I don't believe it is doing anything other than converting/connecting pins in a pass through manner.

Bending the pins on the original suggested bracket everyone is using is pretty simple if you work it on a table one side at a time a little bend at a time until it fits. Shaving the bracket plastic parts to fit is a little messier if you do it with a utility knife, but with dremel it is pretty clean.

As you said, some may want to pay for something that is more out of the box.


----------



## wtblade

Has TiVo disabled cable cards on Roamio OTA devices? My card quit working and when I replaced in with one from another TiVo box that was working it did not see it also.


----------



## krkaufman

wtblade said:


> Has TiVo disabled cable cards on Roamio OTA devices? My card quit working and when I replaced in with one from another TiVo box that was working it did not see it also.


Good question. Another user posted the same question to the thread earlier today, but appears to have deleted their posting:

_My TiVo Romero OTA quit seeing the cable card. I have replaced it and it does not see the new one. Has TiVo upgraded the software on OTA to stop reading the cable card?_​
You'll probably want to post the Software Version for your Roamio OTA if you're looking for others with the added CableCARD adapter to provide a comparison.


----------



## wtblade

My Software version is 20.7.1-RC2-USA-6-846


----------



## wtblade

Never mind about the OS updated question. I re-seated the cable card bracket and it started working.
Must not have been seated correctly and came loose.


----------



## FeasibleEarth

Thanks to 1dJack, I've got my Tivo OTA with Comcast cablecard up and running.
It did take a second time seating the adapter for it to work.


----------



## scandia101

The Roamio OTA is currently at $307.94 on amazon


----------



## krkaufman

scandia101 said:


> The Roamio OTA is currently at $307.94 on amazon


Dig in... Amazon.com: TiVo Roamio OTA 1 TB DVR - With No Monthly Service Fees - Digital Video Recorder and Streaming Media Player - Compatible only with HDTV Antennas (does not work with cable): Electronics


----------



## Kif

Just bought a new tivo roamio ota tcd86000 and bought a cable card from ebay which was plug n play and the my comcast cable card is recognized but i keep getting stuck at 89% when its trying to acquire channels. I tried 2 different comcast cards and got the same results. A tech came and installed brand new cable lines as well. Had a tivo roamio ota before with a cable card installed and it worked about a month ago.


----------



## FeasibleEarth

I had the same issue. I unplugged the adapter, repluged it (more forcefully). I also took out the cable card and blew in it. Just like the Nintendo cartridges of old. The Comcast rep at the store gave me that advice. After putting everything back together, it worked. Initially, i was puzzled because the signal strength was 89%, but I'm guessing a pin or pins were not seated properly.

Hope that helps


----------



## Kif

FeasibleEarth said:


> I had the same issue. I unplugged the adapter, repluged it (more forcefully). I also took out the cable card and blew in it. Just like the Nintendo cartridges of old. The Comcast rep at the store gave me that advice. After putting everything back together, it worked. Initially, i was puzzled because the signal strength was 89%, but I'm guessing a pin or pins were not seated properly.
> 
> Hope that helps


I tried now and before and still getting stuck at 89%. Thanks for your help though. Technician will come again tomorrow so hopefully he brings some good cable cards.


----------



## Kif

FeasibleEarth said:


> I had the same issue. I unplugged the adapter, repluged it (more forcefully). I also took out the cable card and blew in it. Just like the Nintendo cartridges of old. The Comcast rep at the store gave me that advice. After putting everything back together, it worked. Initially, i was puzzled because the signal strength was 89%, but I'm guessing a pin or pins were not seated properly.
> 
> Hope that helps


I think i pushed the bracket down a little too hard because the motherboard goes down every time i try to push the bracket down. Maybe that's the problem or maybe its comcast and their ****ty cable cards.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## GmoD

Received my Roamio today and need a bracket. The av site shows the part is out with a 2 week restocking delay. Does anyone have a rack to sale? PM me, thanks.


----------



## NCSU2008

If anyone needs one, PM me. I bought one over a year ago from scubastevexj. I never installed it(my apt complex only can get uverse due to some contract they have with uverse), uverse doesn't have cable cards, and i sold my roamio once playstation vue came out.


----------



## Whh3

Hi, new to the forum and working on cutting the cord. Sorry, it this has been answered else where, but I'm not finding it. 

I want to know if I get a cablecard will it work once I cancel my cable package? I suspect not, but would like to confirm before I spring for the bracket and cablecard. 

My plan is to get rid of everything except internet. I know if I plug the cable in from the wall into the TV I get channels, but nothing over the TiVio Roamio OTA, unless I plug an OTA antenna. 

Thanks!


----------



## JoeKustra

Whh3 said:


> My plan is to get rid of everything except internet. I know if I plug the cable in from the wall into the TV I get channels, but nothing over the TiVio Roamio OTA, unless I plug an OTA antenna.
> Thanks!


Those channels on your TV, do you know what modulation is being used? Perhaps your TV has Info or Diagnostics that show something like QAM or NTSC?


----------



## Whh3

JoeKustra said:


> Those channels on your TV, do you know what modulation is being used? Perhaps your TV has Info or Diagnostics that show something like QAM or NTSC?


Hey, thanks for the quick reply. I been out of town for couple days. Not sure on if i can find out if we are QAM or NTSC, but will check the TV to see if i can find any diagnostics. I am on Charter in Tampa area of Florida if that is any help. The TV is a 2011 Samsung.


----------



## JoeKustra

Whh3 said:


> Hey, thanks for the quick reply. I been out of town for couple days. Not sure on if i can find out if we are QAM or NTSC, but will check the TV to see if i can find any diagnostics. I am on Charter in Tampa area of Florida if that is any help. The TV is a 2011 Samsung.


The point I'm trying to make is that if it's NTSC, that is usually another name for analog. Your TV can accept analog, but not a Roamio. Series 5 or 6 only receive QAM or 8VSB (ATSC/OTA).


----------



## Whh3

JoeKustra said:


> The point I'm trying to make is that if it's NTSC, that is usually another name for analog. Your TV can accept analog, but not a Roamio. Series 5 or 6 only receive QAM or 8VSB (ATSC/OTA).


Sorry for the delay in responding. I couldn't figure out if was NTSC/analog. I got the cable card and a bracket but couldn't get the Roamio to recognize that a card was in. Tried reseating it several time and then broke a pin on the bracket! I can't win. Going to just run a coax up to the attic do an OTA antenna for the local stations. Thanks for trying to help!


----------



## TEEEEEEJAY

So I've read thru and it seems like the adapter works for some people. I just ordered my Roamio OTA and the adapter with the lifetime subscription. Basically I just need to open up the bottom port, connect the cable card to the adapter and then the adapter to the Roamio and I'm all good. Any precautions while doing this? Seems like some pins are breaking in the process...


----------



## Mikeguy

TEEEEEEJAY said:


> So I've read thru and it seems like the adapter works for some people. I just ordered my Roamio OTA and the adapter with the lifetime subscription. Basically I just need to open up the bottom port, connect the cable card to the adapter and then the adapter to the Roamio and I'm all good. Any precautions while doing this? Seems like some pins are breaking in the process...


As noted in posts above, depending where you got the adapter, you may need to shave some plastic in the adapter away (via utility knife or Dremel), and then bend the pins uniformly--for the latter, putting equal pressure on the pins while pressing against a solid surface such as a tabletop seems to work well. Also, presumably, doing the adapter work first and fitting it to the box before inserting the cablecard.


----------



## TEEEEEEJAY

Thanks! I ordered the one from ebay that was posted here. PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Adapter for a Cable Card | eBay
Hoping this makes the install easy


----------



## TEEEEEEJAY

Wanted to update this. The adapter I bought on ebay came on a circuit board. Just popped the card into the adapter and popped it into the Roamio OTA. Pretty straight forward. While it was testing channels I noticed it was at 72% for a while, but didn't give it time really. I was more frustrated that the tuning adapter they gave me does work... doesn't power on when plugged in. Will try again Friday with a new one.

Update again: Just had Spectrum come out because I didnt want to drive to the store and back again because of their faulty equipment. He got everything up and running so my Roamio OTA is now using a spectrum cablecard. no issues at all. Now to figure out if i want MoCa or start running ethernet so i can use the mini.


----------



## Terrestrial

I bought the same adapter on ebay that TEEEEEEJAY did and installed it in my Roamio OTA with a Mediacom cablecard and went thru Guided Setup. At first, after having it initialized by Mediacom phone support, I did not receive any copy protected channels. Finally got Mediacom on-line support forum to re-initialize it and now all is working well.

The cablecard bracket comes mounted on a daughter board which plugs into the the cablecard plug in the Roamio OTA, even has the screws to hold the daughter board in place.


----------



## mikey1273

I am really interested in this topic. looking to get away from windows media center as its falling off the wagon in support from M$. I am using media center with a silicon dust hd home run tuner now. I like it but Microsoft has taken out support for netflix from the interface. I would like something with out a monthly bill to see the guide and record my shows. I see the tivo supports streaming apps. I'm a Comcast customer, I have limited basic and HBO, also have netflix and amazon prime. Are all those supported on Tivo?

reading the thread I found the card slot here on ebay is this correct and does it just plug in to the board on the bottom of the unit? PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Adapter for a Cable Card | eBay then I would call the comcast cable card # and have my card unpaired from the HDhome run and paired with the Tivo seems like how that would work for me.

I see the 1tb Roamio for 399 or less on amazon and other places, also used on eBay. Are there any potential issues one may encounter if buying a used OTA Roamio unit? what about also buying a mini for my bedroom TV new vs, used? sorry if this is all too many questions and not all on topic. I want to figure out if this way to go is going to be something I can put together for a reasonable effort and cost. 
thanks


----------



## mdavej

mikey1273 said:


> I am really interested in this topic. looking to get away from windows media center as its falling off the wagon in support from M$. I am using media center with a silicon dust hd home run tuner now. I like it but Microsoft has taken out support for netflix from the interface. I would like something with out a monthly bill to see the guide and record my shows. I see the tivo supports streaming apps. I'm a Comcast customer, I have limited basic and HBO, also have netflix and amazon prime. Are all those supported on Tivo?


Yes, all are on the Tivo.



> reading the thread I found the card slot here on ebay is this correct and does it just plug in to the board on the bottom of the unit? PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Adapter for a Cable Card | eBay then I would call the comcast cable card # and have my card unpaired from the HDhome run and paired with the Tivo seems like how that would work for me.


Looks like that's an old listing, but this should work:
PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Adapter for a Cable Card | eBay
Your procedure is correct.



> I see the 1tb Roamio for 399 or less on amazon and other places, also used on eBay. Are there any potential issues one may encounter if buying a used OTA Roamio unit? what about also buying a mini for my bedroom TV new vs, used? sorry if this is all too many questions and not all on topic. I want to figure out if this way to go is going to be something I can put together for a reasonable effort and cost.
> thanks


With used you always run the risk that the drive or fan is worn out or the seller isn't honest about the listing. You'll also want a trusted seller who will communicate with you after the sale since they will have to open a support ticket with Tivo to transfer the lifetime to you. There are also sellers who have a scam to ship units they paid for with a stolen credit card, leaving you out to dry. All that is too risky for me, but the majority are probably ok. Personally, I would only buy used from a seller like Amazon who has a generous return policy or a local craigslist seller I could meet in person and see the unit actually working.

I dropped WMC years ago (just after WMC's Rovi switch) in favor of Tivo and haven't regretted it one bit. All my Roamios were used/refurb from Amazon. I bought a few Streams and Minis from ebay and got burned a couple of times. My Minis from Woot all turned out fine. At the moment I have 3 Roamios and 5 or 6 Minis and one Stream among myself and a few other family members in a couple of different households. I'm 100% OTA now, so it's nice having no cable or DVR bills at all. I also supplement with DirecTV NOW, Hulu, Netflix, Amazon and HBO. My Hulu is only $5 (kid's student discount), Amazon is only $4 ($50/yr with kid's student discount), and DTVN including HBO is only $35 and is shared among 2 households. Grand total still under $50. Was paying a couple hundred with cable/sat in 2 households before.

Good luck and welcome to the club.


----------



## mikey1273

thanks. 

Is there any difference in the Tivo Roamio OTA 500GB (2014 model) and the 1TB model other than storage space? as in are they about the same in other ways far as performance and capability to the current 1TB model? It should be able to have a drive added via eSATA if I need more storage but much less initial cost, $199 vs. $375


----------



## Kif

Tweak42 said:


> 1. The correct bracket can only be found on a Roamio Basic (not the Plus or Pro) and newer Bolt. The above mentioned part can be adapted to fit and function in lieu of a authentic bracket.
> 
> 2. Tuning Adapter (TA) is not the same as a Set Top Box (STB). A cable card alone cannot add SDV support to a Tivo that a STB has. Thus a Tivo requires an external TA when using a cable card.
> https://support.tivo.com/articles/F...l-a-Tuning-Adapter-for-Switched-Digital-Video
> 
> 3. Correct. Starting at series 5 (Roamio) and newer, Tivo cannot do OTA and Cable simultaneously. Rerun the setup wizard to switch modes.


Do I need a tuning adapter to get my tivo roamio ota with cable card bracket to work with my comcast cable card?


----------



## mikey1273

I have comcast using an hd homerun prime network tuner for over 5 years. They do not require a tuning adapter in my market.


----------



## Mikeguy

mikey1273 said:


> thanks.
> 
> Is there any difference in the Tivo Roamio OTA 500GB (2014 model) and the 1TB model other than storage space? as in are they about the same in other ways far as performance and capability to the current 1TB model? It should be able to have a drive added via eSATA if I need more storage but much less initial cost, $199 vs. $375


Same, apart from the amount of hard drive storage.


----------



## mikey1273

Mikeguy said:


> Same, apart from the amount of hard drive storage.


I later noticed that in the item Description on amazon it said a $14.99 monthy service fee was required to see the guide for up to two weeks. So are is lifetime service not included on all ota tivos?
TiVo Roamio OTA 500 GB DVR and Streaming Media Player (2014 Model) - Works with HD Antenna https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OLDNNRO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_lYLaAb037EVTE


----------



## atmuscarella

Mikeguy said:


> Same, apart from the amount of hard drive storage.


Hard ware is the same except hard drive size, but current 1TB version includes lifetime service, where the old 500GB version may not.


----------



## atmuscarella

mikey1273 said:


> I later noticed that in the item Description on amazon it said a $14.99 monthy service fee was required to see the guide for up to two weeks. So are is lifetime service not included on all ota tivos?


actually the current 1TB version of the Roamio OTA is the only TiVo the includes lifetime service in the price.


----------



## Mikeguy

mikey1273 said:


> I later noticed that in the item Description on amazon it said a $14.99 monthy service fee was required to see the guide for up to two weeks. So are is lifetime service not included on all ota tivos?


Currently, yes (for brand new units, the 1TB); originally, for the 500GB OTA, no, and then, yes. And so you need to double-check, to make sure--the 500GB OTA without lifetime still is around, as you wisely caught.


----------



## mikey1273

Mikeguy said:


> Currently, yes (for brand new units, the 1TB); originally, for the 500GB OTA, no, and then, yes. And so you need to double-check, to make sure--the 500GB OTA without lifetime still is around, as you wisely caught.


Well I officially did it. I bought the cable card slot off ebay earlier today thinking it was the direction I wanted to go, that I'd look for a deal on a tivo. I just ordered a 1TB roamio ota from bestbuy online for $359.99 I had a $10 gift card laying around and got 6 months no intrest . I found I can sell my HDhomerun back to Amazon for up to $74 and I can sell off my Xbox 360 that I been only using as media center extender and make a bit back. I still need to find a mini unit for a good price and I can be all switched over.


----------



## Mikeguy

mikey1273 said:


> Well I officially did it. I bought the cable card slot off ebay earlier today thinking it was the direction I wanted to go, that I'd look for a deal on a tivo. I just ordered a 1TB roamio ota from bestbuy online for $359.99 I had a $10 gift card laying around and got 6 months no intrest . I found I can sell my HDhomerun back to Amazon for up to $74 and I can sell off my Xbox 360 that I been only using as media center extender and make a bit back. I still need to find a mini unit for a good price and I can be all switched over.


Bravo!

As to a Mini, you might want to check at the Seller/Buyer section here and keep an eye open. In fact, one currently is listed.  For Sale: Tivo Mini (A92)

Also, last year, TiVo (via TiVo.com) had a "White sale" beginning mid-November, with some nice deals. You might want to keep your eyes open here/at TiVo.com as to that--with TiVo's issuance of the Vox Mini, perhaps there will be a sale on the non-Vox Mini. Also, the Roamio OTA was offered at last year's sale--who knows for this year. (I'm only mentioning this, as you still will be within the Best Buy return period--you might want to wait before installing the cablecard adapter?) Of course, no idea whatsoever if TiVo will be having another sale this year . . . .


----------



## mikey1273

Thanks im going to check that out and look for some deals I dont need a new mini or care if I dont have one right away i mostly stream tv with aps on the xbox so its not mission critical for me to have a min in the bedroom. I think im going to like the Tivo and having all the cable and streaming content on one device. 
The Tivo remote can control Tvs, dvd players and sound bars right? Be nice to get rid of my aging Harmony remote since some of the buttoms dont work so well anymore.


----------



## Mikeguy

mikey1273 said:


> Thanks im going to check that out and look for some deals I dont need a new mini or care if I dont have one right away i mostly stream tv with aps on the xbox so its not mission critical for me to have a min in the bedroom. I think im going to like the Tivo and having all the cable and streaming content on one device.
> The Tivo remote can control Tvs, dvd players and sound bars right? Be nice to get rid of my aging Harmony remote since some of the buttoms dont work so well anymore.


Hold on to that Harmony remote . . . . The TiVo remote will allow limited functionality with a TV/receiver/soundbar: on/off, volume up/down, mute, and input (depending on how that works on the source). The TiVo remote setup process will provide codes that you can try, and even a fall-back system--but if those don't work, the regular TiVo remote doesn't have a learning capability. You can get that with the separate Slide Pro remote, which has learning capability (but only the above limited keys to apply it to), backlighting (way cool, and handy), and a slide-out keyboard--it's a nice device, although I wish it had some "blank" learning remote buttons.


----------



## HerronScott

mikey1273 said:


> Thanks im going to check that out and look for some deals I dont need a new mini or care if I dont have one right away i mostly stream tv with aps on the xbox so its not mission critical for me to have a min in the bedroom. I think im going to like the Tivo and having all the cable and streaming content on one device.
> The Tivo remote can control Tvs, dvd players and sound bars right? Be nice to get rid of my aging Harmony remote since some of the buttoms dont work so well anymore.


I think that I would stick with the A93 Mini with the RF remote as I think there are some slight layout differences with the earlier A92 remote compared to your Roamio. The TiVo remote can't control DVD players.

Scott


----------



## mikey1273

HerronScott said:


> I think that I would stick with the A93 Mini with the RF remote as I think there are some slight layout differences with the earlier A92 remote compared to your Roamio. The TiVo remote can't control DVD players.
> 
> Scott


So i may want to use my old Harmony 650 in the living room and. Probably can get good use in th bed room where there will only be a tv and the mini


----------



## mikey1273

I got my ota Roamio up and running on Comcast last night. Used this card slot from ebayPCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Adapter for a Cable Card | eBay
It fit perfectly in the opening that looks like this
















The bracket fit into the open socket and held down with the 2 screws provided
















Cable card installed
















Had to call Comcast to get it working since my card was paired with my HD homerun prime already but the switch went smoothly though.


----------



## Mr Tony

mikey1273 said:


> I got my ota Roamio up and running on Comcast last night. Used this card slot from ebayPCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Adapter for a Cable Card | eBay
> It fit perfectly in the opening that looks like this


So I bought one of these since I am moving to an area where OTA is minimal and currently have a OTA Roamio w/lifetime. So the "adapter" just fits right into the existing socket that is on the Roamio and thats all I have to do to make it work with cable (besides get a cable card)??


----------



## JoeKustra

unclehonkey said:


> So I bought one of these since I am moving to an area where OTA is minimal and currently have a OTA Roamio w/lifetime. So the "adapter" just fits right into the existing socket that is on the Roamio and thats all I have to do to make it work with cable (besides get a cable card)??


And rerun Guided Setup. I haven't tried it, but I may soon. One change from a Premiere is the selection, for cable, is that "I'm not going to use a Cable Card" doesn't work.


----------



## mikey1273

unclehonkey said:


> So I bought one of these since I am moving to an area where OTA is minimal and currently have a OTA Roamio w/lifetime. So the "adapter" just fits right into the existing socket that is on the Roamio and thats all I have to do to make it work with cable (besides get a cable card)??


Yeah it should work the cable card bracket just fits right in and screws down. You do need to be a little careful to line the pins up as its not keyed exactly like the stock one might be but its very easy just take your time. Mine has been working for over a week now. I bought the ota version to not have the montly fee.


----------



## Mr Tony

mikey1273 said:


> Yeah it should work the cable card bracket just fits right in and screws down. You do need to be a little careful to line the pins up as its not keyed exactly like the stock one might be but its very easy just take your time. Mine has been working for over a week now. I bought the ota version to not have the montly fee.


Thanks for the info. I do have a Roamio Basic here that I did have monthly on for a year but its not active. I thought maybe the card slot would come out of that easy...but I guess not


----------



## mikey1273

Actually the basic I think is the same as the OTA in every way but the cable card slot is not included on the OTa. The slot on your basic if it has one should fit perfectly in the OTA Roamio. I didn't see that you had that or it wasnt mentioned. You should investigate that before you buy one on ebay. Then you would just need the cable card and your cable company will provide that when you sign up for service and tell them you have a tivo.


----------



## Mr Tony

I already bought the adapter and its arriving on Monday. So no worries 

On my basic I did take the screws off and wanted to see if that card slot would just pull right out but it must be soldered in or something because it didn't budge. Didn't want to ruin the unit (yet...maybe later)  so I bought the one on Ebay.


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## mikey1273

Well you will be able to use either Roamio on cable now.


----------



## ddumas2000

Has anyone tried an OTA Roamio running a cable card with the new user experience? Just wondering if TiVo removed the ability to get cable TV on the OTA with the new update?


----------



## mikey1273

ddumas2000 said:


> Has anyone tried an OTA Roamio running a cable card with the new user experience? Just wondering if TiVo removed the ability to get cable TV on the OTA with the new update?


Mine has been on the new software since it was unboxed. It either shipped with it or it updated to it on boot up when it downloaded stuff and rebooted a few times


----------



## JoeKustra

mikey1273 said:


> Mine has been on the new software since it was unboxed. It either shipped with it or it updated to it on boot up when it downloaded stuff and rebooted a few times


The question was for a TiVo OTA with a user-installed cable card and a cable feed. No antenna.


----------



## mikey1273

JoeKustra said:


> The question was for a TiVo OTA with a user-installed cable card and a cable feed.


And that is what I have. I purchased the OTA and installed the cable card myself and set it up. I did this to get a Tivo with no monthy or anual fee and not pay the $599 all in plan price.


----------



## JoeKustra

mikey1273 said:


> And that is what I have. I purchased the OTA and installed the cable card myself and set it up. I did this to get a Tivo with no monthy or anual fee and not pay the $599 all in plan price.


Sorry, your first sentence confused me.


----------



## mikey1273

JoeKustra said:


> Sorry, your first sentence confused me.


No problem. Earlier in the thread I had posted about my cable card install in a new OTA with pics and setting it up with Comcast/Xfinity two weeks ago. My Tivo has never been on the older software. Btw I just seen Amazon has dropped the price of the 1tb OTA to $299. I paid 359 at best buy a few weeks ago and that was the best deal at the time.


----------



## JoeKustra

mikey1273 said:


> No problem. Earlier in the thread I had posted about my cable card install in a new OTA with pics and setting it up with Comcast/Xfinity two weeks ago. My Tivo has never been on the older software. Btw I just seen Amazon has dropped the price of the 1tb OTA to $299. I paid 359 at best buy a few weeks ago and that was the best deal at the time.


Wow that sucks. I bought one from TiVo Friday at $299. I would have received 5% off which would almost cover the state tax.


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## mikey1273

You did not do too bad. I paid 50 more. Idid get 6 months no intrest and the value of having and enjoying it for that.....


----------



## johnfasc

mikey1273 said:


> And that is what I have. I purchased the OTA and installed the cable card myself and set it up. I did this to get a Tivo with no monthy or anual fee and not pay the $599 all in plan price.


So with the cable card installed you realize TiVo knows there is a cable card on your unit? If you go to settings, cable card, it shows the Id. So you are waiting to see if you are discovered? I purchase a roamio years ago for cable or OTA, have since dropped cable but I still cannot use this for OTA unless I purchased an all in or pay the monthly fee. You think TiVo would not be so stupid to realize people would not just install a card. You think they would have eliminated the space for that card altogether. So interested to see if they smarten up to this or....just don't care!


----------



## mikey1273

Im not sure what they will do if anything. One thing to think about is the numbers of people that even think or take the time to cheat a bit and do it are going to be not so big in total count of customers. They may never even check. Two we did pay for service in a way. I paid 359 for my device when I could have spend 199, 150+ less for a bolt and paid 14.99 a month or 150 a year for services. 
The worst they could do is make up buy a plan or shut down our guide service if we dont, I would think they would do something to keep you as a customer. 
The difference is your device was not bought with lifetime service already on it from the door


----------



## JoeKustra

johnfasc said:


> So with the cable card installed you realize TiVo knows there is a cable card on your unit? If you go to settings, cable card, it shows the Id. So you are waiting to see if you are discovered? I purchase a roamio years ago for cable or OTA, have since dropped cable but I still cannot use this for OTA unless I purchased an all in or pay the monthly fee. You think TiVo would not be so stupid to realize people would not just install a card. You think they would have eliminated the space for that card altogether. So interested to see if they smarten up to this or....just don't care!


While I'm sure that TiVo can determine that I have installed a cable card in my Roamio OTA, I would have to be very stupid to call them for support that's cable related. I also don't feel that it's common for TiVo to have CS people that have ever seen a cable card, let alone know how to know one is installed. But, of course, they could remove the option from Guided Setup. But that would be a bit more difficult than the code differences between a Premiere and a Roamio. Both boxes (basic Roamio and Roamio OTA) have a TSN that starts with 846, so it won't be trivial to get the data from the internal logs, assuming the logs have that data.


----------



## atmuscarella

JoeKustra said:


> ... Both boxes (basic Roamio and Roamio OTA) have a TSN that starts with 846, so it won't be trivial to get the data from the internal logs, assuming the logs have that data.


That would be my take, to do something about it they would have to either write different code for the base Roamio and the Roamio OTA to globally disable cable on the Roamio OTA or manually find everyone who has added a cable card reader and manual disable what ever so the unit wouldn't work with cable.

Seems like a big $$ looser for TiVo to do anything to me, but I guess anything is possible.


----------



## mikey1273

JoeKustra said:


> While I'm sure that TiVo can determine that I have installed a cable card in my Roamio OTA, I would have to be very stupid to call them for support that's cable related. I also don't feel that it's common for TiVo to have CS people that have ever seen a cable card, let alone know how to know one is installed. But, of course, they could remove the option from Guided Setup. But that would be a bit more difficult than the code differences between a Premiere and a Roamio. Both boxes (basic Roamio and Roamio OTA) have a TSN that starts with 846, so it won't be trivial to get the data from the internal logs, assuming the logs have that data.


Yeah I would never call them for support on a cable card issue with my OTA, that would be like shooting myself in the foot
If there was a software issue related to the cards im sure I would be alone in that and others would call and tell them. Id wait and check mine for updates and go watch something on netflix or amazon or something recorded until it was patched. Even read a book if it came to that. So far my only call to TiVo customer service was to get a used mini I bought from a member active on my account, that went with out a bit of trouble.


----------



## ClearToLand

mikey1273 said:


> Yeah I would never call them for support on a cable card issue with my OTA, *that would be like shooting myself in the foot*


Like announcing it to everyone in your SIG?  


> Roaming Ota 1Tb with cable card


Well, at least your Ota 1Tb doesn't stay in one place all the time...


----------



## krkaufman

johnfasc said:


> You think they would have eliminated the space for that card altogether. So interested to see if they smarten up to this or....just don't care!





mikey1273 said:


> Im not sure what they will do if anything. One thing to think about is the numbers of people that even think or take the time to cheat a bit and do it are going to be not so big in total count of customers.





atmuscarella said:


> That would be my take, to do something about it they would have to either write different code for the base Roamio and the Roamio OTA to globally disable cable on the Roamio OTA or manually find everyone who has added a cable card reader and manual disable what ever so the unit wouldn't work with cable.


That's my view, TiVo would need to take an enormous risk of potentially flubbing the rollout of the corrective action and wiping out CableCARD capability for legit CableCARD 4-tuner Roamios, just to address what is likely a very minor number of users.


----------



## mikey1273

ClearToLand said:


> Well, at least your Ota 1Tb doesn't stay in one place all the time...


Haha you got me on that. I didnt notice that before...... Autocorrect is not always your friend.


----------



## Willsee

FYI 500GB OTA w/ lifetime is now $199 shipped for CyberMonday at the Tivo site.
I just picked up one.
I have a Bolt 500gb now w/ Comcrap. My annual plan renews in Jan and I'm hoping this OTA and mod will save me $$. 
TIA to everyone who has posted with good advice on this thread. I really appreciate it!
I have just 2 questions that hopefully someone can answer.
1. Should I boot it up with antenna and activate it 1st, THEN attempt the mod? Or complete the mod straight out of the box then activate?
2. To those with the mod and Comcrap: Will any of the xfinity streaming features work or are those not installed due to the device being OTA?

I have a SUPER BASIC Comcrap TV package... only OTA broadcast channels and Xfinity streaming and HBO. I had cut the cord and was in process of adding an antenna when cable rep called and offered this package to me for less than my internet monthly cost alone. To me it eliminated the hassle of installing an antenna in my attic and saved a few $$ as well.


----------



## JoeKustra

Willsee said:


> 1. Should I boot it up with antenna and activate it 1st, THEN attempt the mod? Or complete the mod straight out of the box then activate?


That would be my choice: power on the box, select cable and respond "add card later". That way you can be sure the basic parts, like networking and HDMI are ok. If you have a streaming service you can access that also. If you're happy, then put the box into Standby, pull power, and do the cable card stuff.

Comcast has a special cable card number. I don't have it handy (or even use Comcast).


----------



## mikey1273

Thats a great deal..... $199 for 500GB. Amazon has the 1TB for 299. 
I did set mne up with a cheap set of bunny ears before I got the card bracket just to see how the device worked not sure that was required. 
2. I have Comcast and the same package you have. I would have cut the cord and went internet only but in my area I can only get 2 or 3 broadcast channels with an indoor antenna. That deal was what kept me from spending $200-$300 to put up a roof top antenna. 

Yes you can stream with all apps on it the xfinity app even is there. On mine I had to call the cable card support have them resend the activation signal to the card and tivo then resync with the Tivo network to get it on mine. My card was moved from an HD homerun prime so that may have been why it didnt happen with out a little help.


----------



## elitef

Hey guys, I have a few Premiere Series4 units at the house, is the OTA with the cable card slot mod worth the upgrade? What can/does the Roamio do that is better than the Premiere?


----------



## Sparky1234

elitef said:


> Hey guys, I have a few Premiere Series4 units at the house, is the OTA with the cable card slot mod worth the upgrade? What can/does the Roamio do that is better than the Premiere?


SM and streaming... But Premieres are work horses.


----------



## elitef

What's SM? and streaming you mean like NetFlix etc..? My premieres have several apps like youtube and such if I am not mistaken.

Yes, they are work horses for sure, but I just want to get a Bolt but too expensive for my blood right now, but the OTA deal right now is pretty good which is why im debating about getting a Roamio at least. The premieres are slow though, which is the one thing I hate about it. Settings, Channel Surfing, etc...super slow... how is it on the Roamio?


----------



## JoeKustra

elitef said:


> Hey guys, I have a few Premiere Series4 units at the house, is the OTA with the cable card slot mod worth the upgrade? What can/does the Roamio do that is better than the Premiere?


SkipMode (SM) is worth the cost alone. That and the speed increase for everything except watching a recording or real time TV. I mean, when you're watching TV you're watching TV. Apps load faster but for a quicker load you'll need a Bolt. It's not the same as going from a Premiere to a Roamio, but it is faster. I find the biggest delay in "surfing" is the time it takes a TV to build a picture since the audio is usually heard before the channel is displayed. Also, the channel info is there before the video. I always use the guide. I only have 20 channels displayed (Favorites) out of my 240 channel lineup.

Oh yeah, installing a larger hard drive (up to 3GB) is a drop in and go operation. Just have the right tools. No PC needed until you want to go past 3GB (up to 8GB).


----------



## mikey1273

I dont have any experience with any of the older TiVo units to compare with but my Roamio seems to work at a very acceptable speed. When im recording I notice channel changes on live tv take a second longer than normal and apps load in decent time, as fast as or faster then the Fire stick I was using for streaming.


----------



## mikey1273

Skip mode is one of the things I think I like best about watching recored TV on the TiVo over my old windoz media center set up. On skip enabled shows you can just tap the D button and bypass all the ads, no fast forwarding and trying to stop at the right spotany more.


----------



## atmuscarella

My thoughts on Premiere vs Roamio vs Bolt.

I bought a base Roamio with lifetime at release (9/2013) for $600 and thought it was a great deal back then. At the time I had a dual tuner Premiere, TiVo HD, & Series 3. I was extremely happy with the base Roamio and thought there was no comparison to the Premiere at all. Since then (in 2014 I believe) they dropped Flash and rewrote the Premiere's software, that rewrite completely changed the Premiere's usability and was a significant improvement so the difference between the Roamio and Premiere when used as DVRs was much less. Skip mode did change that again giving the Roamio a big plus. Using apps on the Premiere still (and always will) sucks, the Roamio is much better, but the apps is really where the Bolt kills the Roamio so if someone really is trying to use only one device, I would move up to the Bolt, but Honestly the best thing to do for apps is just to buy another device like a Roku, I have a Roku Premiere + and it just works better with apps.


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## DrewTivo

If you put the cable card slot onto a Roamio OTA is it still 4 tuners, or are there 6 for cable?


----------



## lpwcomp

DrewTivo said:


> If you put the cable card slot onto a Roamio OTA is it still 4 tuners, or are there 6 for cable?


It's a base Roamio. Only 4 tuners. Only the Plus and the Pro have 6 tuners and they are digital cable only.


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## wongster12

I got the same adapter on eBay and it worked for about 3 hours and stopped working. Has anyone gotten a bad adapter in the past?


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## mikey1273

No I have not. Try to power down the TiVo, take the card out and carefully insert it again. Then boot up and try again. If that fails make sure the bracket is on right and secured, if that fails run setup on an antenna maybe something is wrong with your tivo unit if it still dont work.


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## wongster12

I ran the guided setup with no change. I contacted the ebay seller and he immediately offer to send me a replacement. What a standup seller!


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## mikey1273

Awsome hope that fixes it for you


----------



## Kif

Added my cable card card bracket but my tivo isnt recognizing my cable card. However, I just noticed that my cable card has “bad” written on it with a marker and the comcast employee still gave it to me. Also, can’t get passed the zip code problem. Very disappointed.


----------



## RoamioJeff

Kif said:


> Added my cable card card bracket but my tivo isnt recognizing my cable card. However, I just noticed that my cable card has "bad" written on it with a marker and the comcast employee still gave it to me. Also, can't get passed the zip code problem. Very disappointed.


Probably is bad. Get it swapped out with a different one. I had a similar problem when I first set up my TiVo.


----------



## mikey1273

Kif said:


> Added my cable card card bracket but my tivo isnt recognizing my cable card. However, I just noticed that my cable card has "bad" written on it with a marker and the comcast employee still gave it to me. Also, can't get passed the zip code problem. Very disappointed.


Go get another card and try again. Also try to run set up on antenna if you can just to prove its not the tivo. Not saying it is cause well you are dealing with Comcast. The people arent well trained on cable cards. They have also given me broken stuff in the past when I used cable boxes. Once I got a replacement box at the local office that wouldn't boot up at home and several broken remotes.


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## jerryez

I have the Roamio OTA and no cable. If I install this mod will I be able to get cable without subscribing. Also, I use my OTA connection for the antenna. How do I connect the mod to the cable. I have Cox available in my area.


----------



## mikey1273

jerryez said:


> I have the Roamio OTA and no cable. If I install this mod will I be able to get cable without subscribing. Also, I use my OTA connection for the antenna. How do I connect the mod to the cable.


You would be able to connect your Roamio ota to cable with out paying TiVo the monthly fee if your roamio has a lifetime subscription. You would not be able to get both ota and cable with the same Roamio, its one or the other. And the mod will not let you get free cable tv service you would still need to subscribe to a cable package from the provider in your area and they would need to give you a cable card. The cable card is like a key that unlocks the encripted cable signals for the channels you subscribe to.


----------



## jerryez

With all the sub channels, I get about 35 watchable channels, not including HSN and religious channels, so I think that I will stick with my OTA "as is". Plus my Amazon Prime, whic gives me a bunch of movies.


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## mikey1273

If I got that many ota channels I would stick with that too. Here I can get 2 broadcasts each with 2 sub channels with an indoor antenna. The others are 20+ miles north and over a large hill or 50 miles to the south. Id need a roof top antenna that would be large and cost a few hundred. Comcast is the only company that serves my area with high speed internet. Dropping the. Limited basic Tv part of my service would only save me $10-15 a month. It would take a while to break even on an antenna so I keep cable.


----------



## Mr Tony

well I tried my cable card adapter today (got Mediacom cable) and it didnt work. Says no card found. emailed the seller and he is sending a new one and a label to return the other one (glad he did it as it was past the 14 days....)

Now I just cant get my Series 3 to work with the CC (thread opened in that section)


----------



## Mr Tony

unclehonkey said:


> well I tried my cable card adapter today (got Mediacom cable) and it didnt work. Says no card found. emailed the seller and he is sending a new one and a label to return the other one (glad he did it as it was past the 14 days....)


got the new adapter last night and it worked like a charm 
Now to have Mediacom pair the CC with the Roamio (It was with the Series 3 and still works in the Roamio...but just want it to be set up properly)


----------



## cruiserandmax

Can I connect my Roamio OTA to my installed cable line (unsubscribed but cable company provides local channels unencrypted) and Tivo broadcast channels via this connection without the cable card adapter?


----------



## JoeKustra

cruiserandmax said:


> Can I connect my Roamio OTA to my installed cable line (unsubscribed but cable company provides local channels unencrypted) and Tivo broadcast channels via this connection without the cable card adapter?


Connect your cable to your TV and do a channel scan. This will show you the channels and their channel number. Run guided setup on the Roamio and change from OTA to cable. It will not work with both at the same time. You will have to do a channel scan. You will lose guide information. All recordings will be manual. It will pretty much be worse than a VCR. It's not worth it.


----------



## shwru980r

cruiserandmax said:


> Can I connect my Roamio OTA to my installed cable line (unsubscribed but cable company provides local channels unencrypted) and Tivo broadcast channels via this connection without the cable card adapter?


Won't the cable channels be the same channels that you receive from an antenna?


----------



## JoeKustra

shwru980r said:


> Won't the cable channels be the same channels that you receive from an antenna?


In some RV or similar communities a MATV system will just use an antenna and distribute the RF. Usually a cable company sends QAM. There are a few that don't encrypt everything, but not many. I still have one clear QAM channel and five vsb channels used for signal testing. A TV channel scan is the quickest way to find out what's on the cable.


----------



## shwru980r

JoeKustra said:


> In some RV or similar communities a MATV system will just use an antenna and distribute the RF. Usually a cable company sends QAM. There are a few that don't encrypt everything, but not many. I still have one clear QAM channel and five vsb channels used for signal testing. A TV channel scan is the quickest way to find out what's on the cable.


Sorry, I meant the content of the channels. The OP stated the cable company was providing the local channels unencrypted. Not sure what the point would be to combine the cable channels and the local channels.


----------



## JoeKustra

shwru980r said:


> Sorry, I meant the content of the channels. The OP stated the cable company was providing the local channels unencrypted. Not sure what the point would be to combine the cable channels and the local channels.


I understand. The original question was not so accurate, hence the confusion. I remember hearing of people who only bought internet service, then found out that there were clear QAM channels still there. Initially some feeds started installing traps to kill the TV, but most just went to encryption. I used to say that all cable is local. It's still true, but I stopped saying it. I know of no cable feed that has both vsb and QAM on the same wire. Many do still have analog combined with something else. In my previous post I meant analog when I said vsb. Sometimes people compare ATSC with QAM. That's an apples and oranges thing. I will compare vsb/8vsb with QAM, or compare NTSC with ATSC. One is hardware, one is a committee spec. Also, some newer televisions have begun shipping without analog ability. Too bad if you have LP repeaters I guess.

Anyhow, we have strayed far afield.


----------



## comandercody33

I have a Roamio OTA(only) TiVo. Bought a cable card adapter and a cable card from Spectrum(monthly fee). Getting ready to attempt install of cable card. Will i loose current recordings(from the OTA antenna)?


----------



## cruiserandmax

shwru980r said:


> Won't the cable channels be the same channels that you receive from an antenna?


In my case I only can receive 2 of the locals via antenna, but all of them are delivered on the cable..


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## krkaufman

comandercody33 said:


> I have a Roamio OTA(only) TiVo. ... Getting ready to attempt install of cable card. *Will i loose current recordings(from the OTA antenna)?*


No, switching between sources by re-running Guided Setup will not affect existing recordings. (Nor will you lose access to any recordings made using the CableCARD if/when the CableCARD is removed.)


----------



## comandercody33

krkaufman said:


> No, switching between sources by re-running Guided Setup will not affect existing recordings. (Nor will you lose access to any recordings made using the CableCARD if/when the CableCARD is removed.)


Thank you. Once cable card is working, will I need to re-do my One passes?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## comandercody33

comandercody33 said:


> Thank you. Once cable card is working, will I need to re-do my One passes?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Also, I have paired the cable card(with the help of spectrum tech support) and can see live tv, however, the "guide" has no channels.......

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


----------



## krkaufman

comandercody33 said:


> Also, I have paired the cable card(with the help of spectrum tech support) and can see live tv, however, the "guide" has no channels...


Have you re-run Guided Setup?


----------



## krkaufman

comandercody33 said:


> Once cable card is working, will I need to re-do my One passes?


Not sure. I think you'd be OK if the station callsigns are identical between the old and new guide info, but better safe than sorry.


----------



## comandercody33

krkaufman said:


> Have you re-run Guided Setup?


No. But I will. I could see love tv during the guided setup.

**"live"

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


----------



## krkaufman

comandercody33 said:


> No. But I will. I could see live tv during the guided setup.


After redoing Guided Setup and selecting your cable provider lineup, be sure to force a few manual service connections to expedite population of your guide data.


----------



## shwru980r

cruiserandmax said:


> In my case I only can receive 2 of the locals via antenna, but all of them are delivered on the cable..


Do you have the optimal antenna for your location? Perhaps you could improve your reception?


----------



## Mr Tony

comandercody33 said:


> Thank you. Once cable card is working, will I need to re-do my One passes?


I would say yes. When I went from OTA to cable my one passes were in there but some of the channel numbers were the old OTA ones. Most migrated to the corresponding cable channel. The ones that didnt for me (besides the ones that have no episodes for a while like summer only shows) were the ones for CBS & FOX because I have 2 of them on cable. All I did was go in and change settings. Went to channel and arrowed until it showed the right station.


----------



## Mr Tony

cruiserandmax said:


> In my case I only can receive 2 of the locals via antenna, but all of them are delivered on the cable..





shwru980r said:


> Do you have the optimal antenna for your location? Perhaps you could improve your reception?


In some cases cable is easier than an antenna...especially if you are in a bad area or the towers are in multiple directions. I am kinda in a valley so the Minneapolis stations wont come in unless I have a monster antenna setup (and even that isnt guaranteed). I get 2 stations from the neighboring market (Mankato) but they are the only stations in the market. If I go maybe 5 miles north I can get all the Mpls stations. All depends on location


----------



## Arti

I see different model numbers on Roamio OTA like TCD846500, _TCD846510 and TCD846000.
Do all of these have the slot?_


----------



## JoeKustra

Arti said:


> I see different model numbers on Roamio OTA like TCD846500, _TCD846510 and TCD846000.
> Do all of these have the slot?_


846510 and 846000 are OTA Roamio. The 846500 is cable or OTA and has a card connector.

All current models -> https://support.tivo.com/articles/Essential_Summary/TiVo-Software-Version-Information scroll down


----------



## Arti

Do both the 846510 and 846000 have the slot that would need the adapter? Is there any difference between these two in that regard?


----------



## JoeKustra

Arti said:


> Do both the 846510 and 846000 have the slot that would need the adapter? Is there any difference between these two in that regard?


It's not a "slot", it's a female connector that accepts the male connector on the cable card holder. The motherboard has the female connector and there is access through the case. If you ever need to remove the motherboard the cable card holder must be removed.

The difference between those models is the age and hard drive size.


----------



## Arti

Do both the 846510 and 846000 have the connector that would need the cable card holder?


----------



## Arti

I asked about a couple of TCD846510 on ebay. Both sellers said they were paying a monthly fee to tivo. I thought OTA was a free subscription.


----------



## JoeKustra

Arti said:


> I asked about a couple of TCD846510 on ebay. Both sellers said they were paying a monthly fee to tivo. I thought OTA was a free subscription.





Arti said:


> Do both the 846510 and 846000 have the connector that would need the cable card holder?


I have an 846000 and there is a connector for the cable card bracket.

TiVo can be bought with monthly, yearly and once (All-In) pricing. Check sales -> Top 5 Reasons


----------



## FeasibleEarth

I have the OTA _TCD846510.
It has the connector. 
I bought the cablecard adapter from someone on the forum. I'm using an xfinity cablecard. It works great!

I bought the lifetime subscription with unit. You need to buy the guide from tivo. It will work without it, but you will not get the guide. It's totally worth it if you live in an area with plenty of channels. 
I only got the cablecard because I got a good deal on a bundle of internet and basic cable._


----------



## HerronScott

Arti said:


> I asked about a couple of TCD846510 on ebay. Both sellers said they were paying a monthly fee to tivo. I thought OTA was a free subscription.


The original 500GB Roamio OTA did not come with the TiVo lifetime service. The later 1TB Roamio OTA model included the TiVo lifetime service.

Scott


----------



## lpwcomp

Arti said:


> I asked about a couple of TCD846510 on ebay. Both sellers said they were paying a monthly fee to tivo. I thought OTA was a free subscription.


Most (if not all) sellers of OTA Romios included an "All-in" subscription in the sale price but it is by no means "free".


----------



## NCSU2008

I have this model “HPT-134-01-L-D-RA” that I bought from a member on here. I ended up selling the tivo before I could try it(my apt complex only allows uverse, which doesn’t have cable cards)

15 shipped?


----------



## rdrrepair

What Roamio OTA model is the "All In Included"? TCD846000 or TCD846510.

If I were to purchase a lifetime Roamio on eBay, with a cable card bracket, how would I know that I've got the "Real Deal" and not one that was made originally as strictly OTA and then modified? 

I'm currently looking for another Roamio as my Premier is much slower than the Bolt and Roamio. I'm not interested in the Bolt because the tv it's going on is component, composite and DVI only.

I'm all for modifying things to make something work. But, I'm not willing to buy something in good faith only to find out that what I purchased was modified.


----------



## JoeKustra

rdrrepair said:


> What Roamio OTA model is the "All In Included"? TCD846000 or TCD846510.
> If I were to purchase a lifetime Roamio on eBay, with a cable card bracket, how would I know that I've got the "Real Deal" and not one that was made originally as strictly OTA and then modified?
> I'm currently looking for another Roamio as my Premier is much slower than the Bolt and Roamio. I'm not interested in the Bolt because the tv it's going on is component, composite and DVI only.
> I'm all for modifying things to make something work. But, I'm not willing to buy something in good faith only to find out that what I purchased was a lie.


There is no easy way to answer that. An 846500 could be All-in if the owner added it. In general, the 846000 is the newer 1TB OTA with All-In and 846510 is the older 500GB OTA and could have All-In added, neither which shipped with a cable card bracket.

A Roamio is much faster than a Premiere.


----------



## Tweak42

rdrrepair said:


> What Roamio OTA model is the "All In Included"? TCD846000 or TCD846510.
> 
> If I were to purchase a lifetime Roamio on eBay, with a cable card bracket, how would I know that I've got the "Real Deal" and not one that was made originally as strictly OTA and then modified?
> 
> I'm currently looking for another Roamio as my Premier is much slower than the Bolt and Roamio. I'm not interested in the Bolt because the tv it's going on is component, composite and DVI only.
> 
> I'm all for modifying things to make something work. But, I'm not willing to buy something in good faith only to find out that what I purchased was modified.


Most of the OTA models should have "TiVo Roamio OTA" printed on the front case. I say most because I've read reports of initial OTA units (500GB model) that shipped without the OTA printed on front.


----------



## krkaufman

rdrrepair said:


> If I were to purchase a lifetime Roamio on eBay, with a cable card bracket, how would I know that I've got the "Real Deal" and not one that was made originally as strictly OTA and then modified?


I'd think the device's model number would indicate the realness of the deal.

And you could request the TSN from the seller to confirm the Lifetime/All-In service.


----------



## DougJohnson

rdrrepair said:


> I'm not interested in the Bolt because the tv it's going on is component, composite and DVI only.


You can get an HDMI to DVI cable. https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-HDMI-Output-Adapter-Cable/dp/B014I8UU2W. I used one on a similar TV for a decade.
-- Doug


----------



## rdrrepair

Thank you for your replies. I was trying to buy one off of craigslist and didn't want to get stuck with one that could "theoretically" get bricked, via cable bracket mod, if TiVo decided to just stop supplying cable lineup programming to the TCD846__0 units.

I think the OP and each subsequent person who followed through is well aware of this potentially happening. It's the secondary market who might have issues with this and I'm trying to avoid that.

Another reason, besides the slow speed, to avoid the Premiere would be the potential issue of purchasing a lifetime unit that is only lifetimed because someone at TiVo didn't deactivate it on their end.

Has anyone successfully transferred a deactivated lifetime unit to another account? I've got an older S2 that TiVo allowed a $99 transfer yet it still gets program guide and says lifetime.

I'm proud to be a member of this community and love reading about how people modify their boxes to suit their needs.



JoeKustra said:


> ... 746510 is the older 500GB OTA and could have All-In added, neither which shipped with a cable card bracket.


 You meant the 846510 right?


----------



## JoeKustra

rdrrepair said:


> You meant the 846510 right?


Yes, my typo.


----------



## mr_i31

Set up in previous posts worked for me.... Only problem was I had to get a replacement Cable Card from cable provider.
Cable provider tech support .. recommended getting a few to try when going through initial set up. 
first card only showed the first few channels, second card had all my channels in my line up.
I'm currently using a tuning adapter with roamio box


----------



## Sportsnut

Is the cable card bracket in the Roamio plus the same as the one in the Roamio basic so it could be used in an OTA?


----------



## krkaufman

Sportsnut said:


> Is the cable card bracket in the Roamio plus the same as the one in the Roamio basic so it could be used in an OTA?


No, definitely not.

You'd need to scavenge one from a 4-tuner Roamio or 4-tuner BOLT, or buy a compatible bracket via one of the sources mentioned in the thread.


----------



## cbaytech

FeasibleEarth said:


> I have the OTA _TCD846510.
> It has the connector.
> I bought the cablecard adapter from someone on the forum. I'm using an xfinity cablecard. It works great!
> 
> I bought the lifetime subscription with unit. You need to buy the guide from tivo. It will work without it, but you will not get the guide. It's totally worth it if you live in an area with plenty of channels.
> I only got the cablecard because I got a good deal on a bundle of internet and basic cable._


Do you have a part number or something on the adapter you got or remember who you got it from? I ordered one off ebay but the pins did not extend down far enough.

R/

Michael


----------



## FeasibleEarth

cbaytech said:


> Do you have a part number or something on the adapter you got or remember who you got it from? I ordered one off ebay but the pins did not extend down far enough.
> 
> R/
> 
> Michael


I got the bracket from another user . Check page 19-22 of this thread. Part number is PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL .

I mentioned before that I had to CAREFULLY reseat the adapter a couple of nerve racking times. It finally worked. When you do a scan in the TIVO, if the channels scan to 89%, then you'll have to reseat.

If the adapter you ordered does not go far down enough, you might need to cut it down. I used a razor blade. An xacto knife might be better. Definitely read the thread carefully for the instructions.

Cheers


----------



## JoeKustra

FeasibleEarth said:


> I mentioned before that I had to CAREFULLY reseat the adapter a couple of nerve racking times. It finally worked. When you do a scan in the TIVO, if the channels scan to 89%, then you'll have to reseat.
> Cheers


Perhaps the Roamio software has changed. It took me two attempts to seat the adapter before I got it right. But when my Roamio detected the cable card it removed the channel scan ability. Of course, with a paired cable card, no channel scan is needed.

After I had my OTA for six weeks, I ended up having to remove the card since the fan was defective and the adapter must be pulled to remove the motherboard.


----------



## JoeKustra

cbaytech said:


> Do you have a part number or something on the adapter you got or remember who you got it from? I ordered one off ebay but the pins did not extend down far enough.
> Michael


I also got my from eBay and that is the part number. It was $36.

PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Adapter for a Cable Card | eBay

The screws are VERY small. There is no eject lever.


----------



## ken15

Here is my experience with the Roamio OTA. First I bought one of these: PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Cable Card Bracket – SAMTEC. After bending the leads I could get it installed by it was a flimsy install as the pc board deflects when trying to install. Deciding my time was more valuable that messing with this piece which doesn't fit correctly, I bought a cable card bracket pulled from a Roamio. This install was super simple. Went and picked up a cable card, everything went smoothly after I remembered to reset the unit to cable rather than OTA in setting. No issues since the cable card install.


----------



## bsnelson

I think I can finally add my entry to this thread. I've had a 1TB Roamio OTA for, well, a long time.  With football season approaching, I really wanted to get my 30 second skip back, and although my Spectrum DVR was acceptable, it's kind of clunky. So, after reading this thread and getting my confidence up, I ordered a bracket and a 3TB drive.

The bracket was from eBay, with the title "OEM Cable Card Bracket adapter Tivo CableCARD Roamio PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL". The description said it was a OEM Roamio pull, and it seemed to be. There wasn't any need to bend pins or other strangeness; it plugged right in, and I secured it with the provided screws. In case it's still in the system when you're reading this, here's the auction: OEM Cable Card Bracket adapter Tivo CableCARD Roamio PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL | eBay

The drive install was super easy, especially considering that the device will "bless" the drive itself. No issues there. I used the WD NAS drive linked to earlier in this thread.

I had to go to my local cable company's store (Spectrum) to get the cablecard. I was issued a card and tuning adapter, not realizing until that moment that the latter was needed. The cablecard worked like a champ on the first try, but the TA was more tricky. It wouldn't lock when I plumbed it through a splitter (one to the TiVo, one to the TA). There was already a splitter at the wall, so I figured the loss was too high. I replaced the wall splitter with a four way (TiVO, TA, internet router), and the TA locked on pretty quickly.

Other than the fact that I had to spend a total of about four hours on hold with Spectrum over several calls, the process was very straightforward. The calls were a little frustrating, because each time, I had to wait anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes to get the first person on the line, and every time, I had to be transferred again to a "cablecard specialist", which took another 15 to 30 minutes each time.

In the final analysis, I believe my main recommendation for future upgraders would be to get a "real" Roamio pull bracket like mine, so that no bending or modifications are required. It's tricky enough getting it seated in the "well" that the socket is in (the visibility isn't that great).

Good luck!

Brad


----------



## krkaufman

bsnelson said:


> I replaced the wall splitter with a four way (TiVO, TA, internet router)


Why a 4-way (rather than a balanced or unbalanced 3-way)?

Good info; thanks for posting.


----------



## bsnelson

krkaufman said:


> Why a 4-way (rather than a balanced or unbalanced 3-way)?
> 
> Good info; thanks for posting.


1. To accommodate the possibility of adding back the cable DVR in addition to the TiVo
2. It was all Lowe's had 

OK, it was mostly number 2. I could save almost $20/mo by giving the DVR back.

Brad


----------



## bertp

I am considering purchasing one and trying this mod; looking on eBay, it appears that there are two versions of TiVo Roamio 1TB OTA DVR:

The one with the green on the box has MPN = TCD846000
The one with the blue on the box has MPN = TCD846000V 

Does anyone know if this mod will work with both models? or will it only work with the older one? 

In the case that the mod only works with the older model, is the older model the one with the green box?


----------



## krkaufman

TCD846000V is the newer model, tipped by the “V” for VOX ... but the boxes are identical; their difference, aside from the packaging, comes from the VOX version shipping with a VOX Remote (rather than the simple RF remote) and a Bluetooth/BLE USB dongle to add BLE functionality to the box.

So, yes, the CableCARD bracket restoration works for either.


----------



## mrtnrz8

I just bought my bracket adapter for my Roamio OTA and will be getting my cable card soon. Does anyone know if you can watch/record more than one channel doing this modification with a cable card? I was able to watch/record 4 different channels with my antenna. 
Thanks!


----------



## bsnelson

Yes, you can watch/record multiple channels simultaneously, assuming that your cablecard is an "M" card, which I believe is pretty much the standard these days.

Brad


----------



## JoeKustra

mrtnrz8 said:


> I just bought my bracket adapter for my Roamio OTA and will be getting my cable card soon. Does anyone know if you can watch/record more than one channel doing this modification with a cable card? I was able to watch/record 4 different channels with my antenna.
> Thanks!


Where are you located (add to your profile) and who is your cable company?. Many suggest that you install the bracket, repeat guided setup (say "Install later") and be sure you have the right channels. Then, with power off, install the card. When you power up you should be greeted by the pairing screen.

Also, you can see your channels with the guide at TiVo Online. Don't login, just select Guide and enter your zipcode and provider.


----------



## mrtnrz8

JoeKustra said:


> Where are you located (add to your profile) and who is your cable company?. Many suggest that you install the bracket, repeat guided setup (say "Install later") and be sure you have the right channels. Then, with power off, install the card. When you power up you should be greeted by the pairing screen.
> 
> Also, you can see your channels with the guide at TiVo Online. Don't login, just select Guide and enter your zipcode and provider.


Thanks Joe, I live in Racine, WI and my company is Spectrum. Can I repeat the guided setup from the settings page on my TiVo? I may be coming back here with more questions once I have everything in hand and ready to setup.


----------



## JoeKustra

mrtnrz8 said:


> Thanks Joe, I live in Racine, WI and my company is Spectrum. Can I repeat the guided setup from the settings page on my TiVo? I may be coming back here with more questions once I have everything in hand and ready to setup.


GS is one of the items found in Help, Reset to Defaults. Some of your options will need to be reset.

Once you get the card installed and paired, you should start a new thread with questions not related to this subject. Just to be nice. 

Pairing screen for a Motorola M-Card:


----------



## mrtnrz8

JoeKustra said:


> GS is one of the items found in Help, Reset to Defaults. Some of your options will need to be reset.
> 
> Once you get the card installed and paired, you should start a new thread with questions not related to this subject. Just to be nice.
> 
> Pairing screen for a Motorola M-Card:
> View attachment 36917


SUCCESS! I installed the adapter I bought on Ebay. I inserted my cable card, connected the tuner adapter, called my cable company to activate the card, ran through the Guided Setup and set it up for cable and everything is working great! Everything took me about 45 mins. I am so glad I found this modification .Thank you everyone for their help!


----------



## scandia101

Good to hear that Tivo hasn't disabled that.


----------



## videobruce

I did scan thru many of these posts, but I didn't see anyone bringing this up; 'what if' you had to call TiVo regarding a CC issue for a non CC equipped model?? Try to tell them that had the bracket when you received it?


----------



## Mikeguy

videobruce said:


> I did scan thru many of these posts, but I didn't see anyone bringing this up; 'what if' you had to call TiVo regarding a CC issue for a non CC equipped model?? Try to tell them that had the bracket when you received it?


I wouldn't. 1. You risk an issue by calling yourself and the matter to TiVo's attention. I don't think that it would be a viable defense to state that someone else had made the modification. 2. TiVo potentially would not provide any assistance with regard to a non-TiVo-made modification. 3. You very likely could and would get better assistance here.


----------



## videobruce

I more than realize that, hence the question.
As to your last point (after having a laugh), no question about that. 

Other than savings (what, a dollar or less at the manufacturing level), why even have two models of basically the same thing??


----------



## Mikeguy

Do you mean, the Roamio OTA and the Roamio? Pricing and profits: TiVo likely thought that it could earn "extra" money from the OTA crowd and cable-cutters by offering an OTA-limited model with a lower price-point (OTA people may be "more sensitive" to pricing, not being used to or willing to pay monthly cables fees); but not wanting to cannibalize its "regular," more costly model (with greater profits), limit the OTA model to that.


----------



## Hama

My Roamio OTA just stop reading the cable card. All I get now, is cable card was just removed, been working for the last 10 months. Booo


----------



## videobruce

Mikeguy said:


> Do you mean, the Roamio OTA and the Roamio? Pricing and profits: TiVo likely thought that it could earn "extra" money from the OTA crowd and cable-cutters by offering an OTA-limited model with a lower price-pointt.


Yes.
My point still is, just how much does that single bracket/header cost at the manufacturing level to add?? *Not much!
*
Keeping two inventories has to remove any so called savings. Considering one is greeted in that GS with the choice of OTA or CATV kinda blows the OTA only part. The measly savings is in the cheap POS plastic case with the rediculus location of the fan that becomes defective in a matter of months or maybe a year at best based on all the fan failures here and elsewhere.


----------



## Mikeguy

videobruce said:


> Yes.
> My point still is, just how much does that single bracket/header cost at the manufacturing level to add?? *Not much!
> 
> Keeping two inventories has to remove any so called savings.* Considering one is greeted in that GS with the choice of OTA or CATV kinda blows the OTA only part. The measly savings is in the cheap POS plastic case with the rediculus location of the fan that becomes defective in a matter of months or maybe a year at best based on all the fan failures here and elsewhere.


I doubt it--a lifetime subscription (a separate subscription being needed for a "regular" Roamio box, be the subscription a monthly, annual, or lifetime) currently is ~$550. Even accounting for a Roamio OTA (with included lifetime) at the retail price of $400, that leaves a delta of further potential profit to TiVo of hundreds of dollars with the Roamio as compared to the Roamio OTA.


----------



## videobruce

I was looking at it from a manufacturing level, not from a 'marketing' (rip-off) standpoint.


----------



## UCLABB

videobruce said:


> I was looking at it from a manufacturing level, not from a 'marketing' (rip-off) standpoint.


You're simply not understanding the issue. If you put a cc bracket on all the inventory, why would people buy a regular Roamio for cable and pay for a subscription or lifetime, if they could simply buy the Roamio OTA that comes with free lifetime? Sure, perhaps a few dozen people figured out how to buy a bracket and make the OTA work with cable, but that's a far cry from what would have happened if the word getting out to not buy a regular Roamio and just buy the OTA.


----------



## videobruce

UCLABB said:


> You're simply not understanding the issue.


My previous replay in no way stated or implied that I didn't "understand the issue" after that point was brought up.


----------



## Mr Tony

When the OTA Roamio came out it was 49.99 + 14.95 monthly fee for a year. There were no other pricing options. The Roamio Basic (the OTA with a CC) was 199.99 at that time (before service). That was 4 years ago. I remember buying it (actually ordering it) at Best Buy the 1st day they came out. Looking at my tivo acct under inactive it says 9/17/14 it was activated. The drawback for those first units were that the ONLY plan you could get was the 14.95 option even after the fact.


----------



## tiv0 newbie

Could this method work for Tivo Bolt OTA. It has the slot for the cablecard adapter to plug in to, but the software did not give the option for cable tv during guided setup. Any thoughts on this?


----------



## JoeKustra

tiv0 newbie said:


> Could this method work for Tivo Bolt OTA. It has the slot for the cablecard adapter to plug in to, but the software did not give the option for cable tv during guided setup. Any thoughts on this?


No option for cable then you can look for alternatives. Is this TE3 or TE4? I have seen posts the other parts have been removed also, so just adding the bracket may not be enough.


----------



## tiv0 newbie

JoeKustra said:


> No option for cable then you can look for alternatives. Is this TE3 or TE4? I have seen posts the other parts have been removed also, so just adding the bracket may not be enough.


It was on TE4. I tried to downgrade, but I was not able to do it.


----------



## krkaufman

tiv0 newbie said:


> Could this method work for Tivo Bolt OTA. It has the slot for the cablecard adapter to plug in to, but the software did not give the option for cable tv during guided setup. Any thoughts on this?


It sounds like TiVo may have done a better job of ensuring that the BOLT OTA is, indeed, OTA-only, unlike the Roamio OTA. (Here's hoping they leave the Roamio OTA installed base alone. They have enough on their software plate, already.)


----------



## tiv0 newbie

krkaufman said:


> It sounds like TiVo may have done a better job of ensuring that the BOLT OTA is, indeed, OTA-only, unlike the Roamio OTA. (Here's hoping they leave the Roamio OTA installed base alone. They have enough on their software plate, already.)


Agreed. Thank you for the replies.


----------



## krkaufman

tiv0 newbie said:


> It was on TE4. I tried to downgrade, but I was not able to do it.


That's an issue for a different thread, such as: How to Rollback Hydra from Roamio and Mini's v1 (likely to get better feedback on things to try over there)

You should definitely be able to downgrade from TE4 to TE3, if that's what you want to do.


----------



## tiv0 newbie

krkaufman said:


> That's an issue for a different thread, such as: How to Rollback Hydra from Roamio and Mini's v1 (likely to get better feedback on things to try over there)
> 
> You should definitely be able to downgrade from TE4 to TE3, if that's what you want to do.


I followed the instructions from here and the very patient Tivo Support folks. Spent several hours on it, but I was not successful. I am returning the box today for fear there is something wrong with the device rather than the installer


----------



## JoeKustra

tiv0 newbie said:


> It was on TE4. I tried to downgrade, but I was not able to do it.


Try harder. Do a restart. Do a cold start. Be sure you are using the right buttons.


----------



## tiv0 newbie

JoeKustra said:


> Try harder. Do a restart. Do a cold start. Be sure you are using the right buttons.


I gave up after several hours and with help from two different, very Nice and patient Tivo Tech people. I just don't trust that box.


----------



## JoeKustra

tiv0 newbie said:


> I gave up after several hours and with help from two different, very Nice and patient Tivo Tech people. I just don't trust that box.


I understand. I have several Roamio units. No Bolts.


----------



## krkaufman

JoeKustra said:


> Be sure you are using the right buttons.


Good advice. It's surprising to see people misidentifying the Rewind button.


----------



## bellbm

Hama said:


> My Roamio OTA just stop reading the cable card. All I get now, is cable card was just removed, been working for the last 10 months. Booo


I'm thinking about modifying an OTA - did you get your box to start reading the cable card again?


----------



## Hama

bellbm said:


> I'm thinking about modifying an OTA - did you get your box to start reading the cable card again?


Yea, I returned to tivo and had to pay for a replacement, all is good now.


----------



## krkaufman

Hama said:


> Yea, I returned to tivo and had to pay for a replacement, all is good now.


How did you arrange that? Was the CableCARD issue cited as the fault?

And had to pay how much? Just the warranty replacement fee?


----------



## PSU_Sudzi

tiv0 newbie said:


> I gave up after several hours and with help from two different, very Nice and patient Tivo Tech people. I just don't trust that box.


Question-how was the TiVo connected to the internet? I bought a Bolt and tried to downgrade it and it wouldn't work and I tried it six time while connected via MoCA. So I connected it via Ethernet and it downgraded first try. Ended up returning it anyway as I decided to keep my Roamio for now.


----------



## tiv0 newbie

PSU_Sudzi said:


> Question-how was the TiVo connected to the internet? I bought a Bolt and tried to downgrade it and it wouldn't work and I tried it six time while connected via MoCA. So I connected it via Ethernet and it downgraded first try. Ended up returning it anyway as I decided to keep my Roamio for now.


I am sorry sir. I did not see your question. It was hooked up by ethernet.


----------



## Out with Fios

So I picked up a Roamio OTA 1TB over through the cyber Monday deal. There also happened to be a Roamio basic on CL for $20 so I grabbed that this weekend. The Tivo I ordered direct showed up today and I stopped at the Verizon Fios store to grab an M CableCard.

Moved the cable card bracket from the cheap box to the one with lifetime and hooked everything up per the included directions (except the part that says antenna) The link lights on the RJ45 port light up but nothing on the front, and nothing comes up on the connected TV. Since this is my first TiVo I wasn't sure if I missed some secret handshake so I plugged in the basic, which I have not yet transferred to my name (and haven't decided if I should), The link lights turn on in addition to the lights on the front of the box through the grille. The TiVo logo also flashes on the screen but doesn't go anywhere and eventually goes black. Which I'm sure has to do with me not paying for that box to have service.

Does this mean my TiVo directly from them is broken right out of the box? (I'm thinking yes, I just want to confirm before I coordinate the replacement) Also I can hear something move around when I tilt the box... and no I did not drop a screw in there. 

Should I be transferring the basic to my name? I wasn't sure if that raises any red flags for TiVo, it seems like they don't care about the roamio trick at this point. I figured for $20 that is a cheap cable card bracket and other spare parts so who cares if it is in my name for resale.

Thanks in advance.


----------



## Out with Fios

Oh just to be sure, any TiVo purchased from them should not need any special online activation per their website and the papers in the box. Has there been any cases in the past where they failed to activate it in advance?


----------



## Mikeguy

I wonder if there might be a benefit of trying to do the initial setup OTA and not cable--at the very least, to see if the box is working. If it works, then trying cable.


----------



## Out with Fios

I don't actually have an antenna to use right now... which should be interesting when I call tech support tonight. I figured if I turned the box on without coax connected at all it should still display something on the TV. The front panel not lighting up and the fact that If I pick up one side of the box I can hear something roll around inside makes me think the box was DOA and I never stood a chance. I have a hard time believing that without an antenna nothing would display on the screen.

I had considered that I might need to set it up as an antenna first though. Old rabbit ears and roof top antennas are not the same as the new stuff correct? i guess I could make a very temporary poorly built DIY antenna.


----------



## JoeKustra

Out with Fios said:


> I had considered that I might need to set it up as an antenna first though. Old rabbit ears and roof top antennas are not the same as the new stuff correct? i guess I could make a very temporary poorly built DIY antenna.


The cable card bracket, as you may have seen, is just a 90 degree adapter. It should not affect your initial setup and you should have a full lineup and guide data in OTA mode. Your screen will be empty, but the streaming services don't care.

It sounds like a bad box.


----------



## Out with Fios

So the tech support email made me a bit angry, but that must have been the easiest phone call I've ever had. Pretty quickly figured it was dead without the usual 20 minutes of how inexperienced is the customer I'm talking to type questions. While I was pretty bummed the first thing I ever purchased from TiVo was DOA on arrival that phone call was much better than I think I've ever had with any company.


----------



## Mikeguy

Out with Fios said:


> I don't actually have an antenna to use right now... which should be interesting when I call tech support tonight. I figured if I turned the box on without coax connected at all it should still display something on the TV. The front panel not lighting up and the fact that If I pick up one side of the box I can hear something roll around inside makes me think the box was DOA and I never stood a chance. I have a hard time believing that without an antenna nothing would display on the screen.
> 
> I had considered that I might need to set it up as an antenna first though. Old rabbit ears and roof top antennas are not the same as the new stuff correct? i guess I could make a very temporary poorly built DIY antenna.


Nope--the old antennas can work just fine; that's what I'm using, from the pre-DTV days (but the unscrupulous middle-of-the-night antenna telemarketers don't want you to know that, preferring you to think that their $49.99 antenna is a tech. "wonder"). 


Out with Fios said:


> So the tech support email made me a bit angry, but that must have been the easiest phone call I've ever had. Pretty quickly figured it was dead without the usual 20 minutes of how inexperienced is the customer I'm talking to type questions. While I was pretty bummed the first thing I ever purchased from TiVo was DOA on arrival that phone call was much better than I think I've ever had with any company.


Cool--hopefully they're just shipping you out a replacement box with you returning the bad?

FWIW, I purchased a Roamio OTA refurb. from TiVo 2 years ago, and it seemed new, and has performed without any issue straight out of the box. Hopefully, you just got the 1-in-a-million lemon and you'll be good to go shortly.


----------



## Out with Fios

Mikeguy said:


> Nope--the old antennas can work just fine; that's what I'm using, from the pre-DTV days (but the unscrupulous middle-of-the-night antenna telemarketers don't want you to know that, preferring you to think that their $49.99 antenna is a tech. "wonder").
> 
> Cool--hopefully they're just shipping you out a replacement box with you returning the bad?
> 
> FWIW, I purchased a Roamio OTA refurb. from TiVo 2 years ago, and it seemed new, and has performed without any issue straight out of the box. Hopefully, you just got the 1-in-a-million lemon and you'll be good to go shortly.


Pretty much everything you just said. While digging though some old boxes looking for some coax to hack up into an antenna I found a set of rabbit ears. Plugged it into my TV and let it do the scan and voila TV stations over the air... As you said I was lead to believe we needed new hardware for the Digital signals. From an engineering standpoint I never understood that, but it didn't impact me enough for me to do any research.

Yup, no wait on hold, confirmed my box was broken in under 5 minutes and set up shipping the old and new boxes. I was expecting to have to do some kind of deposit to avoid having to wait for mine to get to them before they ship me a new one, but he just set it up no questions asked.


----------



## Mikeguy

Out with Fios said:


> Yup, no wait on hold, confirmed my box was broken in under 5 minutes and set up shipping the old and new boxes. *I was expecting to have to do some kind of deposit to avoid having to wait for mine to get to them before they ship me a new one, but he just set it up no questions asked.*


That's pretty amazing--perhaps in the circumstances, the rep. thought it best to bend over backwards. (Of course, TiVo has the ultimate control, by simply shutting the box down, if need be.  )

Fingers crossed for you--it really is a nice box/system (and sorry for the frustrating and rocky start).


----------



## Out with Fios

Well got the new box this weekend and got it all setup with the G1100 router and a mini over MoCA and everything works perfect now (as far as I've found). I did have an issue where it was only playing audio but I could see the guide, but I just had to power cycle the box and it's been fine since. My main gripe is with as long as it took me to get a functional box, the first thing I saw on startup is that there is a new (better) sale. Now I'm debating if I want to get the Bolt with All-in and transfer my recordings and return this box... or attempt to get a $50 credit for the OTA, which it sounds like they are making you return the box anyway.


----------



## Mikeguy

:up::up::clapping: But also, frustrating, between the sales.

The good news is, you're still within the initial box free return/refund period. You could call TiVo and see if the rep. will give you a credit back for the $ difference and, when you likely are told no , simply order the box you want under the new sale, holding onto and using the old until the new arrives and you set it up (transferring any recorded shows you want to keep over to it)--just keep the return deadline for the old box in mind.


----------



## Out with Fios

Based on the difficulty with the current sale I'm not going to bother.


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## Mikeguy

Out with Fios said:


> Based on the difficulty with the current sale I'm not going to bother.


Personally, I'd be inclined to try the current sale online, and see if I can get the lower price easily enough. But understood that sometimes, life's just too short.


----------



## Out with Fios

I never received an email with the codes, which is proving to be the difficult part.


----------



## Mikeguy

Out with Fios said:


> I never received an email with the codes, which is proving to be the difficult part.


Ah--then no choice but to call (absent someone posting a code here), if you wanted to try . . . .


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## nsa_conspiracy

I read this forum and got the courage to convert my Roamio OTA with a lifetime subscription to install a cable card reader into the slot. Bottom line: It was successful, and I am now viewing and recording Spectrum cable TV, and it works brilliantly. But it took a few tries with Spectrum to get the cable card to pair correctly. Their staff is not well versed on setting up cable cards, so be prepared for an hour or two on the phone.

I am trying to give back a little to this community, here is my story if anyone is interested:
I bought a used Roamio Basic off of Ebay for $40 and swapped the card drive out of the bottom and installed it into my Roamio OTA. It was as people previously stated, it was 4 screws and very easy to do. The Basic also had an upgraded fan and harddrive, so while I was at it I swapped the fan (it was noisy) and the internal harddrive from 1TB to 2Tb, which was also pretty simple if you are willing to spend a few minutes untethering harnesses and taking out the motherboard. You can't get to the bottom screws of the fan without removing the whole board, which is a brilliant design (sarcasm), but I digress : )

Then I reran the startup process and reset the OTA box to receive cable input vs. antenna. It then takes you through some menus to download the TV guide for your local channels. Do all that first, then hook up the cable tuner and insert the cable card into the Tivo. You will get the default screen to call your cable provider with the card ID and the host ID, so that they can pair the device.

One thing that tripped me up a bit was the physical setup. I never previously had a Tivo that used cable input, so I only got it to work after I hooked up BOTH the COAX cable and the USB cable to the back of the Tivo, both coming out of the Cable Tuner box. I am not sure if that is obvious to most people but for some reason I thought I only needed just the USB connection between the Tivo and the Tuner. I think the USB connection supports the decryption of the cable signal, but the coaxial cable connection is needed to have the Tivo receive the actual cable signal. Anyway, I am by no means an expert, but this is a recent data point (May 2019) that it is still possible to do this.


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## mikey1273

Great to hear! It sounds like Spectrum is using a digital tuning adapter. I thought only Verizon FiOS used those. And yes it would need connected as well as the coax. Comcast doesn't use them at least not in my area. 

One thing I want to know is does the new Bolt OTA have the same set up can you add the cable card to it?


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## mdavej

Glad it worked out. Not the best way to hook it up due to massive signal loss through tuning adapter. But if it ain’t broke ...


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## krkaufman

mikey1273 said:


> It sounds like Spectrum is using a digital tuning adapter. I thought only Verizon FiOS used those.


Not a simple DTA but a Switched Digital Video (SDV) Tuning Adapter (TA). Spectrum and a few other providers (not FiOS) employ SDV and so require TAs, depending on one's channel lineup and which channels have been assigned to SDV distribution.

https://support.tivo.com/articles/FAQ/How-Switched-Digital-Video-Impacts-Me-FAQ


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## sacosta

I know this is a fairly old thread, but does anyone know if the PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Adapter can be used to successfully convert a Bolt OTA to use a cablecard?



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## nc88keyz

The bolt and Roamio Basic/OTA CC are interchangeable if that is what you are asking. On a transfer to a roamio ota the back two screws from a bolt do not thread as they are too large. I am not sure the correct size. I am sure its in the forum somewhere.


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## JoeKustra

sacosta said:


> I know this is a fairly old thread, but does anyone know if the PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Adapter can be used to successfully convert a Bolt OTA to use a cablecard?


I forgot to mention before, but I bought a used Roamio on eBay for $25 (plus shipping) and pulled the cable card bracket to use in the Roamio OTA. With an OEM bracket, the front two screws are captive, which may explain the size difference. The bracket from eBay has regular screws.


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## JLV03

sacosta said:


> I know this is a fairly old thread, but does anyone know if the PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Adapter can be used to successfully convert a Bolt OTA to use a cablecard?


The Bolt OTA doesn't have any of the supporting hardware to support cable tuning. It also lacks the MoCA connection of the other Bolt models.


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## bertp

Hi guys, I have happily used a cable card with my Roamio OTA for more than a year not but now I am having some serious problems with my channel-guide channels being deleted and replaced with incorrect channel listings.

Tonight, the list of changes included deleting CBS both HD and SD !!. My cable company still sends CBS to the same old channels but Tivo now identifies those channels as a CW channel located about a hundred miles away. The guide says this station is "WCBIDT3 8" for my cable channel 8 and WCBIDT3HD 708" for my cable channel 708. The "DT3" part seems like OTAish terminology . Could Tivo be sending me OTA channel listing updates that are being translated into my cable channel guide?

Assuming that was the case (and I realize that I am really grasping at straws) I considered trying to use the guided setup to switch to OTA and then use guided setup again to switch back to cable so that I might get a new channel guide for cable in my market..... but I didn't for two reason A) I was afraid I might lose cable card pairing.... (and getting pairing setup initially was a BIG problem) B) I cannot find how to do a guided setup any longer; I thought there was a menu setting for this and I remember switching between OTA and cable setup a few times when I was having trouble getting the cable card paired more than a year ago.... Did Tivo remove this option for Roamio OTA during the last year or so?

Anyway.....Is there anyway that I can somehow manually set my cable channel 8 to show a schedule for CBS? Or does anyone have any ideas about how I may once again obtain a correct channel guide? As you might imagine, I am reluctant to complain to Tivo about my cable-based channel guide being incorrect in my OTA Roamio!


----------



## JoeKustra

bertp said:


> Hi guys, I have happily used a cable card with my Roamio OTA for more than a year not but now I am having some serious problems with my channel-guide channels being deleted and replaced with incorrect channel listings.
> Anyway.....Is there anyway that I can somehow manually set my cable channel 8 to show a schedule for CBS? Or does anyone have any ideas about how I may one again obtain a correct channel guide? As you might imagine, I am reluctant to complain to Tivo about my cable-based channel guide being incorrect in my OTA Roamio!


It sounds like someone in your zipcode (or DMA) sent in some changes that screwed up your guide. A guided setup does not affect your cable card. A CPI&TDL may brick your box - don't do it. You might try a change of zipcode or provider for now. Start sending in forms. I have seen changes happen in three days lately.

If you post your zipcode and provider I can provide suggestions. Also, a second opinion can be found using zap2it.com (Gracenote), titantv.com or tvguide.com (CBS Interactive). When you send in the form, they want to know where you got your information.

Report a Lineup Issue


----------



## HerronScott

bertp said:


> Tonight, the list of changes included deleting CBS both HD and SD !!. My cable company still sends CBS to the same old channels but Tivo now identifies those channels as a CW channel located about a hundred miles away. The guide says this station is "WCBIDT3 8" for my cable channel 8 and WCBIDT3HD 708" for my cable channel 708. The "DT3" part seems like OTAish terminology . Could Tivo be sending me OTA channel listing updates that are being translated into my cable channel guide?


Sounds like you just need to report the lineup issue for your cable company to TiVo.

Scott


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## bertp

Thanks a million JoeKustra for advising me on what changes were safe to do! I played with "Guided Setup" changing zipcodes each time and I think I found a correct channel line-up! Even though I live 30 or 40 miles from Leeds AL, I was on the "Spectrum Leeds Standard Cable" configuration. When I tried Alabaster's Zip 35007, I was given the choice for either Leeds or "Spectrum Fairfield Standard Cable" and choosing the Fairfield configuration seems to match what I had before someone or something screwed-up the Leeds configuration!


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## Sportsnut

Just to confirm, adding a cablecard bracket still works for a Roamio OTA. I'm about to upgrade my Bolt's hard drive and want to see if I can get my OTA to work with the cablecard in my Bolt while it's unplugged and out of commission. I tried with a friend a while back and they couldn't get it to work but they were on Comcast. I think it may have been more a Comcast issue so since I have Verizon Fios I may try to see if it will work. I just want to make sure it still works before doing all the extra work.


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## bertp

Spectrum installed my cable card in Oct 2018 and it is still working. I had bought and installed a used Roamio cable bracket from ebay and then requested that Spectrum install a cable card instead of a new DVR when they hooked-up my cable. 

It took 4 trips with 3 different installers over a couple of weeks but it finally worked. The last installer owned a Tivo himself and he was get it to work in just a few minutes...


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## Sportsnut

bertp said:


> Spectrum installed my cable card in Oct 2018 and it is still working. I had bought and installed a used Roamio cable bracket from ebay and then requested that Spectrum install a cable card instead of a new DVR when they hooked-up my cable.
> 
> It took 4 trips with 3 different installers over a couple of weeks but it finally worked. The last installer owned a Tivo himself and he was get it to work in just a few minutes...


Glad to hear it still works. I went ahead and tried it but still couldn't get it to work so it wasn't just a Comcast issue.


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## WPe

I took out the cablecard from my OTA Roamio for some testing on another machine. Now the OTA Roamio won't recognize the cablecard anymore. Anybody care to guess what happened? Short-circuit? Something fried? 

More importantly, is there anyway to get the tivo to see the card again? Otherwise, it seems like I'm SOL.

Thanks.


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## zukdj

I have 1 of these left out of a Roamio with a bad motherboard, I'd take $30 and $4 for shipping. I sold out of these last time I got a bunch. I can take PayPal, these are hard to come by however they are original equipment as well so that's a huge plus for you "tinkerers"?


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## CopRock

WPe said:


> I took out the cablecard from my OTA Roamio for some testing on another machine. Now the OTA Roamio won't recognize the cablecard anymore. Anybody care to guess what happened? Short-circuit? Something fried?
> 
> More importantly, is there anyway to get the tivo to see the card again? Otherwise, it seems like I'm SOL.
> 
> Thanks.


What happened with mine is that I had to go thru several cable cards at one point about two years ago due to issues with then TWC [now Spectrum] and during one of the cable card swaps a couple of the pins inside the bracket bent and there was no fix for it.. luckily i was able to find a bracket on eBay and had that problem solved in less than a week... ever since then I have been very careful removing and reinserting a cable card


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## CopRock

zukdj said:


> I have 1 of these left out of a Roamio with a bad motherboard, I'd take $30 and $4 for shipping. I sold out of these last time I got a bunch. I can take PayPal, these are hard to come by however they are original equipment as well so that's a huge plus for you "tinkerers"?


These little suckers are becoming a rarity and are becoming like gold !!! ... without these a Roamio becomes an OTA only unit


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## Pamajestic

CopRock said:


> These little suckers are becoming a rarity and are becoming like gold !!! ... without these a Roamio becomes an OTA only unit


Been available on eBay from the same guy for years at the same price $30.

PCMT-134-02-L-D-RA-02-SL Adapter for a Cable Card | eBay


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## exilepa

Here I am posting finally as a long time lurker and looking for assistance! Aren't all lurkers when they finally post? I currently use a streaming service for TV and getting tired of the non-stop price increases. I have a Roamio OTA that I'm thinking of adding a cable card slot to for use of a cable card through Spectrum. Are there any limitations I should know about? Will I be able to watch one show while recording another like I do currently with my Roamio OTA? Any issues with using my Tivo Mini devices just like I have before? I wouldn't think so since they use ethernet, but, never know.


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## krkaufman

exilepa said:


> I have a Roamio OTA that I'm thinking of adding a cable card slot to for use of a cable card through Spectrum.


Everything should be similar to using OTA as the source, except, being a Spectrum customer, you'll likely need to use a Tuning Adapter to facilitate tuning of Switched Digital Video (SDV) channels.

See: TiVo FAQ - How Switched Digital Video Impacts Me


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## DFWHD

I converted both of my Roamio OTAs a couple of years back using parts from eBay. Worked like a charm and did have to use a spectrum tuning adapter. Unfortunately, Spectrum raised the broadcast fees during our 1 year price lock and then after that our $89 rate for the gold package went to $139 so we left them and went back to streaming with Youtube TV which is now $64.99. The only channels I really miss are Science, Cooking and Regional Fox Sports (now Bally's). For now my Tivo's are back to OTA, but who knows, if Spectrum in my area ever runs a good deal, I may switch back.


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## snickerrrrs

If you leave Spectrum for 30 days you are considered a NEW customer. So any deals you see online are available to you. I eventually go through to Customer Retention and they were able to offer the new customer specials to me. I opted for the 400mbps because I use mostly streaming services. Netflix, Prime (shared) Hulu and PlutoTV (free service). By the time you add in cable-card rentals and tuning adapters you're well above $100 again (with 400 internet).

PS: I have a Roamio cable version in the garage, I'm assuming that has all the correct parts to convert an OTA? I saw an OTA lifetime on Craigslist for $100, thought it might be worth buying and converting if I go back to cable.


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## Tweak42

snickerrrrs said:


> PS: I have a Roamio cable version in the garage, I'm assuming that has all the correct parts to convert an OTA? I saw an OTA lifetime on Craigslist for $100, thought it might be worth buying and converting if I go back to cable.


Only if it's the 4 tuner Roamio Basic, which can do cable or antenna. The 6 tuner Plus and Pro versions are cable only, as in the don't have the hardware tuner for antenna signals.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk


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## krkaufman

Tweak42 said:


> Only if it's the 4 tuner Roamio Basic, which can do cable or antenna.


Good point. Only the 4-tuner basic Roamio model (OTA- or CableCARD-capable) has the CableCARD bracket that would be needed to enable CableCARD functionality in a Roamio OTA. The Plus and Pro lack a removable CableCARD bracket, let alone the exact part needed for a Roamio OTA.



Tweak42 said:


> The 6 tuner Plus and Pro versions are cable only, as in the don't have the hardware tuner for antenna signals.


Less relevant, since the post related to cannibalizing the shelved Roamio to enable CableCARD functionality for a Craigslist Roamio OTA.


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## WPe

CopRock said:


> What happened with mine is that I had to go thru several cable cards at one point about two years ago due to issues with then TWC [now Spectrum] and during one of the cable card swaps a couple of the pins inside the bracket bent and there was no fix for it.. luckily i was able to find a bracket on eBay and had that problem solved in less than a week... ever since then I have been very careful removing and reinserting a cable card


Just an update from me who originally posted Dec 2020 and lost the ability to see the cablecard with the bracket.

This eventually happened to me with 2 different tivo lifetime ota's. Never could get the tivo to re-recognized the cablecard. Something must have fried. Perhaps static electicity or whatever?

Cause is definitely the tivo itself as I inserted the bracket into a 3rd tivo (no service plan unfortunately) and the cablecard was detected.

So, be careful if you remove your cablecard for whatever reason.


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## megz1623

Can anyone else confirm that their Roamio OTAs are still functioning with this hack?

Does it work with both the new and old TiVo experiences?

Looking at doing it to a lifetime OTA using the bracket from a dead Bolt.


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## phox_mulder

As of 3 months ago, my Roamio OTA with a cable card bracket was working with Comcast.
I had a Roamio Basic that died, confirmed motherboard issue, not power supply or hard drive, took the cable card bracket out and put in one of my OTA's that my daughter ended up using with Comcast for a year, then moved out of Comcast coverage area.


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## megz1623

phox_mulder said:


> As of 3 months ago, my Roamio OTA with a cable card bracket was working with Comcast.
> I had a Roamio Basic that died, confirmed motherboard issue, not power supply or hard drive, took the cable card bracket out and put in one of my OTA's that my daughter ended up using with Comcast for a year, then moved out of Comcast coverage area.


Thank you for the info!


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## jim111

ROAMIO OTA with Motorola Cable Card - won't work

My Bolt died and so I went to switch my Comcast/Xfinity cablecard (Motorola) to my Roamio OTA (TCD846000). Bought the adapter from the guy on eBay that I found out about from here, and installed it. It recognized the card, but said I needed to call my cable provider to start cable service for this device. I did, and had multiple calls with support and "Advance Repair," where they said they could "see" the card on their end, and that it looked like it was paired and should be working, but it wasn't. No channels are connecting. They are sending a repairman out today, but I may have to pay a service fee for that, which I'd rather avoid. 

Anyone know what the problem might be and how I can fix it? 
Thanks!


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## dianebrat

jim111 said:


> ROAMIO OTA with Motorola Cable Card - won't work
> 
> My Bolt died and so I went to switch my Comcast/Xfinity cablecard (Motorola) to my Roamio OTA (TCD846000). Bought the adapter from the guy on eBay that I found out about from here, and installed it. It recognized the card, but said I needed to call my cable provider to start cable service for this device. I did, and had multiple calls with support and "Advance Repair," where they said they could "see" the card on their end, and that it looked like it was paired and should be working, but it wasn't. No channels are connecting. They are sending a repairman out today, but I may have to pay a service fee for that, which I'd rather avoid.
> 
> Anyone know what the problem might be and how I can fix it?
> Thanks!


Yes, almost 100% they don't know what they're doing and not provisioning the card correctly.


----------



## jim111

dianebrat said:


> Yes, almost 100% they don't know what they're doing and not provisioning the card correctly.


Any insight as to what I can do to steer it in the right direction? The tech is here now, and cle


dianebrat said:


> Yes, almost 100% they don't know what they're doing and not provisioning the card correctly.


The field tech came and, after over 3 hours of fiddling around, repeating the same steps, calling 10 or 15 different tech support lines (for the field techs) and his supervisor, and disconnecting my cable internet multiple times without warning, etc., he was not able to get it working.

If anyone has any advice about how to get it working, I'd appreciate it.


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## dougtv

jim111 said:


> If anyone has any advice about how to get it working, I'd appreciate it.


When you call customer service, ask to speak to the CableCard support because you are having issues pairing a new card. It always has to be a special higher tier of support to work on these things and most of the time, the first level tiers usually will escalate such requests without taking too much time asking basic questions. 

You generally do not actually need a technician on site to troubleshoot or pair a new card. For one, most techs these days (and depending on your area) don't carry tuning adapters or cablecards on them / in their vehicle, even when phone support directly requests it in their internal ticket notes. For me, I had to goto one location for a cable card ("we had one left, no tuning adapters") and another spectrum location to get a tuning adapter ("we had one left, no cards") 

If your TiVo troubleshooting/help screens show a strong RF signal, then there shouldn't be much a technician can do to help improve the signaling/pairing requests. The majority of cablecard installs are with pairing and the technicians offsite (phone support) and their direct management sometimes. 

If you have support clear out all cablecard information on your account along with tuning adapters...then they can attempt to re-add their serials, host IDs, AND data IDs, etc...and if it still doesn't work. they need to try again...and probably again. and probably again... got no where and it's been 30 minutes? Call tomorrow or when you have another 30 minutes to spare, and do it again. 

Cable Card pairing issues sometimes does come from incorrect entry/error. However many of the techs who are super friendly on the phone swear (claim) up and down they are entering information in all the correct fields on their end. And these are techs that have experience troubleshooting CableCards. I think whatever the system/software/backend support uses for CableCard pairing, in itself is actually a piece of garbage technology and doesn't sync information properly when techs and support reps are trying to do their own job. I really do think a lot of these problems are not just human error with who you are working with, but rather the system itself doesn't work often or perhaps maybe the "order" of how things are added/inputed is what the problem is, I am not sure. 

But it is very strange how you can talk to 5-6 people (who confirm they have spent years adding/troubleshooting cablecards and claiming TIVos customers are no strangers to them) take forever sometimes not even resolve the case after spending hours over the phone.... but then, there's that one even more special tech on the phone that gets the card paired and added, resolving the case within 15-20 minutes. 

For the TiVo user, sIt's an actual mission to add a new cablecard/TA pair to an account. But don't give up. It took me a week to get my first TiVo Roamio Pro & TA to work when we first moved to this house a few years ago. For our second TiVo for our theater which was a Premiere XL and TA. It took months where I kept giving up and trying again. Sometimes the CableCard would work, but the TA wouldn't pair. Then it would pair but break the first/Roamio's TA. Then back and forth. Strange **** that after 3 techs coming to this house, it was one lucky night at 11pm I had a spectrum tech fix everything over the phone. (again that extra even more special tech lol) I never had been so happy and annoyed at the same time.

Try not to blame any techs tho or get too discouraged. I believe the complications are really not the tech's fault and the cablecard experts they connect you with that are trying to set things up, are really are doing their best job most of the time. Most support reps are good people, it's sadly the frustrating ones that leave the worst mental scars for us when it comes to calling a support line.

The good news is, most of the time once it's finally setup, and you don't keep adding new CableCards or changing your TV packaging, the Card and TA should stay synced on the account and you never have to worry about it again until you want a new TiVo or the tuning adapter fries itself somehow. 


TLDR: don't give up, call support every other day and request cable card support. work with technician 33 minutes or so every call. if they can't get it working. repeat and call support every other day. it will eventually pair. on-site technicians can't do any magic, if your RF signal is good on TiVo and they've already been to your home once, you don't need them again to find some magic that doesn't exist. They need cablecard techs on the phone just like you do.


----------



## fleapower

phox_mulder said:


> As of 3 months ago, my Roamio OTA with a cable card bracket was working with Comcast.
> I had a Roamio Basic that died, confirmed motherboard issue, not power supply or hard drive, took the cable card bracket out and put in one of my OTA's that my daughter ended up using with Comcast for a year, then moved out of Comcast coverage area.


Which Tivo upgrade are you using? Does the cablecard still work with Experience 4? Thanks!


----------



## phox_mulder

The OTA is still on Experience 3, not sure if cablecard is working, as she moved out of Comcast area and is just using it for OTA content.


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## fleapower

Anyone know if the Romio OTA will work with a cablecard if upgraded to Experience 4? Thanks!


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## jgentry21

fleapower said:


> Anyone know if the Romio OTA will work with a cablecard if upgraded to Experience 4? Thanks!


It appears to work assuming I'm using Experience 4 (from my brief Googling it appears I am).


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## fleapower

Thanks!


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## jim111

dougtv said:


> When you call customer service, ask to speak to the CableCard support because you are having issues pairing a new card. It always has to be a special higher tier of support to work on these things and most of the time, the first level tiers usually will escalate such requests without taking too much time asking basic questions.
> 
> You generally do not actually need a technician on site to troubleshoot or pair a new card. For one, most techs these days (and depending on your area) don't carry tuning adapters or cablecards on them / in their vehicle, even when phone support directly requests it in their internal ticket notes. For me, I had to goto one location for a cable card ("we had one left, no tuning adapters") and another spectrum location to get a tuning adapter ("we had one left, no cards")
> 
> If your TiVo troubleshooting/help screens show a strong RF signal, then there shouldn't be much a technician can do to help improve the signaling/pairing requests. The majority of cablecard installs are with pairing and the technicians offsite (phone support) and their direct management sometimes.
> 
> If you have support clear out all cablecard information on your account along with tuning adapters...then they can attempt to re-add their serials, host IDs, AND data IDs, etc...and if it still doesn't work. they need to try again...and probably again. and probably again... got no where and it's been 30 minutes? Call tomorrow or when you have another 30 minutes to spare, and do it again.
> 
> Cable Card pairing issues sometimes does come from incorrect entry/error. However many of the techs who are super friendly on the phone swear (claim) up and down they are entering information in all the correct fields on their end. And these are techs that have experience troubleshooting CableCards. I think whatever the system/software/backend support uses for CableCard pairing, in itself is actually a piece of garbage technology and doesn't sync information properly when techs and support reps are trying to do their own job. I really do think a lot of these problems are not just human error with who you are working with, but rather the system itself doesn't work often or perhaps maybe the "order" of how things are added/inputed is what the problem is, I am not sure.
> 
> But it is very strange how you can talk to 5-6 people (who confirm they have spent years adding/troubleshooting cablecards and claiming TIVos customers are no strangers to them) take forever sometimes not even resolve the case after spending hours over the phone.... but then, there's that one even more special tech on the phone that gets the card paired and added, resolving the case within 15-20 minutes.
> 
> For the TiVo user, sIt's an actual mission to add a new cablecard/TA pair to an account. But don't give up. It took me a week to get my first TiVo Roamio Pro & TA to work when we first moved to this house a few years ago. For our second TiVo for our theater which was a Premiere XL and TA. It took months where I kept giving up and trying again. Sometimes the CableCard would work, but the TA wouldn't pair. Then it would pair but break the first/Roamio's TA. Then back and forth. Strange **** that after 3 techs coming to this house, it was one lucky night at 11pm I had a spectrum tech fix everything over the phone. (again that extra even more special tech lol) I never had been so happy and annoyed at the same time.
> 
> Try not to blame any techs tho or get too discouraged. I believe the complications are really not the tech's fault and the cablecard experts they connect you with that are trying to set things up, are really are doing their best job most of the time. Most support reps are good people, it's sadly the frustrating ones that leave the worst mental scars for us when it comes to calling a support line.
> 
> The good news is, most of the time once it's finally setup, and you don't keep adding new CableCards or changing your TV packaging, the Card and TA should stay synced on the account and you never have to worry about it again until you want a new TiVo or the tuning adapter fries itself somehow.
> 
> 
> TLDR: don't give up, call support every other day and request cable card support. work with technician 33 minutes or so every call. if they can't get it working. repeat and call support every other day. it will eventually pair. on-site technicians can't do any magic, if your RF signal is good on TiVo and they've already been to your home once, you don't need them again to find some magic that doesn't exist. They need cablecard techs on the phone just like you do.


Hi Doug, just wanted to belatedly thank you for your detailed, thoughtful response (I didn't see it back in January, for some reason). I never did get the Comcast cable car working, unfortunately, so I cancelled Comcast and I've been using the Roamio as it was intended -- with the antenna, OTA. It's fantastic, and free, and it's all the TV I need to watch, frankly. I found that this event caused me to realize that I really didn't need cable anymore. Thanks again, Jim


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