# Roamio upgrade on Fios



## 21364guy (Oct 20, 2007)

I think it's time to retire my six year-old TiVo HD in favor of a Roamio Plus. At the moment I have both the TiVo HD (w/ mcard) and a Verizon HD DVR in two different rooms. I'm thinking that I'll upgrade in the following way:

Keep the TiVo HD and Roamio in the same room for a while, until we finish watching the old shows on the TiVo HD.

Sell the HD box on ebay (it has a lifetime sub) and use the proceeds to get a Mini. Replace the Verizon HD DVR with the Mini. 

I wonder if any other Verizon Fios users know if I can move my existing mcard (it's about a year old) to the Roamio and then call verizon to get it paired with the new DVR. Has anyone been successful with this approach?


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## DBLClick (Aug 20, 2007)

i have move the M-Card from the Tivo HD successfully through the phone activation system. The one issue I had because of the copy protection for HBO / Cinemax the move did not take for those channels. 

Contacted Verizon support via a chat session and it was quickly resolved.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

21364guy said:


> I wonder if any other Verizon Fios users know if I can move my existing mcard (it's about a year old) to the Roamio and then call verizon to get it paired with the new DVR. Has anyone been successful with this approach?


I'm sure hundreds have, is there a reason you thought you couldn't do it? what you're describing is a very common thing, takes only a few minutes to resolve either via chat or a call to Verizon.


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## 21364guy (Oct 20, 2007)

dianebrat said:


> I'm sure hundreds have, is there a reason you thought you couldn't do it? what you're describing is a very common thing, takes only a few minutes to resolve either via chat or a call to Verizon.


I've had varying degrees of trouble with both comcast and verizon when it comes to cable cards, so I just wanted to know what has worked well for folks. If tech support (chat or voice) can easily handle it, then I'm glad to hear it


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## rsnaider (Apr 25, 2002)

Only issue with Verizon is the there are 3 types of M Cards; those with a model number of '002', '006' and '017'. The lastest work fine but some of the earlier cards do have issues with FiOS.

An update last month was supposed to fix the issue but I made sure my Roamio has the '017' card so I have no idea if this has been resoloved or not.

In addition, this issue only occurs with HBO and Cinimax so if you do not have either, this issue does not apply to you.

You can find this number of the back of the card below the serial number.


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## 21364guy (Oct 20, 2007)

And one other question... is it possible to transfer shows over my home network from a TiVo HD to a Roamio? I've never had multiple gen 3 or later TiVos so I have never tried this kind of thing before.


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## HenryFarpolo (Dec 1, 2008)

21364guy said:


> And one other question... is it possible to transfer shows over my home network from a TiVo HD to a Roamio? I've never had multiple gen 3 or later TiVos so I have never tried this kind of thing before.


Yes, I do it all the time.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

21364guy said:


> And one other question... is it possible to transfer shows over my home network from a TiVo HD to a Roamio? I've never had multiple gen 3 or later TiVos so I have never tried this kind of thing before.


Yes, as long as they are on the same TiVo account.


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## L David Matheny (Jan 29, 2011)

21364guy said:


> And one other question... is it possible to transfer shows over my home network from a TiVo HD to a Roamio? I've never had multiple gen 3 or later TiVos so I have never tried this kind of thing before.


I don't see where anyone has mentioned yet that to transfer shows (as opposed to using the newer streaming option) they must not be copy-protected by your cable provider. Maybe FiOS doesn't do that.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

L David Matheny said:


> I don't see where anyone has mentioned yet that to transfer shows (as opposed to using the newer streaming option) they must not be copy-protected by your cable provider. Maybe FiOS doesn't do that.


FiOS does copy protect the HBO and Cinemax channels. But that is it. And they only started it earlier this year. The rest of the channels have not been protected. At least not yet.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

rsnaider said:


> Only issue with Verizon is the there are 3 types of M Cards; those with a model number of '002', '006' and '017'. The lastest work fine but some of the earlier cards do have issues with FiOS.
> 
> An update last month was supposed to fix the issue but I made sure my Roamio has the '017' card so I have no idea if this has been resoloved or not.


The update did fix the issues with the older FIOS cards...


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## 21364guy (Oct 20, 2007)

Great, thanks for all the info folks. I'm ordering the Roamio Plus today and already have a 2TB drive on the way from new egg


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## 21364guy (Oct 20, 2007)

One more question on the Roamio Plus. I ordered a 2TB WD AV drive which has already arrived. The Roamio Plus should be here Monday. I was thinking that I'd first plug in the new TiVo and at least see that it gets to the setup screens. Then I was planning to unplug it and install the new drive using the simple instructions[*] on the forum. Is this a good plan?

[* Having previously dealt with upgrades and failed drives on Gen 1 and Gen 3 boxes I was very happy to see how easy the Roamio upgrades are :up: ]


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## thewebgal (Aug 10, 2007)

Grateful for all the info here - we've FIOS at home too ... 
I've got a 3TB drive on the way from NewEgg and 
I'll pop by Bestbuy on the way home to see if I can price match a Roamio (base) to the Amazon price ...

I planned to swap the Roamio HDD BEFORE I do the basic setup ...


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## 21364guy (Oct 20, 2007)

I had been thinking it was better to make sure I can at least get to the setup screen _before_ swapping HDs. So if the unit is DOA then I haven't already opened the case. But I'd definitely like to hear opinions on whether or not this is the best way to go.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

21364guy said:


> I had been thinking it was better to make sure I can at least get to the setup screen _before_ swapping HDs. So if the unit is DOA then I haven't already opened the case. But I'd definitely like to hear opinions on whether or not this is the best way to go.


That is what I would do first. I would make sure it works properly before opening it up. As long as you have the time to do it, since it will double the time needed since you will need to do the setup twice.


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