# OTA Signal Problem with New Bolt



## KBrack (Feb 16, 2002)

I participated in the recent Lifetime promotion and replaced one of my two trusty Premieres with a Bolt. There have been some glitches, (mostly with TiVo online and streaming to a browser in-home) but I really like the extra tuners, the streaming experience vs. the Slingbox and the ability to expand the setup with Minis. However, unlike the other glitches, that seemed to be impacting everyone, I’m having another problem that is unique to my setup and I’m hoping for some help.

I’ve had the Premieres in service since 2011 and have been OTA during the entire time. I’ve had a rock solid picture on all locals using a professionally installed and tuned outdoor antenna mounted on the roof. I live near an airport, but have never experienced ANY problem that didn’t occur during very stormy conditions and those can be counted on one hand and cleared up immediately However, the new Bolt is having issues with a single channel, I get frequent, but intermittent pixellation on the main channel and 2 HD sub channels. When looking at diagnostics, I see the RS Uncorrected climbing consistently.

I called TiVo and I’m waiting on a replacement to arrive. I walked through the diagnostics screens on several channels with them and they suggested sending the replacement without my asking, but with the caveat that there’s a good chance that it might not fix my problem. Since I’ve noticed the issue, I’ve been reading the forums and searching for what could be causing the difference between the Premiere and the Bolt and there seems to be a lot of complaints about the Bolt tuners and the signal that they require.

The channel that I’m having problems on fluctuates between a signal strength of 72 and 68 (can go lower to 65 rarely) and the SNR cycles between 29 and 26. I got curious and looked at diagnostics on the Premieres and I see much higher Signal Strength high to mid 90s (I understand that the Bolt’s AGC limits the signal strength to 72) and much higher SNR 35 to 33. Both of these values fluctuate as well, but the RS Uncorrected is steady at 0. In my initial troubleshooting, I tried a 11.5db amplifier that made absolutely no difference - same diagnostics and real world performance. After seeing the values on the Premiere, I’m wondering if the signal is actually too powerful for the Bolt and the fluctuation is multipath.

If the replacement box exhibits these problems, does anyone have any suggestions? Should I add an attenuator to try to lower the signal strength? Any idea as to why my signal strength/SNR cycles up and down on this channel and remains constant on other channels. (They vary from the high 60’s to 72, but don’t fluctuate.)

Any help or ideas would be much appreciated.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

FYI: The RS Corrected counter on a Bolt and basic Roamio never move from zero.


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## KBrack (Feb 16, 2002)

There were no useful responses, so I'm posting this in case it might help someone else with OTA issues with a Bolt.

The replacement box had the exact same issues. So, I purchased a couple attenuators (3db and 6db.) I tried the 3db by itself and as soon as I added it, my signal strength stabilized at 72% and my SNR was a solid 29. (My RS Uncorrected stayed at 0 for a long time, but did begin to slowly creep up.) I thought my problem was solved and even though the pixellation and artifacts was much better, they would appear after a while. I switched to the 6db PAD and things were even better, but even after using the 3 & 6 together the picture glitches would appear. I purchased a 10db PAD and after fiddling around for a while, I found that combining the 10 and 6db fixed the picture issue on my problem channel and didn't impact the signal numbers or picture on my other channels.

TLDR: If your OTA Bolt is having picture problems, the signal might be too strong and you might need more of a reduction than you think.


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

KBrack said:


> I found that combining the 10 and 6db fixed the picture issue on my problem channel and didn't impact the signal numbers or picture on my other channels.
> 
> TLDR: If your OTA Bolt is having picture problems, the signal might be too strong and you might need more of a reduction than you think.


Is that -16db? What is that, like 3% of the original signal?


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## KBrack (Feb 16, 2002)

sfhub said:


> Is that -16db? What is that, like 3% of the original signal?


I've read lots of posts that say you can't put any real numeric value to the Bolt's signal numbers. But, as I mentioned in my post, I'm seeing a stable signal strength of 72% with a SNR of 29 across all channels.


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

KBrack said:


> I've read lots of posts that say you can't put any real numeric value to the Bolt's signal numbers.


I am just talking mathematically -15db is 1/32 of original signal. -16db would ba little more than that.


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## KBrack (Feb 16, 2002)

sfhub said:


> I am just talking mathematically -15db is 1/32 of original signal. -16db would ba little more than that.


Just FYI, there's a splitter involved upstream as well. Not sure what the numbers are, but as long as it's working again, I'm happy.


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## tvmitch (Apr 9, 2019)

Hi all, I just got a new Bolt OTA. I am posting because this thread was very helpful. I live about 8 miles away from my nearest station, which has a strong signal (VHF), and the rest are 20-30 miles away. On the closest station, and that station only, I was getting lots of A/V glitches. I have a roof-mounted amplified Channel Master antenna and had no issues with glitching when this antenna was plugged into my Dish Hopper 3 box to provide OTA signals.

Tivo reported signal strength of 82 for the glitching channel and in the high 60s/low 70s for the others.

Read through this thread and other similar threads and used that information to troubleshoot. Narrowed the issue to the TiVo box, as it didn't glitch on the Dish box, or my little portable digital TV I use for testing. Turns out that unplugging the amplifier solved the issue, and we still receive the same number of channels with it unplugged. Signal strength dropped to 72 for the close-by channel and high 50s/low 60s for the others. (Seems like "72" is a popular strength number for these signal meters to settle on.)

I did buy a couple attenuators from Amazon so I may try those as well.


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