# How many tuners are needed?



## hunter69 (Feb 9, 2002)

I have been using TIVOs for quite a while and when I first had two tuners it was truly a great thing. On my Premiere I have two and will be adjusting to having four on the Bolt. 

My question is how many tuners are really needed? At this time I do not see how I will ever use the 4 tuners I have, but I see people wanting 6 or 12 tuners. Am I using my TIVO wrong that four looks to be plenty?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

hunter69 said:


> I have been using TIVOs for quite a while and when I first had two tuners it was truly a great thing. On my Premiere I have two and will be adjusting to having four on the Bolt.
> 
> My question is how many tuners are really needed? At this time I do not see how I will ever use the 4 tuners I have, but I see people wanting 6 or 12 tuners. Am I using my TIVO wrong that four looks to be plenty?


Depends on the person. This time of year i have four or five conflicts every week with my six tuner Roamio Pro. But those shows are just get recorded from later airings. So six tuners is basically the minimum I need.


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## waynomo (Nov 9, 2002)

Six tuners is the perfect amount for me. There is the occasional conflict that can easily be resolved. However, it is just me and my wife. Can you image if you were a couple with several or more kids who all have their shows they want recorded?

I couldn't imagine getting by with just 2 tuners these days. I can't believe I managed with my Series 1 which could record only one show at t a time.

I could probably manage with 4.


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## georgeorwell86 (Sep 15, 2015)

Me, wife and 2 kids....coming from a 3 tuner HD HomeRun Prime...to a 4 tuner Bolt. We rarely watch live TV, so never have any tuner conflicts.

1 Bolt + 3 minis


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## andyw715 (Jul 31, 2007)

Also depends on concurrent Mini usage (for live TV).


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

andyw715 said:


> Also depends on concurrent Mini usage (for live TV).


Especially when you have other people in the household who refuse to release tuners when not in use.


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## jonw747 (Aug 2, 2015)

hunter69 said:


> I have been using TIVOs for quite a while and when I first had two tuners it was truly a great thing. On my Premiere I have two and will be adjusting to having four on the Bolt.
> 
> My question is how many tuners are really needed? At this time I do not see how I will ever use the 4 tuners I have, but I see people wanting 6 or 12 tuners. Am I using my TIVO wrong that four looks to be plenty?


Depends what you're watching obviously. If you watch sports, they wipe out long blocks of time that can easily cause recording conflicts. We used to have a pair of 2-tuner DVRs and had to manually deal with conflicts on a fairly regular basis, so, I'm very happy with a 6-tuner Roamio.

And yes, each Mini that you may want to watch Live TV on will need a tuner.


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## hmspain (Oct 11, 2015)

andyw715 said:


> Also depends on concurrent Mini usage (for live TV).


Yup, I can easily see a family where a couple minis are in the bedrooms, leaving you with "only" four tuners. It's not always a scheduling conflict that drives the extra tuners.

I have the four tuner Bolt with one mini in the bedroom. For a household of one, the new four tuner Bolt works for me.


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## trip1eX (Apr 2, 2005)

hunter69 said:


> I have been using TIVOs for quite a while and when I first had two tuners it was truly a great thing. On my Premiere I have two and will be adjusting to having four on the Bolt.
> 
> My question is how many tuners are really needed? At this time I do not see how I will ever use the 4 tuners I have, but I see people wanting 6 or 12 tuners. Am I using my TIVO wrong that four looks to be plenty?


Yes you are using your Tivo incorrectly. Please send me your Bolt so I can demonstrate how to use it properly. 

People have different recordings needs. The more you watch tv. The more you record stuff you don't watch. The more household members you have. ...then generally the more tuners one needs.


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## TIVO_GUY_HERE (Jul 10, 2000)

4 tuners on bolt for my network shows I want to record, 
2 tuners on premiere for any conflicts.
2 tuners on another premiere, for sports 24/7


so 8


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## hmspain (Oct 11, 2015)

TIVO_GUY_HERE said:


> 4 tuners on bolt for my network shows I want to record,
> 2 tuners on premiere for any conflicts.
> 2 tuners on another premiere, for sports 24/7
> 
> so 8


GG, what is your cable bill? ha ha ha

I count three cable cards?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I technically have 19 tuners available to me. 6/ea in two Roamio Pros, 4 in the Bolt and 3 in an HDHomeRun. However I don't actually use them all. The Roamio's are his/hers, so 6 of those belong to my wife. The Bolt (previous a Roamio OTA) is only really used to get one channel I can't get in HD via cable, and as a backup for network shows since my cable company seems to use a frequency for those that's prone to interference and pixelation. And the HDHomeRun is just used for testing for work. 

So really I only use 6 on a regular basis. And even though I pad everything, and have clipping turned off, I have only ever seen a conflict once. Which was fixed by eliminating the padding on one show. So I'd say 6 is plenty, even if you pad everything. There are only 5 broadcast networks with non-repeating prime time programming. Pretty much every cable station repeats it's programming at least a few times thought the week so later airings can be recorded if there are conflicts. So even if you watched every popular show on TV 6 would likely still be plenty.

Oh and the CableCARDs only cost $2/mo ea so they're not a big expense.


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## opus472 (Jul 4, 2007)

Sunday nights, when it seems every program on earth is first broadcast. If not for multiple repeat broadcasts on many channels, a gazillion tuners wouldn't be enough.


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## hmspain (Oct 11, 2015)

Dan203 said:


> Oh and the CableCARDs only cost $2/mo ea so they're not a big expense.


Don't those Tivo subscriptions add up?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

hmspain said:


> Don't those Tivo subscriptions add up?


They're all lifetime. And the HDHomeRun doesn't have a subscription fee, it uses Windows MCE.


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## hmspain (Oct 11, 2015)

Dan203 said:


> They're all lifetime. And the HDHomeRun doesn't have a subscription fee, it uses Windows MCE.


Dang! That's "All in" as they say. Back in Tivo 1 days, I got a lifetime subscription too. I replaced the disk several times, and got my $100 worth hehe.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Yeah the Pro's cost me like $1k/ea. The Roamio OTA was $300. The Bolt I got for free as a gift from TiVo for being so cool on these forums.


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## kisby (Mar 31, 2002)

We have two Tivo Bolts with a total of 8 tuners. The rest of the house is MoCa'd with Tivo Minis. We can watch stuff on either Bolt from anywhere. For us, that is plenty.


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## series5orpremier (Jul 6, 2013)

Tonight (Monday) is my worst night and I have so many conflicts I'm using 9 tuners across 3 TiVos. I only have 4 cable tuners and to avoid constantly rescheduling recordings I'd need at least a couple more. Ten tuners total split between a 6 tuner cable box and a 4 tuner OTA box should suit me fine but I'm in no rush to buy more equipment.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

The only shows that don't repeat are on the 5 broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and CW) and maybe live sports on ESPN. So it would seem that 6 tuners should be enough for most people. Padding can screw that up a bit though.


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## series5orpremier (Jul 6, 2013)

hunter69 said:


> Am I using my TIVO wrong that four looks to be plenty?


Yes. You should build a TV bunker in your backyard and not emerge until you've watched every episode of every program. #Emmys


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

hunter69 said:


> My question is how many tuners are really needed? At this time I do not see how I will ever use the 4 tuners I have, but I see people wanting 6 or 12 tuners. Am I using my TIVO wrong that four looks to be plenty?


Major uses of more tuners:
1) Those of us who "hoard" recordings. I admittedly record way more than I watch.. some shows to 'skim through' (e.g. late night talk shows), lots of various documentaries and such that I intend to watch "some day".. (and YES, in many cases, that "some day" HAS come.. But I just nuked a bunch PBS POV episodes yesterday when my Tivo got VERY VERY full..)

2) Not quite the same as #1, but I want *my whole actual show* recorded. The shenanigans that networks have done with the time slots mostly over the past ~15 years (starting with "er", one of my favorite shows ever) means that we have to use padding, or lose some of the show. Thanks to the relatively recent default settings, I think I have 1 minute pre and 1 minute post pad on virtually everything. (I have REMOVED one or two after verifying I wasn't missing part of the show..) Some shows need more. I think Letterman needed 2 or 3 minutes post pad to not have the very end clipped off.

(One OTHER use of "record way more than I watch" benefit is new stuff all summer --- but the various networks', cable & broadcast, showing of new stuff mostly all year around has slightly shrunk the benefit of that..)


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## georgeorwell86 (Sep 15, 2015)

kisby said:


> We have two Tivo Bolts with a total of 8 tuners. The rest of the house is MoCa'd with Tivo Minis. We can watch stuff on either Bolt from anywhere. For us, that is plenty.


In this scenario, won't you be paying 2 Tivo service fees once the 1 year of included service is up?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

georgeorwell86 said:


> In this scenario, won't you be paying 2 Tivo service fees once the 1 year of included service is up?


Only if you continue to keep the Bolts. By then there could be a Bolt Pro.

This is what I've decided to do. I will be going from my six tuner ROamio Pro, to two, four tuner Bolts. Then if they come out with a six tuner Bolt Pro next year, I will switch to that.


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## markjrenna (Mar 23, 2006)

I will jump on a 6 tuner 3 TB Bolt pro. I hope they release one soon! I made up the specs... Wishing...



aaronwt said:


> Only if you continue to keep the Bolts. By then there could be a Bolt Pro.
> 
> This is what I've decided to do. I will be going from my six tuner ROamio Pro, to two, four tuner Bolts. Then if they come out with a six tuner Bolt Pro next year, I will switch to that.


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## cjnj (Oct 14, 2015)

After years of dealing with lousy FiOS provided DVR's, I'm jumping to the Bolt. Quick question. Even though I plan to expand the storage of the bolt with the myriad of eSATA equipped hard drives I have sitting around the house, I'm a bit worried about tuners long-term. If I want to add a second Bolt, is the system smart enough to aggregate all the recordings across both devices to a single presentation regardless of which unit I'm using?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

FYI you can ONLY use the Western Digital DVR Expander drives eSATA drives to expand a TiVo. No other drive will work. 

No they do not automatically aggregate tuners across multiple TiVos. You can stream shows between TiVos but you have to manually manage the OnePasses and To Do Lists of each device. If you think you'll need more tuners you might want to consider a Roamio Pro instead.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Dan203 said:


> FYI you can ONLY use the Western Digital DVR Expander drives eSATA drives to expand a TiVo. No other drive will work.
> 
> No they do not automatically aggregate tuners across multiple TiVos. You can stream shows between TiVos but you have to manually manage the OnePasses and To Do Lists of each device. If you think you'll need more tuners you might want to consider a Roamio Pro instead.


I think he may mean using them to harvest a drive out of to replace his internal drive.

Didn't Ira mention them possibly working on aggregating the My Shows lists from all your TiVos together?


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

HarperVision said:


> Didn't Ira mention them possibly working on aggregating the My Shows lists from all your TiVos together?


"aggregating the My Shows lists" != aggregating to do lists.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> Padding can screw that up a bit though.


Bit of an understatement.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

HarperVision said:


> Didn't Ira mention them possibly working on aggregating the My Shows lists from all your TiVos together?


Did he? I must have missed that one. Can you post a link? (I'd look myself but I can see all the deleted posts, which make the thread a lot harder for me to navigate then you guys)


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> Did he? I must have missed that one. Can you post a link? (I'd look myself but I can see all the deleted posts, which make the thread a lot harder for me to navigate then you guys)


http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10651497&highlight=unified#post10651497

As I previously posted though, it really has no relevance to the subject of this thread.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

lpwcomp said:


> "aggregating the My Shows lists" != aggregating to do lists.





lpwcomp said:


> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10651497&highlight=unified#post10651497 As I previously posted though, it really has no relevance to the subject of this thread.


What isn't relevant? This topic to the thread, right?

I just answered a question in this thread, so carry on.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

HarperVision said:


> What isn't relevant? This topic to the thread, right?
> 
> I just answered a question in this thread, so carry on.


No, you didn't. The question that was asked was about aggregating tuners and to do lists.

Aggregating "My Shows" does not alter the number of tuners needed.


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## wizwor (Dec 18, 2013)

Here is the correct answer: you need one tuner for each television plus one tuner for recording. You liked having two tuners because you could watch one thing while recording another, right? Add a Mini and you need to add a tuner for that box. It's that simple. More are better, but the return on investment falls off quickly.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

lpwcomp said:


> No, you didn't. The question that was asked was about aggregating tuners and to do lists. Aggregating "My Shows" does not alter the number of tuners needed.


Here is what Dan said, that I was answering:


Dan203 said:


> ......No they do not automatically aggregate tuners across multiple TiVos. .......


So I said I think Ira mentioned aggregating the My Shows list between TiVos.



HarperVision said:


> ......Didn't Ira mention them possibly working on aggregating the My Shows lists from all your TiVos together?


"Aggregating tuners" I took to mean that all the tuners that record amongst your TiVos "aggregate" into one "My Shows" list that all the TiVos share and can play from.

I'm guessing your definition of it could mean that if one roamio's tuners are all being used and if all your TiVo's tuners are aggregated then the recording would hop to another unit's tuner?

If so, then yeah I see that too.


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

wizwor said:


> Here is the correct answer: you need one tuner for each television plus one tuner for recording. You liked having two tuners because you could watch one thing while recording another, right? Add a Mini and you need to add a tuner for that box. It's that simple. More are better, but the return on investment falls off quickly.


By that logic I should be fine with only 2 tuners, since I only have 1 TV. But even with 4 I had the occasional show get bumped to a repeat airing (and that while nobody was watching liveTV).

The number of tuners you need depends entirely on how many things your household will every want to tune to simultaneously. (Mitigated somewhat if some of them air repeatedly _and_ you're willing to watch it later; after the 2nd showing)


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