# A little confused about the Roamio's features



## nessie (Apr 18, 2010)

I'm getting a Roamio shipped to me soon, so I got this email from Tivo stating the following:

_If you plan to take your TiVo experience outside of the living room using a TiVo Stream, TiVo Mini or another TiVo DVR, your Roamio must be connected to your home network using Ethernet cable or a MoCA network adapter. Learn more_

and then

_With the free TiVo app, you'll love watching TV like never before. Turn your iPhone®, iPad®, Kindle Fire or Android device into command central where you can search, browse, schedule and share without interrupting what you're watching. You can even watch live or recorded TV from your Roamio anywhere in the world via your iOS device. Learn more about the TiVo app. Learn more about watching TV anywhere._

What's the difference between using TiVo Stream or the TiVo app? Don't you need TiVo stream to use the TiVo app to watch TV anywhere? Or am I missing something?


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## mrizzo80 (Apr 17, 2012)

If you bought a Roamio Plus or Roamio Pro, you can stream to your phone/tablet anywhere in the world using just the Roamio and your phone/tablet with the TiVo app installed. The Roamio can transcode video in real-time and stream it to your device. If you bought the Roamio Basic, you'll need a TiVo Stream to do the transcoding/streaming to your device.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

The Roamio Plus/Pro has a Stream built in, the Basic requires a separate TiVo Stream box. The app is used in both cases to select and watch the show. 

Technical explanation...

TiVos record the digital stream directly from your cable signal, retaining the original encoding and bitrate. (typically high bitrate MPEG-2) Mobile devices can't play these types of videos directly so they need to be transcoded into a mobile friendly format for streaming. The TiVo hardware does not have the ability to do this transcoding on it's own so they invented the TiVo Stream. The TiVo Stream accesses your TiVo just like a Mini and pulls the original digital stream across your network to itself, it then feed that into a special transcoder chip which converts it to a mobile friendly format and finally sends that out to your phone/tablet. (either via wifi or the internet) The Roamio Plus/Pro units use the same hardware as the standalone TiVo Stream they just have it stuffed inside the TiVo's case. It's actually a separate device connected to the main TiVo via an internal network switch. The Stream portion gets it's own unique IP address and can be rebooted, from the app, without having to reboot the whole TiVo, just like the standalone Stream.


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## Wil (Sep 27, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> Technical explanation...


Thanks for that; very clear.

If the Roamio Plus could stream (over the Internet) to another Tivo, or even to a pc screen, that would do it for me to pull the trigger.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I got the Android app running on a Fire TV stick. I haven't tested it OOH but I assume it would work. (no reason it shouldn't)

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=522319


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## waynomo (Nov 9, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> It's actually a separate device connected to the main TiVo via an internal network switch. The Stream portion gets it's own unique IP address and can be rebooted, from the app, without having to reboot the whole TiVo, just like the standalone Stream.


This would explain the Phantom TiVo device that shows up on my network!!!

So my Roamio Pro is using 2 IP addresses.


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## PCurry57 (Feb 27, 2012)

waynomo said:


> This would explain the Phantom TiVo device that shows up on my network!!!
> 
> So my Roamio Pro is using 2 IP addresses.


That is correct, the second ip address is the stream. You can verify the ip in the TiVo app settings-> streaming info


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## nessie (Apr 18, 2010)

Thanks.

While I'm waiting for my CableCard to arrive, is it possible to use my cable box with the TiVo in the meantime?


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

nessie said:


> Thanks.
> 
> While I'm waiting for my CableCard to arrive, is it possible to use my cable box with the TiVo in the meantime?


No. It has to have its own CableCard to work.


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## waynomo (Nov 9, 2002)

tarheelblue32 said:


> No. It has to have its own CableCard to work.


If you had an OTA Roamio, couldn't you use it to record SD programs from a cable box via coax? You would of course have to manually change the station on the STB.

Just speculating here as I have no clue or way to test. I'm just asking the question.


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## hummingbird_206 (Aug 23, 2007)

nessie said:


> Thanks.
> 
> While I'm waiting for my CableCard to arrive, is it possible to use my cable box with the TiVo in the meantime?


You should be able to hook the coax cable up to the TiVo and you will be able to see any channels that are not encrypted. If your cable provider encrypts everything, then you won't see any channels. The cable card is needed to view encrypted channels.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

waynomo said:


> If you had an OTA Roamio, couldn't you use it to record SD programs from a cable box via coax? You would of course have to manually change the station on the STB.
> 
> Just speculating here as I have no clue or way to test. I'm just asking the question.


I doubt it's possible. I don't believe the Roamio has an analog tuner, even for OTA. Even if it did, you'd be limited to manual recordings. Hardly worthwhile.
Edit: It appears the base Roamio does indeed have an OTA analog tuner.

If your cable system still has unencrypted channels, you should be able to receive them but you'll have no guide data, so once again manual recordings only.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

A few years ago I got my first Premiere. The install guide indicated that, with cable, it would be a good idea to use the box until your cable card was installed. I did and was happy that I could receive all my digital and analog cable channels. I still have 150 clear QAM channels. Recently I added a Roamio and it also _said_ I should use the box until my card was installed. I found that all the Roamio would do is network to the Premiere and stream things found from TiVo Central. I'm pretty sure it is no longer possible to watch anything live if you select cable during installation. This is probably a change in the firmware. I have 5 analog (vsb) channels on my feed that are just test patterns. They didn't display on the Premiere even after I pulled the cable card and put it into the Roamio. I _know_ that TV could be watched & recorded without a cable card since I remember all the messages I saw indicating the recorded channel was not found in the guide, even though it was a manual recording. So while I agree it used to work, I think that functionality has been removed. But I can't test it since all three TiVos have the latest firmware.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

For cable, even a Roamio Basic is analog only plus a lot of the cable systems, including Comcast are now encrypting everything including locals, so no more clear QAM.

A CableCARD has absolutely nothing to do with analog channels.

Lack of analog support is not a "firmware change". It simply has no analog cable tuners. Neither did the 4-tuner Premiere.

You have never been able to use a cable box with any Series 3 or later TiVo.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Let me make it simple and use shorter sentences.

I have an old 2-tuner 320G Premiere, a 500G 2-tuner Premiere, and a new 4-tuner basic Roamio.

I only have cable with 5 vsb and 150 clear QAM channels. I have two cable cards.

When I got my first Premiere I could record clear QAM manually. I got errors since there was no cable card installed.

When I got my Roamio I could not record anything without a cable card.

Without a cable card my old 2-tuner Premiere can no longer record anything. It used to do that. What changed?


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## Teeps (Aug 16, 2001)

JoeKustra said:


> Without a cable card my old 2-tuner Premiere can no longer record anything. It used to do that.
> 
> What changed?


Every thing in the pipe is encrypted now.
time warner started encrypting every thing about a month ago.
I had to get a DTA for my mother's office tv so she could watch KABC in Los Angles.

Interestingly... the office tv with built in digital tuner, could tune the music feeds without the DTA.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

JoeKustra said:


> Let me make it simple and use shorter sentences.
> 
> I have an old 2-tuner 320G Premiere, a 500G 2-tuner Premiere, and a new 4-tuner basic Roamio.
> 
> ...


Sounds as if your cable co has eliminated analog and is encrypting all of the digital channels (no more clear Qam). What makes you think otherwise?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

lpwcomp said:


> Sounds as if your cable co has eliminated analog and is encrypting all of the digital channels (no more clear Qam). What makes you think otherwise?


My television, a Sony DHG DVR, a Magnavox DVDR, and the letter I got from my cable company saying on 2/10/15 I will get them encrypted.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Teeps said:


> Every thing in the pipe is encrypted now.
> time warner started encrypting every thing about a month ago.
> I had to get a DTA for my mother's office tv so she could watch KABC in Los Angles.
> 
> Interestingly... the office tv with built in digital tuner, could tune the music feeds without the DTA.


You have a different pipe than I do. I have a different pipe than my last house 8 miles from here.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

JoeKustra said:


> My television, a Sony DHG DVR, a Magnavox DVDR, and the letter I got from my cable company saying on 2/10/15 I will get them encrypted.


After you removed the CableCARD, did you redo guided setup and run a channel scan?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

lpwcomp said:


> Lack of analog support is not a "firmware change". It simply has no analog cable tuners. Neither did the 4-tuner Premiere.


Not quite. The tuners themselves can tune analog channels but the chipsets they use are only capable of encoding 2 channels at a time. So rather then making it an asymetical system, where you have 4 tuners but can only record 2 analog stations, they simply disabled analog all together.

Most cable systems have transitioned to multi-cast or all digital at this point anyway, so that decision doesn't effect many people. Although it was a much bigger deal back when the 4 tuner Elite came out.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

PCurry57 said:


> That is correct, the second ip address is the stream. You can verify the ip in the TiVo app settings-> streaming info


Is it possible to assign both the Roamio and its little built in buddy your choice of fixed IP address, as long as each gets a different one?

Or are you forced to use DHCP?


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

Use reserved IP addresses based off the MAC addresses instead of static IP.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

unitron said:


> Is it possible to assign both the Roamio and its little built in buddy your choice of fixed IP address, as long as each gets a different one?
> 
> Or are you forced to use DHCP?


You can't assign a static IP to the Stream. Not even the standalone Stream. It's hard coded to use DHCP. The TiVo can have a static IP though.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> You can't assign a static IP to the Stream. Not even the standalone Stream. It's hard coded to use DHCP. The TiVo can have a static IP though.


As arcady said, you should be able to do it with your router. Not sure why you need to but who am I to judge?


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## nessie (Apr 18, 2010)

Thanks for the replies. Got my Roamio a few days ago. Just a couple small problems.

When I transfer shows from my old series 2 to the roamio, closed captions don't show up on those transferred shows. Is this normal?

Adding a season pass to the roamio adds the same season pass to my series 2, and when I try to delete the season pass on the series 2 from tivo.com, it won't let me. How can I fix this?


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Where are you adding your season passes? Are the boxes in the same room?


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## nessie (Apr 18, 2010)

I added them through the Tivo box on the TV. Yes they are in the same room. Which reminds me, the Tivo remote controls both Tivos at once. I don't suppose this can be changed.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

nessie said:


> I added them through the Tivo box on the TV. Yes they are in the same room. Which reminds me, the Tivo remote controls both Tivos at once. I don't suppose this can be changed.


Yes, but first I need to know if you ever set the remote code on the old remote.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

nessie said:


> I added them through the Tivo box on the TV. Yes they are in the same room. Which reminds me, the Tivo remote controls both Tivos at once. I don't suppose this can be changed.


Of course it can be changed, there are 9 channels you can use.

http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/285


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