# Bolt vs Roamio OTA tuners



## JTHOJNICKI (Nov 30, 2015)

I am currently running both the Bolt and Roamio OTA on my OTA antenna. The are connected exactly the same; sharing a single 2-way splitter at he end of the antenna cable. Unfortunately, we have on really bad OTA channel; CBS2-Chicago (WBBM-TV) that has always teetered on the edge of reception. The Bolt periodically cannot pickup a signal; the Roamio OTA has absolutely no issues.

So, based on my observation, the Roamio OTA has the better OTA tuners.


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## JTHOJNICKI (Nov 30, 2015)

Just checked the signal strength on the Roamio OTA and the Bolt. The Bolt has about 1/2 the signal strength of the Roamio OTA from the splitter. Doesn't make sense. I'm going to check the cables now. Stay tuned.


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## JTHOJNICKI (Nov 30, 2015)

Just swapped the cables. The Bolt is showing half the signal strength of the new Roamio OTA with the exact same cabling. So, it's definitely differences in the tuner hardware.


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## shoman1994 (Jan 17, 2016)

That stinks.... No bolt for me if the tuners aren't at least as good.

Sent from my XR6P10 using Tapatalk


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

You might want to test each one individually with no splitter and test with a different splitter.


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## rainwater (Sep 21, 2004)

JTHOJNICKI said:


> Just swapped the cables. The Bolt is showing half the signal strength of the new Roamio OTA with the exact same cabling. So, it's definitely differences in the tuner hardware.


How are you measuring signal strength? If you are looking on the TiVo itself, that isn't a good indicator as the Bolt and Roamio's don't measure signal strength exactly the same. Plus, signal strength isn't the true indicator anyways. It is how many errors you see over a length of time (stability of your signal). This can be measured in the TiVo diagnostics.


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## JTHOJNICKI (Nov 30, 2015)

I re-cabled my entire OTA setup today and the Bolt and Roamio OTA are now showing the exact same signal strength. I think I had a bad termination somewhere.

I still can't wait to install the 6TB WD RED HDD in my Roamio tomorrow.


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## JTHOJNICKI (Nov 30, 2015)

Just using the built-in TiVo signal strength app. Today, after a complete rewire, the Bolt and the Roamio OTA match exactly.


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## JTHOJNICKI (Nov 30, 2015)

shoman1994 said:


> That stinks.... No bolt for me if the tuners aren't at least as good.
> 
> Sent from my XR6P10 using Tapatalk


See my latest results. After rewiring from top to bottom; no difference.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

shoman1994 said:


> That stinks.... No bolt for me if the tuners aren't at least as good.
> 
> Sent from my XR6P10 using Tapatalk


They are as good. I can get the same stations on a Bolt as I do with a Roamio. Even the low marginal signal stations.


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## jsbellin (Dec 16, 2007)

Anyone know if the Edge has better OTA tuning capability? My experience is my TV has better OTA tuning capability than my Bolt, and everyone seems to believe the Bolt is worse than S3. I'd shell out for an Edge if I could get as many OTA channels as my TV does directly.


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