# Roamio basic tcd846500 cable card?



## tarheel115 (Oct 21, 2011)

Thinking of coming to tivo for OTA and possible cable card later...Can a cable card be added to the Roamio 4 tuner OTA.. I have a Seagate 3TB hard drive I use for directv with an external base w/esata would that work on Roamio external or internal?

Thanks for your info..


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

There's no cablecard slot on the Roamio OTA announced yesterday. But you can get the existing 4-tuner Roamio "basic" model that has both OTA and cable support if you want to leave that option open.

Since the Roamio OTA isn't out yet we don't know for certain how it'll react to modifications, but in theory you could insert the 3TB drive and it'll format and install the Tivo software for you. (It can't preserve anything on it already.) This is how it works for existing Roamios.


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

I'm guessing my tarheel friend above was probably just asking about the standard 4-tuner Roamio rather than the upcoming "Roamio OTA" that has been announced for the future. This illustrates the problem of the current naming system for the current 4-tuner Roamio that does OTA now that they have a second 4-tuner model coming out strictly for OTA.


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## tarheel115 (Oct 21, 2011)

Thanks I was speaking of the current Roamio basic it has a coax for ant or cable but with TWC going all digital can you add a cablecard with just the coax fitting and no built in cablecard slot??


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

tarheel115 said:


> Thanks I was speaking of the current Roamio basic it has a coax for ant or cable but with TWC going all digital can you add a cablecard with just the coax fitting and no built in cablecard slot??


There actually is a CableCard slot on the 4-tuner Roamio "basic". It's on the bottom under a trap door rather than being on the back like on the Plus and Pro models. The "basic" model can be used for either OTA or for digital cable. You actually have to have a CableCard to use it with cable, as it does not have an analog tuner.


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## tarheel115 (Oct 21, 2011)

Thanks that would make sense..
the rear coax conn would be for analog/QAM cable or ota
Thanks for the info..I like the ota option which would eliminate the pro/plus


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## tarheel115 (Oct 21, 2011)

One more question If you have alot recorded on the external Hard Drive via OTA and then decide to use cablecard would you lose the recordings?
Thanks for the info


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

tarheel115 said:


> One more question If you have alot recorded on the external Hard Drive via OTA and then decide to use cablecard would you lose the recordings?
> Thanks for the info


Switching from OTA to cable should not affect your recordings.


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## tarheel115 (Oct 21, 2011)

Thanks for all your help GO HEELS!!


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

your external hard drive will not work with the tivo. You can upgrade its internal drive though.


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## lpwcomp (May 6, 2002)

tarheel115 said:


> Thanks that would make sense..
> the rear coax conn would be for analog/QAM cable or ota
> Thanks for the info..I like the ota option which would eliminate the pro/plus


One small correction. It is digital only, either OTA or cable. No analog at all.


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

tarheel115 said:


> Thinking of coming to tivo for OTA and possible cable card later...Can a cable card be added to the Roamio 4 tuner OTA.. I have a Seagate 3TB hard drive I use for directv with an external base w/esata would that work on Roamio external or internal?
> 
> Thanks for your info..


It's generally considered better around here to forgo the use of an external drive on any TiVo (popular wisdom is you double the chances of losing all your recordings to a drive failure) and just replace the stock internal with something bigger, although you should do a lot of model-specific reading here before doing that.


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## tarheel115 (Oct 21, 2011)

OK Thanks for all the info....


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