# Clarification on Tivo Mini Limitations



## sm4194 (Jan 30, 2016)

I have gotten conflicting info on how many Tivo Minis the Bolt can truly support simultaneously. Please let me know which of the following is correct:

1. The Bolt can be hooked up to 10 Tivo Minis but only four of those Minis can view content simultaneously, regardless of whether the content being viewed is live or previously recorded. 

2. The Bolt can be hooked up to 10 Tivo minis but only four of those Minis can watch live TV simulateously. The remaining 6 Minis can watch previously recorded shows.


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## snerd (Jun 6, 2008)

The Bolt always reserves one tuner for itself. A Bolt connected to 10 Minis will allow a maximum of 3 minis to watch live TV simultaneously. It should also allow other Minis to access recorded content at the same time.

I'd be surprised if a single Bolt can support 10 streams simultaneously.


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

sm4194 said:


> I have gotten conflicting info on how many Tivo Minis the Bolt can truly support simultaneously. Please let me know which of the following is correct:
> 
> 1. The Bolt can be hooked up to 10 Tivo Minis but only four of those Minis can view content simultaneously, regardless of whether the content being viewed is live or previously recorded.
> 
> 2. The Bolt can be hooked up to 10 Tivo minis but only four of those Minis can watch live TV simulateously. The remaining 6 Minis can watch previously recorded shows.


In addition to Snerd's offering, Tivo has a published "10" device limit on an individual account, it is actually 12, but in addition, somewhere they also recommend not adding more than 5 minis per DVR.
Although, it is theoretically possible to have one Bolt and 10 minis on an account, because one 4 tuner Bolt would have only 3 tuners available for live TV on a mini, and another 7 minis theoretically either streaming or viewing a recording, is likely to come to a screeching halt fairly quickly as the minis go online either because of the Bolt's cpu or your network limitations.
Even the 5 minis per DVR is a bit optimistic if you have a large household, especially with only a 4 tuner Bolt.


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## sm4194 (Jan 30, 2016)

Thanks for the responses. It sounds like you both concur that the Bolt can technically support more than 4 Minis simultaneously (if they are not all watching live TV). The use case I was most concerned about in my planned set up of 1 Bolt with 5 Minis is the Bolt recording 2 live shows while the 3 or 4 of the Minis are watching previously recorded content. When I emailed Weakness about this exact situation, they told me the Bolt supports only 4 Minis simulateously, regardless of whether the streams are live or recorded TV. But as long as someone has actually had 5 Minis going at the same time, I will assume Weakness was mistsken.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

There may be an artifical limit on the number of streams that can come out of the Bolt. There was a limit like this on the Premiere. I think it only supported 3 outgoing streams at a time. If you tried to stream a 4th you'd get an error. I haven't seen mention of that limit on the Roamio or Bolt but that doesn't mean there isn't one. I have however seen mention of people with 6 tuner Roamio units streaming all 5 tuners to Minis at the same time, so if there is a limit it has to be 5 or more.


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## sm4194 (Jan 30, 2016)

Can someone who has a Bolt with 4+ Minis try viewing content (live or recorded) at the same time on all devices and let us know if it works. 
Thanks.


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## eric102 (Oct 31, 2012)

I just checked my Bolt with 5 minis.

The minis can watch 3 tuners (all on different channels) and play back 2 different recorded shows at the same time.

They can also play back 5 different recordings at the same time.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I just tested this with 3 Minis and 2 Roamios. I set all 5 of them to stream a different recorded show from my Bolt and it worked fine. So if there is a limit it's higher then 5.


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## eric102 (Oct 31, 2012)

8 streams running now (9 if you count the Bolt), all playing different recorded content.

5 minis, 2 Roamios and Tivo Online.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

snerd said:


> The Bolt always reserves one tuner for itself. A Bolt connected to 10 Minis will allow a maximum of 3 minis to watch live TV simultaneously. It should also allow other Minis to access recorded content at the same time.
> 
> I'd be surprised if a single Bolt can support 10 streams simultaneously.


The Bolt can easily handle twelve concurrent read/write streams. I think the max I tested was thirteen concurrent read/write streams.
FOur tuners= four streams
Main Bolt playback=1 stream
four minis=4 streams
streaming to four TiVos=four streams.

I believe this has always been the case with the Bolt. Since I did my testing when it was first released.


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

aaronwt said:


> The Bolt can easily handle twelve concurrent read/write streams. I think the max I tested was thirteen concurrent read/write streams.
> FOur tuners= four streams
> Main Bolt playback=1 stream
> four minis=4 streams
> ...


Aaronwt,
I think it was probably 12 because when I went over 12 Tivo devices on my account all the minis got knocked off. But thanks for the tested findings on the Bolt. I would have lost that bet. 
Did you ever test the max number of streams on the Roamio series units before you went to the Bolts?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

fcfc2 said:


> Aaronwt,
> I think it was probably 12 because when I went over 12 Tivo devices on my account all the minis got knocked off. But thanks for the tested findings on the Bolt. I would have lost that bet.
> Did you ever test the max number of streams on the Roamio series units before you went to the Bolts?


Roamio Pro could do the same(at least later in it's life). I don't think I hit the max with either for total number of concurrent read/write streams. I am counting the five read/write streams from the host which comes from the four tuners and the one stream also being watched on the Host.


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## Chapin (Oct 28, 2002)

aaronwt said:


> The Bolt can easily handle twelve concurrent read/write streams. I think the max I tested was thirteen concurrent read/write streams.
> FOur tuners= four streams
> Main Bolt playback=1 stream
> four minis=4 streams
> ...


What is the limit of minis and live TV streams with a 6 Tuner Bolt?


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Chapin said:


> What is the limit of minis and live TV streams with a 6 Tuner Bolt?


A 6-tuner TiVo could typically only support 5 concurrent live TV streams to Minis. (More if any Minis are viewing an ongoing recording and are live.)


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## Chapin (Oct 28, 2002)

Thanks. It sounds like in up 10 or 12 simultaneous streams total, a mix of 0 live + 12 recorded up to 5 live + 7 recorded. Or maybe more. 

I’m thinking of getting 5 - 7 minis and a 6 tuner bolt. It sounds like it should work, presuming there isn’t to many concurrent recordings and live tv streams (6 total, including one for the bolt?)


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