# Stay on Live TV



## primaryforce (Oct 15, 2015)

My wife wants to leave the TV on for the pets. Please don't ask what channel they prefer. Anyway, the Mini in the bedroom upstairs connected to the downstairs Bolt reverts to the screen saver mode after about an hour. Is there a way to keep the Mini locked on the channel? Please excuse this question if this is an old topic but I am new to the Tivo world. Thanks!


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

It should stay playing for around 4 hours before going to the screen saver. This is not user adjustable


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

How about a radio instead? Dogs prefer NPR. 

You could get a cheapo antenna and just flip to that input instead.


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

And once again we see the lack of an "off" button defeating users. Why can't TiVo just admit that not having an off button was a bad idea? They have now probably spent more time fiddling with heuristics to try to guess (incorrectly) when people aren't watching than on all the other features in the user interface .


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Actually the tivo remote when used with a mini DOES have an OFF button. Its the tv power button. The mini stops streaming and releases the tuner when the HDMI connected tv is powered down.

Still will not stream for more than 4 hours without user input.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

jcthorne said:


> Actually the tivo remote when used with a mini DOES have an OFF button. Its the tv power button. The mini stops streaming and releases the tuner when the HDMI connected tv is powered down.
> 
> Still will not stream for more than 4 hours without user input.


News to me. In fact, without the TV on, my Mini (v1 & v2) and an EAS test will grab a tuner and keep it for four hours. I wish there was some HDMI communication on a Mini.


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## Mathelo (Aug 22, 2008)

Teach your pets to use the remote! ;-)


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## eric102 (Oct 31, 2012)

Find a learning remote control with programmable timers and set them to change the channel every 3 1/2 hours or so.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

JoeKustra said:


> News to me. In fact, without the TV on, my Mini (v1 & v2) and an EAS test will grab a tuner and keep it for four hours. I wish there was some HDMI communication on a Mini.


Mine drops the tuner not long after the tv is turned off. Later when turned back on, it takes the mini a few seconds to come out of standby and it does not grab a tuner until asked to display live tv. The mini does know when the HDMI link is active ala tv is on.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

jcthorne said:


> Mine drops the tuner not long after the tv is turned off. Later when turned back on, it takes the mini a few seconds to come out of standby and it does not grab a tuner until asked to display live tv. The mini does know when the HDMI link is active ala tv is on.


That seems to mean you are using Standby and not going to TiVo Central to release the tuner?

With TV off, my v1 and v2 Mini's still grab a tuner when an EAS test happens. And I do use HDMI.

I wish that the tuner was released when I turn off the TV. That would be nice.


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## snerd (Jun 6, 2008)

Mathelo said:


> Teach your pets to use the remote! ;-)


Years ago we had a Zenith TV with a remote that used aluminum bars of various lengths that would sing at different frequencies to turn the TV on/off or change channel and sound up/down.

Sometimes our parrots would whistle at just the right frequency to change the channel or turn up the volume. They had a knack for doing it during dramatic moments, and this was way before TiVo was invented, so it was extremely annoying.


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## Time_Lord (Jun 4, 2012)

I heard about those remotes from my parents  also the ones where you are basically pointing a flashlight at the corners of the tv to handle channel and channel up/down

How did my parents generation survive without good remotes? 

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk


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## snerd (Jun 6, 2008)

Time_Lord said:


> How did my parents generation survive without good remotes?


No remotes motivated us to invent crappy remotes. Hard to make good remotes when microcontrollers don't exist.

Crappy remotes motivated us to invent good remotes.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

Time_Lord said:


> I heard about those remotes from my parents  also the ones where you are basically pointing a flashlight at the corners of the tv to handle channel and channel up/down
> 
> How did my parents generation survive without good remotes?


only 4 networks helped decrease the need for a remote...


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