# Mini Vox Using Roamio Tuner



## Richard Faris (Nov 26, 2018)

This is my first post, so please go easy on me. I wouldn't be posting unless I felt some ambiguity in some of the threads I've read and the answers TiVo support has given me.

So here it is... Will a Tivo Mini Vox (4k Version) stream 4K content when tethered to my Roamio? I have both a Bolt 3TB Vox and a Roamio Pro. I have some standard Mini's and some new 4k minis. I'm just trying to figure out how I want to set all of this up. Just curious, because two different TiVo support reps gave me two different answers.

PS - TiVo doesn't have any reason to go out on a limb for their lifetime service customers. They will only make price compromises, etc. when you are month-to-month... anyone agree? Example - Way back when, I bought a brand new Premier XL4 the day it came out. Comcast could not marry the box to their cablecard and tried for hours and with several cards and people at their switch on the line. TiVo's solution was to send me a refurbished Elite. It died 6 months later and they won't let me transfer my lifetime to a new box... been trying for 4 years. I really don't know why I still use TiVo, maybe becuase it's what I'm used to.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

Richard Faris said:


> So here it is... Will a Tivo Mini Vox (4k Version) stream 4K content when tethered to my Roamio? I have both a Bolt 3TB Vox and a Roamio Pro. I have some standard Mini's and some new 4k minis. I'm just trying to figure out how I want to set all of this up. Just curious, because two different TiVo support reps gave me two different answers.


Since the Mini is running the app and streaming directly (not through the host), it should support 4K on the apps that support it.

Scott


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## Richard Faris (Nov 26, 2018)

HerronScott said:


> Since the Mini is running the app and streaming directly (not through the host), it should support 4K on the apps that support it.
> 
> Scott


Thanks Scott. I guess the TiVo tech people were stuck on 4k Broadcast (even though there is very little on the horizon). I'm assuming under that circumstance since the Roamio tuners would slave, the new Minis wouldn't be able to broadcast in 4K. I was just really concerned with streaming content from Amazon, Netflix and YouTube which you're saying should be just fine.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

HerronScott said:


> Since the Mini is running the app and streaming directly (not through the host), it should support 4K on the apps that support it.


... and to the degree that each specific app supports 4K (and HDR).

Word from TiVo is that TE4/Hydra will be required for certain apps to support HDR - which would mean the host DVR must be running Hydra, and so would exclude Premieres as host DVRs for any Mini VOX seeking _maximum_ 4K/UHD quality (since Premieres aren't eligible for the TE4 upgrade).


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## Richard Faris (Nov 26, 2018)

So, if I am understanding this correctly, the Roamio must be upgraded to the Hydra software in order for the connected Mini VOX’s to transmit the programming in HDR? But there is still not a chance the Roamio Tuner chipset will ever support 4K itself (even streaming Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, YouTube etc) through the actual Roamio?


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Richard Faris said:


> So, if I am understanding this correctly, the Roamio must be upgraded to the Hydra software in order for the connected Mini VOX's to transmit the programming in HDR?


No. As stated above, each app is different, so you'll need to review each app's 4K & HDR support to determine exactly what's required for the best 4K w/ HDR experience for a given app, though it's been stated by TiVo that some apps may require Hydra/TE4 to support HDR -- and a Mini must match the software version of its host DVR. (It'd be handy if there was a spreadsheet/table somewhere summarizing app support for 4K/HDR, but I'm not aware of such a beast.)



Richard Faris said:


> But there is still not a chance the Roamio Tuner chipset will ever support 4K itself (even streaming Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, YouTube etc) through the actual Roamio?


Correct. Only BOLTs and the newish Mini VOX have the hardware to support 4K; if 4K broadcasting ever becomes a thing, a Roamio wouldn't be able to tune/receive this broadcasted content ... any more than a Series 2 TiVo could tune/record HD.


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## dmk1974 (Mar 7, 2002)

Question: So I bought a couple of Mini Vox units to potentially replace a couple of old -92 Mini units. I read that the Vox version has a faster MOCA interface, but since I'm connecting to Roamio Pro's on my network, will the Mini Vox units still transfer at the MOCA 2.0 speeds? Or limited to the slower MOCA 1.1 assuming that's what the Roamio's are hosting at? Thanks!


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

dmk1974 said:


> Question: So I bought a couple of Mini Vox units to potentially replace a couple of old -92 Mini units. I read that the Vox version has a faster MOCA interface, but since I'm connecting to Roamio Pro's on my network, will the Mini Vox units still transfer at the MOCA 2.0 speeds? Or limited to the slower MOCA 1.1 assuming that's what the Roamio's are hosting at? Thanks!


Short answer: MoCA 1.1

Longer: MoCA's peer-to-peer, and any two nodes communicate at the highest spec supported by BOTH nodes; so, a standard MoCA 2.0 Mini VOX will communicate with a MoCA 1.1 Roamio Plus/Pro at the Roamio's MoCA 1.1 rate ... same as would a v1/A92 or v2/A93 Mini.

The Mini VOX offers other benefits beyond the improved MoCA and Ethernet interfaces, though.


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## dmk1974 (Mar 7, 2002)

Thanks. I hooked up one of them tonight. Definitely faster with the VOX Mini than the old IR Mini. Normal TV watching just slightly faster, but apps like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu, and Xfinity were maybe 4x faster to load and finally usable.


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## Alcatraz (Nov 22, 2000)

I've been out of the loop for awhile but just bought a Mini VOX to work with my Roamio. Had a bit of trouble getting it to work but TiVo CS fixed it in 15 minutes. It was odd for the Mini VOX to take an update only to find out that my Roamio was running old interface and then downgrade. Is there actually a setting on Roamio that I could change to update its UI? If so, what are the benefits/downsides? 
Do I actually need to do this to try to access 4K streaming content?
Also, what's the deal with TiVo and HDR?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Alcatraz said:


> I've been out of the loop for awhile but just bought a Mini VOX to work with my Roamio. Had a bit of trouble getting it to work but TiVo CS fixed it in 15 minutes. It was odd for the Mini VOX to take an update only to find out that my Roamio was running old interface and then downgrade. Is there actually a setting on Roamio that I could change to update its UI? If so, what are the benefits/downsides?
> Do I actually need to do this to try to access 4K streaming content?
> Also, what's the deal with TiVo and HDR?


No, you do not need to upgrade the host for the Mini VOX to access streaming content of any kind. For the new UI (TE4/Mira/Hydra) just browse threads in the Coffee House forum.

Your Roamio should have an app "Get New Experience". Please read the comments first.

You may think about returning the Mini VOX and getting a used A93 Mini.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Alcatraz said:


> Do I actually need to do this to try to access 4K streaming content? Also, what's the deal with TiVo and HDR?





JoeKustra said:


> No, you do not need to upgrade the host for the Mini VOX to access streaming content of any kind.


Last I heard, though I don't have the reference handy, was that the "new experience" (TE4) might be necessary for HDR capabilities for some streaming apps. (Owing as much or more to a lack of certification testing slots, IIRC.)

edit: p.s. Found it...


TiVo_Ted said:


> While we don't have the same clout as a higher volume streamer, this is something we have kept working on. I believe the work is done for HDR from Vudu on all BOLT boxes and MINI VOX as long as you are running TE4. We also recently passed Netflix HDR certification on MINI VOX, so that should be showing up soon, also on TE4 with the version that came out this week. I believe we still have some engineering work to do in order to get HDR up and running with Prime Video and to fix a couple of issues we found with Netflix on BOLT.
> 
> Also, please don't ask for us to implement this feature on TE3 as well. Even if we could do it technically, we don't have the certification slots with the app vendors to go off and test on additional software versions.


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## Richard Faris (Nov 26, 2018)

I now have eliminated the Roamio and have 3tb 6 Tuner Bolt and a 1gb 4 tuner bolt, three current mini Vox’s and 1 prior model. I have Cat5e drops. Will the Cat5e support the available 4k content from NetFlix, Amazon and YouTube on the mini Vox’s I get that 4k won’t be supported on the old mini, but it’s a small kitchen set that won’t support 4k anyway. I guess my question relates to the Cat5e.


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

Richard Faris said:


> I now have eliminated the Roamio and have 3tb 6 Tuner Bolt and a 1gb 4 tuner bolt, three current mini Vox's and 1 prior model. I have Cat5e drops. Will the Cat5e support the available 4k content from NetFlix, Amazon and YouTube on the mini Vox's I get that 4k won't be supported on the old mini, but it's a small kitchen set that won't support 4k anyway. I guess my question relates to the Cat5e.


Cat5e will work fine if your source can provide it.


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## Richard Faris (Nov 26, 2018)

What do you mean by “if source can provide it”? These cat5e runs are coming out of a router 10/100/1000 fed by a Tivo Bolt to the Mini Vox mounted at the Television location. Just seems odd technically that the Cat5e can handle the bandwidth that the Bolt tuner will send out to the Mini Vox. I understand that the source (Bolt) can broadcast some 4k HDR programming by Netflix, Amazon and YouTube. I’m sorry to be such s burden. I’m just trying to wrap my head around this.


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

Richard Faris said:


> What do you mean by "if source can provide it"? These cat5e runs are coming out of a router 10/100/1000 fed by a Tivo Bolt to the Mini Vox mounted at the Television location. Just seems odd technically that the Cat5e can handle the bandwidth that the Bolt tuner will send out to the Mini Vox. I understand that the source (Bolt) can broadcast some 4k HDR programming by Netflix, Amazon and YouTube. I'm sorry to be such s burden. I'm just trying to wrap my head around this.


Yikes...Cat5e will not have any impact or restriction of the speed of current videos, UHD, 4k, etc. especially if you are using gigabit switches, and even if you are using some old fast Ethernet switches, unless you are running about 5 or 6 feeds concurrently through the same 100Mbps port, you are likely to be fine. Further, using live tv via a mini has a much higher load than almost anything coming off a steaming service because all of that 4k content is highly compressed.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

fcfc2 said:


> Further, using live tv via a mini has a much higher load than almost anything coming off a steaming service because all of that 4k content is highly compressed.


Though out-of-date, this post provides some bandwidth comparisons.


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