# Disable individual tuners on Bolt



## stormguardian (Dec 30, 2004)

Is there any way to disable individual tuners on the Bolt?

I've just purchased a Bolt and am getting a V53 error on just one tuner. The other three tuners work fine.

My instinct is that it's a bad tuner on the Bolt, but I'm not sure I have the time and patience to deal with the calls to both TiVO and Verizon support needed to resolve this issue.

Given that I didn't buy the Bolt for the four tuners, it may be expedient to just live with three tuners. The problem is that if I can't disable the defective tuner, I'm going to get missed recordings and live TV working sporadically on the TiVO mini.

Thoughts?

Thanks

Tim


----------



## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

stormguardian said:


> Is there any way to disable individual tuners on the Bolt?
> I've just purchased a Bolt and am getting a V53 error on just one tuner. The other three tuners work fine.
> My instinct is that it's a bad tuner on the Bolt, but I'm not sure I have the time and patience to deal with the calls to both TiVO and Verizon support needed to resolve this issue.
> Given that I didn't buy the Bolt for the four tuners, it may be expedient to just live with three tuners. The problem is that if I can't disable the defective tuner, I'm going to get missed recordings and live TV working sporadically on the TiVo mini.
> ...


First, verify your conclusion: restart the unit. That puts all tuners on the same channel. Then find TiVo Diagnostics (I think it's off Help). Scroll down the list and you can see the signal level and SNR of each tuner. They should be identical. If one is bad, it will show up there.

If you do have a bad tuner, I can't give you a 100% solution. I would get a new Bolt. But, depending on your recording habits, a tuner that is on a channel that is going to do a recording will use that tuner. In other words a recording does not cause a switch in tuners unless it has to. I have a unit that only records late night at this time. So I set one tuner to CBS, one to NBC and one to Comedy Central. The next morning no tuner has changed. A Mini is not predictable.

It's really probably better to suffer and call TiVo, which should be less painful when you can point to the tuner data from Diagnostics. My first Roamio arrived with two bad tuners. I learned a lot from that experience.


----------



## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I remember when there was an issue with certain cable cards a few years ago, that there was some way to disable a tuner. I don't remember how it was done, only that I remember reading about people needing to do it. 

At the time I was just able to make sure FiOS gave me a cable card with the newer firmware that had no issues.

I'm also not sure if this was actually for the Bolt or Roamio Pro. Since I can't remember what the specific issue was.


----------



## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I just found this post from 2014. It looks like it was with the six tuner Roamio line. No idea if it would work for the Bolt.



JoeKustra said:


> I have not tried this, but from the AVS Forum:
> Originally Posted by markrubin
> 
> I did the dance with Comcast Cablecard 'experts' and even got an exchange unit from Tivo
> ...


----------



## alfred01234 (Sep 12, 2013)

I had the same problem with a roamio. 
I turned it into a 3 tuner. 
TiVo didn't want to help me because I swapped out HD for bigger. 

I'll look into my notes and post the method I used to remove a tuner.


----------



## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

You could try setting up the bolt for over the air and see if you get the same error. If you don't get the error, then it's probably a cable card issue.


----------



## alfred01234 (Sep 12, 2013)

I tried that first.
Was going OTA but only 3 turners working.
Then tried comcast m-card same thing. I swapped out 3 m-cards with same results.


----------



## alfred01234 (Sep 12, 2013)

alfred01234 said:


> I had the same problem with a roamio.
> I turned it into a 3 tuner.
> TiVo didn't want to help me because I swapped out HD for bigger.
> 
> I'll look into my notes and post the method I used to remove a tuner.





alfred01234 said:


> I had the same problem with a roamio.
> I turned it into a 3 tuner.
> TiVo didn't want to help me because I swapped out HD for bigger.
> 
> I'll look into my notes and post the method I used to remove a tuner.


HERE IT IS>

_Go to Settings > Channels > Channel List_

_and enter one of the following number sequences using the number buttons on the remote. This will tell Roamio the how many tuners it can use._

_- 88633 = use 3 tuners_

_- 88634 = use 4 tuners_

_- 88635 = use 5 tuners_

_- 88636 = use 6 tuners_

_You should hear some "Thumbs Up" dings confirming the number of tuners Roamio will use._


----------



## m.s (Mar 8, 2007)

The problem is going to be which tuner is bad. I suspect limiting it to 3 tuners uses tuners 1-3. If it's tuner 1 which is bad, nothing you can do. I'd do the warranty thing.


----------



## Sparky1234 (May 8, 2006)

Send it back!


----------



## JCN (Feb 4, 2016)

JoeKustra said:


> First, verify your conclusion: restart the unit. That puts all tuners on the same channel. Then find TiVo Diagnostics (I think it's off Help). Scroll down the list and you can see the signal level and SNR of each tuner. They should be identical. If one is bad, it will show up there.
> 
> If you do have a bad tuner, I can't give you a 100% solution. I would get a new Bolt. But, depending on your recording habits, a tuner that is on a channel that is going to do a recording will use that tuner. In other words a recording does not cause a switch in tuners unless it has to. I have a unit that only records late night at this time. So I set one tuner to CBS, one to NBC and one to Comedy Central. The next morning no tuner has changed. A Mini is not predictable.
> 
> It's really probably better to suffer and call TiVo, which should be less painful when you can point to the tuner data from Diagnostics. My first Roamio arrived with two bad tuners. I learned a lot from that experience.


Would this also prove that the cable card is capable of 4 turners.


----------

