# A few questions for Bolt owners



## CaptainTiVO (Nov 3, 2001)

Hello all,

I am considering retiring my Tivo Hd (vintage 2009!) with a Bolt and a couple of Tivo Minis, but I thought I would avail myself of the experience here before I commit. So I have a few questions for those of you who have the Bolt and Tivo Mini combos.

1. I currently use a FireTV for Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc. Is the Bolt a good streaming platform? Good quality, search, etc? BTW, I don't see Hulu listed among the streaming apps. Is it not available?

2. How good is the "unified" search? Does it find everything on Netflix, Amazon, etc?

3. I assume that Bolt will be connected to my LAN (wired Gigabit Ethernet). I use that network to stream video from a NAS. Do you think it will "play" nicely? Any idea how much bandwidth the Tivo Minis need?

4. Is it possible to stream (from, e.g. Netflix) to two or more Tivo Minis at the same time?

5. I have Time Warner cable and must currently use a "tuning adapter" to cope with the switched video. Does Bolt have to have this, too?

6. General: are you satisfied with the Bolt? If not, why not?

Thanks for your help.


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

CaptainTiVO said:


> 4. Is it possible to stream (from, e.g. Netflix) to two or more Tivo Minis at the same time?


You can as long as you aren't going over the stream limit imposed by the streaming service. For example, I think Netflix limits you to 4 simultaneous streams, so you would only be able to stream Netflix on up to 4 Minis simultaneously, unless you want to pay for a second Netflix account to be able to do more than 4 simultaneous Netflix streams.



CaptainTiVO said:


> 5. I have Time Warner cable and must currently use a "tuning adapter" to cope with the switched video. Does Bolt have to have this, too?


Yes, a tuning adapter is required if you want to receive any of the channels that use SDV.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

CaptainTiVO said:


> Hello all,
> 
> I am considering retiring my Tivo Hd (vintage 2009!) with a Bolt and a couple of Tivo Minis, but I thought I would avail myself of the experience here before I commit. So I have a few questions for those of you who have the Bolt and Tivo Mini combos.


First I will say that TiVo caused somewhat of a mess with a recent software upgrade so there are significant issues at this moment. If you are going after the $700 with lifetime pricing not sure if I would wait never know when they will offer that again, however if you are just buying a Bolt at $300ish with the 1 year of service I might wait a bit to let them get the software issues fixed. I will comment on the questions I can.



CaptainTiVO said:


> 1. I currently use a FireTV for Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc. Is the Bolt a good streaming platform? Good quality, search, etc? BTW, I don't see Hulu listed among the streaming apps. Is it not available?


I have used Amazon, Vudu, & YouTube on a Bolt they all worked great. Hulu is coming but time frame is uncertain. Like I said above there are software issue right now if you bought today might not plan on using it for streaming until issues are fixed.



CaptainTiVO said:


> 2. How good is the "unified" search? Does it find everything on Netflix, Amazon, etc?


Info on streaming services seems to lag a little but generally the little I used search seamed to work ok



CaptainTiVO said:


> 3. I assume that Bolt will be connected to my LAN (wired Gigabit Ethernet). I use that network to stream video from a NAS. Do you think it will "play" nicely? Any idea how much bandwidth the Tivo Minis need?


Band width shouldn't be an issue at all, however Plex on the Bolt and streaming from Netgear NAS to the Bolt are having issues right now.



CaptainTiVO said:


> 4. Is it possible to stream (from, e.g. Netflix) to two or more Tivo Minis at the same time?


I believe so but can not confirm.



CaptainTiVO said:


> 5. I have Time Warner cable and must currently use a "tuning adapter" to cope with the switched video. Does Bolt have to have this, too?


Yes



CaptainTiVO said:


> 6. General: are you satisfied with the Bolt? If not, why not?
> 
> Thanks for your help.


I thought the Bolt was an excellent DVR. However be aware there are excellent deals on Roamio & Roamio Pro DVRs with lifetime that you should qualify for. With the current price of the Roamio Pro with lifetime at $600 (you have to call to get that deal) it is pretty hard to recommend the Bolt over that today.


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## HobokenSkier (Oct 14, 2015)

CaptainTiVO said:


> Hello all,
> 
> I am considering retiring my Tivo Hd (vintage 2009!) with a Bolt and a couple of Tivo Minis, but I thought I would avail myself of the experience here before I commit. So I have a few questions for those of you who have the Bolt and Tivo Mini combos.
> 
> ...


1. The Roamio is a good streamer but not as good as Roku. Light years ahead of premiere. Bolt will be better once all apps are there.

2. Great but a day late. 
I added a 'transparent' one pass / search and it immediately pulled season 1 and the season 2 teaser and e1 but when I did this the entire season had already been released on Amazon. 
Next day it was all there though.

3. Anything streaming is 4mbs at most for HD. A 100mbs network can handle many of them without breaking a sweat.

4. Yes. Constraint here may be your internet (not internal network) speed.

5 TA still required.


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## Kremlar (Jan 22, 2009)

I purchased a Bolt as soon as it was released, coming from a Windows Media Center setup. I had a TiVo previously, but back in the analog days.



> 1. I currently use a FireTV for Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc. Is the Bolt a good streaming platform? Good quality, search, etc? BTW, I don't see Hulu listed among the streaming apps. Is it not available?


It's good for Netflix, Amazon and YouTube. I don't stream much else. I believe Hulu is supported on the Mini but it hasn't been updated for the Bolt yet. From what I understand that is supposed to be happening soon, but who knows. I believe there are several other streaming apps rumored (WWE, HBO, etc..). Worked well until the last TiVo update.



> 2. How good is the "unified" search? Does it find everything on Netflix, Amazon, etc?


Works well for me.



> 3. I assume that Bolt will be connected to my LAN (wired Gigabit Ethernet). I use that network to stream video from a NAS. Do you think it will "play" nicely? Any idea how much bandwidth the Tivo Minis need?


I use Plex to stream ripped movies from a server on my LAN. Worked well until the last TiVo update.



> 4. Is it possible to stream (from, e.g. Netflix) to two or more Tivo Minis at the same time?


Yes, I think the only limit is your Netflix account. The Minis stream Netflix independently (not through the Bolt).



> 6. General: are you satisfied with the Bolt? If not, why not?


/rant on
I was, but this latest TiVo update broke Netflix and Plex for many users (see recent threads). They are "working on it", but the fact that this update ever saw the light of day makes me feel like their beta testing is sub-par.

TV should just work, and I thought TiVo would be a reliability improvement over Windows Media Center. If TiVo wants to obtain market share they need to be just as reliable as your cable provider's cable box. This update should have never been released - the issues should have been caught during beta test.

And if an update does slip through causing this many issues they should roll it back immediately - should be just as easy as pushing it out. The fact that they have not rolled it back, and don't even have a solid time frame for a fix, is very disappointing.
/rant off


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

I'll add that Tivo is probably the best Netflix streamer around since it plays it in native 1080p24. Most other streamers, including Fire, Roku, Apple, all do 1080p60 with 3:2 pulldown.

I find the Amazon app on Tivo to be pretty awkward, especially with trickplay. But I've never seen a good Amazon app on any platform. It's generally pretty terrible, a far cry from Netflix.

Hulu app isn't bad, but isn't working on Bolt platform yet, as others have said.

I still have to leave my Roku in service since Tivo doesn't have HBO Go or Showtime Anytime.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

With 4K the FireTv will send 2160P24 from Netflix just like the Bolt is supposed to be able to do. Supposed to though.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

mdavej said:


> I'll add that Tivo is probably the best Netflix streamer around since it plays it in native 1080p24. Most other streamers, including Fire, Roku, Apple, all do 1080p60 with 3:2 pulldown.
> 
> I find the Amazon app on Tivo to be pretty awkward, especially with trickplay. But I've never seen a good Amazon app on any platform. It's generally pretty terrible, a far cry from Netflix.
> 
> ...


I find Amazon works better than my Roku 3 or Blu-ray with 1080/p24 using my Roamio. Watching 1080/p60 is not as good.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Looks like Hulu is coming...

http://blog.tivo.com/2015/12/hulu-and-wwe-now-on-tivo-bolt/


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## GoodSpike (Dec 17, 2001)

mdavej said:


> I find the Amazon app on Tivo to be pretty awkward, especially with trickplay. But I've never seen a good Amazon app on any platform. It's generally pretty terrible, a far cry from Netflix.


I haven't found it that bad on the Bolt, but I'm not familiar with other setups, except for the reason I'm even responding.

I just set up a Sony BR player, and the video quality of the Amazon app on that device is nothing short of horrible. It would make SD look good. I haven't tried Netflix on that device yet because I'll probably only be using that device for BR disc playback. The video using the Bolt apps is very good, IMHO.


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## NoNose (Nov 27, 2015)

Dan203 said:


> Looks like Hulu is coming...
> 
> http://blog.tivo.com/2015/12/hulu-and-wwe-now-on-tivo-bolt/


No HULU option on my Bolt. Is this a new announcement? It's curious that no effective date is associated with the information. Also, why is Tivo referring to the old name for Hulu. It has been quite some time since Hulu was called Hulu Plus.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

GoodSpike said:


> I haven't found it that bad on the Bolt, but I'm not familiar with other setups, except for the reason I'm even responding.
> 
> I just set up a Sony BR player, and the video quality of the Amazon app on that device is nothing short of horrible. It would make SD look good. I haven't tried Netflix on that device yet because I'll probably only be using that device for BR disc playback. The video using the Bolt apps is very good, IMHO.


Sony players need about 90 seconds to get running. They start out like crap. My S6200/S6500 will do 1080/p24, but not for 90 seconds.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

NoNose said:


> No HULU option on my Bolt. Is this a new announcement? It's curious that no effective date is associated with the information. Also, why is Tivo referring to the old name for Hulu. It has been quite some time since Hulu was called Hulu Plus.


The blog post is dated today and says the apps will be released "this week", so we should see them pop up in the few days.


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## NoNose (Nov 27, 2015)

Dan203 said:


> The blog post is dated today and says the apps will be released "this week", so we should see them pop up in the few days.


It seems that the Tivo servers are having trouble right now. Too many user restarts, in search of the required Hulu app for Bolt? Tivo support says that the app is available NOW! A restart IS REQUIRED.

This topic needs it's own thread.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)




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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Thanks. I just rebooted and am able to launch the Hulu app.

Although I see the Bolt is scaling it up to 3840x2160 even though I have resolutions 720P and higher checked.


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## Jeff_DML (Mar 3, 2009)

HobokenSkier said:


> ...
> 3. Anything streaming is 4mbs at most for HD. A 100mbs network can handle many of them without breaking a sweat.
> 
> ...


That is correct for streaming, i.e. transcoding, but Minis use the raw cable recording from the Bolt so they can be probably up to ~16Mbps for HD.


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