# Questions about Mini



## buscuitboy (Aug 8, 2005)

I am looking at possibly getting a mini for my setup. It would be connected to a 4-tuner Premiere that is currently in our bedroom. I would move this Premiere to another location and then put the Mini in the bedroom. All of my TiVos are hard wired via Ethernet connections.

Three questions about the mini:



Does it now have Netflix on it ( I thought I remember reading here is does, but don't see it mentioned anywhere on the TiVO website)
Judging from some posts here, I am pretty sure dynamic tuning has been fully implemented, correct?
Does the Mini still have a 'timeout' feature? I think I read a post that says its at 90mins. Can this possibly be changed and/or removed?
If possible, is there also an option to 'lock' a tuner from the Premiere? I have other Premieres in my setup so totally dedicating a tuner is a viable option in order to maybe avoid the timeout issue.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

buscuitboy said:


> I am looking at possibly getting a mini for my setup. It would be connected to a 4-tuner Premiere that is currently in our bedroom. I would move this Premiere to another location and then put the Mini in the bedroom. All of my TiVos are hard wired via Ethernet connections.
> 
> Three questions about the mini:
> 
> ...


Netflix *yes*
Dynamic tuning* Yes
* 'timeout' feature* Yes *but now it is 4 hours and still can't be changed
'lock' a tuner from the Premiere to the Mini as before Dynamic tuning, answer:* no* as that setting is no longer on the Roamio.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

In normal viewing the timeout issue shouldn't be a problem. Since in normal viewing usually a button is pressed more often than four hours intervals.


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## buscuitboy (Aug 8, 2005)

aaronwt said:


> In normal viewing the timeout issue shouldn't be a problem. Since in normal viewing usually a button is pressed more often than four hours intervals.


Does pressing the "info" button count toward the 4hr timer (& reset it) or is it more for channel changing.

If the Mini has been sitting inactive overnight and then I turn it on in the morning, how quickly does it "wake up" and take back a tuner from the Premiere. Is it pretty seemless? Or does it take a certain amount of time to get the tuner active on the Mini again. Maybe 5, 10, 20 secs, etc.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

buscuitboy said:


> Does pressing the "info" button count toward the 4hr timer (& reset it) or is it more for channel changing.
> 
> If the Mini has been sitting inactive overnight and then I turn it on in the morning, how quickly does it "wake up" and take back a tuner from the Premiere. Is it pretty seemless? Or does it take a certain amount of time to get the tuner active on the Mini again. Maybe 5, 10, 20 secs, etc.


You have to hit the "Live TV" button or select it on the main screen. I've seen it take anywhere from a split second to a few seconds to show the channel. Never as long as five seconds though.

I think a button press counts toward the 4 hours. I've never timed it but that is what it seems like. Since I can have it on for a couple of hours and have used the remote and when I'm in the other room I'll still see the tuner in use several hours later.


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## buscuitboy (Aug 8, 2005)

OK, one other thing I just thought of and wonder about the mini. While watching my 4-tuner Premiere last night, I remembered that I can switch between all 4 tuners and EACH tuner has its own 30min live buffer constantly going (unless its recording something). 

I sometimes like shuffling through the live tuners and be able to rewind if needed. Its good mainly for live sports programming. I am now thinking the mini can't really do this, right? It basically just gives you access to one tuner and that is it, correct? Not a deal killer, but just wondering.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

buscuitboy said:


> OK, one other thing I just thought of and wonder about the mini. While watching my 4-tuner Premiere last night, I remembered that I can switch between all 4 tuners and EACH tuner has its own 30min live buffer constantly going (unless its recording something).
> 
> I sometimes like shuffling through the live tuners and be able to rewind if needed. Its good mainly for live sports programming. I am now thinking the mini can't really do this, right? It basically just gives you access to one tuner and that is it, correct? Not a deal killer, but just wondering.


That's correct. The Mini only has access to one tuner.


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## buscuitboy (Aug 8, 2005)

I was able to download the mini startup PDF guide and look at what the back of the unit looks like. It looks like there is a USB port. What is this USB port exactly used for? Can the user use it to view files? If so, can it be audio, video and photos? If video, are the formats limited or can it play lots of common types (AVI, MKV, MP4, etc.)? Or is this really more for possible firmware/feature upgrade in the future.

Also, I might initially connect it to an HDTV, but may move it to a room with an older SDTV. I see the component and AV jacks on the back of it. Do these cables come with the mini too or is this something I need to buy on my own?


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

A mini is essentially the guts of a tivo without a drive. The USBs are therefore no more functional than on a tivo. Mostly, it is used for a slide/slide II.


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## markfheil (Mar 22, 2006)

So, with dynamic tuning in place, what happens when you are watching the Mini and my Premier has 4 shows scheduled to record? Do you get the standard one minute warning on the Mini before the tuner is taken over by the Premier? Also, I assume that if the Premier is recording 4 shows and you hit live TV on the Mini you get the same message that you would if you hit Live TV on the Premier?


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## buscuitboy (Aug 8, 2005)

markfheil said:


> So, with dynamic tuning in place, what happens when you are watching the Mini and my Premier has 4 shows scheduled to record? Do you get the standard one minute warning on the Mini before the tuner is taken over by the Premier? Also, I assume that if the Premier is recording 4 shows and you hit live TV on the Mini you get the same message that you would if you hit Live TV on the Premier?


I am curious about this too. On the other end; now that there is dynamic tuning, I am assuming you can have 4 TiVo minis running off a 4-tuner premiere with TOTAL independence, correct?

Provided there are no recording conflicts, 4 people can essentially watch 4 connected minis at one time, right? Or is it 3 (and one for the host unit)?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

buscuitboy said:


> I am curious about this too. On the other end; now that there is dynamic tuning, I am assuming you can have 4 TiVo minis running off a 4-tuner premiere with TOTAL independence, correct?
> 
> Provided there are no recording conflicts, 4 people can essentially watch 4 connected minis at one time, right? Or is it 3 (and one for the host unit)?


It should be like the Roamio which reserves one tuner for the host.


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

If the DVR needs a tuner to recording something, a message similar to a recording conflict pops up on the Mini. You can either cancel the recording and keep watching live TV, or the default (do nothing) option is that the tuner will be reclaimed by the DVR.

I believe the 4-tuner DVRs can have up to 3 Minis streaming live TV simultaneously, and one's kept for the host. I'm not positive about that.


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## wrp (Jan 26, 2005)

How fast is changing live TV channels with a Mini connected to a Roamio? I've seen a video where it took about 5 seconds to change channels. My Roamio and my Tivo-HD take about 2 seconds at most. (Yes I know, Tivos are made for Guide Surfing, and yes I know that Comcast and Fios boxes take about 4 to 6 seconds to change channels. But I want to know if a Mini will be much slower or about the same as a Roamio.) Thanks.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

wrp said:


> How fast is changing live TV channels with a Mini connected to a Roamio? I've seen a video where it took about 5 seconds to change channels. My Roamio and my Tivo-HD take about 2 seconds at most. (Yes I know, Tivos are made for Guide Surfing, and yes I know that Comcast and Fios boxes take about 4 to 6 seconds to change channels. But I want to know if a Mini will be much slower or about the same as a Roamio.) Thanks.


Mine is between a split second to under a second. But this is also with one fixed output resolution. With the split second between channels with the same resolution, and under a second between channels with different resolutions.

Running through my XBOne will add close to half a second to the channel changes.


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

wrp said:


> How fast is changing live TV channels with a Mini connected to a Roamio? I've seen a video where it took about 5 seconds to change channels. My Roamio and my Tivo-HD take about 2 seconds at most. (Yes I know, Tivos are made for Guide Surfing, and yes I know that Comcast and Fios boxes take about 4 to 6 seconds to change channels. But I want to know if a Mini will be much slower or about the same as a Roamio.) Thanks.


I haven't timed it but my experience is that it's slower than DVR channel changing. Perhaps an extra second or two. 5 seconds probably isn't too far off my results when channel surfing. But oddly enough, pressing channel numbers and using the guide to change channels seems to be slightly faster than doing up/down channel surfing.


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## wrp (Jan 26, 2005)

I was hoping that someone with a Mini connected to a Roamio could just press the channel up or down button, and then count 1-Mississippi, 2-Mississippi, etc. (I'm considering using my coupon to buy a Mini for $25 and then $150 for lifetime, but searches for channel surf times vary widely, up to 5 Mississippis, which would not be good.)


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

wrp said:


> I was hoping that someone with a Mini connected to a Roamio could just press the channel up or down button, and then count 1-Mississippi, 2-Mississippi, etc. (I'm considering using my coupon to buy a Mini for $25 and then $150 for lifetime, but searches for channel surf times vary widely, up to 5 Mississippis, which would not be good.)


Yes on my Mini I have it set for a fixed output resolution. I think it's 1080i. If I switch between two channels with the same resolution(like 1080i to 1080i), it takes a split second for the next channel to pop up. If I switch to a channel with a different resolution(like 1080i to 720P) then it takes over half a second but easily under a second for the channel to pop up.

Of course these times can change with different setups depending on the TV and/or receiver the signal is going through. My times are from a 2013 LG LCD TV with the signal going through a Sony 2.1 speaker bar before going to the TV. I guess I should time my other Mini which is connected directly to a 2007/2008 DLP set.


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## astrohip (Jan 7, 2003)

wrp said:


> I was hoping that someone with a Mini connected to a Roamio could just press the channel up or down button, and then count 1-Mississippi, 2-Mississippi, etc. (I'm considering using my coupon to buy a Mini for $25 and then $150 for lifetime, but searches for channel surf times vary widely, up to 5 Mississippis, which would not be good.)


Ok, just did it. Barely got to 2-Miss as it changed.

Mini feeding off an Elite.


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## eboydog (Mar 24, 2006)

The mini only works with the 4 tuner TiVo's, correct? 

I currently have just a basic 2 tuner Premier and a HD but in talking to TiVo they are offering me a new Roamio to replace my HD and I'm trying to see the justification. The networking requirements isn't a issue as I have Moca and ethernet to my all my TiVo's. If I take their offer I"m thinking I could add a couple mini's down the road but as I understand the minimum requirement is to have at least on 4 tuner Premier or Roamio, right?


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

Correct, any 4+ tuner Tivo is needed.


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