# New Bolt - downgrade to HD interface?



## rcliff (Jun 16, 2001)

I received a new Bolt and immediately upgraded the hard drive. After power on and running guided setup I see it's already on the new Hydra interface. Is there any way to downgrade to the old HD interface? Thanks


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

See 
How to Rollback Hydra from Roamio and Mini's v1


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## rcliff (Jun 16, 2001)

Tony_T said:


> See
> How to Rollback Hydra from Roamio and Mini's v1


Thanks. I browsed through that thread and it seems there are a few differences when it comes to Bolt. Here's what worked for me...

1) Go into Menu > Help > Reset to Defaults > Repeat Guided Setup > Select
2) Press Thumbs Down 2 times (NOT 3), then press Rewind 2 times (double left arrow)
3) Follow prompts on screen to downgrade


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## Tony_T (Nov 2, 2017)

rcliff said:


> Thanks. I browsed through that thread and *it seems there are a few differences when it comes to Bolt*. Here's what worked for me...
> 
> 1) Go into Menu > Help > Reset to Defaults > Repeat Guided Setup > Select
> 2) Press Thumbs Down 2 times (NOT 3), then press Rewind 2 times (double left arrow)
> 3) Follow prompts on screen to downgrade


I rolled-back on a Bolt and following the instructions (for Roamio) worked for my Bolt.
(I subsequently re-installed Hydra (with a VOX Remote, just press the Mic Key).

These instructions in the 1st post worked for me:

KEEP IN MIND YOU WILL LOSE EVERYTHING!!!
For the Roamio:
1.) Go into Menu- Help- Reset to Defaults- Repeat Guided Setup- Select
2.) Press Thumbs Down 2 times (NOT 3!), now press Rewind 2 times, Now press Select (not Enter)
3.) Roamio will immediately go to that right arrow screen, then screen blank, then you'll get a message letting you know that the rollback process has begun


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## Joseph Morton (Feb 22, 2019)

I have a TiVo Bolt and tried out the 'TiVo Experience' - it was horrible! It changed my channel guide into virtually the same crappy limited channel guide my cable company has. For me, TiVo's old outstanding guide is really the only reason to even have a TiVo, so getting back to that was very important to me. I followed the easy instructions mentioned above and got my sweet old TiVo channel guide back. I lost all of my recorded shows and season passes but it was worth it as my TiVo was useless anyway with that crappy new channel guide.
1) Go into Menu > Help > Reset to Defaults > Repeat Guided Setup > Select
2) Press Thumbs Down 2 times (NOT 3), then press Rewind 2 times (double left arrow)
3) Follow prompts on screen to downgrade


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## cyxodus (Feb 23, 2019)

I'm new to Tivo (but I did use a Roamio a few times) and I like the new Hydra UI. The old UI felt so 90s to me.


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## Joseph Morton (Feb 22, 2019)

cyxodus said:


> I'm new to Tivo (but I did use a Roamio a few times) and I like the new Hydra UI. The old UI felt so 90s to me.


Obviously, to each his own. While I agree that the Hydra UI looks pretty and works well for cable TV users who just need to know what's on right now - functionally, it is crap for DVR purposes. With the Hydra UI, you only get to see a few hours of programming per channel at a time (usually just two shows - basically what's on right now and what's coming up next) - unless you want to endlessly scroll / click right a mere couple of shows at a time. This is fine if you have time to waste or are watching cable TV and only need to see what's on right now or coming up next. However, if you have a TiVo (or other DVR) and want to quickly see what you may want to record to watch later, the old UI is the way to go. It lets you see up to 8 hours of show programming per channel at a glance so you can quickly pick shows to record and watch later. This is the big problem with services like cable TV, Prime, Netfilx and Hulu, unless you know what you want to watch (and for cable TV, when it comes on), you could end up wasting an hour or more aimlessly searching thru their crap menu of shows looking for something to watch. Whoever figures out how to better present show options so you can quickly and easily pick something to watch right now - will make a giant pile of money ('favoriting' interesting shows on streaming services for a later look is the only work around I have found but that is still awkward and time consuming). Until then, I have found the best option is to use a TiVo with the old UI (and to a lesser degree the season pass function), see whats coming up in the next 8 hours (or more) and record it for later. That way, when you want to just sit down and just immediately watch something on TV, you will have your hand picked recorded shows in TiVo's My Shows ready to roll at your convenience and you don't have to aimlessly scroll thru a ton of crap shows or 'get lucky' with the timing of shows on cable TV.


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## Austin Bike (Feb 9, 2003)

I hate the interface and was going to downgrade my bolt to v3, but if I do this, will the Netflix button still work? My wife hates the hydra UI but would kill me if that button no longer worked.


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## TheTivoPenguin (Oct 12, 2002)

Austin Bike said:


> I hate the interface and was going to downgrade my bolt to v3, but if I do this, will the Netflix button still work? My wife hates the hydra UI but would kill me if that button no longer worked.


I just downgraded my new (refurb'd) Bolt from TE4 to TE3 and the Netflix button does still indeed work! Have at it.

Remember that you lose all programs on the Tivo when downgrading, make sure you save what you need. Good luck!


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## bobfrank (Mar 17, 2005)

rcliff said:


> I received a new Bolt and immediately upgraded the hard drive. After power on and running guided setup I see it's already on the new Hydra interface. *Is there any way to downgrade to the old HD interface?* Thanks


A lot of us don't consider that a downgrade. Hydra's the downgrade.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

I've been trying to think of the right word to use--"backgrade"? Or "sidegrade"?


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## DCM87 (Jun 23, 2021)

It turns out the old TiVo UI on my Bolt 6 tuner 3TB is still the best in the business. I use season passes, Wishlists and the wonderful channel guide which you can see 4 days worth of shows for 8 channels in about 45 seconds and about 14 days of 30 channels in about 3 minutes. I had the horrible experience of using Comcast's channel guide where it will take an afternoon to do what I just stated simply because you continually have to go back to the main menu about 24 times to see the 10 days of shows I just mentioned. Some channels advertise shows sometimes about 21 days ahead while the Tivo guide only shows about 14. You put the title of the show in a Wishlist for new/reruns and it will record the new shows even when the 2nd, 3rd & 4th season comes on without thinking when it ever comes on again. TiVo has the most intuitive channel guide/season pass/wishlists in the industry. Some channel will try to fool you into believing a show that was first aired 4 years ago is a brand new show until you see the 1st aired date on the wonderful info screen of the show. That's where using the new/reruns in the season pass/wishlists are extremely useful. After 4-5 years with my memory the show aired in 2016 may as well be a new show in 2021, using the recording reruns in your season pass/wishlist features will record those channels trying to make you believe those shows from 2015 are actually new shows. If you have a great memory, then just set it to new only and it will not record those shows from 2015. I love my TiVo that's why I started using the first DirecTV TiVo Series 1 in late 2000. It had 1 tuner, SD only, so the 35GB HD never hit the limit in space, because an hour show took up 250MB. Buying the Lifetime Service is the only way to go. U pay it off from the monthly price in about 3+ years, but you keep it for 5 years until you buy the next. Anyone remember in about 2007 they eliminated the Lifetime option until they realized it was bad for business and in about 2011 with the TiVo HD model brought it back. I loved the $99 Lifetime Transfer special they started in 2017. Oh how wonderful that was. Got a 3TB Bolt for about $500-600 including the LT Service. I'm still using that and Weaknees will fix it if it ever breaks.


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