# Bolt and OTA reception



## Spharticus (Nov 26, 2002)

I have a series 3 HD that is having OTA pixelation issues. Sometimes it's signal related, sometimes it seems that my upgraded hard drives are finally giving up after 8 long years of faithful service (one internal one external).

Does anyone notice, or have any perception that the OTA tuners in the Bolt are somehow "better" (I know thats relative) than past models?

TIA
SPHARTICUS


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

The power supply may be a factor. Its also not recommended to have an external drive because when either drive fails, all recordings since its connection will be lost.


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## Spharticus (Nov 26, 2002)

Yeah- that makes sense as well. I got a Bolt 500 from Tivo, I called and their customer service gave me the 500 for $249 with the free year. If it works for me then i'll upgrade the internal to a 2.5 2TB drive and stop using the external.


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## mjh (Dec 19, 2002)

I'm curious what your experience is going from the S3 OTA tuners to Bolt OTA tuners. When I went from the S3 HDXL to a Roamio I found the tuners in the roamio to be less capable of picking up all the networks that my S3 HDXL could pickup. I lost a few stations, and one station on a very close tower started getting frequent pixelation.

So I'm very curious what your experience will be going from the S3 HD to a Bolt.


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## Spharticus (Nov 26, 2002)

I have had it for a few days. Put the 2TB drive in today and it was very smooth. 

So far I'm not seeing any issues. I have a lot of tall trees and time will tell when they leaf and wind picks up. But for now it picked up everything the S3 did and I don't see a difference in tuner performance. 

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk


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## TeamPace (Oct 23, 2013)

I set up a BOLT a week ago and connected it to the same long range outdoor antenna that I have used with my Roamio base model. I have stations at about 10 miles and others at 53 miles. The BOLT couldn't fully lock any of the further stations. Tried an amp and that didn't help. The signal meter also indicated much lower numbers for the BOLT. Over the years I have tried an HD unit, Premier model, Roamio base, and now a BOLT on the same antenna and have found the HD & Roamio give the best tuning in my situation.


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## henry the eighth (Feb 6, 2016)

I bought a Bolt and then a new Sony 4K TV. I have tried 4 different antennas, all of which work fine on my Series 3 TIVO. Not so with the Bolt. Out of 17 possible channels it gets 6. I've been on the phone with TIVO twice, and have chatted with a rep online. This is what a supervisor finally admitted to me: the Bolt has new software that doesn't pick up channels as well as older machines and there is nothing they can do about it. So, unless I get cable, I have a $300 bookend. I am seriously unhappy with TIVO right now. Another TIVO user told me they have started selling their stuff to cable companies so they don't need to consider antenna users. I REALLY don't want to get cable, but after the base cost and only one year free--and a ridiculously high price for lifetime--what else can I do?


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

henry the eighth said:


> I bought a Bolt and then a new Sony 4K TV. I have tried 4 different antennas, all of which work fine on my Series 3 TIVO. Not so with the Bolt. Out of 17 possible channels it gets 6. I've been on the phone with TIVO twice, and have chatted with a rep online. This is what a supervisor finally admitted to me: the Bolt has new software that doesn't pick up channels as well as older machines and there is nothing they can do about it. So, unless I get cable, I have a $300 bookend. I am seriously unhappy with TIVO right now. Another TIVO user told me they have started selling their stuff to cable companies so they don't need to consider antenna users. I REALLY don't want to get cable, but after the base cost and only one year free--and a ridiculously high price for lifetime--what else can I do?


As you can tell from the posts in this thread some people are having issue with OTA reception (same complaint about the Roamio OTA over in the Roamio Forum).

My experience is different. Over time I have used used 10 devices with digital OTA tuners on my current antenna setup. 2 of the original Convert boxes, My Panasonic TV, a Silicon Dust HD HomeRun, a Series 3, a TiVo HD, A Premiere, a base Roamio, and 2 different Bolts.

The old converter boxes, the Silicon Dust HD HomeRun, & my Premiere had noticeably poorer reception than the other units. The was/is no real difference in usable reception between the Panasonic TV, Series 3, TiVo HD, Roamio, & the 2 Bolts. There are times I have good reception on all available channels and there are times that I loose some channels completely. I have done lots of testing and my current Bolt is as good as anything else that I have.

My current setup is a large deep fringe roof mounted antenna with a pre-amp going to a 4 way splitter. Which means of course I have never used more than 4 of the above 10 devices at the same time, currently I have my TV, Premiere, Roamio, & Bolt connected.


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## TakebackTV (Feb 21, 2016)

atmuscarella said:


> As you can tell from the posts in this thread some people are having issue with OTA reception (same complaint about the Roamio OTA over in the Roamio Forum).
> 
> My experience is different. Over time I have used used 10 devices with digital OTA tuners on my current antenna setup. 2 of the original Convert boxes, My Panasonic TV, a Silicon Dust HD HomeRun, a Series 3, a TiVo HD, A Premiere, a base Roamio, and 2 different Bolts.
> 
> ...


When you compare your signal plugged into your TV, in contrast to your Bolt, how many stations do you get?

Have you ever considered getting a TV signal strength meter to ensure that you are getting a consistent signal?

I assume your antenna is outside, and not in your attic, because this can be a killer.

Next, I assume you are buying the correct antenna (UHF/VHF, distance) for your location.
http://antennaweb.org/

Also, I assume you are pointing your antenna in the correct direction.
http://www.tvfool.com/
http://www.antennapoint.com/

How many times are you splitting your signal, and if so, do you have an amplifier on your signal?

Finally, is your antenna grounded, because it not, then this could be causing a lot of the interference. Some boxes are better at this than others.

After all that, then it is indeed the box itself that makes the difference. The Bolt should get all strong and medium signaled stations without problem.

This stuff isn't too difficult, but a simple step overlooked can cause havoc on the quality of the stations, and strength of their signal. You should only need to set this all up once, but making sure you do it right the first time, will save you countless hours of frustration down the road. 

Good luck!


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