# Bolt - antenna - signal worse than Premier



## 321blueeyes (Dec 28, 2011)

Recently upgraded to Bolt (4 tuners, OTA compatible) from Premier (Series4, 2 tuners, OTA compatible). No cable. Antenna, splitter, and all coax remains the same.

On Premier, I received 100+ channels from my balcony-installed antenna (Clearstream 2V) after going thru a single splitter. Signal strength 60-85+ which displayed pretty well for everyday use.

On Bolt, I now receive only about 10-15 channels after the initial channel scan. Signal strength 32 (channels I manually added) or 50. Only the 50+ shows picture).

Have combed thru the threads without finding a definitive answer (as well as called Tivo support) to learn what type of amplifier (preamp) / alternate accessory I can install so that Bolt will equal/exceed the Premier performance I grew to love? Moving/upgrading antenna is a long shot (condo HOA restrictions make it very difficult).

Otherwise the Bolt will be returned for 30-day refund. Any amplifier recommendations? I'm a reasonably competent engineer but I don't have any signal analysis tools on hand (outside of the Tivo box analytics). Thanks in advance!


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## sfhub (Jan 6, 2007)

321blueeyes said:


> Otherwise the Bolt will be returned for 30-day refund. Any amplifier recommendations? I'm a reasonably competent engineer but I don't have any signal analysis tools on hand (outside of the Tivo box analytics). Thanks in advance!


Something else that you might want to look at

Did I get a bad Bolt+ - terrible signal strength and SNR


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

321blueeyes said:


> Recently upgraded to Bolt (4 tuners, OTA compatible) from Premier (Series4, 2 tuners, OTA compatible). No cable. Antenna, splitter, and all coax remains the same.
> 
> On Premier, I received 100+ channels from my balcony-installed antenna (Clearstream 2V) after going thru a single splitter. Signal strength 60-85+ which displayed pretty well for everyday use.
> 
> ...


I have a dual tuner Premiere and a Bolt (plus several other TiVos) all used for OTA. The Bolt and the Premiere a fed by the same antenna from the same COAX splitter and the Bolt has noticeably better reception than the Premiere. If your Bolt has noticeably worse reception my guess is something is wrong with the Bolt.

Take a good look at the post sfhub linked to.


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## mc2wheels (May 25, 2004)

I have the opposite experience. 

I have fios and when I changed from 2 premier xl4 to 2 bolt+ tivos, I saw my signal strength jump from 92% to 100%, and SNR from 35dB to 40dB.

It seems to me on my bolt+ tivos have more sensitive tuners. I just bought some attenuators because I don't want to have problems.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

mc2wheels said:


> I have the opposite experience.
> 
> I have fios and when I changed from 2 premier xl4 to 2 bolt+ tivos, I saw my signal strength jump from 92% to 100%, and SNR from 35dB to 40dB.
> 
> It seems to me on my bolt+ tivos have more sensitive tuners. I just bought some attenuators because I don't want to have problems.


The original poster is talking about OTA not cable.

For OTA "signal strength" numbers mean basically nothing when comparing device to device numbers as there is no industry standard way to measure and report OTA signal strength. As an example an OTA signal strength of 72 on the Bolt maybe shown as a signal strength in the high 90s on a Series 3 and some other number on various TVs. The only uses for OTA signal strength on a device is to compare the various channels reception to each other on that device and to maximize the reception of a channel via antenna adjustments.

However the issue with not receiving OTA channels with the Bolt that the Premiere receives indicates there likely is an issue with the Bolt.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

atmuscarella said:


> For OTA "signal strength" numbers mean basically nothing when comparing device to device numbers as there is no industry standard way to measure and report OTA signal strength.


I would rather say that TiVo doesn't have a tool to show signal strength in any standard way. Many years ago even radios would have sensitivity numbers, but those went away when the cost to determine them became higher than the consumer's need to know them.

But a measurement is still possible -> dBm - Wikipedia


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## Richard Truely (Oct 12, 2017)

The antenna amplifier that I use is the Channel Master Amplify adjustable gain amplifier. It's currently about $70 and you can read about it here:

Outdoor HDTV VHF/UHF Antenna Amplifier/Booster-Channel Master CM 7777HD (CM7777HD)

BTW I am in Sunnyvale and recently switched from a Premier to a Bolt. I found the receivers to be about the same; maybe the Bolt is a bit better but it is difficult to tell. In my setup I have the preamp set to the larger gain (+30dB) and using that I can pull in a lot of channels. The toughest major one for me is ABC in our local area (channel 7.1) which broadcasts with a pretty weak signal compared to CBS.


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## tenthplanet (Mar 5, 2004)

atmuscarella said:


> I have a dual tuner Premiere and a Bolt (plus several other TiVos) all used for OTA. The Bolt and the Premiere a fed by the same antenna from the same COAX splitter and the Bolt has noticeably better reception than the Premiere. If your Bolt has noticeably worse reception my guess is something is wrong with the Bolt.
> 
> Take a good look at the post sfhub linked to.


 I would agree I replaced a Premiere with a Bolt and reception is on par if not better then with a TIVO HD.


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## Rkkeller (May 13, 2004)

I have used this little booster before with pretty good results. I have a TiVo Bolt and Tablo and both get the exact same channels.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001FY0B90/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1


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