# Just Ordered a Bolt Vox to replace my defunct Roamio +



## Ralph P. (Dec 17, 2004)

Greetings,

My Roamio bit the dust so I ordered a Bolt Vox. I use Spectrum Cable with a Tuning Adapter. Can any one with a similar setup offer any insights as what I can expect? It arrives tomorrow and I am trying to get ahead of any stumbling blocks.

Thanks in Advance.


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## XIBM (Mar 9, 2013)

TA Cisco or Mo?


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## moveandstore (Oct 17, 2015)

I'm about to get a tuning adapter for my Bolt tomorrow. I had one before, but it did not work. (probably was either not activated properly, or wasn't properly set up) I think that mine was a Cisco, since my cable card is a Cisco/SA. (I have Optimum since I live in NJ) I did not have a knowledgable person to help with the install, (had problems installing the cable card also). Anyway, make sure that you get someone on the phone who knows what they are doing. I had to escalate my situation by filing a complaint with the FCC. Three days later, someone who knew what they was doing. And some of my SD channels got moved over to SDV, that is why I need the TA. Once I get the box (which will be a two hour stand in line in the rain, since they only have a storefront office, and with social distancing, they will only take two customers in the store at a time), they will call me and help with the install, since that has to be activated as well.


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## Ralph P. (Dec 17, 2004)

Greetings,



XIBM said:


> TA Cisco or Mo?


Cisco



moveandstore said:


> I'm about to get a tuning adapter for my Bolt tomorrow. I had one before, but it did not work. (probably was either not activated properly, or wasn't properly set up) I think that mine was a Cisco, since my cable card is a Cisco/SA. (I have Optimum since I live in NJ) I did not have a knowledgable person to help with the install, (had problems installing the cable card also). Anyway, make sure that you get someone on the phone who knows what they are doing. I had to escalate my situation by filing a complaint with the FCC. Three days later, someone who knew what they was doing. And some of my SD channels got moved over to SDV, that is why I need the TA. Once I get the box (which will be a two hour stand in line in the rain, since they only have a storefront office, and with social distancing, they will only take two customers in the store at a time), they will call me and help with the install, since that has to be activated as well.


I am set up. I already had the TA and CableCard and really just needed to have it paired with the new Bolt. After some shuffling I did get someone that was able to take care of it. I wouldn't say that she was fully versed in it but, knew enough to get the Card paired to the Bolt on my account. Probably 40 minutes or so on the phone. She was pleasant and patient.

I replaced one of my two Minis with a Mini Vox and upgraded the other Mini to TE4. That all went off smoothly.

Thanks!


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

Ralph P. said:


> Greetings,
> 
> My Roamio bit the dust so I ordered a Bolt Vox. I use Spectrum Cable with a Tuning Adapter. Can any one with a similar setup offer any insights as what I can expect? It arrives tomorrow and I am trying to get ahead of any stumbling blocks.
> 
> Thanks in Advance.


Can I ask you a few questions? We have a Roamio Plus we've had since 2013. About a year ago we got a Vizio 4K Smart TV and we usually watch 4K content off our 4K Roku Ultra. I have been wanting a Bolt just cause it's 4K and the voice remote seemed cool. And I would rather watch stiff all through the Tivo using that remote but anyway we ordered the Bolt yesterday due to a good deal going on. We got $100 off plus life time for $249 it was $300 off. We got the same 6 tuner 1 TB in the Bolt. Tivo said we just take cable card out of the Roamio and stick it in the Bolt and we should be good to go if not we need to call Spectrum. We also were sent the tuning adapter thing and have to use it. We also have 2 Tivo Mini's but was told they can be updated in software to work with the Bolt. People are talking about Tivo Experience 4 did we already have that on our Roamio? Do you like the Bolt I know you only upgraded cause yours bit the dust but ours still works fine. We only did it cause we got ours for $199 and we have a 4K TV plus we were paying 14.99 for monthly now it's 9.99 or $300 off lifetime which we did and paid $249. I just hope we like it and it was worth it to upgrade.

I do want an extra remote though so we each have our own and Amazon has it for $27 I kind of like the lux light up one but it's like $50. But anyway I would like to also know what to expect since we also have Spectrum with Tuning Adapter. Did Spectrum have to repair your card or did it just work when you stuck it in? And do you use the Voice feature much how is it? Does it work well?


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Your card may work for 24 hours or so, then all your channels will slowly disappear if you don't call Spectrum to pair with the new Bolt. The tuning adapter will work the same way it did with your Roamio, assuming you connect it to the Bolt.

Did your Roamio have Experience 4? Only you and Tivo would be able to answer that.

I can't answer the voice question. I've never intentionally used it. Much easier for me to press a button.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

mdavej said:


> Your card may work for 24 hours or so, then all your channels will slowly disappear if you don't call Spectrum to pair with the new Bolt. The tuning adapter will work the same way it did with your Roamio, assuming you connect it to the Bolt.
> 
> Did your Roamio have Experience 4? Only you and Tivo would be able to answer that.
> 
> I can't answer the voice question. I've never intentionally used it. Much easier for me to press a button.


Thanks! So I will call Spectrum then to pair. Tivo said it would just work in the new box. I am not sure about Experience 4 because I remember so many people saying they didn't like it and many weren't going to upgrade but that was way back. And I am wanting to say ours may have updated and we have it and didn't notice much difference. I tried to go under settings I saw something that said Series 4 I think but wasn't sure if that was Experience or not. But do you like the Bolt? Yeah my husband said he won't use Voice I just want to try it. I have Alexa set up not just for when I want to pause sometimes I usually forget and it's easier to use the remote when it's right next to me.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

I don't have a Bolt. But I did have Experience 4, Spectrum and cable card for years. The Bolt will work exactly the same as your Roamio except a tad faster at launching apps. Experience 4 is a hotly debated topic. I personally have no problem with it. Works pretty much the same as the old version minus a few features I never used to begin with.

I have purposely not gotten a Bolt due to the expense, the overheating issues, the difficulty upgrading the hard drive and the weird shape not fitting in my AV rack. Not to mention the fact that my Roamios still work fine. I hate to replace perfectly good devices when I'm not getting any new features.

The find voice useful only for searches, as it saves a lot of typing. I do voice searches on my Fire Sticks as well. Otherwise, I don't have any other such devices in my house. I did set up my mom's Alexa to dial 911 or whatever other number she yells if she has an accident. So that's pretty useful for her.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

mdavej said:


> I don't have a Bolt. But I did have Experience 4, Spectrum and cable card for years. The Bolt will work exactly the same as your Roamio except a tad faster at launching apps. Experience 4 is a hotly debated topic. I personally have no problem with it. Works pretty much the same as the old version minus a few features I never used to begin with.
> 
> I have purposely not gotten a Bolt due to the expense, the overheating issues, the difficulty upgrading the hard drive and the weird shape not fitting in my AV rack. Not to mention the fact that my Roamios still work fine. I hate to replace perfectly good devices when I'm not getting any new features.
> 
> The find voice useful only for searches, as it saves a lot of typing. I do voice searches on my Fire Sticks as well. Otherwise, I don't have any other such devices in my house. I did set up my mom's Alexa to dial 911 or whatever other number she yells if she has an accident. So that's pretty useful for her.


Thanks! Our Roamio is fine too have had it since 2013 but we now have a 4K TV and I just wanted the Bolt for Prime and Netflix even though he used the 4K Roku Ultra and some say it's still better to watch through Roku but this will be easier for me. But the bolt was a $100 off now and either $5 off the monthly or $300 off the lifetime which we did so that is why we got it. And we're hoping to sell our Roamio. I asked my husband if it was goin to fit in our TV stand and he said yes I hope so. I'm gonna watch more you tube videos I watched one yesterday talking about TE4. So you had TE4 are you back to using TE3? And we have 2 mini's which we were told would have to have the updated software so we will have TE4 on the mini's too cause those aren't 4K TV's but if we had an extra remote we could do voice on that or is it only if you have a Vox Mini? Anyway thanks we should get our Bolt this weekend I hope we like it!


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Rose4uKY said:


> Thanks! Our Roamio is fine too have had it since 2013 but we now have a 4K TV and I just wanted the Bolt for Prime and Netflix even though he used the 4K Roku Ultra and some say it's still better to watch through Roku but this will be easier for me. But the bolt was a $100 off now and either $5 off the monthly or $300 off the lifetime which we did so that is why we got it. And we're hoping to sell our Roamio. I asked my husband if it was goin to fit in our TV stand and he said yes I hope so. I'm gonna watch more you tube videos I watched one yesterday talking about TE4. So you had TE4 are you back to using TE3? And we have 2 mini's which we were told would have to have the updated software so we will have TE4 on the mini's too cause those aren't 4K TV's but if we had an extra remote we could do voice on that or is it only if you have a Vox Mini? Anyway thanks we should get our Bolt this weekend I hope we like it!


I'm still happily on TE4. The main complaints about TE3 are the lack of the vertical listing of programs coming up on a single channel ("Live Guide"), general dislike of thumbnails rather than text titles and the difficulty in transferring files to a computer.

Yes, all your Minis need to be updated to TE4 to work with a Bolt running TE4. A new Vox remote should add voice to an old Mini as the Vox part is actually in the remote itself.

I'm sure you'll like the Bolt just fine.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

mdavej said:


> I'm still happily on TE4. The main complaints about TE3 are the lack of the vertical listing of programs coming up on a single channel ("Live Guide"), general dislike of thumbnails rather than text titles and the difficulty in transferring files to a computer.
> 
> Yes, all your Minis need to be updated to TE4 to work with a Bolt running TE4. A new Vox remote should add voice to an old Mini as the Vox part is actually in the remote itself.
> 
> I'm sure you'll like the Bolt just fine.


Thanks! I've had every Tivo since the beginning and I know we'll like it. I'm glad we didn't have to upgrade our 2 minis. We have one in our bedroom and I have another in my other bedroom/computer room where I sit every morning with my coffee and watch TV and hang on the computer. I told my husband he could have the light up remote but now I want one too. And then I could use the regular Vox remote that came with the bolt here in my office. I'd like to update our bedroom remote also the regular Vox remote is only $27 on Amazon the lux light up is like $6 cheaper on Amazon then from Tivo. I tried to get a discount on it from them since they were out of the regular Vox remote and they said no. But I didn't realize both are cheaper on Amazon. Ok so Vox is part of the remote so what is the main difference in having Mini Vox I guess faster maybe and just goes with the Bolt and Edge. I am glad we didn't have to get new mini's. Glad it's just software update.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Rose4uKY said:


> Thanks! I've had every Tivo since the beginning and I know we'll like it. I'm glad we didn't have to upgrade our 2 minis. We have one in our bedroom and I have another in my other bedroom/computer room where I sit every morning with my coffee and watch TV and hang on the computer. I told my husband he could have the light up remote but now I want one too. And then I could use the regular Vox remote that came with the bolt here in my office. I'd like to update our bedroom remote also the regular Vox remote is only $27 on Amazon the lux light up is like $6 cheaper on Amazon then from Tivo. I tried to get a discount on it from them since they were out of the regular Vox remote and they said no. But I didn't realize both are cheaper on Amazon. Ok so Vox is part of the remote so what is the main difference in having Mini Vox I guess faster maybe and just goes with the Bolt and Edge. I am glad we didn't have to get new mini's. Glad it's just software update.


The $27 one is the wrong one for your old Minis. You need this $34 version:
https://www.amazon.com/TiVo-Remote-Upgrade-Roamio-C00301/dp/B07635R5JB/


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

mdavej said:


> The $27 one is the wrong one for your old Minis. You need this $34 version:
> https://www.amazon.com/TiVo-Remote-Upgrade-Roamio-C00301/dp/B07635R5JB/


Oh I do? Well thanks for letting me know I didn't know. I just thought since we were told we have to update our old Minis that one would work. But I'm guessing we're just updating the software to get TE4 not the hardware so I need the remote with the Bluetooth dongle? I didn't think of that. Is their a light up one of that? Cause I'll probably get a new remote eventually in the bedroom it has an old mini also. Do the mini Vox come with remotes and are they ever on sale?


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Rose4uKY said:


> Oh I do? Well thanks for letting me know I didn't know. I just thought since we were told we have to update our old Minis that one would work. But I'm guessing we're just updating the software to get TE4 not the hardware so I need the remote with the Bluetooth dongle? I didn't think of that. Is their a light up one of that? Cause I'll probably get a new remote eventually due the bedroom it has an old mini also. Do the mini Vox come with remotes and are they ever on sale?


The update will enable your old Minis to work your new Bolt and their original remotes. To work with the new Vox remote, the dongle is required. Only the new Mini Vox does not require a dongle. Those come with their own Vox remote.

If you get the Lux (lighted remote), you have to buy the dongle separately, bringing the total price to $65.
Shop TiVo Products | Buy TiVo EDGE, BOLT, Mini and more.

I rarely see Mini's on sale. I've found the biggest savings by buying used or refurbished. I've never paid anywhere near full price for any Tivo hardware, and I've never bought any of it new.

Before you go all in on voice control, you may want to use it on your Bolt for a while to see if it meets your expectations. You may also find that yelling at your Tivo in your bedroom at night may be detrimental to marital bliss.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

mdavej said:


> The update will enable your old Minis to work your new Bolt and their original remotes. To work with the new Vox remote, the dongle is required. Only the new Mini Vox does not require a dongle. Those come with their own Vox remote.
> 
> If you get the Lux (lighted remote), you have to buy the dongle separately, bringing the total price to $65.
> Shop TiVo Products | Buy TiVo EDGE, BOLT, Mini and more.
> ...


So besides voice is their anything else different on the Vox remotes from what we have? I don't care about using Voice all the time but I just though since we we're getting the TE4 besides voice should we have updated remotes. Plus we only have one in the bedroom anyway and I would like to have an extra so we each have one on our night stand. But we don't have to have them. He's already getting the lightup for the family room cause we both have remotes now but price wise I was just trying to figure out if I should hold off on too many extra remotes and eventually get Mini Vox's. But anyway thanks for responding. I'll wait till we get the bolt like you said. It should be here Fri or Sat.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Rose4uKY said:


> So besides voice is their anything else different on the Vox remotes from what we have?


The Vox also has a Netflix button. But you can do the same on your old remote by making a numeric shortcut.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

mdavej said:


> The Vox also has a Netflix button. But you can do the same on your old remote by making a numeric shortcut.


Oh really I didn't know that! I just called Tivo back again cause we did the liftetime and I was inquiring about extended warranty she said you only get this continual care on monthly or annual. I said I know the Bolt has been out for a long time is our model going to be an old one from like 2016 or have they made more since then cause I am reading about hard drive failures and the device getting hot and I was getting worried. She said yes this is different from the original model it had voice. Should I be concerned about HD failure and it getting too hot?


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

The failures and overheating are still valid concerns as far as I know. You should follow up in those other threads to see if Vox saw any cooling improvements.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

mdavej said:


> The failures and overheating are still valid concerns as far as I know. You should follow up in those other threads to see if Vox saw any cooling improvements.


Ok Thanks!

Thanks!


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## KevTech (Apr 15, 2014)

mdavej said:


> The Vox also has a Netflix button.


And a Skip button.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

KevTech said:


> And a Skip button.


Right you are. I didn't bother to mention since D (green) does the same thing.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

mdavej said:


> Right you are. I didn't bother to mention since D (green) does the same thing.


Yes I knew it had a big skip button and I saw where it has the Netflix button which I like. And I know what's better to watch through Roku but I am going to watch my Netflix and Prime through TiVo which is mostly in our family room. But I'd still like to get an extra Lux for the bed room with the dongle. As long as our original minis have the new software I don't feel like I need to upgrade our minis. But anyway thanks everyone I'm excited and can't wait to get it.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Some people have been concerned about the heating factor on the Bolt boxes (although TiVo has said here that it is not an issue). As a preventative (or other) measure, some people will put the Bolt box on a laptop cooling fan pad, or purchase a small fan (inexpensive AC Infinity fans at Amazon.com are a favorite) to blow air along the bottom of the Bolt box to further cool it. Helpful as well: keeping the cablecard compartment door off; putting the Bolt's 4 corners on small risers such as water bottle caps. Many threads here on this issue/these solutions.

For me, personally: I had put a 3TB hard drive into my original 500GB Bolt box and so thought that some further cooling could be helpful. I have my Bolt box sitting on an AC Infinity fan cooling pad (the low-end model) that I got at a deal, blowing air up onto the Bolt box.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

Our Bolt is arriving today but not sure when my husband will get to set it up and we need to leave the Roamio plugged up too so we can transfer our shows.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

Can I ask a question? We got our Bolt today. My husband just set it up. It went through guided setup and then it said there was an update. It's been updating for a while now and the TV keeps going from a black screen to a static snowy screen back and forth. Is that what it's supposed to do and does the update take a long time? I tried to Google it and it said it could take one to two hours. Our Roamio is also still set up.

We have spectrum I didn't know whether they needed to pair the cable card first. And I got connected to the cable card department and then the TiVo said updating guide and it had us put in our ZIP code and it went through all these connections and it was taken a long time on the last step and spectrum told us to call back when it was done and we were ready. I don't even remember if the TiVo box rebooted I just know it said there was an update It's been over an hour.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

Well we can't get ours to work and spent 45 minutes or more on the phone with Tivo and spectrum. 1st time we got cut off 2nd time the person from Tivo called Spectrum so we could all 3 be on the phone which is what was happening the 1st time when I got cut off but the 2nd time the guy left and wasn't on the phone with us. I had to call Tivo back a 3rd time and Spectrum kept saying it showed paired when Tivo kept saying no it's not if I see a ? next to Val in these cable card settings. They had me unplug TiVo tuning adapter usbs to TiVo and tuning adapter. One lady from Spectrum said tuning adapter will flash then turn green it never did it turned solid yellow she said well yes as long as it's solid. Finally she said she's tried too many times and one time it even said pending pair.

We had this trouble when we 1st moved into our house a couple years ago and we kept calling spectrum and having them try and try and finally it just kicked in and worked. But now she is saying I need a technician out there and I called back just now. The guy said oh I had to help someone else with a bolt the other day. He couldn't get me paired then saw the pending pair and he wanted me to unplug tuning adapter which I did he said the other lady was wrong it needs to be solid green not yellow so I said oh it's my tuning adapter and not cable card. Why would anything be bad if it just worked last night on the Roamio. So he said sorry I can't do anything else you will have to wait for your service appointment which is early Sunday am between 9 & 10. I did open up the bottom so see if cable card was facing right way per the techs request and he said yes and I asked if taking it out and putting it back in would help he said probably not but I couldn't get it out anyway. Can you tell me about your tuning adapter and does yours have a solid green light? My husband can just hook everything back up to the Roamio till Sunday guess when he gets home from work.

I just remember last time they had me scheduled and I kept calling and someone kept trying to pair me and finally it just worked. But he said he tried 5 or 6 times and was done. Any other suggestions? Some channels work and others say unauthorized channel V58 and when I went to test signal strength it said no digital signal. He said the tech coming out will be prepared and have cable card and a tuning adapter if needed. I don't know but I at least got the remote set up to work my Tivo and was messing around with TE4. Just wondering what you did to get yours going or what Spectrum did or if anyone else has any suggestions. Thanks!



Ralph P. said:


> Greetings,
> 
> My Roamio bit the dust so I ordered a Bolt Vox. I use Spectrum Cable with a Tuning Adapter. Can any one with a similar setup offer any insights as what I can expect? It arrives tomorrow and I am trying to get ahead of any stumbling blocks.
> 
> Thanks in Advance.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

Ralph P. said:


> Greetings,
> 
> Cisco
> 
> ...


I wonder how yours got to working and I asked this above does your tuning adapter have a solid green light? They can't get me paired I'm so upset. :-(


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Cable card pairing with Spectrum is always a nightmare. I've done it dozens of times over the years, and never had a smooth experience.

What kind of tuning adapter do you have, Cisco or Motorola? Cisco is the size of a cable box and has a green light. Motorola is the size of a modem and has an amber light. Solid amber means the Moto Tuning Adapter is on line and connected. But that's only half the battle.

Listen to Tivo about the pairing. Val ? means not paired. Most often with Spectrum they don't ask for all the numbers they need. I have to walk them through the process and make sure they enter both the Host AND Data ID's on their system, wait for them to send a few hits, then stay on the phone until it works.

Spectrum and Tivo probably told you the wrong way to connect your Tuning Adapter as well. You shouldn't use the output coax connection at all. Take the coax from the wall, connect to a 2-way splitter. Connect one leg to the Tuning Adapter input and the other to the Tivo. And of course don't forget the connect the USB cable from the Tuning Adapter to the Tivo.

Lastly, they should have UNPAIRED your card from your old Roamio before they attempted to pair with your Bolt. If they skipped that step, it will never work. In my experience, when the cable guy comes, he'll plug in a new card and it will work right away (after he's on the phone with Spectrum for a couple of minutes).

Good luck.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

mdavej said:


> Cable card pairing with Spectrum is always a nightmare. I've done it dozens of times over the years, and never had a smooth experience.
> 
> What kind of tuning adapter do you have, Cisco or Motorola? Cisco is the size of a cable box and has a green light. Motorola is the size of a modem and has an amber light. Solid amber means the Moto Tuning Adapter is on line and connected. But that's only half the battle.
> 
> ...


Wow thanks you know it all LOL! We do have Motorola so the amber solid light is correct. I do not know if they unpaired the card from the Roamio 1st or not I am thinking no. But the only thing I don't know is how my husband has the tuning adapter plugged in their is a co-axiel an ethernet and usb. I don't think we have a splitter but didn't use one before as far as I know and everything worked fine with the Roamio.

Should I call Spectrum back and make sure they unpaired the card with the Roamio 1st? Cause if that still don't work then my husband won't be able to just go back to the Roamio right cause it will be unpaired with that? I hate to waste a techs time if it can be fixed over the phone. Thanks so much for your help and I just texted my husband your response and he said this below. And he asked if the cable card needs to be put back in the Roamio for them to unpair it? Sorry I keep editing but I called Tivo back he said no the cable card doesn't have to be unpaired from the Roamio just stick it in the bolt and now he says I need a new cable card and something about since I have new software it doesn't want to work on the bolt but worked on the old software of the Roamio. I don't know! But they did ask me for Host ID cable card ID and Data numbers 3 different sets of numbers.

That's interesting. But it worked fine and is wired the same way. I have the stuff to wire it the way he describes.


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## austinsho (Oct 21, 2001)

This is precisely the same situation I went through with my original Roamio Pro and now, two years later, am going through with my replacement Bolt. The Spectrum system is a mess, yes. Here are a few of the land mines that blew up on me (and are still blowing up). I have a tech coming tomorrow for reasons I will make clear below.

Spectrum appears to have disbanded the original office that handed Cablecard. I say this because when I call the number originally issued for it, I get tossed into the regular Spectrum phone tree. The, the first Customer Service Rep. transfers you to someone who will have some a good knowledge of Tivo. But...you need an *expert*. There's no promise you'll get one on the first try.

My own recommendation to anyone getting a Bolt is to _*go get a second card and tuning adapter (TA) from a Spectrum office for the install. *_In fact, get two. Hell, get three. You can always return them later. The reason for this is that 1) if your Roamio is still working you don't want it to be screwed up before the Bolt is online and 2) these components are old and may or may not work. So help me Jesus, I just picked up a replacement card this afternoon and the counter person tried to give me a card that was _*dented! *_I'm sure that little jewel would have worked really, really well!

The person who does your authorization may, or may not, have entered all the codes necessary for the box to work properly. When you give them the Card ID (probably beginning with the letters PK if it's Time Warner/Spectrum) and Host ID, those aren't the only numbers that needs to be entered for the Tivo. They have to come up with others on their end and some of the reps have no idea that this is a thing. The exact same thing goes for the Tuning Adapter.

On my install, the splitter is completely necessary. When I try to loop the signal through the TA, I lose so much that the Tivo can't function.

When I tried to get authorization underway yesterday, the Cablecard would only partially authorize. Some channels worked and some didn't. And some those that did not work were NOT Tuning Adapter channels. And oh yes, the first TA I picked up was completely dead.

The so-called Tivo expert promised that the tech coming out would have a replacement Cablecard and TA on his truck. In getting the Roamio installed two years back, I had THREE service calls, each time I was "promised" that there would be a Cablecard and TA on the truck. At no time was a truck dispatched with the proper equipment. That's why I went and got the replacements this afternoon.

During the aborted Bolt install yesterday, I was told that I had low signal level. I've been told that five times by Spectrum phone folks, and each and every tech who comes out here says that the signal is fine. All I can do now is wait and see what happens tomorrow morning.

i really don't think Spectrum does this crap on purpose in order to get people to use their own crappy DVRs, as bad as they are. I have had to deal with Spectrum outside of the cable TV and Tivo world at my workplace and I can assure you that the business side of this company every bit as screwed up as you have experienced with Tivo. Shoot, if Spectrum could issue a decent DVR, I wouldn't even fool with Tivo, but their own equipment is either 1) old Time Warner crap that is falling apart or 2) the abominable Spectrum 210, the poorly developed, bug-ridden, so-called "world box" that is best known for being thrown through windows by Spectrum customers, a box that is trashed by every Spectrum tech who has had the misfortune of having to visit my house over the past four years.

The good news in all this is that when you do get the right card, the right Tuning Adapter and the right setup, the system will work beautifully. No, really. I have found the combination of Spectrum's channel lineup and pricing, combined with Tivo to be a far better value than Spectrum's service with it's own DVRs, or DirecTV (my previous provider), or anyone else. I genuinely hope your service call, and my own, go well. Fingers crossed and best of luck!


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

austinsho said:


> This is precisely the same situation I went through with my original Roamio Pro and now, two years later, am going through with my replacement Bolt. The Spectrum system is a mess, yes. Here are a few of the land mines that blew up on me (and are still blowing up). I have a tech coming tomorrow for reasons I will make clear below.
> 
> Spectrum appears to have disbanded the original office that handed Cablecard. I say this because when I call the number originally issued for it, I get tossed into the regular Spectrum phone tree. The, the first Customer Service Rep. transfers you to someone who may or may not have a good knowledge of Tivo.
> 
> ...


\

Thanks I made some comments under your post I hope it works out. We may have to wait till Sunday morning but that's ok I can still watch Netflix and Prime from phone and cat it to the Vizio Smartcast TV or watch recordings on line at Tivo maybe.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Rose4uKY said:


> That's interesting. But it worked fine and is wired the same way. I have the stuff to wire it the way he describes.


Using the splitter as I described will give you a much stronger signal at the Tivo. The loss through a Moto Tuning Adapter was at least 90% when I measured it. But if your picture was always good the way you have it, then the signal is strong enough to overcome this loss, and there's no need to change it. If your picture gets worse in the future, that's the first thing I would change, adding a splitter before the Tuning Adapter.

Your call on the unpairing. An unpaired card on Spectrum will usually keep giving you channels on the old box for about 24 hours. The new pairing attempts have probably messed it up anyway. So I think the 24 hour clock has started. Good thing you have Netflix and Prime.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

mdavej said:


> Using the splitter as I described will give you a much stronger signal at the Tivo. The loss through a Moto Tuning Adapter was at least 90% when I measured it. But if your picture was always good the way you have it, then the signal is strong enough to overcome this loss, and there's no need to change it. If your picture gets worse in the future, that's the first thing I would change, adding a splitter before the Tuning Adapter.
> 
> Your call on the unpairing. An unpaired card on Spectrum will usually keep giving you channels on the old box for about 24 hours. The new pairing attempts have probably messed it up anyway. So I think the 24 hour clock has started. Good thing you have Netflix and Prime.


Thanks! So no use calling Spectrum back to ask if they unpaired it to begin with. Tivo said that didn't matter anyway you don't have to unpair you just put card in new box. But it's ok I'm checking out the new UI and I just set up Netflix and Prime on the Tivo so we can watch from there if not the Roku. I wish I could go to Tivo Online and cast my shows to the TV. Anyway thanks everyone for trying to help. Waiting till Sunday I guess won't matter I don't really have anything recording except a Hallmark movie and their usually on more than once so I am good.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

I did call Spectrum this morning for one last try and it was a no go and he mentioned something with signal. He said the reason they scheduled the appointment 3 days out was to give the tech time and make sure he does have the equipment he needs so we will see tomorrow morning. My husband asked if we could just put the card back in the Roamio so he could have all his channels back and watch the mini in the bedroom and it said pairing failed on the Roamio. But we were changing the input to go to the Roamio cause shows are on their that didn't transfer over due to copyright I guess but we played around with TE4 for a bit and liked it ok. Then I came across where it said devices and it showed our Roamio on the bolt and it let me play a show from the Roamio on the bolt which we liked. 

Roamio will only stay hooked up till we finish watching what didn't transfer over to the Bolt. But I got our season passes dragged over and that worked. But we were messing with the voice and I picked a movie to record and I did select keep until I delete and our Roamio was 41% full the bolt because everything didn't transfer says 15% full and it said that one of our season pass shows would not record we didn't understand that. I took it off keep until I delete. We don't usually use that for movies just for certain one pass shows but I out it on that option and thought it was weird that it said was not going to record Blue Bloods. And I thought I read you could view series from Netflix and Prime in your now showing list is that true if so how does that work? 

But anyway hopefully the guy will get is fixed in the morning. I hope so! Thanks everyone for trying to help and for all the info. I told my husband he could try to go get a new tuning adapter and cable card today and the Spectrum guy didn't think that would help I don't know we will see tomorrow. He said it seemed like some other signal issue.


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## austinsho (Oct 21, 2001)

Update time...here we go.


Well, my Bolt activation was as eventful...even more than one might expect. And it's still going on.

This one is long, folks... a litany of what can go wrong with a Tivo install on TimeWarner/Spectrum.

After three phone calls, the diagnosis was that I apparently had a dead tuning adapter and other unknown issues. Some non-TA channels were coming in, some weren't. An hour before arrival, I thought I'd give the phone folks one more try. As expected, the CableCard was not properly set up. No Host ID was entered in the system, this after speaking with THREE so-called experts at Spectrum.

Enter the Host ID and the necessary codes and here come the channels, but not all of them. The tuning adapter, supplied by Spectrum, was talking to nobody. No light at ALL on the front of the TA. OK, big deal. We'll wait for the tech and see what he thinks.

Tech arrives. He has done a total of ONE Tivo install in his entire career and of course has brought NO additional cable card or TA, as everyone promised. He gets on the phone to supervisor who walks him though it. OK, no biggie. Given the apparently DOA status of the Tuning Adapter, we switch it out. Having gone through an install before, I had picked up a second TA. Fire it up and YES! We have television. But there is STILL a problem with signal levels. Tech gets back on the phone to supervisor. He recommends checking the signal level at the splitter. Yes folks, the brand new Spectrum splitter is dumping video out down 7db, NOT 3.5db as it should be. Supervisor then recommends looping the signal THROUGH the TA. Tech does so and checks signal levels again. Yep...everything is now good.

Tech now goes outside to do a final signal strength measurement as the phone folks had reported a low signal level. Nope...all signal level looks good, but I'm STILL missing channels! And they're NOT tuning adapter channels. Anyone here ever hear of MER? Those three little letters stand for “Modulation Error Ratio”. And it's all out of whack. Tech goes back to the pole and yep...MER is bad there as well. Turns out that someone in the neighborhood is throwing crap back into the line. He can't troubleshoot that, he has to call “Line Maintenance” and that they'll be out either late afternoon or tonight and that the issue should be solved by morning.

At any rate, there's enough Spectrum coming into the house to bring the box up and roll it back to TE3. That's going on as I type.



And we wonder why Tivo has such a hard time making inroads into the cable TV market with fiascoes like this.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Rose4uKY said:


> He said it seemed like some other signal issue.


But it worked fine before with the same signal, TA and card. Somebody at Spectrum will eventually click the right buttons in the right order and everything will start working. I had one such cable card swap drag on for 10 days where I was only moving the card and TA from one box to another. Spectrum is so inept.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

Our Spectrum guy is here he does have cable card and I said do you have TA if needed he said yes? My husband was googling and said he saw where it looked like he had the tuning adapter hooked up wrong so he hooked it up a different way but the cable guy just now said it was wrong and he fixed it back so maybe it was right the whole time. Cause I told him how ever since we got that some channels lose signal and it tells us to channel up and down and go back and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. He still can't get us going and now he has the guided setup going again and went back out to the truck to get something. He said they don't use Sisco TA cause I mentioned it and the solid light. I hope he gets us up and running.

Once he does do I just turn on the minis and will they start updating or will it tell me their is an update do you want to continue how does that work? Now he's sayin g we have a bad Tivo Box cause yesterday after I rebooted the box I would get a snowy static screen and then it would go black and I would have to unplug HDMI and plug it back in to get picture. Spectrum over phone the phone yesterday told me something about it trying to get signal and it was ok for me to have to do that and now he's saying no you have something wrong with box. Now he's checking stuff outside. I want to call Tivo and they aren't in for another 30 minutes.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

mdavej said:


> But it worked fine before with the same signal, TA and card. Somebody at Spectrum will eventually click the right buttons in the right order and everything will start working. I had one such cable card swap drag on for 10 days where I was only moving the card and TA from one box to another. Spectrum is so inept.


I don't know what's going on it just wont pair he's going all kinds of stuff and I am starting to wonder if someone's not punching in the right stuff at Spectrum. He said he has a different cable card. I told them on the phone Friday that I was told water I give all my set of numbers I heard you guys have to put in some numbers I don't know. But more TiVo will be open in 5 minutes not sure if calling them will help. I'm so aggravated!

My husband printed out instructions from time Warner and I told the guy he said oh I know what to do. This says get your card activated 1st then set up tuning adapter and I don't think he was doing that. I just tried to tell him that. He said what my husband printed out is old cause it says Time Warner on it. He still says it's our box cause when he reboots it goes to static screen and black and you have to unplug HDMI and plug it back in. TiVo said try a different HDMI cord take one from the mini. We're using the cord that came with the box but she said try today try a different HDMI on the TV and maybe it is the box if that doesn't work. Cause of the static screen every time it boots back up we shouldn't have to unplug HDMI and plug it back in right? But still it won't pair. He's been here almost 2 hours.


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## justinw (Jan 31, 2007)

The box does seem like it is acting a little fishy.... but these guys ^ clearly have no idea what they are doing.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

justinw said:


> The box does seem like it is acting a little fishy.... but these guys ^ clearly have no idea what they are doing.


I know I don't know what to do. I edited my post above cause I just hung up from TiVo. It's crazy he keeps messing with the tuning adapter and went to our modem and went outside. And actually my husband was having a problem He usually has the TiVo hooked up to the HDMI of our Nakamichi and it was acting funny and going out so he put it back into the HDMI of the TV. I'm hoping it's not our box.

And if we have to send it back then we got to get our other TiVo working so we have something in the meantime and Friday that box was saying failed pair when we asked if we could use it until he came out today. I told him that TiVo suggested he changes the HDMI out with the one from the mini which I don't think he's done. And then she said if that don't work hope the bolt up to a different TV. She said I need to try all troubleshooting before I send back the box. And if they have to replace the box I was told that they sold out they didn't have anymore because of this deal.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Rose4uKY said:


> I don't know what's going on it just wont pair he's going all kinds of stuff and I am starting to wonder if someone's not punching in the right stuff at Spectrum.


I sympathize. But if you keep trying, eventually the right person at Spectrum will know what to do. Like I said, it once took me 10 days to find that person.

Regarding the static, I think the box is booting to a resolution your TV or AVR doesn't immediately recognize or it's the cable. I think we can fix all that later. Pairing is the top priority right now.

Reading all of this makes me grateful I dropped cable TV years ago. Youtube TV requires no Tivos, cable cards or tuning adapters or insanely high bills. It's pure bliss.

Hang in there.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

OMG over 2 hours and the guy told me what he did and he added some filters that he said really shouldn't of added or something and said do not touch those but he hooked up the minis back to where they were plugged in on the modem and he actually got me paired and the Bolt is working now. OMG no more ? under settings I see a V now and I tested channel 902 which wasn't working before it now works.

But he said he was done he got the bolt working it's paired and that he has nothing to do with the minis so now I was on the phone with Tivo trying to get the mini's working and now they are having problems connecting to the Bolt and it says that I have to disable all these numbers to these ports and I am told to call Spectrum now. It says Firewall is blocking these ports TCP and UPD and it has a list of all these numbers. I wonder if I can go to my router settings online somewhere or if they have to do it. Now I am on hold with Spectrum 11 minute wait. So aggravating but I am hoping Spectrum can do what they are supposed to do. Cause Tivo had me unplug the minis and then go under settings and turn on mocha and then I go the error message about firewall and ports.

Is their a mocha and mini thread here? Guess I could look my husband said the Bolt is Ethernet the minis are wifi. Spectrum said they can't unblock ports like Tivo asked me to tell them to do they said she would have to take the whole firewall off the modem and we don't want to do that. Now the message went away and now Tivo says we have to call manufactuer of router which came from Spectrum we are so confused. The Spectrum guy said he hooked back up the Mini's as they were before. Now Tivo is having me do some other stuff in network settings. And we rebooted the Tivo and this time I saw the static screen just for a second and the TV came up no unplugging the HDMI and putting it back in this time. 

My husband said on Tivo's website it showed how the TA should be hooked up to Tivo and he changed it but the cable guy changed it back I don't know. And Tivo thin ks he did something with our cables this is a mess.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

If the card is now paired and the TA has a solid light, you're done with Spectrum and can hang up, UNLESS you rent your wifi router from them, in which case, yes, maybe they can open some ports for you. However, since this was also all working before, how have these ports magically closed by themselves?

Were your Minis using Moca before? If they were, why did you have to turn it back on? If they weren't, why are you trying to use Moca now?

In my experience, a Motorola TA can block Moca. Another reason I recommended using a splitter.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

Sorry for all my long rants after rebooting router and modem and unplugging minis and not realizing I was on my landline and the Tivo guy didn't say anything to me we get disconnected but after everything rebooted my husband plugged in the minis and did something with network and now they are both up and running and updating to the new TE4 and we are working. I don't know how long the update will take I have to go to work but I think we are finally up and running. What a headache the spectrum guy was here over 2 hours this morning. But anyway thanks everyone for listening and trying to help. Now the only thread I will need is about TE4 maybe LOL! Thanks Again!


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

mdavej said:


> If the card is now paired and the TA has a solid light, you're done with Spectrum and can hang up, UNLESS you rent your wifi router from them, in which case, yes, maybe they can open some ports for you. However, since this was also all working before, how have these ports magically closed by themselves?
> 
> Were your Minis using Moca before? If they were, why did you have to turn it back on? If they weren't, why are you trying to use Moca now?
> 
> In my experience, a Motorola TA can block Moca. Another reason I recommended using a splitter.


Our minis were using Mocha before and they are on Wifi. I don't understand that message about opening ports and the 2nd Tivo rep was more helpful and had me turn Mocha off and beach on and reboot and test connections but we got cut off. But now that he had us reboot router and modem we replugged the minis back and we are updating now. And I think all is well now. Yes TE4 just came up on my mini. But on my one TV at the top where it says Tivo Home and clock on the other side it's like lifted up a bit and the top half of the screen is cut off maybe that's a setting. But all is ok now.

Sorry my husband knows more about settings and Mocha but he's still confused as to why Tivo's site said to hook TA up one way so he changed ours and the cable guy said no that's not right and put it back the other way. Cause before on our Roamio every so often channels we get wouldn't come in and it would say error 52 or 53 and tell us to scroll up and down and back and sometimes it would end up coming in and sometimes not. But anyway thanks! Looks like were updating it's taking a while I guess. Plus my husband had a splitter sitting out because a couple of you all mentioned using a splitter and he says the cable guy took his splitter.


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## Rose4uKY (Mar 28, 2003)

mdavej said:


> I sympathize. But if you keep trying, eventually the right person at Spectrum will know what to do. Like I said, it once took me 10 days to find that person.
> 
> Regarding the static, I think the box is booting to a resolution your TV or AVR doesn't immediately recognize or it's the cable. I think we can fix all that later. Pairing is the top priority right now.
> 
> ...


Thanks! I know it's crazy and you're right all I wanted was to be paired and whatever he did he put these filters on not sure what he told me he showed me but my husband was asleep and he said later on that we had a POE filter he had bought back in 2017 and he took it. Are we supposed to have one of those? So he took that and my husbands splitter. But I think the filters he put on he said they don't normally do I thought he mentioned audio filter I could be wrong.

All I know is he got it paired as soon as this one channel came in I knew. But at one point we rebooted the TiVo and it came up. But then I think another time after that when we rebooted it we got this static snowy screen and we had to unplug the HDMI and plug it back in but that's the least of my worries It's glad we're paired and we finally got the mochas updated and so far my husband said everything's working good I'm at work.

I do know our Roamio was hooked into the Nakamichi soundbar HDMI and this one wasn't working right that way so he just plugged it into the regular TV. My husband said it's something to do with CEC maybe but either way we're up and running and that's all we care about for now. The nightmare is over. Thanks!


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