# combining ota and cable together -- like the good old days



## dmeleedy (Jul 19, 2003)

So recently in Massachusetts Verizon Fios subscribers lost access to Fox 25 which is available over the air. My thought was to set up my Tivo Premiere Elite to get just that channel OTA but alas no antenna input. My Tivo Series 3 does this just perfectly. Then I looked at the new Roamio's, and discovered that they can be set to ONLY OTA or ONLY cable (and only on the basic model, but not both at the same time).


My suggestion is that given cases of subscriber services losing access to important channels seems to be more common these days.... it would be nice to have a modern tivo that can combine these features so that it is possible to come up with a solution like I have with the Tivo Series 3. Preferably on the high end Tivo's as well as the basic models.


----------



## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Your Premiere Elite (or XL4 now) with 4 tuners is for digital cable only, same as the Roamio Plus/Pro 6 tuner models.

Only the Premiere 2 tuner models, any of the 3 Series 3 (OLED, HD, HD XL) can receive OTA and cable at the same time, their guides are merged together but in the info is either ANT or CBL to distinguish between them.


----------



## telemark (Nov 12, 2013)

Some households can fix this by getting a 6tuner Roamio and a 4tuner Roamio.

So my request is that the two Roamio's should be able to LiveTV from each other.


----------



## dmeleedy (Jul 19, 2003)

Yes, I know which models can receive OTA and cable at the same time. My request is to bring back this feature to the newer models, as it seems like it's a feature that can be relevant when contract disputes happen between cable providers and individual local stations.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I'm not sure why they removed it from the Roamio basic. Probably cost. Including two sets of tuners and two inputs probably would have laded the price above the entry point they were trying to hit. 

TiVo has data on exactly how many users actually use OTA and cable with older models and the numbers were probably low enough that they didn't consider it a huge loss.

That being said I wouldn't mind having a unit that could do both.


----------



## orangeboy (Apr 19, 2004)

I haven't considered purchasing a Roamio because of this very issue.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

orangeboy said:


> I haven't considered purchasing a Roamio because of this very issue.


It's a trade off. A Premiere can mix OTA and cable but it has 2 less tuners, slower hardware and no Mini support.

If you really "need" both sources, and you've got a lot of extra cash, you could get two Roamios and use one for cable and the other for OTA. But that's a pretty extravagant option. (although they do sell an OTA only Roamio for $50 at BestBuy, only catch is there is no lifetime service option)


----------



## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

A less extravagant option is to add a Premiere 2 tuner in place of a Mini in the whole home setup. A mini is $150 and a used lifetime Premiere can be had for $300 so not really that significant of an increase considering the use case.

Dan, I do agree with your reason - we discussed this ad nauseam when the XL4 came out. The chipset the Premiere used could handle 4 tuners and the 2 tuner Premiere leveraged this for both cable and OTA - when they designed the XL4 they were able to use the same chipset dedicated to just cable. (this is a very simplistic explanation)

If you wanted the new devices to work in the same way, TiVo would have to somehow double the hardware to make that work so it comes down to cost. 

Since it seems the newest chipsets can handle 6 tuners - I do not see technically why TiVo couldn't have dedicated 4 to Cable and 2 to OTA in the base units - although this was probably also a cost decision in both software development and hardware for a very small user base. 

Would you pay the Roamio Plus price for a 4 Tuner TiVo that simultaneously worked with OTA?


----------



## NorthAlabama (Apr 19, 2012)

orangeboy said:


> I haven't considered purchasing a Roamio because of this very issue.


same here. dealing with 2 tuners in my home is rarely an issue, but losing ota integration would be painful.


----------



## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

You could probably just buy two premieres with lifetime service for the cost of 1 roamio basic. Then you wouldn't need a mini if you wanted to use 2 TVs so you you would save the cost of a mini.


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I prefer the single host setup. Having all your SPs and recordings in one place is very convenient. Managing multiple TiVos is more of a pain, although with the mobile app it's at least possible to schedule recordings without having to go to the TV it's connected to. 

I wish TiVo would release an external OTA tuner for the Roamio Plus/Pro, or support something like the HDHomeRun. I have one channel I can only get OTA and I currently use an HDHomeRun and MCE to record it, then manually convert and transfer the recordings to my TiVo. But it's a PITA so I don't do it that frequently and the recordings build up.


----------



## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

Dan203 said:


> I prefer the single host setup. Having all your SPs and recordings in one place is very convenient. Managing multiple TiVos is more of a pain, although with the mobile app it's at least possible to schedule recordings without having to go to the TV it's connected to.
> 
> I wish TiVo would release an external OTA tuner for the Roamio Plus/Pro, or support something like the HDHomeRun. I have one channel I can only get OTA and I currently use an HDHomeRun and MCE to record it, then manually convert and transfer the recordings to my TiVo. But it's a PITA so I don't do it that frequently and the recordings build up.


I was reading on another thread that it's possible to schedule recordings remotely from another premiere.


----------



## nooneuknow (Feb 5, 2011)

shwru980r said:


> I was reading on another thread that it's possible to schedule recordings remotely from another premiere.


It certainly is: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=523373


----------



## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Using the mobile app is easier. And using a Mini is basically the same as sitting in front of the TiVo itself. Doing it from another TiVo is a bit roundabout and not very obvious to the user. In fact sometimes it can be confusing which TiVo you're scheduling on unless you pay attention to the DVR name at the top.


----------



## Marine1 (Sep 25, 2005)

I got the basic Romeo and two minis because you could use the Romeo with cable or OTA. But I also thought if my cable goes out, how do I know what is wrong, the TiVo or the cable? My cable company doesn't want anything to do with TiVo, so I kept one cable recorder. I now have the Romeo, two minis and the cable recorder. The wife would have a fit if TiVo broke and she couldn't watch television for days, or weeks till I got a replacement. So if it's TiVo, she has the cable to watch. If cable is out, I hook up the antenna to the Romeo.


----------

