# Does a Mini still require a 4 tuner Tivo



## NYHeel (Oct 7, 2003)

The thread title says it all. I have 2 old 2 tuner premiere boxes (non-lifetime) in my house collecting dust and my brother-in law may want one but he would also want to use a Mini with it. With dynamic tuner allocation now active, can the Mini be used without being connected to a 4 tuner Tivo?


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

no. 

Try and get $99 lifetime and then sell them to defray the costs to upgrade.


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

NYHeel said:


> Does a Mini still require a 4 tuner Tivo


Yes



NYHeel said:


> can the Mini be used without being connected to a 4 tuner Tivo?


No


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

NYHeel said:


> The thread title says it all. I have 2 old 2 tuner premiere boxes (non-lifetime) in my house collecting dust and my brother-in law may want one but he would also want to use a Mini with it. With dynamic tuner allocation now active, can the Mini be used without being connected to a 4 tuner Tivo?


yes, a four tuner or larger TiVo is still required to be a host for the Mini. But once the Mini is setup with the host, it is then also able to stream content from other TiVos on your account, on the network. Which includes the two tuner Premieres.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

Did anyone ever find out if it would still keep working with a 2-tuner box (only) if the paired 4-tuner is sold or taken out of service? Just for streamed recordings of course.


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

slowbiscuit said:


> Did anyone ever find out if it would still keep working with a 2-tuner box (only) if the paired 4-tuner is sold or taken out of service? Just for streamed recordings of course.


I took a Mini to my sisters home, she only has a 2 Tuner Premiere that is on my same account, and it worked fine all day and into the late evening.

It was constantly complaining that it could not find the Host DVR though.

It would only play recordings, and could not access the Guide or Set-up recordings or SPs or To Do List. I connected several times to the TiVo service and it still worked. I don't know if long term it would work. I am just guessing that it might eventually realize it was not on the same network, but maybe not???


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

Yeah that's always been the question, does it time out after some interval and refuse to do anything without the paired host. But given the limitations you describe it would be a poor experience in any case.

Thanks for the data point.


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