# Intheswamp Roamio OTA newbie experience...



## Intheswamp (Nov 15, 2017)

I've posted in a few other threads but figured I'd get my experience in it's on thread to keep from cluttering up the other threads too much. We have been with DISH for 10-15 years and finally have decided we've made them rich enough. Suffice it to say that we are attempting to "cut the cord" and recently purchased a Roamio OTA 1TB unit. We are in a rural area with network transmitters at 21 and 39 miles away. But, a weaker station that is a "must have" is at 48 miles, is a 2-edge station, and is a challenge...but doable. We are currently using a Antennas Direct DB8e in conjunction with a Antennacraft 4-bay (U4000?). These feed into a AD Juice preamp.

Yesterday afternoon I connected our new Roamio OTA up to see how it would work. I haven't ran Cat5e cable between our router and the Roamio location but figured I'd have no problem connecting via Wifi. Our Sony Blu-Ray player has no problem with the 30' distance nor do our iPhones/Pads and the Roamio will be/is in a better location. I was very, very wrong. The Roamio's WiFi is useless. Once I started the installation the unit simply told me I had a problem with my router/WiFi/septic tank/a neighbor/etc,...a problem with everything but the unit itself.<sigh> I had an old Linksys WRT54G that I had flashed with DD-WRT several years ago and had set to bridge mode. I knocked the cobwebs off of it and hooked it up. The Roamio was happy with the WiFi signal and started the setup routine. For me, having an old router like the WRT54G (and even the newer WiFi of the Sony BR player) beat out the "newer" technology inside of the Roamio was a big disappointment to me. But, as an old friend often said..."It is what it is". 

After WiFi situation was handled the unit went straight into setup and it went fairly well with no major problems. It seemed at times that things had stopped working but I waited it out. The Roamio appeared to reboot a couple of times...one time asking for my location information again *but* with the fields mostly already populated. I'm not sure what that was about.

Eventually (it did take a while) it got to the channel scan point of the setup and did what it was supposed to...it scanned for channels. It acquired most of the regular channels but my 2-edge station, WMCF/46, was missing. There were several that were acquired that simply were not being received. After fumbling my way through the screens and menus I found the where you can deselect channels that are bogus or that you're not interested in...the list includes *lots* of channels that simply are not in my viewing area. Cleaning that up a bit made it easier to see the actual live, ota channels available to me when I hit "Guide". I then used the manual channel scan button and rescanned the OTA. Interestingly, this time it picked up the elusive WMCF/46.

The most important feature to us is the tuner/receiver...it needs to be fairly sensitive. We are, as I mentioned, in a somewhat rural area with forest and hills between us and all of the towers. I'm sure we have multi-path and obstruction interference that we deal with. The DISH receiver has been decent in reception and I would say at the moment the Roamio's receiver, for my location and setup, is no better than the receiver in the VIP612 DVR, but maybe no worse, either. I have an older Samsung DTBH260F that I may hook up just to see how it does...it was always a sensitive box when I used it in the past. So, for now, the Roamio's receiver isn't anything I'm excited about...just kinda bland. Maybe that will change in the future. The only channel that I managed to get above about 65 on signal strength was a station that I consistently hit 100 with the VIP612. Other channels that would normally get a 85-100 signal strength with the VIP612 barely showed a 60-65 on the Roamio. I know that the measuring/metering of the two can't be compared as apples to apples but I thought I'd throw this in there for anyone that was interested. Looking at things, the weakest channels on the VIP612 are also the weakest ones on the Roamio...so that is consistency. 

I decided to check out the "Apps" section. The only thing I had to look at really was Amazon (prime member). This was a *very* aggravating encounter with signing in to register the Roamio. I entered my info with the cursor and toggle pad over and over and over again...even got to wondering if I knew my email address much less my password!!! I finally went to our computer to check and be sure I knew the password. Thankfully our email program was opened and there was a long list of messages from Amazon basically saying "Here dummy, you have to use this temporary password to register your device"! What? So, everytime I'd try to register the Roamio Amazon was sending me an email saying to use their supplied password. The problem was that our computer is in another room and the Roamio didn't give me a clue that our *real* password wasn't what was required to register the Amazon account....it just kept telling me my entry wasn't good. When I discovered this "little" tidbit of information I was not a happy camper...I might should be aggravated with Amazon but it was Tivo that gave me no clue that the information that they were asking for was not what was really required. Lots of wasted time and click, click, click, click, etc.,.  Anyhow, the streaming aspect appeared to work over our slow WiFi *and* internet connection...but, the Sony Blu-Ray's Amazon app did just as well and did not require an external router/bridge to connect.

I went back and ventured into "One Pass" recording setup. That seemed easy enough. Just be sure to select which channel you want...it seemed it wouldn't designate "HD" unless I did. It's yet to be seen whether the recordings actually happen. I may insert a splitter for the VIP612 and Roamio so that both can work...but, that will weaken the incoming OTA signal for both. I might could insert a switch rather than a splitter but that's problematical for recording on both.

I can see that there will be a learning curve with learning the user interface and the remote. I presume this is Hydra, though I haven't seen the name mentioned anywhere though I haven't looked for it, either. Nor have I looked for what version # this is. There is a lot of clutter on the "desktop"/screen/menus and I'm hopefully that the apps that we won't be using can be removed from the screen so that the clutter goes away...I'm definitely not sure, at this point, if that is possible.

This morning we have our 2-year-old granddaughter visiting so I've hooked the DISH receiver back up so my wife can navigate the menus for children's content. I think that if I had left the Roamio hooked up for my wife to try to work with that the initial direction of the WAF for Tivo would be much similar to the stock market on October 29, 1929. 

It's new, it's something that won't be learned in a day, it's different, WiFi is a fail, tuner/receiver performance is nothing to get overly excited about, but the menus look interesting and I see potential there. If my DISH DVR would work without a DISH payment each month, that it would work as a "Lifetime subscription" as the Roamio OTA does, I would be happy with it for OTA recording and the Sony Blu-Ray for streaming material...we just want to cut out the monthly satellite subscription bill, we're not looking for a new toy or flashy screens. Maybe the Roamio OTA will work for us...maybe it won't. As I said before, the Roamio OTA has potential but I need more time to study it and work with it....and to *learn* it. This has been my first immersion into the land of Tivo.

The jury is still out for deliberation. 
Best wishes,
Ed


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

Comparing signal strengths between different devices is apples-and-oranges. Seems like the critical question is: do you get 46 with acceptable viewing experience? There should be a readout of RS Corrected and RS Uncorrected error counts somewhere in your settings menus with 45 tuned. Ideally both will be zero but if RS Corrected is zero or climbing slowly your viewing should be good. I'm vague about where to find this because I don't have an OTA and don't use the Hydra UI.

You probably have Hydra, which many here do not like, although TiVo is fixing issues with it. You can revert to the pre-Hydra UI but do it before you get many recordings because you lose them during that process. You can go back to Hydra later and I don't think you lose recordings in that process. Hydra is optional now but one wonders if eventually they will force it on all.

Encourage you to browse this forum. There is a lot of info about the OTA that may be helpful.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

dlfl said:


> Comparing signal strengths between different devices is apples-and-oranges. Seems like the critical question is: do you get 46 with acceptable viewing experience? There should be a readout of RS Corrected and RS Uncorrected error counts somewhere in your settings menus with 45 tuned. Ideally both will be zero but if RS Corrected is zero or climbing slowly your viewing should be good. I'm vague about where to find this because I don't have an OTA and don't use the Hydra UI.


RS Corrected errors are not displayed on the basic Roamio or Bolt. Hydra or "Classic" are the same.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Intheswamp said:


> Yesterday afternoon I connected our new Roamio OTA up to see how it would work. I haven't ran Cat5e cable between our router and the Roamio location but figured I'd have no problem connecting via Wifi. Our Sony Blu-Ray player has no problem with the 30' distance nor do our iPhones/Pads and the Roamio will be/is in a better location. I was very, very wrong. The Roamio's WiFi is useless.
> 
> I decided to check out the "Apps" section. The only thing I had to look at really was Amazon (prime member). This was a *very* aggravating encounter with signing in to register the Roamio.
> 
> ...


I won't say the built-in wireless is useless, just that it's not worth anything. I use a wireless bridge. However, my Sony Blu-ray (S6500) also has sucky wireless, not even supporting 5GHz. I have a Sony TV (40W600B) and its wireless is not so good either, but usable.

The Amazon login issue also bit me and others. Luckily, my computer is in sight so I saw the email about the passcode. As For Prime streaming, I prefer the Roamio. It gets to 1080/p24 and DD+ quickly.

Good luck.


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## troasti (Nov 13, 2008)

One thing you need to remember with the Roamio is since there are 4 tuners inside the box it will be splitting the signal which could be an issue with problematic stations.


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## Intheswamp (Nov 15, 2017)

dlfl thanks for the feedback. Yes I understand that the manner of metering is different. It seems that I've read that a Roamio metering of ~70(?) is the preferred signal level...that stronger signals are attenuated by the AGC??? I'm seeing that with signals down around 50 that there is a good chance of the channel dropping out. I hope to explore the ROTA more tonight. I'll see if I can find where the RS error counts are located. I'm definitely browsing topics...*lots* to learn!!!! 

JoeKustra, yes it would be nice if the WiFi was a bit more robust (actually usable!) but for now I'm making do with the old WRT54G in bridge mode via DD-WRT. I may look into a faster bridge but with only a 3Mbps internet speed is it really worth the effort and expense? I'll continue to tinker with the streaming capabilities of the Roamio...I would like to settle into it and get accustomed to it so that I can pull the wife into it...gotta get the WAF going up. 

troasti, I'm not so sure that having four tuners inside the Roamio really matters as it would with an actual 4-way splitter. I'm thinking that once the signal arrives at the front-end of the Roamio receiver that there is amplification involved possibly prior to sending the signal to the four tuners. The reason I say this is that our "target station" is the 2-edge station...a weak signal for us. If the Roamio split the signal as does a 4-way splitter then the losses would be so severe that I don't think we would be receiving WMCF/46. I think there's more involved to it than a simple splitter arrangement in the Roamio. But, I'm no electrical engineer and have no idea how they've got it designed. 

One thing I noticed last night was that occasionally a little note would appear at the upper left-hand corner of the screen telling me something to the effect that all four tuners were being used. I can't recall what I was doing at those times but it made me wonder about how to actually use/access each tuner...or if I even need to or am able to? Something I need to figure out regarding the workings of Tivo.


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## osu1991 (Mar 6, 2015)

With Hydra you click the right arrow key and the other tuners are displayed to the right in 3 windows. With previous OS you push the info button and then down arrow to see the other tuners


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Intheswamp said:


> JoeKustra, yes it would be nice if the WiFi was a bit more robust (actually usable!) but for now I'm making do with the old WRT54G in bridge mode via DD-WRT. I may look into a faster bridge but with only a 3Mbps internet speed is it really worth the effort and expense? I'll continue to tinker with the streaming capabilities of the Roamio...I would like to settle into it and get accustomed to it so that I can pull the wife into it...gotta get the WAF going up.


It's not a speed issue. It's a power issue. My Netgear R8000 is ugly with six antennae. But I get 90% signal on the floor above the router. Speed is just a by-product of 802.11ac.

RS Corrected /Uncorrected are per tuner in Diagnostics. That's down lower in the menu that has System Information. Like I said, Corrected always displays zero. I could be counting, just keeping it a secret.


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## jerryez (May 16, 2001)

Her is a link to the Hydra user's manual. Read it.
https://explore.tivo.com/content/dam/tivo/explore/how-to/TiVoExperience_VG.pdf

I live in Pensacola about 40 miles from the River Styx towers for most of the locals. I have an outside antenna with a 20 foot pole and amp. I get 72 signal strength on most channels, but PBS 42, I get 62. There is one channels that I get 85 on. Where in Southern Alabama are you located.


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## Intheswamp (Nov 15, 2017)

osu1991 said:


> With Hydra you click the right arrow key and the other tuners are displayed to the right in 3 windows. With previous OS you push the info button and then down arrow to see the other tuners


Thanks for the info! I wasn't sure what the tuners were doing but now I can see. I also read in the file that jerryez linked to in a following message (thanks @jerryez) that you can press the LIVE TV button repeatedly and rotate between the different tuners...I didn't get a chance to explore the Roamio last night but maybe tonight I can try these features out.


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## Intheswamp (Nov 15, 2017)

JoeKustra said:


> It's not a speed issue. It's a power issue. My Netgear R8000 is ugly with six antennae. But I get 90% signal on the floor above the router. Speed is just a by-product of 802.11ac.
> 
> RS Corrected /Uncorrected are per tuner in Diagnostics. That's down lower in the menu that has System Information. Like I said, Corrected always displays zero. I could be counting, just keeping it a secret.


So with WiFi the speed will be more or less consistent but a strong signal results in fewer errors resulting in a higher quality signal...something like that? I've been tinkering with my old Linksys WRT54G and have managed, by changing it's location, to increase its signal from in the 60's to the low 80's (according to the Dlink DIR-655's status screen). Amazing what a foot or two this way or that way will do...or not do.

"...just keeping it a secret."....<grin>


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## Intheswamp (Nov 15, 2017)

jerryez said:


> Her is a link to the Hydra user's manual. Read it.
> https://explore.tivo.com/content/dam/tivo/explore/how-to/TiVoExperience_VG.pdf
> 
> I live in Pensacola about 40 miles from the River Styx towers for most of the locals. I have an outside antenna with a 20 foot pole and amp. I get 72 signal strength on most channels, but PBS 42, I get 62. There is one channels that I get 85 on. Where in Southern Alabama are you located.


I'm about 45 miles south of Montgomery. The transmitters are to our northwest at 39 miles and to the northeast at 21 miles...the target 2-edge station WMCF/46 is almost due north at around 49 miles. The majority of our recorded content will come from the northwest/39 mile distant transmitters.

I currently have the 4-bay antennacraft strapped on the mast below the DB8e with it pointed toward these transmitters. The DB8e is pointed towards WMCF/46 to the north...the channels to the northeast are having to come in on the sides of the DB8e and sometimes struggle.

The mast is a portable setup at the moment at about 12' max height for the DB8e...the 4-bay is down below...not optimal and hoping to get it up another 10' or so once I decide on definite location. I do have one station about 12 miles to the south of me, a fairly strong PBS station that comes in on the backside of the DB8e...it is high-VHF...coming through the backside and into a predominately UHF antenna I think helps keep it from overloading the other signals.

I think the rolling hills and forests between us and the towers give us a bit of multipath to contend with plus simple obstruction in the signal path...interestingly one of the two transmitters from the NW gives us the best signal...and it is the weaker(?) transmitter.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Intheswamp said:


> So with WiFi the speed will be more or less consistent but a strong signal results in fewer errors resulting in a higher quality signal...something like that? I've been tinkering with my old Linksys WRT54G and have managed, by changing it's location, to increase its signal from in the 60's to the low 80's (according to the Dlink DIR-655's status screen). Amazing what a foot or two this way or that way will do...or not do.
> "...just keeping it a secret."....<grin>


I have a tri-band router. As a test I set my TiVo to use the 2.4GHz band. My signal went to 95% from 85%. But the Mini that used it as a host was useless. Put back to 5GHz and the Mini was mostly useless. So much is location and device dependent, it's probably why TiVo doesn't support a wireless connection. It took me a year and several routers before I found a stable solution. I have a lot of free time. I used that Dlink router. Maybe five years ago.


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## Intheswamp (Nov 15, 2017)

One issue I have is the construction material used in the walls of my house. The house was built back around 1950 and the interior walls are metal-backed mortarboard. Between the computer/router and the bridge/Tivo there are two walls which means four sheets of mortarboard. There is a large walkway between both of these walls (a foyer) but the LOS between the router and bridge has the walls between them. Right now the DIR-655 is showing a 54Mbps rate and an 80% signal...better than it has been.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

What happens if you leave the swamp?


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## Intheswamp (Nov 15, 2017)

slowbiscuit said:


> What happens if you leave the swamp?


The ankle monitor won't let me...


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## Intheswamp (Nov 15, 2017)

Well, I tinkered some last night. The Roamio OTA with Hydra is growing on me. This morning I believe my first scheduled recording took place...a kids show on PBS (gotta have some content for the youngest (2yo) granddaughter!  ). The left arrow button does indeed work well to bring up the hidden three tuners and the "Live TV" button will cycle through the tuners. I have ran into a situation on a few occasions where it seems like the remote or the Roamio box itself just freezes...remote control seems to stop working. But after a five or ten seconds things start working again. 

Being as we still have the satellite receiver operating as we explore Tivo I decided to insert a simple video "T" to split the antenna signal between the VIP-612 sat receiver and the Raomio OTA. It appears to have very slightly reduced signal strength but we just had a wet cold front move in after clear and warm weather and I'm not sure if change in weather is helping or harming reception. By the weekend we will have clear skies and freezing temperatures at night...our lows have been being in the 50F's. I figure that any tropo will be gone and we'll see how this last splitting of the signal affects reception. 

Since I have both receivers hooked up I set up a Monoprice HDMI switch that I've had for ages still new in box. Simple 4-port remote-controlled switch. Green LEDs for ports online and a VERY bright flashing red LED to designate the port in use...those red LEDs are going to meet "Mr. Black Paint". I'm also going to tinker with a Roku Premiere+ (thinking about Sling and it's sports package for college football!)....I figure I'll install it at the switch.

We've been using an older Harmony remote for years...been dropped several times, screen is a little fuzzy, etc.,. But the all-in-one controller has made our television viewing much easier. We run everything thing through our Denon A/V receiver and feed to the Panasonic panel through a signal HDMI cable. I purchased another Harmony probably a year ago when Costco had them on sale in anticipation of our old remote giving up the ghost. Well, the old remote is still working but I figure it's the time to break the new Harmony remote out and configure it for use with the Roamio. The only problem I *think* I might have is with the HDMI switch, but we'll see. If there is an issue I *might* can liberate an HDMI port on the Denon for the Roku.

When I first viewed the user interface I was a bit intimidated but I'm beginning to adapt and learn a bit (very small bit) about how to use the Roamio OTA. I've got to get a bit of knowledge under my belt so I can start showing my wife how to navigate things. I think I'm actually warming up to the Roamio a bit...I can see potential!!!


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## jerryez (May 16, 2001)

I tried a week of Sling for free and was disappointed in how slow the programs loaded. This was a year ago, so things might have improved since then. Try the Free week first. I have a 50 foot ethernet cable run thru my attic from my pc to the living room where I have a 7 way splitter, so everything is on wired internet. No wifi. You might want to consider that, if you want Sling or a lot of streaming. I still have Dish with HWS receiver, but only have the Welcome pack for 19.99 and the movie pack for $10. With the TiVo, I get more channel guides for the subs and a better commercial skip.I am not a sports fan, except football and I get enough on my antenna. Montgomery ain't South Alabama. NW Florida is more LA(lower Alabama) than that, since we get our tv from Mobile.


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## Intheswamp (Nov 15, 2017)

Yeah, it seems that all the streaming services offer a free trial for a week or two. I figure once I get somewhat of a grip working the Roamio and maybe the Roku that I'll start checking some trials of the streaming sources out. My biggest obstacle is my slow internet connection. But, I gotta deal with what it is, so we'll see. From the Roamio OTA to the Mini I can see where a wired connection will help, but as far as from the router to the Roamio OTA I'm not so sure it's going to make much of a difference. With my patched together WiFi it looks like I'm getting 54Mbps at 80% signal strength and I've only got to deal with 720p...it seems to be working with Amazon Prime. But, we haven't tried streaming fast moving (like football) "live" tv. We'll see...

Naw, Montgomery ain't south Alabama...ya gotta get south of Highland Home for that!!!! And you are kind of right about NW Florida....they oughta just whack the panhandle off around Carrabelle and call it Alabama.


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## jerryez (May 16, 2001)

Except for the state income tax, NW Florida would be better off in Alabama. We do not get our share of state funding from those in charge. Plus we pay no sales tax on groceries.


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## Intheswamp (Nov 15, 2017)

Ok, got the ethernet cables pulled this afternoon from router to Roamio and Roamio to Mini. Tomorrow afternoon I'll put some plugs on and hook everything together and see what happens.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Too late now I guess, but since you had Dish before, presumably with at least one coax run, why couldn't you just use Moca and not run any new cables or deal with spotty wi-fi? When I went from Dish/DirecTV/Cable to Tivo and Cable/OTA, it was seamless switching to Moca. No new wires required, only a Moca bridge or two (I got really cheap Channel Masters from ebay).


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## Intheswamp (Nov 15, 2017)

Well, I started out going with MoCA and actually have a Tivo Bridge here waiting to senc back to Amazon. It apparently was a refurb/return being as the tape seal was broken and dirty when it arrived. Pondering the return gave me time to think about Ethernet. With an Ethernet connection at the Tivo I can use it for streaming from my Sony Blu-Ray, Roku, etc., and not have to rely on WiFi. This also cut out the need for a bridge and it's expense though I did have to buy $20 worth of Cat5e cable. I'm also planning on running the DISH receiver parallel with the Roamio OTA for a month or so, so that precludes the use of the existing satellite cable.

I needed to get a wired connection to the Tivo anyhow so why not pull an extra cable while I was doing it? Plus, I had really been looking forward to playing with the spiders!!!! That's my story and I'm stickin' to it...at least until I change it!!!


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## jerryez (May 16, 2001)

Try this, it is supposed to get rid of spiders also.

https://www.amazon.com/Electronic-U...=8-7&keywords=riddex+electronic+pest+repeller


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## Intheswamp (Nov 15, 2017)

Nah, the next time I went under there all the spiders and mice would probably be dancing to the beat and having the time of their lives!!!!


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## Intheswamp (Nov 15, 2017)

Well, tonight was the night me and my wife called our longtime relationship with DISH officially at an end. Alabama beat Georgia the other night, so that win is in the history books (ROLL TIDE!!!) and I'll have plenty of time to figure something out for college football by next fall. Then, tonight, we watched the series finale of TV series that we've watched for a long time on a satellite channel. That is done with. Nothing now to hold us back. I sat there and set all the settings back to default (what an ugly square 4:3 screen with some very tall and very skinny people on it!<grin>), erased all of our recording schedules, erased all the recorded shows still on the DVR (lots of kids programs for our granddaughters), and just cruised around the menus looking for anything to zero out or delete. Tomorrow I get to call and see how cheap they will go before I tell them to turn it off. I'm looking forward to the sound of "snip".


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## Intheswamp (Nov 15, 2017)

The deed is done!!! How liberating!!!!!!


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## ke3ju (Jan 5, 2004)

Intheswamp said:


> Well, tonight was the night me and my wife called our longtime relationship with DISH officially at an end. Alabama beat Georgia the other night, so that win is in the history books (ROLL TIDE!!!) and I'll have plenty of time to figure something out for college football by next fall. Then, tonight, we watched the series finale of TV series that we've watched for a long time on a satellite channel. That is done with. Nothing now to hold us back. I sat there and set all the settings back to default (what an ugly square 4:3 screen with some very tall and very skinny people on it!<grin>), erased all of our recording schedules, erased all the recorded shows still on the DVR (lots of kids programs for our granddaughters), and just cruised around the menus looking for anything to zero out or delete. Tomorrow I get to call and see how cheap they will go before I tell them to turn it off. I'm looking forward to the sound of "snip".


I just hung up with DirecTV. It was scary saying "cancel my service". 14 years with them. It feels good tho.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


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## Intheswamp (Nov 15, 2017)

Congratulations, ke3ju!!!! It does feel good, doesn't it!  We were with Direct prior to DISH...we were with DISH for eleven years...I calculated it and found that over the time we were with DISH we paid them well over $16,000.00!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No more....


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## just4tivo (Dec 9, 2015)

Was with Dish for 10 years and then about the same with DTV till AT&T bought them.

It will feel EVEN better a few years down the road when you think how much money you haven't spent on DBS or cable the past few years.

We have to hope TiVo will continue to operate or the joke is on all of us.


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## ke3ju (Jan 5, 2004)

just4tivo said:


> Was with Dish for 10 years and then about the same with DTV till AT&T bought them.
> 
> It will feel EVEN better a few years down the road when you think how much money you haven't spent on DBS or cable the past few years.
> 
> We have to hope TiVo will continue to operate or the joke is on all of us.


Gave up TiVo 10 years ago because DirecTV dumped them. We all thought it was the end of TiVo...I'm wicked impressed with what that got going. I had a hard time getting the mini to see the Roamio OTA, but someone here posted something that got me up and running. Looking forward to not being a slave to pay for TV...

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


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## Intheswamp (Nov 15, 2017)

And if the Tivos don't continue to work, then I have a set-top-ota-box and some streaming boxes. We'll still be money ahead...and maybe (horrors) it would teach us that we don't need *that* much TV viewing! 

But, I certainly hope Tivo doesn't only continue to operate but improves by leaps and bounds.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

ke3ju said:


> I had a hard time getting the mini to see the Roamio OTA, but someone here posted something that got me up and running.


Can you provide any details on what resolved your issue, or a link to the post containing the solution? Thanks!


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## Intheswamp (Nov 15, 2017)

Well, things are percolating along just fine without DISH content. Maybe even better. 

But, I did run into an issue last night with the Roamio OTA. We had finished watching a recorded program and fast-forwarded to get to the option screen where you can delete or save the program. It seemed to "hang"...unresponsive for a minute or so. Finally it got to the pop-up menu and I deleted the program. Things are kind of blurry as to what happened next, but upon selecting another program in "My Shows" a blue buffering circle came on the screen and the Roamio wouldn't respond to any commands from the remote control. This lasted a minute or two, also. Finally the second program pulled up and I was able to start it playing. We watched the show without further incident. This is the first time the Roamio has exhibited the "blue circle", though it does take spells of being unresponsive to the remote control for several seconds at a time. Rather irritating. 

Any thoughts on the blue circle/buffering?
Thanks,
Ed


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Intheswamp said:


> Any thoughts on the blue circle/buffering?
> Thanks,
> Ed


There have been some reports ->blue circles are back but I haven seen any.


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## BrettStah (Nov 12, 2000)

Here's a little tip unrelated to the buffering... Instead of fast-forwarding to the very end, just press the left directional button. When you're near the end of the show, you'll see the same pop-up message, and it's quicker to bring up this way.


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## Intheswamp (Nov 15, 2017)

I checked the thread out Joe...thanks for the reference.

Brett, I appreciate the tip...I knew there had to be a better way!


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

BrettStah said:


> Here's a little tip unrelated to the buffering... Instead of fast-forwarding to the very end, just press the left directional button. When you're near the end of the show, you'll see the same pop-up message, and it's quicker to bring up this way.





Intheswamp said:


> Brett, I appreciate the tip...I knew there had to be a better way!


You can also hold down the Advance (30-second skip) button, and it will jump to the end of the recording -- well, 30 seconds or less from the end, anyway. Holding down the Instant Replay button takes you to the beginning of the recording.


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## BrettStah (Nov 12, 2000)

krkaufman said:


> You can also hold down the Advance (30-second skip) button, and it will jump to the end of the recording -- well, 30 seconds or less from the end, anyway. Holding down the Instant Replay button takes you to the beginning of the recording.


Yeah, that's a good tip enhancement! Skip to the end, then press the left directional button to bring up the menu.


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## Sptrader (Oct 7, 2017)

krkaufman said:


> Can you provide any details on what resolved your issue, or a link to the post containing the solution? Thanks!


 I had the same problem with a new mini not seeing my Roamio OTA. My Solution was to connect BOTH to the same router, then it worked. After the initial connection, you can put the mini back and it should continue to work.


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## Intheswamp (Nov 15, 2017)

Update...

Well, we're coming up on our 1-year anniversary to our official cord-cutting with DI$H. We've thoroughly been satisfied with our Roamio OTA experience. Sure, some hiccups along the way but we had those with DI$H, too. Thinking of the money that we've saved helps to make me smile, too. The only thing that bothers me is that TIVO has discontinued the Roamio OTA and the Bolt replacement for it in no way compares in regards to cost.

One hurdle that I had to cross was viewing college football. Here is where a tangent from Tivo was taken. We used a Roku to subscribe to Hulu Live. College football season is coming to an end for this season so we'll be dropping Hulu Live. As it is, we are considering keeping a subscription to regular Hulu for some of the streaming, archived network programs. I do wish Tivo would work on their apps to include Hulu Live and a few others. Mostly we use the Roamio for viewing OTA programs that we've recorded or either live tv...it works. 

I've yet to improve our antenna situation. I really need to get it up higher and a more "neat" setup. But, even with our "tether-ball" mount and a low height we have done pretty good with our reception. I really need to improve it, though.

So, after a year of being free from DI$H, we have adapted to our new viewing experience and are very satisfied with our Tivo/Roku setup.

Happy Anniversary to us!!!!  :thumbsup:
Ed


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