# tivo not picking up channels as well as antenna straight to tv



## garek007 (Sep 3, 2013)

Hi,
I just bought a TiVo roamio and so far I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it. When I connect to my antenna and scan for channels, it doesn't find as many as it should. I tried hooking the antenna straight to my TV, and I get a lot more channels. Whenever I try to go through the tivo, i get fewer channels and the reception is spotty. Why is this happening? Why would I get fewer channels through my TiVo? If anything, I thought it would actually improve the reception by buffering...


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

You have to remember that internally it's basically got a 4 way splitter, which means a -7db loss on each tuner. Your TV probably doesn't. Maybe you should pick up an amplifier and see if that helps your reception. There are also some antennas with amps built in.


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## garek007 (Sep 3, 2013)

There is an amp attached... It when is powered and it's plugged in, so I think it on????


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

It's possible your TV just has a better tuner. I don't really do OTA, but from what I've read here the one in the Roamio is the best OTA tuner ever put into a TiVo, but it's possible the one in your TV is better. 

Can you adjust the angle of the antenna at all and see if you can pick up the stations any better?


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## rexreed (Jun 4, 2013)

I'm not sure what the op meant by buffering ota. One thing to check is the coax , make sure it properly connected. On other devices I have accdentally cross threaded the coax.


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## ss-stingray (Aug 25, 2013)

I'm ota and my Roamio has great reception. Change cables or splitters and rescan. My Samsung tuner picked up 58 channels and TiVo got 70. I'm sure the TiVo has a 7 to 10 db amp to offset the 4 way split.


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## garek007 (Sep 3, 2013)

I don't know about crossed threading the cables I've never done that so how would I know if that is the case? I have been adjusting the antenna and the position of it including bring it closer to the window and moving it all around. Its just odd to me that my TV getting better. My TV is pretty old 7 years at least. How do I check if the cable is cross threaded


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## Leon WIlkinson (Feb 13, 2000)

cross threaded is just when u twist it on and it is at a slight angle and it is on one or threads from where it should be. which wouldn't allow the coax to seat fully in the coax threaded hole.


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## zgamer (Oct 13, 2007)

Dan203 said:


> You have to remember that internally it's basically got a 4 way splitter, which means a -7db loss on each tuner. Your TV probably doesn't. Maybe you should pick up an amplifier and see if that helps your reception. There are also some antennas with amps built in.


Sure about that? I haven't seen any multi-tuner setups like this in almost a decade.


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## garek007 (Sep 3, 2013)

hmm, well direct tv is only 25 per month and I pay 15 for the tivo service. I may just take it back for now and get direct tv. Maybe in two years the technology will have gotten better...


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

zgamer said:


> Sure about that? I haven't seen any multi-tuner setups like this in almost a decade.


No I just assumed. But I do know that when I moved from a 4 tuner Elite to a 6 tuner Roamio Pro my signal strength dropped and a couple channels could no longer be tuned until I rearranged my splitters to give the Roamio a more direct line to the source.


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## StevesWeb (Dec 26, 2008)

My Roamio is receiving channels that my Premiere never saw. It seems to sync up much faster when you change channels.


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## Joe Siegler (May 10, 2000)

StevesWeb said:


> My Roamio is receiving channels that my Premiere never saw. It seems to sync up much faster when you change channels.


Does it still take bloody forever for a channel scan from an antenna? If I plug the same antenna into my TV, it takes like 3 minutes to run a scan of all the channels. My Premiere took like 20 minutes - dafuq?

Hoping Roamio is faster.


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## Davelnlr_ (Jan 13, 2011)

garek007 said:


> hmm, well direct tv is only 25 per month and I pay 15 for the tivo service. I may just take it back for now and get direct tv. Maybe in two years the technology will have gotten better...


I dont know where you got the $25 price for Directv, but I can assure you, in the two year contract period you will have to sign up for, the prices are going to be WAY over $25. It will also only carry the "big 6" networks, so you wont get all those subchannels with DirecTv at all.

There are various reasons the TV might be picking up more stations:
The TV has better multipath rejection (inside and omnidirectional antennas are terrible at picking up multipath)
The signal is actually to strong for the Tivo (add a splitter between the coax and the Tivo and see if it gets more or less stations).
The signal on the missing stations is below the Tivo's tuner threshold after its 4 way split. (Add a variable gain amplifier to your antenna)
Marginal signals on farther stations (put a 4 bay bow tie antenna in a closet, attic, or preferably outside)
You got a Tivo with a bad splitter or OTA tuner (exchange it through Tivo)

Check your address at www.tvfool.com
Any station not listed as LOS (line of sight) will require a better than indoor antenna for optimum reception. If the missing stations are listed as 1 edge or 2 edge, you will really benefit from a good antenna as high as possible. If your stations are in multiple directions, you are really not going to have much luck as no DVR I am aware of, is capable of controlling an antenna rotor, and omnidirectional antennas are difficult at best to optimise for all the stations.


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## StevesWeb (Dec 26, 2008)

Joe Siegler said:


> Does it still take bloody forever for a channel scan from an antenna? If I plug the same antenna into my TV, it takes like 3 minutes to run a scan of all the channels. My Premiere took like 20 minutes - dafuq?
> 
> Hoping Roamio is faster.


It is faster, much faster, but it still does take a while.


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