# Base Roamio and Streaming



## TX WJ (Jan 2, 2003)

I have a base Roamio and a Tivo Stream coming Tuesday. 

Do both of them need to be wired to the router?

I have a Apple Airport extreme and a Apple Airport express currently, with the extreme hooked to the cable modem, and the Express as a (wireless) extension to the network. The express only has connection so if I have to hook both the roamio and the stream up, I am out of luck.

We are cutting Directv and going with a Roamio and 3 Apple TV's, I have the HD Antennas hooked up and all is good there.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

The Stream can be anywhere on your network. As long as the TiVo and Stream can talk to one another via your network it'll work fine.

Also I don't know what your expertise on networking is but you can add more ports to your router by simply adding a switch. Just connect one port on your router to one port on the switch and then any devices connected to the switch can talk to the router. You could daisy chain switches like this to add thousands of ports if you wanted. But in your case a simple 5 port switch would add 3 extra ports to your setup. You can get a 5 port 10/100 switch for about $10 on Amazon.


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## TX WJ (Jan 2, 2003)

Dan203 said:


> The Stream can be anywhere on your network. As long as the TiVo and Stream can talk to one another via your network it'll work fine.
> 
> Also I don't know what your expertise on networking is but you can add more ports to your router by simply adding a switch. Just connect one port on your router to one port on the switch and then any devices connected to the switch can talk to the router. You could daisy chain switches like this to add thousands of ports if you wanted. But in your case a simple 5 port switch would add 3 extra ports to your setup. You can get a 5 port 10/100 switch for about $10 on Amazon.


Thanks


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## TX WJ (Jan 2, 2003)

Dan203 said:


> The Stream can be anywhere on your network. As long as the TiVo and Stream can talk to one another via your network it'll work fine.
> 
> Also I don't know what your expertise on networking is but you can add more ports to your router by simply adding a switch. Just connect one port on your router to one port on the switch and then any devices connected to the switch can talk to the router. You could daisy chain switches like this to add thousands of ports if you wanted. But in your case a simple 5 port switch would add 3 extra ports to your setup. You can get a 5 port 10/100 switch for about $10 on Amazon.


It has been stuck on checking activation status for over an hour. It says that the tivo stream and the tivo both have to be connected to the router. Right now, my router is in my office where my cable comes in that is hooked to a airport extreme, I have the stream hooked into it there.

I have a airport express upstairs where the Tivo Roamio is, I have tried with and without it plugged into the airport express.

Any ideas?


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## TX WJ (Jan 2, 2003)

it now went through the first 4 steps then said on step 4 Problem testing streaming.


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## JohnnyO (Nov 3, 2002)

TX WJ said:


> it now went through the first 4 steps then said on step 4 Problem testing streaming.


I had a similar issue setting up my Stream tonight. I found a comment in a TiVo support forum that directed people to use the iPad App to Make a Service Call from the Stream. This is found in the System Information menu at the bottom, under the 'gear' symbol at the top of the TiV iPad App screen. That takes about 5-10 minutes. After that, restart the Stream from the iPad. After that, it worked for me.


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## TX WJ (Jan 2, 2003)

I was on hold for 16:40 when a recording came on and says that they"know I called" whatever that means.

Tried chat and got this.

This is just FYI for anyone in the future. It works but very 30-45 seconds it skips just a bit, making it unwatchable. I have 15-25 MBPS (20+ most the time) down through Comcast, so speed shouldn't be a issue.

Tivo: Currently are you using a supported network setup? For the function you are looking for, you would need the TiVo box, and the TiVo Stream to be hard-wired to the Internet Router.

Me: the tivo roamio is hooked to a apple airport express in a bedroom

Me: the stream is hooked to a apple airport extreme on the same network

Tivo: But they are wirelessly communicating? 

Me: yes

Tivo: Are they on the same subnet? 

Me: they are on the same network, same password

Tivo: Ok. So what makes that setup unsupported is that they are not connected to the same physical router. If you can get that connection to work, then that is great, but it is not supported by us to have it set up that way. 

Me: so you have to have the tivo and the stream and the router in the same room hardwired?

Tivo: Essentially, yes.


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## mdscott (Jun 26, 2002)

The impression I get is that the Stream and source (base Roamio) should be on a portion of the network that is wired (EtherNet/MoCA) from there the signal moves happily wireless to farther reaches. 

If this is correct (and without testing it is WAG) - you could have a small switch connected to the Airport Express and connect both the Stream and Roamio to that.

michael


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## TX WJ (Jan 2, 2003)

mdscott said:


> The impression I get is that the Stream and source (base Roamio) should be on a portion of the network that is wired (EtherNet/MoCA) from there the signal moves happily wireless to farther reaches.
> 
> If this is correct (and without testing it is WAG) - you could have a small switch connected to the Airport Express and connect both the Stream and Roamio to that.
> 
> michael


I may try that, but I am not moving my cable modem to the bedroom.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

I see a small glitch like you are describing with both my Stream and the built-in stream function of the Roamio Plus.

I don't see it if I completely download the show to the iPad.

I expect it's a transcoding bug and hopefully they can fix it.

Certainly I would not describe the resulting video as unwatchable.

Stream performance on your home network would have nothing to do with your Comcast speed, so if it does it there it's either a TiVo bug (which I think it is) or a limitation with your Wifi performance.


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## mdscott (Jun 26, 2002)

TX WJ said:


> I may try that, but I am not moving my cable modem to the bedroom.


Would never suggest that -- too many blinking lights.

michael

On the serious side you have enough equipment that keeping track of the MoCA capabilities of various devices might prove useful. Looks like you may have a full set of coax cabling which could be used.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Think about it this way.... The Roamio is streaming to the Stream using the same full resolution stream that you'd get when watching in another room via a Mini. So figure a max of 19.2Mbps for that. The Stream is then transcoding that video and sending it out to your iPad, so figure another 2.3Mbps for that. So if your network can't sustain a constant 21.5Mbps of throughput it's not going to work. That's why officially TiVo only supports Ethernet or MoCa because wifi has a hard time with that sort of sustained throughput. But with good equipment you can make it work.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

mdscott said:


> Would never suggest that -- too many blinking lights.


That's what electrical tape is for.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Or Light Dims. They are working great on my Roamio Pro.


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## StevesWeb (Dec 26, 2008)

TX WJ said:


> I may try that, but I am not moving my cable modem to the bedroom.


The equipment does not need to be in the same room, but there does have to be a wired connection. You can have switches in the middle, you just need a wired connection. That will fix the problem.


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## Bramble (Mar 28, 2009)

I was also having issues getting my stream working with my roamio, but I got it working by moving the connections around a little.

My setup is that I have a Actiontec router from Fios, which also feeds the moca signal, and an Asus RT-N66U in wireless access point point mode which is hardwired into the Actiontec. They sit about 6 inches from each other but the RT-N66U is a little more accessible so I tend to plug stuff into that first, and it handles all the wireless devices. The Roamio basic is in another room, connected via a Channel Master moca switch. Everything is on the same subnet, and I can connect to the Roamio from my computer which is connected wired via the RT-N66U and my iPhone which is connected to the RT-N66U via wireless. However when I had the Stream also plugged into the RT-N66U, it would fail on setup 4 of the setup process, testing the streaming, and if I tried to initiate a stream it would fail. I switched the connections so that the Stream was plugged into to the Actiontec instead, and I was able to successfully stream.

So obviously they don't have to be directly connected to the same physical router, but having the RT-N66U in between was getting in the way of something.


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## TX WJ (Jan 2, 2003)

I bought a switch and hooked the stream and the Tivo Roamio to the same airport express, worked a bit better this morning. Now tonight its worse than it was. 

I guess my options are move my cable modem and airport extreme to the master bedroom, or MoCa?

Does MoCa really work? I guess I would need two, one where my cable modem comes in and the other on the Tivo?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

If the Roamio and the Stream are both connected to the same switch via Ethernet then you've got the best connection possible between them. If you're still having problems then look at the connection between your Stream and your iPad. Are you using 802.11n? If not upgrade. Also if the AirPort is just a bridge and the data has to flow through it, to your wifi access point, and then back out to your iPad that can also be a problem as you'll need double the wifi bandwidth for the stream. Although the stream is only about 2.5Mbps so it shouldn't really cause a problem.


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## TX WJ (Jan 2, 2003)

Office

Cable Modem to Airport Extreme

Bedroom

Airport Express (which is a extension of Airport Extreme) to switch, the Stream and Roamio are both plugged into it.


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## Joe Siegler (May 10, 2000)

StevesWeb said:


> The equipment does not need to be in the same room, but there does have to be a wired connection. You can have switches in the middle, you just need a wired connection. That will fix the problem.


For me, my cable modem is in my son's bedroom. The previous owners of the house ran it in there. I once looked into having that moved, but TWC threw a wobbler about it, and I decided not to fight them on it. I had a friend go up in the attic and run a network cable from that room all the way over to my living room, so I can have the router in there as opposed to just sitting next to the cable modem. So they're not together, but are hardwired.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

TX WJ said:


> Office
> 
> Cable Modem to Airport Extreme
> 
> ...


You still effectively are using a wi-fi bridge to connect your stream and Roamio to the rest of the network. That alone could account for the performance problems you are seeing b


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## TX WJ (Jan 2, 2003)

I put a switch on the airport express and it seems to be working great.

Love the Roamio.

I need to investigate getting a mini.

Could I hook it up to my other airport express I guess?


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

There's nothing stopping you from doing it, but TiVo does not support the Mini when it must hop through a wi-fi network to get to the host Roamio.


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## OutGolfn (Oct 1, 2013)

TX WJ said:


> I put a switch on the airport express and it seems to be working great.
> 
> Love the Roamio.


Just did the base roamio and tivo stream with a 5 port switch last night. After getting stuck on step 4, it now works and streaming looks great over a linksys access point into the switch. This might help others as I found it on tivo's forum if they get stuck on step 4 network testing. Go into settings within the iPad app, then tivo stream system and tap on "Make Service Call" wait 5-10 minutes and then tap on restart tivo stream. From that point all other iOS devices started working immediately.


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