# So Far, not impressed with the Bolt



## spaldingclan (Aug 22, 2012)

So I have a 2015 Sony 4k tv with a new Bolt hooked up to it and I cant seem to get TV to stop blacking out the screen on channel changes and when I fast forward. 1080p and 2160 are the resolutions chosen...if I do 1080p, I'm basically just turning it into a Roamio which I just got rid of...am I crazy? whats the deal?


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Possibly related...

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=541573

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=538850


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## lujan (May 24, 2010)

spaldingclan said:


> So I have a 2015 Sony 4k tv with a new Bolt hooked up to it and I cant seem to get TV to stop blacking out the screen on channel changes and when I fast forward. 1080p and 2160 are the resolutions chosen...if I do 1080p, I'm basically just turning it into a Roamio which I just got rid of...am I crazy? whats the deal?


This stopped happening to me once I switched over to optical for audio and connecting the HDMI directly to the TV rather than the Onkyo AVR. No problems since.


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## rjrsouthwest (Feb 19, 2016)

I have the bolt hooked to a new 2016 Vizio 4K P series and am even more impressed with the picture on the new TV after switching from a Roamio 2 months ago. I have mine on Auto resolution and the Tivo upscales everything to 2160 connected to the TV with the HDMI cable supplied with the Tivo Bolt.


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## elwaylite (Apr 23, 2006)

Mine works fine with a UHD LG OLED. The problem I see is when it changes from say 1080i, to 1080p, to 2160p. It does blackout and if you have too many resolution selections chosen on Netflix it will act up. I leave it with 4k/24 and 4k/60 active only.

As far as my short experience, it is a lot like my 4 tuner Roamio was, except:


It is faster
Netflix works better and the UHD Netflix PQ is outstanding
PQ is better overall IMO


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## spaldingclan (Aug 22, 2012)

I'll hit up my setup later today and make some changes...thanks folks


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## spaldingclan (Aug 22, 2012)

figured it out as per instructions in those links (thanks KRKAUFMAN!)

turns out I needed to turn OFF HDR (or in Sony speak "enhanced mode" on the HDMI input on my Sony tv that the Bolt was connected to.

I did notice that the Netflix in the Bolt says "4kUHD" for Marco Polo whereas on my Sony Netflix app, it only says "HDR" (obv the bolt doesnt do HDR but my TV does)


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## johndoedoes (Oct 10, 2015)

elwaylite said:


> Mine works fine with a UHD LG OLED. The problem I see is when it changes from say 1080i, to 1080p, to 2160p. It does blackout and if you have too many resolution selections chosen on Netflix it will act up. I leave it with 4k/24 and 4k/60 active only.
> 
> As far as my short experience, it is a lot like my 4 tuner Roamio was, except:
> 
> ...


What do you mean too many resolutions selected? I like the TV choosing what the source is and changing to that picture - is that why my Netflix won't work?


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## elwaylite (Apr 23, 2006)

johndoedoes said:


> What do you mean too many resolutions selected? I like the TV choosing with the source is and changing to that picture - is that why my Netflix won't work?


I am finding that if it is left to (auto) is seems to act up more.

I am only using 4k/24 and 4k/60 settings, but it still has blackouts and other odd things.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

spaldingclan said:


> So I have a 2015 Sony 4k tv with a new Bolt hooked up to it and I cant seem to get TV to stop blacking out the screen on channel changes and when I fast forward. 1080p and 2160 are the resolutions chosen...if I do 1080p, I'm basically just turning it into a Roamio which I just got rid of...am I crazy? whats the deal?


My Bolts work without that issue connected to my 2015 Sony 850C. With 1080P60/24 and 2160P60/24 options checked there are no blackouts while rewinding or fast forwarding. For channel changes, any tuner will take a very short period to lock in on the new signal.

Have you tried a different HDMI cable? I'm using an HDMi.org certified premium HDMI cable. Which has been tested to work with all 2160P content. And the test results can be viewed.


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## spaldingclan (Aug 22, 2012)

aaronwt said:


> My Bolts work without that issue connected to my 2015 Sony 850C. With 1080P60/24 and 2160P60/24 options checked there are no blackouts while rewinding or fast forwarding. For channel changes, any tuner will take a very short period to lock in on the new signal.
> 
> Have you tried a different HDMI cable? I'm using an HDMi.org certified premium HDMI cable. Which has been tested to work with all 2160P content. And the test results can be viewed.


read further down...the fix was turning off enhanced mode (HDR) on that HDMI port (Tivo doesn't support HDR)


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

spaldingclan said:


> read further down...the fix was turning off enhanced mode (HDR) on that HDMI port (Tivo doesn't support HDR)


Yes. Sony specifically says not to use enhanced unless the device needs it.
Although when I tried my Bolt with enhanced I still didn't have any blackout issues. But it prevented the Bolt from sending 2160P24. That option was grayed out. It would only send out 2160P60.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

Netflix on Bolt has always been challenging and is completely fubar if I enable more than one resolution, so I use [email protected] and [email protected] and let the TiVo upscale everything (TiVo connected to an Onkyo TX-NR646 which is connected to a 2014 Vizio P-Series television). I'd probably pass on using it for the purpose but its the only device that I own which can output streaming services at 24Hz (Netflix, Amazon, VUDU, Hulu, HBO Go). Well, I have an old Panasonic BDP and a WD TV Live Streaming which can do it, but with the old UI running at a snail's pace, so I guess it's truer to say that the Bolt is the _best_ device I have capable of outputting streaming video at 24Hz . Thus far of the streaming services only the Netflix app has problems.


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## lujan (May 24, 2010)

mikeyts said:


> Netflix on Bolt has always been challenging and is completely fubar if I enable more than one resolution, so I use [email protected] and [email protected] and let the TiVo upscale everything (TiVo connected to an Onkyo TX-NR646 which is connected to a 2014 Vizio P-Series television). I'd probably pass on using it for the purpose but its the only device that I own which can output streaming services at 24Hz (Netflix, Amazon, VUDU, Hulu, HBO Go). Well, I have an old Panasonic BDP and a WD TV Live Streaming which can do it, but with the old UI running at a snail's pace, so I guess it's truer to say that the Bolt is the _best_ device I have capable of outputting streaming video at 24Hz . Thus far of the streaming services only the Netflix app has problems.


Hmmm? Netflix is the only streaming service I use with the Bolt and haven't had problems. It loads faster on the Bolt than with any other device.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

lujan said:


> Hmmm? Netflix is the only streaming service I use with the Bolt and haven't had problems. It loads faster on the Bolt than with any other device.


Netflix had been solid on my Bolt with 1080P60/24 and 2160P60/24. And least until I canceled my subscription a couple of weeks ago. It's been Amazon that has caused me some issues.


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## mikeyts (Jul 10, 2004)

lujan said:


> Hmmm? Netflix is the only streaming service I use with the Bolt and haven't had problems. It loads faster on the Bolt than with any other device.


That's because it only loads it once per boot up of the device and just jumps back in to the loaded code wherever you left off when you start it after that (unless you were viewing something when you exited, in which case it returns to that title's main menu). You can tell it to reload the app, or exit the app completely requiring a reload the next time you start. Rokus with that interface (Roku 3, 2015 Roku 2, Roku HDMI Stick, Roku TV) also do this, as does my television's internal app (the TV takes longer to exit Netflix than to start it ).

I'm happy that it works for some, but I'm not the only one to report bizarre behavior from the Netflix app. Sometimes I can watch for hours without issue and sometimes it crashes my Bolt, and can do almost everything imaginable between those extremes. It will occasionally start up in 480p or switch to 1080p when neither resolution is enabled.

It may be my set-up, but that ain't gonna change. I run everything through an HDMI 2.0/HDCP 2.2 connection on my AVR and from their into a high performance HDMI port on the television (the only 2160p60 capable one, with a very low display latency for my gaming). I'll put up with the problems rather than give up the convenience of that. Besides, connecting it directly to one of the ports on the television would require that I take what I can get out of the television's S/PDIF port for sound; no DD+.

EDIT: Just tried enabling [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected] to see if it matters and after a few failure to start a title it crashed my Bolt . That could have happened with only the 2160p resolutions enabled so I'll leave it the way that it is for a while.


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