# TiVo bolt tuners



## BigBob32 (May 23, 2016)

I am new to the TiVo world and had a question. I have a bolt and two minis. Today I went upstairs and tried to watch one of my minis and it said I couldn't watch live tv because all the tuners were being used. At the time my bolt was recording two shows and the other mini wasn't being watched. I thought it had 4 tuners so I should have been good....or no? Thanks


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

BigBob32 said:


> I am new to the TiVo world and had a question. I have a bolt and two minis. Today I went upstairs and tried to watch one of my minis and it said I couldn't watch live tv because all the tuners were being used. At the time my bolt was recording two shows and the other mini wasn't being watched. I thought it had 4 tuners so I should have been good....or no? Thanks


One tuner is always in use on the host box. What is being shown from the output. Whether someone is actually watching it or not.

Although if a recording is being watched on the host box then it might free up that fourth tuner. I can't remember if it does or not.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

BigBob32 said:


> I am new to the TiVo world and had a question. I have a bolt and two minis. Today I went upstairs and tried to watch one of my minis and it said I couldn't watch live tv because all the tuners were being used. At the time my bolt was recording two shows and the other mini wasn't being watched. I thought it had 4 tuners so I should have been good....or no? Thanks


Make sure the not-used mini is actually in TiVo central to free up a tuner.

And you can see what tuners are in use in the bolt by hitting info then scrolling down to the four circles. It will show what each tuner is doing.


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

BigBob32 said:


> I am new to the TiVo world and had a question. I have a bolt and two minis. Today I went upstairs and tried to watch one of my minis and it said I couldn't watch live tv because all the tuners were being used. At the time my bolt was recording two shows and the other mini wasn't being watched. I thought it had 4 tuners so I should have been good....or no? Thanks


Hi,
My understanding is that the Bolt will reserve on tuner for itself and you had 2 more being used for recordings, that should leave one tuner left. However, if you had used the other mini within the last 4 hours and failed to return it to Tivo Central or put it in Standby, it will hold that tuner until 4 hours has elapsed.


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