# Just received my Bolt from Amazon, need to ask a few questions



## gor88 (Jan 3, 2008)

I just received a TiVo Bolt from Amazon today. I do have some questions first, though.

How good are the factory seal stickers on the boxes? The one I got seems to have been opened before if I didn't know better. The adhesive on three of the four stickers was gone on the bottom half of the stickers attaching to the bottom of the box. The remote, however, was sealed in bag and appeared to not be tampered with and batteries were intact. The plastic looked undisturbed on the unit, but that doesn't mean much. Mind you, I got a HDHomeRun Extend from Newegg almost two weeks ago with the same kind of factory seals where the side on the flap was actually stuck under the flap intact. Given this, I have not yet activated the receiver with TiVo. 

I am testing it though for signal strength on OTA channels and how it renders live tv with closed captioning. I have read several postings about this, but want to know how those of you with Bolts interpret the OTA signal strengths you get. I have 6 main channels, 1 of which is 18 mi away and the other 5 24-25 mi away in the same direction within 6 degrees of each other. I am on a hill and several feet above the houses behind me, which is where the stations come in from. The nearest trees are 1/4 mi. away. I have what you call a perfect unobstructed LOS to the towers. antennaweb.org shows these six stations all in Yellow. I use a top grade ultra flat antenna in the window. 

Having said all that, I get a solid constant 72 on all six, with 2 channels sometimes starting at 85 and after a few minutes gradually easing back to 72. Is that a good signal strength? How hard would it have to rain to lose a signal that normally comes in at 72 on a clear day in the middle of the afternoon, which is the worst way to pick up a UHF channel due to the UV radiation (other than severe rain)?

Right now, my main concern in evaluating the Bolt is to make sure that the signal will be solid for the most part given what I have said above. I seem to get that impression from what I have read, but I want to hear from those of you who have had the Bolt for a period of time and watch/record OTA channels.

I have a feeling I might be sending this particular Bolt back due to the faulty factory seals, but I want to fully evaluate its live performance first while I have it.

My wife and I are trying to cut the cord and we have to have a good OTA dvr solution that will properly passthrough Dolby Digital 5.1 and render closed captioning properly (wife is hard of hearing in the vocal range). Other solutions I have tried fail to properly do one or both of the above, so I am thinking that the Bolt is the answer. I just want to make sure of what I am getting into.

If I get mostly good response, I'll probably have Amazon send me another Bolt with factory seals verified intact.

Please advise.


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## jth tv (Nov 15, 2014)

Signal Strength 72

"Automatic Gain Control. For some reason the Bolt and four tuner Roamio, when OTA, like to settle at 72. For cable they like to settle at 87 to 90. " JoeKustra 
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10861065#post10861065


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## texasPI (May 9, 2010)

gor88 said:


> I just received a TiVo Bolt from Amazon today. I do have some questions first, though.
> 
> How good are the factory seal stickers on the boxes? The one I got seems to have been opened before if I didn't know better. The adhesive on three of the four stickers was gone on the bottom half of the stickers attaching to the bottom of the box. The remote, however, was sealed in bag and appeared to not be tampered with and batteries were intact. The plastic looked undisturbed on the unit, but that doesn't mean much. Mind you, I got a HDHomeRun Extend from Newegg almost two weeks ago with the same kind of factory seals where the side on the flap was actually stuck under the flap intact. Given this, I have not yet activated the receiver with TiVo.
> 
> ...


I'm glad to see I was not the only one with the seals that liked like it had been opened. My first Bolt had a faulty drive and I returned it. The replacement from Amazon also had seals that were not properly affixed.


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## gor88 (Jan 3, 2008)

jth tv said:


> Signal Strength 72
> 
> "Automatic Gain Control. For some reason the Bolt and four tuner Roamio, when OTA, like to settle at 72. For cable they like to settle at 87 to 90. " JoeKustra
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=10861065#post10861065


Thanks, jth tv. It's good to know that 72 means strong signal strength. In looking at the other posting, it's interesting that someone posted their HDHomeRun signals. When I tried out that device, I got 100% signal strength on all 6 major channels and 100% signal quality on 3, 12, and 16 with 98% on 29, 35 and 40.

I have decided that I am sending this Bolt back due to the faulty factory seals and make them send me a different one.

Thanks for the helpful information.


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## gor88 (Jan 3, 2008)

texasPI said:


> I'm glad to see I was not the only one with the seals that liked like it had been opened. My first Bolt had a faulty drive and I returned it. The replacement from Amazon also had seals that were not properly affixed.


Hmmm...well I'm going to give it another try. If the next one comes with the seals not stuck the same way, I can then conclude that the seals have poor adhesive and will keep the replacement assuming that it functions properly.

In my case, I don't necessarily mind a faulty drive. Going to replace it with a 4TB Seagate that I got from Newegg for $100 and configure it using the "RossWalker" method.


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## homersby (Dec 10, 2015)

gor88 said:


> Hmmm...well I'm going to give it another try. If the next one comes with the seals not stuck the same way, I can then conclude that the seals have poor adhesive and will keep the replacement assuming that it functions properly.
> 
> In my case, I don't necessarily mind a faulty drive. Going to replace it with a 4TB Seagate that I got from Newegg for $100 and configure it using the "RossWalker" method.


Mine was the same way and I was a bit concerned but inspected everything as well as I could and it appeared new and intact and has been working fine.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I've had five Bolts and the plastic strips on all of them were all in their proper spot. If I had received one that was not, it would be suspect that someone had removed it and put them back. I know the one I returned to BestBuy I put the strips back on. But they were not on as well as when I first opened the box.


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## gor88 (Jan 3, 2008)

aaronwt said:


> I've had five Bolts and the plastic strips on all of them were all in their proper spot. If I had received one that was not, it would be suspect that someone had removed it and put them back. I know the one I returned to BestBuy I put the strips back on. But they were not on as well as when I first opened the box.


This is why I decided to try a replacement once. I suspect that this one is probably ok, but since I am spending over $200 for it, I want to feel more confident that I am getting a never used unit.

SiliconDust and TiVo really need to invest in better seals. The ones they use appear to me to be quite crappy.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

If the unit works fine, appears new and unused, IE has no data etc already on it and all the accessories are there, why on earth would you spend time and money (yours or Amazons) to exchange a perfectly good unit? Its now used. You used it. A replacement unit will be used also as soon as you take it out of the box and plug it in. You will have accomplished nothing.


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## JCN (Feb 4, 2016)

aaronwt said:


> I've had five Bolts and the plastic strips on all of them were all in their proper spot. If I had received one that was not, it would be suspect that someone had removed it and put them back. I know the one I returned to BestBuy I put the strips back on. But they were not on as well as when I first opened the box.


The stickers are in the proper place its like the sticky part dried out. Does not look at all like the were removed and put on. Mine came from ebay. If you feel them their not very sticky. I was a little suspicious but so many have the same experience.


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## mark1958 (Feb 13, 2005)

jcthorne said:


> If the unit works fine, appears new and unused, IE has no data etc already on it and all the accessories are there, why on earth would you spend time and money (yours or Amazons) to exchange a perfectly good unit? Its now used. You used it. A replacement unit will be used also as soon as you take it out of the box and plug it in. You will have accomplished nothing.


I have to agree, mine also came with the seals coming lose but when I opened the box it was clearly a new unit and have never had an issue. I also called Tivo and they confirmed that it had never called home.

Edit: Amazon is pretty good about selling open box items at a discount and not reselling opened items like that jmho


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## gor88 (Jan 3, 2008)

Yeah, replacement had 3 of 4 seals off. I am returning the replacement completely unopened with a note saying that I have not opened the box at all and they can put it back on the shelf as new. Will also ask them to send a note to management to include a note in Bolt shipments going forward that there is a known defect with the factory seals.

I went ahead and activated the original one I've been testing on. It appears to be functioning normally. I also activated a Mini bought from Best Buy.

The clock is ticking down for the disconnect of Dish Network. Wifey and I have to catch up on our backlog of TV shows. Wifey also insisted that she get to finish Game of Thrones and Outlander on Dish, so we'll drop it completely probably the last week of July or first week of August when Outlander finales.

In the meantime, I am downgrading to the Welcome Pack with HBO and Starz to shave $77 off our bill in the meantime.

The only issue so far is that Toon Goggles shows on the mini but is nowhere to be found on the Bolt so that I can hide it.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Just yesterday I removed "Toon Goggles" from both of my Bolts. I have no idea what is is but I had noticed a bunch of stuff showing up at the bottom of My SHows list recently. So I unchecked that along with MLB, HSN, WWE, and HBO Go on the Video Providers list.


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## gthassell (Apr 22, 2003)

I purchased several bolts from Fry's and Best Buy - and seals on most of them were coming / had come undone. Looks like they used poor quality glue.


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## jccfin (Aug 28, 2008)

gthassell said:


> I purchased several bolts from Fry's and Best Buy - and seals on most of them were coming / had come undone. Looks like they used poor quality glue.


Question, we're all of the box packaging black or white?


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## TeamPace (Oct 23, 2013)

I've helped 3 friends set up BOLTS. All of them had some of the seals loose or unglued. So it's just a problem with the seals they use.

Also concur that 72% signal strength shouldn't give you any problems. It seems to be as high as the BOLT signal will allow it to register. Yes it may start higher but it adjusts down to 72% after awhile. Haven't had issues with signal breakup on any channels showing that level.


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## gor88 (Jan 3, 2008)

TeamPace said:


> I've helped 3 friends set up BOLTS. All of them had some of the seals loose or unglued. So it's just a problem with the seals they use.
> 
> Also concur that 72% signal strength shouldn't give you any problems. It seems to be as high as the BOLT signal will allow it to register. Yes it may start higher but it adjusts down to 72% after awhile. Haven't had issues with signal breakup on any channels showing that level.


Yeah, there was some very bad weather this morning between the towers and my antenna and didn't notice a real decline in the signal, which is great.

Now, my wife and I just need to catch up on our tv shows on our dish network dvr and we'll officially be cord-cutters!


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## frendli (Jul 6, 2006)

gor88 said:


> How good are the factory seal stickers on the boxes? The one I got seems to have been opened before if I didn't know better. .


I had the same issue. It arrived from amazon with 3 of the 4 seals "unstuck", enough that you could open it. I sent it back without using it, and got a replacement from amazon. The next one arrived with only 1 of the 4 seals unstuck.

I suspect it is a common issue, but I wasn't willing to risk that I was getting a unit that had been messed with and sent back.


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## gor88 (Jan 3, 2008)

frendli said:


> I had the same issue. It arrived from amazon with 3 of the 4 seals "unstuck", enough that you could open it. I sent it back without using it, and got a replacement from amazon. The next one arrived with only 1 of the 4 seals unstuck.
> 
> I suspect it is a common issue, but I wasn't willing to risk that I was getting a unit that had been messed with and sent back.


That was my thought exactly. My replacement had 3 out of 4 seals off and the fourth was probably a few weeks away from giving out too. I sent back the replacement completely unopened to Amazon.


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## gthassell (Apr 22, 2003)

jccfin said:


> Question, we're all of the box packaging black or white?


Retail boxes (cardboard) were black - but the bolts themselve, of course, were white.


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## brystmar (May 6, 2016)

Got mine from Amazon today. 500gb Bolt with a year of service included. Only 1 of the 4 seals was still properly affixed when I received the box; the other 3 were wide open, which made me nervous.

However, after opening the box, it was clear I was the first person to be opening the package. Everything in its right place with all protective plastic in place. Unit works flawlessly. Happy customer.


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## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

This is a shame! I recently (last month) purchased my first Bolt, with which I replaced one of my Premieres. I got mine directly from Tivo and with a coupon paid about $20 more than the Amazon price.

I figured that if (well, ok - WHEN) I decide to get another one to replace my other Premiere I would get it from Amazon and save the $20. But it is definitely disheartening to see that others are getting recycled ones from there. I don't need that grief - well, nobody does.

I might just end up paying a little more to get it direct.

I love mine and it definitely appeared to be brand new, never opened. I'm pretty sensitive to that sort of thing so I would have noticed and been disappointed.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

sharkster said:


> This is a shame! I recently (last month) purchased my first Bolt, with which I replaced one of my Premieres. I got mine directly from Tivo and with a coupon paid about $20 more than the Amazon price.
> 
> I figured that if (well, ok - WHEN) I decide to get another one to replace my other Premiere I would get it from Amazon and save the $20. But it is definitely disheartening to see that others are getting recycled ones from there. I don't need that grief - well, nobody does.
> 
> ...


Go to BestBuy and get the Bolt. They will price match Amazon as long as the product is sold by Amazon and not a third party seller.


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## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

Thank You, Aaron! Good to know. :up:


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## DuranPhan (May 12, 2016)

Yes, I too had very loose sticker seals on the outside of my Bolt box. 
I chalked it up to being on a UPS truck for 2 days straight and getting a little hot and melty. 

But it sounds like the stickers were low rent.


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## JCN (Feb 4, 2016)

The units are new for the hundredth time, the stickers are bad.


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