# Can you go back to previous channel viewed?



## Hahn Niv (Jan 5, 2020)

On Roamio OTA DVR can you go back to a previous station? It's useful if you're keeping track of a couple of football games etc. On the bottom left on the remote just under the Enter key is a gray "Last". It doesn't go to previous station. Do you have to hold another key on the remote and hit enter for that function to work? I've programmed the "Last" command into a Harmony remote, using their command set. With "Last" selected there is no IR emitted (box doesn't blink). I thought I'd just relearn the command from the TiVo remote which is how I found out it doesn't work from the Tivo remote.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Last key woks for me. Only time it fails is if all tuners are on the same station.


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## Hahn Niv (Jan 5, 2020)

Tuners are on 4 different stations.


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## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

Bottom left of remote is CLEAR.
Bottom Right is Enter/Last and yes, this would cycle through the previous channel or tuner.


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## Hahn Niv (Jan 5, 2020)

That's my other left  Seems like it should work but on mine when I hit last (Enter) screen goes dark and comes back on to the channel that I was on. So it seems that I'm hitting enter rather than last. That's why I was thinking that there was a qualifier key so it knew the difference between Enter and last.


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

You are watching Live TV, right? Not playing recordings on two different channels, even if they are in progress? The Enter/Last key works for me to swap back and forth between channels, on both my Roamio Plus and Bolt. Not, however, if I am playing a recording that is currently recording, unless I switch to it as a Live TV buffer, if that makes sense?


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## Hahn Niv (Jan 5, 2020)

OK, just now I hit live TV to make sure I'm in live mode. I'm watching Playoff game on NBC. I keyed in the ABC channel number which has some local stuff on. Hit the Enter/Last key. It makes the click sound and just stays on ABC. The only way I can get back to NBC is to key in the channel number. There are so many layers of setting, is there a setting somewhere that might not be set right?


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

Hahn Niv said:


> There are so many layers of setting, is there a setting somewhere that might not be set right?


AFAIR, it's been working the same way for 18 years of my TiVoing, and not menu setting required. Last option I can think of... have you rebooted your TiVo? That sometimes fixes unexplained weirdness.


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## phox_mulder (Feb 23, 2006)

IIRC, Live TV button will switch between the 4 tuners, it will take more than one press to just switch between 2.
Also, Info button will bring up info for the current channel, arrow up or down will switch to the other tuners, then Select to tune to that channel.


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

phox_mulder said:


> IIRC, Live TV button will switch between the 4 tuners, it will take more than one press to just switch between 2.
> Also, Info button will bring up info for the current channel, arrow up or down will switch to the other tuners, then Select to tune to that channel.


Yeah, that's all correct IME. Live TV cycles through all tuners, but hitting the Enter/Last button on the bottom right of the remote should toggle back and forth between the last two tuners, even with 4 or 6 tuners on different channels. I find this convenient, too, when watching a couple different sporting events live.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

TE4 began with a bug that it got confused when channel numbers were used rather than using the guide to select channels. Perhaps it was never fixed? I thought it was just a Mini VOX problem also.


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## Hahn Niv (Jan 5, 2020)

That was it, works if you go to the channel by way of the channel guide but not if you key in the number which is kind of strange. I was keying in the ch # because when I was doing it on the channel guide it was wanting to setup one pass options. I guess I must have been clicking on a future listing but I'd swear it was at the current time. But the last key worked when channels were selected from the guide. Problem solved.

I've had DVRs since day one. Before there was a TiVo, the first DVR was Replay. I had a Replay for many years, then went to Directv DVRs, then Genie, dumped Directv (they went down hill after AT&T bought them) after about 15 years and went with the Dish Hopper and now the Hopper 3. Replay has gone away so when it came time to get a DVR for my special needs brother in-Law I got a TiVo (11 years ago) which was my into to TiVo. He used it till the cable company when digital and had to go to their DVR. 

I've gotten tired of the pissing contests that Dish (and Directv) get into with providers. Since the last month of baseball season Dish hasn't carried the Regional Fox Sports channel (now owned by Disney, wrong company to get into a pissing contest with) so I had to find other means to watch the last month of the season. Still not carrying FoxSports AZ as the new season approaches. I'm glad I'm not a basketball fan, no basketball for you at the moment. 

Dish thought they were being clever when they split out the local channels from their packages so they could jack up the price on both at the same time. That was great for me because I've always had OTA going. I'm a shooter/editor, I'm used to a higher quailty video picture than John Q Public. In the analog days I was shooting at 1200 lines of rez when your TV would show 425 at best. Each generation lost rez which is why you needed to start off high. Satellite compressed locals are like watching a VHS tape to me. I dropped their locals as fast as humanly possible. My problem with cutting the cord, going the streaming route were sports that I liked to watch. The landscape has changed and now that is possible so I'm moving towards cutting the cord. Unfortunately i got into a 2 year contract when I upgrade to the Hopper 3 so I'm stuck until the end of July. If they don't workout the Fox Sports situation by the start of the baseball season I might start the streaming service early and reduce Dish down to the bear minimum, just have to see the economics of it.

All this is just to say, I've got many DVR routines rattling around in my not so bright brain, I just have to find the differences and get them programmed into my Harmony remote so I can easily navigate the Roamio. I am impressed with it, I should have gone to it when I kissed the Dish locals goodbye. I've been using Plex DVR with 4 tuners which works fine except you can't watch while it records. I have OTA on all the TV's and a 2 tuner OTA module on the Hopper so I'm covered but the TiVo makes life easier, especially after I get rid of Dish (6 months, 25 days, 12 hours, 36 minutes 10 seconds) but who's counting?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Hahn Niv said:


> That was it, works if you go to the channel by way of the channel guide but not if you key in the number which is kind of strange. I was keying in the ch # because when I was doing it on the channel guide it was wanting to setup one pass options. I guess I must have been clicking on a future listing but I'd swear it was at the current time. But the last key worked when channels were selected from the guide. Problem solved.


I wouldn't go that far. It's still a bug that needs to be fixed. But the mystery is solved.


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## thefisch (Jul 25, 2015)

I use the enter/last all the time to swap between two live football games. I setup the games on separate tuners so that the buffer is preserved if I need to go back and watch a play. In order to get enter/last to swap between the tuners, I have to first switch to the tuner with the other game via the info, tuner selection popup. Then enter/last will cycle between the two tuners back and forth.

If I am watching more than two games at the same time, I just cycle through the tuners using live TV and it takes me through the tuners in order.


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## CinciDVR (May 24, 2014)

Hahn Niv said:


> That was it, works if you go to the channel by way of the channel guide but not if you key in the number which is kind of strange.


I'm using TE4 on a base Roamio and the "Last" button works for me when I only key channel numbers (i.e. I don't use the Guide). So I think there still must be more to it.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

CinciDVR said:


> I'm using TE4 on a base Roamio and the "Last" button works for me when I only key channel numbers (i.e. I don't use the Guide). So I think there still must be more to it.


Same here. Works ok for me. I need to check the Mini VOX.


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## Hahn Niv (Jan 5, 2020)

Humm keyed in channels definitely don't work for me.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Hahn Niv said:


> Humm keyed in channels definitely don't work for me.


May be nothing, but being lazy I used channels not checked in my channel list.


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## Hahn Niv (Jan 5, 2020)

I have definitely got something weird going. My first experience with the guide, when I clicked on where I wanted to go it wanted to setup a One Pass or record option. I thought that's odd, I'm new to Tivo but not to DVRs, standard DVR behavior is you click on the channel guide to get where you want to go in realtime or setup record in future time. That's when I was keying in channels and the last key wasn't working which prompted this thread. Now the channel guide works as expected but now when I key in a channel I get channel not available. For channel 3 I'd just key in 3 and it would go to 3.1. Now it only goes to 3 which is non existent. I don't see a . or a - on the remote to be able to key in 3.1 or 3-1. 31 takes me to . . . well channel 31. 12 the same thing. If I key in 121 it takes me to channel 121. I put in 15 and it takes me to 15.1??? I suspect I have a support issue, maybe I need to reload the software?


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Hahn Niv said:


> I have definitely got something weird going. My first experience with the guide, when I clicked on where I wanted to go it wanted to setup a One Pass or record option. I thought that's odd, I'm new to Tivo but not to DVRs, standard DVR behavior is you click on the channel guide to get where you want to go in realtime or setup record in future time. That's when I was keying in channels and the last key wasn't working which prompted this thread. Now the channel guide works as expected but now when I key in a channel I get channel not available. For channel 3 I'd just key in 3 and it would go to 3.1. Now it only goes to 3 which is non existent. I don't see a . or a - on the remote to be able to key in 3.1 or 3-1. 31 takes me to . . . well channel 31. 12 the same thing. If I key in 121 it takes me to channel 121. I put in 15 and it takes me to 15.1??? I suspect I have a support issue, maybe I need to reload the software?


The remote's skip forward button (right above the green "D" button) operates as a dash ("-") for channel selection purposes (on my remote, there's a dash printed above the button). Also, at least for me, choosing a channel number without a dash suffix (e.g. "7" rather than "7-1") will work for some channels but not others--as I understand it, it depends on what's going on with the frequency set-up behind the scenes. If you get to a blank screen through having keyed in a suffix-less channel, simply pressing up on the channel button then will get you to where you to want to be, at the first suffixed channel.


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## Hahn Niv (Jan 5, 2020)

Thanks that works! Part of the problem is I don't use the Tivo remote. It is distributed to 4 Tvs via a separate wired ethernet network, each station has a Harmony remote. I did look at the Tivo remote, the dash didn't jump out at me looking over it. The inconsistency of operation is weird. It seems like it should work the same way all the time. Sometimes just put in the number and it goes to the .1 of the number. Others times it doesn't. Sometime the last key works, sometimes it doesn't. Thank you for your reply. I'm just learning where the pot holes are in the new system.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Hahn Niv said:


> The inconsistency of operation is weird. It seems like it should work the same way all the time. Sometimes just put in the number and it goes to the .1 of the number. Others times it doesn't. Sometime the last key works, sometimes it doesn't. Thank you for your reply. I'm just learning where the pot holes are in the new system.


Yeah, I long have thought that putting in the channel number without a suffix should just automatically roll to the "-1" channel but, unfortunately, the TiVo software isn't programmed that way. My understanding is, it's not that simple a thing--it just seems simple because the channels seem logical and in order when, behind the scenes. they're not.


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