Looking for advice on new home device config

The Bolt OTA has 4 tuners, and always reserves one for itself. This means only 3 of the 4 Minis can borrow a tuner to either watch live TV or set up a recording. All five devices can stream at the same time. Adding a new Edge would allow all the Minis to have a tuner simultaneously.

If you get an OTA edge, you can use a splitter to share the antenna between the Bolt and the Edge. This will reduce the signals strength at both boxes, since about half of the received RF power would go to each device. This might work fine or it might require an amplifier for the antenna, it just depends on your location and how good your antenna is. You can use separate antennae for the Bolt and Edge if you get good reception from small/cheap antennae.

The Edge for Cable is cable only, it cannot tune to OTA signals from the antenna. Cable and OTA don't mix, in the sense that signals from both sources can clash if placed on the same coax. If you are using MoCA, and want MoCA on all of your devices, there are some special games you can play using diplexers so that every Mini can access recording from either the Bot or Edge (and so that the Bolt and Edge can each access recording from the other).

 

Just yikes!

The main drawback to a bunch of people sharing a DVR is managing recording priorities and live TV conflicts, plus managing recorded content. It’s tough enough to do with a family; I don’t envy doing so with random roommates.

I’d think your only ~responsibility~ would be to get an OTA or cable signal, or both, to each room, and let the renter decide what they’re willing to pay for ... whether direct OTA connection to a TV, cable provider STB or DVR rental, their own TiVo DVR or a simple streaming stick.

My TiVo take would be dropping a base Roamio 4-tuner DVR (or modded Roamio OTA) with lifetime service in each rental room, with each DVR on its own TiVo account.

 

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Renters, just hook up the antenna to the TV and call it a day. If they like your Tivo tell them how to buy one. They probably don't want one and will just use online stuff.

 

You would have a lot of trouble with four TVs and only four tuners. Don’t forget that you will be using some of the tuners for recording so that reduces the number available for live tv. You would almost certainly have to have a rule about renters not setting up recordings themselves or it would be a complete fiasco.

As posted already, I think you should just let the three renters hook the ota coax straight to the tv. If they are young, they will probably be fine with ota and a streaming stick. Hell, you could buy them a Firestick or Roku.

 

An OTA Bolt/Edge will only "see" antenna stations. A cable Bolt/Edge will only "see" cable stations. They cannot be mixed on the same TiVo, so neither TiVo will see everything.

Each Mini is set up to use a specific TiVo as a host, and for live TV it borrows a tuner from the host TiVo. The Mini will behave sort of like the host TiVo, it will see the recordings of the host and the stations of the host. A Mini that uses an OTA TiVo as a host will see only antenna stations, while a Mini that uses a cable TiVo as a host will see only cable stations.

There is also a way for a Mini to access recordings from other TiVos that are on the same local network, just as one TiVo can access recordings from another TiVo.