Welcome to the forums. Unfortunately, TiVo boxes are not very user friendly anymore, so you may have a lot to learn. But it is all here; just takes some searching and reading.
To begin with, you need to tell us if you are trying to use your TiVo with OTA or cable. For now, I'll assume you are OTA. It would also help a lot to know what version of the TiVo user interface your box is currently using - TE3 or TE4?
- When you press the TiVo button on your remote, look at the top left corner of the screen. If it says "TiVo Home", that is the newest and often hated TE4.
- If you see "TiVo Central, that is the older and much more functional and easier to use TE3 (just my personal opinion, of course).
If you are currently on TE4, you might want to consider rolling that box back to TE3 before you begin accumulating recordings. All Bolts (except for the specifically named "Bolt OTA" model) can use either TE3 or TE4. A TE3 box can convert to TE4 without losing any recordings, but to go back to TE3, ALL recordings are lost! There is lots more information about both software versions and the conversion process in many other threads in these forums. And there are very strong opinions about which version is better. I use both, and I personally despise almost everything about the horrible TE4.
Did you do a full Guided Setup? That is important. The next problem, specific to your first question, is that it can be difficult to understand just how a TiVo finds and uses TV channels - it does not just scan for them like any TV. It must first download a list of
possibly available channels specific to the entire DMA where you live, and then YOU must go into the Channel List screen and decide just which of those "possible" channels you can actually receive and WANT to receive. To do this, you will need to know both the call letters and frequencies used for every channel that you should be able to receive in your area. Virtually everything about the channel scan function in a TiVo is a complete joke! It
can find an existing channel that is not on the downloaded list, but you will never have any program information for that channel unless you can convince TiVo to add it to your master list. Here is another post of mine that will help explain this further:
Roamio OTA VOX channel scan
The next problem for you right now is that the Signal strength function in current TiVo boxes has been broken for years, and they have shown no intent to even try to address that problem. Sometimes, all channels will show the same signal strength, even if the channel does not really exist, other times, all channels will show 0 signal strength. And the worst case is that sometimes just changing the channel in the signal strength screen will cause your TiVo to reboot! You can find more info on this in other threads too.
