One tuner out of six dead...what now?

austinsho said:

Is there a way to "lock out" a single tuner? If I don't it will still try to record and will record either silent video or a black screen.
Any thoughts? Thanks! Mike Nassour

Click to expand...

There are two thoughts. Both depend on your viewing habits. First, no "lock out" exists. But you could leave your host on the bad channel and it won't be used. Also you could preset the other tuners to the channels on your To Do List. The preset is better since a TiVo will always use a tuner on the channel already on a channel if it exists. Leaving a tuner on the dead tuner will not work for long since the tuner on a channel longest (time since tune start) will be first chosen, other factors being equal.

There was a way to limit the number of tuners enabled a few years ago, but it did not allow you to specify which tuner to disable. The workaround provided by Tivo had to do with working around a firmware issue on cable cards. I have no idea if this will help you or whether these instructions will still work. This came out before the Bolt and Edge. Check out this thread: Tuners 5 and 6 Not Authorized

Thank you both so much for this. I will absolutely investigate both workarounds. Does anyone know if it is a common thing for one, or two, tuners in a Roamio to fail? I have a backup unit sitting in a closet, but going through the hassle of authorization with TiVo, Spectrum, et al, is just not what I want to do unless I have to.

austinsho said:

Thank you both so much for this. I will absolutely investigate both workarounds. Does anyone know if it is a common thing for one, or two, tuners in a Roamio to fail? I have a backup unit sitting in a closet, but going through the hassle of authorization with TiVo, Spectrum, et al, is just not what I want to do unless I have to.

Click to expand...

Common, no. Happen, yes. My second Roamio arrived with two dead tuners. Years ago.

reneg said:

...Check out this thread: Tuners 5 and 6 Not Authorized

Click to expand...

Ah, good ol' @TiVoMargret . That fine lady provided a great deal of useful information / help (vs empty promises) to TCF folks. Unfortunately (for us; fortunately for her) she saw the 'Writing on the Wall...' and moved on to 'Greener Pastures'.

Yea, that was good info. Unfortunately, my problem is an issue with ONE tuner on ONE channel. Of course, it's a channel that I need to record four times a day! My final solution is to set TWO recordings for each program that I want to record. That way, at least ONE of them will work properly.

That's a good thought. I'll try that the next time I catch a bad recording!