[igirl]

I bought one of these just to play with the idea of eventually dropping cable altogether. (We will have to live in a bigger city before that happens)

I have an el cheapo antenna (one of those flat panel type) but we moved to an area where there aren't a lot of stations broadcasting nearby. Houses in our neighborhood are not allowed to put up an outdoor antenna and running wire to one in a 2nd floor attic isn't realistic - which is fine as we are going to stay with cable for now anyway.

Here's the question - a channel scan shows 30 channels or so but the reality is I might only get one or something like that -

The guide shows zillions of channels - which we don't get.

I did a channel scan. If there any way to make it tune in ONLY the channels we have signal on? it takes forever to scroll through empty channels and wait to see if something appears.

What seems to be happening is the guide (and channel up/down) wants to look for every possible channel on the planet that's OTA - vs just what we actually get. It seems silly to even do a channel scan if it's just going to default to "try to tune in every channel". Is there a "seek" feature that will jump to the next channel that has a signal (like a radio seek feature)?

Hope this makes sense....

 

[JoeKustra]

I bought one of these just to play with the idea of eventually dropping cable altogether. (We will have to live in a bigger city before that happens)
Hope this makes sense....

Yes, it makes sense. I get 400+ cable channels, but I use the guide options to control my "surfing". You only have to do this once, so don't tell me it's too much work. First, you make a list of channels you receive - that's the hard part. Now you go to Settings, Channel List, and only check those you want to receive from that list. Those are "My Channels".

Bring up the guide and hit the "A" button. Select "My Channels". To get a better experience you can select "Favorites", but first you must designate Favorites. There are two ways to do that, but the easiest way is to hit Guide, then Left to be on the channel. Hit Thumbs Up to make it a Favorite. Continue to select Favorites this way. There is another way to select Favorites, but that depends on whether you are using TE3 or TE4. The guide "A" option can then allow you to select Favorites.

I have 20 Favorites and 40 My channels. I pay for 200 channels. Different story. So the guide selection determines what channel up/down follows. I find the guide easier, but that's a personal preference. The default channel list is determined by your zip code/DMA. It's not very useful.

 

[igirl]

Thanks Joe - yes I've used My Channels before so that is one option. I was just hoping there was a "seek" function in there somewhere that would automatically skip dead channels with the up/down arrows. Not sure what the point is of an antenna channel scan is, if it's scanning and adding channels you don't get - but whatever!

 

[ThAbtO]

Here is what you need to do since Tivo will list every channel possible that is near your general (rather large) area.

This will take some time to do and you just need to do once. While in Live TV, (yes, you need to be in Live TV to do this). Start at the top (lowest most) channel, though you can start anywhere, will begin here with 2-1. Tune to that channel, wait about 15 seconds to see if anything shows, if there is picture (or you want/like it), with no Tivo dialog (press Clear, if needed, but play bar is ok), press SELECT, This is the min-guide. Press LEFT arrow to get to the channel column and Select again. Dialog will show, Add/Remove channel, favorite. Select on Add. Next, press ChanUP and repeat.

When you are done (it has gone around to 2-1,) Press Guide, then A, and Channels: My channels or favorites, press A again or Select the top line.

 

[V7Goose]

Thanks Joe - yes I've used My Channels before so that is one option. I was just hoping there was a "seek" function in there somewhere that would automatically skip dead channels with the up/down arrows. Not sure what the point is of an antenna channel scan is, if it's scanning and adding channels you don't get - but whatever!

No, there is no way to get what you want without using check marks in the Channel List.

The "problem" is that you do not really understand the TiVo channel scan function; it does NOT work like a TV channel scan. A TV starts with 0 channels, and a scan adds only channels where the TV sees a real OTA signal. But a TiVo (after Bad_Rovi bought and destroyed the company) starts with a HUGE list of almost imaginary channels downloaded from the mother ship, and then a channel scan can add any others where it finds a signal. To make matters MUCH worse, the TiVo setup routines are unimaginably flawed. If you are lucky, all of your REAL channels will be in that initial huge list, but they still will not be selected correctly.

The channel scan does NOT place check marks on only the channels where it finds a signal. Instead, it seems to choose channels at random - some that you can receive will be checked, and many others totally bogus channels will also get checked. The only solution is for you to manually edit the channel list to check ONLY those channels where you can receive a signal, and then the box will operate as you are hoping it would.

 

[JoeKustra]

I was nice and didn't mention what TE4 uses to make Favorites.

 

[igirl]

it does NOT work like a TV channel scan. A TV starts with 0 channels, and a scan adds only channels where the TV sees a real OTA signal. But a TiVo (after Bad_Rovi bought and destroyed the company) starts with a HUGE list of almost imaginary channels downloaded from the mother ship, and then a channel scan can add any others where it finds a signal. To make matters MUCH worse, the TiVo setup routines are unimaginably flawed. If you are lucky, all of your REAL channels will be in that initial huge list, but they still will not be selected correctly.

The channel scan does NOT place check marks on only the channels where it finds a signal. Instead, it seems to choose channels at random - some that you can receive will be checked, and many others totally bogus channels will also get checked. The only solution is for you to manually edit the channel list to check ONLY those channels where you can receive a signal, and then the box will operate as you are hoping it would.

All the other answers are great - but this one sums it up.