[David R Czaya]

Hi,

I have a Tivo Bolt OTA with a Clearstream Antenna and a Juice preamp. It has worked flawlessly (mostly) for years. Suddenly, the other day, I was watching an OTA station and got a v52/v53 Loss of Signal. Out of 51 channels. I get 11. The coax connector on the back of the Bolt is very warm (hot?) to the touch, but I think it's always been like that. There is no picture in the preview window; no duplicate channels in the channel list. Everything else works perfectly. I can play recorded programs; streaming apps work fine; just no OTA.

The antenna feeds three TVs. Two directly, one through the Tivo. The other TVs work fine. If I bypass the Tivo and connect the TV directly, I get all 51 channels.

I have tried bypassing the splitter; bypassing the preamp; new cables all down the line; verifying the channel list; unplugging overnight; swapped the entire Tivo to a different room on a different TV. No change.

I have a lifetime subscription to Tivo Service that I do not want to lose, so if I buy a new Bolt, I lose the sub plan. WeakKnees does not work on these. I'm stumped at this point.

Does anyone have any further ideas? Any similar problems?

TIA,

David

 

[noble00]

Hi, David,

I am having same problem on my Bolt OTA with a Channelmaster Antenna. I have narrowed it down to having lost one VHF channel (NBC) probably about the same time frame as you. Have added an amplifier that has not helped. Like you, TV without TIVO gets channels fine. Tried adding an additional VHF antenna to see if that helped, nothing.

I am curious if your problem has been fixed and what if anything you did to fix it. Have been going round and round with customer service. They have offered a replacement for a fee of course but not sure that's even going to fix this problem.

Of interest, the amplifier did fix some pixelation issues that seemed to start happening about this same time. Also, I do think I was missing another VHF channel that has now come through with amplifier but still can't get back NBC.

TIA

Jonathan

 

[David R Czaya]

Hello Jonathon,

After countless trips up the ladder, changing cables, consulting with weaknees and others, etc. I narrowed it down to the Bolt. Tivo offered no assistance. Others claim the Bolt tuners rarely, if ever, fail.

Since my annual subscription was coming up, I purchased a Roamio with lifetime from ebay. The Roamio gets more channels than the Bolt ever got even when new. Absolutely no loss and I didn't even put the amplifier back in. Sadly, it was the Bolt the whole time which was my original hypothesis. I guess it was for the best as the Lifetime Roamio cost only a little more than just a year of service on the Bolt. Also, I put the Bolt's 1TB laptop drive in the Roamio which doubled the capacity and it now runs cool to the touch where the original 500GB 3.5" drive ran much hotter. The Roamio 500GB drive is up for sale on FB Marketplace and gotten interest.

The Roamio does seem to be noticeably slower. It may be the Wi-Fi signal. I haven't messed with that as it's quite acceptable and we're moving soon, so I'll hardwire the connection at the new house.

Hey, thanks for your reply and I wish you much luck. Sorry I didn't have better news.

Dave

 

[noble00]

Dave,

I really feel it must be the TIVO as well. Nothing else makes sense. I will look into the Roamio vs taking TIVO's offer of a replacement BOLT for $49. At least I feel more hopeful of that being a fix after reading your experience.

Thanks for your help,
Jonathan

 

[noble00]

Just want to give an update to my loss of antenna strength on a Bolt Vox (more so to save others who may go through same problem at some point). After multiple phone calls to TIVO discussing problem and being told it was my antenna (which had worked fine for over a year), the problem has now been fixed with a replacement Bolt Vox. Not an antenna problem at all, which is what I suspected. Unfortunately, I took their recommendations first and tried an amplifier, a filter, and even an additional VHF antenna. All a waste of money. Switched out boxes today and signal strength for the channels I was missing is in the 80's (previously 0).

 

[Resist]

You didn't say what type of coax cable you are using. Often times it's poor quality cable that causes problems. Make sure to use at least RG6 coax. Also, amplifiers don't pull in signals, they just clear up cable noise.

But I'm glad they replaced your Bolt. I had a similar issue with my first Bolt, couldn't get a lot of channels that my Premiere could. Once Tivo replaced my Bolt all the channels were back. Seems Tivo has had a lot of issues like this with the Bolt, not to mention over heating issues as well, due to the design of the case.