[KevInPhoenix]

Hey All!

My dad decided he wanted to cut the cord about a year ago. I've been a longtime TiVo user, with a DirecTV TiVo, a TiVo HD, and now a Bolt. We decided to get him a Bolt OTA.

It has been a year of constant screwing around with this thing. It took forever to get an antenna that would work properly, when channels change frequencies it takes a month and several requests to get TiVo to update the guide...blah blah blah. Finally got everything where it needed to be and everything was working great.

Suddenly, yesterday morning, all of the channels stopped working except for 3 that work fine (8, 12 and 45 here in Phoenix). All others are completely dead (3, 5, 7, 10, 15, 51, 61). Nada. I can't check the signal strength because the signal strength meter is borked (all channels, even nonexistent frequencies, show 37% signal and 0 peak). I guess the signal strength issue is a "known issue" with OTA receivers and TiVo Experience 4:

Tivo Customer Support Community

The antenna is fine, the TV can get all channels with no issues when running the antenna straight to the TV. So my question is, is this bad hardware, or is the software to blame? I can't help but suspect that if the signal strength meter component is screwed up that any number of things with the tuning logic could be messed up. But who knows?

 

[David B Gregory]

Go to settings :help: account: diagnostics
You can see signal strength and snr

 

[shwru980r]

Hey All!

My dad decided he wanted to cut the cord about a year ago. I've been a longtime TiVo user, with a DirecTV TiVo, a TiVo HD, and now a Bolt. We decided to get him a Bolt OTA.

It has been a year of constant screwing around with this thing. It took forever to get an antenna that would work properly, when channels change frequencies it takes a month and several requests to get TiVo to update the guide...blah blah blah. Finally got everything where it needed to be and everything was working great.

Suddenly, yesterday morning, all of the channels stopped working except for 3 that work fine (8, 12 and 45 here in Phoenix). All others are completely dead (3, 5, 7, 10, 15, 51, 61). Nada. I can't check the signal strength because the signal strength meter is borked (all channels, even nonexistent frequencies, show 37% signal and 0 peak). I guess the signal strength issue is a "known issue" with OTA receivers and TiVo Experience 4:

Tivo Customer Support Community

The antenna is fine, the TV can get all channels with no issues when running the antenna straight to the TV. So my question is, is this bad hardware, or is the software to blame? I can't help but suspect that if the signal strength meter component is screwed up that any number of things with the tuning logic could be messed up. But who knows?

I assume you used the same coax that was connected to the tivo and connected it to the TV to verify.

You didn't mention if you rebooted the Tivo.

 

[KevInPhoenix]

Thanks for the suggestions. Yes, I was able to find the usable signal strength meter, and one of the first tests I ran was taking the antenna off the back of the TiVo box and plugging it directly in the TV, which could then tune all the channels just fine. Rebooted more times than I can count.

Signal strength on all tuners was at 32%. I tried different coax, tried the TiVo on a different TV in a different room (on the same antenna though, rooftop/outdoor), and also tried a different antenna with a much shorter run of coax and no splitters.

In the end things deteriorated. After all the taking cables off, putting other cables on, testing, new antenna, testing, moving the TiVo, testing...when I set it back up in it's original configuration it could no longer receive anything at all and a channel scan found 0 channels.

After 2-3 hours on the phone with TiVo they offered the out of warranty replacement box for $49. We'll see how that goes in 7-10 business days, but I guess in the future I will think twice before getting the all-in lifetime subscription if I decide to get another one of these.

 

[KevInPhoenix]

Update: Refurbished Bolt OTA arrived.

- Pros: All OTA channels now work again.
- Cons: Wireless Networking doesn't.

Guess I need to figure out how to get a wired connection to this thing or go another 15 rounds with TiVo.

 

[KevInPhoenix]

Update (If anyone cares):

After about 2 weeks of troubleshooting the Wireless network connection, trying a different router & numerous different configurations, after my last call to TiVo today they stated that they would not provide further assistance. I was under the impression that the refurbished unit had a warranty (I thought they stated that at the time of purchase, and again when I asked for clarification about a week ago), but maybe I misunderstood. There was a bit of a language barrier.

I was able to get the network connection to work with a Wi-Fi extender that also has a LAN output, thus allowing us to use the Ethernet port on the unit with the existing WiFi network. At least it works now, we'll see if it still does in 24 hours.

At the end of the day we're out about an additional $60. Not the biggest deal, I suppose. But, after 4 TiVos and 3 all-in service plans, I won't be doing business with this company ever again.