TIVO

Gary got a TIVO Bolt six months ago that uses a cable card, but it's now stuck in "guided setup" with his zip being wrong. How can he reset it? Leo suspects that particular Bolt is defective, perhaps with a faulty hard drive. But Leo replaced his, and it's wasn't the hard drive. So the next option is the power supply. But it sounds like the Bolt isn't all that reliable.

But Mike B in the chatroom says that your cable card may not be correctly configured. Go to your cable store and either ask for a new one or repair that card to your account. 

Jerry bought a DVR from Dish, and now he can't use it because he canceled the service. Is that fair? Rich says that even though you bought the DVR, Jerry still has to use the Dish service for it to operate. Rich recommends getting a TIVO; you can use it with a variety of services.

Tony has a TIVO Bolt and like Leo, he's getting the "red rainbow of death." He thinks it may be the power supply. Leo says he's already replaced the hard drive, and it's been booting up for five days. So a $25 power supply from WeakKnees may be the next best solution. 

Mike B. is calling to talk about the plan by TiVo to put in ads. Mike says that TiVo is obviously needing to in order to keep TiVo going. The good news is that if users have a TiVo Roamio or older, they won't get them. Only the Bolts or latest TiVos will. Leo says that it may just be easier to go with PLEX or the Silicon Dust HD Home Run.

Roland wants to know if there's an over the air DVR and if Amazon's new Recast is a good buy. Leo says that Recast is a new product that will work in between the antenna and the TV, but he will also need a FireTV or EchoShow to talk to it. Over the air, DVRs include the TIVO OTA Model. ChannelMaster. Silicon Dust HDHome Run. 

Mike is thinking of getting an over-the-air DVR and antenna. What's the best one to get? Leo says he's a TiVO fan, but it is the priciest option out there. There's also ChannelMaster, which is a nice OTA and they don't charge for the TV Guide. Silicon Dust also makes the HD Home Run. But Leo is a fan of TiVO because it lets him ad-skip. 

As for Antennas, check out TVFool.com and AntennaWeb.org.

Kevin wants to know how he can update the firmware on his old TIVo Roamio. Is there a way to put a new OS on it, like KODI? Leo says that would be difficult, it was designed to be a streaming media player. TIVOCommunity.com is a good place to go to see if anyone is doing that. Another good source is WeakKnees.com since they resell hardware.

Michelle has finally cut the cable and wants to know how to stream her movies and TV shows from the internet. Does she need special equipment? Leo says maybe. If she has a smartTV, then she might not. But Leo recommends getting a streaming device anyway and he recommends the Roku. Streaming services include Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. But there's also new services coming from Disney and many others. How does she pay for them? Leo says she would have to give them a credit card.

Larry has to find a way to cut the cable and save money. His cable DVR service is over $200 a month now. Leo says that's ridiculous. He can go over-the-air with an antenna and get a TiVo. As long as he gets clear reception. Then anything he doesn't get he can stream online.