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Question

Why doesn't my cable + Tivo system work?

Feb 1, 2015 3:24AM PST

When my cable company digitalized I had six working tv's. Then I would have had to rent five more cable boxes. What a bad thing. My son said, "Buy 5 Tivo Mini's and they will all work throughout the house wirelessly and are smaller and smart looking. We started with two and when they worked well went to a total of five. I had called Tivo and they said up to 8 would work.

Now all of the tv's with Tivo Mini's give great picture and sound INTERMITTENTLY. Any one comes on and then it flickers in picture and sound. What do I do now? I have an Airport Extreme on my Mac system which Apples said would up the signal. My house is large and two story.
Thanks for technical help

Discussion is locked

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Clarification Request
Is this the usual WiFi question?
Feb 1, 2015 3:41AM PST

You can find too many discussions about WiFi video issues. I'll skip to the end of the discussion and note we want as many things wired as possible.
Bob

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I guess I don't have "wireless"
Feb 2, 2015 12:45AM PST

Oh, dear, what do I know? Apparently nothing. My son just responded " you do not have wireless access points. there are no other channels. you have powerline networking. " Any other ideas besides expensive
ethernet cable installation? We are in the San Gabriel Valley area and are looking for someone to do the install with two tv's upstairs and four downstairs and a raised foundation. Referrals, if that is allowed?

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Ethernet cables here are cheap.
Feb 2, 2015 12:49AM PST

About 10 bucks for 50 or 100 foot lengths from amazon (USA.) Good to read it's not on WiFi but powerline networking has some rules for it to work well. Ask about that.

See if the powerline modules have firmware updates and as a test, try a 10 buck Ethernet cable.
Bob

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Answer
Your son needs a refresher
Feb 1, 2015 1:24PM PST

Wifi is not reliable or consistent compared to traditional wired connections. In a big home with many rooms/devices requiring wireless access, it is often a good idea to run ethernet cables to avoid the hassles of having to add extra access points (APs) and finding out you still have service quality issues. Been there, done that.

You shouldn't have any problems if you wire up those minis. Second option would be reduce the number of devices, or the footprint of the house that requires wifi access for those specific TVs. Also try a different wireless channel, such as 1 or 11, to see if that improves anything. YMMV.

Good luck.

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Great suggestions, thank you.
Feb 2, 2015 12:26AM PST

I had no idea about using different wireless channels. Thanks for the info. At a Super Bowl party yesterday a friend who is an electrical engineer said that he has a man he used for running ethernet cables and I am going to contact the man this week and see if I can get that done. My dream is to have tv's set up and working where they always worked before this "improvement" of digitized cable. The improvement so far looks like money in the cable company account, not my service Sad

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If you know someone that can add ethernet...
Feb 2, 2015 4:57AM PST

...just do it. You will be happy. Powerline networking is for the birds, btw. Not nearly as reliable as traditional ethernet cat5, cat6, etc.