Once you go TiVo you can never go back!

honestaquarian

https://blog.tivo.com/2016/09/bolt-available-sept-15/

Here's the latest one
Who else is addicted to the first and still considered to be the best DVR out there?

msg

I just came on with TiVo after @billbillw told me about one of their deals.
I love it. I'm a TiVo'ing junkie too. I think I record stuff just to record it and never really watch it all. I should have gotten one years ago. One of the things I really enjoy is how responsive the remote is, both for controls and browsing. my old cable remote was awful. and the TiVo is so easy to use. no cool sound effects for me, though

honestaquarian

@msg
Which model do you have?

Dennis Gardner

I've got a Premiere with lifetime sub. in 2011 with a My Book extension drive and Premiere 4 Elite in '13 with 2TB internal with lifetime sub. No monthly payments for me. I'm not into 4k video yet so I'm okay waiting until my cable and internet can deliver the resolution reasonably. I started with Tivo with a Series 2 in '04 and a Humax DVDR Tivo Series 2 in '06. Since they have kept up with streaming advancements, there really isn't any comparison for a well executed single box DVR for cable. I know the satellite offerings are getting much better, but I will stick it out as long as my boxes are still doing their thing.

The word on the street has been that since cable is a dying sector that Tivo has been on the ropes in a losing position for years, but since Rovi acquired them recently the added influx of cash has secured their financials. It is yet to be seen how it all will shake out, but the best guess is that Tivo will get out of the manufacturing business and become simply a software application that can be put onto another vendors DVR box and let someone else make the hardware. Who really knows? The latest offering being the cheaper Bolt indicated that the faster/bigger/better/market leading machine is no longer needed when the younger generations are streaming their TV on Rokus and cell phones. Many don't even own a TV that has live content.

pitdogg2

I'll take my Dish hopper any day:)

msg

Hoppa!

I just have the basic Roamio that came with the 500GB disk, but billbill encouraged me to upgrade the hd myself, and now it's got a 2TB one in it. Same here, lifetime subscription.

Also run a Mini in the BR that actually runs well over an Airport Express I've got set up to provide ethernet.

honestaquarian

The satellite and cable companies have stepped up their DVR games significantly in recent years.
My "gold standard" if you will of how easy the user interface on a TiVo is compared to the cable company is this. I gave one to a friend for Christmas a few years ago and went over his house to set it up when it arrived. he wanted to take me to dinner to thank me,but wanted to know how to record his favorite program (*Jeopardy*) which was coming on while we were out.

Now this guy a technoPHOBE extraordinaire!

Between handing him the remote and showing him how to set it up to record.Then when we came back showing him how to fish the recording out of the hard drive,it took less than two minutes total!

Dennis Gardner

I got my Premiere 4 from billbillw. Since I have lifetimes on both my units, I will baby them along until something better is around. I see that lifetime is now $499. My units look better every day.

honestaquarian

I used to have a lifetime subscription on one of my old premiers. A yearly subscription on the other. I had originally planned on doing a yearly sub on both,but then they did away with them for a couple of years(*?!?!?!?!?!?!?????*)
Now I have a Roamio + with yearly sub and a mini (*came with a lifetime sub*) which uses one of the tuners on the Roamio.

billbillw

I'm a total Tivo junkie. I can't stand cable boxes, although the X1 system is somewhat better than past efforts from Comcast.

My 1st Tivo was back around 2005 when DirecTV offered the Hughes HR10-250 "HD TiVo" model for a pretty good discount. At that time, it was possibly the only HD DVR on the market and certainly the only one that worked with DirecTV. It could store a whopping 30 hours of HD programming! (LOL) It worked with Satellite and OTA, so at that time, it was one of the only ways to watch and record locals in HD. I don't even think the cable company was doing HD locals at that time. I used it for a year or two until DirecTV started putting locals in HD over satellite which required a newer DVR (DirecTV branded). I switched to that model, then after a couple more years, I decided to 'cut the cord'. I bought a used Series 3 HD (OLED), and a new Tivo HD. I upgraded the Series 3 to a 1TB drive and used those two Tivos, recording OTA only for about 4 years (supplemented with Netflix). Life was good. I paid Tivo something like $25/month.

Then we moved in 2012 to a house that could not get reliable OTA signal and had too many trees to get satellite. Back to Comcast reluctantly, but I wasn't giving up my Tivo! Welcome to CableCards! Once I installed all the TVs and my theater, I had a Premiere with 2TB, the Series 3 (1TB), and the Tivo HD. At some point, I upgraded to a Premiere 4 model and sold the OLED model. Along the way, I was able to get lifetime service (they occasionally offered lifetime for $99) to some of the boxes, but was still paying some Tivo monthly fees.

This went fine for awhile, then I decided to give Home Theater PC a try. Windows Media Center for DVR, XBMC/Kodi for streaming local videos. I was suckered in by the idea of having all my media on one box. I sold all three Tivos and went to using SiliconDust HDHomerun tuners. I had two of those (6-tuners total) for the whole house. It worked pretty good, but after about a year of dealing with frequent glitches, I was yearning for the simplicity of Tivo again.

Then I saw it. One of the best deals I've ever seen on Tivo. It was a Roamio (4-tuners) with lifetime service for something like $300. The lifetime sub was normally $400 I think (it is higher now). You can add Tivo Mini boxes to the Roamio for extra TVs and avoid additional outlet fees from Comcast.

So I jumped. Sold all three HTPCs, got the Roamio and two Minis (which were marked down to $99 each, lifetime subscription included). I haven't looked back and don't plan to make any changes for some time. I am happy with my Roamio+Mini combo and I don't pay Comcast any extra fees, no HD fee, no DVR fee, no additional outlet fee. Likewise, I don't pay Tivo anything on a monthly basis. Also, the Roamio can do OTA, so if I ever move to a location that can get a reliable signal, I could consider cutting the cord again.

Yeah, I like Tivo.

Although, I am a bit worried. Tivo was just bought out by Rovi and apparently, Rovi (who changed their name to TiVo) plans to change the interface! Gasp! I hope it is not too much different!

http://hdguru.com/rovi-completes-acquisition-of-tivo-new-tivo-ux-interface-revealed/

Dennis Gardner

Bill, word on the Tivo community forum is that Tivo will phase out the actual boxes and create their software that can be mated to other manufacturers boxes in app form. Basically their cash flow will go from consumer usage to cable/sat vendor bulk usage.

billbillw

Dennis Gardner wrote: »

Bill, word on the Tivo community forum is that Tivo will phase out the actual boxes and create their software that can be mated to other manufacturers boxes in app form. Basically their cash flow will go from consumer usage to cable/sat vendor bulk usage.

You can never tell what will happen. I hope they will always have demand for stand alone boxes and keep that market alive, but I guess they could embed their software in "smart TVs", have cloud storage, and there would be no physical box anymore. That would mean a big change for traditional cable companies.

pitdogg2

I think you may have it there bill with that cloud storage. But I have just read in one of my mags where TiVo stated boxes were a thing of the past moving forward. Like you said how long is anybody's guess, I remember Verizon stating the same thing about copper wire delivery since ALL houses in 5 yrs would be fiber optic......well I'm still waiting for my fiber optic how about you lol.

RamZet

Tivo has an amazing image, looks great.
Besides that, whats the relevance? Buy a Roku or Apple TV and subscribe to NetFlix and Hulu+ Commercial free.

But this is coming from a cord cutter, so maybe I have no relevance here...

Dennis Gardner

RamZet wrote: »

Tivo has an amazing image, looks great.
Besides that, whats the relevance? Buy a Roku or Apple TV and subscribe to NetFlix and Hulu+ Commercial free.

But this is coming from a cord cutter, so maybe I have no relevance here...

RamZet wrote: »

Tivo has an amazing image, looks great.
Besides that, whats the relevance? Buy a Roku or Apple TV and subscribe to NetFlix and Hulu+ Commercial free.

But this is coming from a cord cutter, so maybe I have no relevance here...

Rewinding/pausing live TV, cable or Over the Air, is a top reason. Time shifting any show so that you never have to watch anything at the prescribed time. Catching multiple shows that are broadcast at the same time on different channels. The new Tivo Bolt also has commercial skip mode and high speed mode that allows you to watch a show at a faster speed with good audio (golf is a perfect venue for this).

It is a shrinking market with live TV becoming rare in our world today, but for those that value TV programming, a DVR adds to that value.

honestaquarian

Dennis Gardner wrote: »

RamZet wrote: »

Tivo has an amazing image, looks great.
Besides that, whats the relevance? Buy a Roku or Apple TV and subscribe to NetFlix and Hulu+ Commercial free.

But this is coming from a cord cutter, so maybe I have no relevance here...

RamZet wrote: »

Tivo has an amazing image, looks great.
Besides that, whats the relevance? Buy a Roku or Apple TV and subscribe to NetFlix and Hulu+ Commercial free.

But this is coming from a cord cutter, so maybe I have no relevance here...

Rewinding/pausing live TV, cable or Over the Air, is a top reason. Time shifting any show so that you never have to watch anything at the prescribed time. Catching multiple shows that are broadcast at the same time on different channels. The new Tivo Bolt also has commercial skip mode and high speed mode that allows you to watch a show at a faster speed with good audio (golf is a perfect venue for this).

It is a shrinking market with live TV becoming rare in our world today, but for those that value TV programming, a DVR adds to that value.

TiVo made the high speed mode and commercial skip capability available on the Roamio's too

honestaquarian

Oh yeah and then there's the Netflix,Hulu Plus,Pandora,Blockbuster,YouTube,HBO Go,Amazon,MLB. TV,PLEX,VUDU,HSN,Aol.On,WWE Network,YAHOO,FLIXFLING,Spotify,iHeartRadio.blah,blah,blah...........

honestaquarian

And for a lot of you cord cutters out there,TiVo has an OTR (*Over The Air*) DVR and they just increased the hard drive capacity

pitdogg2

honestaquarian wrote: »

And for a lot of you cord cutters out there,TiVo has an OTR (*Over The Air*) DVR and they just increased the hard drive capacity

as does Channel Master and no monthly DVR fees

http://www.channelmaster.com/Antenna_DVR_s/336.htm

honestaquarian

pitdogg2 wrote: »

honestaquarian wrote: »

And for a lot of you cord cutters out there,TiVo has an OTR (*Over The Air*) DVR and they just increased the hard drive capacity

as does Channel Master and no monthly DVR fees

http://www.channelmaster.com/Antenna_DVR_s/336.htm

I challenge anyone to see which is:
A) Easier to use and
B ) Which has the most capability overall.

You STILL get what you pay for that much ain't never changed.

https://www.tivo.com/shop/ota-detail

honestaquarian

P.S. The Roamio OTA ALSO has no service fees

honestaquarian

https://www.tivo.com/shop/bolt-detail

RamZet

Tivo has a very small market of users.

honestaquarian

RamZet wrote: »

Tivo has a very small market of users.

@msg
@Dennis Gardner
@billbillw
Any comments gentlemen?

I personally do not care how large or small the market is.I LOVE mine!

Dennis Gardner

Cable TV is dying on the vine, but the need to capture live TV will always be needed and I imagine that we will see Tivo work within the given parameters to have product that will handle the tasks. I see all TV becoming a network device that streams and records what you want, to be viewed when you want. I was able to view an obscure streamed small town football game over the internet on Friday night that I threw to my projector and watched two top 8 man football teams battle it out. Much better than radio....which has been the only choice for ages.

billbillw

I love mine. Comcast X1 might be almost as good these days, but my monthly fees are drastically smaller. No DVR fee, no additional outlet, no HD technology, etc. I plan to stick with Tivo until it is no longer viable. Heck, evertything is paid for, no more Tivo service fees. Why would I switch?

WLDock

I want to cut the Xfinity X1 cord and have been wondering about TIVO for OTA program capture. I'm still trying to figure it all out.

honestaquarian

@WLDock
You would only need to have a broadband connection to connect to the TiVo service (*and also to access all of the streaming services like Netflix,Pandora,Hulu plus and such*)
So you would at least have to keep your internet with Comcast.



https://www.tivo.com/shop/ota-detail

msg

You'd have to pry my TiVo away from me. I use a Mini as well in the BR. Suppose to require ethernet or MoCA for those, but I have mine running off of an old Airport Express.

Didn't take long for me to become hooked on TiVo (Once the local cable company figured out how to get my cable card activated properly)

Ridiculously fast, intuitive interface.
Truly a pleasure to use.

I love the remote, too. RF. Even the oe one has a nice feel. I upgraded to the slide-out keypad version.

Great tinkering community for these things, too.

I hope they'll be around and generally supported for a long while to come. I never had a DVR before this.

WLDock

honestaquarian wrote: »

@WLDock
So you would at least have to keep your internet with Comcast.

Yes, that's the plan. Right now, my total bill after taxes for the Triple Play Package is about $238. That's too much, it's killing my pocket. I'm thinking OTA, TiVo, Android box w/Kodi, Netflix and we should be able to find all of our shows.

tonyb

WLDock wrote: »

honestaquarian wrote: »

@WLDock
So you would at least have to keep your internet with Comcast.

Yes, that's the plan. Right now, my total bill after taxes for the Triple Play Package is about $238. That's too much, it's killing my pocket. I'm thinking OTA, TiVo, Android box w/Kodi, Netflix and we should be able to find all of our shows.

Mines 260 a month, HBO/SHO....2 hd boxes. Trip[le play with phone and internet. Plus another 20 a month for Netflix, which the wife likes but I don't care for much.

Problem with going with so many different sources, it will take you forever to watch something seeing you'll have to go through a variety of menu's.