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TiVo Roamio: Records up to 6 shows simultaneously, 3TB storage, streams.

155K views 2K replies 203 participants last post by  slowbiscuit 
#1 ·
Repeated from Dad1153's post in HOTP:

Technology Notes
New TiVo DVRs seek TV viewers' love

By Mike Snider, USA Today - Aug. 20, 2013


TiVo is flexing its interactive TV muscles again.


Three new Roamio digital video recorders that go on sale today aim to transform home TV viewing by integrating Net video favorites such as Netflix and Amazon into an improved DVR that can record up to six programs simultaneously.


Each new Roamio also streams TV and DVR recordings to Apple iOS and Android tablets and smartphones at home, with out of home viewing due later this year.


"Now, wherever you roam your TiVo Roamio is there. In the next room, in the kitchen, in a hotel room across the world – connecting you right to your living room TV recordings, so you can get them immediately wherever you are," said Tivo president and CEO Tom Rogers in a statement accompanying the new product announcement.


"Moreover, you can get all your regular cable channels, the best DVR features available, all combined with favorite streaming services like Netflix, Hulu and YouTube in one box, using one remote," he said. "Take every box or device out there - Roku, Apple TV, Slingbox, Google TV, your standard cable box - all rolled into one. This is quite simply the best TiVo we have ever made and is truly for people who love TV."


The $199.99 TiVo Roamio records four shows at the same time, storing up to 75 hours of HD programming , while the Roamio Plus ($399.99) records five shows simultaneously and stores 150 hours. The Roamio Pro ($599.99) boasts a 3 Terabyte hard drive, records six shows simultaneously and stores 450 hours of HD content (each requires TiVo's $14.99 monthly DVR service).


In addition to Net video services such as Netflix and Amazon Instant Video, the Roamios also include music services including Spotify and Pandora. And the DVRs have TiVo's popular TV search function and personalization features that will recommend shows to watch -- based on your "Thumbs Up" and "Thumbs Down" votes -- and let you create wish lists of shows to record.


The Roamio DVRs work with digital cable services, as well as Verizon FiOS and HD TV antennas. They are available now on TiVo.com and soon at Best Buy stores. They can also be ordered on BestBuy.com and Amazon.com.


The San Jose, Calif., company was among the pioneers in interactive TV, bringing the first DVR to market in 1999. But competitors caught up and its subscriber base dropped.


However, it's seen subscribers grow over the last year to 3 million worldwide (its peak was 4.4 million in early 2007). In the first quarter of this year, TiVo reported a net loss of $10.3 million. The company has also received hundreds of millions from court victories and settlements in lawsuits filed to protect TiVo-held patents.


TiVo plans a major advertising push for the new Roamio products and the company has also revamped its website.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/personal/2013/08/20/new-tivo-dvrs-add-streaming/2675199/
 
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#2 ·
I've actually been looking forward to the Series 5 announcement but the $599 price for the Roamio Pro is hard to swallow. I currently use about 50% of my storage on my Premier XL4, so the Roamio Plus may not cut it.


Now I need to decide if I should go with the $599 Pro with another Mini and sell my XL4 and Stream to offset the cost. The other option is to buy the Plus and keep the XL4, but now I have the service cost for two Tivos. Time to break out the spreadsheet.


The 6 tuners are the selling point for me since I plan to to deploy more Tivo Minis around the house. The updated processing speed and built-in stream features are nice, but time will tell if the Apps will be useful. Since the S5 supports the cast button on Netflix and YouTube, now I get the purpose of the $35 Chromecast. I believe the $35 device is a proof of concept. Now that people start getting used to that capability, that feature will be built-in to more and more devices (DVR's, TV's, Bluray Players, and streamer boxes).


One question remains: Are they coming out with a pink colored model? The Juliet? I'm curious about the strange name. A quick Google search shows that Roamio is Hindi for radio.
 
#3 ·
The lifetime service plan is still far too high to justify ditching my old Moxi. Not to mention that until these hit the markets and there is real feedback from tuning adapter compatibility it's still a hit or miss proposition for TWC SDV areas. Did the Cisco TA update even allow for 6 streams?
 
#4 ·
The $200 upcharge to go from 1TB to 3TB (Plus to Pro) is way too much money when 3TB drives are a little more than $100 now. I'm sure someone will get drive copy/expansion working with the S5s so you can put in your own larger drive if you want, so for me the Plus is the way to go.


But my Elite is only a little over a year old, and I never pay full retail so I'll wait for the inevitable upgrade offer or Plus sale price to upgrade. Yeah the Elite is too slow but it is a very reliable DVR and 4 tuners is plenty for me, 6 is just overkill. And it has a 2TB drive to boot.


I really don't understand why Tivo is not supporting Android devices for streaming at release though, nor why they don't have HDMI-CEC built in. It would be nice not to have to point the Tivo's RF remote at the TV for anything but without volume control in CEC you have to.
 
#6 ·
Only the base model with 2 tuners has an OTA tuner.


Does anyone know if these new DVR's will download Amazon VOD tv shows like the older models. I really need the file download vs streaming.


Thanks.
 
#7 ·
Answers from chat:



Me: I assume it can handle the 1TB DVR Expander external drive to expand storage?
Tivo: Correct.

Me: Is it like previous models where part of the show is stored on the internal drive and part on the external, so if you lose one drive you lose all the shows? They are not seperate from each other?
Tivo: At the moment it is like that. Although I keep placing requests to change that.

Me: On my S3 and Premiere I used Amazon VOD quite often for tv shows. Those models would actually download the entire HD show as a file from Amazon and put them in your playlist. This is important to me because of slow internet speeds. Does the Roamio actually download the HD Amazon purchase as a file, or does it force you to stream the tv show/movie? I used to set up series pass's with Amazon and the new episode would auto download to the S3 and S4 after midnight when it became available on Amazon.
Tivo: It would still download the show or movie completely. We could not stream from Amazon yet, but hopefully someday.
 
#8 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by gadgtfreek  /t/1486871/tivo-roamio-records-up-to-6-shows-simultaneously-3tb-storage-streams#post_23648191


Only the base model with 2 tuners has an OTA tuner.

The base model roamio has 4 tuners, not 2. It's the only model that will support OTA, the others don't. Also, with this model, you can't combine OTA and cable tuners like the premiere. When it's set to OTA, it's OTA only. When it's set to cable, it's cable only.
 
#9 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aero 1  /t/1486871/tivo-roamio-records-up-to-6-shows-simultaneously-3tb-storage-streams#post_23648321


The base model roamio has 4 tuners, not 2. It's the only model that will support OTA, the others don't. Also, with this model, you can't combine OTA and cable tuners like the premiere. When it's set to OTA, it's OTA only. When it's set to cable, it's cable only.

Another key difference with the base Roamio: It doesn't have the built in streaming. You need an external Tivo Stream.
 
#10 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by TimA  /t/1486871/tivo-roamio-records-up-to-6-shows-simultaneously-3tb-storage-streams#post_23648347


Another key difference with the base Roamio: It doesn't have the built in streaming. You need an external Tivo Stream.

or MOCA
 
#11 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by jjeff  /t/1486871/tivo-roamio-records-up-to-6-shows-simultaneously-3tb-storage-streams#post_23648188


Finally us OTA people will have a choice for a Tivo with more than 2 tuners. "The Roamio DVRs work with digital cable services, as well as Verizon FiOS and HD TV antennas."


Sounds like the full lineup will support OTA(digital).

Sounds like you didn't look at the specs. Only the entry level model supports OTA, and it only incorporates a single RF input. So OTA and Cable users like me are SOL. I'm looking forward to many years of service from my four Premier XL's.



 
#12 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by WS65711  /t/1486871/tivo-roamio-records-up-to-6-shows-simultaneously-3tb-storage-streams#post_23648391


So OTA and Cable users like me are SOL.

that part right there is where my lifetime'd Hd and 2 Premiere's becomes an attractive resale proposition.
 
#13 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aero 1  /t/1486871/tivo-roamio-records-up-to-6-shows-simultaneously-3tb-storage-streams#post_23648321


The base model roamio has 4 tuners, not 2. It's the only model that will support OTA, the others don't. Also, with this model, you can't combine OTA and cable tuners like the premiere. When it's set to OTA, it's OTA only. When it's set to cable, it's cable only.

Yeah, I goofed on it being 4.


I just ordered it, gonna be perfect for OTA recording and Amazon tv show downloads.
 
#14 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by gadgtfreek  /t/1486871/tivo-roamio-records-up-to-6-shows-simultaneously-3tb-storage-streams#post_23648411


Yeah, I goofed on it being 4.


I just ordered it, gonna be perfect for OTA recording and Amazon tv show downloads.

Im OTA only also with two premiere's and an HD and a stream. the 2 premiere's are the ones that get used and the HD is regulated to the garage with little use. I also have a kitchen TV with no DVR, just the normal OTA feed. Considering all of that, I am having a hard time justifying upgrading to a Roamio with 3 Minis. Thats a lot of money for something that really is not adding to what i already have. Im hoping for either a holiday package upgrade offer or once amazon carries it to at least save on some shipping. i dont know....
 
#15 ·
I am interested in the entry level version for the OTA capability, but I am a bit upset that it is OTA only or cable only.

I also am not too thrilled for the smaller forma factor and curved top-ie slightly odd non standard form factor.


I really do not need another tivo, but may "upgrade" if the cpu provides smooth as glass menu navigation.

I will wait for feedback from users here or on the tivocommunity forum...
 
#16 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aero 1  /t/1486871/tivo-roamio-records-up-to-6-shows-simultaneously-3tb-storage-streams#post_23648321


The base model roamio has 4 tuners, not 2. It's the only model that will support OTA, the others don't. Also, with this model, you can't combine OTA and cable tuners like the premiere. When it's set to OTA, it's OTA only. When it's set to cable, it's cable only.
This is disappointing to me. I very much like the way the Premiere combines both cable and OTA antenna signals in one box with an integrated menu interface. No A/B switch or changing inputs is needed.
 
#17 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by tylerSC  /t/1486871/tivo-roamio-records-up-to-6-shows-simultaneously-3tb-storage-streams#post_23648765


This is disappointing to me. I very much like the way the Premiere combines both cable and OTA antenna signals in one box with an integrated menu interface. No A/B switch or changing inputs is needed.

yea, i can see that as an annoyance for people like you, but its a hardware limitation. i remember reading somewhere that its a hardware problem combining the OTA and Cable tuners when you increase them to 4. its not a deal breaker to people like me who are OTA only and see no reason to return to cable in the future.
 
#18 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by TimA  /t/1486871/tivo-roamio-records-up-to-6-shows-simultaneously-3tb-storage-streams#post_23648347


Another key difference with the base Roamio: It doesn't have the built in streaming. You need an external Tivo Stream.

They'll give you a free one with the purchase of a base Roamio now, don't know how long this will last.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=507635
 
#20 ·

Ok... for future readers... what's the cost of Roamio and Mini (with Lifetime on each)? My math says $950 and I'm presuming the base model supports the Mini.

 

$200 / $500 - Roamio with Lifetime

$100 / $150 - Mini with Lifetime

$300 / $650 = $950

 

If I was starting from scratch it would be tempting. However, I want easy (movie playback including HD video/audio) so its doesn't offer a single box solution. Best case I could discard one HTPC. Say that's $500 even if I re-purposed it (or sold it) I would have to spend at least another $500 to gain nothing... that I can think of.

 

Although if TiVo handled the TV side I could use OpenELEC (instead of Windows) and a much cheaper box (even hard drive less) for HD playback. If I would gain something (almost anything) I'd find a way to cover the cost... guess I'll keep looking. 
 
#21 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Charles R  /t/1486871/tivo-roamio-records-up-to-6-shows-simultaneously-3tb-storage-streams#post_23649734


Ok... for future readers... what's the cost of Roamio and Mini (with Lifetime on each)? My math says $950 and I'm presuming the base model supports the Mini.

 

$200 / $500 - Roamio with Lifetime

$100 / $150 - Mini with Lifetime

$300 / $650 = $950
 

$399.99 with multi-service discount (existing active subscription), or $12.99/mo., per Tivo here (click "FAQs" at top orf page).
 
#25 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by tylerSC  /t/1486871/tivo-roamio-records-up-to-6-shows-simultaneously-3tb-storage-streams#post_23648765


This is disappointing to me. I very much like the way the Premiere combines both cable and OTA antenna signals in one box with an integrated menu interface. No A/B switch or changing inputs is needed.
I agree, they should have included OTA tuners in all three models, especially the higher priced ones. This way you can combine all of the local subchannels that cable sometimes doesn't offer.
 
#26 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aero 1  /t/1486871/tivo-roamio-records-up-to-6-shows-simultaneously-3tb-storage-streams#post_23648321


The base model roamio has 4 tuners, not 2. It's the only model that will support OTA, the others don't. Also, with this model, you can't combine OTA and cable tuners like the premiere. When it's set to OTA, it's OTA only. When it's set to cable, it's cable only.

Another MASSIVE FAIL by Tivo. OTA on the base model but not above... WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?!?!? Honestly, and not allowing OTA to integrate with Cable? They could have at least gone the satellite route and made an add on dual OTA tuner for those that want one or just have it built in because the cost would still be minimal. They shunned an entire market.
 
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