So the plan had been wait until the new year, supposedly when Android streaming and Opera apps arrive, before considering a TiVo Roamio upgrade. Yet a highly compelling discount came my way via an industry pal and, as you can see above, I was motivated to take action.
My initial Roamio Pro experience is quite positive, starting with the lovely packaging which is in a very different league than my Premiere Elite’s nondescript cardboard marketing. Set-top box build quality feel goods and, while it won’t matter to most, the connections around back are better positioned for installation into my very tight, minimalist TV stand. Unfortunately, I’m not (yet?) digging the new RF/IR remote – it doesn’t have the premium feel that my Glo remotes do and, as previously discussed, is not programmable… and therefore can’t simultaneously power up my Vizio 5.1 soundbar and television. Somewhat related, the remote finder button on the Roamio bezel will be missed by most as it’s barely visible and triggered via touch (with the icon and glow ring not precisely aligned). But, hey, it does play a fun 8-bit TiVo tune that we’ll blog at some point.
On the software side, I generally like the refreshed UI – especially the fonts. However, there are a few areas where the contrast is rather poor… but I’m confident TiVo Design is already on it. More importantly, performance is drastically improved over the Premiere platform and interaction is quite pleasant. It’s still not as quick as I’d like in certain areas, but I’m pretty sure these are programatic decisions and tuning opportunities versus Premiere hardware not meeting Adobe’s minimum requirements. I haven’t yet dug into Netflix, YouTube, and DIAL but imagine performance and interaction is equally improved over my knee-capped Premiere.
Surprisingly, I haven’t yet run into any CableCARD activation issues and perhaps I possess a mythical unlocked one that doesn’t require pairing… as I simply moved it from the Premiere to the Roamio. But I wouldn’t be surprised if I suddenly lose access to premium programming and supposedly the best way to get Verizon FiOS TV assistance is via online chat or Twitter support.
Lastly, I’m slowly and manually transferring recordings from my Lifetimed Elite (which I plan to sell, good thing it’ll be receiving HTML5 app updates and the refreshed UI). And TiVo’s online Season Pass Manager is a nice idea but, in practice, it appears about 1/3rd of the SPs I tried to copy over were flagged as corrupt, as you can see to the left. However, it’s better than starting at square 1, and while I’d appreciate a more automated upgrade path for both existing and future recordings, there are other areas I’d like to see TiVo prioritize. Particularly, the aforementioned Android support and app platform.
In my haste to get the new unit going, I didn’t even check to see if I have one of the flakey CableCARDs… (but Showtime is coming in fine on at least one tuner.) Also, I’m bummed I had to choose between streaming, MoCA, and a large capacity drive versus OTA. I always like to have a backup plan, and the Roamio Plus/Pro are digital cable only.
Showtime is copy freely. You need to check channel 131, HBO, or Cinemax.
Skip the TiVo season pass manager and use KMTTG. You can access the Elite, and save all your season passes. Then just load them all from the save file on the Pro. There have been various theories about the corrupt season passes. I think it was decided it was due to shows not in the search anymore. I want to say they will fix themselves once they reappear, but I am not positive.
I attended the latest Engadget+gdgt get-together last night with a TiVo rep in attendance. Just someone from marketing, so they couldn’t give me much info. But she did say that have a team dedicated to android working on streaming. So not much new to add.
In the meantime, my original Series 3 is still going. TiVo has been so late to the game with some improvements that I have other devices that handle those changes (e.g. slingbox). So an upgrade is still not in my immediate future.
Care to share your discount code? :)
In any case, that is a little disappointing about issues transferring season passes. It worked perfectly back when I transferred them from my TivoHD to my Premier Elite. Any word on whether the issue is transfer between Premier to Roamio vs. TivoHD to Roamio? I’m asking because I am probably going to be getting my mom a Roamio next week and transferring from her TivoHD to get Comcast On-Demand access.
Michael, I think Brennok might be right regarding which Season Passes don’t make it over as I think they corrupt ones may be on hiatus.
Brennok, thanks for all the tips. Haven’t been following those threads closely as this was an unexpected purchase. I recently dropped HBO, so I’ll check 131 tonight and get kmttg working for me – maybe moving shows too, as the computer interface is probably more more efficient than the remote control and 10′ UI.
I have to say that I am very impressed with my Roamio Pro. The speed of the menus is such a marked improvement compared to prior TiVos and to any cableco/telco DVR offerings and 6 tuners makes switiching channels effortless given the very unlikely need to cancel a recording to do so. About to try my hand at a Mini this weekend, to see if is high time to reduce my current 4 cablecard footprint down to 3 or fewer and hopefully be leftover with some cash after selling one of my TiVo Premieres or the TiVoHD. Well done, TiVO, now let’s see about slinging that content over the interwebs, when’s that update to be released?
Out-of-home streaming is supposed to be turned on this month… pre-release coverage wasn’t the greatest, so hopefully they’ve taken this extra month or so to improve the experience. Although whatever launches at Day 1 will still be the first rev and I’d expect many months of tuning/improvement ahead of us. Hoping for the best, but realistic – TiVo is new to this.
This: Also, I’m bummed I had to choose between streaming, MoCA, and a large capacity drive versus OTA. I always like to have a backup plan, and the Roamio Plus/Pro are digital cable only.
Because of this I ended up going with the regular Roamio (got a free Stream with it though). I would have been thrilled to give TiVo more of my money if only they had OTA as an option on the plus/pro. Instead Western Digital (or someone else) is going to get my money when I get sick of only having 75 hours of recording time and I want to upgrade.
Not sure why TiVo insists that if you want to use OTA you have to buy the cheapest model. I still use cable today (TWC) but am seriously considering going OTA, so I wanted the option to switch.
@Jacob, I can’t be sure, but my guess is the OTA vs. Digital-only was a matter of cost savings. I am pretty sure that when the Premier Elite came out that they said that the “hybrid” OTA/digital tuners were more expensive than the digital only ones. I imagine the same is still true today, especially if they wanted support for 6 OTA. Maybe they could have done 6digital/2OTA but that probably would have also bumped up the price.
@Michael, but that doesn’t make any sense… why restrict a more expensive feature to the cheapest model. This would be like Ford only offering leather seats in the Fiesta.
Jacob, perhaps in retrospect I should have done the same as you with a base Roamio + Stream + drive upgrade and I did experience a few hours of buyer’s remorse. Four tuners is generally enough for me but I kinda worry about the heat of the bigger drive in the base Roamio and wasn’t impressed with the demo unit I saw in Best Buy – real plasticy and some of the rubber feet had fallen off. The MoCA interconnect is probably the final straw tho. Again, I’m all about minimizing the clutter. (And figured with the upcoming Premiere improvements, I’d get decent value out of my Lifetimed Elite.)
Try pulling the power from your unit for a few minutes and reconnect. That was the issue I had, put the card in everything worked just fine then I powered down to move to its permanent home and after reboot premiums no longer worked. I assume there may be something with the pairing process that happens on start up to verify access or such.
Also, were you trying the website for moving your season passes or through the app? I was able to move all of them without issue even those not currently airing. I had about 65 I moved. Not even sure moving them in an app is an option as I generally avoid it as it seems to be fairly sluggish for me at least in previous experience.
I moved my Season Passes via the full-on TiVo webpage and when testing the Stream function via my wife’s iPhone, I noticed the corruption message. Probably should also confirm on the TiVo itself if/how they came through. The TiVo did reboot multiple times due to updates, and your experience did occur to me, but I can pull the power and see if I lose my pairing.
Dave,
I know we don’t live far from each other, but when did you stop by my house…
I own that same carpet and bought the Pro as well. If your couch was a different color, you wouldn’t be able to tell if the picture was in my place or yours…
Anyways, when I copied my season passes via the web, they all moved OK (including those on hiatus). Did you do it through the App or the web? Also, you might want to try kmttg as it can backup and restore season passes (I don’t know about on hiatus ones, but it might be worth a try).
Dave, others,
I’ve been going back and forth on this. I’ve got 3 premiers (1 elite, 2 “regular”) all on lifetime with Fios cable cards in them. I’d love to consolidate this, going down to one 6 tuner Roamio and 2 extenders but have a hard time pulling the trigger. My biggest fear is not getting value for the lifetime services on the existing units. So my questions are:
1) If you were me, would you just be happy where you were or would you do the upgrade?
2) Where do you sell your TiVos? Ebay? Other forums?
Thanks!
Rich
Quick correction: I have 2 HD Tivos and one Premier. All with lifetime. (You can’t go back and edit comments, can you?)
Rich W,
Nope.
As I just realize my last post was completely useless and answers had already been said above. Oh well…
“Unfortunately, I’m not (yet?) digging the new RF/IR remote – it doesn’t have the premium feel that my Glo remotes do and, as previously discussed, is not programmable”
So, now, you, reliable Dave Zatz, will be able to answer my Big Question when you get the opportunity:
How fully functional are the OTT apps on the Roamio when used via the Glo absent the ‘back’ button?
@Rich… I sold one of my Premiers on Craigslist (2 tuner base model) for $400 on Craigslist. Selling the second one has been a little slower, but it looks like I’ll be getting $350 for it on CL today (as long as they show up, always a little dicey). Prices looked similar on eBay but I didn’t want to deal with shipping and fees.
I figure that I am out $100 by selling my 2 premieres and getting a base Roamio w/Lifetime (also scored a free Stream due to a promotion at the time) and a Mini. I am really happy with the decision.
@Dave Zatz I was able to program the Roamio remote to my Vizio soundbar (after hours and hours of frustration). I used the 0999 code search meant for tvs instead of the 1999 code search meant for AV equipment. It was one of the first codes. Good luck!
http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/292
I too debated a while before deciding between Base+Stream or the Plus and ended up going with the Plus and dropping a 3TB drive in (discount from Weaknees on the Plus helped).
I argued with myself that I’d want a backup antenna-only solution, but out where I am, HD was hard to get OTA on my TiVo HDs. I’m realistically not dropping FiOS anytime soon given my need for live sports, so the larger drive + 6 tuners carried more weight in the decision.
With regard to FiOS, I did have to re-pair my card and ran into a problem with HBO not being authorized. As noted in this thread (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=499211), simply asking the rep to “manually revalidate the cablecard” had it working. Total time on the phone was less than 10 min.
Selling all my old Lifetimed equipment on eBay/CL to defray some costs, but basically moving to Roamio as main unit, with a couple of Minis. The mini “lifetime” cost does irk me a bit, however.
DISCOUNT CODE! ;-)
Chucky, I’ll let you know. Although we may not know its true limitations until Opera apps arrive.
Steve, yeah the fees for the Mini are irksome. Probably pure profit and designed to not undercut their MSO partners like RCN and Suddenlink, who will rent the units for a several bucks a month.
Takeagabu, I have no problem controlling my Vizio volume via the TiVo remote. But what I want to do and don’t believe is possible is hit the TiVo TV power button to simultaneously turn on/off both the TV and soundbar. Is that what you worked out? My Glo had no problem learning multiple functions for the power button…
Dave, I see. I just leave my soundbar on for now until they release the roamio glo…
@Dave Zatz not sure if sound bars are different, but I got the roamio remote to turn on/off both my TV and receiver by following the on screen instructions and then afterwards holding down the Tivo and Power button again and entering the same code I did for the receiver when setting the remote to control volume and mute.
Honestly, I think that they expect people who pay the price for the more expensive models are going to have cable and simply will never need OTA support. I think there is a vocal but very small minority of people who are willing to pay $400 for the unit in addition to monthly charges who don’t have cable and simply isn’t worth the extra expenses for the OTA tuners. Would you rather the box be $450/$650 rather than $400/$600 to get OTA tuners? I doubt many out there would want the extra cost for something they will never use.
I dug up an old post here that Dave had about the Premier Elite and while it was talking about dropping analog cable tuners, it mentioned something about each tuner adding additional cost. I think that the OTA tuners fall into that category.
I don’t agree with your analogy of leather in Fiesta. I simply don’t think that most people think OTA as a luxury add-on. I think many look at it as a way to cut costs (by not having cable) so it goes with the cost-cutting model.
I’m very happy with my Roamio box… my TiVo Premiere 4 has yet to sell on Craigslist.
The one thing that bugs me to no end is that they STILL can’t seem to make the menus all HD. You’d think they would have fixed that by now…
Adam,
That’s interesting. I’m going to try that later with my receiver to see if it works. Would be very nice if it does. I have a Harmony One that I use but it’s getting really long in the tooth and many buttons don’t work well. I generally prefer the Tivo remote especially with the RF factor. It would be much better if I didn’t have to pull the Harmony out to turn everything on all the time.
The macroblocking issue with older Fios cablecards was fixed with the other night’s update. Folks should be good to go there.
Not sure whether or not Verizon has fixed the automated phone line pairing yet, though. That may still require a call or ping to @verizonsupport.
The internet / phone line pairing issue is most definitely not solved. Took me 4 calls and 3 wasted hours on the phone with Verizon and two overnighted replacement cards before they got HBO/Cinemax working. If only I had know that simply asking the rep to “manually revalidate the cablecard” would have had it working in no time, I could have saved myself much time/aggravation (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=499211),
@Daniel
You can get the Harmony One to learn everything on the Tivo remote. You simply need to force the Tivo remote to transmit in IR rather than RF by pressing and holding the Tivo + C button for about 10 seconds. You’ll notice that the light on the remote will switch from red to amber or vice versa I believe. Was a bit frustrating to get setup initially, but I’ve configured my harmony one to have physical buttons for nearly every frequently used Tivo button including skip forward, skip back, zoom, tivo, live tv, etc.
“You can get the Harmony One to learn everything on the Tivo remote.”
FWIW, the thing I love so deeply about the Glo is that I can use it to substitute for a Harmony One. Importantly, I can use the programmability to have the “Mute” button to do something utterly different to what a Mute function might be expected to do to handle my particular use-case scenario. This allows me to use the Glo to act as a ‘master’ remote, which can be used singly with the TiVo input, and in conjunction with only one other remote to control other inputs.
Mike, thanks for the VZ CableCARD update. I’ll let that ride for now, assuming all tuners work and without pixelation. However, brennok was right to check 131 – my CableCARD isn’t paired. However, unlike my experiences with other providers, nearly all my channels come in. So after an 11 hour work day yesterday, I let it go and will handle some time this weekend (if I don’t end up back in the office). And I agree with Chucky – the Glo makes a nice universal remote. Perhaps not as comprehensive nor as complex as a Harmony, but does most of what I’ve needed in a better form.
I currently have 2 lifetime Premier boxes and am thinking of upgrading to the Roamio. Rather than getting the TiVo mini boxes, couldn’t I just use the Premier boxes for streaming? I was thinking of pulling the CableCard out of one and returning it and the other’s would go to the Roamio. Thereby reducing my FiOS bill by a little, and now my guest room would have access to the recordings on the Roamio. I know I wouldn’t get ‘live’ TV (unless the Premier can get the ‘basics’ without a card), but we watch less than 5% of live tv. Thoughts?
Miguel,
You very well could do that. However, if you aren’t going to keep the Cablecards in the Premieres, then why don’t you get the Minis and then eBay the Premieres. That should cover the cost of the Mini plus lifetime. That way you get faster boxes and you can watch live TV (and add recordings to the main box). You might even save a little more money by doing that since a Premiere with Lifetime should go for more than $250…
I also forgot to mention that the Mini should use less power as well. That will work out to a few buck as year.
Josh,
Thanks for the advice!
Adam,
You were correct. I’m now able to turn on and off both my receiver and TV with the Roamio remote. Very nice. Much better than my Harmony One that’s all beat up and way past its prime.
The key is just using the receiver code that you used for the volume in the power button as well. Just hold TV Power and the Tivo button and then put in the receiver volume code and you should be good to go.
@Dave @Chucky @Daniel
Only problem with the Glo vs. Harmony remotes are that the Glo remotes would not be considered “Wife Approved” which is a major factor for many.
FYI – you can reassign buttons on the Harmony as well. I have my “Stop” button on the harmony using the “Zoom” from the Tivo so I can jump back into a currently playing recorded show while on the Tivo screen.
I’ve had quite a few Harmony remotes pass thru our home(s)… and the wife much prefers the TiVo Peanut.
“the wife much prefers the TiVo Peanut.”
Without a doubt. My wife loves the Glo, and took to using it in combo with the Roku remote like a fish to water. (She’s always been slightly leery about the Mac Mini HTPC remote, but she can competently use it when she wants the content.) But if I ever brought home a Harmony, I expect divorce papers would be filed shortly…
I got a Roamio Pro last month and have been really enjoying it. Although my first one did get stuck on the Welcome screen after a week or two so I had to get BestBuy to exchange it. But otherwise it has been great. My replacement has been working great though. And Best of all I’m finally down to one cable card on FiOS. At one time I had eight cable cards on FIOS(back when they were $3 each). An since their prices are now $5 per CC it is nice to only need to pay for one of them.
Eric,
My issue with my Harmony One is that a lot of the buttons on the Harmony don’t work well. It might be because my kids often have sticky hands when using it but I have at least 5 buttons that are very hard to press on the Harmony. Plus with the better RF responsiveness from the Roamio remote, it’s just a much better experience than the Harmony. Now that I can use the peanut to turn on the TV and receiver it’s all I need.
I have several Harmony One remotes from 2008. Even at five years old none of the buttons stick or are hard to press on any of them.
Just bit on the Roamio Plus. I had the first TiVo and did the drive upgrade back then. Picked up WD 3TB WD30EURX off Newegg for $139. Easiest TiVo upgrade ever! Going through initial setup now. More comments to follow…