Some TiVo Deals To Be Had

Given TiVo’s apparent deemphasis of retail and degraded Rovi guide data, I might not have branded this promotion a “Meltdown” … but there are certainly some good deals to be had here this summer. First and foremost is the TiVo Roamio OTA 48-hour “flash sale” — at $300, including lifetime service, this is a solid deal for a great cord cutter DVR (even though you may not need one). Plus it’s TiVo’s larger 1TB model. Further down the line are refurbished TiVo Mini extenders at $100. This may not be the best price we’ve ever seen, but it’s a nice discount and supposedly the newer, model with RF remote. Lastly, if you were already in the market for a Bolt or prior generation Roamio Pro, TiVo will spot you a minimum of $200 for a box with lifetime service.

27 thoughts on “Some TiVo Deals To Be Had”

  1. Doesn’t make it a bad deal for those in the market… I’ve almost hopped on the OTA deals a few times for extra recording capacity. I might need another Mini for the new house. Hm.

  2. To read the tea leaves, it’s a normal seasonal sale – aka not a meltdown – which is somehow reassuring….

  3. More reassuring will be the retail voice remote, which I’m hearing is a done deal — it is coming. Probably a 4k Mini, too. :)

  4. “More reassuring will be the retail voice remote, which I’m hearing is a done deal — it is coming. Probably a 4k Mini, too. :)”

    Those aren’t reassuring. Those are nice.

    I just mean the sale being not of blowout proportions means that the retail division is not Radio Shack…

  5. I called and the (very confused) supervisor that I spoke to after the (very confused) rep, said that the minis are the older 2000 series, “but that they are all the same.” Tivo’s phone support has sure gone down hill.

  6. The company has always been confused about the “new” Mini – corporate staff tried to tell me it was the same prior to release, despite what the FCC docs seemed to indicate with RF, and confirmed upon release. That promo page also incorrectly stated the Roamio Pro would require a MoCA bridge for Mini linkage – which I alerted TiVo to yesterday and they corrected. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), the best bet is for us to talk amongst ourselves. Here’s the TCF thread on Mini:

    http://www.tivocommunity.com/community/index.php?threads/tivo-summer-sale-addition-tivo-renewed-mini-for-99-99.551468/

  7. $800 for the Bolt+ with lifetime service is not necessarily a bad deal, but the entry cost is so steep that I’d bet that many people who would like to buy it simply can’t afford it. What they really need to do is to have a real sale on the devices, low prices on the hardware (which realistically isn’t where they make their profit) which will create sales for the service, either a lifetime package, or the monthly service fee. Give away the razor so you can sell razor blades!

  8. I got my parents a Mini…I had been waiting for it to drop in price for a while (I used to be able to get new Minis for $120-130 frequently, but now everyone sells the, for the full price again). The image is of the new Mini, for sure, as it has the centered logo.

  9. Honestly, I was thinking about jumping the Mini deal, but last night I went to use Spotify on my Bolt and then my Roamio and no more Spotify. Today I was in Costco and actually stopped to look at Roku.

    Sad.

    John

  10. What is a “TiVo-renewed” Mini? Not another way of saying refurbished, right? It’s the newer RF version?

  11. per TiVo’s website: “A TiVo-renewed product is a factory-refurbished device that is fully tested and certified by TiVo and includes TiVo’s standard manufacturer warranty.”

    The Mini appears to be the newer one, based on the photo that they used to advertise it, as it has the centered TiVo logo (the first generation Mini had an off-set logo).

  12. Since when does the Roamio OTA allow mobile device streaming? I thought that was only built-in to the Roamio Plus and Pro.

    Nice deal on the Minis, though. I snagged an extra one for the spare bedroom.

  13. It’ll work with a TiVo Stream accessory, but not natively – and it looks like they removed that bullet. I don’t think their marketing staff is getting enough sleep.

  14. Note that TiVo has brought back the $99 “Once in a Lifetime” Lifetime service transfer promo, for an extremely limited time and for a limited set of qualified devices.

    “Second Chance” TiVo $99 Product Lifetime Service Transfer Sale

    Limited to S2/S3, HD & HDXL DVRs w/ PLS that have connected to the TiVo service between 6/22/2016 & 6/22/2017; and the offer is only applicable paired with purchase of a DVR via TiVo.com — though it should be noted that this offer extends the options to include the Roamio Pro.

  15. Hadn’t seen that! It’s interesting how they phrase it as an ‘option’ and refer to the Mini 2k… suggesting there will be another option, the Mini 4k. And a source indicates a 4K Mini is coming. I didn’t think to ask who would be manufacturing it though… (For reference, the incoming voice remote is not manufactured by TiVo and, as the incoming Rovi had said, they don’t want to be in hardware.)

  16. If we can get a picture of the label on an existing ebox variant, we can get the FCC ID of the hardware manufacturer, and do some research… Digital Media Technologies (South Korea) doesn’t seem to be building their current, vs former, hardware.

  17. Wow, Evolution Digital rocks. I rarely to never engage with marketing folks, largely given a couple years of negative experiences with TiVo in particular. But the company saw my tweet and reached out, asked if they could give me a demo of the ebox or put me in touch with a customer, etc. I asked about Digital Media Technologies in particular and said I was seeking a label – they sent over a pic and indicated DMT is one of several partners (without revealing others). So at least one variant of the ebox is produced by Digital Media Technologies… however, there aren’t any new/current listings that I was able to turn up. So either they don’t have new hardware ready to go yet, they’re re-using existing hardware, or their using wireless components filed by themselves. Will keep my eyes open…

  18. We had an issue with the refurb Mini I got last week, and am currently working with TiVo on an advanced RMA. The issue was that the remote would stop working after a couple of hours of non-use, requiring a reboot of the Mini. Since this was at my parents’ house, I was limited in my ability to quickly troubleshoot and identify the issue. A quick Google search revealed several similar issues, but no definitive answer to the cause. After seeing it occur this morning first hand, I swapped his Mini with one from my house, and kept his same remote (I paired his remote with the TiVo Mini from my house). I then took his Mini to my house, and let it sit for 90 minutes so it would go into Standby mode. I was able to confirm the issue followed the Mini, and it would not accept any remote functions. I then used an old IR TiVo remote, and it worked fine, so I decided that going to standby causes the RF receiver in the Mini to stop functioning. I explained this to TiVo, and they didn’t bother having me do further troubleshooting before issuing the RMA. I have 3 Minis of my own, and none have had this issue before, but it seems to be something that has caused challenges for others in the past. Also, based on the logo on the Mini remote that came with the refurbished unit, this was from an MSO provider somewhere, and not a consumer return (at least the remote was).

    Anyway, mentioning this in case others have a similar experience.

  19. Real weird. What kind of logo or what logo characteristics made you think MSO? Wonder if all MSOs like RCN going ebox from now on given Harper’s discovery. Hm.

  20. It is at my parents’ house, but will try to snap a pic next time I’m over there. It was a company name printed under the clear and enter keys. It may not have been an MSO exactly, but maybe an Evolution Digital-type aggregate supplier.

  21. Actually, I did a quick search for the part of the name that I remembered, and found the company: Atlantic Broadband. Apparently based in MA, and serving mostly Northeast sites. I’ve personally never heard of them before.

  22. Just now seeing the info above from Harper and Zatz about the eBox. Looks to me like Evolution Digital currently has one STB that supports the TiVo UI and that’s the eBox. I think it contains one QAM tuner but no hard drive. It’s designed for MSOs that still use QAM for linear TV but which offer VOD via IP. It works with Evolution Digital’s back-end server software for VOD and cloud DVR functionality. The eBox also offers various OTT apps. In terms of hardware, it’s a lot like the current Mini, except with a QAM tuner (and maybe UHD capability). I guess that, when put into “mini mode,” it can be paired with a Series 4 or 5 TiVo and simply behave like a Mini. But otherwise, the eBox acts as a standalone STB for MSOs that deploy it in conjunction with the supporting server-side software.

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