TiVo Releases New DVR

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With little fanfare, TiVo just introduced a new 6-tuner, 1TB Bolt DVR to the consumer market. And, as with the existing 6-tuner, 3TB model, this $300 unit is designed solely for cable customers… who are dissatisfied with their provider’s hardware options, in terms of pricing or functionality. Like other recent TiVo Bolt additions, this one comes bundled with the quite-nice Vox voice-control remote.

Interestingly, both the new Bolt OTA, released just a few weeks ago, and this unit appears to be manufactured by TiVo partner Arris — as discovered by BigJimOutlaw within a single manual that covers both devices… leading me to wonder if TiVo is streamlining their retail catalog in an effort to control costs, as they’ve previously signaled, and more precisely target market demand.

Of course, the subscription-centric TiVo prides themselves on delivering a superior user experience for television content alongside a number of top tier streaming apps like Amazon, Netflix, Hulu, and YouTube… some of which the Bolt line will even stream in 4K. Although the company’s business model may be shifting to better integrate online and “linear” content (good) within an updated ad-filled interface (not good).

26 thoughts on “TiVo Releases New DVR”

  1. Yow, $850 for a new box and lifetime service? If there was 4k service coming from Spectrum, I’d consider it, but for something that’s a minor upgrade from my Premier, pass.

    It sure makes my $500 all in Premier seem like a bargain. I think I’ve had it for 4 years or so. Another thing that would get me to jump is getting rid of cable card. I had problems this year with the tivo recording and they suggested replacing both. The CC was made in 2008! Cone on cable industry, in this day you can’t do better than that?

  2. The outdated cable card is an issue. Otherwise, i love my Roamio Pro with 2 minis which have paid for themselves in equipment rental savings. When the Roamio gives out we’ll replace with a then current 3+ TB model.

  3. My Romio’s external drive just died. Too bad this doesn’t have an upgrade deal for lifetime service people.

  4. This is my reminder to connect my dormant Premier to the TiVo service in case they offer another lifetime deal.

  6. Because Tivo’s new “hydra” experience is so desparately poor, I would never consider purchasing another Tivo. HYDRA is GARBAGE!

    Just keep it, Tivo….(long time Tivo owner)

  7. Because Tivo’s new “hydra” experience is so desperately poor, I would never consider purchasing another Tivo. HYDRA is GARBAGE!

    Just keep it, Tivo….(long time Tivo owner)

  8. Evan Adams,

    It’s pretty easy replacing the internal drive on Tivo’s. You can even buy them reformatted for your model. You just have to do a little homework and make sure you purchase the correct one.

    OTA only for me, using cable is something I’m not willing to spend a dime on

  10. Hydra is the single reason I will not move to the newer models. I have one hydra-equipped model and have relegated it to the least used TV of the house. I wish TIVO would allow me to reverse the interface to the previous version. Until such time, the TIVO machines in my house are on a death march. They will not be replaced as they die out…

  14. Our primary tivo is a Roamio. Doing some cleaning in the basement, I accidentally disconnected it’s network feed. No one noticed for a month. We use it most now to watch things that were recorded some time ago. Everything else is streamed. At some point, we are going to cut the cable and go stream only.

  15. I’m running 2 TivoHD units. Each 10 years old with lifetime service. They do everything I need (each paired with Amazon fire stick). No upgrade necessary. These units have paid for themselves many times over.

  16. Love my Romio for OTA broadcasts! I swapped it the hard drive for a 3tb. Works great. The only thing I wish was that it would get more streaming apps we use sling TV and it would be great if there was an app for that to have everything in one place. Have had lifetime service for years and it’s paid off many times over!

  17. If you pay attention to the ads they’ve been sending you (check your spam folder), they’ve been offering upgrades where you can transfer lifetime service from your old series 3, 4 (premiere) and 5 (roamio) models to the new boxes for $99. Before Rovi bought them, transferring lifetime service (now called “All-In”) was verboten.

  18. @Dan Traina – On Roamio and newer, a copy of the OS is loaded in an EEPROM onboard. If you put a new blank (up to) 3TB 2.5” HDD in it, the boot loader will partition and format it then install the OS on the hard drive in about 5 minutes.

    i.e. you no longer have to buy hard drives with the tivo operating system pre-installed (unless it’s over 3TB… that requires an extra partition the built-in installer won’t add).

  22. TiVo Bolt was originally available with 4 tuners and 500GB or 1TB. A 6 tuner, 3TB unit was later introduced. So what’s new on the cable-front is a cheaper 6 tuner model with less storage now manufactured by Arris and an indication that TiVo may be streamlining the lineup to offer a single 4 tuner OTA model and a single 6 tuner cable model.

  24. @Dave Zatz / @John S: I’m not aware of any Roamio $99 transfer deal–the deals I’ve seen have been for the Premier and earlier boxes.

  25. @Peter Dikeos: You indeed can roll back from the TiVo Hydra/TE4 user interface to the earlier, TE3 user interface (as permitted by TiVo–not a hack). Check the tivocommunity.com forum for the instructions to start the process The only hitch: you will lose the recordings on the box in the process, and so transfer anything you want to save to your PC or another TiVo box first.

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