# The shape of Tivo Bolt: an aesthetic gimmick, or functional?



## pdx8080 (May 30, 2014)

As the owner of older "flat" models, I am genuinely curious:

Is there a _good_ reason for the inability to place my 22" TV on top of the latest Tivo, or did they do it just because someone thought it looked cool?

I'm not sure I will be purchasing a Bolt when my current units die.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

both


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## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

I feel that it contributes to precluding over-heating of the unit. But mostly, their plan was probably just that they thought it looked cool.

I have two of the original Bolts, so they're white. I don't like white and, of course, as soon as I purchased my first one they came out with the black ones. Then, by the time I was buying my second one they had that damnable new UI that I don't like, but that's ok. As long as they work I can get past the white color. 

Before my Bolts, I would put water bottle caps under the four corners of my flat Premieres to help keep them cooler.


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

I think they were trying to win the OOPS design award:

https://founterior.com/oops-design-award-examples-bad-awful-products/


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

tomhorsley said:


> I think they were trying to win the OOPS design award:
> 
> https://founterior.com/oops-design-award-examples-bad-awful-products/


Yeah that fits.

craigr


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## bkc56 (Apr 29, 2001)

Perhaps Tivo just thought their stuff deserved to be on the top of the stack with nothing on top of it.


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## Sparky1234 (May 8, 2006)

pdx8080 said:


> As the owner of older "flat" models, I am genuinely curious:
> 
> Is there a _good_ reason for the inability to place my 22" TV on top of the latest Tivo, or did they do it just because someone thought it looked cool?
> 
> I'm not sure I will be purchasing a Bolt when my current units die.


Bolt is on top of my stack. I also separate multiple stacked units with cut PVC wrapped in black electrical tape.... Air circulation is life to electronics.


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

pdx8080 said:


> As the owner of older "flat" models, I am genuinely curious:
> 
> Is there a _good_ reason for the inability to place my 22" TV on top of the latest Tivo, or did they do it just because someone thought it looked cool?
> 
> I'm not sure I will be purchasing a Bolt when my current units die.


The Bolt's shape was a well discussed topic when it first came out. It was not well received. The 2 major ideas for it's shape, were just a "cool" design or more likely an attempt to improve the airflow in the Bolt...which tends to run hotter than the older Tivos. My thinking is that when the Tivo engineers realized the heating problems someone offered a "cheap" fix to go along with the new "white" color. 
Many folks were concerned with the still higher Bolt temperatures and resorted to various simple ways to raise the height of the Bolt, some resorted to using laptop USB coolers to reduce the excess heat reported by the Bolts. 
My impression is that with the Bolt series, Tivo was trying to reduce costs as much as possible, while trying to make it seem like the product was just new and innovative. 
PS. IMO, it is always a bad idea to stack electronic components on on top of another, unless you can insure sufficient air space and circulation between each one.


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## jlb (Dec 13, 2001)

Let's not forget one of the best things about Bolt.....it has spawned all sorts of creativity!!!


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

sharkster said:


> I feel that it contributes to precluding over-heating of the unit. But mostly, their plan was probably just that they thought it looked cool.
> 
> I have two of the original Bolts, so they're white. I don't like white and, of course, as soon as I purchased my first one they came out with the black ones. Then, by the time I was buying my second one they had that damnable new UI that I don't like, but that's ok. As long as they work I can get past the white color.
> 
> Before my Bolts, I would put water bottle caps under the four corners of my flat Premieres to help keep them cooler.


I'm a black-electronics sort of person as well, but really have come to appreciate and even like the white color and the bend,* as an exception to the rule. And while I don't know that I would like the exception to become the norm, it's also great for not revealing dust. 

I still use the Sharkster bottle-cap-riser hack for my Bolt, as well as my other TiVo boxes. 

* There's something nicely metaphorical about having a "bent" box.


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## Qnapfan (Feb 13, 2019)

hmmmmm ... I guess I'm more of the boring sort ... but I find the bend ... verging on disturbing. To qualify that, I'd say that if the Tivo were truly isolated as in a stand alone sculpture sense, then I could fully embrace its shape and aesthetic ... but as an electronics user and believer in modular design ... it goes against the grain for me personally. I started out with the inspiration from server racks and multimedia/multi-device entertainment centers. 

Give me black, brushed metal and textured plastics over 'sculptural' edgy home automation any day. Now if and when the day comes for the Omni-Media stand alone Tesseract ... then I might change my tune.


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## sharkster (Jul 3, 2004)

Mikeguy said:


> I'm a black-electronics sort of person as well, but really have come to appreciate and even like the white color and the bend,* as an exception to the rule. And while I don't know that I would like the exception to become the norm, it's also great for not revealing dust.
> 
> I still use the Sharkster bottle-cap-riser hack for my Bolt, as well as my other TiVo boxes.
> 
> * There's something nicely metaphorical about having a "bent" box.


Hey, whatever works right?  I did end up putting a bottle cap under each of the front corners of my main Bolt, just to give it a little more insurance.

As long as I can remember, I have been concerned about the heating up of electronics if no circulation is allowed. I really got on board with that the first time I bought a laptop. I did some studying (as I'm prone to do) and found that over-heating is one of the worst things so my laptops have these steel mesh laptop stands. I can have a laptop on all day long and it will not get even the least bit warm.


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## elorimer (Jan 1, 2012)

I go with the idea that it is the back that should be more elevated.


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## Kishore (Feb 20, 2003)

Yeah I placed 4 blocks as a raiser under Bolt and left cable card exposed (underneath). I will need to buy the fan once 'global warming' kicks in from Mar  

I still feel Roamio/traditional form factor had more room to play with-curious how many returns Tivo had with Bolt compared to Roamio/traditional form factors.


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## Qnapfan (Feb 13, 2019)

Kishore said:


> Yeah I placed 4 blocks as a raiser under Bolt and left cable card exposed (underneath). I will need to buy the fan once 'global warming' kicks in from Mar
> 
> I still feel Roamio/traditional form factor had more room to play with-curious how many returns Tivo had with Bolt compared to Roamio/traditional form factors.


I'm guessing an increase that would be noticably worrisome ... but when you consider the context - it makes you wonder how well these designs are 'acid tested' ...

vs the older designs ... considerably less air flow spaces and channels, more insulation potential with greater use of plastics, increased storage/cpu capacity with would generate more heat, (and I am guessing here) tighter control over design/profit margin formula ... = fzzzzzzzzzt (I smell something burning honey) ....


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Complete gimmick. *IF* my Tivos completely died (I had a OLED S3 just die on me), I could maybe see getting one of them.. But except for that, I honestly would not want to choose this stupidly shaped box, and would wait for a normal rectangular box (if there were one to ever come out).


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## Qnapfan (Feb 13, 2019)

mattack said:


> Complete gimmick. *IF* my Tivos completely died (I had a OLED S3 just die on me), I could maybe see getting one of them.. But except for that, I honestly would not want to choose this stupidly shaped box, and would wait for a normal rectangular box (if there were one to ever come out).


Hahaha ... an official one may never come out ... but if you follow the Mod forums ... Rich has pictures of a Gutted older Tivo that literally has enough interior volume to take the entire Bolt with room to spare. Imagine having what looks like a THD in your system ... but in reality its a decased Bolt+ which is cooler and more capacious in terms of internal HDD ... all nicey wrapped in a tasteful rectilinear case that matches your other AV equipment.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

btw, I just realized what I said may have been misinterpreted.. I didn't mean my OLED S3 died recently.. but I had a OLED S3 completely die on me (and I never even tried to contact Tivo to try to get a reduced rate new lifetime subscription since I hoped to try to resurrect the hard drive in a transplanted-encryption-chip S3 but never did).


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## zubinh (Jun 7, 2004)

Has anyone tried plugging a USB fan into the USB port of the Bolt? Curious if that could aid in cooling. Was thinking of buying this: USB Case Fan 120mm Silent Computer Fans USB Powered 5V PC Cooling Fan | eBay


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

zubinh said:


> Has anyone tried plugging a USB fan into the USB port of the Bolt? Curious if that could aid in cooling. Was thinking of buying this: USB Case Fan 120mm Silent Computer Fans USB Powered 5V PC Cooling Fan | eBay


I would not think buying a fan directly from China is a good idea. I have several USB powered fans connected to Roamio, cable modem and my Stream. The 120mm is perfect size to lay on top of a Mini. I use one. Note that the USB power doesn't happen until the yellow LED flickers during power up. The AC Infinity fans are very quiet.


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## exdishguy (May 1, 2004)

The design is awful. Isn't there any good product ID guys/girls on this board that have access to a nice 3D printer? Yes...I hate the design that much.


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## jccfin (Aug 28, 2008)

jlb said:


> Let's not forget one of the best things about Bolt.....it has spawned all sorts of creativity!!!
> 
> View attachment 39255
> View attachment 39256


You have it almost correct. It should also be upside down! Heat rises so you need to have it upside down to move heat up and out of the device and not underneath where it can get sucked back into the device creating a virtuous cycle.

This has to one of the dumbest engineered devices. Seriously, any first year engineering student knows not to build electronic devices like this. They put both the intake and outtake vents on the bottom the device! How dumb is that? That's like if humans had both their mouths and anuses next to each other! Do you see how dumb that is??!! People?!?!


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

jccfin said:


> You have it almost correct. It should also be upside down! Heat rises so you need to have it upside down to move heat up and out of the device and not underneath where it can get sucked back into the device creating a virtuous cycle.
> 
> This has to one of the dumbest engineered devices. Seriously, any first year engineering student knows not to build electronic devices like this. They put both the intake and outtake vents on the bottom the device! How dumb is that? That's like if humans had both their mouths and anuses next to each other! Do you see how dumb that is??!! People?!?!


The Bolt design and heat related issues have been widely complained about since it's release. The theory was that the crook in the case was a lame attempt to improve the heat exchange issue. Many have complained that it this is not effective resulting in the Bolt continuing to produce higher temperatures than prior Tivo DVR's and people have resorted to various "fixes" including simply adding something under the corners to raise the Bolt up more, thereby improving circulation/temperature, others slide a laptop cooler/fan under the Bolt and plug it into one of the USB ports. Some few have tried changing out the stock fan and some simply removed part or all of the case. 
Most all of these issues have apparently been ignored by Tivo, they did seem to go back to the traditional black vs white color though with the latest models.
BTW the reference to the location of the mouth and anus is not unheard of as there are a few folks, not too hard to find, that pretty much talk out of their asses all the time.


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## Hamstring (Feb 13, 2007)

It's not that big of a deal. I was more upset about the cheap plastic, the Roamio is a tank. They tried for something bold to get noticed and now they went to black. It is very light and small, you can hide it easily.


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## Phil T (Oct 29, 2003)

My Black VOX looked ok on my under TV cabinet but the White one did not meet the wife approval factor. It is now on a wire stand behind the TV stand along with a T-Mobile cell spot. Both are working fine back there.


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## KJN (Feb 24, 2019)

My bolt was running at 65 to 67c. I took off the cablecard door and raised the Bolt on 1" blocks, the temp dropped to 58c. I then put a little USB fan in back, blowing over the Bolt, temp now 47.


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## Lrscpa (Apr 20, 2003)

My first Bolt+ died after 18 months. The replacement sits on two 120MM fans with the cable card cover removed. ODT is 55°C. Current unit which is about a year old started freezing/rebooting 4-5 times over the last few weeks.


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

For shoots and giggles, I found these product design/branding sites on the web. At one point Tivo was going to name of the Bolt the "ONE" or "COR".

Creatively Daring - Tivo One Packaging Concepts

TiVo

TiVo Bolt | Consumer Electronics Design | Y Studios


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

BigJimOutlaw said:


> Creatively Daring - Tivo One Packaging Concepts


Cor blimey


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