# Tivo OTA Options?



## JimG19 (Jun 30, 2005)

I got lucky, or so I thought, and acquired what looks like an almost brand new Tivo Roamio OTA at a local thrift store for less than $10.

I hooked it up, and it works fine. It appears the prior owner tried to use it for cable, after looking at the channels set up, and never used it. I repeated guided setup for my antenna, it picked up the channels, no problem.

I currently own two Tivo HD's with lifetime, and have had no real problems.

I went to my account on tivo and input the tivo number and everything was good until I saw my payment options. $14.99 a month, and that is it. Does that sound right? Is there no lifetime option or a lower monthly payment if you already own 2 tivos? Thought I would ask on this knowledgeable forum before playing phone roulette with Tivo.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

Jim

PS...I could not find a list of apps that come on the Roamio. Other than Netflix, Pandora, Amazon, and Hulu Plus. Thanks for info on that as well. It all will go into my decision making regarding this box.


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## Chris Gerhard (Apr 27, 2002)

$10 was a great deal, no question, for a parts machine if nothing else. I don't think TiVo has started offering lifetime for the Roamio OTAs sold with monthly option only, those were sold way less than manufacturing cost. TiVo has started selling the OTA with lifetime so there may be some way to get that one included at some price but I wouldn't know how to proceed.


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## JimG19 (Jun 30, 2005)

Chris Gerhard said:


> $10 was a great deal, no question, for a parts machine if nothing else. I don't think TiVo has started offering lifetime for the Roamio OTAs sold with monthly option only, those were sold way less than manufacturing cost. TiVo has started selling the OTA with lifetime so there may be some way to get that one included at some price but I wouldn't know how to proceed.


Thanks for the reply Chris. It was actually $7 but does me no good at this point if $14.99 a month is the only option. They must think I am crazy. I talked on tivo chat and they told me they are not offering lifetime nor a lower monthly rate. I guess they have little interest in getting it activated.

Jim


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

They have an interest in making a profit from the box. With such a low purchase price, the service is what generated positive cash flow. Otherwise they loose on the sale, which they have little interest in.


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## Photo_guy (Mar 12, 2015)

$10 is a good price and would be a useful box as a parts supply for someone who already has another OTA unit running. 

One of the offers was $50 for the box with a 1 year commit @ $15/mo service - Tivo made the money on the service rather than the equipment. (I purchased on of these because I was not sure I would like Tivo and wanted a low cost entry trial period. After 1 year I could just drop it and be done rather than pay for a lifetime service deal.) 
I'll bet this unit came from one of those deals.

You might find someone who is willing to pay the $15/mo and you might even make some money selling your box to them.

Oh, alternatively you can take the HD out and use it in your computer. Should be at least a .5G drive which is worth about $20 anyway.


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## JimG19 (Jun 30, 2005)

Thanks for the replies. Since I have the TivoHD, it has hardly any streaming apps. Is there anywhere a list resides of the apps currently available for the roamio?

Jim


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

tivo.com, scroll down.


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## Photo_guy (Mar 12, 2015)

The list shown on the tivo.com webpage is pretty much what is available.
I have used Netflix, hulu, amazon, and YouTube aps on my OTA so I know, first hand, they are available and work.


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## JimG19 (Jun 30, 2005)

jrtroo said:


> tivo.com, scroll down.





Photo_guy said:


> The list shown on the tivo.com webpage is pretty much what is available.
> I have used Netflix, hulu, amazon, and YouTube aps on my OTA so I know, first hand, they are available and work.


Thanks for the help. I assumed there would be more. Perhaps in the future.

Jim


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## Scarpad (Dec 7, 2000)

I don't know why so many balk at the charge when I decided to cut the cord I know I needed a dvr option, I still think for ease of use TiVo is the best out there. Dish was charging me 12 bucks a month for their DVR so TiVo is a few bucks more, think it's worth it for all I save


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

JimG19 said:


> Thanks for the help. I assumed there would be more. Perhaps in the future.


I'm curious. What apps are missing that you'd want?


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## Teeps (Aug 16, 2001)

JimG19 said:


> I went to my account on tivo and input the tivo number and everything was good until I saw my payment options. $14.99 a month, and that is it.
> Thanks in advance for your thoughts.





Scarpad said:


> I don't know why so many balk at the charge when I decided to cut the cord I know I needed a dvr option, I still think for ease of use TiVo is the best out there. Dish was charging me 12 bucks a month for their DVR so TiVo is a few bucks more, think it's worth it for all I save


$15 a month, what's the big; people spend more than that at starbucks, in a week!
Move some budget items around and enjoy TiVo OTA.


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## JimG19 (Jun 30, 2005)

I already have two tivo hd's and that it why I "balked" at the $15 per month charge with no discount for owning tivo's for almost 10 years. It's not a huge deal to me. It just seemed odd that there is no option for discount or to put lifetime on the Roamio OTA. I just wanted to see how far tivo has come since my older, but still working, units. But I am not willing to commit a year at $15 a month to find out.

As far as apps I would like to see. Playon, Plex, WWE Network, CBS All Access, Channel Pear, WatchESPN, to name a few in addition to the ones already included.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

JimG19 said:


> I already have two tivo hd's and that it why I "balked" at the $15 per month charge with no discount for owning tivo's for almost 10 years. It's not a huge deal to me. It just seemed odd that there is no option for discount or to put lifetime on the Roamio OTA. I just wanted to see how far tivo has come since my older, but still working, units. But I am not willing to commit a year at $15 a month to find out. As far as apps I would like to see. Playon, Plex, WWE Network, CBS All Access, Channel Pear, WatchESPN, to name a few in addition to the ones already included.


Plex is there on TiVo.


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

Aside from the apps already mentioned, there's Pandora, AOL On, Yahoo Screen, MLB, Spotify (paid subs only), iHeartRadio, Live365, HuffPost Live, and TechCrunch.


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## pfiagra (Oct 13, 2014)

NashGuy said:


> Aside from the apps already mentioned, there's Pandora, AOL On, Yahoo Screen, MLB, Spotify (paid subs only), iHeartRadio, Live365, HuffPost Live, and TechCrunch.


I would add that these are the "top tier" apps; there are a bunch of others (video services, games, etc.) available through the Opera Store.


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## nycityuser (Dec 30, 2004)

JimG19 said:


> I already have two tivo hd's and that it why I "balked" at the $15 per month charge with no discount for owning tivo's for almost 10 years. It's not a huge deal to me. It just seemed odd that there is no option for discount or to put lifetime on the Roamio OTA. I just wanted to see how far tivo has come since my older, but still working, units. But I am not willing to commit a year at $15 a month to find out.


If you buy a Roamio OTA from TiVo for $50 they'll sell you lifetime for $350. That's what I just saw available on their website.


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