# My initial review of Bolt.



## kisby (Mar 31, 2002)

A little presumptuous to think anyone cares about my review, but what the heck!

I&#8217;ve owned the TiVo Bolt for a few hours. My situation is different that many of you. I was an early adopter of TiVo in the 90&#8217;s. I loved it! In those days, you connected your TiVo to a phone line and it updated every night! When TWC came out with DVRs, I switched. I&#8217;ve been living with TWC DVRs for the past decade or more. The one&#8217;s I have are slow, have a small hard drive (about 30 hours of HD programming), only two tuners, have a poor search feature, and are generally not easily programmable or user friendly. So, for me, any TiVo is an upgrade. 

The new Bolt goes in my man cave, so it is just for me. For that reason, four tuners are fine. I got the 500 GB model, because that&#8217;s all they had in stock, and will probably upgrade to a 2TB internal hard drive. (already on order from Amazon.) I admit, I wish it had more hard drive space out of the box.

Here are my first impressions:
POSITIVE:
I love being able to search all of my accounts, cable and internet, for shows I want (or already have.) 
The speed is incredible. Apps open quickly. Much faster than my friend&#8217;s Romario.
I like that it is 4K ready. I have a 4K TV. There is more 4K programming all the time.
First year of subscription included.
Good remote.

NEGATIVE:
I would prefer a black, non-bent case.
I wish it had 6 tuners and 3-4TB hard drive. I&#8217;m willing to pay more, and suspect I will next year.
No CBS All Access app. Probably some other good apps are missing, too.
No voice control.
I wish remote had a keyboard.
Can't wait to try the commercial skip. I hate commercials.
Much better picture quality on my TV then the TWC DVR box gave me. 

I will probably wait for the &#8220;Bolt Pro&#8221; that we know is coming next year to upgrade the rest of my home&#8217;s DVR / streaming system. I expect that it will have at least 6 tuners and a much larger hard drive. That way, it will make for a better &#8220;whole-house&#8221; system. I&#8217;ll probably keep my current Bolt in my man cave!


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

kisby said:


> I wish remote had a keyboard.


You might want to get a Slide Pro remote:

https://www.tivo.com/shop/detail/tivoslidepro

If you do order one, be sure to order the one for "Premiere or Mini" to get the free RF dongle with it just in case you ever add any Minis to your setup and want to use it with the Mini.


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## faulkton (Aug 14, 2015)

kisby said:


> Here are my first impressions:
> I like that it is 4K ready. I have a 4K TV. There is more 4K programming all the time.
> 
> Much better picture quality on my TV then the TWC DVR box gave me.


What brand & model of 4k TV do you have and are you letting the Bolt do the 4k upscaling or the TV?

I'm really curious about how the bolt upscales. I even made a thread about it ifyou'd be so kind as to answer my question here or there:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=532519

Thanks for the review


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## Africanlivedit (Apr 30, 2014)

kisby said:


> A little presumptuous to think anyone cares about my review, but what the heck!
> 
> Ive owned the TiVo Bolt for a few hours. My situation is different that many of you. I was an early adopter of TiVo in the 90s. I loved it! In those days, you connected your TiVo to a phone line and it updated every night! When TWC came out with DVRs, I switched. Ive been living with TWC DVRs for the past decade or more. The ones I have are slow, have a small hard drive (about 30 hours of HD programming), only two tuners, have a poor search feature, and are generally not easily programmable or user friendly. So, for me, any TiVo is an upgrade.
> 
> ...


I still can't believe they are only releasing a white version of this TiVo.

Makes no sense whatsoever.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

Africanlivedit said:


> I still can't believe they are only releasing a white version of this TiVo.
> 
> Makes no sense whatsoever.


If you read the TCF Q/A with the CMO much of the "why" of the Bolt being what it is for the initial release should be clearer. http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=532368


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