# Amazon is now selling the Roamio OTA for $49



## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

I guess this means that the Roamio OTA is no longer a Best Buy exclusive.

http://www.amazon.com/TiVo-TCD84651...o+roamio&pebp=1421869715748&peasin=B00OLDNNRO


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

So.... $39 for an extra Roamio remote, or $49 for a remote that comes with a whole TiVo?

Decisions, decisions...


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## spaldingclan (Aug 22, 2012)

what size harddrive is that in there? 500gb? I'd almost want to buy this, rip out the drive and sell the remote and pop a smaller drive in and sell it. are you required to activate it?


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

spaldingclan said:


> what size harddrive is that in there? 500gb? I'd almost want to buy this, rip out the drive and sell the remote and pop a smaller drive in and sell it. are you required to activate it?


Nope, you don't have to activate it. Though turning around and selling one without the remote and a smaller hard drive sounds a little dirty to me.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

I was thinking I'd buy one, replace the remote with a new one from a Mini, but upgrade the hard drive to 2TB and sell it.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

I'm thinking of buying one from and with my Best Buy $40 rewards coupon I just got (or a FireTV stick) just mainly for the remote and maybe the hard drive. 

Does anyone know if I don't activate it, can I at least setup manual recordings with it? I have an ATSC/QAM modulator that I'd like to use as a source for it.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

I don't think any modern TiVo will allow recording without service.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Arcady said:


> I don't think any modern TiVo will allow recording without service.


Thanks. I was thinking I heard you could at least do basic pause and manual recordings.

Can so one who maybe just bought a TiVo OTA give it a quick try for me before activating?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

All you can do is pause live TV. All recording functions are disabled. And its going to bug you every time you go into the menus to activate service.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

I wish they offered MSD on this, I might consider getting one. I have one station I can only get via OTA. I currently record it on my PC with an HDHomeRun and then convert/transfer the recordings to my TiVo. But it's a PITA and I've gotten lazy so haven't watched those shows in a while. Would be much easier to just stream from an actual TiVo, but $150 for a Roamio Basic + service seems like a bit much for this. If I could get an OTA for $50 and pay for MSD I might do it.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

Dan203 said:


> I wish they offered MSD on this, I might consider getting one. I have one station I can only get via OTA. I currently record it on my PC with an HDHomeRun and then convert/transfer the recordings to my TiVo. But it's a PITA and I've gotten lazy so haven't watched those shows in a while. Would be much easier to just stream from an actual TiVo, but $150 for a Roamio Basic + service seems like a bit much for this. If I could get an OTA for $50 and pay for MSD I might do it.


You can buy my OTA-capable Premiere and it qualifies for $6.95 a month...


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Arcady said:


> You can buy my OTA-capable Premiere and it qualifies for $6.95 a month...


Does it actually qualify for $6.95 if transferred to my account? I was actually looking at your thread and considering that, but you said you couldn't get a strait answer from TiVo about that.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Dan203 said:


> All you can do is pause live TV. All recording functions are disabled. And its going to bug you every time you go into the menus to activate service.


Oh ok. Maybe I'll just get it for the remote and HD then.

I saw this and it sounded interesting tho:



replaytv said:


> I watch a lot of 1/2 hour time shifting when watching the news, so a OTA Roamio without a subscription works out good. I jump back and forth from 4 tuners as commercials come up. For $50 it works out good after starting the service then canceling it before 30 days. During that time I filled the hard drive with yoga and other stretching type of programs that I watch over and over each day. I am currently watching the PBS night business report, and when they get to topics I find uninteresting, I put that tuner on pause, and then jump over to the nightly national news, or some other show that I have left on 'pause'. Then I fast forward to the point I want to watch. In that way I don't have to watch segments about shootings, royalty, weather, and other useless #$%^ I have no interest in.





Pacomartin said:


> Very clever. You are probably corporate's worst nightmare, someone who figured out how to make good use of the device for their money losing $50 equipment charge. I've always felt that there was a market for the "trick play" functions of a DVR. Did you figure that out before you bought the equipment, after you bought the equipment, or did you read it on a forum?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

HarperVision said:


> Oh ok. Maybe I'll just get it for the remote and HD then.
> 
> I saw this and it sounded interesting tho:


Yeah he used the 30 day return window. So he activated service for a month, recorded a bunch of stuff, canceled the service before 30 days so as to get a refund and avoid the commitment, then continued to watch the stuff he recorded.

That's the other thing you can do, watch anything that is already in My Shows after the service is canceled. But to do that you have to have service in the first place. And if you screw up and forget to cancel before the 30 days are up you'll be on the hook for an early termination fee. And in either case it will still bug you about activating service every time you go into the menus.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

Dan203 said:


> Yeah he used the 30 day return window. So he activated service for a month, recorded a bunch of stuff, canceled the service before 30 days so as to get a refund and avoid the commitment, then continued to watch the stuff he recorded. That's the other thing you can do, watch anything that is already in My Shows after the service is canceled. But to do that you have to have service in the first place. And if you screw up and forget to cancel before the 30 days are up you'll be on the hook for an early termination fee. And in either case it will still bug you about activating service every time you go into the menus.


Yeah I saw that he did that, but he also continues to use it to pause and swap tuners for various news shows, etc.

I went ahead and ordered it, if only for the HD and remote. My cost was only $10.39 anyway.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

Dan203 said:


> Does it actually qualify for $6.95 if transferred to my account? I was actually looking at your thread and considering that, but you said you couldn't get a strait answer from TiVo about that.


I'll call up TiVo tomorrow and ask them to give me a firm yes or no. If I can get them to commit to it and give me a case# or something, I'll let you know.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

OK, PM me when you hear back.


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## blacknoi (Jan 23, 2006)

So I have a Roamio Basic with a non-RF remote.

Is the remote this one comes with RF and if so, can the BASIC get paired up with the (assuming )RF remote this one comes with.... without any USB dongle etc?

I wouldn't mind buying it for the remote upgrade to my basic, as well as a spare extra hard drive.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

blacknoi said:


> So I have a Roamio Basic with a non-RF remote.
> 
> Is the remote this one comes with RF and if so, can the BASIC get paired up with the (assuming )RF remote this one comes with.... without any USB dongle etc?
> 
> I wouldn't mind buying it for the remote upgrade to my basic, as well as a spare extra hard drive.


To answer the question if the basic Roamio works with the RF remote without a dongle: yes. I replaced all my remotes with the same rf remote. Even when they work via IR.


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## spaldingclan (Aug 22, 2012)

tarheelblue32 said:


> Nope, you don't have to activate it. Though turning around and selling one without the remote and a smaller hard drive sounds a little dirty to me.


uh if I told whomever was buying it how many hours it held how is that "dirty" I never said I'd try and pass it off as anything more than what it was.


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## spaldingclan (Aug 22, 2012)

no one answered how big the drive was


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## Time_Lord (Jun 4, 2012)

spaldingclan said:


> no one answered how big the drive was


simple search on your favorite search engine would have yielded the answer as 500GB


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## spaldingclan (Aug 22, 2012)

thanks for the snark


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

spaldingclan said:


> uh if I told whomever was buying it how many hours it held how is that "dirty" I never said I'd try and pass it off as anything more than what it was.


The dirty part of it to me is that you would be selling it for more than it is really worth to someone who doesn't know any better. If a Roamo OTA with a remote and a 500GB hard drive is worth $49, then a fair price for an OTA without a remote and with a smaller hard drive would be like $5, and I doubt you would be giving free shipping like Amazon and Best Buy.


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## spaldingclan (Aug 22, 2012)

well I guess we have different belief systems then huh?


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

spaldingclan said:


> well I guess we have different belief systems then huh?


I guess so.

If you sold me a Roamio OTA without a remote and a smaller than normal hard drive for $100, and then later I discovered that the full retail price of a new one with a remote and larger hard drive was $49, I would absolutely feel like you had cheated me.


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## blacknoi (Jan 23, 2006)

JoeKustra said:


> To answer the question if the basic Roamio works with the RF remote without a dongle: yes. I replaced all my remotes with the same rf remote. Even when they work via IR.


Thank you JoeKustra! I know now what I need to do (and curse you Amazon for having sales tax in NJ  ).


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

blacknoi said:


> Thank you JoeKustra! I know now what I need to do (and curse you Amazon for having sales tax in NJ  ).


I found my fingers could not adjust to the different location of the Guide button. So I bought an rf remote for my Mini and Premiere. It's only money, and I now have two spare remotes.


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