# Edge or Roamio?



## AllAboutJeeps (Apr 3, 2003)

I am looking to upgrade the family Premier and I am confused by all the options that are out there. Can someone summarize the differences between the Roamio and the Edge?

Which one would you choose?

Thanks!


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## Narkul (Nov 7, 2004)

The Edge comes with Error S315 along with other issues, the Roamio doesn't. Definitely the Roamio.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

There is a low priority you will find a member using both units at the same time. But in summary, Edge is new and faster. Roamio is older and not fast (but much faster than a Premiere). I have four Roamio boxes and zero Bolts or Edges. I was going to say an Edge is faster with streaming, but if you do a lot of streaming you should be using a Roku or other non-TiVo item.

If 4k is important, get a Mini VOX and change the Roamio to TE4 to be its host.


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## Narkul (Nov 7, 2004)

The bolt is a good option too imo. It's good bit snappier than the Roamio and gives you 4K, but it runs a little hotter and uses a 2.5 drive which is maybe not as reliable as the 3.5 in the Roamio. My Renewed Bolt sits atop a laptop cooler powered by one of the Bolt usb ports and I've not had a hard drive issue in the 2 years I've had it.


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## skifanatic (Jan 9, 2015)

I have a roamio thats been acting a bit strange recently- aliased text often and seemed to lose power a few weeks ago.
I bought an edge with lifetime service (paying $10/m for the roamio). I haven't opened the box for the Edge yet and thinking of returning it after seeing a lot of complaints about it.
Thoughts?


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## pfiagra (Oct 13, 2014)

skifanatic said:


> I have a roamio thats been acting a bit strange recently- aliased text often and seemed to lose power a few weeks ago.
> I bought an edge with lifetime service (paying $10/m for the roamio). I haven't opened the box for the Edge yet and thinking of returning it after seeing a lot of complaints about it.
> Thoughts?


my Edge (Antenna) works perfectly fine


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

skifanatic said:


> Thoughts?


None that won't hijack this thread.


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## terpfan1980 (Jan 28, 2002)

pfiagra said:


> my Edge (Antenna) works perfectly fine


I have two Edges (cable) and both work perfectly.

I also have a couple of Bolts, neither actively in use at this point. I recently bought the second Edge to replace the Bolt that had been in use. Trying to use the Amazon Prime Video App on the Bolt would result in locking it up on a black screen. That irritated the heck out of me and made me want to push that Bolt out of service. I could have tried the other Bolt, but that would have involved going through moving the cable card and that typically provides its own minor share of frustration. If I was going to go through that trouble then I figured that I should just make the switch to the Edge and be done with it, especially since the Edge had recently (finally) gotten all of the streaming apps that I would most frequently use (not that I'm not missing a few, such as Disney+, Peacock, HBO Max, etc.) working as they should instead of showing a "coming soon" message when you tried to use them.

I also still have a Premiere that I can use and have fired up and gotten working recently enough to claim experience with it. I probably need to let it upgrade the firmware again, but that is a low priority for me at this point.

And... I have a couple of Roamios (one Pro, one not) that remain in service. The non-Pro Roamio is used for an Over-the-air DVR that I really don't need to rely upon. I want to add an outdoor antenna at my home but it isn't currently that high of a priority. It works fine for what I would use it for but I'd like to improve the signal strength on it and try to pull in some stations I can't currently receive while using a smaller indoor antenna.

Also have a mix of mini's that I'm using, mostly Mini Vox units, but still some earlier versions as well, including an A92 series that I was disappointed to not be able to pull up PlutoTV on.

Now, just to get back to where I started - I would add a big plus one to your comments here pfiagra. The Edge works just fine. I like the two that I have and they really work just fine. The Bolts had caused me more frustration with the streaming apps misbehaving and locking up the boxes (see comments above about Amazon Prime Video).

One of my Bolts was supposed to be OTA and Cable capable but TiVo screwed up and replaced a broken unit with a Vox instead of the regular device that I originally had. I had issues with bad drives and failed hardware otherwise with the Bolt devices, more than enough to echo comments above about the drives in same. The drives in the Bolts, especially the 3TB 2.5" drives were problematic in my opinion, failing more frequently than they should have.

Which would I get now I had to buy new? Honestly I might look very hard for a used device that is guaranteed, with All-in service on it, and try to save a little by doing that. If you can catch a mega sale on the Edge boxes, then grab one of those. If you are only going to save a tiny bit by getting anything older, then I wouldn't bother.

With all-in service, if the thing fails you contact TiVo and they will swap it out for a refurb box. If you have more than one box in the home, then you don't lose that much usage. If you only have a single unit, then obviously losing it would suck. In that case, getting a used box that had Lifetime/All-in service on it can help give you a spare to rely upon during an emergency.

I will say that I love the devices that offer me as many tuners as possible, but also still like to keep a device or two around that work with OTA signals just in case I want to eventually cut the cord.


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## Narkul (Nov 7, 2004)

Whatever you get, I wouldn't spend a whole lot of money now that the cable companies have the power to drop cable card support anytime they want.


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

JoeKustra said:


> There is a low priority you will find a member using both units at the same time. But in summary, Edge is new and faster. Roamio is older and not fast (but much faster than a Premiere). I have four Roamio boxes and zero Bolts or Edges. I was going to say an Edge is faster with streaming, but if you do a lot of streaming you should be using a Roku or other non-TiVo item.
> 
> If 4k is important, get a Mini VOX and change the Roamio to TE4 to be its host.


If it's a 4 tuner premiere, why not just put the mini vox in front of that and call it a day?


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

shwru980r said:


> If it's a 4 tuner premiere, why not just put the mini vox in front of that and call it a day?


I'm getting old. I forgot you don't need a TE4 host to stream a Mini VOX. Good catch.

Ironically, my Mini VOX sits on top of my 2-tuner Premiere.


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## synch22 (Dec 30, 2003)

I have an Edge Antenna lifetime.... my Romario with lifetime is collecting dust while I save $$ every month with Edge / Sling combo.... great buy!


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