# What happened to OTA version?



## Totohydra (Jan 16, 2006)

No longer on Tivo site!


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

It's been discontinued.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

Last weekend I saw 3 of the Roamio OTA versions sitting for sale at a local Best Buy in the home automation area. So they may still be available from such retailers or other online sellers.


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## mark1958 (Feb 13, 2005)

Worst Buy have online with free shipping for $49.00.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/tivo-ro...lack/8758098.p?id=1219364357147&skuId=8758098


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## foghorn2 (May 4, 2004)

mark1958 said:


> Worst Buy have online with free shipping for $49.00.
> 
> http://www.bestbuy.com/site/tivo-ro...lack/8758098.p?id=1219364357147&skuId=8758098


The Best Butts here in Vegas have then in store.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

Totohydra said:


> No longer on Tivo site!


Same thing that happened to the base Roamio, and the Roamio Plus, they have all been discontinued. My guess is the Roamio Pro will go as soon as TiVo releases something in the Bolt line that effectively replaces it. At this point Roamios are last gen TiVos they are built on 2013 or early tech and are coming to the end of their life as a "new" product.


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

The ROTA hasn't been on the Tivo site for a while.

Tivo never released the Bolt OTA that we know was in the works. That could be coming soon. Or not. Who knows anymore.


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## foghorn2 (May 4, 2004)

BigJimOutlaw said:


> The ROTA hasn't been on the Tivo site for a while.
> 
> Tivo never released the Bolt OTA that we know was in the works. That could be coming soon. Or not. Who knows anymore.


All they will have to do is buyback 1/2 of the unsold Bolts, remove the cable card bracket, re label, rebox, and ship out the new Bolt OTA!


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## leswar (Apr 14, 2005)

Where can one purchase the cable card bracket. I picked up one of those $29 ROTA clearance models from Amazon.


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

leswar said:


> Where can one purchase the cable card bracket. I picked up one of those $29 ROTA clearance models from Amazon.


Hi,
There have been efforts made to find compatible brackets, but to my knowledge, no one was successful. The only way to get a compatible bracket is to salvage it from a base Roamio unit. 
If you ever find a compatible source....let folks know.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

leswar said:


> Where can one purchase the cable card bracket. I picked up one of those $29 ROTA clearance models from Amazon.


Check out this thread (especially the posts near the end).

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=528452&highlight=bracket

Scott


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## leswar (Apr 14, 2005)

thanks


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## Rkkeller (May 13, 2004)

Has anyone compared the tuner ability of this vs the normal Roamios?

I recently went OTA and noticed my normal Roamio's tuners are not as sensitive as some of my HDTV's and I lose 9 channels going thru the Roamio compared to my HDTV's.

I am wondering being this is an OTA only model, if it had a better tuner.


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## foghorn2 (May 4, 2004)

Rkkeller said:


> Has anyone compared the tuner ability of this vs the normal Roamios?
> 
> I recently went OTA and noticed my normal Roamio's tuners are not as sensitive as some of my HDTV's and I lose 9 channels going thru the Roamio compared to my HDTV's.
> 
> I am wondering being this is an OTA only model, if it had a better tuner.


The Roamio Basic and the OTA are identical expect for:

-The OTA lacks the cable card bracket (if you add one, it becomes a basic)
-The OTA has a green font OTA front silkscreeen faceplate (exchangable)
-The OTA has a different modem number.

Thats it.


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## jeremy3721 (Feb 16, 2002)

If I have two Tivo Premiers and a Roamio OTA, which unit would you recommend be my main unit on my primary television (No cable, just OTA via antenna) I already have service on the two premiers but haven't yet setup the Roamia OTA which I bought a few months back for $25. Would I gain anything from using the Roamia instead of a premiere?


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## mark1958 (Feb 13, 2005)

jeremy3721 said:


> If I have two Tivo Premiers and a Roamio OTA, which unit would you recommend be my main unit on my primary television (No cable, just OTA via antenna) I already have service on the two premiers but haven't yet setup the Roamia OTA which I bought a few months back for $25. Would I gain anything from using the Roamia instead of a premiere?


I have heard that the tuner on the Roamio's are a little better than the Premiers
although I can not confirm because I never hooked my Premier to OTA, but I have read many threads that claim the Premiers have a lousy tuner.
But like anything everyone has a opinion, hope this helps.


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## ss-stingray (Aug 25, 2013)

jeremy3721 said:


> If I have two Tivo Premiers and a Roamio OTA, which unit would you recommend be my main unit on my primary television (No cable, just OTA via antenna) I already have service on the two premiers but haven't yet setup the Roamia OTA which I bought a few months back for $25. Would I gain anything from using the Roamia instead of a premiere?


 I would use the roamio. The tuner is better and it has skip.


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## Jack Mccarthy (Aug 24, 2012)

mark1958 said:


> I have heard that the tuner on the Roamio's are a little better than the Premiers
> although I can not confirm because I never hooked my Premier to OTA, but I have read many threads that claim the Premiers have a lousy tuner.
> But like anything everyone has a opinion, hope this helps.


I have both and done a comparison. The Roamios in general have better tuners although they seem to max out around 72 for a signal level with maybe one or two channels (FOX and NBC) on mine going to 82-85.

The Premier on the other hand with the same antenna will go all the way up to 95-97% on both FOX and NBC for mine but is not as strong on some of the lesser known stations (a difference between 50 - marginal; and 60 - better; signal strength levels for me). Pixelation is slower to react on the Premiere, so any small glitches sometimes go unnoticed where they're seen on my Roamio. Larger disturbances recover quicker on my Roamio than my Premier so it's a trade off for me.

Basically need two things for good signal level if your > 30 miles out from the broadcast towers. A stronger antenna (i.e. Clearstream 4V from BJs for $99) and a pre-amp with less than or around 1dB of noise figure (Winegard LNA-200 from Walmart) to drive any significant runs (30-50 ft) of RG-6 coax cable if you place the antenna at the highest point (roof or attic).

I do think the Roamio will allow you to get away with using a cheaper $20-$40 antenna than the Premier for the same shows.


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## gor88 (Jan 3, 2008)

Hey, I am thinking of cutting the cord this summer and was going to go with the Roamio OTA DVR at Best Buy for $49 before they run out of their remaining stock. I figure that I can buy the Tivo Mini for the bedroom a little later on.

Is it possible to check the signal strength of the OTA channels live prior to activating the TiVo service, so that I can determine whether or not to return it to Best Buy if the tuner isn't strong enough?

I actually get signal strength on my Dish Network OTA modules in the 90-100 range. An HDHomeRun box I tested showed 100% on all major channels as well with clear line of sight 25 miles away.

I would have loved to gotten one last fall with the cheap lifetime service, but oh well.

Please advise.


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## cheerdude (Feb 27, 2001)

I just asked a question in the Bolt forum, looking to compare between that & the Roamio OTA; since the cost may be close to the same when you factor in the service cost.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

gor88 said:


> Hey, I am thinking of cutting the cord this summer and was going to go with the Roamio OTA DVR at Best Buy for $49 before they run out of their remaining stock. I figure that I can buy the Tivo Mini for the bedroom a little later on.
> 
> Is it possible to check the signal strength of the OTA channels live prior to activating the TiVo service, so that I can determine whether or not to return it to Best Buy if the tuner isn't strong enough?
> 
> ...





cheerdude said:


> I just asked a question in the Bolt forum, looking to compare between that & the Roamio OTA; since the cost may be close to the same when you factor in the service cost.


I have both base Raomio (same hardware as Roamio OTA) and a Bolt. For me the reception is the same on both of them. With Amazon's Bolt pricing there is zero reason to by a Roamio OTA, the first year total cost are to close to even consider the Roamio OTA.


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## gor88 (Jan 3, 2008)

atmuscarella said:


> I have both base Raomio (same hardware as Roamio OTA) and a Bolt. For me the reception is the same on both of them. With Amazon's Bolt pricing there is zero reason to by a Roamio OTA, the first year total cost are to close to even consider the Roamio OTA.


Yeah, after I posted this, I dug deeper into the Bolt and realized this. Probably why Best Buy hasn't sold out of the remaining Roamio OTAs yet.


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## Rkkeller (May 13, 2004)

The Roamios tuners are not good if you ask me "unless" you have very strong signals. If your in the midrange like I must be, using a HDTV gives a lot better results. The strongest signal strength I have received on my Roamio is around 60.

My Roamio gets almost 10 less channels than my HDTV and the quality is more spotty with signal loss compared to them also. I regularly lose 3 and 10 on the Roamio and they are solid on my HDTV and never had any problems.


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## jeremy3721 (Feb 16, 2002)

Dang it, got all the major networks via my premiere. Upgraded to the Bolt and it won't pickup NBC. Two weeks of effort and $300 down the drain.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

jeremy3721 said:


> Dang it, got all the major networks via my premiere. Upgraded to the Bolt and it won't pickup NBC. Two weeks of effort and $300 down the drain.


You can always return it and get your $300 back if you are unhappy with it.


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## jeremy3721 (Feb 16, 2002)

I might do that but I won't get the hours of my life back setting it all up. I don't understand why the Bolt isn't picking up the same channels as the premier though. I'll probably climb in the attic one more time and see if I can make an adjustment to the antenna.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

jeremy3721 said:


> I might do that but I won't get the hours of my life back setting it all up. I don't understand why the Bolt isn't picking up the same channels as the premier though. I'll probably climb in the attic one more time and see if I can make an adjustment to the antenna.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


If your Bolt isn't getting as good or better reception than a Premiere (when tested on the same COAX cable) I would return it, as there is likely something wrong with it.


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## jth tv (Nov 15, 2014)

jeremy3721 said:


> I might do that but I won't get the hours of my life back setting it all up. I don't understand why the Bolt isn't picking up the same channels as the premier though. I'll probably climb in the attic one more time and see if I can make an adjustment to the antenna.


Have you tried a splitter with two identical cables, one to the bolt, one to the premier, with the TiVo's right next to each other ?


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## junknspam3 (Feb 25, 2015)

Roamio OTA coming back.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3062...op-box-and-drops-the-subscription-charge.html


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## jeremy3721 (Feb 16, 2002)

jth tv said:


> Have you tried a splitter with two identical cables, one to the bolt, one to the premier, with the TiVo's right next to each other ?


I ordered a new quad shielded coax cable (40ft instead of 50ft). Hoping that might buy me the extra tick of signal strength needed to get NBC consistently . If not, as much as I like it I'll be sending the Bolt back.


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

jeremy3721 said:


> I might do that but I won't get the hours of my life back setting it all up. I don't understand why the Bolt isn't picking up the same channels as the premier though. I'll probably climb in the attic one more time and see if I can make an adjustment to the antenna.
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


You need to get an antenna rotator and set up the controller along side the bolt. Board wisdom says the Premiere has the weakest OTA tuner. You might want to reverify your premiere still works in the same loacation as the bolt.


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