# Tivo Mini or Roamio OTA



## junesen (Jun 17, 2008)

I recently bought a refurbished Roamio Basic for use with an antenna and discontinued my dish service (actually put it in "pause" so I can finish up watching whats left on my hopper). I was thinking of getting a TiVo Mini for the bedroom, but now I am considering a Roamio OTA (w/ lifetime).

My main concern with the Mini is that it takes a tuner from the Roamio. I already have run across recording conflicts due to lack of tuners. I like to put padding in front and back of my recordings but that means you need two tuners just to record two shows back to back. So 4 tuners sometimes means only two programs if there are programs after it that overlaps.

Does the Mini always take a tuner when you connect to it? What happens if all tuners are in use? If you are watching live-tv on the Mini and a fourth program is scheduled to record, what happens? We'll probably use the Mini only to watch recorded programs so is it possible to connect without eating up a tuner?

The advantages of the OTA is that we gain 4 more tuners and more programming disk space. The drawbacks I see are:
- cost more ($300 vs. $125)
- might be noisy in the bedroom (the Roamio in the living room seems pretty quiet, but the noise level is usually higher there).
- more "work" to watch a recording on the main Roamio. My guess is that you have to start a transfer and then watch it while it is transferring. So there are extra steps and you can't pause and resume the same program from different Roamios.

Is my analysis correct? Or did I miss something?


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

junesen said:


> Does the Mini always take a tuner when you connect to it?


Only when you are using it to watch live TV.



junesen said:


> What happens if all tuners are in use?


You can choose to stop one of the recordings so that you can use the Mini.



junesen said:


> If you are watching live-tv on the Mini and a fourth program is scheduled to record, what happens?


You get a pop-up message asking if you want to record as planned or cancel the recording and continue using the Mini.



junesen said:


> We'll probably use the Mini only to watch recorded programs so is it possible to connect without eating up a tuner?


The Mini only borrows a tuner when it is being used to watch live TV. Watching a recording on the Mini doesn't use a tuner.



junesen said:


> The advantages of the OTA is that we gain 4 more tuners and more programming disk space. The drawbacks I see are:
> - cost more ($300 vs. $125)


It does cost more. And where are you getting $300 from? If you are planning on buying a Roamio OTA w/lifetime it's probably going to cost you more than that.



junesen said:


> - might be noisy in the bedroom (the Roamio in the living room seems pretty quiet, but the noise level is usually higher there).


I don't think that's really an issue. The Roamios are very quiet.



junesen said:


> - more "work" to watch a recording on the main Roamio. My guess is that you have to start a transfer and then watch it while it is transferring. So there are extra steps and you can't pause and resume the same program from different Roamios.


You can just stream a recording from one Roamio to another. You don't have to actually transfer the recording. It's really not any extra work than with a Mini.



junesen said:


> Is my analysis correct? Or did I miss something?


Having 2 Roamios gives you the ability to segregate your recordings. That is sometimes seen as an advantage in a multi-person household. With only 1 Roamio, all the recordings will just be lumped in together.


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## junesen (Jun 17, 2008)

tarheelblue32 said:


> I don't think that's really an issue. The Roamios are very quiet.


At times I have insomnia, so little noises will bother me. I took my roamio into my bedroom and tried it and I can still hear a little hum when I'm right next to it. It sounds like the disk is still spinning. Doesn't the disk get turned off when you are in Standby? In either case, I think it is quiet enough. If it is still too noisy, I can put it further away behind a wall and use the RF remote.



tarheelblue32 said:


> You can just stream a recording from one Roamio to another. You don't have to actually transfer the recording. It's really not any extra work than with a Mini.


Thanks for this information, if it is just as easy as using a Mini, then I will go for the Roamio.


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

junesen said:


> At times I have insomnia, so little noises will bother me. I took my roamio into my bedroom and tried it and I can still hear a little hum when I'm right next to it. It sounds like the disk is still spinning. Doesn't the disk get turned off when you are in Standby? In either case, I think it is quiet enough. If it is still too noisy, I can put it further away behind a wall and use the RF remote.


The hard drive continues to spin, even when the Roamio is put into standby mode. The only way to stop the hard drive from spinning is to physically unplug the power cord.


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## junesen (Jun 17, 2008)

tarheelblue32 said:


> It does cost more. And where are you getting $300 from? If you are planning on buying a Roamio OTA w/lifetime it's probably going to cost you more than that.


I was hoping to see if TiVo will sell me one through the current "loyalty" discount. But after a couple of times talking to them and both of them and nobody reported a Roamio OTA as a part of the discount program; I gave up and bought a Roamio OTA with lifetime from Amazon.com for $300.


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## drspringer (Mar 2, 2007)

When I bought my OTA right when it came out they said I couldn't get lifetime service.


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

drspringer said:


> When I bought my OTA right when it came out they said I couldn't get lifetime service.


At the time, you couldn't. And technically, TiVo still won't sell you lifetime service on an OTA. The only way to get an OTA with lifetime service is to buy one from Amazon for $300:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0148ZRFVO


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