# How reliable are the Tivo bolt ? And Tivo in general



## gdog2004 (May 23, 2015)

Hi guys. I have had Tivo thru my cable company for years, and now am moving to a town that has Concast. I purchased a bolt for 169 on amazon(with 3 year warranty) and a mini for 130. I am considering the lifetime service for 550. 
I am wondering, if my Bolt no longer works after the third year, am I SOL on my Bolt and service plan ? I called Tivo and they told me they would replace the Bolt for 149 and then I would have to pay ANOTHER 199 to transfer my lifetime to a new device. Ugh. That made me wonder, just how reliable are these things ? I am a techie and am comfortable opening a box up. Thanks in advance for any answers.


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

Tivo's rarely fail, hard drives are easy to replace these days.


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

gdog2004 said:


> Hi guys. I have had Tivo thru my cable company for years, and now am moving to a town that has Concast. I purchased a bolt for 169 on amazon(with 3 year warranty) and a mini for 130. I am considering the lifetime service for 550.
> I am wondering, if my Bolt no longer works after the third year, am I SOL on my Bolt and service plan ? I called Tivo and they told me they would replace the Bolt for 149 and then I would have to pay ANOTHER 199 to transfer my lifetime to a new device. Ugh. That made me wonder, just how reliable are these things ? I am a techie and am comfortable opening a box up. Thanks in advance for any answers.


Most of the Tivo's older series up to the Bolt have been very reliable and with lifetime retain a good portion of their value. The most common failure point is the hard drive, and if you are a techie, other than possible lost recordings, this is not a big deal. You can purchase a service contract on new Tivos for about $40 which gives you a 3 year warranty if you are risk adverse. 
It is a bit early to judge if the Bolt series will be as reliable as the older Tivos, but the overall Tivo track record is very good.
If you don't go with the "all in" / lifetime service, and pay monthly or annually, you get a type of ongoing service warranty so for around $50 or so Tivo will repair or replace (refurb) you with another unit.
Tivo on Comcast allows you to get VOD and they don't use tuning adapters, so that is a plus.


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## V7Goose (May 28, 2005)

The Bolt has not been out long enough for any definitive reports - there is some concern from a few folks that the small form factor HDD (used in the Bolt for the first time) MAY not have the full longevity of a normal 3.5" drive, but this is just pure speculation at this time.

The good news is that the design of the Bolt makes it VERY simple to replace just the hard drive if that ever becomes necessary - no special geek knowledge necessary.

As for general TiVo reliability - I think it is pretty darn good. You will, of course, be able to find folks that say their box died a horrible death for no reason within any time frame you want, but I think those reports are relatively rare - no worse than any other piece of electronics, including the computer you are using right now. I personally have two very old TiVo series 3 boxes (the Bolt is now a series 6) with lifetime that have been regularly chugging along for about 10 years without significant issues.

Things are a bit up in the air right now with the Rovi purchase of TiVo, but I have always felt that a new TiVo with Lifetime has always been a good deal, and most of us look for special sales and upgrade offers that sometimes come along that make it even better.


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## gdog2004 (May 23, 2015)

Thanks for the replies. I like this place so far 
When you say "replace the hard drive" is fairly easy, I would assume you would have to get an image of the tivo software and place it on the hard drive right ? or buy one with the image already on it. 
BTW--I purchased the 500 GB model because I have a 1 TB MyDVR extender that I am using on my current cable companies rented Tivo.(I have RCN, I really like them). I am assuming, this will work on the bolt as well ?


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## jwort93 (Dec 18, 2015)

gdog2004 said:


> Thanks for the replies. I like this place so far
> When you say "replace the hard drive" is fairly easy, I would assume you would have to get an image of the tivo software and place it on the hard drive right ? or buy one with the image already on it.
> BTW--I purchased the 500 GB model because I have a 1 TB MyDVR extender that I am using on my current cable companies rented Tivo.(I have RCN, I really like them). I am assuming, this will work on the bolt as well ?


The newer Tivo devices (I think just the Bolt?) actually have the software on a separate chip internally, so you can just put any unformated drive (2.5" laptop drives only) right into the Bolt (up to 3TB, I believe. Greater than 3TB requires using MFSTools to properly format the drive prior to installation) and it will automatically set the drive up and format it to work correctly.


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## fcfc2 (Feb 19, 2015)

gdog2004 said:


> Thanks for the replies. I like this place so far
> When you say "replace the hard drive" is fairly easy, I would assume you would have to get an image of the tivo software and place it on the hard drive right ? or buy one with the image already on it.
> BTW--I purchased the 500 GB model because I have a 1 TB MyDVR extender that I am using on my current cable companies rented Tivo.(I have RCN, I really like them). I am assuming, this will work on the bolt as well ?


The "image" stuff is not necessary on the Roamio or Bolt series. Up to a 3TB drive on either is plug and play. 
The Bolts use the smaller 2.5" hard drives which are more expensive and harder to come by with compatible models, and there are some "questionable" hard drives that folks have been using with mixed success, i.e., early failure. 
The Roamio series uses standard 3.5" drives with the WD Red series being popular. Success has been reported on 4-8TB drives in the Roamios when configured with MSFR software, not hard to use. 
A few guys have successfully used external esata enclosures to house the larger standard drives for use in a Bolt, but, you have to get proper sata to esata cables that will fit.
More information, 
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=&f=25


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## foghorn2 (May 4, 2004)

Very reliable except for the cooling fans. There has been some issues with Roamio HDMI ports however. Time will tell if the Bolts are better. Mines been good for 6 months now. 

I had to change the fans in the Roamios (2 lifetimes).

If you are paying monthly/yearly,dont worry about it Tivo will ship you another one for $50 as long as you dont tamper with them. 

If you are lifetime, then you are at TiVo's mercy or fix it yourself. Weeknees can fix the lifetimes too for a arm and a leg and Trumps big "hands".

Thats why my Bolt is stock with the approved WD Expander Cox sold me for $99 and not going all in-to Cris Hayes.


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## aspexil (Oct 16, 2015)

Our OTA Bolt has been running for almost a year (bought it when it was released) with a Tivo Mini in the basement gym. Upgraded the Bolt with a 2T hard drive from day one. Has worked pretty much flawlessly with our Samsung 4k UHD TV. The only issue I had was with guide data after upgrading our antennas which was easily resolved by opening up a ticket to have Tivo add the extra channels to our guide. That and sling tv on Roku 4 has us set.


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## mahermusic (Mar 12, 2003)

We've had our new TiVo Bolt plugged in for around 10 days. We'll be permanently unplugging our Series 1 TiVo this Friday after almost 15 years of continuous use!


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## gdog2004 (May 23, 2015)

thanks so much guys. I am going to buy the lifetime for the bolt for 549.00 I guess. 
It **sounds** to me that whatever goes wrong a reasonably technical person can fix ? I can replace a hard drive and fan easy. Anything else to watch out for ? Do you guys recommend going "all in" now for 549.00 ? Or does it drop to half price at the end of the year or something ?


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## unitron (Apr 28, 2006)

Use a UPS for the TiVo--powering back up is harder on electronic devices than staying on all the time, so a UPS will help keep it from wearing out as soon, although it shouldn't do that for quite a while either way.

Fans can usually be re-lubed instead of replaced.

Use a mixture of light grease and light oil.


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## Fant (Sep 1, 2016)

I just went all in on a bolt .. I didn't bother with extended warranty since I thought it would be void as soon as you open it to change the drive?


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## Puppy76 (Oct 7, 2004)

My S2 is months away from 12 years old, and doesn't seem any worse for wear. My S3's drive died after 8 years. 

My main concern with the Bolt is as mentioned the smaller hard drive, which might end up less reliable (certainty there are threads on here that seem to indicate some replacement drives people have tried are horrible, though the included ones seem to be fine so far).

My other concern is the temps...my S2 is around 38c or so. The S3 was similar, maybe in the 40s. My Bolt is like 60-62ish, which sounds like it's normal. Seems hot, for long term use. Not outrageously hot, but I'd like 30s-40s better.

IMO the Bolt's design could be much better in terms of replacing the hard drive. Heck, they could have done it so you didn't need to use tools. Getting the side thing off is finicky, and you have to have a set of PC screwdrivers with weird heads, but still it's not too bad, and as mention you don't need anything but new drive to replace it (though I'd check on here to get ideas about what's reliable, if you ever replace yours!)


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Puppy76 said:


> My S2 is months away from 12 years old, and doesn't seem any worse for wear. My S3's drive died after 8 years.
> 
> My main concern with the Bolt is as mentioned the smaller hard drive, which might end up less reliable (certainty there are threads on here that seem to indicate some replacement drives people have tried are horrible, though the included ones seem to be fine so far).
> 
> ...


The Bolt uses the same type of screws as previous TiVos used. Although the Bolt design is completely different than any previous TiVo. Especially since it uses a 2.5" drive. My 4TB drives in my Bolts are coming up on a year of use this month. So far, still zero issues.


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## Fant (Sep 1, 2016)

aaronwt said:


> The Bolt uses the same type of screws as previous TiVos used. Although the Bolt design is completely different than any previous TiVo. Especially since it uses a 2.5" drive. My 4TB drives in my Bolts are coming up on a year of use this month. So far, still zero issues.


Which specific drive did you use? A year is a pretty good track record. Anything special in your setup that makes it a more reliable environment? Cooling? UPS?


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## chicagobrownblue (May 29, 2008)

My Premiere failed twice. Both times from, I think, a power surge coming in over the coax (the Premiere was on a UPS). The first time it recovered after a 24-hour timeout. The second, it didn't make. Roamio was out for a few months then so a friend bought me one for $100 net. My Roamio is on a UPS with a coax surge suppressor.

I like that the 4-tuner Roamio and Bolt have an external power supply. If it fails, it is really cheap to replace even from TiVo. I also feel it isolates the box better from a power surge.


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## JOSHSKORN (Aug 27, 2015)

I had a Bolt and tried replacing the hard drive for more storage. Don't do it. Ended up with a dead drive. I didn't hook the original HDD back up, seeing how my free subscription was going to end one day anyway and that I'd need to play for lifetime anyway, plus needed more storage and more tuners, so I just bought a Bolt+. I won't touch the HDD.

Anyway, I love my Bolt+ because of how well it runs and because I can connect other services to it. I just c won't attempt replacing the HDD in it. While 3TB is obviously not as good as 4TB, it's good enough. 

I'm assuming my Bolt would still work fine if I hooked it back up. No interest though at this point, unless I run a C&D and sell it, which I may do.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Fant said:


> Which specific drive did you use? A year is a pretty good track record. Anything special in your setup that makes it a more reliable environment? Cooling? UPS?


Just a UPS and on an open shelf. One is on the bottom glass shelf, under my UHD TV. The other is headless, on a wire shelf.


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## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

The 2TB Seagates seem to work well without any issues. I ran mine almost a year with no problems. I pulled the drive out before I sold it, if anyone's interested?


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## jrtroo (Feb 4, 2008)

JOSHSKORN said:


> I had a Bolt and tried replacing the hard drive for more storage. Don't do it. Ended up with a dead drive. I didn't hook the original HDD back up, seeing how my free subscription was going to end one day anyway and that I'd need to play for lifetime anyway, plus needed more storage and more tuners, so I just bought a Bolt+. I won't touch the HDD.


Your experience is not typical. Many many many folks here have done this without issue.


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## tannebil (Mar 9, 2006)

Lifetime is cheaper if you keep the box long enough but the sunk-cost makes it harder to pull the trigger on an upgrade. I've always had lifetime on my boxes (going back to the S1) but, to a certain extent, I feel trapped by lifetime every time a new model comes out especially as the purchase price of the unit gets cheaper. Sure I could sell my existing box on eBay but that's just another form of cost. It's largely psychological but that doesn't make it any less real to me.


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## Puppy76 (Oct 7, 2004)

tannebil said:


> Lifetime is cheaper if you keep the box long enough but the sunk-cost makes it harder to pull the trigger on an upgrade. I've always had lifetime on my boxes (going back to the S1) but, to a certain extent, I feel trapped by lifetime every time a new model comes out especially as the purchase price of the unit gets cheaper. Sure I could sell my existing box on eBay but that's just another form of cost. It's largely psychological but that doesn't make it any less real to me.


Yeah, between me being iffy on Bolt's reliability versus older ones, the relatively cheap price, and the high price of lifetime, I'm not 100% sure what I'm doing...which I'm sure is the point!


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## jlcoss (Nov 30, 2004)

Our unmodified 1TB Bolt has died with 4 flashing lights (presumably from a hard drive failure) after 1 year and 25 days. (Unfortunately that was also 25 days after the $150 annual service fee was paid.) TiVo has offered to swap out the unit for $80, and it looks like a replacement 2.5" 1TB drive is around $55.

We were already considering cutting cable, so I have mixed feelings with repairing/replacing the Bolt vs. finding a different solution for OTA that doesn't have a $150 annual fee.


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## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

So you can take a compatible drive and just replace it yourself and the Bolt takes care of the rest? Perhaps just find one on sale and keep as a backup? I really need to catch up on the Bolt forum.


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## jth tv (Nov 15, 2014)

jlcoss said:


> .....We were already considering cutting cable, so I have mixed feelings with repairing/replacing the Bolt vs. finding a different solution for OTA that doesn't have a $150 annual fee.


I can't remember the last time I had a problem with a disk drive, it has probably been 20+ years. $55 ?, I wonder if a more expensive Hard disk wouldn't be more reliable.

I recently looked and concluded TiVo is the way to go for OTA, 4+ Tuner solutions are rare.


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## HerronScott (Jan 1, 2002)

rahnbo said:


> So you can take a compatible drive and just replace it yourself and the Bolt takes care of the rest? Perhaps just find one on sale and keep as a backup? I really need to catch up on the Bolt forum.


Roamio's also. 

Scott


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## V7Goose (May 28, 2005)

jth tv said:


> I can't remember the last time I had a problem with a disk drive, it has probably been 20+ years. $55 ?, I wonder if a more expensive Hard disk wouldn't be more reliable.
> 
> I recently looked and concluded TiVo is the way to go for OTA, 4+ Tuner solutions are rare.


Well, I have seen plenty of HDD problems over the years, so I keep a sharp eye on any strange issues that may indicate impending problems. I have about 15 different external and just bare drives that I use to archive movies and other videos, and I try to never use anything larger than 2GB for those just because the risk of loosing too many things if one fails.

As for replacing internal DVR drives, "compatible" is absolutely NOT the same thing as "good choice". While virtually any drive of the correct size and interface technology is "compatible", the only "good choice" drive is one specifically designed and labeled by the manufacturer for 24x7 operations such as a DVR or NAS. Acceptable DVR drives in 2.5" size are very limited.

On the subject of cord cutting - I agree that a TiVo is probably the best option for OTA use - specifically the Roamio OTA model that comes with lifetime sub. While the Bolt 4-tuner unit will also work, the price is just stupidly expensive unless you insist on having cable compatibility too.


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

V7Goose said:


> Well, I have seen plenty of HDD problems over the years, so I keep a sharp eye on any strange issues that may indicate impending problems. I have about 15 different external and just bare drives that I use to archive movies and other videos, and I try to never use anything larger than 2GB for those just because the risk of loosing too many things if one fails.
> 
> As for replacing internal DVR drives, "compatible" is absolutely NOT the same thing as "good choice". While virtually any drive of the correct size and interface technology is "compatible", the only "good choice" drive is one specifically designed and labeled by the manufacturer for 24x7 operations such as a DVR or NAS. Acceptable DVR drives in 2.5" size are very limited.
> 
> On the subject of cord cutting - I agree that a TiVo is probably the best option for OTA use - specifically the Roamio OTA model that comes with lifetime sub. While the Bolt 4-tuner unit will also work, the price is just stupidly expensive unless you insist on having cable compatibility too.


The Bolt + does not use an AV or NAS drive, you think we will have a future problem with the drive??


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## rahnbo (Sep 12, 2010)

HDD failures are really hard to predict. I've seen tons of them fail but that was my line of work for a major PC manufacturer. I've also seen many drives last for years beyond would what be expected so it isn't much different than any other electronic device. It could last 5 days or 20 years. Hopefully, somewhere in between! I'm sure if we start seeing dead drives on the Bolt it'll become apparent fairly quickly. One thing we could start looking at now is MTBF on the drives in the Bolt and +. That could tell us something about what to expect. Personally I'll just wait for a good sale on on a compatible drive for the Bolt+ in case of emergency.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I'm glad my two 4TB Bolt drives are still working great over a year after they were put into use.


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## jlcoss (Nov 30, 2004)

jth tv said:


> $55 ?, I wonder if a more expensive Hard disk wouldn't be more reliable.


I'm in the process of switching to an external 3.5" drive per Tivo Bolt with Esata cable added
Hopefully I have better luck with that setup than the internal 2.5" drive.


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## randy1649 (Apr 18, 2011)

My experience and I have had many tivo's over the years starting with the premiers, all tivos are highly susceptible to lightening.
We have had bad storms with much lightening and two tivos lost their audio function. Luckily, they were still under warranty and replaced.
Always protect the cable line input/outlet with a surge protector and also the power supply with a surge protector.
I have even unscrewed the cable cord and unplugged the power cord when we have those severe lightening storms.
Tivos seem to be very susceptible to lightening spikes. VERY!!!


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