# I'm Back with TIVO and very happy so far



## davidhilldallas (Nov 16, 2015)

I have used the Tivo and directtv-tivo boxes in the past. I always favored the tivo DVRs over the others.. 
But when Version FIOS came along with their on-demand and other things tivo didn't have, I switched over to them a few years back. I was very happy with them until they changed out their Motorola DVR boxs to these Cheap Arris boxes. I had issue with the multi-room shared setup and switched back to having just 2 dedicated DVRs, which took me 3 calls over 1 week to get setup correctly. BUT they didn't get me away from all problems, like the boxes be no-responsive to the point I had to reboot them. It was like having a Windows 97 PC, you had to reboot once a week to make it work nicely. So I had enough of that and decide to see what TIVO was up to now-a-days..
I liked that it could now do the 4-6 turner records and multi-rooms where you just had a main box. So I bought a used Roamio online to try it out and see how it works. This was the cheapest route to try it out. Might upgrade to BOLT in the future.. we will see on that front down the road
for starters, I like the Tivo DVR again, the Roamio was working great with multi recording and being very responsive. This is with a cable-card.
Next day, I added a mini to the bed-room and that was working well. 
SOOO at this point, I was happy with the multi-room TIVO system.

SORRY, GETTING A BIT LONG HERE...

The next thing I wanted to try is hook up one of my Version FIOS receivers in the family room to see if I could have both the Version and Roamio working via a splitter and that worked.. Woo Hoo... So with this, I can returned 1 FIOS box and discontinue the 2 FIOS DVRS service cost. 

Cost wise, this might be a little bit more considering the TIVO monthly fee, BUT I will get everything I want and have the best DVR system setup..

Happy Happy, joy joy...

I will give this a couple of weeks to make sure it continues to all work before I make any changes to my version..


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## jonw747 (Aug 2, 2015)

As a returning TiVo customer you might qualify for that loyalty discount on the Roamio Pro (if it's still going on).

My experience with FIOS was similar, but I had the Motorola 7232. It didn't need weekly reboots, but it did get somewhat laggy handling 5GB of recordings across two DVRs.

One thing I don't miss is how the 7232 only supported a single IR code. Sometimes one unit would get a code meant for the other in-spite of my attempts to prevent it.


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## PCurry57 (Feb 27, 2012)

jonw747 said:


> As a returning TiVo customer you might qualify for that loyalty discount on the Roamio Pro (if it's still going on).
> 
> My experience with FIOS was similar, but I had the Motorola 7232. It didn't need weekly reboots, but it did get somewhat laggy handling 5GB of recordings across two DVRs.
> 
> One thing I don't miss is how the 7232 only supported a single IR code. Sometimes one unit would get a code meant for the other in-spite of my attempts to prevent it.


There was no loyalty discount for the former DirecTiVo users as that was managed by DirecTV . DirecTV customers didn't have a TiVo account.


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## singit (Jul 29, 2006)

I am a returning former Tivo user, and after "checking on the best available deal", my activation agent offered me $199 lifetime Tivo service on a Roamio I purchased at Best Buy. I encourage inquiring politely and persistently about discounted options.


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## davidhilldallas (Nov 16, 2015)

nice, I initially just did the $19 online.... I will need to check this out..

FYI - I did have a detracted tivo in the past, not just the directv tivo..

Thanks..


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## jonw747 (Aug 2, 2015)

PCurry57 said:


> There was no loyalty discount for the former DirecTiVo users as that was managed by DirecTV . DirecTV customers didn't have a TiVo account.


Probably so as they couldn't find anything in their files about me, but I was most definitely a TiVo customer. The CSR I talked to offered me the loyalty deal to get my business back, another CSR might not.

That's why it's YMMV


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## VicVinegar (Sep 18, 2015)

I am also shipping back Verizon DVRs this week. Very laggy, annoying Verizon pop ups every now and then, no room to record and cost a fortune for what seems like 1999 tech. 

I used to worry I'd miss On Demand content, but since they took away your ability to fast forward and added commercials to the last On Demand I watched, I suddenly had very little interest in keeping it around. 

Anyway, impressed with my Roamio and Mini so far.


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## davidhilldallas (Nov 16, 2015)

VicVinegar said:


> I am also shipping back Verizon DVRs this week. Very laggy, annoying Verizon pop ups every now and then, no room to record and cost a fortune for what seems like 1999 tech.
> 
> I used to worry I'd miss On Demand content, but since they took away your ability to fast forward and added commercials to the last On Demand I watched, I suddenly had very little interest in keeping it around.
> 
> Anyway, impressed with my Roamio and Mini so far.


yes, had the same issues with my latest fios boxes. 
But I did decide for now to keep 1 verizon rcvr as a non-dvr so I still had the on-demand option. I have used it twice since I switched to tivo, so I get the best of both worlds at this time.


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## Dssguy1 (Feb 19, 2013)

The extra cost is worth it. I love TiVo and have been around since DirecTivo days as well!



davidhilldallas said:


> I have used the Tivo and directtv-tivo boxes in the past. I always favored the tivo DVRs over the others..
> But when Version FIOS came along with their on-demand and other things tivo didn't have, I switched over to them a few years back. I was very happy with them until they changed out their Motorola DVR boxs to these Cheap Arris boxes. I had issue with the multi-room shared setup and switched back to having just 2 dedicated DVRs, which took me 3 calls over 1 week to get setup correctly. BUT they didn't get me away from all problems, like the boxes be no-responsive to the point I had to reboot them. It was like having a Windows 97 PC, you had to reboot once a week to make it work nicely. So I had enough of that and decide to see what TIVO was up to now-a-days..
> I liked that it could now do the 4-6 turner records and multi-rooms where you just had a main box. So I bought a used Roamio online to try it out and see how it works. This was the cheapest route to try it out. Might upgrade to BOLT in the future.. we will see on that front down the road
> for starters, I like the Tivo DVR again, the Roamio was working great with multi recording and being very responsive. This is with a cable-card.
> ...


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## gotroot801 (Jan 20, 2002)

Quick question for the FiOS customers: are any of you keeping a simple cable box just in case something happens to your TiVo, or is that a "cross that bridge when I get to it" situation? I'm pretty happy with my new Roamio, but since it's also managing two minis I'm wary of what will happen if the Roamio ever needs service.

Or should I look for an old Premiere on eBay and stow that in a closet somewhere just in case?


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## VicVinegar (Sep 18, 2015)

gotroot801 said:


> Quick question for the FiOS customers: are any of you keeping a simple cable box just in case something happens to your TiVo, or is that a "cross that bridge when I get to it" situation? I'm pretty happy with my new Roamio, but since it's also managing two minis I'm wary of what will happen if the Roamio ever needs service.
> 
> Or should I look for an old Premiere on eBay and stow that in a closet somewhere just in case?


I'm sending them all back. As I mentioned above, now that I am finding commercials I can't fast forward through in On Demand content, I am not concerned with keeping it. I guess I could use it for movies, but with a big hard drive, Netflix, and Amazon VOD there is very little I can't find or record.

If I change my mind, my recollection is that Verizon is more than happy to rush ship you a new (new to you...probably been in Verizon inventory for a decade) DVR and tack the $30 monthly charge on your account.


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## moondoggie (Jul 19, 2000)

Slight hijack here. I'm a former Directivo user that has had 3 Fios DVR's for the past 5 years or so. I'm seriously condsidering getting the Roamio Pro and 2 minis so I can record 6 channels and hook up 3 tvs. Are you happy with the minis? Is there much lag or other issues compared to the Fios DVRs? Thanks in advance.


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## jonw747 (Aug 2, 2015)

moondoggie said:


> Slight hijack here. I'm a former Directivo user that has had 3 Fios DVR's for the past 5 years or so. I'm seriously condsidering getting the Roamio Pro and 2 minis so I can record 6 channels and hook up 3 tvs. Are you happy with the minis? Is there much lag or other issues compared to the Fios DVRs? Thanks in advance.


Same here, and coming from Verizon's MRDVR which could get pretty bogged down dealing with a huge combined playlist, the Mini's are fantastic.

I'm continuing to use Verizon's ActionTec router to supply MOCA networking to my Roamio Plus and Minis. Very solid.

My only knock against the Mini is that they don't support 1080p or 4K, but that may be in the works if it's important to you.


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## moondoggie (Jul 19, 2000)

jonw747 said:


> Same here, and coming from Verizon's MRDVR which could get pretty bogged down dealing with a huge combined playlist, the Mini's are fantastic.
> 
> I'm continuing to use Verizon's ActionTec router to supply MOCA networking to my Roamio Plus and Minis. Very solid.
> 
> My only knock against the Mini is that they don't support 1080p or 4K, but that may be in the works if it's important to you.


Awesome, thanks! I'll use the ActionTecrouther as well. I just ordered the cablecard and will try out the new equipment before returning my MRDVRs. Now I just have to get caught up on all of my recordings.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

No 1080p on Mini? Seems to work perfectly fine for me, always has. Perhaps you don't have a 1080p TV.


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## schatham (Mar 17, 2007)

mdavej said:


> No 1080p on Mini? Seems to work perfectly fine for me, always has. Perhaps you don't have a 1080p TV.


My mini only does 720p. I have to say though I can't tell the difference from my 1080p tv on Roamio. Sometimes I think 720p looks better.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Are v2 Minis only 720p? My v1 Mini is 1080p. Glad I have the older model.


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## spicybrown (Apr 3, 2005)

schatham said:


> My mini only does 720p. I have to say though I can't tell the difference from my 1080p tv on Roamio. Sometimes I think 720p looks better.


I kind of like the softer picture of the 720 than the 1080p. The 1080p resolution makes everything a bit too crisp and, oddly enough, fake looking.



davidhilldallas said:


> yes, had the same issues with my latest fios boxes.
> But I did decide for now to keep 1 verizon rcvr as a non-dvr so I still had the on-demand option. I have used it twice since I switched to tivo, so I get the best of both worlds at this time.


For the on-demand options, I found my xbox and apple tv offers most of the options I had through the FIOS box, for premium channels at least. HBO/SHO/CIN/STARZ. I did not want another rental and my wife doesn't want to learn another input to switch to (even though my harmony does most of the work).


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## jonw747 (Aug 2, 2015)

mdavej said:


> No 1080p on Mini? Seems to work perfectly fine for me, always has. Perhaps you don't have a 1080p TV.


The only option I've seen on my Mini's is "1080p (pass-thru only)" which I thought only dealt with 1080p24 from streaming services which support it.

My Roamio Plus has some additional options (such as 1080p60).


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## jonw747 (Aug 2, 2015)

spicybrown said:


> I kind of like the softer picture of the 720 than the 1080p. The 1080p resolution makes everything a bit too crisp and, oddly enough, fake looking.


Have you looked in to tweaking your video settings? Most recent TVs overprocess the signal by default and make everything look like a Soap Opera, but there's often a way to turn that down if not off.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

jonw747 said:


> The only option I've seen on my Mini's is "1080p (pass-thru only)" which I thought only dealt with 1080p24 from streaming services which support it.
> 
> My Roamio Plus has some additional options (such as 1080p60).


How many cable or OTA systems are 1080p? Last time I checked, there were zero. So of course that's going to apply only to streaming. Roamio can do the deinterlacing, but it looks terrible. If you've checked that option, do yourself a favor and uncheck it.

My concern is that so many are reporting that the Mini only does 720p. So I'm just trying to figure out what's going on and if 1080p (and 1080i) has been removed in some recent update.

Spicybrown and schatham, can you please tell us what choices you see in the Video settings of your Mini, what hardware version (v1 or v2) and what software version? What make/model are your TVs?

JonW, can you confirm that your Mini is really not capable of 1080p24 streaming? What is your hardware and software version?

Does anyone know if there is any way to prevent a Mini from auto updating its software and still keep it connected to the internet and LAN for streaming?

EDIT: Looks like they'll have to change the manual too. Check out page 31. It says Mini supports 1080i and 1080p, just as my Mini does today.
https://support.tivo.com/servlet/fileField?id=0BE38000000TR01

This really sucks.


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## schatham (Mar 17, 2007)

mdavej said:


> schatham, can you please tell us what choices you see in the Video settings of your Mini, what hardware version (v1 or v2) and what software version? What make/model are your TVs?
> .


 After checking, I was wrong, my mini will do 1080p. I set it at 720p because the bedroom tv is only 720p. I have the V2 mini.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Thanks. That's a relief.


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## jonw747 (Aug 2, 2015)

mdavej said:


> JonW, can you confirm that your Mini is really not capable of 1080p24 streaming? What is your hardware and software version?


My Mini does offer support for 1080p passthrough, but it will not scale content to 1080p60 like my Roamio Plus.

The advantage of having the TiVo scale everything to 1080p60 is that it eliminates the time it takes the TV to sync to the signal if you're using native resolution passthrough, and it eliminates conversion loss if you locked in 720p or 1080i.

Ironically, the one thing that can't be scaled to 1080p60 cleanly is 1080p24 content, so it's still not optimal if you have a TV that can process 1080p24 or better yet detect and convert 1080p24 embedded in 1080i.

So, I actually use native mode, but it would be nice to have the same Video output options available on the Minis that are on the DVR, and that's not the case - at least at this point.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

I've found that 1080p60 obliterates the picture on my system. So I don't miss it on the Mini.


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## jonw747 (Aug 2, 2015)

mdavej said:


> I've found that 1080p60 obliterates the picture on my system. So I don't miss it on the Mini.


Which is why having the option to use it (or not use it) is nice. Sstems and expectations for them differ. 1080p60 from the Roamio looks fine for me.


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## dcarcy1054 (Jan 23, 2016)

davidhilldallas said:


> yes, had the same issues with my latest fios boxes.
> But I did decide for now to keep 1 verizon rcvr as a non-dvr so I still had the on-demand option. I have used it twice since I switched to tivo, so I get the best of both worlds at this time.


Hello, My wife is "missing" the on demand feature. How did you hook up the Verizon Box with Bolt Box?

Thank you


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

dcarcy1054 said:


> Hello, My wife is "missing" the on demand feature. How did you hook up the Verizon Box with Bolt Box? Thank you


Split the signal coming in and plug the Verizon box into another hdmi input in your tv or AVR if you use that for switching.

Exactly what I have.


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