# $38 Roamio OTA



## tvmaster2 (Sep 9, 2006)

Today, for a week, Fry's is selling the OTA Roamio for $38 with a promo code. Crazy


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

tvmaster2 said:


> Today, for a week, Fry's is selling the OTA Roamio for $38 with a promo code. Crazy


I kind of need a new Roamio remote. I might check that out.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

tvmaster2 said:


> Today, for a week, Fry's is selling the OTA Roamio for $38 with a promo code. Crazy


Meh, that's only $12 off, and you'd still need a service plan. Though I suppose that $12 would nearly cover 1 month for monthly subscribers, so it ain't nothing.

The ongoing *$399 OTA w/ Lifetime* deal remains my top recommendation.


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## UCLABB (May 29, 2012)

tarheelblue32 said:


> I kind of need a new Roamio remote. I might check that out.


Does the OTA model have an rf remote? I cracked mine the other day.


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

UCLABB said:


> Does the OTA model have an rf remote? I cracked mine the other day.


Yep, it has the exact same RF remote that all the other Roamio models have.



krkaufman said:


> The ongoing *$399 OTA w/ Lifetime* deal remains my top recommendation.


Now if only we could find a cheap supply of the CableCard brackets to fit it, you could get the equivalent of a base Roamio w/lifetime for only $399.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

tarheelblue32 said:


> Now if only we could find a cheap supply of the CableCard brackets to fit it, you could get the equivalent of a base Roamio w/lifetime for only $399.


Yep -- though w/ a bit of risk that it could be yanked out from under me.


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## leswar (Apr 14, 2005)

I have an old SA CABLE-DVR box from a church rummage sale.
It has a cc slot.

Are these pretty much universal? What would it entail? DE-SOLDER?
Move to OTA Tivo motherboard, re-solder?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

The one on the Roamio just plugs into a port on the bottom. Technically CableCARDs are just PCMCIA cards, so a lot of old laptops have the proper slots too. We just need to find one that fits in the port on the bottom of the Roamio.


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## CoxInPHX (Jan 14, 2011)

tarheelblue32 said:


> I kind of need a new Roamio remote. I might check that out.


What a waste, But, I could use 2 RF remotes, $38 no shipping, here I come...

*Limit 1*, bummer


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## convergent (Jan 4, 2007)

tarheelblue32 said:


> I kind of need a new Roamio remote. I might check that out.





CoxInPHX said:


> What a waste, But, I could use 2 RF remotes, $38 no shipping, here I come...
> 
> *Limit 1*, bummer


You realize the Roamio remote is $34.99 at Amazon?


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

convergent said:


> You realize the Roamio remote is $34.99 at Amazon?


And for only $3 more you get a Roamio OTA thrown in that might come in handy someday. Especially since my Roamio Plus won't do OTA if I ever decide to go that route.


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## Wattsline (Apr 27, 2015)

tarheelblue32 said:


> And for only $3 more you get a Roamio OTA thrown in that might come in handy someday. Especially since my Roamio Plus won't do OTA if I ever decide to go that route.


Does someone have a link?


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

tarheelblue32 said:


> And for only $3 more you get a Roamio OTA thrown in that might come in handy someday. Especially since my Roamio Plus won't do OTA if I ever decide to go that route.


TiVo lacks the retail sales integration that cell/mobile providers have, so they can't lock-in the service plan commitments at the point-of-sale. It's a bit of a hole in TiVo's sales/marketing that I hope not too many people take advantage of, as it can't be great for TiVo's bottom line.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

tvmaster2 said:


> Today, for a week, Fry's is selling the OTA Roamio for $38 with a promo code. Crazy











Wattsline said:


> Does someone have a link?


This particular deal was available through Fry's emailed promo blasts, so you'd need to subscribe to Fry's "weekly" email blast to see it.

Unfortunately, unless I'm mistaken, the $38 Roamio deal requires the "Sunday promo code," which one cannot now retrieve. (Nor can you use some publicly available code, since they're user-specific.)

*edit:* That said, I signed-up for the weekly blast, to find the deal, and came across the following text at the top of the promo email:


> To welcome you, we've included an Instant Promo Code in this email that you can exchange today for either a live in-store Promo Code, or over the phone for a live online Promo Code.
> 
> Your Instant Promo Code: 1234567890


... so you may be able to get the deal; you'd just have to call them. (?)​
Also, please note, the Roamio OTA model appears to only be available for in-store pickup: 
*Shipping: Available In-Store Only* (link)​


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## sheshechic (Apr 14, 2012)

Is the reception on the OTA the same as the base Roamio or is one better than the other?


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

They're identical hardware with the only exception being that the slot the CableCARD fits in has been removed from the OTA. There is a thread here where someone transplanted the CableCARD slot from the base Roamio to an OTA and it worked. So there isn't even a software difference.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Dan203 said:


> They're identical hardware with the only exception being that the slot the CableCARD fits in has been removed from the OTA. There is a thread here where someone transplanted the CableCARD slot from the base Roamio to an OTA and it worked. *So there isn't even a software difference.*


(yet)


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## tvmaster2 (Sep 9, 2006)

Dan203 said:


> They're identical hardware with the only exception being that the slot the CableCARD fits in has been removed from the OTA. There is a thread here where someone transplanted the CableCARD slot from the base Roamio to an OTA and it worked. So there isn't even a software difference.


lol...that's awesome!


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