# Should we consider the Bolt as an option?



## WS65711 (Feb 16, 2017)

I've only owned and used Tivo Premiers for the past 11 years or so, no experience with Roamio or Bolt or Edge. A friend has been looking to get into Tivo and has been considering Edge and Mini's but is hesitant due to total cost. He has no Tivo experience and is relying on me for guidance.

I came across these Bolt refurb options on Weaknees. Should he consider one of these? Does the Bolt do TE3? What would he be giving up (if anything) by not choosing the Edge? His Tivo network will be MoCA based.

Thanks for any info y'all can provide.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

Used lifetime Roamio Plus from ebay, $200 or less.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

slowbiscuit said:


> Used lifetime Roamio Plus from ebay, $200 or less.


I was going to suggest the same thing, this is a far better option than a Bolt with no downside on TE3


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## WVZR1 (Jul 31, 2008)

slowbiscuit said:


> Used lifetime Roamio Plus from ebay, $200 or less.


For Cable yes ....... don't know about the 'or less'


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

WVZR1 said:


> For Cable yes ....... don't know about the 'or less'


Roamio Basic if the OP wants the Antenna/Cable option, Roamio is still the better product.
I say that as someone that has 2 Roamios and 2 Bolts in the family, the Roamios are far better built.


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## WS65711 (Feb 16, 2017)

As someone who has 5 Premiers and 2 Mini's in the house, I get it. The old Tivos have better build quality than the newer models. But the Roamio doesn't have 6 tuners. I have 12 tuners spread over 5 units... it works, but I often have to search around to find a particular recording.
Does the Bolt do TE3? The models I've shown in the pic have 6 tuners and fairly large drives. Weaknees offers a 3 year warrantee for $80.


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## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

WS65711 said:


> As someone who has 5 Premiers and 2 Mini's in the house, I get it. The old Tivos have better build quality than the newer models. But the Roamio doesn't have 6 tuners. I have 12 tuners spread over 5 units... it works, but I often have to search around to find a particular recording.
> Does the Bolt do TE3? The models I've shown in the pic have 6 tuners and fairly large drives. Weaknees offers a 3 year warrantee for $80.


A Roamio Pro or Plus both have 6 Cable tuners, and have the benefit of having easily replaced 3.5" drives that can be expanded higher, there are not a lot of acceptable higher capacity 2.5" drives available for the Bolt.
A bolt can do TE3 or TE4 with the exception of several Bolt Vox models that are TE4 only (since it's required for voice control)


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

WS65711 said:


> But the Roamio doesn't have 6 tuners.


As @dianebrat stated, the Roamio line-up is similar to the BOLT series:

4-tuner models capable of either OTA or CableCARD tuning [1][2][5]
6-tuner models limited to CableCARD tuning [2]
4-tuner OTA-only models [1][3][4][5]
NOTES:
*[1]* 4-tuner Roamio models and the OTA-only 4-tuner ‘BOLT OTA’ model lack built-in MoCA functionality, so require a standalone MoCA adapter to facilitate MoCA networking connectivity
*[2] *All BOLTs (excluding the OTA-only model) and 6-tuner Roamio’s support built-in MoCA bridging and connectivity
*[3] *The 4-tuner ‘BOLT OTA’ model is restricted to TE4; all other BOLTs and Roamios can run either TE3 or TE4 -- noting that downgrading a BOLT VOX to TE3 would eliminate the "VOX" voice control capability, along with all other TE4 "features" ... plus possibly limiting the VOX remote to IR-only mode (unclear).
*[4] *The 4-tuner ‘Roamio OTA’ model can be made to support CableCARD by installing the missing CableCARD bracket (see this thread)
*[5] *4-tuner Roamio models lack the _built-in _mobile streaming functionality available in all BOLTs and the 6-tuner Roamios.

edit: Updated per later clarification from @pl1 re: remote


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

dianebrat said:


> A Roamio Pro or Plus both have 6 Cable tuners, and have the benefit of having easily replaced 3.5" drives that can be expanded higher, there are not a lot of acceptable higher capacity 2.5" drives available for the Bolt.


Beside the hard drive form factor allowed, other diffs b/w BOLT and Roamio include:

BOLTs are HDMI-only; Roamio Plus/Pro can also do component or composite output, while 4-tuner Roamio can also do composite
BOLT Wi-Fi is AC; Roamio's are limited to N; 4-tuner Roamio wireless seems deficient relative to even the 6-tuner Roamios.
4-tuner Roamio has Fast Ethernet; all BOLTs and 6-tuner Roamios (Plus/Pro) have Gigabit Ethernet.
Where available, BOLT MoCA is standard MoCA 2.0; Roamio Plus/Pro has MoCA 1.1.
Mobile streaming functionality of the Roamio Plus/Pro can also enable mobile streaming from 4-tuner Roamios and Premiere DVRs.
BOLT supports 4K video output



dianebrat said:


> A bolt can do TE3 or TE4 with the exception of several Bolt Vox models that are TE4 only (since it's required for voice control)


Though moot for the OP's friend, the OTA-only 'BOLT OTA' is restricted to TE4. And I believe that the BOLT VOX models _can_ be downgraded to TE3; they'd just experience the same features shift of any other box downgraded from TE4 to TE3, though possibly also having the VOX remote limited to IR-only communication (unclear on this). A full BOLT VOX downgrade to TE3 might entail replacing the VOX remote with a Roamio/Mini v2/pre-VOX BOLT RF(RF4CE) remote (no RF4CE USB dongle required).

edit; Updated per later clarification from @pl1


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## pl1 (Jan 18, 2007)

Just for reference. I have the Bolt Vox 4 tuner cable or OTA (model TCD849500V) downgraded to TE3, and the Vox remote that came with it works fine in RF mode. Amber light when any key is pressed.


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## WS65711 (Feb 16, 2017)

Thanks to all who responded and provided information in this thread. I was hoping my friend would have made a decision by now on which way to proceed, but he's taking his time. I'll update later if any more questions arise or if he makes a final choice.


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