# Rate your satisfaction with the TiVo Roamio



## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

So, the Roamio has been out for a couple of weeks now. Time to start a ratings thread so that people can indicate what their satisfaction is with TiVos latest darling.

Feel free to comment on why you voted as you did.

I dinged one point for the lack of a full HD experience and that there aren't enough online offerings (although that is out of TiVo control to some extent). Otherwise, I have to say that this is by far the coolest TiVo to hit the market since the S1.


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## StevesWeb (Dec 26, 2008)

Overall my basic Roamio is very satisfactory.

PROS

Finally the fast DVR I have wanted. Very reliable on antenna ATSC. Better tuner than Premiere XL. More tuners. Upgradability via Stream/Mini. The new Netflix client is a big improvement. Today I tried to cast a Netflix video from my Kindle Fire HD 8.9" 4G LTE and it just worked - very pleasing. Extremely easy to upgrade HD.


CONS
The current Amazon Instant Video client needs to be retired ASAP, it is horrible. Did it somehow miss its own funeral?

The occasional SD menu is a disappointment.

Using the ancient Dick Clark rating system, I love the beat and the lyrics are great, I give it a 95.


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## BigJimOutlaw (Mar 21, 2004)

Went with a 4, but I'd say 4.5 if I could.

Out of the gate it's strong as all hell but there's always some room for improvement. There is a headache it created for me (Verizon cablecards), a few minor bugs still to work out, and the apps will eventually come along... at which point I'd happily bump it up. Amazon Prime Instant is a particular sticking point, but it's good that the Netflix app is up to snuff.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

I gave it a 5 since 4.5 wasn't available. 

Everything for me is working great. I probably would have dinged it for the SD screens which includes the Star screens.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Won't get "outstanding" vote for me until the crippled HDUI Wishlists screens are fixed.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

There are a few minor nits so I went with 4. But I would have given my Elite a 2, so it's an improvement.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I gave my Roamio Pro an Outstanding rating of 5. Six tuners and a faster interface makes it an excellent DVR.

I was also extremely pleased with my two Elites but I would have given those a rating of 4 because of the slower speed.

If there were half ratings I would have gone with a 4.5 for the Roamio Pro and a 3.5 for the Elite.


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## ncbill (Sep 1, 2007)

4, because my first Roamio (Basic) died within a day.

Love the features, and I'm now pretty sure the above was just a hard drive issue.

If Tivo didn't have such a bug up its @@@ about 'popping the lid' I bet I could have just dropped in another 'AV' drive and saved them the cost of shipping.


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## sbiller (May 10, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> There are a few minor nits so I went with 4. But I would have given my Elite a 2, so it's an improvement.


I already gave my Roamio 5 stars on my Amazon review so I had to cast my vote for a 5 here as well.


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## Beryl (Feb 22, 2009)

ncbill said:


> 4, because my first Roamio (Basic) died within a day.


I'm going with 5 although my Basic died in a few days (rated it 4 on Amazon) . The Plus is doing well and so far I'll probably rate it 5 on Amazon.


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## JohnnyO (Nov 3, 2002)

I gave it a 4, as nothing is so good that it can't be improved. 

Overall, I am very, very pleased with the Roamio.

My dings include: can't do OTA AND Cable at the same time, Netflix App is weaker than that on Apple TV, and the silliness of having some SD menus (perfect intern project). Overall, a very strong upgrade from TiVo. I'm proud, once again, to tell people that I have a DVR worth paying for.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

Results so far looking very good. I will have to do a search and see if a poll for the Premiere was done at a similar time in its release cycle and what the results were.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

I voted 5 stars. 

Hands down my Roamio is the best DVR I have ever seen. Are there some things I would like to see added or improved? Sure, but it is a joy to use, does what it is supposed to without any issues, and so far my OTA reception has been great.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

jmpage2 said:


> Results so far looking very good. I will have to do a search and see if a poll for the Premiere was done at a similar time in its release cycle and what the results were.


I am guessing if one was done the Premiere would have gotten pretty bad ratings. At the beginning with the 14.XXX software it really didn't function well enough for many people to use the HDUI at all. On the other had if TiVo had released the Premiere with only the SDUI and not used that stupid "one box" promotion I bet it would have gotten pretty good ratings.

Now I would give my Premiere about a 3.5 mostly because the OTA tuners still do not function as well as my Series 3 units.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

With the SDUI the Premiere didn't offer much at all over an S3/TiVo-HD.


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## ptr727 (Dec 2, 2004)

I used a DirectTiVo 5+ years ago.

Have been using Verizon FiOS HD-DVRs for 5+ years, earlier models were crappy compared to what I remember TiVo to be, current models are really good.

Now that I got a Roamio, I am disappointed in how TiVo did not change at all, seems rather antiquated, especially when it comes switching between live TV and the menus. On my FiOS DVR TV never stops, goes to the background or minimized window, on TiVo once you go to the menu you can no longer watch TV. E.g. watch show, see show trailer, go to search and add to season pass while continuing to watch the show, on TiVo I can do one or the other, not both.

As for Netflix etc., the Romio Netflix player and controls are pretty poor compared to Roku, and Roku includes Amazon Prime, so no value add there.

P.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

jmpage2 said:


> With the SDUI the Premiere didn't offer much at all over an S3/TiVo-HD.


 I strongly disagree. MRS was a game changer IMO for anyone with more than 1 unit. Also the iOS/RPC interface opened the door for lots of good stuff.


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## vurbano (Apr 20, 2004)

i had 6 tuners spread out over 3 boxes before the roamio and all i ever wanted was one unified season pass/todo list etc. Roamio delivers on that. It was a huge hassle selling all of my preimeres for 1200 bucks to nearly cover the 1300 cost of Roamio Plus, 3 TB upgrade and two minis all with lifetime but its done and I am happy. the only single thing is that the 30 sec skip on the minis is a hair slower.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

moyekj said:


> I strongly disagree. MRS was a game changer IMO for anyone with more than 1 unit. Also the iOS/RPC interface opened the door for lots of good stuff.


MRS was a valuable feature but I expect that you might be over-estimating the number of TiVo users with multiple units. If I had to guess I would say it's probably in the neighborhood of 1-5% tops.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

jmpage2 said:


> MRS was a valuable feature but I expect that you might be over-estimating the number of TiVo users with multiple units. If I had to guess I would say it's probably in the neighborhood of 1-5% tops.


 Maybe so, but for anyone with multiple units it was a HUGE improvement. Also the iOS/RPC stuff was a big deal even for those with only 1 unit.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

MRS wasn't released until a year after the Premiere was released. At launch the only difference was the hardware and the barely functional HDUI. Although if you switched back to the SDUI the Premiere was significantly faster then the S3 units.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

moyekj said:


> Maybe so, but for anyone with multiple units it was a HUGE improvement. Also the iOS/RPC stuff was a big deal even for those with only 1 unit.


OK, let me amend my earlier comment to be less abrasive to you. 

_Other than for those who were willing to shell out for multiple Premiere's for MRV_ the Premiere, running the SDUI was not much of an improvement from the TiVo Series 3/HD.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

jmpage2 said:


> MRS was a valuable feature but I expect that you might be over-estimating the number of TiVo users with multiple units. If I had to guess I would say it's probably in the neighborhood of 1-5% tops.


 Really? That's it? I've always had multiple TiVos since I go tmy first three DirecTV TiVos almost 12 years ago. I would have thought more people had multiple TiVos. I always needed multiple TiVos because two tuners was never enough for recording at one location.

Of course that was miles better than the half dozen VCRs I used to use for all my recordings.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

No question the HDUI was a step backwards for a long time. I didn't switch to HDUI on Premieres until about a year ago and still find it too slow on that platform for my Elite. But I can't imagine going back to use my S3 now. In fact I have 1 lifetime S3 unit sitting in the closet.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

aaronwt said:


> Really? That's it? I've always had multiple TiVos since I go tmy first three DirecTV TiVos almost 12 years ago. I would have thought more people had multiple TiVos. I always needed multiple TiVos because two tuners was never enough for recording at one location.


Only TiVo knows for sure but I doubt I'm under-estimating by much, if at all. As Dan pointed out the feature didn't even exist at launch of Premiere and was one of the reasons that I waited until the XL4 to even consider a Premiere as the Premiere seemed to offer minimal improvements over my TiVo HD.

I guess the point on this before we get too far off topic here is that TiVo really has a winner on their hands and it's evident NOW, at launch vs their last couple of product launches which were a bit underwhelming (and THAT probably IS an understatement).


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

moyekj said:


> No question the HDUI was a step backwards for a long time. I didn't switch to HDUI on Premieres until about a year ago and still find it too slow on that platform for my Elite. But I can't imagine going back to use my S3 now. In fact I have 1 lifetime S3 unit sitting in the closet.


I always considered the HDUI a huge step forward. I used it from the beginning and never looked back. I hate using my GFs S3 TiVos now with the older interface.


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## Loach (Jan 11, 2013)

ptr727 said:


> I used a DirectTiVo 5+ years ago.
> 
> Have been using Verizon FiOS HD-DVRs for 5+ years, earlier models were crappy compared to what I remember TiVo to be, current models are really good.
> 
> ...


Is this true? The Roamio doesn't have a live TV window in the menus like the Premiere does?


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

jmpage2 said:


> OK, let me amend my earlier comment to be less abrasive to you.
> 
> _Other than for those who were willing to shell out for multiple Premiere's for MRV_ the Premiere, running the SDUI was not much of an improvement from the TiVo Series 3/HD.


Feature wise I agree but if they had released the Premiere with the SDUI only and you compared it to the TiVo HD it was replacing it was/is much faster and doubled the storage so I think most people would have thought of it in a positive light versus what happened where many (most?) people complained about it in very negative ways. They might not have sold any more or even as many units as there wouldn't have been any real reason for people to upgrade but I think they would have been better off and people would have felt better about their purchases.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Loach said:


> Is this true? The Roamio doesn't have a live TV window in the menus like the Premiere does?


Untrue. Roamio has the same UI as the Premiere just with a different color scheme.


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## DaveDFW (Jan 25, 2005)

Dan203 said:


> Untrue. Roamio has the same UI as the Premiere just with a different color scheme.


I think the Roamio allows you to disable the video preview window, where the Premiere did not, correct?


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

DaveDFW said:


> I think the Roamio allows you to disable the video preview window, where the Premiere did not, correct?


My XL4 had an option to disable the video preview IIRC.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

DaveDFW said:


> I think the Roamio allows you to disable the video preview window, where the Premiere did not, correct?


You've always been able to disable the preview window. Either temporarily via the Slow button or permanently via the options.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Dan203 said:


> You've always been able to disable the preview window. Either temporarily via the Slow button or permanently via the options.


 Absolutely. I would have hated if there was not an option to permanently disable the preview window via options. Too bad when bringing up the guide there is no option to get rid of it as well.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

moyekj said:


> Absolutely. I would have hated if there was not an option to permanently disable the preview window via options. Too bad when bringing up the guide there is no option to get rid of it as well.


This is one reason I wish the entire GUI was HD. I wish the video window would be up for every screen I can view in the GUI.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

aaronwt said:


> This is one reason I wish the entire GUI was HD. I wish the video window would be up for every screen I can view in the GUI.


 No spoilers or live TV for me. I don't even like to read a description of a show before watching it since those can be spoilers as well.


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## Devx (Jun 1, 2006)

I gave it a 4.

Pros:
Overall speed and responsiveness
4/6 Tuners
450+ HD hr capacity/support
Easy HD upgrades (unintentional or not)
DIAL support

Cons:
Price
HDUI incomplete
Documentation/Support


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

Crossed the 100 vote threshold a short while ago.... lots of new owners, so please take a moment to rate your satisfaction in this poll.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

It finally happened, someone had the stones to rate the Roamio as "terrible". 

While everyone is entitled to their opinion, it would be interesting to see what makes the product "terrible".


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

Well considering there are currently some pretty serious core DVR issues right now for some I guess it's not too surprising:
* Tuning issues
* Trick play issues

Plus it's very likely there are some votes by people that don't even own a Roamio.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

Sure, I can see where someone who has an old cable-card or a crappy tuning adapter is frustrated with issues with the Roamio, but 99% of the blame should be directed to their cable provider, there's only so much that TiVo can do in these situations when they are 100% at the mercy of those clowns.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

jmpage2 said:


> It finally happened, someone had the stones to rate the Roamio as "terrible".
> 
> While everyone is entitled to their opinion, it would be interesting to see what makes the product "terrible".


The one star ratings on Amazon are pretty lame. One guy wanted a digital video recorder that (the best I can tell) recorded from something other than a cable/OTA coax line and of course he didn't want any service costs.


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## buckweet1980 (Sep 17, 2013)

ptr727 said:


> I used a DirectTiVo 5+ years ago.
> 
> Have been using Verizon FiOS HD-DVRs for 5+ years, earlier models were crappy compared to what I remember TiVo to be, current models are really good.
> 
> ...


I like you am in the same situation.. I have FIOS DVR now after testing out the Roamio it makes me feel like nothing has changed since I used the DirecTV Tivo years ago. I bought the Roamio with hopes it'd blow me away. The only thing it's done is empty my pockets and left me dis-satisfied.

The Amazon Instant video app is a joke, the part SD and partial HD menus is a joke too. I like the guide better in the FIOS DVR too.

The reason I wanted to go Tivo is to get rid of set top box fees by using the mini's in the other rooms. I'm thinking now I might just check out the DTV Genie or wait until VZ finally decides to release their home media server device. The ROI on the Tivo solution is 2+yrs, so it's a case of pay now or pay then. Either way I think I'm returning my Roamio for now.

I will say the speed of the device is amazing and it has great picture quality. I love the 6 tuners, look of the box, etc.. If they'd only fix the UI, increase apps, bring DLNA, update the guide to 2013 then it'd be an awesome box I think. They have 6 months of solid development ahead of them, but with history of Tivo will that even happen?


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## markp99 (Mar 21, 2002)

buckweet1980 said:


> I like the guide better in the FIOS DVR too.


Did you try both guide types: Grid Guide & TiVo Live Guide? I am a big fan of the TiVo Live Guide.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I always thought the Grid guide was terrible. I love the TiVo Live Guide.


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## JesseBearden (Oct 13, 2003)

I'm with holding my vote until there's an update. Right now I live in Seattle and I'm struck with the bug where some(many) of my recordings don't work and I can't play them. That's a pretty huge issue for a DVR.

Also, my first unit never quite worked until I got a replacement.

Also, I have had Amazon download issues.

Overall I really want to like it, but thus far I've had nothing but issues. I should probably just plug my TivoHD back in for a while or return the Roamio for the time being.

I have confidence that these issues will be resolved, but for now it's not been great for me.


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## Devx (Jun 1, 2006)

JesseBearden said:


> I'm with holding my vote until there's an update. Right now I live in Seattle and I'm struck with the bug where some(many) of my recordings don't work and I can't play them. That's a pretty huge issue for a DVR.
> 
> Also, my first unit never quite worked until I got a replacement.
> 
> ...


With that many issues, the initial start of the fall season upon us, and the uncertainty around the release date for the update, it makes sense to return the Roamio and go back to the HD for now. Especially if the Roamio is the only DVR that you're using.


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## buckweet1980 (Sep 17, 2013)

markp99 said:


> Did you try both guide types: Grid Guide & TiVo Live Guide? I am a big fan of the TiVo Live Guide.


Yeah I checked this out too.. Not a fan of it. When I browse through the guide I like to see what is on and coming on in half hour or so, but with live guide you have to go to the channel to get the list.


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## yokito (Jan 19, 2005)

buckweet1980 said:


> Yeah I checked this out too.. Not a fan of it. When I browse through the guide I like to see what is on and coming on in half hour or so, but with live guide you have to go to the channel to get the list.


There's also *What's on now* - have you seen that?


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## CrispyCritter (Feb 28, 2001)

buckweet1980 said:


> Yeah I checked this out too.. Not a fan of it. When I browse through the guide I like to see what is on and coming on in half hour or so, but with live guide you have to go to the channel to get the list.


One other option you might not have encountered yet is the Mini-Guide - just hit Select while in live tv. Gives you a 3 line grid guide superimposed over the live-tv. Not a substitute for a full guide, but may be handy for you at times.


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## fdisker2000 (Nov 27, 2006)

JesseBearden said:


> I'm with holding my vote until there's an update. Right now I live in Seattle and I'm struck with the bug where some(many) of my recordings don't work and I can't play them. That's a pretty huge issue for a DVR.
> 
> Also, my first unit never quite worked until I got a replacement.
> 
> ...


Same here. I loved my new Roamio until the new fall shows started. Now I'm stuck with recording the effected channels on my Premiere in another room and MRVing them on my Roamio or recording them in SD.


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## inc77 (Sep 14, 2013)

Loving mine so far. 

Some of my little annoyances:

1 - No stop button (yes I do wish it had one - because my wife keeps asking me)
2 - Some of the UI
3 - Not necessarily Tivo's fault but that Amazon App needs an upgrade desperately


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## lessd (Jan 23, 2005)

inc77 said:


> Loving mine so far.
> 
> Some of my little annoyances:
> 
> ...


Try the new *back* button on the remote


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## swerver (May 18, 2012)

aaronwt said:


> I always thought the Grid guide was terrible. I love the TiVo Live Guide.


I feel like there's too much clicking with the live guide. The grid gives you way more info per click. Maybe I'm doing it wrong?


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

swerver said:


> I feel like there's too much clicking with the live guide. The grid gives you way more info per click. Maybe I'm doing it wrong?


I think it really depends on how/why you are using the guide. This time of year, I think many of us are in the guide more than other times, but the real answer is to learn how to avoid the guide as much as possible.

Between wish lists and suggestions it is possible to avoid the guide most of the time. Because I am OTA only and don't have that many channels it isn't as big a deal as it is for someone with 100+ cable channels, but "watching" the guide with 100+ channels can become a full time occupation.

Another part of this is being willing to give up live TV, once you are watching nearly 100% from what is being recorded and you find way more TV than you can ever possible watch looking at the guide becomes less and less useful.

Good luck,


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## wco81 (Dec 28, 2001)

I'd go with outstanding if they deliver the outside streaming as promised and it works well.

That would be a terrific feature and they should have a Mac client too.


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## JasonD (Mar 30, 2003)

I voted outstanding, but I really, really, want outside streaming. And they need to add HBO Go also.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

From the early beta reports of Engadget and others the remote streaming quality is quite a few notches below what is possible with solutions like Slingbox, so it's probably better that they wait and get it right before they piss everybody off.


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## Devx (Jun 1, 2006)

jmpage2 said:


> From the early beta reports of Engadget and others the remote streaming quality is quite a few notches below what is possible with solutions like Slingbox, so it's probably better that they wait and get it right before they piss everybody off.


On some of the reviews it was difficult to tell but some alluded to the stream possibly needing too much bandwidth from their home connection and public wi-fi. Tivo really has to get the quality adjustment right. Personally, I'd be ok if they offered multiple settings to suit the connection as a first attempt while they tweaked or worked on some form of auto adjustment. I have the upstream bandwidth but typically would use 4g for streaming while out and it's congested here in Atlanta. 3-5Mbps is typical in some areas.


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## wco81 (Dec 28, 2001)

Hmm, I have a cheap Vulkano box, made by some small Chinese company.

Their clients will adapt to the available bandwidth and you get varying quality depending on what kind of speed can be sustained to the client.

Tivo can't do adaptive streaming?


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## Beryl (Feb 22, 2009)

wco81 said:


> Hmm, I have a cheap Vulkano box, made by some small Chinese company. Their clients will adapt to the available bandwidth and you get varying quality depending on what kind of speed can be sustained to the client. Tivo can't do adaptive streaming?


I have a Vulkano Platinum and Slingbox Pro HD and don't understand why TiVo is having difficulty either. Perhaps they should have purchased the technology from Monsoon (makers of Vulkano and the old Hava boxes) like Belkin did.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

wco81 said:


> Hmm, I have a cheap Vulkano box, made by some small Chinese company.
> 
> Their clients will adapt to the available bandwidth and you get varying quality depending on what kind of speed can be sustained to the client.
> 
> Tivo can't do adaptive streaming?


Knowing Apple they probably have to approve it.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

wco81 said:


> Hmm, I have a cheap Vulkano box, made by some small Chinese company.
> 
> Their clients will adapt to the available bandwidth and you get varying quality depending on what kind of speed can be sustained to the client.
> 
> Tivo can't do adaptive streaming?


Vulkano doesn't stream HD though. I have a Hava Platinum HD. I was going to get the Vulkano until I found out that it still doesn't stream in HD.

That's why I got the SlingBox 350 instead since it can stream in HD.

There is a night a day difference in the quality between the two.


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## wco81 (Dec 28, 2001)

Wouldn't it depend on the bandwidth between your Tivo and wherever you're trying to view the streams?

Anyways, I believe Netflix and other apps. also adapt to the bandwidth. HBO Go does it as well.


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## markp99 (Mar 21, 2002)

I have an HD Slingbox. Performance out of the home was pretty poor, especially for the stuff I'd actually want to watch while travelling, like Boston sporting event while in other parts of the country. All my equipment is Cat5 wired.

Fast moving images seem to bring the Slingbox to its knees (stutter/pause/massive pixelization), even with tweaking/downgrading the various settings.

The bar is very low for me on out of home streaming. Hopefuly TiVo will improve the result.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

markp99 said:


> I have an HD Slingbox. Performance out of the home was pretty poor, especially for the stuff I'd actually want to watch while travelling, like Boston sporting event while in other parts of the country. All my equipment is Cat5 wired.
> 
> Fast moving images seem to bring the Slingbox to its knees (stutter/pause/massive pixelization), even with tweaking/downgrading the various settings.
> 
> The bar is very low for me on out of home streaming. Hopefuly TiVo will improve the result.


I haven't run into those issues when streaming from my SlingBox 350 to my cellular phone as long as it stays connected with LTE 4G. Although if it drops down to 3G there can be some issues. At home I have 65mbps of upstream bandwidth on FiOS so that can always stream without any bandwidth problems.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

markp99 said:


> I have an HD Slingbox. Performance out of the home was pretty poor, especially for the stuff I'd actually want to watch while travelling, like Boston sporting event while in other parts of the country. All my equipment is Cat5 wired.
> 
> Fast moving images seem to bring the Slingbox to its knees (stutter/pause/massive pixelization), even with tweaking/downgrading the various settings.
> 
> The bar is very low for me on out of home streaming. Hopefuly TiVo will improve the result.


 The older Sllingbox boxes were pretty awful with low bandwidth (below 2 Mbps). However I upgraded to a Slingbox 350 and it does a good job even down to about 700 Kbps. What did get much worse however is the remote control response time. I've seen a remote control delay as great as 20 seconds when using Slingbox 3000 miles from home with a 1 Mbps feed. That makes using trickplay all but useless.

Since Sling has been at it so long and it's still not optimal I'm highly skeptical that the TiVo out of home streaming will be of any use, especially with low bandwidth limits. Also unless the client can be a PC/laptop or at least a non iOS device I'm not too interested in it.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

moyekj said:


> I've seen a remote control delay as great as 20 seconds when using Slingbox 3000 miles from home with a 1 Mbps feed. That makes using trickplay all but useless.





> Since Sling has been at it so long and it's still not optimal I'm highly skeptical that the TiVo out of home streaming will be of any use, especially with low bandwidth limits.


I think the entire design of streaming from your home externally is significantly limited by upload speeds and less then optimum network design in the home of the average consumer.

If I were designing this solution, I would allow a user to select content (remotely) and push an upload to a cloud infrastructure. It would be that environment that would serve the content to client devices with the quality, reliability and functionality of say Netflix.

You would need to allow more buffering time then a direct source to client solution, but the user experience would be significantly more reliable. Also, far easier to manage DRM requirements under this model.

Several enterprises are discussing the option of cloud DVR services, TiVo is in the perfect possition to create a hybrid solution that would be very hard to beat.



> Also unless the client can be a PC/laptop or at least a non iOS device I'm not too interested in it.


I agree, I think they need a functional web client to enable cross platform fuctionality.


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## joblo (Jun 5, 2002)

Dan203 said:


> MRS wasn't released until a year after the Premiere was released. At launch the only difference was the hardware and the barely functional HDUI. *Although if you switched back to the SDUI the Premiere was significantly faster then the S3 units.*


Maybe that was true when s4 was launched, running rev 14.something, iirc. But they broke the s4 SDUI pretty badly, again iirc, along with the database revamp.

So today, the fastest way to go through an s5 show list is from an s3. From my HDXLs, I can zip through about 50 s5 shows in 20 seconds, using just the channel down button.

Using the SDUI on my Elite, theres 1.5-2 second delay on each program.

And with the s5 UI, where the channel buttons no longer function, and I have to go left-down-right to see details of each show?!? Fuhgeddaboutit. Not even worth timing it.

Of course, a good, modern UI, like say, the FiOS UI, wouldnt make you go into the detail screen at all. All the information you want, like channel, time, duration, episode name and number, program rating, and so on, would appear somewhere on screen simply by highlighting a program in the list.

But TiVo cant do that, because they waste screen real estate at the right on a stupid picture, and instead of just telling you the channel name and number, they put up a channel logo, which not all channels even have.

And of course, at the top of the screen, TiVo is busy telling you about *OTHER* programs, that you did *NOT* record, which are interesting to *OTHER* people, instead of telling you about the program you *DID* record, which presumably is what interests *YOU*.

Bottom line, a good UI has two characteristics: fast response time, and effective screen utilization that minimizes the number of buttons you have to push to find the information *YOU* want or to do what *YOU* want to do. The TiVo HDUI fails on both counts.

I give the s5 a 1.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

You can somewhat customize what shows up on the Discovery bar.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

joblo said:


> Maybe that was true when s4 was launched, running rev 14.something, iirc. But they broke the s4 SDUI pretty badly, again iirc, along with the database revamp.
> 
> I give the s5 a 1.


A 1? Really? Clearly from your description what you are after is some kind of souped up S3, which is never going to exist.

Even getting past your obvious hatred of the HD UI, the new TiVo has a LOT of features over previous models. You clearly don't care about six tuners, easily replaceable hard drive, integrated MoCA and room extension capabilities, streaming of content to iPads, RF remote, remote finder or any of the other features packed into the new box.

The good news is that the poll numbers have shown that you are significantly in the minority with that opinion. 93%+ of responders (and there are over 160 now) rate it at least a 4 out of 5.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I didn't even notice the 1 for the S5. That sounds crazy. The S5 blows away all the other Tivo models. The only major complaint I would see would be no OTA and cable at the same time. Otherwise it is a huge step forward. I would give the FiOS DVR a 2 or 3 though. The FiOS DVR is nowhere near as good as the Roamio is.


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## joblo (Jun 5, 2002)

jmpage2 said:


> A 1? Really? Clearly from your description what you are after is some kind of souped up S3, which is never going to exist.


Yes, really. And not souped up; Id settle for something that just *kept* up with the s3, which in many ways, this unit definitely does not.



> Even getting past your obvious hatred of the HD UI,


Actually, I think detest would describe my feelings about the s5 UI better than hate.



> the new TiVo has a LOT of features over previous models. You clearly don't care about six tuners, easily replaceable hard drive, integrated MoCA and room extension capabilities, streaming of content to iPads, RF remote, remote finder or any of the other features packed into the new box.


Well, now

I *wish* I had 6 tuners. But Im testing OTA, so I just get 4.

I definitely do care about the hard drive, though, because if I were to keep this unit  which I will not  the first thing I would have to do is replace the ridiculously puny disk.

But since I cant get internet through my roof antenna, youre right, I dont care about MoCA.

As for the remote, the RF has insufficient range to cover my whole house, and I cant get the IR mode out of code 0, so I need another remote to actually control the thing from the whole house.

This unit does NOT have a remote finder, and it cant stream to an iPad without an expensive add-on device.

He!l, this unit cant even talk to an analog TV  or more to the point for my purposes, an RF modulator  without a breakout cable that wasnt included and isnt carried by the Best Buy where I bought it. (Whereas the s3 can output composite, S, component, and HDMI, all at the same time with no accessories at all.)

Clearly, we are talking about two different machines here, and two different experiences. If I were rating a pro with a 3TB disk, I might give it a 2 or a 3, but the unit Im looking at rates a 1!



> The good news is that the poll numbers have shown that you are significantly in the minority with that opinion. 93%+ of responders (and there are over 160 now) rate it at least a 4 out of 5.


Whether my opinion agrees with other peoples is neither good nor bad, as far as Im concerned; it just is what it is. Why is it that tivophiles seem to take honest evaluations of the product so personally? Do you own stock in the company or something?

Now you want some real good news about the product itself, as opposed to its popularity or lack thereof?

It appears that the OTA tuner performance is either comparable to the s3, or at least a lot closer to s3 OTA performance than the dreadful s4 OTA performance.

And this is the first DVR Ive ever seen that can pad consecutive programs on the same channel without tying up two tuners to do it.

And this will be very, _very_, *VERY* nice if it can handle the NFL and _*60 Minutes*_ on Sundays. But last week, I think it would have dropped _*60 Minutes*_ entirely if I hadnt been there to catch it and start a manual recording.

So I plan to test it again this Sunday and see what happens. If I can pad _*NFL Football*_ and _*60 Minutes*_ by an hour each and it catches both on just one tuner, that will be a huge advance. But if it drops _*60 Minutes*_ entirely, as it looked like it was going to do last week, then there again, its not keeping up with the s3, because the s3 can pad and catch both, even it has to use both tuners to do it.

So we shall see


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## yokito (Jan 19, 2005)

joblo said:


> I give the s5 a 1.


Don't feed the trolls.


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## joblo (Jun 5, 2002)

aaronwt said:


> You can somewhat customize what shows up on the Discovery bar.


But unfortunately, not enough to make it actually useful for my purposes.



aaronwt said:


> I would give the FiOS DVR a 2 or 3 though. The FiOS DVR is nowhere near as good as the Roamio is.


Depends what you want to do.

If you want to archive programs to DVD, transfer them to another DVR, or take the DVR itself with you on vacation to watch recorded programs at another location, you cant do any of that with a FiOS DVR, or any other service providers DVR, as far as I know.

But the FiOS DVR is the only non-DVD DVR Ive seen that has an actual frame reverse, so if you like finding and studying individual frames in movies or sports events, the FiOS DVR is clearly superior.

Also, if you want to record *The Daily Show* Monday-Thursday at 11 pm, its a piece of cake on a FiOS DVR and most every other DVR out there except TiVo. On a FiOS DVR, you can actually do it two ways, either manual or name-based, with just one program.

But on a TiVo, you cant do that either way, because you cant create a Monday-Thursday manual recording, and you cant time-restrict name- or id-based recordings. (Which TiVo calls Wishlists and Season Passes, respectively.) So you either have to create four manual recordings, one for each day of the week, or you have to waste disk space recording and waste time deleting a bunch of repeats about every other Monday, because TMS doesnt update the Monday episode information soon enough.

TiVo has its advantages, definitely, but a perfect DVR it isnt, and it never has been.


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## joblo (Jun 5, 2002)

yokito said:


> joblo said:
> 
> 
> > I give the s5 a 1.
> ...


Just a suggestion, but instead of ad hominem, why not try refuting, or at least responding to, some of my points?


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## fdisker2000 (Nov 27, 2006)

joblo said:


> He!l, this unit cant even talk to an analog TV  or more to the point for my purposes, an RF modulator  without a breakout cable that wasnt included


I just have to say to this: 1990 wants it's TV back.


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## fdisker2000 (Nov 27, 2006)

I initially rated my Roamio a four but that was before I found out it has a problem with recording and trick-playing my HD Fox channel (may effect more channels, I haven't check them all). 
My Premieres may be slow and may have stopped responding to the remote at times but they recorded everything without a problem. I'll take reliable over fast interface any day. 
I would like to change my vote to a two. It deserves a 4-5, if/when this issue is resolved.
Also, I know that the outdated cable card firmware problems(not supporting 6 tuners) are not TiVo's fault but they had to know about this before hand. They should have put this info out to inform consumers.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

ISn't the Fox issue related to the local affiliate? I haven't seen any issues with the Fox stations in my area.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

joblo said:


> Just a suggestion, but instead of ad hominem, why not try refuting, or at least responding to, some of my points?


There is no reason to refute opinions. If someone likes the SDUI better than the HDUI (or vice versa) it is personal preference and irreverent to anyone else.

However rating any product a 1 out of 5 should mean it is a failure at what it is being sold as, basically is doesn't work.

The Roamio is being sold as a HD digital OTA or Cable DVR. A 1 rating should mean it can not perform that function in a minimally acceptable manor.

I have used allot of devices as OTA DVRs, including a Series 2, original Series 3, TiVo HD, & Premiere TiVos, HTPC with HDHome tuners and now a Roamio TiVo. To say a Roamio isn't a highly functional OTA DVR is just a flat out lie. To say your giving it a 3 or even maybe a 2 rating because it doesn't have all the functionality you personally want or maybe you don't find value in the cost is one thing but to rate it 1 for those reasons is another.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

fdisker2000 said:


> I initially rated my Roamio a four but that was before I found out it has a problem with recording and trick-playing my HD Fox channel (may effect more channels, I haven't check them all).
> My Premieres may be slow and may have stopped responding to the remote at times but they recorded everything without a problem. I'll take reliable over fast interface any day.
> I would like to change my vote to a two. It deserves a 4-5, if/when this issue is resolved.
> Also, I know that the outdated cable card firmware problems(not supporting 6 tuners) are not TiVo's fault but they had to know about this before hand. They should have put this info out to inform consumers.


Sounds like it might be this issue.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=508353


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## swerver (May 18, 2012)

joblo said:


> Also, if you want to record *The Daily Show* Monday-Thursday at 11 pm, its a piece of cake on a FiOS DVR and most every other DVR out there except TiVo. On a FiOS DVR, you can actually do it two ways, either manual or name-based, with just one program.
> 
> But on a TiVo, you cant do that either way, because you cant create a Monday-Thursday manual recording, and you cant time-restrict name- or id-based recordings. (Which TiVo calls Wishlists and Season Passes, respectively.) So you either have to create four manual recordings, one for each day of the week, or you have to waste disk space recording and waste time deleting a bunch of repeats about every other Monday, because TMS doesnt update the Monday episode information soon enough.


I don't follow. Can't you just use a season pass, new only? That's what I do and it works fine. If there's a repeat that sneaks in once in a while, it takes 1 half hour of space out of (typically) hundreds of hours of space, and 1 click (clear button) to delete it. If that's a problem for you then I guess I see why you would rate it a 1. Seems a lot easier than a bunch of manual recordings tho. Give it a try.


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

atmuscarella said:


> There is no reason to refute opinions. If someone likes the SDUI better than the HDUI (or vice versa) it is personal preference and irreverent to anyone else.
> 
> However rating any product a 1 out of 5 should mean it is a failure at what it is being sold as, basically is doesn't work.
> 
> ...


You hit it on the head. Yes, everyone has their own rating system, but for most rational people, to give a product a 1 out of 5 it has to fail *miserably* at the basic tasks it is designed to do. The Roamio does not. The people who are understandably frustrated right now are primarily those with cable cards and tuning adapters not fully working but most of them understand some of those issues are outside of TiVos ability to control.

Being upset that TiVo does not present the HD UI or Guide the way a competitor product or does not do a season pass the way you want is frankly a nitpick for most people.

And if someone hates it enough to rate it a 1 then they should do the sensible thing and return it.

For a comparison the last product I rated a '1' at Amazon (where I am a top 1000 reviewer) was the Syabas Popbox, which could not even do the basic thing it was supposed to do... play MKV files.


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## Devx (Jun 1, 2006)

Is there anyway to change my rating on a poll after voting?


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## yokito (Jan 19, 2005)

Just curious - do you want to go up or down?


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## jmpage2 (Jan 21, 2004)

Devx said:


> Is there anyway to change my rating on a poll after voting?


nope.


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## HenryFarpolo (Dec 1, 2008)

I rated mine a 5, but that was before the Carbonite ads appeared.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

HenryFarpolo said:


> I rated mine a 5, but that was before the Carbonite ads appeared.


i would increase my rating by half a point. That ad got me two free months of Carbonite service.


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## Riverdome (May 12, 2005)

Wish it had NHL GameCenter to go along with MLB.tv but it's a nice upgrade over my original S3. Can finally turn in one cable card.


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## Devx (Jun 1, 2006)

yokito said:


> Just curious - do you want to go up or down?


It's fluctuated to the point where I'm right back where I started score wise.



jmpage2 said:


> nope.


Thanks.


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