# Can Roamio and 2 Minis replace 3 Tivo HDs?



## tooslo (Nov 23, 2007)

I have 3 Tivo HDs (den, bedroom, media room). I am considering replacing them with a Roamio Pro and two Minis. I'm wondering if I'll be happy with this setup? I realize I'll be gaining a lot moving up from the HD to the Roamio, but will I loose anything having the Minis on the other TVs rather than a full Tivo?

Regarding my subscription fees, I've been paying $327 per year ($129 for the first HD and $99 each for the other two). Without a discount, my new subscription fees for the Roamio and 2 Minis would be $324 per year ((15+6+6)*12). It looks like I might get a multi-service discount for $13 per month on the Roamio - but that discount might disappear after I stop the subscription on my HDs. Can someone confirm this? In any case, I wouldn't be spending more per year than I am now. 

Any pros or cons you could provide would be appreciated.


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## gweempose (Mar 23, 2003)

It depends how much you record, and how often you'll want to watch live TV on the Minis. I recently replaced two S3s and a THD with a Roamio Pro and two Minis. So far, no complaints. That being said, I still have three Premieres. One is dedicated to just my stuff, one is for my kids, and the third one is strictly for movies. I'm thinking about replacing the third Premiere with a Mini, but I don't think my family would be happy with just the Roamio and the Minis. We simply record too much stuff. It was definitely nice giving four cablecards back to Comcast. That alone will save me a ton.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

My only real comlplaint with the Minis is Amazon content. Since with TiVo amazon content has to be downloaded and can only be viewed on the box that it was downlaoded to, you can't view Amazon content on the Minis. I've run tinot the issue several times over the last few weeks when I wanted to watch some Amazon content only to remember that I have to view it from my Roamio Pro now.


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## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

tooslo said:


> I have 3 Tivo HDs (den, bedroom, media room). I am considering replacing them with a Roamio Pro and two Minis. I'm wondering if I'll be happy with this setup? I realize I'll be gaining a lot moving up from the HD to the Roamio, but will I loose anything having the Minis on the other TVs rather than a full Tivo?
> 
> Regarding my subscription fees, I've been paying $327 per year ($129 for the first HD and $99 each for the other two). Without a discount, my new subscription fees for the Roamio and 2 Minis would be $324 per year ((15+6+6)*12). It looks like I might get a multi-service discount for $13 per month on the Roamio - but that discount might disappear after I stop the subscription on my HDs. Can someone confirm this? In any case, I wouldn't be spending more per year than I am now.
> 
> Any pros or cons you could provide would be appreciated.


I don't have any minis so I can not comment on them. Regard cost if you go monthly and drop all the HD Units you have it correct no MSD on the Roamio, 15+6+6 = $27/mo is correct.

If you go the Roamio/Mini route I would encourage you to look at lifetime a little closer. For the Mini's there is only a 25 month break even point and for the Roamio (assuming $400 lifetime as you will be able to get the MSD) the break even is only 27 months.

Good Luck,


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## tooslo (Nov 23, 2007)

aaronwt said:


> My only real comlplaint with the Minis is Amazon content. Since with TiVo amazon content has to be downloaded and can only be viewed on the box that it was downlaoded to, you can't view Amazon content on the Minis. I've run tinot the issue several times over the last few weeks when I wanted to watch some Amazon content only to remember that I have to view it from my Roamio Pro now.


aaronwt, thanks for pointing out the issue with Amazon content on the Mini. That's exactly what I'm trying to figure out - what I might loose with a Mini in place of an HD.


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## tooslo (Nov 23, 2007)

atmuscarella said:


> I don't have any minis so I can not comment on them. Regard cost if you go monthly and drop all the HD Units you have it correct no MSD on the Roamio, 15+6+6 = $27/mo is correct.
> 
> If you go the Roamio/Mini route I would encourage you to look at lifetime a little closer. For the Mini's there is only a 25 month break even point and for the Roamio (assuming $400 lifetime as you will be able to get the MSD) the break even is only 27 months.
> 
> Good Luck,


atmuscarella, good point. I checked and I would bet the lifetime for $400. Since I'm coming up on 6 years with the 3 HDs, it's pretty safe to say I should hit the break even point with the new equipment.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

The only thing you lose is Amazon. You also kind of lose the ability to download from a PC via TiVo Desktop or pyTiVo. Since the Mini's don't have any internal storage the only way to watch content you need to download from a PC is to start downloading it to the main TiVo first, then stream it from there to the Mini. If you do this a lot then it could be a problem since you'd have to keep running back to the main TiVo to start the download.

Other then those two things it's better. You'd have all your shows consolidated into a single To Do List, which makes them easier to manage. A Mini can start streaming a show even if it's still in the process of recording, unlike like the MRV feature on S3 units, and you have access to the entire show immediately so there is no waiting for enough to download before watching. It can also remote delete the show and offers basic management of shows such as the ability to adjust SP settings, etc... Not to mention you'll be able to return 2 CableCARDs so you'll save whatever that costs you per month.


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## bobfrank (Mar 17, 2005)

On the plus side of transferring videos between the Roamio and the computer is the transfers are REALLY fast. I just transfered a 2 hour 20 minute movie (6.5 gigs) from my computer to the Roamio in 15 minutes.

Every time I transfer a file I keep thinking the transfer failed because it is finished so quickly.


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## bob61 (Apr 23, 2002)

I replaced three Premiere's and one Comcast DVR with 1 Roamio and 3 mini's. Really have one primary set (living room), with someone limited use of the other 3. Amazon wasn't important to me, as long as I have it on main set with Roamio. Benefits of managing one Season Pass instead of 3, plus being able to record and play back all from one main unit has been a real plus. No regrets and I'm saving about $400 a year in Comcast fees


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## kbmb (Jun 22, 2004)

tooslo said:


> aaronwt, thanks for pointing out the issue with Amazon content on the Mini. That's exactly what I'm trying to figure out - what I might loose with a Mini in place of an HD.


Rumor has it.....Tivo is working on brining Amazon to the Mini's:
http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2013-08/tivo-mini-now-streaming-netflix-amazon-next/

-Kevin


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## Gadfly (Oct 27, 2007)

You should also take into account the loss of quality when you use Mini. It is definitely noticeable in fast action recordings (compared to watching them on TiVo they were recorded on). Now I know what they mean by soap opera effect.


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## MScottC (Sep 11, 2004)

I've not noticed a quality loss on our 1 mini. However I will say it's in use on a 720p 27" TV in our office/guess bedroom. 

Other than the "green switch" networking issue, which I've worked around, my wife and I are totally in love with the setup.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Gadfly said:


> You should also take into account the loss of quality when you use Mini. It is definitely noticeable in fast action recordings (compared to watching them on TiVo they were recorded on). Now I know what they mean by soap opera effect.


There should be no Soap Opera effect with a Mini. A mini does not interpolate the images and create new ones between the existing frames. That causes the Soap Opera effect. I not not seen any adverse effects from quick movement or fast action on my Minis.

Although when I was at my parents house yesterday, the Redskins football game was on. And that, as usual, looked terrible from Comcast. They have alot of issues that I never see from FiOS. And every place I've been in this area with Comcast looks just as bad since most of the channels are't given enough bandwidth on Comcast in this area. The game looked much better at home from my FiOS recording.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

Gadfly said:


> You should also take into account the loss of quality when you use Mini. It is definitely noticeable in fast action recordings (compared to watching them on TiVo they were recorded on). Now I know what they mean by soap opera effect.


Interesting, I watched Iron Man on the mini (live TV) last night and didn't notice any quality loss.

As a matter of fact I was telling my wife how pleased I was moving from the S3 to the mini. I was very concerned that delayed channel changing was going to annoy me - but it isn't bad at all for an old school channel surfer like me.

Any specific disappointment?

I would say only that my pytivo video library cannot be directly accessed from the mini. I am confident that the TCF community will come up with a solution as the platform continues to mature.


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## bob61 (Apr 23, 2002)

Gadfly said:


> You should also take into account the loss of quality when you use Mini. It is definitely noticeable in fast action recordings (compared to watching them on TiVo they were recorded on). Now I know what they mean by soap opera effect.


I've not noticed any quality issues with video on my 60" set with Mini.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk 4


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## larrs (May 2, 2005)

bradleys said:


> <snip>
> Any specific disappointment?
> 
> I would say only that my pytivo video library cannot be directly accessed from the mini. I am confident that the TCF community will come up with a solution as the platform continues to mature.


This is the deal breaker for me. With 8TB of backed up movies/shows on my server (all nicely wrapped up and re-encoded without commercials by TCF supporters kmttg, VideoRedo and PyTivo) , we automatically go to our library rather than Netflix/Amazon, etc. I just can't do it until that day comes.

Even though I know you can accomplish this from your computer, I cannot expect my wife or daughters to go to a computer every time they want to watch one of our videos.

I am hoping for an app that is accessible from the mini which actually transfers the recording to one of your Roamios/Premieres; that you can then stream to the mini.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

larrs said:


> I am hoping for an app that is accessible from the mini which actually transfers the recording to one of your Roamios/Premieres; that you can then stream to the mini.


 They already exist - Streambaby and/or vidgmr can be used to initiate pushes to other TiVos from the Mini. See:
 Streambaby and Mini


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## Gadfly (Oct 27, 2007)

I have definitely noticed the quality loss. I even went back and looked at the same scene to make sure. 

I run 1 gig wired Ethernet everywhere.


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

Gadfly said:


> I have definitely noticed the quality loss. I even went back and looked at the same scene to make sure.
> 
> I run 1 gig wired Ethernet everywhere.


Are you sure it's not the TV? The Mini is playing the exact same data as the primary TiVo. There is no extra processing. It's simply reading the data off the TiVo's hard drive remotely. That soap opera effect is typically caused by 120/240Hz TVs applying a smoothing filter to the signal.


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