# Why do you still use Tivo



## dgoto (Apr 29, 2010)

My main preference for TiVo which I have had for 15 years now was having the capability of saving a recording such as a concert or sporting event to my PC for editing and saving in on my Media NAS for future viewing. Without that capability I would have moved on long ago. I presently have an Edge and I am happy with it.

Why did you prefer or stil use your Tivo?


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## gigaquad (Oct 25, 2004)

How are you transferring items to and from an Edge and your NAS? AFAIK that ability went away with the Roamio, which is why I still own 8 of them.


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## dgoto (Apr 29, 2010)

gigaquad said:


> How are you transferring items to and from an Edge and your NAS? AFAIK that ability went away with the Roamio, which is why I still own 8 of them.


 There are various software packages such as pyTivo which let you transfer raw Tivo files to your pc and then there are video conversion programs that let you view and convert them to a usable mp4 file type to edit. I than transfer to my HASDS from my PC


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

dgoto said:


> Why did you prefer or stil use your Tivo?


I can think of multiple reasons, but I think the main one is it has the best interface for viewing recordings and it's the simplest DVR for recording from OTA or cable, my two main sources of content. Plus, I've got three units with Lifetime (3TB Bolt, 3TB Roamio Plus, 1TB TIVoHD(retired)), and I'm just used to TiVo after 20 years.

I also like being able to transfer recordings to my PC, and videos on my PC back to my TiVos (via kmttg and pyTiVo).

(The last, PC->TiVo transfer, is why I won't "upgrade" to TE4. I've got Plex servers on my PCs to stream to my TiVos, but playback via Plex streaming is painful compared to playing a recording that's resident on the TiVo.)


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## dgoto (Apr 29, 2010)

justen_m said:


> I can think of multiple reasons, but I think the main one is it has the best interface for viewing recordings and it's the simplest DVR for recording from OTA or cable, my two main sources of content. Plus, I've got three units with Lifetime (3TB Bolt, 3TB Roamio Plus, 1TB TIVoHD(retired)), and I'm just used to TiVo after 20 years.
> 
> I also like being able to transfer recordings to my PC, and videos on my PC back to my TiVos (via kmttg and pyTiVo).
> 
> (The last, PC->TiVo transfer, is why I won't "upgrade" to TE4. I've got Plex servers on my PCs to stream to my TiVos, but playback via Plex streaming is painful compared to playing a recording that's resident on the TiVo.)


I also use Plex which is a fantastic program. I have it on an external NAS server and have 8TB of content on it. 
I previously had 2 upgraded Premiere models which I upgraded to one Edge and a Lux streamer I like the user interface but again it is being able to save content which is key for me.


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## lmcdcr (Aug 20, 2016)

The user interface and "skip" capabilities.
Pretty much the same UI since my Sony SAT T-60.


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## dishrich (Jan 16, 2002)

Quick Play (60%) mode & "skipping" features keep me here alone, along with simple & quick (TE3) guide/menu access. I have a mixture of 2 cablecard & 3 OTA Tivo's (2 on 1 local TV antenna, the other on a distant TV antenna/market) w/multiple mini's, ALL networked together & working beautifully.
While it's disappointing a few Comcast channels are IP-only, it's really not any that I watch with a degree of regularity; an X1 DVR box w/20 hours free DVR service fixes that.

Honestly if Tivo wasn't saddled with the (still) sh^*ty Rovi EPG data, I really would have no other complaints about it - it does exactly what a DVR should do & really doesn't need any other urgent "enhancements" I can think of, IMHO.
I absolutely don't care that it can't (also) be the perfect "streaming box" with every app...that's why they make streaming sticks that are specialized for THAT function.


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## Jonathan_S (Oct 23, 2001)

Because it does the DVR functions I need, I'm used to it, and it's already got lifetime service.

Haven't transferred shows on or off it (except to the TiVo app to watch on the tablet) in _years_. But I'm debating cutting the cord; there's just not that much on linear TV that I watch any more -- and my monthly cable bill could cover a lot of streaming services. It'd take a while to watch down everything still on the TiVo but I guess I wouldn't have a use for it once I no longer had cable/cable-card and had finished everything on it...


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## Guy Fleegman (12 mo ago)

I'm waiting for this answer to the thread title: "Because Roku confuses and frightens me."


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Deleted


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## Dealcatcher (Mar 30, 2008)

dgoto said:


> My main preference for TiVo which I have had for 15 years now was having the capability of saving a recording such as a concert or sporting event to my PC for editing and saving in on my Media NAS for future viewing. Without that capability I would have moved on long ago. I presently have an Edge and I am happy with it.
> 
> Why did you prefer or stil use your Tivo?


We had been Tivo users since day 1, and it was wonderful and expensive over the many years. A couple years ago, we purchased 2 brand New OTA Tivos, and misplaced them in our new home in Dover, PA. Tried for hours and hours, and all the so called fixes to get the OTA channels in Dover. Nothing worked. We called around trying to find out what was going on, and everyone we talked to said Tivo just dropped support for the units. How much support could be involved? It is OTA not cable, and yet they lied when talking to them, and not just saying we don't support the units, and you are just screwed. So we wasted hours trying everything we could find online, but to no avail. Why does this country put up with companies just screwing over people? Does anyone know how to do a walk around on trying to download the channels to the OTA tivo's?


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## zalusky (Apr 5, 2002)

Dealcatcher said:


> We had been Tivo users since day 1, and it was wonderful and expensive over the many years. A couple years ago, we purchased 2 brand New OTA Tivos, and misplaced them in our new home in Dover, PA. Tried for hours and hours, and all the so called fixes to get the OTA channels in Dover. Nothing worked. We called around trying to find out what was going on, and everyone we talked to said Tivo just dropped support for the units. How much support could be involved? It is OTA not cable, and yet they lied when talking to them, and not just saying we don't support the units, and you are just screwed. So we wasted hours trying everything we could find online, but to no avail. Why does this country put up with companies just screwing over people? Does anyone know how to do a walk around on trying to download the channels to the OTA tivo's?


Do you still use a 90s style analog cell phone or how about a Mac running OS9? At some point things lose support and technology is superseded. It's like getting upset that your computers don't have RS232 jacks anymore and why did my IP provider stop supporting modem dial in connections.

Even If Tivo was growing and successful it would probably be in a direction different than supporting old technology.

Netflix saw the writing on the wall with DVDs and prioritized getting out of that business to streaming. The growth is in streaming content. It is much easier and cheaper to support. It gives you magnitudes more choice. Requires little hardware. It gives the content providers more control and takes it away from the cable companies. You are no longer tied to contracts and can watch most anything. You can still buy and own shows but really why!

It pays to watch the trends. When I got my first iPhone with the built in camera. I saw it and IMMEDIATELY sold my Minolta film camera and all the lenses while it still had value. I did the same thing with Tivo.
I probably should have done the same with my VCR and BluRay player but I waited too long and they have no resale value. They are more emergency use machines. I have digitized all my home movies so thats less of an issue.


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## Mr Tony (Dec 20, 2012)

Because it does what I need it to do and that is record shows from the 5 channels I receive OTA (yes FIVE...it was 4 until a month ago)

But I almost didnt go with Tivo. My first Tivo was a Premiere and for OTA the tuner SUCKED! Glitching and everything. Returned it after like 2 days
Found out the tuner is bunk in it and found a Series 3 OLED with lifetime for like $250 and was hooked ever since
Picked up the OTA Roamio when it first came out (the $49.99 + 14.95 monthly model) because the Roamio basic was *gasp* 199.99 + fees
Cancelled that when Tivo had a BF deal of the OTA Roamio + lifetime for $200 and have used that through 3 locations, 2 cable companies (due to adding the cable card reader) and 3 local markets (well 2 markets total but one location was between both markets). Still have shows on it from the 1st location


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

Dealcatcher said:


> We had been Tivo users since day 1, and it was wonderful and expensive over the many years. A couple years ago, we purchased 2 brand New OTA Tivos, and misplaced them in our new home in Dover, PA. Tried for hours and hours, and all the so called fixes to get the OTA channels in Dover. Nothing worked. We called around trying to find out what was going on, and everyone we talked to said Tivo just dropped support for the units. How much support could be involved? It is OTA not cable, and yet they lied when talking to them, and not just saying we don't support the units, and you are just screwed. So we wasted hours trying everything we could find online, but to no avail. Why does this country put up with companies just screwing over people? Does anyone know how to do a walk around on trying to download the channels to the OTA tivo's?


If you posted some more info about your "OTA Tivos" maybe somebody on this forum could help you. 2 years ago? TiVo currently sells this 7th gen device





TiVo EDGE for Antenna | Antenna DVR and Streaming | OTA Recording


With 4 tuners and up to 300 HD hours, you can capture it all with your HD antenna. All the entertainment. All the feels. None of the cords. Learn how you can save on TV entertainment costs today.



www.tivo.com




And previously sold this 6th gen








Amazon.com: TiVo BOLT OTA for Antenna – All-in-One Live TV, DVR and Streaming Apps Device : Electronics


Buy TiVo BOLT OTA for Antenna – All-in-One Live TV, DVR and Streaming Apps Device: Streaming Media Players - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases



www.amazon.com




and this 5th gen








Amazon.com: TiVo Roamio OTA 1 TB DVR - With No Monthly Service Fees - Digital Video Recorder and Streaming Media Player : Electronics


Buy TiVo Roamio OTA 1 TB DVR - With No Monthly Service Fees - Digital Video Recorder and Streaming Media Player: Streaming Media Players - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases



www.amazon.com





No exeperience here with the Edge, but I've got a Bolt that does OTA or cable, but only used it for OTA, while my Roamio Plus does cable,and my retired TiVoHD (3rd gen) did both OTA and cable. No reason yours shouldn't work, or why TiVo refuses to help. Well, okay the latter I understand, TiVo support sux.


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

zalusky said:


> The growth is in streaming content. It is much easier and cheaper to support. It gives you magnitudes more choice. Requires little hardware. It gives the content providers more control and takes it away from the cable companies.


Also takes control away from users. With few exceptions, users can't record streaming content, but the streaming content providers like it that way. They see their future growth, justly so based on sales, in streaming to phones, cars, watches, heck pick a device from the IoT.


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## zalusky (Apr 5, 2002)

justen_m said:


> Also takes control away from users. With few exceptions, users can't record streaming content, but the streaming content providers like it that way. They see their future growth, justly so based on sales, in streaming to phones, cars, watches, heck pick a device from the IoT.


Once I watch something I don’t need to go back and watch it again. Too much new stuff therefore I don’t need it recorded.


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## skierrob (Jun 8, 2009)

I'd like to get off my Tivo. My use case is for recording a few OTA shows including The Simpsons, SNL, Family Guy, Lego Masters, the annual Rose Parade and Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, etc.. You can stream most of these shows. But without a cable TV subscription, the streaming options for each show are fairly limited.
I'm bad about watching these shows (outside of the parades), so they tend to pile up on my DVR. I do want to watch all episodes of each one, in order. And I love to commercial skip.
But with streaming, some of the shows only keep the last five episodes for streaming. And in all cases, I can't skip commercials with streaming.
I don't want to worry about an episode I want to watch not being there due to this week's licensing change, or because ABC decided to only let you view the most recent two episodes, or whatever. I also don't want to worry about some OTA shows being available the day after air, and others only being available a week or month after the original air date.
So that brings me back to the trusty Tivo every time. What I record is mine forever - until I delete it. If anyone has ANY suggestions otherwise, I'd love to hear them. But it has to be 'friendly' enough for the rest of my family to be able to use it.


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## cwoody222 (Nov 13, 1999)

Dealcatcher said:


> We had been Tivo users since day 1, and it was wonderful and expensive over the many years. A couple years ago, we purchased 2 brand New OTA Tivos, and misplaced them in our new home in Dover, PA. Tried for hours and hours, and all the so called fixes to get the OTA channels in Dover. Nothing worked. We called around trying to find out what was going on, and everyone we talked to said Tivo just dropped support for the units. How much support could be involved? It is OTA not cable, and yet they lied when talking to them, and not just saying we don't support the units, and you are just screwed. So we wasted hours trying everything we could find online, but to no avail. Why does this country put up with companies just screwing over people? Does anyone know how to do a walk around on trying to download the channels to the OTA tivo's?


Besides the government switching from analog to digital OTA, TiVo has never done anything to stop support of OTA.

I don’t know what your particular issue was but whoever told you that TiVo dropped support was wrong or lying.

You should have posted here, your issue was very likely completely fixable.


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## tommiet (Oct 28, 2005)

Cable wants $30.00 a month for a 2 tuner DVR that holds 50 hours of HD content.... 

Reason enough.


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## cwoody222 (Nov 13, 1999)

dgoto said:


> My main preference for TiVo which I have had for 15 years now was having the capability of saving a recording such as a concert or sporting event to my PC for editing and saving in on my Media NAS for future viewing. Without that capability I would have moved on long ago. I presently have an Edge and I am happy with it.
> 
> Why did you prefer or stil use your Tivo?


Simple.

Because the alternatives - a cable company DVR or streaming live tv - aren’t as good.


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## chiguy50 (Nov 9, 2009)

dishrich said:


> an X1 DVR box w/20 hours free DVR service fixes that


I believe you mean a non-DVR X1 set-top box (such as the Xi3/5/6/One) with cloud storage. Most of the current Comcast DVRs have a 500GB HDD, which can store about 150 hours of HD recordings.


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## dishrich (Jan 16, 2002)

No, I meant exactly what I said...you do NOT have to "pay" for DVR service, just to have an X1 HDD box (at least our office didn't make me return it when I went to 20 hr free DVR tier) For that matter, they didn't require me to return my Moto DCX3501 DVR either; they just disabled the DVR service on it.


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## Sparky1234 (May 8, 2006)

Still the best option out there! Not perfect but good enough!


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## kylen (Oct 6, 2002)

Been using for over 20 years, can’t imagine using anything else. I also really enjoy the commercial skip and watch everything in QuickMode—the streamers don’t offer that (except Netflix which only offers adjustable speed on mobile devices)


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## Allan L. (Aug 23, 2017)

dgoto said:


> My main preference for TiVo which I have had for 15 years now was having the capability of saving a recording such as a concert or sporting event to my PC for editing and saving in on my Media NAS for future viewing. Without that capability I would have moved on long ago. I presently have an Edge and I am happy with it.
> 
> Why did you prefer or stil use your Tivo?


1. Time shifting.
2. Ad skipping.


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## Albert (Sep 27, 2002)

I record a lot of OTA (local and national) news shows on my Roamio (upgrade to a 3TB drive). I don't watch all the recordings but they are there so I can watch what I want to watch, and I can quickly skip to what I want to see with the good and fast interface.

I will never upgrade unless they offer a new unit that works as well as the old Roamios without showing ads. Still hard for me to believe their latest and greatest OTA model only has 2 tuners. ATSC 3.0 would also be a big selling point if they ever came out with such a unit.


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## Allan L. (Aug 23, 2017)

1. Time shift.
2. Ad skip.


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## tmshort (Jan 3, 2017)

I've had the original Sony 30 hour model, then I "won" a Philips 14 hour model, hacked both to have two disks. Then I updated to a HD3 and finally I'm on an OTA Bolt.
I no longer subscribe to cable TV, and my OTA antenna reception is not the best (I have to fix the antenna). I tend to stream via AppleTV.

The one reason I stick with TiVo is Jeopardy. It's not available on any streaming platform (except the prime-time specials).

EDIT: I ended up getting a TiVo Mini to watch stuff in the bedroom (my old analog setup could be viewed anywhere), because they never made an AppleTV app.


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## toddk63 (Jul 29, 2014)

TiVo would by first preference, but a rare ball lightning event in my living room (yes, a ball of energy appeared in my living room) took out my TiVo bolt. It would cost me $300 for a new one w/ lifetime, so opted to go with Tablo instead. $60 + $120 lifetime transferable to ANY Tablo device. I recently finished the project to automatically transfer recordings from the Tablo to my Linux server and am happy with it.


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## Mike Campbell (Oct 7, 2019)

I bought my first TiVO when my old Panasonic recorder died, it seemed about the only option out there at the time. I have two now, both OTA, and a Mini in addition to a Magnavox DDR. One is used by wife to record her daily shows and the primetime shows we like. The second in is my home office where I record old movies and Western shows to watch later. I have never had cable and with 49 local channels and a few streaming services I never will.


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## chiguy50 (Nov 9, 2009)

dishrich said:


> No, I meant exactly what I said...you do NOT have to "pay" for DVR service, just to have an X1 HDD box (at least our office didn't make me return it when I went to 20 hr free DVR tier) For that matter, they didn't require me to return my Moto DCX3501 DVR either; they just disabled the DVR service on it.


Right, but my response was meant to correct the terminology that you used in your OP, which simply referred to an X1 DVR as affording 20 hours of storage. If you are not using the HDD in an X1 DVR (and avoiding the DVR fee, which is typically $10 p.m.), then it serves the same purpose as a headless X1 STB.

I understand now what you meant, but it was superfluous (and misleading IMO) to reference a DVR (or even an "X1 HDD box," as you do above). In fact, any X1 STB will provide the 20h cloud storage functionality.


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## wighty (Nov 18, 2009)

I've been using TiVO since the TiVO HD - now own an Edge. All with lifetime subscriptions. I like the interface & the DVR capabilities. More so, I like the fact that it use a Cable Card that saves me $$ - no add-on HD or DVR service fees (Comcast). Due to a 10 year old AV receiver failure I recently upgrade my home theater equipmenti - front speakers (Jamo S809), AV receiver (Denon AVR -S960H), and smart TV (TCL 65R646, Google TV). The one thing I wish TiVo would do is to upgarde their remote so it would pair with both the Denon Receiver and TCL TV. Presently only limited TCL TV functions are available.


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## A Joseph Stoddart (Oct 30, 2021)

dgoto said:


> My main preference for TiVo which I have had for 15 years now was having the capability of saving a recording such as a concert or sporting event to my PC for editing and saving in on my Media NAS for future viewing. Without that capability I would have moved on long ago. I presently have an Edge and I am happy with it.
> 
> Why did you prefer or stil use your Tivo?


I have 3 tivos, a premiere with extra memory in the bedroom, a romaio in the living room with vast memory and the ability to record 6 shows at once and on the dining room table a romaio antenna-only so conceviably I could record 8+ shows at once and see them all on the other 2 devices. How could that be otherwise duplicated?


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## autotech4 (Aug 23, 2019)

I have the Bolt OTA 1TB and a mini. Had it for years and the biggest reason, I always thought by many, was to cut cable and save money. I love the setup, skip, and most everything about the DVR. Of course, streaming sucked since day one. The lack of usable apps and all kinds of tech screwups made it ridiculous to use. So I just switch to my firestick for streaming and solved that problem. At this point I still have no reason to quit TiVo until my Bolt breaks. I always said I'd go with Amazon Recast when my Bolt broke, but now I hear they're discontinued. And New TiVo is too expensive and only 500mb OTA.


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## Albert (Sep 27, 2002)

toddk63 said:


> TiVo would by first preference, but a rare ball lightning event in my living room (yes, a ball of energy appeared in my living room) took out my TiVo bolt.


Was this ball of energy Terminator style like? Might be concerning.


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## mikeb33 (Dec 10, 2001)

I actually just cut out cable and phone from Xfinity and bought some Tivo Streams. I am currently wondering what to do with my old gear? I have a cable card bolt and Roamio XL and some Minis. Any value to anyone?


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## judyn (Feb 26, 2009)

I will be very sad if we have to give up our TIvos. We have 5 of them, in two houses. I love the DVR features. I usually set recordings from a computer. We save some programs to a computer that I don't want to watch at the time. I feed programs from anywhere and everywhere back to the Tivo with Pytivo. We are not big live streamers partly because our internet is pathetic but also because we never know if we will finish a series before it is deleted from the streaming service. I like the one interface of the Tivo for watching live, recorded, or even some streaming services. We don't have to worry about how smart our TVs are because the Tivo is. If we have to give up Tivos, I hope plex or something similar continues to be a good solution for content. But for now we are very happy. 

I never ever watch live TV and if auto-skip doesn't work, I manually skip commercials. I despise commercials. 

We have not had cable for many years. Our sources are OTA and a (rotating) fleet of streaming services and the internet. We do not watch sports and love PBS, so we don't have that problem with OTA. 

All of our Tivos are lifetime. We've been doing this for more years than I care to remember because we started with ReplayTV, which was better than Tivo when ReplayTV went belly up and we had to give up on replayTV because of OTA digital...


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## SCLerer (Apr 23, 2014)

First the interface. Even my husband can use it. Second, the automatic 30 minute recording on each tuner. Third, the interface.


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## Toby Nixon (Jul 30, 2020)

I like being able to record OTA TV instead of paying for cable or a streaming service like YTTV to get local channels (and we live in an area with 50+ OTA local channels, most of which we never watch).

I like being able to skip commercials, whether it is autoskip (bonus) or manual.

I like having all my recorded programs in one list, rather than being scattered across several streaming services.

I like having new episodes automatically recorded so I see the new ones in the recording list, instead of having to hunt through menus of multiple streaming services to find what is new.

If there was a way to get a consolidated list of all new episode of shows I'm following across all streaming services, then I might consider giving up the TiVo, but would really want to still have a way to skip commercials and not pay for access to channels I never watch (which is why I cut the cord in the first place).


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## Mary D (Jul 22, 2020)

I've been Tivoing.. that a thing? 😄 since 2003. Fell in love with the concept and my Sony DVD-R - I recorded shows/ movies for my toddler on to DVDs.. he's 23 now.. yikes. 
I have over 120 Season Passes.. Sorry still prefer that over 'OnePass' because it records the whole season. Just purged a lot of shows not renewed this year. So intuitive, records shows when a season starts up again in the fall or winter without me hunting it down. 
Also love my current 3TB Bolt with 6 tuners.. especially on Sat and college football. Pause a game, flip to another, pause, flip.. repeat.
Hubs and I talked about cutting the cord but just finding it difficult with the ease of programming and able to skip through commercials. We only have 2 streaming services Hulu and Amazon and when i have to sit there and watch commercials on Hulu, drives me nucking futs! 
MD


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## crcraig41us (Apr 7, 2007)

I record a lot of sports that have dead time (golf and football primarily, but others occasionally) and use TiVo to watch them in a fraction of the time. I not only skip commercials, but dead time during the broadcasts. To do this I need the kind of transport control and immediate feedback that TiVo's trick play has always provided. The delayed response time and lack of real-time frame updates while fast-forwarding makes any cloud based system useless for me.

Trust me, I am always asking myself -- am I getting old and stuck in my ways? But in this case at least, the answer is no. Cloud based systems are fine for movies or episodic TV where you press play and put down the remote, but they are not sufficient for my needs. The so-called obsolete TiVo solution is actually superior for my use case.


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## riverhaven1171 (2 mo ago)

Because I’m old. I’ve had TiVo for more years than I can remember. I like network tv/cable. I don’t watch commercials. I record everything I watch except live sports and sometimes I wait awhile to start watching those so I can skip commercials. One Pass, Skip, To Do List, Wishlist Searches are my friends. I rue the day TiVo goes away. I am one of the very few people who has never had Netflix. I am grateful I can afford cable and TiVo. I like the app on my iPad so I can download and watch shows when I travel.


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## WacoJohn (Sep 11, 2013)

Like many others, I stay with Tivo because I can xfer recordings to my computer thanks to *kmttg.*


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## Hamstring (Feb 13, 2007)

I just got rid of mine. What a pain in the neck dealing with eBay. The only thing i miss is the superior dvr navigation. Using the Fubo virtual dvr is terrible. I only record a few things but I want to stop and move forward and back There is a delay.


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## dgjacquin (Sep 10, 2015)

dgoto said:


> My main preference for TiVo which I have had for 15 years now was having the capability of saving a recording such as a concert or sporting event to my PC for editing and saving in on my Media NAS for future viewing. Without that capability I would have moved on long ago. I presently have an Edge and I am happy with it.
> 
> Why did you prefer or stil use your Tivo?


I love my Tivo. I used it for recording OTA. Canceled all cable and Direct TV.


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## pl1 (Jan 18, 2007)

Hamstring said:


> The only thing i miss is the superior dvr navigation. Using the Fubo virtual dvr is terrible. I only record a few things but I want to stop and move forward and back There is a delay.


I totally agree. Fubo DVR Sucks for sports! I used to try to playback while catching up to skip commercials. It was like I was blind trying to skip since the preview window was always out of whack. But the WORST part (and this is common with all streaming services), when the game ended, while you are still watching in catchup mode, they would cut off the game. So, you would have to wait until the game was saved before you could finish watching. And that is not saved instantly, like a TiVo.


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## dfreybur (Jan 27, 2006)

I use Roku to manage my use of streaming shows and movies. The fact that the data is stored on the cloud is incidental to me.

I use Tivo to manage my use of over the air television shows. The fact that my Tivo stores the shows locally is incidental to me.

It's possible to use Sling to draw recorded local shows from the cloud but the Tivo user interface is so much better the competition is nothing like even.

Every year I expect a better user interface or something like Sling to compete with Tivo so I have never purchased a life subscription. That decision on my part has been profitable for Tivo as I've had a unit for something like 20 years.


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## johnr2000 (Mar 8, 2012)

dgoto said:


> There are various software packages such as pyTivo which let you transfer raw Tivo files to your pc and then there are video conversion programs that let you view and convert them to a usable mp4 file type to edit. I than transfer to my HASDS from my PC


Does pyTivo now work with Tivo Edge? I thought pyTivo stopped working a while ago.


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## halkilmer (Jun 12, 2021)

Because there's no better way to get local broadcast stations. It's mind boggling that - given the lack of local broadcast channels on streaming platforms - that Tivo hasn't been purchased by Roku or Android TV add integrated into those platforms.


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## NVAKeith (Oct 2, 2012)

Wife Acceptance Factor.

Started with a pair of Series 2 long ago. Switched to a Comcast DVR when the world forced HD on us, it was a horrible DVR. Switched back to TiVo with cable card, Roamio and four minis. Since then we switched from Comcast to Fios and the TiVo interface was the same for both. Old house we used Ethernet to interconnect, new house we use MoCa, extremely versatile.

Simple interface for the wife and kids, only need to use one remote and it’s the same remote interface at five TVs. Search function hits the TV guide, DVR, as well as Prime and Netflix streaming. YouTube app is great as well as streaming YouTube from iPhone to a TV. Ability to save recordings to TiVo app for offline travelling.


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## jwrothwell (Jan 29, 2021)

skierrob said:


> I'd like to get off my Tivo. My use case is for recording a few OTA shows including The Simpsons, SNL, Family Guy, Lego Masters, the annual Rose Parade and Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, etc.. You can stream most of these shows. But without a cable TV subscription, the streaming options for each show are fairly limited.
> I'm bad about watching these shows (outside of the parades), so they tend to pile up on my DVR. I do want to watch all episodes of each one, in order. And I love to commercial skip.
> But with streaming, some of the shows only keep the last five episodes for streaming. And in all cases, I can't skip commercials with streaming.
> I don't want to worry about an episode I want to watch not being there due to this week's licensing change, or because ABC decided to only let you view the most recent two episodes, or whatever. I also don't want to worry about some OTA shows being available the day after air, and others only being available a week or month after the original air date.
> So that brings me back to the trusty Tivo every time. What I record is mine forever - until I delete it. If anyone has ANY suggestions otherwise, I'd love to hear them. But it has to be 'friendly' enough for the rest of my family to be able to use it.


Have you considered Channels DVR with TV Everywhere? Captures streams that you can save & keep as long as you want, supports automatic commercial skip, "season passes", and any tablet in your house can view. TVs as well, with additional equipment (I use an Nvidia Shield). Has its limitations and requirements and still requires a cable subscription (for the TV Everywhere), but it's a good Tivo replacement.


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## lprimak (Jun 30, 2019)

As a Tivo owner for 25+ years (I think!) the biggest bang for the buck is time saved by commercial skipping.
These days, for example, 90 day fiancee is 2hrs long with about 55 minutes of commercials.
There is no way I could waste time on those without skipping.
Can't get that with streaming 




dgoto said:


> Why did you prefer or stil use your Tivo?


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## jwrothwell (Jan 29, 2021)

lprimak said:


> Can't get that with streaming


Unless you save your stream...as Channels DVR does.


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## osu1991 (Mar 6, 2015)

3 Roamios, 2 Bolts and 4 minis left in use. Used to be 5 Roamios and 5 minis but a Roamio and a mini got fried in a storm and another lost the hdmi and Ethernet ports and were replaced with Bolts by TiVo. Actually went thru 3 Bolts before I got 2 that have stayed working. Fried mini I never replaced. Still use Tivos because they’re paid for and I don’t want to deal with selling them on eBay as nobody locally seems interested. 

They were split between my 2 homes and my dads 2 homes. All but one on cable as I only had an antenna at my lake cabin. I switched to YouTubeTV sometime in 2018. A few months later my dad did the same as it was cheaper to use in 2 homes, so all the tivos became OTA use only. 2019 my dad downsized to one home, so I brought the extras to my house to store and occasionally connect to keep them up to date.

2020 my dads cancer returned, then he passed away a few months ago. My stepmom is now in a semi assisted living complex. My dad asked me to make sure things were simple for her to use as my stepsisters are clueless, so the last TiVo and mini he had came home with me and I left their fire stick with YoutubeTv set up for her and so far I haven’t had to do much tech support remotely. Leaving a TiVo on rabbit ears in the apartment would have been a nightmare and hard for her switching inputs or dealing with hdmi cec not working on the Sony tv very well.

I need to order some extra power bricks as two of the Roamios have gone to flashing lights in the last year from bad power supplies. I just used my last spare power brick a month ago. My mom uses the Roamio at the lake everyday as she doesn’t remember to switch to streaming except to watch Days of our Lives on Peacock. We get 40 channels OTA out there, so that covers most of what she watches anyway.

The Roamio in my house, doesn’t like the cable running thru the wall ports from my media cabinet up to the tv mount. I actually disconnected it from a display and use a mini on the main 75in display now. It’s nice for watching football and the 3-4 network shows I still record that lets me skip commercials, otherwise the Tivos are just collecting dust. The HDHomerun I have works fine for live tv and I just stay on the Android TV device input.

I did recently roll all but 2 dvrs and 1 mini back to TE 3. I left the others on TE4 as I need hdmi cec at the lake for my mom to be able to switch between the TiVo and the fire stick. It works well for her. She has trouble switching inputs when she stays at my house the nights before doctor appointments. TiVo has just outlived its usefulness in todays streaming world. I mainly use Philo now for a few cable shows and the antenna for live tv. Philo has commercial skip now on dvr recordings, so I really don’t miss the TiVo for very main things. Perhaps if I watched more network tv, it would be a bigger deal..


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## osu1991 (Mar 6, 2015)

lprimak said:


> As a Tivo owner for 25+ years (I think!) the biggest bang for the buck is time saved by commercial skipping.
> These days, for example, 90 day fiancee is 2hrs long with about 55 minutes of commercials.
> There is no way I could waste time on those without skipping.
> Can't get that with streaming


Actually you can with Philo. The Philo dvr now has one button commercial skipping on recordings.


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## Mary D (Jul 22, 2020)

crcraig41us said:


> I record a lot of sports that have dead time (golf and football primarily, but others occasionally) and use TiVo to watch them in a fraction of the time. I not only skip commercials, but dead time during the broadcasts. To do this I need the kind of transport control and immediate feedback that TiVo's trick play has always provided. The delayed response time and lack of real-time frame updates while fast-forwarding makes any cloud based system useless for me.
> 
> Trust me, I am always asking myself -- am I getting old and stuck in my ways? But in this case at least, the answer is no. Cloud based systems are fine for movies or episodic TV where you press play and put down the remote, but they are not sufficient for my needs. The so-called obsolete TiVo solution is actually superior for my use case.


Same here!


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## dishrich (Jan 16, 2002)

chiguy50 said:


> If you are not using the HDD in an X1 DVR (and avoiding the DVR fee, which is typically $10 p.m.), then it serves the same purpose as a headless X1 STB


No, it STILL (also) records on the internal HDD; it just stops after you hit the (20 hr) capacity...which IS better than being only in the cloud, as you don't have the lag with remote commands when you watch off the local HDD.
ALTHOUGH...since the primary purpose of keeping this X1 box was for recording IP-only channels, (that Tivo can't) the HDD is really a moot point, since IP-only recordings ONLY record in the cloud anyway. But again, if for some reason I'd be recording a non-IP channel, it's nice I still have the HDD X1 at no extra charge.


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## whywhynot (Aug 12, 2018)

I rarely do at all anymore. I belong to over five on-demand streaming services and watch what I want there. I've even considered cutting cable entirely. I might use Tivo more again if they brought back the much-missed feature of thumbs up/down.


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## MightyDrake (Oct 3, 2005)

Far superior interface
Commercial skip
Consolidated list of shows

My first Tivo was the Sony. Had three SD Tivos at one point. Currently have 2-, 4-, and 6- tuner versions, all lifetime. Man, that's a lot of money on lifetime subscriptions 

Whenever I watch something at a friend's I get to see how bad the other DVRs are. There are things I'd change on my Tivos, but I have yet to find a better DVR experience.

I'm a geek, so I have no trouble streaming. It's just a lot more hassle. The shows are scattered. Every interface is different. Few are any good. Some are horrible. Lag makes fast forward and rewind annoying. Forced commercials are annoying.

I use the TV Time app on my phone to keep track of what I've watched. It also helps me remember to go back and continue some shows I would otherwise forget. I have no afffiliation with the company. Just a user. Recommended.


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## John Harkins (Jul 5, 2020)

dishrich said:


> Quick Play (60%) mode & "skipping" features keep me here alone, along with simple & quick (TE3) guide/menu access. I have a mixture of 2 cablecard & 3 OTA Tivo's (2 on 1 local TV antenna, the other on a distant TV antenna/market) w/multiple mini's, ALL networked together & working beautifully.
> While it's disappointing a few Comcast channels are IP-only, it's really not any that I watch with a degree of regularity; an X1 DVR box w/20 hours free DVR service fixes that.
> 
> Honestly if Tivo wasn't saddled with the (still) sh^*ty Rovi EPG data, I really would have no other complaints about it - it does exactly what a DVR should do & really doesn't need any other urgent "enhancements" I can think of, IMHO.
> I absolutely don't care that it can't (also) be the perfect "streaming box" with every app...that's why they make streaming sticks that are specialized for THAT function.


In addition to your list I will add the 30 minute tuner buffering. I like to set my tuners to my preferred news channels before bed and then use the buffers in the morning to quickly blow through the buffered news using quick mode and ff before I start the day to catch up on what’s happening. Huge time saver.


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## Trey1970 (Jan 30, 2006)

I've had TiVo since 2003. I currently have an Edge. I love the quick, slick, navigation controls when viewing recordings as well as the commercial skip. I also started using YouTube TV in 2022. I like that because there is no hardware, you have unlimited recordings, and watching from any device anywhere in the world is much easier than with Edge. I'm a sports freak and the ONLY channel missing from YTTV is Bally Sports Network. If it weren't for the slick viewing controls of Edge, I'd have shut the operation down long ago. I may just shut it down anyway because I rarely use Edge anymore. YT has a long way to go in the navigation department, but that's the only drawback I see so far.


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## txakura (2 mo ago)

I started using Tivo because the local cable system didn't carry some of the local network channels, which, of course, had some of the shows we really wanted to watch. Tivo and an external antenna, and we had access to about 15 additional channels. The fact you could skip commercials with Tivo meant we were watching most of the broadcast network programs on it, rather than cable. Obscure sports still meant we needed cable, though, so we kept both. Along came YouTube TV, and endeth cable. We had also managed to acquire some - again - obscure streaming services to go with YTTV, and we're watching the few broadcast network programs still on Tivo (can't give up commercial skip!), and recording other programs on YTTV, which allows us to (manually) skip commercials there. Plus watching on-demand on other services that don't have commercials in the first place. Gets confusing, but we spend about half what we used to spend on cable alone. We watch Tivo-recorded content about three nights a week. Since the Bolt 4-tuner is lifetime, we've long since gotten our moneys-worth from it.


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## webguy1229 (4 mo ago)

We have had Tivo from day one and now have two Romiao's. I like the ability to skip commercials either with the green button or just fast forward. The only thing that should be fixed and I have said this before is a search function for the trash and one pass. So hard to find things.


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## NoVa (Feb 26, 2006)

We have been using Tivo since 2007 and wanted multi-room live TV viewability ever since the Mini's came out. 

Our Bolt 4 tuner is the main driver of our eco system of 4 Mini's since 2013 & they are all running strong still. 

Only thing I have added was to elevate the Bolt off the ground to get air flowing around it with a small USB fan. 

Of course, with streaming TV available now, the Mini's are a little dated to look at & haven't been updated in years so apps are worthless like YT freezes up. 

But otherwise, I love my TiVo system & don't look at all envious at friends and family using YTTV when with the press of the fantastic peanut remote I can skip commercials or watch any show I recorded.

And when I need to stream something else I use a Chromecast to get me there. 

--ps--forgot to mention. Am still using the classic onscreen layout too!


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## misterclick (Oct 24, 2012)

"misplaced"? I think you meant to say "install"


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## misterclick (Oct 24, 2012)

I had to do that to my volt also. When i first started using it it kept on shutting off. One day it showed and error saying something like "overheating" or something similar. 
It now sits on a laptop cooling base powered by USB.


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## misterclick (Oct 24, 2012)

I have been using TiVo since the original that connected to the phone land line. I bought it at a goodwill it was $12. The lady told me there was a remote for it. I looked, she looked, nothing. She told me to come over the next day and she will find it for me. Next day nothing. I bought an universal remote and although contained codes for a "TiVo", it did not do much other than play and rewind. I got a remote from eBay. It only had a couple of kids programs. I subscribed and used it and used it. I think it had a 40gig hd. I put in a 500 gig. I used a program that had a penguin logo to transfer everything from the 40 to the 500. It worked perfectly.
I then bought a Premiere HD. I had that for many years. I then bought a BOLT. I also have a Mini.
I love the slow motion. I also like the way the structure is. I also like the fact that I can play shows at a much faster speed without it sounding like chipmunks. The skip is great!


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

skierrob said:


> I'd like to get off my Tivo. My use case is for recording a few OTA shows including The Simpsons, SNL, Family Guy, Lego Masters, the annual Rose Parade and Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, etc.. You can stream most of these shows. But without a cable TV subscription, the streaming options for each show are fairly limited.
> I'm bad about watching these shows (outside of the parades), so they tend to pile up on my DVR. I do want to watch all episodes of each one, in order. And I love to commercial skip.
> But with streaming, some of the shows only keep the last five episodes for streaming. And in all cases, I can't skip commercials with streaming.
> I don't want to worry about an episode I want to watch not being there due to this week's licensing change, or because ABC decided to only let you view the most recent two episodes, or whatever. I also don't want to worry about some OTA shows being available the day after air, and others only being available a week or month after the original air date.
> So that brings me back to the trusty Tivo every time. What I record is mine forever - until I delete it. If anyone has ANY suggestions otherwise, I'd love to hear them. But it has to be 'friendly' enough for the rest of my family to be able to use it.


Many streaming providers have cloud DVRs with which you can skip to your heart's content. Yes, you only have a 9 month window typically. But if I haven't watched something within 9 months, I probably wasn't very interested in it to begin with.


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## zalusky (Apr 5, 2002)

It would be interesting to have a demographics analysis on all the people that still want Tivo because they have a lifetime subscription. 

There is a lady on our street who was complaining about streaming and the $5 charges.
I asked her how much she paid in fees and what was her total bill.
I said you look at the paper to clip grocery coupons.

I then told her:


I have a 55+ plan with T-Mobile that gives me unlimited worldwide data.
I get Netflix included with T-Mobile
I get Apple TV+ with T-Mobile
I get $10 off of YouTube TV with T-Mobile
I get HBO free with ATT Fiber
I got Paramount+ with Showtime for $5 the last two months with an AMEX Offer
I got $7 off of Hulu the last two months with AMEX Offer
I get Peacock for .01 cents till the end of the year.

And I am waiting to see what Black Friday deals are coming.

She grumbled and just called me a nerd!


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## spiderpumpkin (Dec 1, 2017)

I really like the ease of use, live guide, trick play switching between live shows and the wonderful Roamio remote. Other family members like it just as much. We have a Roamio Pro and Roamio Plus. Both have lifetime and 8TB drives. It also nice to be able watch shows between the two boxes that are in separate rooms. 

Also, have a XG1v4 from Comcast for watching On Demand and recording a few channels that aren't available on Tivos. The X1 DVR hardly ever gets used but it's there if we need it. 

We also have a Firestick 4K and Apple TV 4K for watching the usually streaming apps. Also use those for watching Channels DVR which is mainly used as a fallback and for recording some HD TVE channels not on Tivo and also recording Pluto TV.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

There's no doubt that Tivo beats any streaming service. But at what cost? I'm simply not willing to pay $100 for cable when I can get the same content via streaming for $50, albeit with slightly clunkier controls. So the reason I ditched Tivo really had nothing to do with Tivo and everything to do with cable TV service costs, mainly the endless, ever increasing bogus fees they tack on. That low-ball $30 per month offer you get in the mail ends up costing $100 after all is said and done. No thanks.


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## spiderpumpkin (Dec 1, 2017)

mdavej said:


> There's no doubt that Tivo beats any streaming service. But at what cost? I'm simply not willing to pay $100 for cable when I can get the same content via streaming for $50, albeit with slightly clunkier controls. So the reason I ditched Tivo really had nothing to do with Tivo and everything to do with cable TV service costs, mainly the endless, ever increasing bogus fees they tack on. That low-ball $30 per month offer you get in the mail ends up costing $100 after all is said and done. No thanks.


I have no plan to get rid of Comcast internet service and so I just get the tv service through them. I will definitely stop using Comast tv service if I ever get internet elsewhere but for now the only hardwired internet solution at the speeds I want is from Comcast.


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## pl1 (Jan 18, 2007)

mdavej said:


> There's no doubt that Tivo beats any streaming service. But at what cost? I'm simply not willing to pay $100 for cable when I can get the same content via streaming for $50, albeit with slightly clunkier controls. So the reason I ditched Tivo really had nothing to do with Tivo and everything to do with cable TV service costs, mainly the endless, ever increasing bogus fees they tack on. That low-ball $30 per month offer you get in the mail ends up costing $100 after all is said and done. No thanks.


Your price is exactly what I pay for Fios TV, $95 $90 (all taxes and cableCARD fees included). When I look at the streaming options that include my regional sports network, I can find only 2, Fubo TV ($70 + $9 RSN) and DTV Stream ($90 plus an STB fee). The price on these two services are comparable in price, but I can't use my TiVo.

Lately, I find myself not needing cable besides watching my RSN (NESN), and since NESN is offering a DTC streaming option for $30/mo., I get tempted to just go with that and go OTA with everything else I watch. While $30/mo. is a ripoff, I would be saving $65/mo. I just don't like watching streamed hockey games at all. But, price wise, I am at my limit. If they continue to jack up the price, I may have to go this way.

Which is why I have OTA or cableCARD TiVos, If I change my mind, I just have to run guided setup!

EDIT: My Fios Billing is actually $90 with the cableCARD


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## 505 (Oct 20, 2013)

dgoto said:


> My main preference for TiVo which I have had for 15 years now was having the capability of saving a recording such as a concert or sporting event to my PC for editing and saving in on my Media NAS for future viewing. Without that capability I would have moved on long ago. I presently have an Edge and I am happy with it.
> 
> Why did you prefer or stil use your Tivo?


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## 505 (Oct 20, 2013)

We have been TIVO users for over 20+ years from the Original to now an Edge and Bolt. We use the TIVO now for primarily being able to switch channels and automatically have the 30 min buffer to go back and forth and blow by commercials -- we use this primarily for Sports ie NFL, Golf. We record much less than in the early days as streaming services have more or less eliminated 80% of that requirement. We also utilize ROKU for the various streaming services as TIVO is very limited in choices. TIVO will most likely disappear when cable providers stop providing cable cards. I hope that is in the distant future as we love the TIVO interface compared to other DVRs....


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## justen_m (Jan 15, 2004)

mdavej said:


> Many streaming providers have cloud DVRs with which you can skip to your heart's content. Yes, you only have a 9 month window typically. But if I haven't watched something within 9 months, I probably wasn't very interested in it to begin with.


Some of oldest recordings I have, unwatched, are a couple News programs from Aug 21st, 2017. Total solar eclpse. It didn't get completely dark here, but dark enough that all the streetlights and other lights automatic lights went on.

Also 300: Rise of an Empire, recorded 2016.Also a cooking show from February 2016, buffalo wings, shrimp fried rice, linguine Bolognese, and the New Orlean Saints Cheerleaders. Ok, gonna watch that one now 

Also, for Binge watching. e.g. I have Walking Dead, S11E9 (2/20/2022)-E22(last Sunday) on a TiVo. In 10 more days, after the last two episodes of the series air, I'll have a couple of 8 episode binge watch sessions. Likewise, when this season of American Horror Story ends, I'll watch all of last season(finale oct 2021) and this season. Similar with Fargo (1 past season, finale nov 2020), Snowpiercer (2 whole seasons, airdates between jan 2021 and mar 2022).

Will I watch those old recordings? That's the plan. Or course, in the past, I've deleted entire series, or multiple seasons, unwatched when I figured I would never catch up.Like 5 seasons of VIkings.


mdavej said:


> That low-ball $30 per month offer you get in the mail ends up costing $100 after all is said and done. No thanks.


I've got cable. $100. LOL. If you are lucky. I pay almost double that for just expanded basic. No premium channels (but that includes 600/30 Mbps cable internet, which I think is ~1/3 of the bill). Just have the majors plus ESPN/ESPN2/FS1/FS2/Root for sports. So I miss a lot of Navy, Badger, BSU, and Packer games which sometimes air on ESPNU, CBSSN, BTN, NFLN, Amazon, etc.

I'm sure I could get everything I want for less $$$ than I am paying now. I'm just too lazy. And I like the TiVo interface, especially with TE3 letting me transfer programs from my PC/workstation/Server to my TiVos, instead of Plex. All gigabit networking, but streaming isn't is fast for QuickPlay as shows resident on the TiVo.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Because tivo + cable is FAR better than streaming ONLY. I ALSO use commercial free streaming... and ironically I got it BECAUSE tivo streaming (with either separate Tivo Stream or the one built into my Roamio Pro) effectively doesn't work for me. (I would otherwise have watched stuff on my Tivo when at the fitness center.. and I started doing this after the other streaming box was on the way out)

Shows expire off of streaming services. Even Paramount+, which seems to keep stuff the longest, only has full series for SOME shows.. not all.. and yes, I "pay attention to" more shows than I actually watch, so am way behind on e.g. some of the FBI shows.. and only ONE of them has all eps available. I still have Tivoed at least SD versions of the other seasons.
...and now NBC has pulled their stuff off Hulu, so Hulu is less useful, and I don't want to pay for yet another streaming service. I MAY eventually pay for a month or two of commercial free an binge a few shows (new quantum leap, The Rock's show).

I use QuickPlay, usually with the backdoor code to go to 1.7 or 1.9x, ALL THE TIME. I don't mean literally on every show, but on most non-scripted shows (Reality, documentary, news, the 'non performance' part of things like american idol or america's got talent).. but nowadays I do actually usually watch SNL sped up, I used to FF very liberally when a sketch got boring.


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## chiguy50 (Nov 9, 2009)

zalusky said:


> It would be interesting to have a demographics analysis on all the people that still want Tivo because they have a lifetime subscription.
> 
> There is a lady on our street who was complaining about streaming and the $5 charges.
> I asked her how much she paid in fees and what was her total bill.
> ...


You are clearly a conscientious consumer. But out of curiosity I have to ask: How much are you paying for those T-Mobile and AT&T Fiber subscriptions and in AMEX fees? After all, those costs should be factored into the calculations. The devil is in the details.


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## napalm7am (Dec 23, 2006)

dgoto said:


> My main preference for TiVo which I have had for 15 years now was having the capability of saving a recording such as a concert or sporting event to my PC for editing and saving in on my Media NAS for future viewing. Without that capability I would have moved on long ago. I presently have an Edge and I am happy with it.
> 
> Why did you prefer or still use your TiVo?


Why TiVo? *Why TiVo??* 
My main reasons for staying current with TiVo models over 25+ years is their wonderful user interface and wonderful design "peanut" remote (I also have a Xfinity DVR free with condo association contract and the UI and remote SUCK! ) which...

TiVo allows me to...

Automatically "record for later viewing" MY TV shows that I want to watch week after week, year after year
Watch these shows when I want to sit down to watch them, not having to watch when they are broadcast!!
SKIP ALL commercials!!!!! Huge!!
Watch baseball at 2X speed and not have to listen to the drone of the sportscasters
Use the one button 20 second backup to catch special plays...
Use the wonderful 20 second skip forward button on the TiVo remote to jump from one football play to the next hike of the ball !!!!
Fast-forward through the football halftime talking heads

*NEVER, NEVER HAVING TO WATCH LIVE TV* !!!!!!!

I could go on and on and on...

I do not know what I will do when cablecards are no longer supported on Comcast! :-(

*Thank you TiVo* for truly a lifetime of pleasure from the above!!!!!!!!!


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## NoVa (Feb 26, 2006)

Trey1970 said:


> I've had TiVo since 2003. I currently have an Edge. I love the quick, slick, navigation controls when viewing recordings as well as the commercial skip. I also started using YouTube TV in 2022. I like that because there is no hardware, you have unlimited recordings, and watching from any device anywhere in the world is much easier than with Edge. I'm a sports freak and the ONLY channel missing from YTTV is Bally Sports Network. If it weren't for the slick viewing controls of Edge, I'd have shut the operation down long ago. I may just shut it down anyway because I rarely use Edge anymore. YT has a long way to go in the navigation department, but that's the only drawback I see so far.


Yes the easy UI blows away all other platforms'. 

Skipping on YTTV is not intuitive or precise @ all.


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## zalusky (Apr 5, 2002)

chiguy50 said:


> You are clearly a conscientious consumer. But out of curiosity I have to ask: How much are you paying for those T-Mobile and AT&T Fiber subscriptions and in AMEX fees? After all, those costs should be factored into the calculations. The devil is in the details.


I pay ATT Fiber $60 for unlimited 1gig service that includes HBO.
I pay T-Mobile $90 for 2 cellular lines - Yes I could beat that with prepaid lines but I would lose at least $30 or so of those perk benefits in addition to a year free of AAA and international data.
I pay $90 for the Amex Blue Cash card which gives me 6% cashback on streaming and grocery stores and this year I have gotten back $300 in credits on those and a $250 credit on our upcoming cruise by prepaying gratuities.

Comcast previously charged over $180 for the equivalnet kind of services and required a 2 year contract. I would pay for T-Mobile either way and did pay for them when I had Comcast so that fee does not count but I am currently pay in the $130 range for many more content services.


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## chiguy50 (Nov 9, 2009)

zalusky said:


> I pay ATT Fiber $60 for unlimited 1gig service that includes HBO.
> I pay T-Mobile $90 for 2 cellular lines - Yes I could beat that with prepaid lines but I would lose at least $30 or so of those perk benefits in addition to a year free of AAA and international data.
> I pay $90 for the Amex Blue Cash card which gives me 6% cashback on streaming and grocery stores and this year I have gotten back $300 in credits on those and a $250 credit on our upcoming cruise by prepaying gratuities.
> 
> Comcast previously charged over $180 for the equivalnet kind of services and required a 2 year contract. I would pay for T-Mobile either way and did pay for them when I had Comcast so that fee does not count but I am currently pay in the $130 range for many more content services.


It sounds like you have done your homework!

Everyone has to find the combination of services and pricing that meets their individual needs, but those who do not perform the due diligence as you have done will end up overpaying and/or shortchanging themselves.

I have been relying on three successive generations of TiVos since 2009 (currently a Tivo Roamio Pro and Mini), but their utility for me has lessen dramatically with the explosion of streaming apps. I have zero tolerance for advertisements interrupting my viewing, and TiVo has been a boon ever since it replaced my clunky multiple VCR setup back in what now seems like the Stone Age. Although I mostly use TiVo now for recording live sports and for tracking content that I will end up streaming (for the better PQ/AQ), I will be very sorry to retire my DVR when it bites the dust or Comcast curtails CableCARD support.

FTR, and since you were willing to share, here are my own arrangements:

Xfinity Mobile cell phone service (two lines with 1GB of shared data) for $16 p.m. net​Comcast Digital Starter CATV (legacy equivalent of Popular TV tier) through my HOA for $38.50 p.m. net (factored into the per-unit monthly dues)​Peacock Premium for free through the Comcast sub​Comcast Gigabit HSI for $35 p.m. net after discounts, which include $20 for the XM sub​Netflix Premium UtraHD service for the full $20 p.m., although I alternate months due to an overabundance of other programming so that my average monthly drops to $10​Hulu ad-free for $15, which I allow my sister to share as an additional user​AppleTV+ for free through March 2023 as a result of several coupons​Amazon Prime for a pro-rated $10 p.m. (although I have not been watching Prime Video lately)​HBO/HBO Max and SHO/ShowtimeAnytime for free through my sister's Comcast Triple Play bundle which I arranged for her. As a manager on her account, I have full access to all of their live programming (Ultimate TV tier) as well as streaming and DVR (X1Gv4) functionality. Since I am in GA and she is in CA, I can record and watch regional sports in both areas (e.g., Golden State Warriors and Phoenix Suns NBA games on the West Coast RSNs)​


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

napalm7am said:


> TiVo allows me to...
> 
> Use the one button 20 second backup to catch special plays...
> Use the wonderful 20 second skip forward button on the TiVo remote to jump from one football play to the next hike of the ball !!!!
> ...


yeah, I continue to be a Comcast customer BECAUSE of Tivo.

But 20 seconds? it's 8 seconds back, and 30 seconds forward... unless there's some other backdoor codes to change those?


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## derekmski (Jan 12, 2014)

I finally got rid of my Tivos, Spectrum not supporting cable cards much longer anyways. Tivo program guide info is horrendous. Was always recording shows that weren't new or not recording shows that it should have been. Tried TDS TV that uses Tivo's cloud platform and it uses the same terrible TV program guide. I no longer have any traditional TV service. I switched to Hulu Live and I absolutely love it. Program guide info is spot on, unlimited cloud DVR holds your recordings for 9 months. Can skip and fast forward through all commercials and ads on recordings.


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## tralexan (Jan 22, 2016)

Familiarity. It prevents at least some small amount of money from going to Comcast. Recording possibilities.


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## jwbarrington (2 mo ago)

I still have my Tivo OTA and minis, but I grew to feel that they were basically an expensive system to have and maintain. I ran across Tablo and felt that having only one device and being able to use their free Roku app on any home TV, was a much better way to go. I also like the fact that no matter how many Tablos you owned, the TV guide (monthly or lifetime) is tied only to your account and not to the actual device, unlike how Tivo will do. I purchased their quad channel version, without a hard drive, and then installed a 2 bay RAID. I've had my Tablo for roughly 6 years, without issue. I have found that I absolutely love the Tablo more.


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## J Nechleba (Feb 3, 2021)

I have a lifetime TIVO premiere that early last year was put into "safety net" service when I transitioned to a Channels DVR server (and I retired a monthly Roamio as TIVO wouldn't sell me a lifetime at a reasonable cost).

Services - I have cable through my communities bulk arrangement with Comcast (so, while it's paid for by HOA, I have no control over it so it's essentially a zero cost option for base cable). With internet and some package add-ons, it runs $70 per month.

Channels DVR runs on a QNAP NAS and connects to a HDHomeRun Prime (cablecard) and provides a Tivo-like experience but the interface all runs on streaming sticks (Tivo Stream 4k's and Chromecast with Google TV's).

Why did I switch to Channels DVR?

1. It allows me to do everything (watch TV & stream) via streaming platform. Tivo DVR streaming is slow, lame and limited. Moreover, it was a pain (wife factor here) to have to change inputs all the time depending on whether you were watching TV or streaming. Tivo really dropped the ball on this and either should have made streaming stick be able to interface with TIVO DVR or maybe an HDMI input on the back of TIVO DVR to plug in a stick???

2) I have two second homes (one in Italy, the other an apartment in NYC). The Italy home has fiber and I wanted to watch US TV there. Channels gives me an easy way to stream from my main home to both of the other homes. Again, TIVO dropped the ball here. Not only do we want to time shift, but we want to place shift. They failed to recognize that need and address it. What's great here is I am leveraging my fixed cost cable bill in two other homes at low and zero monthly cost. BTW - I did try Youtube TV for a bit and it was nice but when they started becoming like a cable company and jacked the prices, I cancelled. (ADDED - if I ever have to purchase base cable, this would be my likely path based on current alternatives).

Back to the original question - how do I use TIVO. I put it into place as a "safety net" as it is a zero cost option for me, my wife is comfortable with it so if she encounters a problem when I am traveling she can shift to TIVO mode and it works and finally, if things get messed up on my Channels setup (one major problem - Comcast messed up the cablecard programming, occasional glitches) I have a back up in place.


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## Captain Joy (Jul 21, 2010)

dgoto said:


> Why did you prefer or stil use your Tivo?


Wishlist!


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## buckyswider (Aug 31, 2003)

Pause/rewind/slo mo/etc. of sports (mostly baseball). As others have noted, these capabilities in streaming platforms are FAR, FAR, FAR, inferior to tivo's. 

And I keep it around for comcast cost avoidance, too. One Roamio and four minis spread out. But truth be told, other than live sports, I rarely watch tv at all. The wife does all her watching via the xfinity app on her ipad. So if I'm in my office, I can watch baseball. If I'm in the living room, I can watch baseball. If I'm in the barn, I can watch baseball. All with full tivo pause/rewind capabilities without paying anything extra to comcrap.


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## Shmo in Illinois (Dec 23, 2021)

As several others have pointed out, TiVo DVR functions are simpler than a lot of streaming services. I have a TiVo Stream and Amazon Fire Stick TV and Amazon Fire Recast DVR. The TiVo Premiere STILL is my wife's default because she goes to My Shows and can see at a glance the most recently unwatched episodes of shows she watches. The TiVo Stream certainly makes accessing streaming services like Discovery+, Peacock, Paramount, Hulu, et. al., much easier than the sparse apps on Premiere, but it drives us nuts trying to find the current episodes of our favorite shows and none of the apps seem to comprehend the value of being able to mark an episode as "watched". I'd also like to tell TiVo Stream which service/app is my preferred for a show on my shows list so I'm getting the current episodes of favorites instead of always getting the paid/premium/rent/buy listing from Amazon Prime, VUDU, Google Play when I have a paid subscription that would let me watch for free.

I get very nervous about my TiVo when it has to be rebooted and I may take some cues from others in this thread who bought spare parts for their older boxes when the power supply, cooling fan, etc., finally fail.


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## lobod80 (Aug 29, 2008)

Mary D said:


> Same here!


As primarily an OTA TV show and sports watcher, Tivo is as relevant to me today as it was 20 years ago. Long live Tivo!! I love my 4 upgraded Roamios with older interface.


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## antonine (Sep 24, 2017)

I continue to use an OTA Roamio with an antenna to record broadcast shows for viewing later. Although many network shows are now available on streaming alternatives (CBS on Paramount+,or YouTube TV, etc.), most require fees to even view, and/or include ads for a free or lower cost subscription. You cannot skip or fast forward through ads if it's a service like Paramount+, or if you cloud DVR a live show on a cable substitute like Sling, you can't skip the commercials, and fast forwarding is cumbersome compared to Tivo. As long as there are network and other broadcast shows worth watching, I'll continue to use a Tivo for the cost savings and superior functionality in viewing them until the problems noted above for streaming are corrected.


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## jsherknus (Jan 2, 2009)

I don't use Tivo anymore but I still have 2 Premier XLs gathering dust here. Tivo is done. Stick a fork in them. They are dead. When Tivo ended their relationship with DirecTV...it was all downhill from there. Their management couldn't read the room. There just aren't enough OTA channels worth watching in most of the US between LA and NY. Besides, there are similar options available to viewers where you can do weekly recordings, or watch a season's worth of episodes (many only 24 hours after it airs). Just no thumbs up/down suggestions. I'm sorry to say it folks because I was a 20+ year Tivo lifetime user...but its a dinosaur 🦕 now.


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## rothlike (Aug 1, 2005)

TIVO is still the best DVR, from the ease of OnePass, the organization of recordings to the commercial skip. I can't imagine anything better.


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## Hamstring (Feb 13, 2007)

pl1 said:


> I totally agree. Fubo DVR Sucks for sports! I used to try to playback while catching up to skip commercials. It was like I was blind trying to skip since the preview window was always out of whack. But the WORST part (and this is common with all streaming services), when the game ended, while you are still watching in catchup mode, they would cut off the game. So, you would have to wait until the game was saved before you could finish watching. And that is not saved instantly, like a TiVo.


I also can’t record and watch in 1.5 time. I was receding so little with my TiVo near the end.


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## edstir (Aug 23, 2015)

I researched cutting cord in 2015 and found my first OTA 4 tuner Romeo. All in paid for itself after 17 months and I never looked back. Wish I knew about Tivo from it's beginning. I'm old and not very techy. I like reading the forum so many knowledgeable members. I have about 300 movies recorded. A month later I purchased a second unit for my cabin. After reading the forum I purchased a couple fans and 1 3tb drive about 4 years ago. So far no trouble. I replace one noisy fan this year. It's running cooler. I paid $5 for 2 fans from a site someone mentioned here. Think they came from China. Last Christmas I bought a mini for my cabin exercise bedroom. I use it everyday I'm there. Didn't know It uses a tuner so I have 3 to use which hasn't been a problem. The new 2 tuner OTA won't cut it. I'll try to keep my Romeo's going. I bought a used Bolt a few years ago before the bad reviews. So far it's still sitting on a shelf. I hope to never have cable. I inherited a Netflix I continued after my friend passed. Sometimes I go months before using. I was going to quit but they offered me a $10 fee lowered from $14 so I kept it and do watch something each week now. I hate to think of not having Tivo. I have one on old #3 software and the other on #4 which I like better although the wise here like 3.


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## Joe Siegler (May 10, 2000)

I've been a TiVo customer since the year 2000. In all that time I've had a few different models. Series 2, DirecTiVo, Series 3, Roamio, Bolt OTA. Played around with a Mini for awhile, too.

Currently in 2022 I have a 4 tuner Bolt OTA and a Roamio - both stock, no modifications. I used to have larger hard drives in older ones back when I was in cable land. I lost my nearly 20 year old job in 2009, and in 2010 in a cost cutting move I dropped cable, I've been antenna only since then.

The Bolt OTA is the main driver, the older Roamio is in the bedroom and hardly ever gets used. If it ever kicks the bucket, I have no plans on replacing it, since nearly 98% of the viewing in the bedroom is through the Apple TV in there.

The main one in the living room gets used all the time however. We still watch a ton of network TV via antenna, so it's still a thing. In fact, the reason we're antenna only is why I never considered updating to the Edge, as the Bolt does what I need fine. Plus until today I never realized Edge has a 4 tuner antenna model - I saw it listed on Wikipedia, the TiVo site doesn't mention it (that I could find anyway).

I never did streaming apps on the TiVo, as they're dog slow. I do have Amazon on there, but only for reference, and I do use Youtube. But that's it. The rest I couldn't care less about, if I'm doing streaming, I'm going to Apple TV. Far superior (and faster) interface.

As I said before, I don't want to update the bedroom one, so that's EOL. The Edge I might consider if TiVo ever got their **** together, but I can't see that happening.

Since I've been following 'em for 22 years, I know all the decisions most of y'all reading this would also know - including quite a few that are puzzling. At this point, if Apple would bake OTA recording into their Apple TV devices like Amazon did with the Fire TV recast, I'd probably drop TiVo in a heartbeat.

I'm continuing to use them mostly as a legacy / habit thing now, as they're already paid for, there's no new cost at this point to continue to use them. But if something breaks, or kicks the bucket, then I'd have to seriously re-evaluate if I wanted to do another TiVo model. I might go in a different direction if that happens - and that saddens me.


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## suwish (Oct 19, 2015)

crcraig41us said:


> I record a lot of sports that have dead time (golf and football primarily, but others occasionally) and use TiVo to watch them in a fraction of the time. I not only skip commercials, but dead time during the broadcasts. To do this I need the kind of transport control and immediate feedback that TiVo's trick play has always provided. The delayed response time and lack of real-time frame updates while fast-forwarding makes any cloud based system useless for me.
> 
> Trust me, I am always asking myself -- am I getting old and stuck in my ways? But in this case at least, the answer is no. Cloud based systems are fine for movies or episodic TV where you press play and put down the remote, but they are not sufficient for my needs. The so-called obsolete TiVo solution is actually superior for my use case.


For sports, it is unmatchable. Football in 1 hour. Soccer in double speed smoothly. Time is the most valuable thing in the world.


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## southerndoc (Apr 5, 2003)

Despite all the negative speak of TiVo, I really am holding onto the idea that they partner with the major MSOs to use their IPTV technology. It would benefit the MSOs because it gives them a defense if they are ever charged by DoJ with antitrust violations, price fixing, etc.

Of course, I will admit that just like the stages of death and grief (Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance), I am stuck in the bargaining phase.


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## bradkw (Apr 22, 2007)

I have owned tivos ever since my first DirecTV TiVo back in ‘96. I now have 1 Bolt, 1 Roamio and 2 Minis. I use TiVo for Football and the superior instant control of the video. Pause, Skip back, Skip forward, Slow motion, Frame by frame, etc. I also love the DVR features, Season Pass and the unique TiVo interface. Cloud DVR and streaming just can’t compete with TiVo or other STBs. I’ll use TiVo as long as I can.


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## misterclick (Oct 24, 2012)

zalusky said:


> It would be interesting to have a demographics analysis on all the people that still want Tivo because they have a lifetime subscription.
> 
> There is a lady on our street who was complaining about streaming and the $5 charges.
> I asked her how much she paid in fees and what was her total bill.
> ...


You Nerd, You! 😛😋


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## misterclick (Oct 24, 2012)

bradkw said:


> I have owned tivos ever since my first DirecTV TiVo back in ‘96. I now have 1 Bolt, 1 Roamio and 2 Minis. I use TiVo for Football and the superior instant control of the video. Pause, Skip back, Skip forward, Slow motion, Frame by frame, etc. I also love the DVR features, Season Pass and the unique TiVo interface. Cloud DVR and streaming just can’t compete with TiVo or other STBs. I’ll use TiVo as long as I can.


You've made my point...👍


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## misterclick (Oct 24, 2012)

spiderpumpkin said:


> I really like the ease of use, live guide, trick play switching between live shows and the wonderful Roamio remote. Other family members like it just as much. We have a Roamio Pro and Roamio Plus. Both have lifetime and 8TB drives. It also nice to be able watch shows between the two boxes that are in separate rooms.
> 
> Also, have a XG1v4 from Comcast for watching On Demand and recording a few channels that aren't available on Tivos. The X1 DVR hardly ever gets used but it's there if we need it.
> 
> We also have a Firestick 4K and Apple TV 4K for watching the usually streaming apps. Also use those for watching Channels DVR which is mainly used as a fallback and for recording some HD TVE channels not on Tivo and also recording Pluto TV.


WoW!! Entertainment Galore! 👍


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## dgoto (Apr 29, 2010)

justen_m said:


> I can think of multiple reasons, but I think the main one is it has the best interface for viewing recordings and it's the simplest DVR for recording from OTA or cable, my two main sources of content. Plus, I've got three units with Lifetime (3TB Bolt, 3TB Roamio Plus, 1TB TIVoHD(retired)), and I'm just used to TiVo after 20 years.
> 
> I also like being able to transfer recordings to my PC, and videos on my PC back to my TiVos (via kmttg and pyTiVo).
> 
> (The last, PC->TiVo transfer, is why I won't "upgrade" to TE4. I've got Plex servers on my PCs to stream to my TiVos, but playback via Plex streaming is painful compared to playing a recording that's resident on the TiVo.)


 When you stream TiVo content via PLEX what do you use for video conversion beforehand


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## dgoto (Apr 29, 2010)

Albert said:


> I record a lot of OTA (local and national) news shows on my Roamio (upgrade to a 3TB drive). I don't watch all the recordings but they are there so I can watch what I want to watch, and I can quickly skip to what I want to see with the good and fast interface.
> 
> I will never upgrade unless they offer a new unit that works as well as the old Roamios without showing ads. Still hard for me to believe their latest and greatest OTA model only has 2 tuners. ATSC 3.0 would also be a big selling point if they ever came out with such a unit.


One of my uses of my TiVo is using it’s 6 tuners to record all of the networks news broadcast each night and then often I like to compare how they present the news and what stores they show and don’t show and in what order it is presented. People would be surprised on the differences.


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## dgoto (Apr 29, 2010)

johnr2000 said:


> Does pyTivo now work with Tivo Edge? I thought pyTivo stopped working a while ago.


Yes it works fine no issues.


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## TitanTiger (May 5, 2009)

I don’t. I wish I could but we finally cut regular cable and switched to DirecTV Stream. I wish Tivo had its own streaming service with a cloud DVR and the familiar TiVo interface and operation but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Sad because I’d been a Tivo user for almost 20 years.


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## Krepta3000 (Aug 20, 2006)

I still use my good old TiVo with local broadcast TV. I love it because it just works. It just keeps doing its thing. I don’t like that much of its functionality has been removed by the company, but it has Lifetime Service and I’m going to keep using it as long as we are both still alive and kicking.


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## xjonx (Oct 8, 2006)

I use mine now almost exclusively to record and keep old TV shows and a few movies for storage on my Plex server. I am currently using KTTMG to crack shows, but since KTTMG is no longer supported, I will continue to use TiVo until the app loses its security certificate and dies. I believe at the end of this year, unless another user saves it like they did a couple of years ago.

Without KTTMG there is little functionality that brought me to TiVo left (no thumb rating, ads - although they are currently blocked, weird nonsensical auto recordings I never watch, etc.).

Sad to say but I don't see much left in the TiVo platform, which I have had since the introduction of TiVo3, that will keep me paying. I can get much the same thing though other services.


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## l2lkona (2 mo ago)

I have had a lifetime subscription TiVOs since the very beginning. I like the familiarity, even the funny little sounds. That said when this last one goes so do I. I know it's not a sustainable service. I will switch to a steaming service with built-in DVR capacity. I will miss all that has been TiVO and do appreciate that when this all started, TiVO was the best version. I've especially always thought the guide was the superior listing for TV. The world is changing and with it, I will as well. But TiVO made life weirdly a little bit better. Too bad the little TiVO guy won't survive, bah-doop. I am sure in a few years I think of TiVO the way I think of those wired cable boxes with the clunky buttons and say, what were we thinking?


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## l2lkona (2 mo ago)

I have had a lifetime subscription TiVOs since the very beginning. I like the familiarity, even the funny little sounds.

That said when this last one goes so do I. I know it's not a sustainable service. I will switch to a steaming service with built-in DVR capacity. I will miss all that has been TiVO and do appreciate that when this all started, TiVO was the best version. I've especially always thought the guide was the superior listing for TV.

The world is changing and with it, I will as well. But TiVO made life weirdly a little bit better. Too bad the little TiVO guy won't survive, bah-doop. I am sure in a few years I think of TiVO the way I think of those wired cable boxes with the clunky buttons and say, what were we thinking?


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## sdawson (Aug 18, 2016)

I'll chime in. I have three OTA Roamios (each with lifetime subscriptions) in the house (bedroom, kitchen, and living room) each with a 3TB drive. I have a massive antenna on the roof, which I put up myself when the broadcasters switched from analog to digital (how many years ago now? A long, long time). Even though the stations are 45-50 miles away, the antenna pulls them in and I have _a lot_ of OTA shows that I DVR, not just ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and WB, but others such as COZI and GRIT and others. So all of the above comes for no cost other than the initial cost of the antenna and Roamio's. 

The'ongoing' cost is that I tend to have to replace the internal fans a time or two a year across the three machines. When they get loud, I put another one in. 

So having all that entertainment, in sparkling HD, with _NO LAG_, and the ability to really and truly fastforward, slow mo (especially for football) rewind, etc. is just a great deal. I I have the 'old' Tivo interface on each of the Roamio's, I downgraded one that came from the factory with the new interface. But the hardware on the roamio does not really have the power to run the new interface, so I downgraded. The old interface is simply perfect for me anywy. 

I fully support free OTA broadcasting, and want it to continue forever. While I know that Big Business would like to have that spectrum so they can make money, and take away something from the masses, and have total control over what can stream, and how they can stream, I am opposed to that.

Now, I do also have an inexpensive Roku attached to each of the three TV's as well. It is far superior to the Tivo apps for streaming, and I do stream as well. It was always puzzling to me why Tivo didn't just partner with Roku to basically put the Roku technology inside their Tivos for streaming. Even the least expensiv $39 Roku is great, so it seemed like they could just partner with them and do that for an extra $30 cost. But who knows, perhaps redesigning the motherboard would be too expensieve. No matter really, I simplyp have the Roku and the Tivo side by side and they both work great at what they do.

Tivo is best as a real DVR, far superior to cloud based DVRs, and Roku is best at streaming. Between the two of these devices, cut the cable cord _a long long_ time ago, soon after the initial Roku came out and soon after the switch to OTA HD broadcasts and I got my first Tivo to go with the antenna.


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## alyssa (Dec 7, 2003)

I'm OTA with lifetime
I also have a tivo stream 4k for the services I subscribe to, TV interfaces for accessing services are annoying.

imho, the TiVo service lost out when it began to clamp down on community add-ons


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## haguea (Jul 26, 2010)

TiVo has its problems, the tuning adapter barely works with my Spectrum ( I have it now on an automatic reboot twice a day to work around that!) BUT it is SOOO much better than any DVR from Brighthouse or Spectrum. I even tried the Hydra DVR. No good. I need the OnePass, 1TB and continuous searching of listings.


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## Clifford H. Eck (Feb 22, 2019)

I have TIVO BOLT VOX and a Mini that work great. I also still subscribe to Spectrum (which is very expensive at $200+/month.) I use TIVO all the time in my home office, but my wife loves the simplicity of the Spectrum Guide and so we have it on all (4) TV's except in my office. The Mini is hooked up on a port on our main TV in the living room as a safty blanket if Spectrum goes out and also as a DVR. I would go full time TIVO and cancel Spectrum except for their basic service but my wife is addicted to the Spectrum Remotes. She agrees that the TIVO Guide is much better, and likes the DVR but just won't get away from Spectrum ... ya know, "happy wife, happy life", and it's true. Maybe sometime soon TIVO will devise the perfect solution. I would consider OTA but can't find an antenna that will pull the remote signals (50 - 7- miles away in opposite directions, ) that are reliable. 34465 Florida. So I hang in with TIVO and have for 20+ years. Fingers are crossed.


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## JimC_2270 (Jul 21, 2017)

I have been a TiVo fan since my Sony SVR-2000.

And for the last 10 years I have been using my Roamio OTA with my digital antenna service and I can't imagine not having a DVR with my antenna.

And I almost get sick when I think about the possibility that the TiVo company might someday go out of business or stop supporting our DVR's.


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## mfiman (Nov 9, 2017)

For watching programs via my cable provider (Xfinity), nothing beats TiVo. I can record any program that Xfinity provides (from OTA to cable news to sports etc.). And, I can save the recordings "forever." When playing back a recording, it either automatically skips commercials or I can use the TiVo voice command to skip (great for half-time at sports events!). If I want, it automatically tracks and records every episode of TV series etc. I can also watch live. And, when watching live, I can pause at any point and continue after a break. I could go on with the pluses. Suffice to say that no streaming option provides all of these features and conveniences.

That said, I find that I use TiVo less and less as time goes on. I now primarily use it only for watching news and sports. For everything else, I spend my time on my Apple TV (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, AppleTV+, etc.).

I can imagine a service that combines the best of TiVo and streaming. That's when I will be happy to give up on TiVo. But I haven't found such a service yet. Until then, I hope TiVo continues to survive.


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## zalusky (Apr 5, 2002)

Probably should consider the question "Why do you still watch Broadcast".


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## akbar jaffer (Dec 26, 2019)

Use it for recording local broadcast and News and live sports love the interface. My 2 main issues with TiVo is I have a Mini but regularly lose connection. I have to switch back and forth between hard wired and a TiVo branded Wi-Fi adapter every few weeks. Go figure. I wish TiVo would have more updated apps


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## balkanboy (Dec 2, 2009)

I don't. Sold my lifetime subscription TiVO, canceled cable years ago. Best mental health choice ever.


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## jsherknus (Jan 2, 2009)

mfiman said:


> For watching programs via my cable provider (Xfinity), nothing beats TiVo. I can record any program that Xfinity provides (from OTA to cable news to sports etc.). And, I can save the recordings "forever." When playing back a recording, it either automatically skips commercials or I can use the TiVo voice command to skip (great for half-time at sports events!). If I want, it automatically tracks and records every episode of TV series etc. I can also watch live. And, when watching live, I can pause at any point and continue after a break. I could go on with the pluses. Suffice to say that no streaming option provides all of these features and conveniences.
> 
> That said, I find that I use TiVo less and less as time goes on. I now primarily use it only for watching news and sports. For everything else, I spend my time on my Apple TV (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, AppleTV+, etc.).
> 
> I can imagine a service that combines the best of TiVo and streaming. That's when I will be happy to give up on TiVo. But I haven't found such a service yet. Until then, I hope TiVo continues to survive.


Just an FYI....you know they have the Xfinity Stream app for Amazon firesticks now, right? You can watch VOD and any Xfinity channel from the firestick now as well as recordings.


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## howards (Oct 31, 2007)

xjonx said:


> I am currently using KTTMG to crack shows, but since KTTMG is no longer supported, I will continue to use TiVo until the app loses its security certificate and dies. I believe at the end of this year, unless another user saves it like they did a couple of years ago.


kmttg has been updated. GitHub - lart2150/kmttg: Java application to interact with TiVo DVRs

Now running v2.5-l here.


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## Joey Bagadonuts (Mar 13, 2006)

zalusky said:


> It would be interesting to have a demographics analysis on all the people that still want Tivo because they have a lifetime subscription.
> 
> There is a lady on our street who was complaining about streaming and the $5 charges.
> I asked her how much she paid in fees and what was her total bill.
> ...


Do you know (maybe you do it already)- Can you get the basic Netflix subscription from T Mobile and then pay to upgrade it to one of the premium plans? Or, are you stuck with the basic Netflix plan T Mobile offers?


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## zalusky (Apr 5, 2002)

Joey Bagadonuts said:


> Do you know (maybe you do it already)- Can you get the basic Netflix subscription from T Mobile and then pay to upgrade it to one of the premium plans? Or, are you stuck with the basic Netflix plan T Mobile offers?


Yes you pay an additional 7 dollars to go to premium. I in fact did that for a while but switched back by unclicking a box in my t-mobile manage add on settings.


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## Joey Bagadonuts (Mar 13, 2006)

zalusky said:


> Yes you pay an additional 7 dollars to go to premium. I in fact did that for a while but switched back by unclicking a box in my t-mobile manage add on settings.


Thanks Z


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## zalusky (Apr 5, 2002)

Joey Bagadonuts said:


> Thanks Z


Good Luck! Apple TV+ is another free add on as well. The Paramount Plus add on looks to be the same price Is if you went direct so that does not look a deal if I read it right.


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## Joey Bagadonuts (Mar 13, 2006)

zalusky said:


> Good Luck! Apple TV+ is another free add on as well. The Paramount Plus add on looks to be the same price Is if you went direct so that does not look a deal if I read it right.


I have been on the phone with T Mobile tech support for about 20 minutes trying to figure out why Netflix (and the check box) isn't appearing as an option in my add on settings. I see Apple TV+ and Paramount Plus (which, as you said is the same price as if I went direct) and a bunch of data options but no Netflix. They had me reboot my phone and will be calling me back in a few minutes.


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## zalusky (Apr 5, 2002)

Joey Bagadonuts said:


> I have been on the phone with T Mobile tech support for about 20 minutes trying to figure out why Netflix (and the check box) isn't appearing as an option in my add on settings. I see Apple TV+ and Paramount Plus (which, as you said is the same price as if I went direct) and a bunch of data options but no Netflix. They had me reboot my phone and will be calling me back in a few minutes.


Are you on the Max plan vs the basic Magenta plan?


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## Joey Bagadonuts (Mar 13, 2006)

zalusky said:


> Are you on the Max plan vs the basic Magenta plan?


I am on the Magneta Unlimited 1.0 55 plan. My first thought was maybe that plan didn't qualify for free Netflix but I confirmed with two different CS Reps at T Mobile that plan does qualify for free Netflix.


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## Joey Bagadonuts (Mar 13, 2006)

zalusky said:


> Are you on the Max plan vs the basic Magenta plan?


You know what? I just did a comparison between my current plan and the next one up which is simply Magenta. When I had them side by side, it clearly says Netflix Not Available under my plan but Netflix Basic (One Screen) is available under the Magenta plan. TWO T Mobile Reps gave me bad info.


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## zalusky (Apr 5, 2002)

Joey Bagadonuts said:


> You know what? I just did a comparison between my current plan and the next one up which is simply Magenta. When I had them side by side, it clearly says Netflix Not Available under my plan but Netflix Basic (One Screen) is available under the Magenta plan. TWO T Mobile Reps gave me bad info.


You just can’t find good help these days! Well you have some decisions to make. I was on the 55+ one plan originally but upgrading to the Max plan made sense for me. If you’re not 55 or can’t partner with somebody who is the numbers might not work.


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## wspencerjr60 (Jan 13, 2022)

I use mine to record sporting events, news and network TV to watch them later and timeshift or skip commercials, and record old movies to keep. There's nothing better out there.


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## celtic pride (Nov 8, 2005)

I find it easier to use the tivo guide to set up recordings! i hate searching through hbo max or showtime to find movies to watch, But mostly i love being able to set up season passes for my sports teams and tv shows!


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

I use it since I still have cable TV while Frontier offers it and I still use it with pulled content through PyTiVo. Once cableTV goes away I will continue to use them until I lose the ability to pull with PyTiVo. Then I will just go through my archived content using plex or rely on family member logins for streaming.


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## Tucson Tom (Jun 8, 2019)

I also have three OTA Tivos with an external antenna. In addition I have Amazon prime. That's all I really need and it saves a ton of money.


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## kkey1030 (2 mo ago)

I use it for the same reason I always have used it. It allows me to freeze t.v. shows and back up if I missed something. It also allows me to record shows I always want to watch and it does a good job of catching those shows when the network re-schedules at the last minute because of a news update interrupting regular programming. And let‘s not forget the shows I’ve saved on my hard drive for years to watch over and over again.


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## Steve Griffen (Jul 22, 2018)

jsherknus said:


> Just an FYI....you know they have the Xfinity Stream app for Amazon firesticks now, right? You can watch VOD and any Xfinity channel from the firestick now as well as recordings.


Yeah, but VOD (and network (and a lot of other) streaming) make you watch commercials. Drives me insane. Also, streaming you can't slow mo, or frame advance, or any cool things like that. If streaming services ever allowed you to have "real" control over the video, I would stop cable, but I don't see that ever happening. I was so hoping that the TIVO streaming stick would have all the great video controls like a dvr TIVO. Why wouldn't they do that? If they did that, they would trounce all the other streaming sticks.

However, I must say, my new Edge is VERY disappointing compared to my Premiere that I've had forever. The hdmi on the Premiere went out (I still use it with component outputs to hdmi converter) is why I bought an Edge, but it has had nothing but problems. So this will be the last Tivo for me unless something drastic changes with the company. So sad.


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## xjonx (Oct 8, 2006)

howards said:


> kmttg has been updated. GitHub - lart2150/kmttg: Java application to interact with TiVo DVRs
> 
> Now running v2.5-l here.


Thanks! I'll check it out.

Last time I was there was to get the security certificate updated and at that time things were looking very doubtful as the original programmer left years ago and someone else took over just enough to get by the certificate expiration fixed.


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## dgoto (Apr 29, 2010)

xjonx said:


> I use mine now almost exclusively to record and keep old TV shows and a few movies for storage on my Plex server. I am currently using KTTMG to crack shows, but since KTTMG is no longer supported, I will continue to use TiVo until the app loses its security certificate and dies. I believe at the end of this year, unless another user saves it like they did a couple of years ago.
> 
> Without KTTMG there is little functionality that brought me to TiVo left (no thumb rating, ads - although they are currently blocked, weird nonsensical auto recordings I never watch, etc.).
> 
> Sad to say but I don't see much left in the TiVo platform, which I have had since the introduction of TiVo3, that will keep me paying. I can get much the same thing though other services.


Try this, there are various software program to convert TiVo files. https://www.videoproc.com/media-converter/convert-tivo-to-mp4.htm


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## judyn (Feb 26, 2009)

misterclick said:


> You Nerd, You! 😛😋





zalusky said:


> Probably should consider the question "Why do you still watch Broadcast".


PBS is wonderful! We've mostly stopped watching series from the other channels... I like the TIvos even for streaming (if supported) because I like a single interface... but since we have pathetic internet and tend not to watch a series all at once, we also use Playon Home a lot and feed the Tivos with pytivo.


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## jfmorris (Feb 26, 2009)

sdawson said:


> I'll chime in. I have three OTA Roamios (each with lifetime subscriptions) in the house (bedroom, kitchen, and living room) each with a 3TB drive. I have a massive antenna on the roof, which I put up myself when the broadcasters switched from analog to digital (how many years ago now? A long, long time). Even though the stations are 45-50 miles away, the antenna pulls them in and I have _a lot_ of OTA shows that I DVR, not just ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and WB, but others such as COZI and GRIT and others. So all of the above comes for no cost other than the initial cost of the antenna and Roamio's.


This is exactly the scenario I am in - except I am down to two Tivo's with lifetime subscriptions - a Roamio OTA and a really old TiVo HD. With 40-50 local stations coming in from the antenna on my roof, there is plenty of content to record. I'll keep using and repairing those two Tivo's as long as I am getting content guide information for them. I also agree with you on the Roku - much superior for streaming compared to the Roamio. I've got a Roku on each of my TV's, including the ones that I don't have a TiVo for anymore (I had 5 TiVo's at one time). I tend to use those rather than any app built into the TV itself as well.


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## lloydjs (Jul 16, 2003)

Tivo Community,

I have a SVR-2000 series 1 with lifetime subscription. I upgraded the hard drives and loved my Tivo for years but now it is disconnected in the basement. I am currently using IPTV service for TV, no cable/satellite/OTA. 

Is my SVR-2000 good for anything? Can it be setup up as a network storage device? If so, maybe I can put all of my music on it. 

Thoughts?


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## Bruce24 (Jan 8, 2003)

jsherknus said:


> Just an FYI....you know they have the Xfinity Stream app for Amazon firesticks now, right? You can watch VOD and any Xfinity channel from the firestick now as well as recordings.


Since he said "_I spend my time on my Apple TV_" I imagine he would be more interested in the Xfinity Stream App for AppleTV. It is far from perfect, but works well enough to have allowed me to return the cable box I had in my office and kitchen.


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## phitaubill_7437 (7 mo ago)

The flexibility of having multiple TiVo Minis working around the house with only a couple of CableCards makes it the ideal solution for LiveTV in many rooms.


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## ronnie44 (Sep 30, 2002)

Besides using the TIVO to record and watch current shows, we use the TIVO to record hundreds of hours of movies, etc to watch in our motorhome when we are on the road. Sort of like carrying our own library of shows along for when we cannot get decent TV reception with our satellite dish or antenna.


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## marklyn (Jan 21, 2002)

howards said:


> kmttg has been updated. GitHub - lart2150/kmttg: Java application to interact with TiVo DVRs
> 
> Now running v2.5-l here.


I downloaded from the link posted by it says 2.5a-I version. Does this mean there is a new "branch" of kmttg now that will be updated and the old 2.4p branch is the last?


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## dupah (Aug 1, 2005)

I will have TIVO as long as it is available! We have two Bolt units--which each are our 3rd since we have been with Tivo from the beginning--with Spectrum cable cards, in addition to also having a few cable boxes and and some Roku units. I am hoping that Austin where we live is not on the Spectrum cable card hit list. 

With 9 TVs in our home using a variety of devices, we see daily how superior the TIVO interface is. One interesting thing is that we still use the CLASSIC Tivo Experience--which we prefer far more than the new one that was rolled out several years ago. It was a challenge to get it back, but we are very happy. The new one, we feel, was designed to look more like a cable box or ROKY whereas that is exactly what I don't want.

People often kid me about why we still have something as "old fashioned" as TIVO...until I share features and the precision of being able to skip ads, etc., compared to a clunky cable box or Roku. You will have to pry TIVO from my cold dead hands.


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## signots (Nov 14, 2006)

I use my TiVo to interface with DirecTV


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## bob_p (Oct 17, 2016)

We were early adopters of Windows Media Center and with a network of Xbox 360's were able to provide whole home support to all of our TVs, using 3rd party software for automatic commercial skipping.

After Microsoft discontinued WMC and made it increasingly difficult to use, we purchased a TiVo Bolt+ (recently replaced by an Edge) and Minis, and use TiVo's commercial skipping feature.

When away from home, we'll record programs on our TiVo and then either stream them or download them overnight for viewing (using my smartphone's unlimited LTE/5G data plan).

And all of this works reasonably well.

This summer our Bolt+ died, and while we were waiting to get our replacement Edge, we used our Xfinity DVR for local recording and remote viewing. Comcast places restrictions on using the remote viewing. I found I needed to use a VPN to make it appear we were at home for watching some of the programs. When you download a recording, that recording is locked and can't be viewed anywhere else (or at home) until that device releases the recording. And, the Android app has problems trying to project the program to a local TV using a USB/HDMI cable or screen mirroring feature.

As to the question about why do we still use TiVo...

Since we already own the DVR and network of Minis, we only pay an annual subscription for our TiVo service, which provides support for live and recorded cable programs on all of the TVs in our house - 4 Minis supporting 10 TVs (some sharing HDMI signals). If we switched to Xfinity's service, we would have to pay an annual fee for multiple cable boxes - at $7.50 per box per month. Replacing our 4 Minis would cost us $360 per year, more than our TiVo subscription.

Based on our recent experience, TiVo is still better for streaming live and recorded TV programs compared to Xfinity - something we do 3 to 4 months of the year while traveling in our RV.

However... On our most recent trip, because there are multiple streaming options for most of the cable programs (including live sports), I found that out of the programs we were recording on our TiVo, most of them could also be streamed using an app rather than viewing from our TiVo. And most of those apps now allow you to download the programs for later viewing offline (some require you to pay for an upgraded subscription to have this feature).

And, if we're able to stream most of the programming remotely, that means we may be getting close to doing the same for our viewing at home - possibly replacing all of our Minis with a network of Google Chromecasts with Android TV (providing the same features we have on our Sony Android TVs).

TiVo had an opportunity years ago to provide something like a Chromecast. They provided early support for multiple streaming apps including search across all of the apps and TV guide/recordings - and even developed their own small footprint HDMI device. But they failed to integrate everything together - streaming apps plus a lightweight Mini for live/recorded TV. And now with the migration to streaming apps for most programming and with multiple devices supporting streaming app integration, coupled with decreasing cablecard support, it's not clear what TiVo can do long term to remain competitive...

We still prefer using our TiVo boxes vs. Xfinity's DVR - though we have shifted to using our Android TVs and Chromecasts with Android TV for doing streaming - since we get full support for various 4K and audio formats, not available with our TiVo boxes.

In a year when our subscription comes up for renewal, we'll take another look - and decide if we'll stay with TiVo for another year - or make the plunge to a combination of Xfinity plus streaming apps (or just streaming apps).


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## adamwsh (Oct 22, 2002)

My biggest reason: Tivo, by far, has the best playback controls... Fast-Forward, Rewind, and especially instant replay! Sometimes Jimmy Kimmel will start late and so Tivo will not get all of it. I'll then watch it on Hulu. So annoying to try to fast forward or rewind through the show using Hulu. The fast-forward and rewind overshoot correction on Tivo is unmatched!


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## William Jacoby (2 mo ago)

xjonx said:


> I use mine now almost exclusively to record and keep old TV shows and a few movies for storage on my Plex server. I am currently using KTTMG to crack shows, but since KTTMG is no longer supported, I will continue to use TiVo until the app loses its security certificate and dies. I believe at the end of this year, unless another user saves it like they did a couple of years ago.
> 
> Without KTTMG there is little functionality that brought me to TiVo left (no thumb rating, ads - although they are currently blocked, weird nonsensical auto recordings I never watch, etc.).
> 
> Sad to say but I don't see much left in the TiVo platform, which I have had since the introduction of TiVo3, that will keep me paying. I can get much the same thing though other services.


I have had tivos since the beginning. I think it’s the best brand. Unfortunately I moved to a new gated community where they don’t use a cable system that uses a cable card. This means I can’t use any of my tivos as they are not compatible. I do use a tivo that can get ota programs. Unfortunately it can’t record the cable channels. I wish you could make the tivo compatible with non cable card systems. The DVRs they use are crap compared to tivo. I use tivo for the few ota channels, but there are are only about 8 of these channels here. Please find a way to obtain these cable channels that are spreading. If not your company will continue to lose customers. I hope your engineers can find a way to do this.


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## clonger20 (Dec 7, 2006)

So just to add my $.02: still rolling with Tivo b/c I'm still a cable subscriber. (I know, I know... but if you venn-diagramed my fam's viewing habits, there'd be maybe 3 channel overlap.) Bolt on primary, minis on the other 2 TVs. Have Rokus on all TVs, so not wasting any time with the Tivo builtin apps. I care most about effective DVR function (slowmo/skip/menu response), we don't record much, Bolt has lifetime sub, cable card rental is cheap, minis are reasonably quick on moca infrastructure, and the OG remote still feels SO NICE in hand...

Everytime I start thinking about an environment remodel, I bail b/c the non-tech fam members are comfortable w Tivo interface and my grandfathered cable package still has a palatable price. So I'll continue kicking that can as long as possible.


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## mchiles (Jul 13, 2007)

I have been using TiVo DVRs for nearly 20 years. However, I am finding I am using my TiVos less and less. I currently have three (3) TiVo Premiere XL4 with Lifetime subscriptions, a first gen TiVo Stream and a first gen TiVo Mini. Each of the TiVo Premiere XL4s have 4TB hard drives and Comcast/Xfinity cable cards. Each TVs in the house is connected to a TiVo device instead of a Comcast/Xfinity cable box. And up until last week, all three TiVo Premiere XL4s were also connected to Slingbox 350s which were sadly 'Bricked" last week by Sling as Sling turned off their servers. Although, I subscribe to Comcast/Xfinity Cable TV and 1.2GB internet and have a X1 Comcast/Xfinity 4K DVR in the Living Room for everyday use and local channels. (OTA is not possible for me to get all local channels). I also subscribe to nearly all the streaming services, Hulu (no ad) Disney+ (no ad), Paramount+ (no ad) Peacock (no ad), Apple TV+, Netflix and Amazon Prime, Discovery+ (no ad), plus a couple more I probably forgot. I am finding that even though I may record shows on my DVRs, I may end up watching the shows on a streaming service on my Smart TV (LG OLED CX) or Apple TV 4K without commercials (no ads) or not having to hit the TiVo commercial skip button. My TiVos with cable cards have been relegated to mostly being just cable boxes. Which may end if/when Comcast/Xfinity discontinues cable cards use. If any of these TiVos die, I will probably not replace them. I also don't use my UHD Blu-Ray Player much anymore either. I find myself using the streaming services more and more. Although, I am not quite ready yet to "cut the cord", ditch cable and rely on the streaming services only and no TiVos. 

mchiles
Hershey, PA


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## Dealcatcher (Mar 30, 2008)

sdawson said:


> I'll chime in. I have three OTA Roamios (each with lifetime subscriptions) in the house (bedroom, kitchen, and living room) each with a 3TB drive. I have a massive antenna on the roof, which I put up myself when the broadcasters switched from analog to digital (how many years ago now? A long, long time). Even though the stations are 45-50 miles away, the antenna pulls them in and I have _a lot_ of OTA shows that I DVR, not just ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and WB, but others such as COZI and GRIT and others. So all of the above comes for no cost other than the initial cost of the antenna and Roamio's.
> 
> The'ongoing' cost is that I tend to have to replace the internal fans a time or two a year across the three machines. When they get loud, I put another one in.
> 
> ...


I have two that were new in the box until last week, and we tried to download the stations for two days on both units, and it just will not download them no matter what I try. It says there are none in my area but I know for sure, with my outside antenna I can usually pick them up on any of my TVs.. Please if you have any instructions on how to do it, please send them back to me. I don't understand how your OTA is working in mine isn't and yet mines brand new out-of-the-box, even though it's sat there for probably almost 10 years after purchase, without even being opened. We packed them away and couldn't find them. I forgot where we put them, then finally found them when we were moving please and this will make a big difference for two elderly people. Who've been trying to live in society today on a fixed income. Thank you very much.


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## ghartler (Jun 22, 2019)

*WHY I STILL USE TIVO*
WHAT I HAVE:

TiVo XL primary in living room - Comcast/Xfinity cable card
TiVo Series 2 (with DVD burner HA!) in bedroom - virtually unused these days as the news program I liked went away so now I watch my iPad instead
Comcast/Xfinity cable & internet
SO WHY DO I STILL HAVE IT?

Skip - That little green button is GOLD to me!
Guide - Unlike the horrific Comcast Guide, there are NO Ads and I can easily see programming hours in advance
Recordings - I can quickly see what I've not yet watched instead of wasting time clicking through various streaming apps. Plus I can save & rewatch easily.
Remote - It's fast! (And I don't even have the voice remote.)
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE (HELP!)

I'm expecting Comcast/Xfinity to stop serving/supplying cable cards. Then what do I do? My BFF has X1 and I'm not impressed enough to change to it.
Neither TiVo nor my TV has Disney+ or Hulu Apps, so I'm stuck using Chromecast to stream from iPad. I regularly encounter struggles with the Disney+ App streaming through the Chromecast to TV and don't know why. I'm tired of fighting with it and HATE not being able to use my TiVo remote for these.
I'm likely moving in 2023 and I'm not expecting my next Comcast/Xfinity office to have cable cards.
Knowing the above, what should my future considerations be? I haven't kept up with the current TiVo options.


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## Old Hickory (Jan 13, 2011)

I watch live sports with my team's synched radio broadcast (streaming app via Bluetooth to soundbar). Typically, the Tivo is delayed a few seconds in order to perfectly synch with the radio call. So I never have to listen to the ESPN etc. talking heads.


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## sdawson (Aug 18, 2016)

Dealcatcher said:


> I have two that were new in the box until last week, and we tried to download the stations for two days on both units, and it just will not download them no matter what I try. It says there are none in my area but I know for sure, with my outside antenna I can usually pick them up on any of my TVs.. Please if you have any instructions on how to do it, please send them back to me. I don't understand how your OTA is working in mine isn't and yet mines brand new out-of-the-box, even though it's sat there for probably almost 10 years after purchase, without even being opened. We packed them away and couldn't find them. I forgot where we put them, then finally found them when we were moving please and this will make a big difference for two elderly people. Who've been trying to live in society today on a fixed income. Thank you very much.


I wish i could come over and see what is going on. if you can get the ota broadcast signal on the tv, then tivo should be able to tune it. obvious thingto check is for a good connection wit the coax cable going into the tivo, unplug from tv and plug in to tivo so you use the same one you know is good.

if these were never turned on for 10 years then perhaps there is no tivo service on the units and that is the issue. hard to diagnose without seeing it in person i guess.

do you know if they came with lifetime subscription or some other subscription?


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## TomViers (Oct 27, 2009)

I've been with TiVO since 1998 or so? Here are my boxes:
*TiVo EDGE Cable 2TB
TiVo Roamio
TiVo Premiere R74650
Series3 HD 32hr R64825
TiVo Series2 rev 3 DVR 80 hour TCD24008A
Sony 30 Hour PTV Recorder

Only the Edge, Roamio and Premiere are in service. I bought lifetime service on every box and it has paid off in spades. I just love the UI and speed not to mention the skip control. The ability to pull up recordings from other TiVO's in the house and play them on the current TiVO I'm watching is great. I do wish there were more streaming options from other services, but we use our Xbox to overcome that obstacle.

Someone mentioned streaming remote from TiVO's in their home. How is that done? TIA.*


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## Nickolime (Apr 26, 2021)

I have an OTA Roamio and 3 mini's. I've replaced the power supply and upgraded the HDD. We get 90+ channels through the antenna, and record broadcast TV. The quality of Antenna signals is superior compared any streaming service for local channels, and it doesn't eat into the monthly data allotment. Also, the TIVO controls are far superior to anything I've used with any streaming service. Fast forwarding is very smooth, commercial skip, OnePasses, etc.. I'll keep using it until the TIVO dies, or service is shutdown. I don't care about lack of apps on the Roamio, since Amazon and Rokus are cheap enough to have on each TV as well for them.


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## lonestarjacket (Mar 15, 2003)

misterclick said:


> You Nerd, You! 😛😋


T-Mobile also offers $10 off of Youtube TV per month BTW. I use Tivo for broadcast DVR. Broadcast has channels not offered on streaming (like 4 different PBS channels) and it works even when the internet goes out. (not frequent, but it happens)


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## Mike Lang (Nov 17, 1999)

I'm down to a single TiVo & even that is just a backup OTA recorder in case of storms with Directv. But streaming as a backup has rendered the TiVo essentially unnecessary in our home.


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## lonestarjacket (Mar 15, 2003)

Use it for OTA DVR that has channels not offered on streaming. (I got it initially because when I switched to streaming early there weren't options for local channels.)

For sports that are broadcast it is much better than watching them streaming. Quickmode, slow-mo, frame-by-frame advance, Skip Mode to skip commericals automatically for any program.

I use streaming for what I can't get OTA, but trying to skip commercials using that little preview window is a pain, especially when Skip Mode can do it automatically. Streaming has advantages as well with YouTube TV (key plays for sports, segment bookmarks for news, unlimited DVR space.)

No streaming DVR service has anything to compare to Suggestions or Wish List recording either. If I want to record every show with a particular actor or actress, or in a particular genre, I can do it with Tivo but nothing else.


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## jbs42 (Feb 17, 2018)

I have FIOS with a cable card. We switched to TIVO when we had to start paying $50/month for equipment and DVR. Bought used Roamio+ and mini's off ebay for $300 and have probably saved over $2000 in fees to Verizon over 5 years. Debating cutting the cord and going streaming TV. Something like Sling with AirTV may keep my family happy and watching TV the way they like.


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## seanandrsn (Dec 12, 2010)

I have 2 Bolts and 2 Mini's all with Lifetime subscriptions. We've been using TiVo for many years and it's just what my wife is comfortable with. We are on Verizon Fios (cable cards) and I'm not a fan of their DVR box and hate to pay to rent a DVR box with no control of content. I like the season pass option and my wife likes to watch TiVo suggestions (recordings) from time to time.

With my TiVo I use PyTivo to serve content from my desktop as I can archive recordings to a 10 TB drive and recall the video and download with in minutes to one of the Bolts to watch on any TV through a Moca connection so really no issues connecting to external content on any device on our 1 Gigabit connection. 

It is a little frustrating to see apps like Hulu removed from the system but I get why they are doing that. 

We will most likely continue to stay with TiVo until a cable card dies and we can no longer get one but if the unit dies from a hard drive failure I will most likely put another one in. I upgraded one of my Bolts with a Western Digital SSD drive which has helped keeping the unit cooler and the software seems more responsive.


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## thechoop (Apr 30, 2007)

We have several TiVos with each connected to a TV recording OTA shows. We don't have cable or satellite TV. I wouldn't know what else to use. Our TVs are older so we use the Netflix and Prime video on the TiVos that have the features.


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## snappa (Apr 24, 2003)

I've owned TiVo since my first Sony TiVo in 2000. It was a gift to me from my wife but once it was setup she and the rest of my family were instantly hooked. Watching any other TV without it was painful. I did try a DVR from Comcast before TiVo had HD DVRs. I had 2 of the Motorola boxes and both almost burned my house down as they were in a cabinet and they had NO cooling fans. The user experience was horrible. In fact, the current Comcast DVR UX is pretty close to the current TiVo UX, not good. One of the Motorola boxes burned out and the second actually charred the wood in the cabinet so I got rid if it and thankfully HD TiVo arrived. I've owned many boxes and currently have a 6 Tuner Roamio that has 5 TiVo Minis connected to it throughout the house. The Roamio has the old interface because, well, the new one isn't even close from a UX perspective and the Roamio doesn't really have the horsepower for it. I also have a 4 tuner Bolt that isn't hooked up running the old interface too.

I use Netflix on one of the Minis occasionally and it works. It's nowhere near as smooth as my Apple TV for streaming content.

Why do we love TiVo? The ease of use, the capacity for recorded network content, and the FF / REW capabilities are just so smooth compared to trying to do that with streaming content. Do I see TiVo as a long term future? Sadly, no. But as long as there's network content we'll not be cutting the cord and will be doing both streaming on Apple TV and cable content on TiVo.


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## osu1991 (Mar 6, 2015)

Dealcatcher said:


> I have two that were new in the box until last week, and we tried to download the stations for two days on both units, and it just will not download them no matter what I try. It says there are none in my area but I know for sure, with my outside antenna I can usually pick them up on any of my TVs.. Please if you have any instructions on how to do it, please send them back to me. I don't understand how your OTA is working in mine isn't and yet mines brand new out-of-the-box, even though it's sat there for probably almost 10 years after purchase, without even being opened. We packed them away and couldn't find them. I forgot where we put them, then finally found them when we were moving please and this will make a big difference for two elderly people. Who've been trying to live in society today on a fixed income. Thank you very much.


If they’ve been sitting in the box for years, then they’re probably on the old software that used gracenote channel and guide data. They would need the update that switched everything to Rovi data once Rovi bought TiVo. Perhaps post in the help section and somebody may be able to further help.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Dealcatcher said:


> I have two that were new in the box until last week, and we tried to download the stations for two days on both units, and it just will not download them no matter what I try. It says there are none in my area but I know for sure, with my outside antenna I can usually pick them up on any of my TVs.. Please if you have any instructions on how to do it, please send them back to me. I don't understand how your OTA is working in mine isn't and yet mines brand new out-of-the-box, even though it's sat there for probably almost 10 years after purchase, without even being opened. We packed them away and couldn't find them. I forgot where we put them, then finally found them when we were moving please and this will make a big difference for two elderly people. Who've been trying to live in society today on a fixed income. Thank you very much.


Just use the zip code of the nearest large city. 

But I’m pretty sure the OTA Roamio did not exist 10 years ago when you bought yours. It’s possible yours doesn’t have OTA (Premiere 4 or XL4). How did you end up spending several hundred bucks on new TiVos all those years ago but never using them. There are probably lots of reasons they don’t work now.


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## SNJpage1 (May 25, 2006)

I hate the Comcast box. It just sits next to my Tivo.


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## dpierce4778 (2 mo ago)

gigaquad said:


> How are you transferring items to and from an Edge and your NAS? AFAIK that ability went away with the Roamio, which is why I still own 8 of them.


KMTTG still works well I use it all the time


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Dealcatcher said:


> I have two that were new in the box until last week, and we tried to download the stations for two days on both units, and it just will not download them no matter what I try. It says there are none in my area but I know for sure, with my outside antenna I can usually pick them up on any of my TVs.. Please if you have any instructions on how to do it, please send them back to me. I don't understand how your OTA is working in mine isn't and yet mines brand new out-of-the-box, even though it's sat there for probably almost 10 years after purchase, without even being opened. We packed them away and couldn't find them. I forgot where we put them, then finally found them when we were moving please and this will make a big difference for two elderly people. Who've been trying to live in society today on a fixed income. Thank you very much.


You've made several similar posts, now, in recent weeks (above, here & here), but haven't replied when people have responded with suggestions or questions.

If you really want to see if you can get your TiVo boxes working, I recommend what others have previously... create a new thread dedicated to your issue, repeating what you've posted, describing your issue and what you've tried, but also including the specifics for the TiVo model #'s for your boxes, what software version they're running, and what their service status is listed as within your online TiVo account.

Related resources:

TCF Help sub-forum (good place to post a new thread)
TiVo Service & Model Number Table
How to find the TiVo Software Version for your Device
TiVo Account Management: Manage Devices


Example device entry from TiVo.com:






​​


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## dpierce4778 (2 mo ago)

Why did you prefer or stil use your Tivo?
[/QUOTE]

For us because the interface and recording options are still vastly better than the Xfinity box we got with out cable service. As well as as others have mentioned the ability to move some recordings to a PC/server though KMTTG. 

That said though with so much going the way of streaming Tivo really needs to step up their OS and Apps game. Devices Like Roku are really hurting tivo and the DVR market as most shows you can find on streaming apps. 

IMHO Tivo really needs to concentrate on beefing up their hardware and getting more apps. Maybe switching to a more android base OS but keeping the option of off loading non-copy protected recordings and the ability to move them from Tivo to Tivo. This would be less of a demand on the current hardware, allow for more and faster app loading as well as give them access to more apps from the google app store. And it would allow for both the best in DVR user interface and flexibility that Tivo already offers along with access to a ton of more apps. It would be a win win and a huge draw of customers to Tivo


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## chiguy50 (Nov 9, 2009)

SNJpage1 said:


> I hate the Comcast box. It just sits next to my Tivo.


Would you care to elaborate? If folks are anticipating an alternative to TiVo, your impressions of the Comcast X1 DVR could prove helpful assuming you were using the most recent model.


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## chiguy50 (Nov 9, 2009)

dpierce4778 said:


> IMHO Tivo really needs to concentrate on beefing up their hardware and getting more apps.


Perhaps you are not aware that there is no chance that any of this will happen as TiVo's corporate owners have moved on from hardware DVR solutions.

This thread is more about nostalgia.


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## sdawson (Aug 18, 2016)

chiguy50 said:


> Perhaps you are not aware that there is no chance that any of this will happen as TiVo's corporate owners have moved on from hardware DVR solutions.
> 
> This thread is more about nostalgia.


 I guess so. Was a terrible move though. My memory is long enough that I recall when Apple was about to do the sam e thing. They had ousted Steve Jobs and brought in an experienced CEO to 'turn apple around', Sculley as I recall, who had been president or CEO at pepsi. His vision was to get out of the hardware business and focus on the operating system, licensing it out to other computer manufacturer, as that was where the money way he thought.

It would have been a disaster if they had anot brought back Jobs, who then rescinded those plans (taking a financial hit to do so) put out some candy colored iMacs to raise some cash, then took a hard turn into the integraged hardware and software experience (ipads, itouchs', iphones eventually, in addition to their laptops and desktops machines). All the billions made would not have been possible without the full hardware + software experience.

Tivo should have done the same, creating partnerships as needed to get decent streaming guts into their DVRs. Advancing and improving the DVR eperience, capacity, and reliability. Nostalgia I guess, but I have seen so many companies in my life flounder due to lack of vision and forgetting what their core capabilities are, and it's troublesome when good companies have bad leadership.

Still riding my TIVO to the end though, and will keep it going as long as I can still record and play OTA broadcasts.


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## sdawson (Aug 18, 2016)

mdavej said:


> But I’m pretty sure the OTA Roamio did not exist 10 years ago when you bought yours. It’s possible yours doesn’t have OTA


Got me curious as to when i purchased mine so I logged into tivo.com to see when they were activated. I have 3 OTA Roamios, one activated in 2016, one in 2017, and one in 2018. I am not sure when they OTA Roamios first came out, but I'm sure someone knows.


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

Steve Griffen said:


> However, I must say, my new Edge is VERY disappointing compared to my Premiere that I've had forever. The hdmi on the Premiere went out (I still use it with component outputs to hdmi converter) is why I bought an Edge, but it has had nothing but problems. So this will be the last Tivo for me unless something drastic changes with the company. So sad.


The Edge will probably be the last TiVo for TiVo too.


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## osu1991 (Mar 6, 2015)

sdawson said:


> Got me curious as to when i purchased mine so I logged into tivo.com to see when they were activated. I have 3 OTA Roamios, one activated in 2016, one in 2017, and one in 2018. I am not sure when they OTA Roamios first came out, but I'm sure someone knows.


OTA only Roamio launched in 2014 according to this article.









TiVo's Roamio OTA for Cord Cutters Gets 1TB Update


The new DVR hits shelves May 2, with a 1TB hard drive and fresh features to speed up your binge watching.




www.pcmag.com


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

sdawson said:


> Tivo should have done the same, creating partnerships as needed to get decent streaming guts into their DVRs. Advancing and improving the DVR eperience, capacity, and reliability.


TiVo was headed in the right direction with OnePass and remote streaming, but failed to make them more than patches on top of their existing software, never quite getting either one working as well as needed for a consumer product.


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## ThreeSoFar (May 24, 2002)

misterclick said:


> You've made my point...👍


Much like misterclick and the post he replied this to, still a happy TiVo lifetime subscriber. Got three online now, Roamio, Bolt and Edge. Had over a dozen since the S1 in 2001, another dozen or two I helped friends & family upgrade the drive in. 

It's convenience and inertia for us. Used to cable, got plenty of money to pay for it and the new hardware every few years. That and of course the instant grat, never fail, no lag, conten + time shifting + replay + all of it.

PS: Any of my TC friends from the Vegas 'con in 2004 still around? Good times....


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

justen_m said:


> No reason yours shouldn't work, or why TiVo refuses to help.


Well, if they purchased a couple Premiere DVRs capable of OTA, that would be one reason, since TiVo doesn't offer new service subscriptions for Premiere's anymore.


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## Dealcatcher (Mar 30, 2008)

Clifford H. Eck said:


> I have TIVO BOLT VOX and a Mini that work great. I also still subscribe to Spectrum (which is very expensive at $200+/month.) I use TIVO all the time in my home office, but my wife loves the simplicity of the Spectrum Guide and so we have it on all (4) TV's except in my office. The Mini is hooked up on a port on our main TV in the living room as a safty blanket if Spectrum goes out and also as a DVR. I would go full time TIVO and cancel Spectrum except for their basic service but my wife is addicted to the Spectrum Remotes. She agrees that the TIVO Guide is much better, and likes the DVR but just won't get away from Spectrum ... ya know, "happy wife, happy life", and it's true. Maybe sometime soon TIVO will devise the perfect solution. I would consider OTA but can't find an antenna that will pull the remote signals (50 - 7- miles away in opposite directions, ) that are reliable. 34465 Florida. So I hang in with TIVO and have for 20+ years. Fingers are crossed.


Please tell us all how you are getting your OTA to download your local TV channels? We have 2 brand new OTAs in their original Tivo boxes and have spent days trying trying to download our local channels and eastern PA, but no matter what we try, we can't get them to download.


Dealcatcher said:


> We had been Tivo users since day 1, and it was wonderful and expensive over the many years. A couple years ago, we purchased 2 brand New OTA Tivos, and misplaced them in our new home in Dover, PA. Tried for hours and hours, and all the so called fixes to get the OTA channels in Dover. Nothing worked. We called around trying to find out what was going on, and everyone we talked to said Tivo just dropped support for the units. How much support could be involved? It is OTA not cable, and yet they lied when talking to them, and not just saying we don't support the units, and you are just screwed. So we wasted hours trying everything we could find online, but to no avail. Why does this country put up with companies just screwing over people? Does anyone know how to do a walk around on trying to download the channels to the OTA tivo's?


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## Dealcatcher (Mar 30, 2008)

krkaufman said:


> Well, if they purchased a couple Premiere DVRs capable of OTA, that would be one reason, since TiVo doesn't offer new service subscriptions for Premiere's anymore.


Thanks for your reply, but these are standard OTA, TIVO's not premieres capable of doing OTA. We we bought them right after TIVO came out with him, and thought we would use them eventually. And yet they eventually come and we can't get them to find us stations in our area when we can connect them up to our TV and watch them just fine and I don't think there's any of the TIVO service software on there other than the basic stuff that you need. When you buy it to record over the air TV shows nothings changed with the programming and broadcast of OTA in my part of Pennsylvania or anywhere else as far as I know , so I just can't figure out what's going on and if anyone else has any more ideas I want to try them so please pass them on much appreciated. Thank you very much everyone for your help.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

Dealcatcher said:


> Thanks for your reply, but these are standard OTA, TIVO's not premieres capable of doing OTA. We we bought them right after TIVO came out with him, and thought we would use them eventually. And yet they eventually come and we can't get them to find us stations in our area when we can connect them up to our TV and watch them just fine and I don't think there's any of the TIVO service software on there other than the basic stuff that you need. When you buy it to record over the air TV shows nothings changed with the programming and broadcast of OTA in my part of Pennsylvania or anywhere else as far as I know , so I just can't figure out what's going on and if anyone else has any more ideas I want to try them so please pass them on much appreciated. Thank you very much everyone for your help.


There is no such thing as a “standard OTA TIVO.” So, for the Nth time, what is the actual model number of your TiVo box … as printed on the label on its back?

And many suggestions have been made by people in this thread, but you haven’t seemed to respond to any of the questions or suggestions … which is why one of the suggestions was for you to start your own dedicated thread, so you could have an easier time tracking replies.

Additional suggestions for what to include in your thread are included in this earlier post:








Why do you still use Tivo


I'm down to a single TiVo & even that is just a backup OTA recorder in case of storms with Directv. But streaming as a backup has rendered the TiVo essentially unnecessary in our home.




www.tivocommunity.com


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## sno.1953 (7 mo ago)

Love my TIVO, we are on #4, Series 2 (which stills works and purchased in 2005), Premiere, Roamio and Edge. Spectrum keeps threatening to stop supporting cards but if all TIVO users would cancel their subscriptions they might rethink. At one time Spectrum discussed having TIVO as their DVR but it didn't happen.

We use ROKU as an addon for streaming. Many shows are free but you are stuck with loads of commercials. I am not sure if paid subscription services offer no commercial viewing. We subscribe to ACORN and Britbox and those are commercial free. Right now many channels are pretty cheap but who is to say these won't increase dramatically when cable is reduced. Plus, many have the same shows and so it could get overwhelming.

One thing not mentioned is what happens to your viewing experience when EVERYONE is streaming? Unless they really kick up the bandwidth that could be a problem, or if the cloud is not available, streaming is out due to storms or whatever, then you are screwed. Having TIVO allows you to maintain a cable connection or watch previously recorded shows while others are twiddling their thumbs. I save shows like Sewing with Nancy, Fit to Stitch, etc. 

I won't be getting rid of TIVO unless forced to.


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## eherberg (Feb 17, 2011)

sno.1953 said:


> Spectrum keeps threatening to stop supporting cards but if all TIVO users would cancel their subscriptions they might rethink.


Given the number of users of cablecard against the total - the scenario you describe could happen and it would barely nudge the needle. In fact - I'm sure Spectrum would prefer it if such a thing were to actually happen.


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## misterclick (Oct 24, 2012)

akbar jaffer said:


> Use it for recording local broadcast and News and live sports love the interface. My 2 main issues with TiVo is I have a Mini but regularly lose connection. I have to switch back and forth between hard wired and a TiVo branded Wi-Fi adapter every few weeks. Go figure. I wish TiVo would have more updated apps


I used to have that problem years ago until I Assigned IP numbers to devices that use Internet. I found out the TiVo recorder and the Mini constantly or occasionally were given different IPs from the router and when that happened I had to "reconnect" the Mini. 
After I signed static IPs, I never had that problem. You might try that.


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## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

Because College Football. Could not find a stream of the UMich v. Ohio game today. Had to wake up old Faithful to see it. Tivo comes in handy when the Internet goes down too.


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## krisjs1767_111 (2 mo ago)

I have yet to see anything as good as the TiVo Guide.


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## tenthplanet (Mar 5, 2004)

bareyb said:


> Because College Football. Could not find a stream of the UMich v. Ohio game today. Had to wake up old Faithful to see it. Tivo comes in handy when the Internet goes down too.


Being it's a hardware dvr, even if the signal fails going to a Tivo and a recording is messed up you still have access previous recordings on the hard drive. If the internet goes down you'll still have your recordings in the cloud but you won't be able to get at them. As long as Tivo offers hardware dvrs I'll keep using them, it looks OTA plus streaming is still the future for a few more years.


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## markjrenna (Mar 23, 2006)

Having used Comcast, FiOS, and Optimum DVR's... It's a no brainer. Whish List's are a must for me!


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## buscuitboy (Aug 8, 2005)

Why do I still use Tivo?..... It really is still the best DVR experience. while I actually don't use it nearly as much as I did in the past, this is not so much by choice, but rather only because the way the industry and technology has shifted & moved; streaming and cloud DVR functionality. Both of these jobs can now be done by MUCH cheaper hardware options (roku, fireTV, android TV, etc)

I have 2 Roamios and 2 minis that still work great and no issues for years. I actually really only use them to record some local channels a few times a month for a paid project (& then offload with cTivo for MAC). Otherwise, I might have gotten rid of them a long time ago. Unfortunately, I find the apps on TiVo to be rather slow compared to my streaming boxes so the use of Netflix, HBO, Amazon Prime, etc, is suited better on other devices. I know some of this can be achieved by TiVo hardware, but unfortunately this is not where they excel so streaming is better elsewhere. 

I actually recently used my TiVos to watch some world cup games on FOX and do find it much easier to navigate then some of the IP based providers. I am with Xfinity, but only have a low end package since we have YoutubeTV for our main live TV viewing habits. I like this service, but it nice to go back to the TiVo every so often (LOL) & overall it just seems easier to get around when wanting to just channel surf and watch a recorded show.

With cable card mandates dropped, I suspect my days of TiVo will slowly die & be coming to an end. While Xfinity seems to still support cable cards for now & could be one of the better providers to offer longer support, who knows how much longer that will be. I hear companies are shifting to IP based channels that cable cards can't handle so when this happens with all my channels, that is probably when I will be done. I guess I should feel lucky as I hear several cable companies are already dropping & not supporting cable cards at all anymore. Probably also why I am hestiant to toally drop TiVo and hanging on to in in fear of not being able to get it back. 

Long live TiVo


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## phox_mulder (Feb 23, 2006)

I work M-F, 2pm-11pm, so watching any primetime network programming is a no-go.
I don't record as much these days as I used to, but still watch come.


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## hoyty (Jan 22, 2003)

dgoto said:


> My main preference for TiVo which I have had for 15 years now was having the capability of saving a recording such as a concert or sporting event to my PC for editing and saving in on my Media NAS for future viewing. Without that capability I would have moved on long ago. I presently have an Edge and I am happy with it.
> 
> Why did you prefer or stil use your Tivo?


I have an Edge OTA to watch NFL and News over broadcast. Everything else is on streaming services. We use the TiVo once or twice a week at most. I looked at the apps on the Edge and it is a joke. The Edge supports 4K, but with the selection of apps who cares. I have gotten sales emails for Edge Cable as low as $400 for device + lifetime.

I am 100% confident this will be my last TiVo.


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