# Roamio OTA or Bolt?



## KSOC Kid (Nov 19, 2015)

I dropped satellite 2 months ago and the only feature we miss is a DVR. I will purchase a TiVo very soon. But which? Best Buy has the OTA at $49, very enticing. TiVo has Bolt & 1 year service for $299. When I figure sales tax on the units & monthly plans, the OTA comes out better by about $75.

I'm not sure I see much difference in the units. I'm sure the Bolt is a little faster, has the commercial skip. It also is new and maybe has some bugs to be worked out. I only need to record some OTA stuff, and not looking for multiple TV set-ups in the future.

Am I short selling the Bolt? I don't mind spending the extra $75 if its a better value. It just don't see it.

I'd love some opinions. I've never had a TiVo before, have had cable or satellite my entire adult life. I live in the Orlando area and have attic antenna and get about 50 channels. 2 Roku's & AppleTV on 3 TV's.

New Member and am learning a ton on this site.


----------



## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

KSOC Kid said:


> I dropped satellite 2 months ago and the only feature we miss is a DVR. I will purchase a TiVo very soon. But which? Best Buy has the OTA at $49, very enticing. TiVo has Bolt & 1 year service for $299. When I figure sales tax on the units & monthly plans, the OTA comes out better by about $75.
> 
> I'm not sure I see much difference in the units. I'm sure the Bolt is a little faster, has the commercial skip. It also is new and maybe has some bugs to be worked out. I only need to record some OTA stuff, and not looking for multiple TV set-ups in the future.
> 
> ...


The Roamio is a fine DVR I own one and if the lifetime deal was still around would say it is a better deal than a Bolt. That said the Bolt is a better DVR in all ways (I have been using one for several months) and I would never buy a Roamio with monthly service over the current Bolt deal with annual service. Unless you can find a good deal on a used/new Roamio/Roamio OTA with lifetime go with the Bolt.


----------



## foghorn2 (May 4, 2004)

If you have to have 4k HD with hardly any available good content and skip mode, go with the Bolt.

Other than that the Roamio is the superior product.


----------



## ChrisFix (Jul 31, 2007)

Also, if you are willing to wait and see if Amazon gets more of the OTA's with Lifetime for $299 back in stock (you can order today, and they'll ship if & when the get them) - it's a great deal.
http://www.amazon.com/TiVo-Roamio-P...=UTF8&qid=1448040816&sr=8-1&keywords=tivo+ota


----------



## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

foghorn2 said:


> If you have to have 4k HD with hardly any available good content and skip mode, go with the Bolt. Other than that the Roamio is the superior product.


The Bolt offers much more than that as differences. The processor is MUCH faster, the UI is improved, it has a cablecard slot and the ability to go to cable if he ever decides to in the future, it will have better resale value because it's a generation newer, it at least can do 4K/UHD if he wants to, it has HDMI 2.0 with HDCP 2.2 so he's future proof if he gets a new UHDTV, it has that amazing aerodynamic bend in the middle so poor TiVo Guy's face doesn't melt off with the heat (oh wait, it already did!   )


----------



## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

If you can get the $300 lifetime Roamio OTA from Amazon, I'd do that. If not, then I'd go for a Bolt.


----------



## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

foghorn2 said:


> If you have to have 4k HD with hardly any available good content and skip mode, go with the Bolt.
> 
> Other than that the Roamio is the superior product.


The Roamio/Roamio OTA are fine DVRs, but to claim they are functionally superior OTA DVRs to the Bolt is just crazy talk. Oh and by the way as the OP is taking about recording OTA content nearly 100% of the new/prime time shows will have SkipMode that works great nearly 100% of the time.


----------



## series5orpremier (Jul 6, 2013)

HarperVision said:


> it has that amazing aerodynamic bend in the middle


so if he doesn't want to keep paying annual service charges after the first year just for OTA he can use it as a boomerang.


----------



## KSOC Kid (Nov 19, 2015)

Thanks for all the posts. I was leaning Bolt, probably leaning a little more now. I'll hold up through Black Friday & Cyber Monday then nab a good deal. I think I'll be happy either way. You all seem pretty happy with TiVo & I like good stuff that works. And I think my wife will like them better than the other brands.


----------



## ThAbtO (Apr 6, 2000)

I have the Basic Roamio for OTA. If I ever want to go to cable, I have that option and not have to get another box.


----------



## miadlor (Sep 4, 2003)

4K aside, the Roamio really is great. It's super quick. It's what the premiere should have been. I'm not sold on the Bolt at this time for just 4K. As far as speed, how much faster can it actually be?


----------



## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

miadlor said:


> 4K aside, the Roamio really is great. It's super quick. It's what the premiere should have been. I'm not sold on the Bolt at this time for just 4K. As far as speed, how much faster can it actually be?


Everything is faster, depends on what you are doing if it is marginally faster or significantly faster. Normal movement around the menus is marginally faster, Apps are noticeably to significantly faster, with Netflix the most notable. I don't think the speed increase alone would justify an upgrade for most people but add in 4K streaming, built in Stream, built in MoCA, SkipMode, better Plex app, etc. and it would be pretty easy to justify replacing a monthly or annual stock Roamio. If you use Hulu on your Roamio, have done a hard drive upgrade, or have lifetime it would get allot harder to justify the upgrade and like you said the Roamio is a very good DVR so if it meets your needs now you loose nothing by waiting to see how the Bolt shakes out and what deals come along. But the OP doesn't have a DVR now so that is a different decision and everything points to going with the Bolt, unless a good deal on a Roamio with lifetime can be gotten.


----------



## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

KSOC Kid said:


> I dropped satellite 2 months ago and the only feature we miss is a DVR. ... I only need to record some OTA stuff, ...
> 
> 2 Roku's & AppleTV on 3 TV's. ... *not looking for multiple TV set-ups* in the future. ...
> 
> I will purchase a TiVo very soon. But which?


I wrote a brief comparison b/w the BOLT and a Lifetime'd Roamio OTA in another thread, last night, here.

Here's the bullets _(irt BOLT vs OTA)_...
... *additional benefits*:

SkipMode commercial skip feature (on the BOLT *and* connected Minis)
Built-in MoCA 2.0 bridging capability
Built-in mobile streaming capability (do you have smartphones or tablets?)
Gigabit Ethernet
Dual-band Wireless AC (moot, once wired)
4K support
Beefier processor
Improved PLEX resolution support(?)

NOTE: Not listing QuickMode or Channel Logos, since those are due to hit Roamios soon.

See here for BOLT specs (PDF).

.... *potential downsides:*

subscription service plan vs lifetime ($150 annually after 1st year; though, viewed monthly, would be slightly less than current satellite plan)
hard drive upgrade options more limited
HDMI video only (no composite or component support)
appearance (white and bendy)
_... additions..._
inability to disable Overlap Protection (clipping)
no Hulu app

p.s. I see I missed at least one other downside of the BOLT, at least short-term, and that is that the Hulu app hasn't yet arrived for the BOLT. (h/t atmuscarella) Oops!, and I'm going to add one more negative to the BOLT, and I, personally, consider it a big one: inability to disable show clipping (see here for more)


----------



## KSOC Kid (Nov 19, 2015)

What is considered a "good deal" on Lifetime? I see Amazon has the R-OTA at $415 with PLS. Selling the unit for $79.


----------



## series5orpremier (Jul 6, 2013)

That's a 3rd party seller. Look in the other sellers section and you'll see Amazon sells it for $299.99 but it's currently out of stock. That's the clearance price and lowest it's ever been. You could place an order with Amazon and hope they get more in stock, but they have no estimated wait time on the selling page.


----------



## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

You'd be a nut not to buy the Bolt!


----------



## HD_Dude (Sep 11, 2006)

All the discussion about 4K on the Bolt - don't forget one key point:

Virtually every newer 4K television has 4K Netflix, 4K YouTube and 4K Amazon Prime built in. 

So, you would have multiple sources for 4K. That's not bad, of course, but I'm not seeing 4K on the Bolt as a huge selling point, because of the TV's ability to do the same thing.

We all know the Bolt cannot record 4K...nothing can. It can stream it, just like every 4K set.

Now - when TiVo builds a box that can record 4K from Netflix and Amazon? THAT will be insanely good. Of course, we'll need some monster hard drives - since the downloaded 4K movies I have (Vidity) are all more than 100 GB each.

If you bought the base Bolt, with a 500 GB HDD, that's 5 movies. Yikes!


----------



## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

It's said that the Bolt can indeed record 4K/UHD cable signals, it's just that there aren't any available yet.


----------



## series5orpremier (Jul 6, 2013)

Amazon now says they'll have more Roamio OTAs with lifetime in stock on November 26 for $299.99 so you'd better order now if you want one. I wouldn't wait until November 26 because with back orders they could run out of stock again at any time.


----------



## KSOC Kid (Nov 19, 2015)

I did! Ordered one about half an hour ago. Very happy to get the lifetime on the OTA. I was gonna go Bolt, but this was too good to pass. Value mean more now to me then features now. Five years down the road, maybe not so much.


----------



## HD_Dude (Sep 11, 2006)

HarperVision said:


> It's said that the Bolt can indeed record 4K/UHD cable signals, it's just that there aren't any available yet.


Thanks for that - I would love to see that happen.

We'd be talking enormous bandwidth, and enormous storage, but even so, sign me up!


----------



## series5orpremier (Jul 6, 2013)

Congrats. It's rumored with the imminent software update Roamios will be getting Quickmode (but not Skipmode) anyway. You'll be especially happy a year from now when you won't have to pay $150, or whatever they decide to charge, for annual service every year.

You can still program in the 30 second skip to skip commercials with. It's just that it's 6 button pushes instead of one button push. IMO the main feature shortcoming of the OTA relative to the Bolt is not having built-in Stream functionality if you want to stream shows to a tablet or phone. However, that can be remedied with the purchase of an external TiVo Stream (no periodic service charges) if that feature is important to you. With three TVs you might also want to do a little research on the TiVo Mini.


----------



## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

series5orpremier said:


> IMO the main feature shortcoming of the OTA relative to the Bolt is not having built-in Stream functionality if you want to stream shows to a tablet or phone. However, that can be remedied with the purchase of an external TiVo Stream (no periodic service charges) if that feature is important to you. With three TVs you might also want to do a little research on the TiVo Mini.


The standalone Stream can even handle more concurrent streams. I'm not sure if there is or will be a technical advantage to the built-in mobile streaming hardware on the BOLT, relative to the Stream, other than being built-in.

If you start looking at the Mini, you'll find another possible feature shortcoming of the base & OTA Roamios, no built-in MoCA. But, again, that can be remedied with add-on products if/when the need arises.

Plus, you get the existing Hulu app and you can control Overlap Protection (show clipping) with the Roamio.


----------



## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

Seems most of this thread's discussion is ignoring the 800-lb gorilla in the room when it comes to comparing the Roamio OTA to the Bolt: The OTA can only tune OTA. This is very important to most TiVo users.


----------



## atmuscarella (Oct 11, 2005)

dlfl said:


> Seems most of this thread's discussion is ignoring the 800-lb gorilla in the room when it comes to comparing the Roamio OTA to the Bolt: The OTA can only tune OTA. This is very important to most TiVo users.


While I agree with your statement, the Original Poster was clear that he was looking for an OTA DVR, so thats the way the thread went.

In my mind the Bolt is worth more than a Roamio OTA or Roamio how much I am not certain but at least enough so that I would take a Bolt at $300 with annual over a free Roamio that I had to pay monthly or annual for service. But I would not take a Bolt at $300 with annual if I could buy either of the recent/current Roamio OTA or Roamio lifetime deals ($300 for Roamio OTA and $400 for Roamio).

Looks like the original poster has made the same call.


----------



## foghorn2 (May 4, 2004)

OTA roamio right now @ amazon lifetime 299.99. No brainer, f the bolt.


----------



## series5orpremier (Jul 6, 2013)

Yeah, the Bolt is worth more than a R-OTA but it's not worth $900 over five years vs. $300 over five years+ if the functionality of a R-OTA is all one needs.


----------



## andyw715 (Jul 31, 2007)

dlfl said:


> Seems most of this thread's discussion is ignoring the 800-lb gorilla in the room when it comes to comparing the Roamio OTA to the Bolt: The OTA can only tune OTA. This is very important to most TiVo users.


I think there is at thread in the roamio board of users buying broken Basic models, removing its cable card bracket and installing it on OTA model.

Esp nice with the Amazon sale with lifetime.


----------



## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

andyw715 said:


> I think there is at thread in the roamio board of users buying broken Basic models, removing its cable card bracket and installing it on OTA model.
> 
> Esp nice with the Amazon sale with lifetime.


This thread:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=533919


----------



## Treflip823 (Nov 25, 2015)

I cant decide which to update too! (


----------



## KSOC Kid (Nov 19, 2015)

So my new Roamio OTA delivers tonight. I open it up to take a peak, and I hear something loose rolling around inside the unit. Sure took the edge of my excitement. I guess when I hook it up I'll find out if it's essential! Long day today, not even going to try it out tonight.


----------



## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

KSOC Kid said:


> So my new Roamio OTA delivers tonight. I open it up to take a peak, and I hear something loose rolling around inside the unit. Sure took the edge of my excitement. I guess when I hook it up I'll find out if it's essential! Long day today, not even going to try it out tonight.


I had the same thing a couple months ago when I had my Genie Lite delivered from Solid Signal. It turned out to be a metal snap on RF shield that goes over the processor and if I would've plugged it into power I would've shorted it out and ruined it.

I HIGHLY suggest you open the lid and see what it is. If you're afraid of voiding the warranty then I would call TiVo and get permission to do that. I did with DirecTV and they noted my account. Good luck!


----------



## KSOC Kid (Nov 19, 2015)

HarperVision said:


> I had the same thing a couple months ago when I had my Genie Lite delivered from Solid Signal. It turned out to be a metal snap on RF shield that goes over the processor and if I would've plugged it into power I would've shorted it out and ruined it.
> 
> I HIGHLY suggest you open the lid and see what it is. If you're afraid of voiding the warranty then I would call TiVo and get permission to do that. I did with DirecTV and they noted my account. Good luck!


I suppose that's the smart thing to do. Bummer though.


----------



## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

HarperVision said:


> I had the same thing a couple months ago when I had my Genie Lite delivered from Solid Signal. It turned out to be a metal snap on RF shield that goes over the processor and if I would've plugged it into power I would've shorted it out and ruined it.
> 
> I HIGHLY suggest you open the lid and see what it is. If you're afraid of voiding the warranty then I would call TiVo and get permission to do that. I did with DirecTV and they noted my account. Good luck!


If TiVo approves you opening the case I will be amazed. No, they will instruct you to return the unit for exchange and you will probably have to let them charge your credit card for the cost of a replacement if you want them to ship it before receiving your current box back. Otherwise you''re probably looking at a 2 to 3 week delay before getting the replacement.


----------



## KSOC Kid (Nov 19, 2015)

So, why I didn't see this last night - very tired or old eyes, or both, looks like in the opening for the cable card the pin cover/protector was loose. Couple cups of coffee this morning, pushed it in place all good. Feel elated & silly at the same time.


----------



## HarperVision (May 14, 2007)

dlfl said:


> If TiVo approves you opening the case I will be amazed. No, they will instruct you to return the unit for exchange and you will probably have to let them charge your credit card for the cost of a replacement if you want them to ship it before receiving your current box back. Otherwise you''re probably looking at a 2 to 3 week delay before getting the replacement.


Agreed. The moral of what I was saying was more "don't power it up with something banging around in there".


----------



## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

KSOC Kid said:


> So, why I didn't see this last night - very tired or old eyes, or both, looks like in the opening for the cable card the pin cover/protector was loose. Couple cups of coffee this morning, pushed it in place all good. Feel elated & silly at the same time.


No reason for you to feel silly. In fact pat yourself on the back for good observational powers! Since this is an OTA unit, and (supposedly) isn't designed to even use a CableCARD, many folks would not have even thought about looking in that opening.


----------



## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

KSOC Kid said:


> looks like in the opening for the cable card the pin cover/protector was loose. Couple cups of coffee this morning, pushed it in place all good.


To what "pin cover/protector" are you referring? I don't see anything that can come loose in my Roamio OTA's mostly useless CableCARD compartment.

See image, here.


----------



## foghorn2 (May 4, 2004)

Gee, I'm wondering of newer ota's cablecard headers have protectors screwed onto them.


----------



## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

foghorn2 said:


> Gee, I'm wondering of newer ota's cablecard headers have protectors screwed onto them.


Or even if they've started soldering something to the header to prevent the repurposing of OTAs.


----------



## KSOC Kid (Nov 19, 2015)

Yes. The black bar snapped back in. I thought too it was screwed down but is it not.


----------

