# Do I need another streaming box, and is TiVo Stream 4K it?



## MikeekiM (Jun 25, 2002)

I do this all the time... I get all excited about new toys, and I ended up buying everything so that I can play with it, thinking that I will be able to leverage all of the products, and then I end up realizing that there is almost a 95% overlap and end up giving away or selling my redundant devices...

Twice I have ended up with the full line up of streaming boxes... Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV/Stick, Chromecast and whatever is built-in to my Smart TV....

And twice, I have had to pair it all back down because I realize that with a 95% overlap, I can't help but leave most of the devices hooked up but unused.

What does TiVo Stream bring to the table if you already have a streaming solution?

I get that if you are shopping for a streaming solution, that TiVo Stream might "be the droid you are looking for". But what if you already have streaming set-top boxes? Is there anything compelling to add it to the mix, or replace what you already have?


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## powrcow (Sep 27, 2010)

For me, it replaces an aging Chromecast, which will get moved to another TV. The bonus of the TiVo Stream 4k is that it has a remote.


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## brotony (May 9, 2020)

Chromecast is bonus for those like me that don't actually have a dedicated Chromecast. My Roku does offer some support in that regard. But Google has a Chromecast coming this year, maybe Summer, with remote and rumors to shake up the streamer market.

After reading what the TiVo Streamer 4K can't yet do, I'm in the waiting category that may pass altogether on this one.

What I'm looking for is something that could replace my Roku Ultra and Fire TV 4KS. To do that, framerate and dynamic auto switching or native matching is a must. I'd like audio passthrough and auto resolution matching too.

Maybe an update from TiVo could change that. Apple did this with the ATV4K; I waited initially in that one too, purchased my ATV4K when Apple released the matching API for ATV4K in beta- but not before. I prefer out of the box solutions rather than workarounds and Band-Aids so I'll stick with my ATV4K until something better out of the box comes around.

The last high anticipation device I bought was the FTV4KS. Honestly, that device has disappointed me. Just like the pendant; all promise and no delivery. Still has the same bugs and annoyances and framerate matching didn't make a fair show outside of Amazon world. It's plugged in but powered down and likely stays that way. Twice burned by Amazon, now I'm more cautious.

There's still no perfect box available so there's multiple boxes in many users homes. Maybe this one eventually makes reasonable sense to have for TiVo owners. But for the moment, it's an easy pass for me. I did hope for more though. And still watch these threads for updates.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk


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## Abextra (Jul 6, 2013)

MikeekiM said:


> I do this all the time... I get all excited about new toys, and I ended up buying everything so that I can play with it, thinking that I will be able to leverage all of the products, and then I end up realizing that there is almost a 95% overlap and end up giving away or selling my redundant devices...
> 
> Twice I have ended up with the full line up of streaming boxes... Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV/Stick, Chromecast and whatever is built-in to my Smart TV....
> 
> ...


I WOULD HOLD-OFF ON BUYING ONE! I now have 2 hours into trying to get this to work. 1.5 with TiVo tech support.


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## Chris Fox (Oct 11, 2002)

MikeekiM said:


> I do this all the time... I get all excited about new toys, and I ended up buying everything so that I can play with it, thinking that I will be able to leverage all of the products, and then I end up realizing that there is almost a 95% overlap and end up giving away or selling my redundant devices...
> 
> Twice I have ended up with the full line up of streaming boxes... Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV/Stick, Chromecast and whatever is built-in to my Smart TV....
> 
> ...


I do the same thing with the hopes that the new box will finally be the one that does everything I need. So far, it looks like the Tivo Stream 4k will be one more box to add to my pile.

The Stream 4k really doesn't bring anything new to the table yet. It is basically a low cost android TV box with buggy software at this point. The best part of the box so far is my discovery of the ReelGood and JustWatch apps. They actually show more promise than the Tivo app, integrating with dozens of streaming providers already. If either can add support for Live streaming apps (with DVR entries) then the only thing Tivo could bring to the table is integration with their DVRs (which is doubtful).


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