Hardware Review Tivo Bolt: Still The Best DVR Brand That You Should Own (Review) (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

Also speaking to the value in the cost: you can build an HTPC OTA DVR for maybe $500 and spend all your free time fussing with it and maintaining it and trying to keep the family happy with this custom DIY solution.

Or spend $1000 for the best DVR on the market that basically just works, works with your mobile devices, and allows multi-room use for minor cost upgrades.

There are also low-cost DVRs on the market, but I don't know anything about them or their quality compared to cable or TiVo

 

[Johnny Angell]

It's all moot to me, since I have DTV.

 

[DaveF]

It's all moot to me, since I have DTV.

You asked. We're explaining.

 

[Johnny Angell]

Or spend $1000 for the best DVR on the market that basically just works, works with your mobile devices, and allows multi-room use for minor cost upgrades.

Are there really DVRs that cost $1K?

You asked. We're explaining.

I know, I just wanted to point out that the Tivo can't work for me. Is it a licensing issue that Tivo won't work with DTV? Perhaps DTV wants its customers to only have their DVRs.

 

[DaveF]

Are there really DVRs that cost $1K?

As you said: $400 for the box and $600 for Lifetime is a $1000 DVR

 

[David Norman]

Are there really DVRs that cost $1K?


I know, I just wanted to point out that the Tivo can't work for me. Is it a licensing issue that Tivo won't work with DTV? Perhaps DTV wants its customers to only have their DVRs.

Exactly . Since the old DirecTIVO's are long gone. I bought a lifetime way back from them too and the best thing about that was the Lifetime was that it followed the account and not the unit so all those monthly fees were free for me for 15 years no matter how many DTV DVR I had in the house. It was the main reason I kept my DTV account open long after I probably should have closed it.

My account number was was under 30K so I guess I can claim Founder status (always got comments from the Reps when I called). Now that I'm 18 months out, I suspect there's no way I can reactivate my old acct and would have to pay monthly DVR fees again though I could try to use it as a bargaining chip someday-- maybe now a reason it will be very hard for me to go back.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Again, as an owner of multiple Tivo models since their inception....

For me, the LIFETIME plan is....well...not really close to being a lifetime.

The first issues I had were the fact that in the beginning, Tivo was vastly improving their models with each new release. So, I was buying lifetime contracts on the many DVRs I had purchased only to purchase newer models within 2-3 years.

The next issue is that I have had one or two of these units fail after a few years. Realize, these Tivo units use spinning hard drives instead of flash drives. So, like our computers, the hard drives have limited life. With all the recording and activity done with these units it's likely that they will fail in a few years.

 

[David Norman]

The next issue is that I have had one or two of these units fail after a few years. Realize, these Tivo units use spinning hard drives instead of flash drives. So, like our computers, the hard drives have limited life. With all the recording and activity done with these units it's likely that they will fail in a few years.

Not much to offer on the advancements though the units are transferable and seem to keep decent resale value with the Lifetime attached for close to a decade. Series 3 with Lifetime since they handle HD and have OTA tuners still sell for a decent amt of money since they can function quite nicely as an OTA DVR or even with a Cable Card

The good news is the most common failure (hard drive) are pretty easy to replace -- Series 3 weren't too hard, Roamio and Bolts are simple as long as you don't want to transfer old recordings. It took 5 minutes to upgrade my Roamio to a 3TB drive. Power supplies and other components are a bit of a different issue though not impossible. Compared to replacing the HD on my HR20 DTV which was a royal PITA, the TIVO is a breeze.

So far my 4 Lifetimes have run 5. 6, 12, and 15 years.

 

[Johnny Angell]

When you buy the lifetime subscription, is it attached to the DVR or to the customer? It's only a true lifetime if attached to the customer.

 

[David Norman]

When you buy the lifetime subscription, is it attached to the DVR or to the customer? It's only a true lifetime if attached to the customer.

TIVO -- the lifetime follows the unit and not the customer. Actually my original S1 Lifetime was transferred to the Series 2 for $100 (about 1/3 the going rate) and now I'll transfer that to a new Bolt for $99 (1/6 the going rate) so I'd say I got more than my money's worth on it. Even my two Series 3's I added Lifetime to those units for $99 with special deals. The going rate for a Cable DVR is $15-20/month around here so prorated I've used them for 5-6 years for the cost of less than 6 months.each

For DirecTV when it was briefly offered it was hooked to the account and functioned even after they ditched TIVO .I forget when DTV stopped selling Lifetime licenses

 

[DaveF]

A random comment

Browsing TiVo.com I see that the Bolt has a lifetime service option and the Mini have no service cost. I thought TiVo had gone subscription only, and all new purchases were stuck with monthly subscriptions for at least the main box. As a TiVo user and enthusiast, I'm encouraged to know that if I want to upgrade, I can do another upfront buy and continue without monthly fees.

 

[Rodney]

I purchased lifetime service on all my previous TiVos, but not my two Bolts. I'm concerned about longevity with the rumblings of cable companies moving away from cablecards.
I'm currently on a wait and see for what's next for TiVo, cable, and television/video delivery mechanisms in general.

 

[DaveF]

I understand that. No doubt when I’m ready to upgrade to 4K streaming boxes, I’ll be evaluating if it’s time to drop the cable sub.