Moving from Hopper to Tivo
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As most Hopper users haven't fulfilled their 24 month commitment yet, you can imagine that there aren't many that have punched out yet.
The usual cord-cutting caveats about news and sports will probably always apply.
You also need to be damn sure that your broadband connection can stand up to the punishment.
The usual cord-cutting caveats about news and sports will probably always apply.
You also need to be damn sure that your broadband connection can stand up to the punishment.
Can't say I did. I did drop DISH and a 622 and go to TIVO after a short period with a COMCAST Motorola DVR.
TIVO is very comparable with the 622 with a number of the bugs fixed in the TIVO. It was much better at not recording stuff that was already on the disk. The season pass seems to be better. 30 second skip needs to be enabled, but works. They also have a 30 second zip mode that I sort of like. The TIVO has most streaming I need EXCEPT amazon prime instant video. Need to keep another streaming box active for that.
The guide is accurate and excellent. Goes out 10 days. Program descriptions are good. It shows date first broadcast and episode number for everything. The search function will search what is in the guide and what is available for streaming in a single search.
Couple of things to watch for. Navy is correct that the Premiere tuner is weak. Improved in the Roamios. Note that only the 2 tuner models of the Premiere and the lowest priced 4 tuner Roamio have OTA tuners. The fancier sets are cable only. The lower priced roamio doesn't include the stream (needed for joey type capability or streaming to tablets), nor does it include the network adapter (needed to stream in off a local hard disk).
The basic Roamio includes a smaller hard drive, but you can simply plug a larger one in and go. It also supports an add on disk, but I recommend going with replacing the internal one. The add on one will interleave with the internal one which IMO lowers reliability.
TIVO does have a 1-2 year commitment depending on how you work the deal. However lifetime is available when you buy it. I recommend lifetime. Although it is pricey at $500, it will pay for itself in about 3 years, and adds considerably to the resale value.
TIVO is very comparable with the 622 with a number of the bugs fixed in the TIVO. It was much better at not recording stuff that was already on the disk. The season pass seems to be better. 30 second skip needs to be enabled, but works. They also have a 30 second zip mode that I sort of like. The TIVO has most streaming I need EXCEPT amazon prime instant video. Need to keep another streaming box active for that.
The guide is accurate and excellent. Goes out 10 days. Program descriptions are good. It shows date first broadcast and episode number for everything. The search function will search what is in the guide and what is available for streaming in a single search.
Couple of things to watch for. Navy is correct that the Premiere tuner is weak. Improved in the Roamios. Note that only the 2 tuner models of the Premiere and the lowest priced 4 tuner Roamio have OTA tuners. The fancier sets are cable only. The lower priced roamio doesn't include the stream (needed for joey type capability or streaming to tablets), nor does it include the network adapter (needed to stream in off a local hard disk).
The basic Roamio includes a smaller hard drive, but you can simply plug a larger one in and go. It also supports an add on disk, but I recommend going with replacing the internal one. The add on one will interleave with the internal one which IMO lowers reliability.
TIVO does have a 1-2 year commitment depending on how you work the deal. However lifetime is available when you buy it. I recommend lifetime. Although it is pricey at $500, it will pay for itself in about 3 years, and adds considerably to the resale value.
I moved from the 922 to TiVo. The 922 is essentially the same interface as the Hopper. If you get the TiVo Romeo series it will be a very similar experience. Of course your Hopper recordings will be lost. I dropped my account down to Dish Smart Pack for a couple months to finish watching all my recordings.
If you get the TiVo Series 3 or TiVo HD series it will be very similar in interface to the 622/722. The Premiere series has the same interface as the Romeo, but does not do OTA well, so I would recommend either a cheap used Series 3 or HD with lifetime or a new Romeo 4 OTA version (you have the monthly or lifetime option).
You will need to make a list of all your timers. The good thing about the TiVo is that it has a wishlist so you can find existing series and put them in the season pass list even if they are not currently in the guide. So, you should be able to set it up right away with all your existing series. It is not perfect, you run a chance of getting random episodes of other shows that happen to contain the show name in the description. You can of course just keep deleting them until the series returns to air and you can set up a real season pass for the show. For example if you set up a wishlist for "Revenge" in the title and "Revenge of the Nerds" comes on, you will get that movie recorded. But, it is a sure way to get the shows you want when they come back on and then you can select them in the guide and make a real season pass.
You also have the option of increasing your internal disk size. I have done it for all my TiVos: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=370784 is the guide. With a 3TB drive in a Romeo you have a ton of space.
Like the Hopper you can get the TiVo minis which act like joeys (note they do not work with the Series 3/HD, and OTA Premieres). You will need the Romeo models for them though.
While the TiVo will not be able to record Dish shows if you decide to go back to Dish, you can still use it for the OTA networks. If you decide to go to cable, you can pop in the cable card and still use it and save the evil box rental charges...
My wife and I don't really care about cable news or sports that wouldn't be on OTA channels, so I am not concerned about them. We already make heavy use of Netflix and Amazon Prime for streaming, and my 30mb Internet seems more than capable for up to 1080p streams. Should we ever go to 4k, that might be a different story, but I doubt that is likely any time soon.
Thanks
Ted
Could you expand on this? Are you saying I couldn't use the base Roamio with the Tivo Mini? I knew I needed the Stream to watch on tablets, but thought I could get a Mini for Joey-like functionality over my Gigabit Ethernet home network.
Thanks,
Ted
I am looking at the base Roamio. 75 hours should be plenty given how much we currently watch on local channels, but it is nice to know I could upgrade later on. I would want to get 1 Mini, to mimic what I have now with 1 Hopper and 1 Joey. I believe I can connect them over Ethernet. Is that correct?
Thanks
Ted
You won't miss a beat if you get a Tivo Premiere...and the OTA works fantastic, just as well as my TivoHD and whether channels are 5 or 58 miles away. However, I will say the Roamio is much, much quicker...especially if you're going to be using the Netflicks, Youtube, Amazon, Rhapsody, etc. apps. My real 6-tuner puts the Hopper to shame...had it recording 6-shows while transferring one from a TivoHD and streaming to a Tivo Premiere...while watching YouTube video and it didn't miss a beat.
No, I misstated this. A mini connected by hard ethernet cable to the hard network will work fine.
Get an antenna installed at your house and peaked/tuned in for the channels you want. Make sure that is all solid before you cancel Dish and spend the money for the Tivo and lifetime. If you have issues with pixelating, or losing channels, etc, that puts a crimp in your plan. Try to get it all worked out before spending the big money..
My new house seems to be much better situated for OTA reception than my old one. With the cheap Mohu Leaf I have, in can pull in all of the local nets consistently. A larger outdoor or maybe attic antenna is the next thing on my list.
Ted
I am "this" close to dropping my sat service, and going the Tivo/OTA/streaming option. Even paying for three streaming services (netflix/amazon/hulu) and Tivo fees, its going to save me half my current sat bill. Thats just damn hard to ignore.
I think I am going to get an antenna re installed in the attic and see how the reception is. Then make the decision.
I think I am going to get an antenna re installed in the attic and see how the reception is. Then make the decision.
Great. I'll be very interested to hear how it goes for you. My contract isn't up until Dec., so I am still in the planning stages.
I actually have another year on my contract, but with the discounts about to expire, mathematically, it wont take that long to recover the ETF even if I dropped it today.
Still doing some figures on it. I did drop my base plan down as low as possible to offset some of the increase. Ill add Hulu+ to regain the couple of shows my wife watched that are not included and still come out about $7 better.
that is the key point in possibly dropping satellite. I knew when I moved that reception would be fine (hell I can SEE the towers from my location) but made sure 100% before dumping Directv
(just got too expensive)
Posted in the pub thread that was discussing a similar issue.
Well, just ordered a new antenna which I will mount on the roof using the old Directv mounting pad, some wire, a signal amp, and the tivo roamio. I figure Ill give it a try on the bedroom tv and see how it goes from there. If it is all acceptable, ill order at least one more tivo and drop sat service.
Well, just ordered a new antenna which I will mount on the roof using the old Directv mounting pad, some wire, a signal amp, and the tivo roamio. I figure Ill give it a try on the bedroom tv and see how it goes from there. If it is all acceptable, ill order at least one more tivo and drop sat service.
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