O Roamio, Roamio! Wherefore art thou Roamio?

Mike

Audioshark
Staff member
Joined
Apr 2, 2013
Messages
30,486
Location
Sarasota, FL
Hopefully somewhere between California and Florida.....

OK, I am not much of a TV expert, but one thing I do know is that the Verizon Fios DVR sucks. The other day, my assistant was telling me how she switched from the Verizon Fios DVR to TiVo. My reaction? "They're still in business?" As it turns out, very much so.

I had TiVo about 14 years ago when I had DirecTV. TiVo and DirecTV had a big falling out (or the greedy bastards at DirecTV pushed them out...I'm not exactly sure). None the less, my DVR experience hasn't been the same since.

I understand it is possible now to use a TiVo with Verizon Fios and several other cable companies too. I believe the folks at TiVo and Directv have also kissed and made up.

I was told that all I needed to do was return my Verizon boxes and get a Verizon cable card ($4.99/month). When I called to order the CableCard, the Verizon rep immediately said, "switching to TiVo huh? Can't blame you." No arm twisting. No "please, please, we will upgrade you to our new and improved DVR". Nope. Nothing. Hmmm....so far, so good.

I have ordered the appropriate TiVo Roamio Pro, a couple of TiVo minis, something called a MoCA Adapter (https://www.tivo.com/shop/detail/moca) and a Filter (https://www.tivo.com/shop/detail/moca-poe)

The MoCA Adapter and Filter allow you to use the existing coax in your house. The main TiVo box (4 or 6 tuners) can then be used to feed the TiVo mini box, for a combination of 4 or 6 boxes and/or recorded shows. So two additional minis means you can record up to 3 shows at a time. Four minis, 2 shows at a time.

The upfront costs of TiVo are not inexpensive by any means, but according to my math, it pays for itself in about 2 years...maybe less if you're able to negotiate some savings on the TiVo gear through monthly specials. They all seem to have monthly specials - every month. Not so special. But, whatever. The Lifetime programming cost is a bit of a punch in the gut...but TiVo does apparently offer a 30 day trial of all their new gear and Lord knows, it can't be any worse than those sorry excuse for DVR's from Verizon or the cable companies.

ROAMIO-Pro.png
 
I've been a Tivo user from the very beginning. I had the 3rd generation Tivos (Roamio is the 5th generation) in every room except the kitchen, where I had a Verizon Fios box. You going from Verizon's box to the Tivo Roamio is like going from a Sony receiver to D'Agostino monoblocks. Just add the Roamio Pro to your main system and Tivo Minis to the other TVs in your house and you are there.
 
Back
Top