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TiVo Mini Review Roundup

56K views 318 replies 43 participants last post by  lessd 
#1 ·
#2 ·
I take issue with some of the conclusions drawn in the meta review. In particular,

It’s excessively evident that the TiVo Mini is targeted towards the existing TiVo owner. The cost is either $99 with a $6 a month fee or $249 with lifetime service. Keep in mind that’s per box, so if you plan to scatter these around your home, you’ll be dropping some serious coin.
I expect a good percentage of existing Premiere 4/XL4 users to pick up one or two Mini thin clients but I also expect that this capability will attract new users who can now outfit every television in their home with a consistent TiVo user interface. Perhaps some of the new adopters might be former TiVo users who've left. TiVo is adding about 120,000 Premiere users per year so I expect that a decent percentage of those "new" boxes will be coupled with the TiVo Mini.

And this uninformed statement about WiFi and connectivity options,

And don’t forget that the lack of apps, along with connectivity options (really only HDMI and no WiFi) are further pitfalls that might be just enough to negate this box from your home.
 
#5 ·
I expect a good percentage of existing Premiere 4/XL4 users to pick up one or two Mini thin clients but I also expect that this capability will attract new users who can now outfit every television in their home with a consistent TiVo user interface.
I am one of those new users. I decided I wanted a whole home DVR system in December. I bought a P4 in Jan. because I did my research and found out the Mini was coming. I probably would not have become a Tivo owner without the Mini. I'll probably order my first one today and will eventually own 1 or 2 more.
 
#6 ·
I am one of those new users. I decided I wanted a whole home DVR system in December. I bought a P4 in Jan. because I did my research and found out the Mini was coming. I probably would not have become a Tivo owner without the Mini. I'll probably order my first one today and will eventually own 1 or 2 more.
And I am an old-time TiVo person returning to the fold solely because the mini made a 3 TV household a reasonable option. I jumped on the premiere4+stream bundle and 2 minis the night the mini went live.

That and I got sick of the constant need to babysit my HTPC with software upgrades, etc.
 
#7 ·
I had two smaller HD TV's with DCT700 boxes from Verizon. The HD box is not an option because of the size. Having an HD TV without the ability to watch HD was an ongoing frustration. The Mini gives me HD with the small form of the DCT700.

I currently have one Mini and am on the fence on a second because I don't want to tie up a second tuner. After two days, I am very happy with the Mini.
 
#8 ·
I had two smaller HD TV's with DCT700 boxes from Verizon. The HD box is not an option because of the size. Having an HD TV without the ability to watch HD was an ongoing frustration. The Mini gives me HD with the small form of the DCT700.

I currently have one Mini and am on the fence on a second because I don't want to tie up a second tuner. After two days, I am very happy with the Mini.
You do not have to tie up a second tuner 2 Minis can share one tuner, of course only one of the Minis at a time can watch live TV if you only use 1 tuner.
 
#9 ·
I still don't understand Tivo's requirement for a 4 tuner Premiere. It would seem that my 2 tuner Tivo is very capable of doing the same thing a 4 tuner can. I don't even want to use a tuner on the Mini. Anyway, I think that restriction is a bit much when you also add the higher than normal price for what amounts to a half a Roku.
 
#10 ·
I still don't understand Tivo's requirement for a 4 tuner Premiere. It would seem that my 2 tuner Tivo is very capable of doing the same thing a 4 tuner can. I don't even want to use a tuner on the Mini. Anyway, I think that restriction is a bit much when you also add the higher than normal price for what amounts to a half a Roku.
For the love of god people stop comparing it to Roku. It is not meant to compete with a Roku. When you go car shopping for the family do you start comparing a moped to a SUV.

The Roku competes with Apple TV and such. The Mini if you want to compare competition compares to the C31 Genie Client from Direct TV(which also costs 99). And whatever model Pace i had when i had whole home from my cable company

Lets hold off the 2 tuner and it not working until Dynamic tuner comes out.. if they still dont support it then... ***** on!
 
#12 ·
For the love of god people stop comparing it to Roku. It is not meant to compete with a Roku. When you go car shopping for the family do you start comparing a moped to a SUV.

The Roku competes with Apple TV and such. The Mini if you want to compare competition compares to the C31 Genie Client from Direct TV(which also costs 99). And whatever model Pace i had when i had whole home from my cable company

Lets hold off the 2 tuner and it not working until Dynamic tuner comes out.. if they still dont support it then... ***** on!
Dude, seriously?!? It just is not what it should be. If you want to justify it then go ahead but I can't see it. It really needs more features to be worth the $250 price tag. To be worth it to some of us then there needs to be more IPTV channels. So, yes... you then have to compare it to a Roku. Get over it.

And not working with a 2 tuner... what's the reason for that? It's technically possible.
 
#13 ·
Dude, seriously?!? It just is not what it should be. If you want to justify it then go ahead but I can't see it. It really needs more features to be worth the $250 price tag. To be worth it to some of us then there needs to be more IPTV channels. So, yes... you then have to compare it to a Roku. Get over it.

And not working with a 2 tuner... what's the reason for that? It's technically possible.
Elsewhere on this bulletin board someone said that the estimate is that there are only 50,000 four tuner TiVo units in operation. It's pretty funny that TiVo is only allowing these people to potentially buy a TiVo Mini. It's almost like they don't want anyone to buy it but are reluctantly releasing it albeit with a laughable price and (relatively) little compatibility with their existing customer base so that sales numbers will be nice and low and not too much trouble.
 
#14 ·
For the love of god people stop comparing it to Roku. It is not meant to compete with a Roku. When you go car shopping for the family do you start comparing a moped to a SUV.

The Roku competes with Apple TV and such. The Mini if you want to compare competition compares to the C31 Genie Client from Direct TV(which also costs 99). And whatever model Pace i had when i had whole home from my cable company

Lets hold off the 2 tuner and it not working until Dynamic tuner comes out.. if they still dont support it then... ***** on!
Thank you, I couldn't have said it better myself.
 
#15 ·
At this point in time the TiVo Mini is only going to make cable users happy. The benefit of not having to pay rental fees. OTA users are going to feel left out. By the way, I am in the OTA group. There are a few things to consider if you are in the OTA group. Is the Mini a good option for the price? Probably not. The Mini cost $250 compared to the cost of an additional two tuner premiere of $550. The $300 difference does sound pretty steep. But, you are getting an additional two tuners, just in case your original premier takes a dump, you have a backup in its place and you double the amount of recordings you can watch. As far as live tv goes, it's easier to get around for the OTA users. Just split the coax and use the televisions tuner. It's more than likely better than Tivo's. And really, how hard is it to change the input on the television? It's not an option for the cable user wanting to watch premium channels. And as far as not comparing it to an AppleTV, It's hard not to. At least for the OTA users. They both move a file from somewhere else in the house to a box to play on the television. Not splitting any hairs here but they both do the same job in some form of another but one just happens to do it for $150 less. It's a little bit of a different story once the tuner's on the TiVo are available(again for the cable users). There's no doubt, that the TiVo Mini is going to touch a nerve on fellow Tivo users albeit negative or positive. I'm looking at it from both sides and the jury is still out. Just choose what works best for you and go with it. If TiVo was able to get wireless working on the Mini then it would definitely be a game changer for everybody. One can only dream. But I think we all can agree that we want to spend our money on something that works properly.
 
#16 ·
For the love of god people stop comparing it to Roku. It is not meant to compete with a Roku. When you go car shopping for the family do you start comparing a moped to a SUV.

The Roku competes with Apple TV and such. The Mini if you want to compare competition compares to the C31 Genie Client from Direct TV(which also costs 99). And whatever model Pace i had when i had whole home from my cable company

Lets hold off the 2 tuner and it not working until Dynamic tuner comes out.. if they still dont support it then... ***** on!
Dude, seriously?!? It just is not what it should be. If you want to justify it then go ahead but I can't see it. It really needs more features to be worth the $250 price tag. To be worth it to some of us then there needs to be more IPTV channels. So, yes... you then have to compare it to a Roku. Get over it.
I'm with compnurd, the instance on comparing it to the various streaming cord cutting devices is insane, it's not one of those, and as someone mentioned in another thread, it's built for cord keepers, and I like that way of putting it. It's not an IP streamer, it's a DVR extender.
 
#17 ·
The Tivo Preview that came from my cable company is different from the Mini and works like a charm. It has it's own tuner and cablecard so you don't lose a tuner, but otherwise does the same thing as the Mini. If you have that option available from your cable company, I'd recommend it without reservation. It can access every Tivo on the MoCA network and play anything on any Tivo on the same network. Picture is perfect and indistinguishable from playing it normally. I have mine in the spare bedroom and it's just great. Tivo should sell the Preview to everyone. Pretty sure it's only a cable company item now, but maybe that will change. The darn thing just works right and just the way you'd expect it to.
 
#18 ·
I'm with compnurd, the instance on comparing it to the various streaming cord cutting devices is insane, it's not one of those, and as someone mentioned in another thread, it's built for cord keepers, and I like that way of putting it. It's not an IP streamer, it's a DVR extender.
And my point still is that the value proposition just really isn't there. It needs more in the way of features for the price tag. And it needs to support 2 tuner Premieres. Where is the reason why it won't work with a 2 tuner Premiere? I'd like to know how it's technically not possible when the Stream has no problem with my 2 tuner Premieres.
 
#19 ·
The Tivo Preview that came from my cable company is different from the Mini and works like a charm. It has it's own tuner and cablecard so you don't lose a tuner, but otherwise does the same thing as the Mini. If you have that option available from your cable company, I'd recommend it without reservation. It can access every Tivo on the MoCA network and play anything on any Tivo on the same network. Picture is perfect and indistinguishable from playing it normally. I have mine in the spare bedroom and it's just great. Tivo should sell the Preview to everyone. Pretty sure it's only a cable company item now, but maybe that will change. The darn thing just works right and just the way you'd expect it to.
I would have preferred the Preview to the Mini, but I doubt we will ever see a retail Preview. The Mini will eventually support OTA; the Preview never will. Other than that, the two are too close to each other in function and to release both to retail would be too confusing.
 
#20 ·
And my point still is that the value proposition just really isn't there. It needs more in the way of features for the price tag. And it needs to support 2 tuner Premieres. Where is the reason why it won't work with a 2 tuner Premiere? I'd like to know how it's technically not possible when the Stream has no problem with my 2 tuner Premieres.
The price is the same as what Direct TV charges for Genie clients... and they sell like hotcakes
 
#22 ·
At this point in time the TiVo Mini is only going to make cable users happy. The benefit of not having to pay rental fees. OTA users are going to feel left out. By the way, I am in the OTA group. There are a few things to consider if you are in the OTA group. Is the Mini a good option for the price? Probably not. The Mini cost $250 compared to the cost of an additional two tuner premiere of $550. The $300 difference does sound pretty steep. But, you are getting an additional two tuners, just in case your original premier takes a dump, you have a backup in its place and you double the amount of recordings you can watch. As far as live tv goes, it's easier to get around for the OTA users. Just split the coax and use the televisions tuner. It's more than likely better than Tivo's. And really, how hard is it to change the input on the television? It's not an option for the cable user wanting to watch premium channels. And as far as not comparing it to an AppleTV, It's hard not to. At least for the OTA users. They both move a file from somewhere else in the house to a box to play on the television. Not splitting any hairs here but they both do the same job in some form of another but one just happens to do it for $150 less. It's a little bit of a different story once the tuner's on the TiVo are available(again for the cable users). There's no doubt, that the TiVo Mini is going to touch a nerve on fellow Tivo users albeit negative or positive. I'm looking at it from both sides and the jury is still out. Just choose what works best for you and go with it. If TiVo was able to get wireless working on the Mini then it would definitely be a game changer for everybody. One can only dream. But I think we all can agree that we want to spend our money on something that works properly.
And don't forget some people are paying $7 to $9 per month for each cable card, to add a Mini for $250 and save $7/month, the pay off is three years assuming the Mini has no value in three years and that most likely not true.
 
#24 ·
The price is the same as what Direct TV charges for Genie clients... and they sell like hotcakes
I don't think this is correct. DirecTV provides three Genie Minis with no upfront cost, $49 each for the fourth and beyond. Each Genie Mini requires a $6 per month recurring fee.

When Tivo gives me three Minis free to complement my XL4, I'll gladly pay $6 per month to use them. :)
 
#26 ·
That is as a new customer. The genie is 349 and clients are 99
An existing DTV customer is eligible for the new-customer Genie Mini pricing with a two-year service agreement. $0 + ($6 * 24 months) = $144

Buying a Tivo Mini obligates a purchaser to pay for at least one year of service. $99 + ($6 * 12 months) = $171.

So Tivo's Mini is 20% more expensive for half the service duration.
 
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