Goodbye Tivo, it's been nice (sometimes)

You WASTED a lot of money if you were paying MONTHLY for Tivo. Should have paid lifetime long ago.

I stream lots of stuff (without commercials), but still record tons of stuff on Tivo, including as "backup".. Streaming is WAY WORSE than tivo in some areas (FF/rewind, no simple skip back).. can't play faster than realtime.. shows EXPIRE..

 

>>> Streaming is WAY WORSE than tivo

+1

 

Really? What about their incessant huge automatic cable TV rate increases, and the hassle of negotiating with agents worse than used car salesmen to knock them down? I cut cable TV 14 months ago and Spectrum probably would still have me as a customer if not for their sleazy customer interface. Their lack of support for Tuning Adapters was another major pain.

 

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Streaming IS worse as far as functionality and access. But the cost of cable has gotten ridiculous. So I’ve been off TiVo for a few months now and I can’t say I’m missing it. But it’s not TiVo’s fault, it’s the providers with their packages and additional fees that ruined it for me.

 

A couple of years ago, I thought streaming was going to be THE way to go. But after a year of cheap streaming packages, the cost is almost as high as cable now. I'm kinda old school, but VOD has taken over for most of my DVR needs. Spectrum does have a poor cloud DVR, and I will probably go that route when (not if) my Bolt dies.

 

Not that I know anything about streaming, my first experience with Sling, the Monday night final college football game.
I started watching it this week, observations: the skip back or forward is very slow and makes it difficult to skip commercials,
for no reason what-so-ever (twice) it just decided to throw in a commercial right in the middle of a play and then totally lost track
of where I was in the game, it would pause when it wanted (assume bandwidth issue and I accept the blame for my slow connection),
I watched the 1st quarter one day, 2nd quarter the next, when it decided to lose its place in the 3rd quarter I deleted the recording
and cancelled Sling. (not really that big a deal I was using sling for that game only) But, had the sling app been much more responsive
and usable I might have kept it around for some sports.

Note I was running Sling on my Firestick, Amazon prime and Netflix on my Firestick do not suffer from problems indicated above.

 

And just several months ago, I had this massive debate here with someone who insisted that streaming was a far better experience than a local DVR. I'm glad you all feel the same. It's too bad we don't have better local DVR solutions ready for us.

 

Sling is pretty clunky in use. It is a cheap way to get certain cable channels tho. YTTV is the OTT cable service to beat. For reasons discussed before.

YTTV is overall better than TiVo/cable even. I definitely would tell everyone to get it over cable/TiVo these days.

 

Totally depends on area and provider, I get all non-premium channels + 400mb HSI for $130/mo. (tax+BS fees included) here on Comcast. Been getting that kind of double play deal for over 15 years now. And a way better experience with Tivo.

One of the keys for me was to never rent any of their crap and always get lifetime Tivos. When the Minis came along it made whole home simple.
I agree that the cost sucks for many and cable's days on Tivo are numbered, but right now it's a no-brainer to keep my setup.

 

YMMV.

 

I was definitely going to go the streaming route and OTA with my Bolt but just got an offer from Fios to renew for two years. They had a package for non-sports fans.... gigabyte internet, phone, and cable with all the popular channels minus sports for $109.00 per month including taxes and fees and card rental.. and no data caps. Sounded good so I just signed up. I probably could have saved a few pennies with streaming but I really like the way Tivo works with Fios and the convenience of all of the features.

 

In at least some FIOS areas, the combination of a modified Tivo model HD and FIOS is just about a perfect cable DVR situation.

 

It really is.... after talking to the agent within 3 minutes they modified my channel lineup without any issues.... all I had to do was remove the channels I no longer received in the TiVo channel list settings and I was good to go! All adjustments were made on their end and the information was relayed to the cable card in my TiVo.

 

OK, so what do you guys suggest? My UPS just hit the crapper today and took my 6-channel Roamio with it. Tried a new HD but it's still stuck on a boot loop. I've been with Tivo since Series 2 and I really like the UI. My cable provider is Spectrum and the last time I tried their DVR it was horrible, way too clumsy.

So similar to the OP, my options are:

1) Buy and Edge and keep life simple.
2) Tell my wife "sorry honey, no TV for you!"
3) Try to figure out if there's a better way to record 6 channels than Tivo.

Mind you, I only use Tivo to record, because I can't stand how slow the apps are on Tivo. We have a Roku (and a Tivo mini) in the bedroom for the other apps, and an Android TV in the living room.

I would love to stop paying for cable TV, but then I would be paying for marriage counseling which would be even more expensive, so I'm not cutting the cable TV package. Just possibly kicking Tivo to the curb because the company seems dead already, and TE4 scares me

I have ethernet cables all over the house, a PC right by the TV, and a firestick I don't use.

I don't have a problem setting new thing up but I'm pretty clueless about what my choices are these days.
So is there anything out there that can replace the DVR capabilities of a 6 channel Tivo with a half decent UI?

 

YTTV records unlimited channels. Skip fwd/back is instant and precise. UI is subjective, but I have no problem with it. Excellent TiVo/cable replacement. I switched from TiVo to streaming/ota 4 years ago and haven’t looked back.

 

Serious question: Why do you linger on the TiVoCommunity forums four years after moving on from TiVo products?
Second serious question: Since you have OTA, what about YTTV attracts you? Sports? News?
Third serious question: What do you use for highspeed internet? What limitations are there? What's it cost?

I see a lot of posts from people who have moved on. While I have relied primarily on OTA for more than a decade, I often sample alternatives including a brief stint with DirecTV and a briefer stint with AT&T TV. I get my fill of Tiny Homes in about an hour. If I wanted the cable filler channels, Philo seems to be a good, inexpensive option. Pluto has cable news for free.

After four years, what makes YTTV an excellent TiVo/Cable replacement for you?

 

Nothing would be as easy as just jacking in a new TiVo, and I'd look for another Roamio. Read up on the Edge before you buy one. The Bolt was terrible. I believe the Roamio Pro was the last great TiVo ever produced, and highly recommend buying one with upgraded storage and a warranty from WeaKnees.

I often recommend Channels DVR as a TiVo replacement, but there's no Roku client app so it would only work on your Android TV (or Fire TV, or Apple TV, or iOS). Also Spectrum encrypts everything, so the standard HD HomeRun CableCARD box Channels DVR requires would not work for you, and you'd need to use their beta "TV Everywhere" feature to access Spectrum over the web in stereo not 5.1 sound. So not my recommendation for you, but if you're curious see: getchannels.com

As has been mentioned there's YouTube TV, Hulu Live TV, Fubo, etc., most of which also work with Channels DVR and offer their own "cloud DVR" options too. See thestreamable.com

 

Me too, only my cable cut was just 14 months ago. Also, a few clarifications about YTTV:
1. Its free cloud DVR records unlimited shows (not channels).
2. ffwd/rewind is very fast but not sure about “precise”. It goes in 15-second jumps.

General statements that streaming is better/worse than traditional cable TV just don’t make sense, since so much depends on factors that vary from case to case. One thing is true as a general statement however: Streaming no longer has a cost advantage over cable TV when it comes to getting the same content. The content providers are king and they will get their money regardless of how it’s delivered. But another valid general statement is that streaming has it all over Cable TV for the customer interface, pricing transparency, and ease of subscribing/unsubscribing.