How reliable are the Bolts?
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The Edge may be better designed, but it's still early days so follow the Edge threads here carefully.
Downloads from an Edge to a computer were broken when the Edge was first released. That's listed in the first post of the Edge issues thread (see item #4), and I haven't continued to follow it. It may still be broken.
Uploads from a computer are not possible, because the Edge supports only TE4. So playing media from a computer would require an app like Plex, though I believe first transferring to a TE3 TiVo on the same network would also be a workaround. I have never run TE4.
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From TiVo: EDGE - Issues we're tracking
Yes, that is the thread I linked to above. Still early days for the Edge, so hard to answer questions about whether it's better than Bolt. At this time I don't plan to try one. My Bolt is now officially decommissioned, and one Roamio Pro is now serving the Minis here, all on TE3.
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Are you saying that 14TB hard drive are blocked from working on the TIVO system?
I just purchased at 14TB hard drive to upgrade my TIVO BOLT. Please tell me what you know about 14TB drives and TIVO?
Thanks.
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The very first wave of Bolts seem to be reliable and quiet. Something went haywire in the 3rd year or so.
The Bolt were introduced in 2015 and I bought my flaky unit in the summer of 2016. It seems to me several different batches of production went awry throughout the product's life, in addition to fundamental flaws in the design that were consistent throughout.
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in 2.5 years I am on my 3rd bolt + the last one had the door for the card removed and it was sitting on a cooling fan... HD still crapped out.
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Hi Diane,
Have any of yours been Bolt+ models with the WD 3TB drive? It certainly seems there is an issue with that drive given that TiVo has proactively reached out to owners when their units are generating disk errors (unknown to the owner) and even offering replacement deals for out-of-warranty lifetime units.
I only have limited experience with the Bolt model where we upgraded our son's HD to a Bolt with one of TiVo's upgrade deals (lifetime transfer) and I upgraded it from the factory 500GB to a WD 2TB and it's still working fine 2 years later.
Scott
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The only failed unit was a 3TB WD Bolt+ it's been rock solid since, all the others have the Toshiba 3TB upgrades and none have failed.
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Yes, they replaced it out of warranty at no cost.
Since this thread got bumped, I may as well give an update.
The aforementioned Bolt+ is still fine. I've never opened it up as it was under warranty so it still has the stock drive. I still put my Bolt+ atop laptop cooling pads with fan(s). When it gets hotter (e.g. summer), I use one that has a dial for the fan speed and turn it up vs. some that I have which only have a fixed relatively low fan speed.
AFAIK, the WD 3 TB was the only drive qualified by TiVo and they didn't use any other in the Bolt+.
I paid $40 for the 3 year-extended warranty, and now from checking the receipt, I'm a bit past it now. I ordered it on April 9, 2017 and it shipped April 10. I recall postponing setting it up for various reasons (related to the "once in a lifetime" transfer offer).
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Could you list the mode number of the cooling fan you used?
Sounds like a great idea.
Does this fan make much noise?
Sorry for the delay. I rotate thru 3 different pads depending on the need.
I have Zalman ZM-NC3 which is very quiet. I also have Fry's Electronics | (Thermaltake Massive 14) which has a dial to adjust the fan speed. It can range from quiet to definitely audible (IIRC). At higher speeds or max, it definitely cools better than that Zalman pad.
I also sometimes use Massive V14.
Once they show up, I plan to switch to the AC Infinity fans I mentioned at Temperature of Bolt.
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Order placed thanks!!
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We just ordered a Bolt to arrive this weekend since we now have a 4K TV and their was a good deal on the unit and lifetime. We've had our Roamio Plus since 2013. But now I am reading about hard drive failures and getting hot should I be concerned. I didn't even know about the edge until I went to read up about the Bolt on Tivo's website. And usually we like to have the latest but deal on the Bolt was to good to pass up. I hope we don't have problems our Roamio is still working fine. Plus I'm reading a lot of people don't like TE4 now I am getting worried.
Every Bolt except the Bolt OTA can be "sidegraded" to TE3. You'll want to do that before you record anything, as recordings will be lost unless you back them up using pytivo or something.
None of the Edge models allow TE3, and my impression is that recent Bolts have fewer reliability problems while they're still getting the bugs out of the Edge models, so you probably will be happiest with your purchase.
Hang onto that Roamio Plus as long as you can though! I recently replaced the hard disk in our Roamio Pro, and otherwise it's still going strong. IMHO the Roamio series are the best DVRs TiVo has ever produced. The Bolts are faster though, especially for streaming.
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Well we were going to give it a couple weeks to a month and we're trying to sell the Roamio. I saw a video on TE4 I think we'll like it. We have two original minis we're going to have to update. And I'm curious about the voice and how it works I just think that's kind of cool. And my husband uses the Roku 4K for Netflix and prime which I know is better but I just would rather have one remote for everything and not have to change inputs. I'm looking forward to getting the bolt I just hope we don't have any problems with it. And it's still going to be a 6 tuner 1TB like we have now so hopefully we will like it.
I just got worried cuz I was reading about overheating and hard drive failures If the hard drive was to fail with the one from the Roamio fit inside the bolt? Is that why you're saying hang on to the Roamio we're just hanging on to it in case anything happens to the bolt cuz the Roamio is so good? I just love TiVo and I've had everyone since Tivo series 1 and the single tuner. then we moved in 2013 and got the premiere but the Roamio came out 2 to 3 weeks later they let us exchange. I do kind of wish we would have two to three terabytes this time around but it's okay We don't usually have problems with it getting full.
But anyway thanks I was just wanting to get different opinions and I'm hoping we did the right thing cuz we got the bolt for $199 in the lifetime for $249.
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