[privateinfo]

So first off I was always a happy and loyal Cablecard Tivo user from 2007 to 2018. However I moved to a Cox area and the cablecards, cablecard tuners were too much of a pain to go on with. Not to mention the eight headed monster that replaced the live guide. So I moved to Apple TV 4k, and mostly have been using Youtube TV, and Disney +. HBO Now and CBS Access just long enough to watch GOT and ST. I also have an iphone but I'm no Apple fanboy.

I was really excited to give the new Tivo stream 4k a try. Most of my curiosity was how much better the Tivo mini peanut remote would work than the ridiculous Apple TV remote. As well as integration with Youtube TV.

The bad, well covered.
Does not matter to me, but no integration to existing Tivo DVR's is unsettling. I understand they would want to go a complete different route, but to dis their loyal base was not a prudent move. I believe they will lose lots of business until this is resolved.
Tivo+ is not appealing, and we should have the ability to hide and record/download all the Tivo + channels.
Tivo App is buggy.
Sling TV, I hate it, and one requirement for me is local channels. Nope, I'm not going to do OTA.
No integration with Youtube TV or Hulu Live TV. Both of these services are vastly superior to Sling TV. The only thing I like about Sling TV is NFL network. This was closest thing to a showstopper for me.

The Good.
It's snappy
The video quality is so much better than my Apple TV 4k.
Leave the Tivo App and go to Android TV UI and all is great.
The mini peanut remote. Is flawed (I agree with all the other posts) but so much better than the Apple TV remote.

So end of the day. Most of the time I'm using this as an Android TV device with what I feel is the best default remote for a streaming device. However I'll keep it, and eventually replace my other Apple TV's.... Life will be much better though when they offer integration into Youtube TV and Hulu live.

 

[srazook]

Good review, there's especially a couple points I strongly agree with. Sling TV with no “Local” Streaming Channels and a pitifully small amount of Cloud DVR storage is non-starter for me. I also use YouTube TV, adding UI integration with it would be a 100% improvement. In the interim it would help if you could program the “Live” button on the remote to directly launch the users’ Streaming TV provider of choice. Right now, if you don’t use Sling TV the Live button on the remote doesn’t do anything.

Secondly, the ability to hide TiVo+ channels would be great. Maybe the TiVo+ channels are appealing to some people, but for me it’s the worst collection of streaming channels around.

 

[Chris Fox]

There just isn't much benefit to Tivo to integrate their DVR with the Stream 4k. You say they will lose lots of business, but I don't think that is necessarily true. Don't get me wrong, I would love to have this support. I'm sure if Tivo feels that this is in their best interest to add support, they will do it. But the future really isn't in DVRs, it is in streaming.

I totally agree with Youtube TV or Hulu Live TV support. Lack of local channels (I do not want to put up an antenna) and the DVR recording limits make it a non-starter as a replacement for my Comcast cable.

Overall, I'd say the Stream 4k has lots of potential. The bar is really low to be the best streaming/live TV aggregator, so Tivo does have a chance to make a splash in this space...

 

[Rkkeller]

I am an Admin in a cord cutting group and used maybe 20+ streaming devices so not sure if I am jaded or not, but newbies to streaming and people that have not really used much else seem to be the only ones thinking this is top notch and works well. To me, doing cord cutting 18 years, all this is is a low end AndroidTV dongle, locked into Sling with a TiVo search app that does next to nothing. This pretty much does nothing other devices can't do. Unless someone is so locked into Sling, or this drops to about $29, I would not recommend this at all. My favorite thing and probably why I won't return it, is the little peanut remote and that does not even work well, just looks neat to me.

I was using it a few hours last night to be able to talk about in the groups and about the only thing it found was Sling and a few Prime shows, the guide was next to useless Sling and TiVo+ I think, didn't even incorporate PlutoTV channels like the FireTV devices do. AppleTV and even FireTV devices started doing this with search in the last few months, this Stream 4k is about a year to late.

 

[powrcow]

AppleTV and even FireTV devices started doing this with search in the last few months, this Stream 4k is about a year to late.

I mostly agree with you. I like the Chromecast ability with a remote, since sometimes it's annoying to unlock/find my phone to pause quickly. I also find the Stream 4k to be responsive. But yes, the TiVo app is mostly worthless.

Is there another $50 streamer you like better?

 

[jimpmc]

I mostly agree with you. I like the Chromecast ability with a remote, since sometimes it's annoying to unlock/find my phone to pause quickly. I also find the Stream 4k to be responsive. But yes, the TiVo app is mostly worthless.

Is there another $50 streamer you like better?

Within Android TV, it's this or a Mi Box currently at these price points. I'd take this over the Mi Box if I had to have one right now. But Google may be coming out with their own dongle within a few months, but that may be priced closer to $80.

If you go outside Android TV, there are of course Fire 4k Sticks and Roku devices.

 

[stuart628]

Within Android TV, it's this or a Mi Box currently at these price points. I'd take this over the Mi Box if I had to have one right now. But Google may be coming out with their own dongle within a few months, but that may be priced closer to $80.

If you go outside Android TV, there are of course Fire 4k Sticks and Roku devices.

So you recommend the tivo stream 4k then?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jimpmc]

So you recommend the tivo stream 4k then?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

As an inexpensive AndroidTV dongle over a Chromecast or Mi Box, yes. But TiVo's Stream app is not that compelling until they add more services and allow additional ways to manage (sorting, filtering) & access your My Show lists (via web, etc.).

 

[aaronwt]

As an inexpensive AndroidTV dongle over a Chromecast or Mi Box, yes. But TiVo's Stream app is not that compelling until they add more services and allow additional ways to manage (sorting, filtering) & access your My Show lists (via web, etc.).

Yes. I found that the Reelgood app does a better job than the TiVo app and can be used with many more apps. Although I also found out that I could not install the Funimation app on the Stream 4K. It wasn't available as an app to install. Which Reelgood looks like it works with.

For what the Stream 4K is there is a lot of potential. It has a speedy UI. But my biggest complaint is the forced HDR. if that were fixed I could use it on a regular basis. But right now just looking at the menus is a PITA. And I'm only watching DV or HDR10 content now because of the forced HDR. But then I have to reboot the Stream 4K to change it between the HDR formats. They really need to have it automatically change between SDR, HDR10, and DV.

If they have no plan on that then I might have no choice but to return both of my Stream 4K units. I was planning to keep just one. But it's just too painful to look at the menus in HDR when they are supposed to be in SDR. They are just way too bright, just like the SDR content in Fake HDR.

 

[moyekj]

For what the Stream 4K is there is a lot of potential. It has a speedy UI. But my biggest complaint is the forced HDR. if that were fixed I could use it on a regular basis.

In the meantime while it's not fixed, you can turn off forced HDR in the Stream4K. See:
Access Tivo Stream 4K Hidden A/V Menus

 

[vurbano]

Dont restart the device. Mine makes me activate it with a code all over again by going to tivo website. Ridiculous. This cant be by design? correct? why on earth would you have to keep reactivating it?

 

[vurbano]

Overall, I'd say the Stream 4k has lots of potential. The bar is really low to be the best streaming/live TV aggregator, so Tivo does have a chance to make a splash in this space...

I dont understand what the motivation is for them to improve the device? The make 50 bucks per sale. Thats it, no continued fees.

 

[moyekj]

Dont restart the device. Mine makes me activate it with a code all over again by going to tivo website. Ridiculous. This cant be by design? correct? why on earth would you have to keep reactivating it?

I've restarted mine a few times and have not seen that problem.

 

[aaronwt]

In the meantime while it's not fixed, you can turn off forced HDR in the Stream4K. See:
Access Tivo Stream 4K Hidden A/V Menus

But then will it automatically turn on HDR10 and DV?

On a normal session of watching TV, I watch SDR, HDR10, and Dolby Vision content. Plus the menus need to be in SDR. They are too bright for me along with the SDR content in fake HDR. And if I were to adjust it, then I would need to readjust everything for real HDR content, everytime I watch it. Which is every day for all three, SDR, HDR10, and Dolby Vision.

 

[aaronwt]

Dont restart the device. Mine makes me activate it with a code all over again by going to tivo website. Ridiculous. This cant be by design? correct? why on earth would you have to keep reactivating it?

Fortunately I have not run across this with mine. SInce I need to switch between HDR10 and DV, for the specific HDR content I am watching. And it has to reboot everytime you switch between HDR10 and DOlby Vision. That is the only way for me to be able to test it out, to actually use the Stream 4k. Since it won't automatically switch between SDR, HDR10, and DV like it should be doing.

 

[trip1eX]

I dont understand what the motivation is for them to improve the device? The make 50 bucks per sale. Thats it, no continued fees.

Ads, promotional placements and Tivo+ are the continued fees that are possible.

 

[jimpmc]

Dont restart the device. Mine makes me activate it with a code all over again by going to tivo website. Ridiculous. This cant be by design? correct? why on earth would you have to keep reactivating it?

Restart or reset? Restart should not require reactivation. A full reset would. The reactivation is basically the way to log in to TiVo.

 

[Bierboy]

...The video quality is so much better than my Apple TV 4k...

I'm confused by this statement; my video quality is off the charts using the  TV 4K. And I've compared the two side by side. I have an eight-year-old Panny Plasma, BTW.

 

[privateinfo]

I'm confused by this statement; my video quality is off the charts using the  TV 4K. And I've compared the two side by side. I have an eight-year-old Panny Plasma, BTW.

Sorry your confused. Re-reading my statement, I'm not sure if I can dumb it down further.

 

[privateinfo]

I am an Admin in a cord cutting group and used maybe 20+ streaming devices so not sure if I am jaded or not, but newbies to streaming and people that have not really used much else seem to be the only ones thinking this is top notch and works well. To me, doing cord cutting 18 years, all this is is a low end AndroidTV dongle, locked into Sling with a TiVo search app that does next to nothing. This pretty much does nothing other devices can't do. Unless someone is so locked into Sling, or this drops to about $29, I would not recommend this at all. My favorite thing and probably why I won't return it, is the little peanut remote and that does not even work well, just looks neat to me.

I was using it a few hours last night to be able to talk about in the groups and about the only thing it found was Sling and a few Prime shows, the guide was next to useless Sling and TiVo+ I think, didn't even incorporate PlutoTV channels like the FireTV devices do. AppleTV and even FireTV devices started doing this with search in the last few months, this Stream 4k is about a year to late.

Wow I'm impressed. 20+ streaming devices Guess were all newbies compared to you.