[streetlightman]

Hi there. I have a Roamio 4 tuner on TE3 (Lifetime) and will be getting a new TV soon.

My options are:
- Buy a Tivo Mini Vox or Lux (less than $200)
- Buy a used Bolt Vox (Lifetime) somewhere for under $400
- Buy the Edge directly from Tivo for around $640 (there's a promo right now)
- Buy another used Roamio

I have a few questions about the Mini units
- how well do the Mini units work in general? Are they as fast as the main unit or is it significantly slower
- Does the Mini Vox or LUX require you to be on the latest software?
- Does it require you to use Ethernet?
- If my main Tivo doesn't support 4k and at some point the cable provider offers 4k content (I know some NCAA football games where in 4k last year), will the Mini be able to receive it and display it in 4k?

I'm still on the old software and the Ethernet on my unit is dead

As for the Bolt Vox, I also have a few questions about that:
- Can you downgrade to TE3?
- Is cooling really that big an issue? I never use the apps on my Tivo and I honestly don't record that much (i have a 500GB and its never come close to being an issue)

If you were in a similar situation, what would you do?

Thanks

 

[dlfl]

Too bad your Roamio’s ethernet isn’t working. My suggestion would have been to buy a used mini A93000 model (pre-Vox) on eBay for well under $100. But the mini’s really work best with hardwired ethernet. You could buy another Roamio 4-tuner with lifetime for around $300 on eBay. I’m still using mine which I bought new/reconditioned with lifetime for $300 in 2015. They are a good model which I assume explains how much they still sell for. I’m not impressed with the newer TiVo models based on what I’ve read here.

The Roamio/Mini combination works great but I just sold my mini because I’ve cut the cord and use YouTube TV and Fire TV devices instead. I converted my Roamio to OTA and use it just as a backup for recording local stations. YouTube TV works great and include an unlimited capacity cloud DVR. So unless you’re really wedded to TiVo’s, I recommend you consider something like that. Your investment in TiVo currently is very small, since a base model Roamio with dead ethernet isn’t worth much.