[NashGuy]

Thanks to all those who've taken the Hydra jump and reported their findings here. I've yet to upgrade. I've read some of the posts here and there and it sounds to me like Hydra is a visual upgrade but, due to various bugs and a few UX shortcomings, it's not yet an overall improvement on the existing Encore UI. I imagine that, in time, it will be but for now I'm going to hold off on upgrading.

 

[NashGuy]

Well, I finally upgraded my Roamio OTA to Hydra. And...eh. I can't say I'm impressed with it, but I don't hate it either. Some things I kinda like, some things are vexing. (I need to find the Info button on the remote to see anything other than the playback timeline about the recording I'm watching?) From a pure aesthetic standpoint, it's not as pretty as the old HD UI. I get they were going for a modern look (and the TiVo UI was in need of modernizing its design language) but when I compare the look (not functionality or features, just look) of Hydra to X1, Apple TV, Fire TV or the next-gen DirecTV UI, I like all of them better. And the animations/transitions are a bit sluggish on my Roamio, although that's probably not the case on a Bolt.

 

[NashGuy]

I recently set up two new Roamios for family. During setup, the Roamio automatically upgraded to Hydra (or shipped with Hydra). I liked what I saw of it. The feature that I like the most was the start over feature of TV shows and movies. When clicking on something to watch live, an option is presented to start over if the shows is found on Netflix/Hulu/Vudu. Now that's a cool feature!

Yep, very nifty. I saw recently where Roku has licensed that capability from TiVo and has incorporated into Roku TVs. If you start watching a show on an OTA channel, you can click to start over in a streaming app if available.

 

[NashGuy]

i think direct tv or dish had start over first Tivo never offered start over

With TiVo, it's just linking you to that specific show within an OTT streaming app. Start Over from cable and satellite services work differently; the pay TV provider streams the show to you directly.