[atmuscarella]

I haven't been following TiVo (or this forum) much so just wondering how far out of the loop I am.

Just had a friend ask me about an OTA DVR. Told him I had TiVos, went to the sight to show him and it says that the TiVo Edge OTA is out of stock. No mention of when or if it will be back in stock.

Checked Amazon and they show 2 listings for TiVo Edge OTA one without service for $250 that notes it is a 4 tuner unit and that service is required and another showing a 2 tuner?? TiVo Edge OTA with all in service for $300. The pictures are correct for both listings. What is really interesting is both are being sold and shipped by Channel Master??

Is something going on? Is TiVo selling out to Channel Master?

 

[yesno]

Edge Antenna on Sale at Channel Master

 

[TivoJD]

The 2 tuner OTA model is a Canadian model. The US model is 4 tuners.

TiVo EDGE for Antenna | Antenna DVR and Streaming | OTA Recording | Canada

 

[Darrell Patton]

Is the OTA Tivo being phased out now that XPERI has taken over?
It feels that way with only 2 tuner Edge models are available.
What happened to the 4 tuner OTA Edge model?

 

[johnfasc]

So now we have to worry about our Roamio OTA going stale and being left out of updates? I know stuff gets outdated but almost immediately after I went up to the 1tb all in model they stopped selling them. And only a few years old.

 

[LarryAtHome]

With ATSC 3.0 stations coming to air, hopefully a new model with ATSC 3.0 tuners will be selling shortly.

 

[atmuscarella]

With ATSC 3.0 stations coming to air, hopefully a new model with ATSC 3.0 tuners will be selling shortly.

I sure hope you are correct. Otherwise it appears TiVo is abandoning OTA. Nothing available on their site and they redirect you to Channel Master (Shop TiVo Products | Buy TiVo EDGE, BOLT, Mini and more.) to purchase the dual tuner unit which is being sold for $350 with lifetime/all in service. The 4 tuner unit is completely gone.

 

[tommiet]

TiVo might be abandoning OTA as we have multiple OTA DVR choices that don't change for guide service. Are they as good as a TiVo? Probably not. But it's just TV.

 

[NashGuy]

I sure hope you are correct. Otherwise it appears TiVo is abandoning OTA. Nothing available on their site and they redirect you to Channel Master (Shop TiVo Products | Buy TiVo EDGE, BOLT, Mini and more.) to purchase the dual tuner unit which is being sold for $350 with lifetime/all in service. The 4 tuner unit is completely gone.

Long time, no see atmuscarella.

Yeah, it's very weird that TiVo no longer sells OTA DVRs on their own website in the US, only via ChannelMaster. The 2-tuner Edge OTA was originally available only as a Canadian product but now ChannelMaster sells it here in the US, both on their own site as well as through Amazon. As you said, they only sell it with lifetime service for $350.

TiVo's Canadian website still sells the 2-tuner Edge OTA there and it costs $300 Canadian ($220 USD), with options for monthly, annual and lifetime service plans. (Lifetime costs another $300 CD / $220 USD.) This is apparently TiVo's first-ever product for the Canadian market. It was introduced there on Oct. 1 last year. Guess they wanted to take the fight to Tablo on their home turf, eh.

It would appear that the 4-tuner Edge OTA is being phased out. ChannelMaster still sells the product but only via Amazon, not their own site. Seems highly likely that that product is now completely discontinued. It sells on Amazon for $249 and doesn't include service, which costs an extra $7/mo or $250 for lifetime.

I'm wondering if they've stopped production on the 2-tuner Edge OTA too. Given the relative expense of the TiVo Edge in Canada (plus TiVo's historical absence from that market), it's not a stretch to think that they haven't sold well at all. So maybe they've ceased production on that model too and they've partnered with ChannelMaster to help them sell through the remaining units to US cord-cutters. Or, OTOH, maybe TiVo sees a future for this cheaper 2-tuner model Edge OTA and plans to continue producing it.

Given TiVo's acquisition by Xperi, I think their continued commitment to retail products is highly questionable. But if we do see them roll out a future OTA DVR, I think it will be a headless network-connected type of device, similar to the Amazon Fire TV Recast. Except whereas the Recast works specifically with Fire TV streamers, TiVo's network DVR would work with their TiVo Stream 4K dongle. It's worth noting that the chipset in that dongle has native support for raw MPEG-2 transport streams, so the DVR wouldn't need to transcode anything. Although the whole set-up would either need to be on ethernet or AC wifi with a strong signal to handle non-transcoded streams.

 

[atmuscarella]

Long time, no see atmuscarella.

NashGuy, hope all is well with you and your family.

When I decided I didn't want anything to do with the new UI and that my Bolt & Roamio where all I was ever going to need for OTA DVRs until ATSC 3.0 came along I pretty much stop paying much attention to the forum.

In any event sad to see what is going on with TiVo and OTA, unless of course they are planning to release a new combo ATSC 1.0/3.0 DVR and are just clearing inventory. I live in a pretty small TV market so not sure when or even if I will see ATSC 3.0 channels, until then my plan is just to keep what I have running. I didn't get TiVo's streaming stick, already have a Roku that I don't us that much. This computer is attached to my TV and pretty much I just use it when I want to stream something.

 

[Charles R]

Nail in the coffin? Did TiVo sell off their remaining stock of OTA DVRs and call it quits. Perhaps only selling the cable DVR until stock gets low enough they can sell it off as well... I'm guessing since they sold them off they aren't looking to end the service right away.

I wonder how many days notice we will receive...

 

[NashGuy]

I don't think there's any real evidence at this point to say that TiVo is exiting the OTA DVR market. I mean, it's possible they are but it may just be that they've decided for some reason to stick with that product category but use ChannelMaster as their exclusive US distributor of OTA DVRs.

Anyhow, even if TiVo does eventually stop making and selling retail DVRs (for OTA and/or cable), I don't think there's any reason to worry about current customers being unable to continue receiving service on their units for a few years longer at least. TiVo will still have to run their service (guide data, etc.) for their cable partners with TiVo-powered STBs, so they'll continue to extend it to retail devices with lifetime service too.

 

[Charles R]

If they only offer a 2 tuner model they have exited the OTA market as far as I'm concerned. Service wise I don't expect it to disappear overnight rather simply another nail in the coffin...

 

[DouglasPHill]

Granted the OTA market died with the proliferation of cable and satellite but I would think the market is growing with us cord cutters. The first thing I did when I dropped Dish was buy a Bolt. Second thing was find one or streaming sources to complement that. Now would be a good time to capture more OTA people.

 

[eherberg]

I'm not sure it's enough to sustain a company, though -- at least not a company that is large enough to be acquired or have shareholders. OTA DVR users are probably really only a profitable market for small scale businesses like Tablo or SiliconDust anymore. Yes - I'm aware of the Recast .. but that serves only as a tool to sell more Fire TV sticks and I'm not sure it's made too much of an impact in that goal. OTA use has increased, but appears to have plateaued recently. On top of that - as with most people now, many new OTA users have no interest in a DVR in a streaming world. I recall seeing the results of a CCN survey where (when they're not busy re-hashing other people's news as their own) they reported that 75% of their OTA respondents have no DVR and no interest in getting one either. It's a tool that seems to have great interest in the older-skewing viewers (like those of us who post in TiVo forums) but of little use to younger-skewing on-demand streamers.

 

[JoeKustra]

I'm not sure it's enough to sustain a company, though -- at least not a company that is large enough to be acquired or have shareholders.

Xperi, TiVo's holding company, has a market cap of 1.9B. Symbol: XPER.

 

[shwru980r]

Amazon, Tablo and Silicon Dust all sell dual tuner DVR. There must be some demand for them.

 

[Charles R]

My attic antenna is/was acting up and I called several antenna companies to see if they would come out and aim/secure it. Haven't heard back from two and the one I happen to get to right away stated he was booked for at least a couple of weeks and said with everybody being home demand has been crazy. Now whether they are interested in DVRs might be another matter...

 

[tapokata]

I got an email from ChannelMaster today promoting their new exclusive sales/distribution arrangement for the TiVo Edge OTA 500. From CM's website:

Available only from Channel Master!
The TiVo EDGE for Antenna (500GB) is the newest DVR model from TiVo. The TiVo Edge for Antenna (500GB) was introduced in July of 2020 and added HDR support and advanced performance over its predecessor, the discontinued TiVo Bolt OTA DVR.

Same page offers a discounted lifetime all in cost, currently on sale.

I hadn't realized until reading further that this Edge has only two tuners. Yeah, both Tablo and Recast offer 2-tuner models, but I haven't seen a 2-tuner TiVo since my old series 3 HD units. On the other hand, if the tuners perform better than what was used in the Bolt, maybe a win.

In any case, exclusive distribution deals appear to me that OTA DVR sales are not a priority with the new TiVo.

 

[wizwor]

My attic antenna is/was acting up and I called several antenna companies to see if they would come out and aim/secure it. Haven't heard back from two and the one I happen to get to right away stated he was booked for at least a couple of weeks and said with everybody being home demand has been crazy. Now whether they are interested in DVRs might be another matter...

Absent violent weather, antennas do not 'act up'. Many stations are going through hardware changes due to the 'repack'. In Boston, service has been horrible most of this year. This is the worst time of year for OTA reception. Leaves are full of water, often covered with water, and in motion. Things may get better in a month or so. If you have any powered equipment (pre-amp, splitter/amp) make sure it is working properly. If reception does not get worse when you bypass the hardware, replace it.

Check your antenna's orientation with a compass.