[JOHN WEIDENFELLER]

Last year I was looking at options to replace my Roamio OTA since there were no new apps like Pluto or Disney+ etc being added to Tivo or Tivo Mini.

I went so far as purchasing a Bolt and hooking it up but the returning it when I realized it didn't have the new apps either.

But when I realized there was a plan for Apps for Roku and Apple TV, I purchased the Stream and an Apple TV in preparation for the new Apps only now to find out that those have been put on hold.

I want to connect a new TV but don't want to go buy another Tivo Mini what are others doing? Kind of thinking back to the original plan of scrapping Tivo and going another route but curious if others are in my same boat and if they found a better solution to watching DVR on another TV without a mini or changing services all together, which i suspect may be the only option except Tivo Mini. But curious what I may be missing.

 

[lparsons21]

I’ve been digging around to find a one box solution too. So far, no luck with TiVo’s offerings. Currently using a Bolt w/OTA and a Mini and then switching to another box for the streaming apps.

I’ve given thought to an Amazon Recast 4-tuner OTA DVR but it only works with FireTV devices as clients. I’m not enamored of FireTV over AppleTV.

 

[302481]

Amazon Recast plus Fire TV (stick or smart TV). That gives you a decent OTA DVR, live OTA and all streaming apps in one place. DVR is not as full featured as Tivo, but is perfectly functional. I also have Youtube TV to fill in my missing cable channels and a few other services like Netflix.

Recast does integrate Pluto and OTA in the same guide, but that's actually gotten worse in the last several updates. The standalone Pluto app works much better.

My Tivo is still hooked up, so all I'd have to do is turn it on. But I haven't in over a year, so I guess that shows I don't really miss it that much.

EDIT: If you're not a Fire TV person, OTA DVR alternatives include Channels, Google Live Channels, AirTV, and Tablo. Or wait a bit more and see what Tivo's new streaming dongle can do.

 

[Pokemon_Dad]

A Mini is still the only solution for extending your TiVo viewing to an additional TV. Nobody knows if or when TiVo will ever release the extender apps they demonstrated last year.

If they're working on any such app at all, they're most likely developing a version that will work on the forthcoming Stream 4K, and that app may or may not also work on other Android TV devices. But at the moment their plan is to launch the Stream 4K with no support for existing TiVo products at all. It simply isn't a priority.

The Stream 4K may be a passable solution for streaming from Pluto, Disney+, or other services, but I can't imagine it being anywhere near as good as your Apple TV box. The Stream 4K is too little too late for me, and I plan to stick with switching inputs between Minis for TiVo and Fire TV for streaming.

 

[Pokemon_Dad]

Kind of thinking back to the original plan of scrapping Tivo and going another route but curious if others are in my same boat and if they found a better solution to watching DVR on another TV without a mini or changing services all together, which i suspect may be the only option except Tivo Mini. But curious what I may be missing.

I figure it's worth making a separate post in reply to the above paragraph. I've been testing Channels DVR and enjoying it very much. I've posted extensively on the experience in other threads you can find by searching for "TiVo alternatives" and "cord-cutting", but here's a quick summary.

I have Channels DVR running on a Synology NAS, with Fire TV client apps around the house. Channels also offers Apple TV, iOS, Android/Android TV, and web apps. It was almost plug-and-play, but Channels is still a relatively new product and a bit more DIY, so managing it is a little more hands-on than a TiVo.

Channels relies on HD HomeRun tuners like the Connect Quatro. The makers of HD HomeRun also offer their own turnkey solution calls Scribe which includes tuners and a DVR in one box, and that might be easier to set up but I much prefer the Channels interface. Plex is another of several products that can pull signals from HD HomeRun tuners, but when I tried it I felt Plex was trying to do too many things at once without doing any of them well.

Channels is a DVR solution only. It took a while to get used to their approach to the interface, commercial skip, and other features, but we've come to really appreciate it as an alternative to TiVo. All of these products require a subscription for guide data, and Channels is $8/month. Channels relies on the Gracenote guide, which is often more accurate than TiVo.

With Channels, you could do everything on your Apple TV without switching inputs or buying anything else. It's worth considering.

 

[tomhorsley]

Don't know how many devices have a "screen share" option, but I've successfully used screen sharing on my firestick to play content from my tivo using the tivo android app on my samsung galaxy s9+ and sharing the screen to the firestick. It is silly, but it works OK once you find all the relevant controls so you know where to navigate in settings to turn it on on both devices.

 

[Scott9mm]

IMO, the TiVo apps are so painfully SLOOOOO that I never use them. Instead, I plug a Firestick into a USB port on the back of the TV. I also have Roku but I tend to use the Firestick.
Switching TV inputs via the TiVo remote "Inputs" button isn't bad and my newer Firestick remote has a volume control and master on-off; so I only need two remotes (but still get mixed up sometimes).
I have a great deal of the shows we watch on a Synology NAS and I use the DS Video app on Firestick to watch them. I use KMTTG to automatically download from several TiVos and transcode to smaller files. With old eyes and a 32 in TV, HD is not important.
The DS Video/Firestick playback controls are poor (compared to TiVo) but adequate.