TiVo Roamio Pro HD Digital Media Player

In 2001, we got our first Tivo recorder. It was amazing to be able to schedule recordings from the program guide and record shows without the hassles of tapes, but still have the ease of fast forwarding. By 2004, HDTVs had started to become a norm, and our cable company offered DVR service for $11.95 a month - cheaper than Tivo's service- while being able to record two shows at once. A better product at a lower price became available, and we switched. What happened between 2004 and 2015? The cable company failed to iterate the hardware or experience in any substantial way. Meanwhile, Tivo had to reinvent themselves to compete. And that they did. The Roamio easily and handily beats the DVR it replaced (Scientific Atlanta 8300HD) in almost every aspect. An elephant in the room is cost. The Roamio Pro is more than $400 generally; first year service included, $150/yr thereafter. You have the upfront investment in the hardware is one thing to swallow, but the cost calculation is not easy. My cable company charges $8/mo for plain cable boxes, and $20/mo for non-multiroom DVRs. This pegs the cost for two years for one DVR at about $480. Thus, on cost alone, the Tivo is a losing proposition, costing $600 for two years versus $480 for the cableco DVR (granted, the Tivo is a massively better product for several reasons I'll elaborate on later.) However, the Roamio has six tuners. It can do a combination of watching and recording six shows at once. And you can buy a TiVo Mini with RF Remote (Current Version). This hooks up to another TV via ethernet (plug in internet) or coaxial (e.g. traditional cable box screw-on cord). These go from $90 refurbished to $120 new (generally), and have lifetime free service. They can watch live TV, recorded programs, or streaming services you are subscribed to (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu Plus, etc.). Once you factor that each Tivo Mini is essentially a multiroom DVR into the equation, and costs much less with no ongoing service fee, the value proposition changes. We rented four HD DVRs for the past ten years at $20/mo. The breakeven on the Tivo is less than ten months. The only cost from the cable company is $2 for a cablecard, and that's essentially a wash because going from four DVRs to one CableCard also eliminated the $1.50/mo additional outlet fee from our bill. So depending on your cost and your service expectation, you can easily save money buying a Tivo - depending on what your cableco charges, and the number of boxes. In regards to the setup: It's pretty good, with occasional quirks. Tivo hardware in all forms still has a slow boot time (then again, hardware from the cable company was never a champion in this area). The guided setup is pretty good, expect a couple reboots. The box in the settings walks you through setting it up. You do need to register the Tivo's serial number on the website before actually plugging it in though, otherwise the connection to the Tivo service will fail. Once it's done, the Tivo generally runs itself, automatically getting program guide information, automatically recording suggestions (unless you disable it, more on that later), doing a good job of tracking first runs of shows and recording only new episodes from the season you ask for onwards, etc. Hardware: Well designed, quiet, looks attractive. The main Roamio Pro box has a button that is a "Remote finder"; the remote will play a jingle until the button is pressed so you can find it. The remote is smaller than most cable company remotes but well laid out. It uses radio frequency in addition to infrared, so you don't need to have line of sight to the DVR for commands to go through. User experience: Good. It was almost sort of comforting that the sounds that played in 2001 on my first Tivo are the same sounds for commands on the new one. That's not to say they're outdated. Menus are intuitive and very fast. Changing channels does take 1-2 seconds (about on par for the cableco DVR it replaced). Guide, pause, rewind, fast forward, etc. are all essentially instantaneous, even on remote Tivo devices within the home. Tivo's OnePass is great with a couple exceptions (just be careful on the channel you pick and select include streaming: no if you want to prefer recordings to the local drive over online services that you may not subscribe to). Suggestions works well to record programs that Tivo thinks you may like (based on other programs you record and rate). It's not perfect but more input (thumbs up/down) trains it and it picks up stuff you'd never record on your own. Suggestions can be disabled, but since they will always be lowest priority (vs. need for live TV and programs you actually asked for it to record, deleted automatically if space is needed) there's no real reason to disable it. Storage: My previous cable box had room for 20 hours of HD content. The Roamio Pro can do 450 hours in HD, and it's multiroom, so in order to watch the show in one room and resume it in another, I don't need to record it more than once. Storage is also expandable via USB or eSATA. I haven't needed to do so yet. Reliability: I've only had mine for two months but all is well. My Tivo Series1 was a trooper for many years and was retired for cost savings, not failure. If you're on non-lifetime service, Tivo will replace boxes outside of warranty for $49, which mitigates the risk of hardware failure financially. The Tivo Minis have no moving parts and are thus less likely to fail. Streaming: Works fantastically in the home. Also works well outside, but be aware that any premium channel (HBO, Showtime, etc.) sets a flag on their channels that prevents streaming from the Roamio to your smartphone or tablet. You can download shows/movies from these premium channels to store on your phone/tablet and watch offline (planes, cars, etc.) later, but you must do the download to the device while at home. Overall, I can highly recommend the Roamio Pro. If you're looking at it from a pure money saving perspective, consider the cost per regular cable box rental, the cost of DVR rental (if that is a priority) vs. hardware cost of Tivo, the cost of Tivo service after the first year, cablecard rental fee, etc... but the user experience is also much, much better. The only thing you really lose versus a cable company box is the use of ondemand (Comcast subscribers can use on demand with Tivo). With six tuners to record whatever your household wants, this is probably much less of an issue. If you're looking to use Minis with your Tivo, the main gotcha is they can't work wirelessly, and must use either ethernet or coaxial cable for networking (see my review on the Tivo Mini for details). They really are what makes the Roamio a great DVR if you have more than one cable box in your household.