Customer Ratings & Reviews

I have used Tivo's from their beginning but I have never been a fan I always considered their software clunky, but they were only game in town. My last device was premiere with 1 terabyte add on drive only 2 tuners. I started using Windows Media center with multiple network tuners, but I like Windows 10 especially in tablet mode also with desktop no touch fast load with ssd. No Windows 10 media center it is gone! I tried Tivo Roamio 49 buck edition but so many big trees wind and tropical rainstorms made ota suck 10% of the time but some how that 10% came during my favorite recordings! I figured try new Bolt with cable card & 1 terabyte well I like it, gui not as likeable to me as Windows Media center but the skip commercials feature is incredible! The official Tivo Android app not good but Tivo DVR commander app is very good. Hey I am fan now..........not a fanboy mind you but the Tivo Bolt is a great device.

I don't know why every cable subscriber doesn't buy one of these. They are awesome. You get a Cable Card from your cable company, put it in the unit, and you can use Tivo Minis on your remote TVs and have full DVR control. The search integrates things like Amazon Prime and Net Flix. The TIVO user interface, remotes, etc. can't be beat. And the picture quality is better than my cable company boxes. Also the Tivo Minis that go on your remote TVs are small and can be mounted behind the TV on the wall. My cable companies small boxes don't have On Demand, a full guide, or DVR access, and full channels - with this I get all channels I subscribe to, on demand, Amazon Prime, etc. and full DVR access on every TV. Plus I pay no per TV fees to my cable company. It is so much better than anything the cable company provides. I had some initial issues with On Demand but it was my cable company and not TV - since then no problems. I love it!

Having owned a TiVo Premiere for four years, I decided it was time for an upgrade. After some research, I decided to purchase the brand spanking new TiVo Bolt. I wanted a TiVo that would allow for easy access to swap out the hard drive and this fit that description. While 500GB (75 hours of HD content) is decent, it is not ideal. I opted for a 2TB hard drive. The shape of this device is a little odd. I get the feeling that TiVo is trying to stick out while in your media center. But the size is considerably smaller than my old Premiere. Definitely not my favorite design, but not entirely ugly either. Swapping out the hard drive was easy, once you can get the plastic casing off. No need to install anything, literally just plug and play. Yay! I don't know if there is something wrong with my box, but my wifi doesn't like to connect online. I consider myself tech savvy, but after an evening of trying to connect, I gave up. Luckily, I already have an ethernet cable waiting from my old TiVo. I didn't want to go through the exchange process as I had already swapped out the hard drive. This thing is fast! That was the first thing I noticed after getting everything up and running. I had never used any of the apps (Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu, etc) before because they were slow to load and not as refined as my video game consoles. This box is so fast, I have no problem using them here. I love the commercial skip feature. It doesn't work with all shows, but a good 70% of the ones I've seen. Overall, it is a great upgrade that I would highly recommend.

I never understood why someone would pay so much for a Tivo box when the cable provider offers a DVR box (for a price...more on that later). Then I got this Bolt and it is a night and day difference from the terrible Comcast DVR box. The user interface is much easier to navigate and the channel guide is head and shoulders above the Comcast guide. There are so many features on the Bolt that are better than the Comcast DVR. The one that I appreciate the most is the "Skip" button. Being able to completely and effortlessly skip commercials in recorded TV shows in invaluable. This feature alone is worth the price of admission. Another feature that I love is the integration of Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu. For the first time since we have been subscribing to Netflix and Amazon Prime are we actually getting our money's worth. We have a smart TV and an smart BR player with Netflix and Amazon apps but it was way too cumbersome and the apps were hard to navigate. The Bolt makes watching Netflix and Amazon so simple and we are watching much much more from Netflix and Amazon. Another feature that I love is the iOS/Android Tivo app that lets you watch live/recorded TV on your smartphone/tablet. You can stream the show on your home network or download the show for viewing outside your home. The Bolt does not have the capability to stream to an external network, yet. The last "feature" that I appreciate is the cost savings. We were renting a DVR and two set top boxes from Comcast for about $40/month. I turned in all of those boxes and replaced them with a Bolt, Tivo Mini, and a Google Chromecast. Comcast also gives me a $2.50 credit/month for using the Bolt. It can't be all great though. It was very difficult to get the Bolt working with Comcast. Not Tivo's fault, totally Comcast's fault. I recommend that you get a CableCard from Comcast or your provider, but keep all of your boxes until you get the Bolt working. I made the mistake of turning in my boxes and replacing it with the CableCard. The CableCard people at Comcast were so confused about what equipment was on my account that they couldn't activate the CableCard with my Bolt. The other thing that I wish for is a larger HD. I bought the 500 GB version and it is not large enough. There is an external add-on that you can purchase from Tivo, but it is overpriced. I think I will wait until my warranty period is expired and then open the Bolt up and replace the internal HD with a larger one. Other than that the whole family loves the Bolt and the mini. I wish I hadn't waited so long to switch to Tivo.

Does what it should. Set up was flawless, no issues recording so far. Skipping the commercials is probably the top selling point. Only Ding is could have more tuners and storage.

The Bolt is a great replacement for Fios Set top boxes. Fast and easy to use. The Case is funky shaped and I'm not really keen on that. The only real drawback is the upfront cost and yearly subscription. I also added 2 mini's. In my case it pays for itself in well under one year so saving a ton of $$ after and have a much more responsive box, better picture quality and it's a streaming box to boot. Should have done it sooner.

For being my first non cable company distributed box its great! I do once in a while get a quick pixelization here and there but that could be the cable card. It doesn't happen much but it could be a hard drive but I might install a new one later. I love being able to control my box from the app. If I am ever late home to watch a show I just log in and tell it to record. Cant complain too much about it. Still learning the in's and outs.Also recording 4 shows at once really does work.

The TiVo Bolt has made an excellent addition to my home. I recently replaced a DirecTV Genie and wired mini setup with this Bolt and TiVo mini's on Time Warner with a CableCard, and I haven't looked back even once. The device is nice and fast and very easy to set up. I am shocked just how simple it was to get the MoCa setup going with the right filters on the system. The mini's do an excellent job of timeshifting and viewing recorded content on the Bolt. The bolt itself is rocket fast, and easily expandable in storage by replacing the hard drive inside. The OnePass functionality works like a champ, and the Bolt's ability to pull shows not only from Cable, but from streaming sources too makes missing a show impossible. Lastly, the TiVo suggestions feature is really smart and does an excellent job at picking out shows that I would like to watch based on my thumbs up/down ratings. There's always hundreds of shows and movies waiting for me to watch at my leisure that I would enjoy watching. The Genie was never close to guessing my likes and dislikes. And access to your recordings from mobile devices is a breeze. The video/audio quality is quite excellent too. My only knock on the Bolt would be it's lack of apps. It has the important ones like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, but there's a big hole there where there should a lot more apps for other services. This is something to get over easily though as many smart tv's and gaming consoles already have these. I have been incredibly pleased with this device. Very worth the investment to get rid of monthly cable box fees.

Love the Bolt. Some buy this as an upgrade DVR and use it only with streaming services (Netflix, Amazon prime, vudu, ect), but I also use it in connection to my current cable provider. I have Frontier Fios (same as Verizon Fios) and it works awesome with it. Everything including the menu guides are in 1080p and look so much better. Also, if you are a fios customer, it operates in Moca like the TiVo already does. So no loss in program guides or features EXCEPT video on demand. You will lose this. But with the integration of all of the popular streaming apps (and additional subscription add ons within those apps) you don't lose the entertainment experience. And the trade off just to have the bolt is worth it. Word of advice. If you are buying this to use with your current cable provider package, order a cable card immediately (it slides in the bottom of the TiVo box - the green lever is to help remove it)! It takes 3-5 business days to get - and tell them specifically what you need it for. DO NOT send them back your set top box until the cable card works with the TiVo and you have full programming. That way if for some reason you change your mind, you can just go right back to where you were.

tivo bolt is an upgrade for me from older tv with a recently deceased hard drive. they can be replaced, but i was contemplating upgrade anyway. everything loads much faster and 4k is amazing. if you haven't cut the cable cord and have not yet made the switch to tivo from the cable box, now is a great time to do it.

We've been TiVo users since 2002, and mostly satisfied along the way. Our only grumble was when the hard drive in a previous unit went bad and we learned the "lifetime TiVo service" subscription was the lifetime of the machine, even if that was unacceptably short. The new Bolt is so lightweight, I suspect there are no longer any moving parts to fail. A plus. Performance-wise, the Bolt does everything I want it to, and some things I hadn't thought of. Operation is intuitive, though that intuition comes from years of TiVo use. The funky design looks cool on top of the Blu-ray player If you've never used TiVo, consider this: When we bought the Bolt, we gave our old TiVo Premiere to my 86-year-old father. It changed the way he watches TV, and he's loving it.

This is our first TiVo. We've been talking about getting rid of our $80/mo cable for years, and this Bolt has finally allowed us to do it. Using an antenna brings in a better picture than our cable too. Once I activated unit with the 500 GB drive, and verified unit worked, I immediately installed a Seagate 2 TB drive for more space (this likely voids TiVo warranty). Shape is odd, but I have it standing on its side in our cabinet. Combined with our Amazon Fire TV and Kodi we have all we need. For cable news and a few other channels we're trying out a USTVNow subscription and see if that $20/month is worth it, and using Kodi to watch. Also purchased a TiVo Mini for the bedroom TV. Awesome!!

I've purchased several TiVos in the past 10 years and the Bolt tops all of them. I was actually able to sell my Premiere and replaced it with a TiVo Mini. Now I only have to pay one TiVo service fee and stream from my TiVo Bolt to the Mini. I love being able to lie in bed and watch live tv on my iPad while my wife watches something else on the big screen. I was slightly disappointed when the "skip commercial" feature was only for certain shows or networks....not everything. But not disappointed enough to rate it lower. The interface is smooth and super fast. It opens Netflix and Vudu up 10x faster than my smart tv hub. Best digital purchase in a long time!

Bought this so I could quit paying $50/month for Verizon Quantum DVR system that had multiple problems. My configuration (DVR plus 2 minis pays for itself in 1 year; then I'm only out the TIVO fee annually. It does everything the Quantum DVR does; does it faster; doesn't hang up; actually responds to the remote; and the commercial skip feature is a great.

We cut cable and kept high speed internet with an HD antenna that we connected to the Tivo Bolt. Easy to install and works as advertised. It works well with the OTA antenna and allows us to record programs to watch later. Includes an excellent guide (at least as good as the cable one it replaces) and is 4K so works well with out new 4K tv.

I was excited to see Tivo in the market again. After having the DirecTV Tivo from 2002 to 2006, I had missed several aspects of the Tivo services since. In 2007 I moved to the DirecTV DVR for the whole home product along with HD. DirecTV kept innovating while Tivo seemed to be behind by a few years. Then the BOLT came out. It offered some whole home aspects with the skip features and I was stoked. I purchased the BOLT along with 2 Mini's, setup my local TWC install, and even ordered a keyboard remote. Unfortunately, the excitement just didn't last. First, the BOLT is curved and white. This didn't seem to be a big issue until I had it setup with everything else. It stood out and I couldn't put anything on top of it. Second, the setup was painful. I made a couple of calls to the help desk. Fortunately, the help desk was very helpful. There were several issues we just couldn't get over though once we settled in with the above issues. One was that you couldn't get OTA with Cable. There were some OTA channels that TWC doesn't carry that we actually watch a bit. The other was with the way the menus work and the number of tuners that you can setup. 4 tuners seems like a lot, until you get used to more than that. With DirecTV, we have 8 tuners throughout the house. 4 alone with the minis runs out real quick. We would have needed to get another BOLT, if that's an option. Another issue was with the start and stop times. DirecTV has figured out that they need to program in some cushion whenever possible. This isn't a configured option, it just works. We hadn't really noticed it much since it just worked. Well, Tivo hasn't figured this out and many shows were cut off at the end and/or beginning. This got really annoying really fast. Setting up every show with a buffer was just extremely annoying. There were several issues with the menus and how things were multiple clicks into it just to configure simple options. The remote had also changed for the worse. The old peanut was something that you could use easily in the dark after getting a little used to it. The newer design is not as user friendly and the buttons don't have a different feel on several that are close together. We used it for 2 weeks and I was still hunting for buttons. There were many little things that continued to add up and we just couldn't make the switch back. It felt like we would give up 5 years of progress to get commercial skips. I will stick to my more expensive monthly service and deal with the fast forward skips that we're pretty used to. It was worth a shot to ensure that we could put the final nail in the Tivo coffin for us. Good luck to the new company that purchased Tivo as an IP strategy. I think Tivo lost it's way as a provider of DVR services.

I've been a Tivo customer for ten years, and upgraded from an older Series 3 unit to this, and I just love it. It's a good deal too, with a year of Tivo service included, I've never encountered such a promotion before with Tivo. Very slick unit, you can just tell that people passionate about their work made this thing with a very decent user interface, it does what all the other DVR's try to do. If you have some tech ability, download pyTivo too (free open-source) for great integration with home media and allows for uploading/downloading video to your computer. The Bolt will max out my network and transfer at 100 Mbps, so it may well go to 1 Gbps if your network supports it. In other words, it's very fast.

I've been a Tivo user since the 2004 and have also used the Tivo Roamio and the Tivo mini. The Tivo Bolt is a very nice upgrade especially for cord cutters. I find it works a lot better with my HD antenna than the Roamio did. The commerical skip feature is the highlight of this Tivo. It's smaller than the Tivo Roamio so it fits nicely on my TV stand. I have a white stand so the white color was perfect. I believe they are planning for it to come out in black for anyone who prefers it. It also works well with the Mini. When I set it up, I was able to transfer all my recorded shows from the Roamio to it via a network connection. I would definitely recommend it to first time buyers, as well as, to those looking to upgrade. Worth every penny!

I love my TiVo Bolt and even more I love that I don't have to pay a cable bill. My TiVo does everything my Satellite Cable Service DVR could do. I use it with an OTA that isn't even HD grade and it is picture perfect and can record all my favorite network TV shows as well as watch streaming programs.

TiVo service costs$149 annually which way less than cable company rental box. The TiVo bolt provides extra features like commercial skip that your cable provider doesn't and the set up and navigation is very easy to use. Many more features that a small post can't cover. You won't be disappointed if you decide to purchase one and fee your self from the cable box handcuffs!