TiVo - Bolt 500GB Unified Entertainment System - 4K Ultra HD - White

TiVo's new Bolt is a step backward, not forward, from Roamio. I became a customer primarily because of the 6-tuner Roamio's. More and more cable tv shows now are extending the show's run time by an extra two to five minutes, overlapping into times of shows on other channels. This was almost never a big deal with six tuners, but with only four, recordings are more likely to get chopped off or missed entirely. The new Bolt skip-forward feature is very underwhelming. It's only available on select shows and times each day, and even then there's sometimes a delay after the show finishes before the skip updates are added to the recordings. The new Bolt box shape and color is unattractive and also makes it difficult to stack with other entertainment center equipment because nothing can sit on top of it any more. I also really miss the lights on the front that showed not just when at least one show was recording but how many shows, as the Roamio did. There's now just one recording light with the Bolt. Also on the Roamio boxes when you were transferring a show from another box or device there was a blue light that indicated the transfer in progress. That too is gone and they just use the multi-purpose yellow light now. Certainly nothing huge, but one more thing they took away that used to be neat. I recall bragging to friends over the past year that when TiVo rolled out new updates they did such a good job always making things better, and never taking away good things people liked with the service and design enhancements. I can no longer say that because TiVo has taken away many things that I valued with the Roamio DVRs. TiVo Bolt is a huge disappointment. I returned the Bolt after a few short days. Hopefully TiVo will learn from their shortcomings and add back functionality to future models, as well as improve the new features to be available in more shows.

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 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.

For years I've considered getting TiVo but the cost for equipment and service always stopped me. Recently I heard radio ads for the bolt and was intrigued. The quick commercial skip sounded great (and it is) so I looked more into what the bolt offered. Note the commercial skip only works for certain time and channels. Basically prime time on major nextworks (including cable stations). For $300 you own the equipment and get a free year of service after which its $150 a year for service which comes out to $12.50 a month. This is far cheaper than the $20 plus tax Xfinity charges. So if you can get by the upfront cost, you will eventually save money in the long run. Besides the cost savings you also get a fast and more user friendly interface. From the my TiVo you can access Netflix, YouTube, Amazon video, Hulu and even get Xfinity on demand. One pass allow for recording you favorite shows on any channel at any time, ensuring it get recorded. You can also get the service without an extra service fee with TiVo mini. I use it in my bedroom and it works flawlessly, just know a wired Ethernet connection is needed for the mini. I can't recommend this any higher. Do yourself a favor and make the switch, you won't be sorry.

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.

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.

Let's make 1 thing clear...if you have an existing Tivo Roamio and you do not have a 4K TV the Tivo Bolt does not provide enough value for me to recommend making a change. For the people that either do not have Tivo at all or for those that are considering the upgrade from Tivo Premiere (or a previous Tivo), this is well worth the purchase. The interface is more responsive, the guide is more clearly understood (with station icons added), the streaming connects and resumes quickly (Netflix, Amazon, Vudu, etc.) The added "Skip" feature is limited but still great when it's available. The best use I've found for "Quick" mode is getting through a 3 hour sporting event - it does take getting used to since the voices talk fast. The new box design is a smaller so it doesn't take up as much space. Even the remote is slightly smaller to make it easier to handle - my only complaint about the remote is that they moved the Guide button which is now the zoom.

Received this as a gift from my wife. We really liked the idea of having Netflix, Prime and our cable subscription in one place with one remote. Now I’m fairly savvy with all of this stuff but after 2 trips to Comcast and hours on the phone I was unable to make this work. To view your cable subscription with the Bolt you need to get a CableCard from the local cable company (Comcast for me). I did that, got home, installed the CableCard, powered up the unit and waited 30 minutes per the Comcast directions. After that I activated the CableCard on the Comcast Website. Next I went through the Tivo guided setup. This is a long process as the unit has to download the channel lineup and went through a series of updates. Finally when you are ready to watch live TV the screen says acquiring channels and was perpetually stuck at 72%. After about 15 minutes it would come back and say “unable to process request.” I spent a fair amount of time with the Comcast CableCard support. They were fairly familiar with Tivo and walked me through some setup and reboots….No luck. Finally I decided that the benefits of this expensive ($289.00) device simply was not worth it. Returned the Tivo to BestBuy and am happily back to a cable and Roku box. Finally Tivo requires you to go online and enter a credit card during the setup. When I gave up and wanted to cancel I couldn't do that online, I had to call and wait on hold for about 15-minutes to cancel. Something this expensive should just work.