TiVo Roamio Pro 3 TB DVR (Old Version) - Digital Video Recorder and Streaming 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.

Pros:-6 tuners! Most cable company DVR's have 2, this is an incredible advantage.-Most of the menus are now in HD and look great. The few exceptions are some of the less commonly used settings menus.-The built in fan is whisper quiet form my seated position about 6 feet from the unit. I'm particularly sensitive to fan noise and this one is a non-issue.-RF remote control means you don't have to point the remote at the DVR. It also means the Roamio Pro can be placed in a closed cabinet, though you do have to be mindful of the heat it generates. I'm not saying this device generates an excessive amount of heat, but the reality is that it contains a rotational hard drive and other electronic components, all of which do generate heat.-I purchased a TiVo Mini to replace a cable box in the living room. This further increases the appeal of the Roamio Pro. It does use one of the 6 tuners in the Roamio Pro but with that many available it's never an issue. The Mini also allows you to view content you have recorded on the Roamio Pro in another room where the Mini is hooked up. Another advantage of the Mini/Roamio Pro arrangement is that the program guide on the Mini will allow you to schedule recordings which are actually occurring on the Roamio Pro. Therefore it doesn't matter which unit programs are scheduled on, they all end up being recorded on the Roamio Pro and are accessible on either the Mini or Roamio Pro.-There are 2 status lights on the front panel of the unit. The left one lights up green when the unit is powered on. The right one lights up red when a recording is in progress. What's nice about this red LED is that it will visually show you how many recordings are currently active by adding another red LED to the right of this one to represent each active recording.-The TiVo apps for the iPhone and iPad are very user friendly and work extremely well. I love the ability to schedule a program no matter where I am from my iPhone or iPad.-Programs can be streamed to the iPhone or iPad from the Roamio Pro.-The unit itself has an attractive appearance, it fits in very well with other home theater type components.-It has an enormous recording capacity. I record a lot of programs as does my wife using the TiVO Mini and we never exceed 30% of the capacity.-TiVo recently updated their web interface and it's a major improvement. This used to be a glaring weakness, but not anymore.-Streaming apps are built in such as Amazon, Netflix, and Vudu. And they all work great.-Recently TiVo added a very interesting feature called QuickMode that allows you to watch a program at 30% greater speed than normal with normal sounding audio. No chipmunk voices and the video is not distorted either, it's rather amazing that it works, but it does.-TiVo is always releasing software updates that add on new features such as QucikMode and fix bugs.-Recently TiVo added Cox on demand. That was the only thing I was lacking when comparing it to the cable company DVR, but not any more.Cons:I really don't have a single complaint worth mentioning.This DVR is so dramatically superior to the cable company DVR's being offered that it's a wonder why anyone uses one at all. Perhaps some are put off by the monthly subscription fees, but the reality is that they are no more than you pay the cable company for an inferior HD DVR. The Roamio Pro has so many advantages that once you switch you'll wonder why you hadn't done it long ago.