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Springbok
join:2002-09-13
Leander, TX

Springbok

Member

Tivo Question

Can a Tivo Roamio Plus with Cablecard and 3 Tivo Minis do the same as a Verizon Multi Room DVR and 3 HD STBs ? Will I be able to watch all recorded programs and all Verizon live TV on all 4 devices simultaneously? Long story, but apparently Verizon is unable to simply swap out 2 SD STBs for 2 HD STBs, so I'm getting ready to jump ship.

Thinkdiff
MVM,
join:2001-08-07
Bronx, NY

Thinkdiff

MVM,

Yes - you can actually do more, too. The Minis can pause/rewind Live TV because they use the Roamio's tuners.

If you record a lot of shows, you may get tuner contention (if you have 4 recordings in progress and want to watch Live TV on all 3 minis simultaneously, you'll have to stop a recording in order to do that). You can cancel recordings directly on the Mini, so it's not a huge deal when that happens.

You will lose Verizon's Video On Demand, however.
Springbok
join:2002-09-13
Leander, TX

Springbok

Member

said by Thinkdiff:

You will lose Verizon's Video On Demand, however.

Can a subscription to Netflix be viewed on any of the Mini's?

Thinkdiff
MVM,
join:2001-08-07
Bronx, NY

Thinkdiff

MVM,

Yes, the Mini supports Netflix, Hulu Plus, MLB.tv, etc.
jmcging
join:2005-08-04
Columbia, MD

jmcging to Springbok

Member

to Springbok
Can you have 2 Romios (total 12 tuners) with 4 mini's and 2 cablecards and avoid the live TV contention? I have 3 DVRs and 2 STBs (5 TVs total) that are often all on separate live channels plus we are recording on 2 if not all 3 of the DVRs during prime time. $80 month for hardware alone, so Tivos may make economic sense. But tuner contention is a deal killer.

Thinkdiff
MVM,
join:2001-08-07
Bronx, NY

1 edit

Thinkdiff

MVM,

said by jmcging:

Can you have 2 Romios (total 12 tuners) with 4 mini's and 2 cablecards and avoid the live TV contention? I have 3 DVRs and 2 STBs (5 TVs total) that are often all on separate live channels plus we are recording on 2 if not all 3 of the DVRs during prime time. $80 month for hardware alone, so Tivos may make economic sense. But tuner contention is a deal killer.

If you use one Roamio for "recording" and one for Live TV, yes, there's no issue with this.

I think a few people have thrown around the idea of having a "pool" of live tuners, where a mini could take an available tuner from any box in the house, but I don't think that was ever implemented. As it is now, you need to pair each mini with a host TiVo. It will only pull tuners from that host device.

There are two downsides of the setup you describe:
1. When you want to watch a recorded program on a Mini, you'll have to select the "recording" TiVo from the My Shows list first. By default, the recordings on the host TiVo display on My Shows on the Mini.
2. The Mini can only create recordings / manage season passes on the Host TiVo. You'd either have to switch which TiVo is the host to make changes, or use the iOS/Android App.
jmcging
join:2005-08-04
Columbia, MD

jmcging

Member

Thanks, great explanation for a noob like myself.

obeythelaw
Premium Member
join:2003-04-16
Warren, NJ

obeythelaw to Springbok

Premium Member

to Springbok
I have the Plus as well and didn't think i was missing much using the Verizon whole home dvr but the Tivo Roamio is a great box and beats the Verizon DVR in my opinion. I only have two tv with the other tv having a tivo mini. Works great.

aaronwt
Premium Member
join:2004-11-07
Woodbridge, VA
Asus RT-AX89

aaronwt

Premium Member

Plus in the loing tem it's alot cheaper using the TiVos than the FiOS DVRs. At least that was the case when I compared FiOS and Comcast to TiVo. And that was when the TiVo Roamios cost more. I paid retail price for my first Roamio. The prices have dropped alot since then.

obeythelaw
Premium Member
join:2003-04-16
Warren, NJ

obeythelaw

Premium Member

I paid for the lifetime on the Tivo Mini that I bought. In a couple of years it will pay for itself and I can hook it up via ethernet or moca and it really has the same functionality of my Tivo Roamio Plus minus the hard drive. I opted not to go with lifetime on the Roamio for financial reasons.