TiVo BOLT+ 3 TB DVR: Digital Video Recorder and Streaming Media Player - 4K UHD Compatible - Works with Cable

I've owned numerous Tivos (four are running in my house at this time), and this one is on par with the rest of them as far as quality and innovation goes. My gripe with Tivo, is that the hardware is actually cheaper than the service you have to purchase to make these boxes work. The boxes themselves aren't cheap, but when you add Life-Time service agreement to the package, the system is downright expensive. Of course, Tivo won't let you retire an older unit and transfer the Life-Time service to the new unit. Due to the expense of the service, this will likely be the last Tivo I buy. With the plethora of streaming services available these days, it is hard to justify buying a Tivo anymore. Tivo is killing their own product with their sky-high service fee, and their refusal to let long-time customers transfer service from retired units, to new units.

Having owned (5) Tivos across more than 7-yrs, I have enjoyed them all until purchasing this Bolt Plus product. The first Bolt Plus, died after just a couple days and would not power on at all. Tivo sent me a new in the box replacement Bolt Plus and I've spent more time that I ever want to do again attempting to get the replacement to work. I've been a Comcast customer for 24-yrs, have lots of experience as a cable customer, well know the need for good cable wiring, good signal and using Tivos with cable-cards.I currently own/operate (2) other Tivo Elites that are functioning perfectly connected to the exact same cable location that the Bolt Plus will not tolerate. My signal strength is perfect (according to the two Comcast Techs that spent hours in my home yesterday). These were not "contractors", but long-term Comcast Techs that had many years of excellent knowledge in line requirements and solving problems. They went way beyond what I would have expected of them including running a brand new Coax line direct from the street right to the Tivo Bolt. They even played with attenuating the signal with some of their devices and nothing would work with this Bolt Plus. They used (4) cable-cards (including 2 brand new cards still sealed in the package). There "is" something wrong with the design of the Tivo Bolt Plus. If you do some research online, you will find other people that are having to go through multiples of cable-cards before the Bolt Plus will start to behave properly. Others (as in my case) can't get the Bolt Plus to work at all. The Tivo customer should not have to face trying cable-card after card hoping to find the one that their specific Bolt Plus will tolerate.I've invested many hours of my personal time (across several days) with both Tivo Support and Comcast attempting to get the Bolt Plus to work. Unfortunately, I have arrived at the decision that this new Bolt Plus product is just not ready for "prime time" and I am a long-term Tivo fan. It just has some sort of problem that my other Tivos have never had with the cable TV signal and I'm unwilling to spend more of my time trying to get the Bolt Plus to work. Hopefully Tivo will solve the Bolt Plus problem at some point, but for now I'm not buying any more and can't recommend it.Update 10-21-16: Hey folks, I had to call Tivo yesterday to resolve an issue with a returned Bolt Plus to their RMA dept. I was funneled to Tech Support to handle that RMA issue and also ended up in conversation with the Tech about the Bolt Plus. I learned something important enough from that phone call that I felt it would be useful to share with you. There is a (known to Tivo) reason that the Bolt Plus may not work in place of a predecessor Tivo product as several of us have reported here. The design of the Bolt Plus (and maybe the whole Bolt series) changed significantly from previous Tivo models, especially in the area of Cable signal tolerance. Previous Tivo products such as the Roamio, Premier, etc all used the same Cable signal interface design and have a broader tolerance to the quality and level of the incoming Cable signal. The Bolt Plus has a narrower tolerance and it can be the reason that it will not function in place of an earlier (functioning) design of Tivo DVR.This news raised an important thought that I hope Tivo can address at some point. The Cable customer has no ongoing control over signal strength and quality as new customers are added or Cable provisioning equipment is altered. If you have been a Cable customer long enough, you have likely encountered that issue where one month all is perfect and the next you're having a Cable Tech come to your home to solve a problem. Given that reality, Tivo has actually engineered (via this new design) the problem some of us are seeing with the narrower signal tolerances of the Bolt Plus. I'm of the opinion that I don't want a product that is designed with "less tolerance" to Cable signal changes because it sets me up for more Cable company service calls to tweak signals. I asked the Tivo Support person what are our options if we want a 6-Tuner Tivo with many of the features that the Bolt Plus offers and he said "the Tivo Roamio". He shared that the Roamio uses the same signal interface as the Premier (which I own) and has that wider tolerance in design to Cable signal differences. There are still advantages that are unique to the Bolt series such as a faster processor, etc, but if you are having the problem that others of us are having and want a 6-tuner Tivo, the Roamio might be the better choice.Hope this helps others as they decide what to do and I wish Tivo only the best because they are still light-years better than the DVRs that Cable companies offer (i.e. Comcast X1, etc).

Fantastic, class-leading DVR once you get past the timely setup, but it's worth it.Pros:1) Simply the best interface and experience of any DVR2) Snappy performance3) Well curated program info in terms of season and episode numbers4) Six tuners5) Great mobile application that allows Slingbox-like streaming and downloading for off-line viewing6) Integration of major streaming services into searching and OnePass listings7) Instant commercial skip is awesome (but only works works on major shows)Cons:1) $500 is not cheap2) Long setup of 1 to 2 hours to go through the guided setup (straightforward though)3) Ridiculous expectation to wait 24 hours after setup/activation for the Tivo to work (see workaround below)4) Only the most common streaming services available. I hope they add more.5) No OTA (over-the-air) tuner or capability. If you scrap cable, you will scrap this DVR. Other Tivo's have OTA and cable.I had the original 14-hour Tivo in 1999 and several since then including DirecTivo versions. The Tivo experience is well worth it. I have used more of the six tuners than I thought and now realize that four (on the regular Bolts) would likely not be enough given I have a Tivo Mini for another room that uses one tuner for live TV.The integration of Amazon Video, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Netflix, Vudu, and Comcast OnDemand is great. Beyond cross-service searching, it was nice to get a OnePass and see all the streaming shows available mixed with the recorded shows. (You can turn this off and hide services you don't have). I didn't realize it would pull Comcast OnDemand so that was a pleasant surprise. We don't use our Roku 3 or FireTV Stick as much anymore except for streaming channels that Tivo does not have (such as Leo Laporte's TwitTV and Hallmark Channel Everywhere). The Tivo guide info is much better than what comes from the satellite/cable vendors, particularly for tracking season and episode numbers.Beyond price, my only quibble is the time for setup. As with other Tivo's, it can take an hour or two to go through the guided setup, so I expected that. The setup is easy and most of the time is spent waiting for the Tivo to download and crunch data. But then once I activated and paid, it said online that it was awaiting activation and to check back in 24 hours. What? A $500 device that I have to wait a day or more to use? I called Tivo support and they told me a workaround.Workaround to not wait 24 hours for activation:The Tivo agent told me to go into the menus and manually connect to the Tivo Service now. Do this twice in a row and then restart the Tivo. Viola! It worked. However, Tivo must figure out a smoother activation process.As an aside, I am on Comcast. I switched after over 18 years with DirecTV. After the AT&T purchase, the DirecTV customer service has been abysmal. In contrast, Comcast has answered within seconds every time I have called once I get past the 30 seconds or so of prompting. I had some problems at first related to an old filter on my line so it took a few calls. They got me to advanced support quickly. (This has nothing to do with the Tivo specifically, but since you MUST have cable with the Tivo Bolt + I wanted to share my experience).The Tivo is another league compared to the DVR options of both Comcast and DirecTV. The Tivo Bolt+ makes TV like a whole new experience. Saturdays I can record/buffer six college football games at once and switch between them quickly.Finally, from Comcast the CableCard is free and I only need one outlet. So you save on renting a DVR. You also don't pay for additional outlets if you use Tivo Mini's. I also get a $2.50 credit for not having any equipment from Comcast.I use a Tivo Mini for the other TV which is just like sitting at the main TV except that it only buffers the channel you are currently watching. Denote that Tivo Mini's must be connected via MoCa or Ethernet. However, if a family member is watching live TV on the Tivo Mini, I can "only" watch/buffer five shows on the TIvo Bolt +. As a note, wireless will not work with the Tivo Mini's. The Tivo Mini is a separate product, but most people are researching a whole-home solution so I mention it here.