mardi 3 février 2015

My faith in TiVo has been restored!

I've been a tivo owner since 2003. I'm used to be one of those annoying people that if you get me talking about TiVo I won't shut up about it until you agree to get one yourself.



However, when my TiVo HD died, I replaced it with an XL4 and was very disappointed. The HD menus were horribly slow, so much so that I had to go back to the SD menus. There was no (and still is no) Amazon Prime Streaming or Vudu access on it. However, the HD menus did speed up enough to the point that I have switched back to them.



I also had a TiVo HDXL that just died last week. I've had other TiVos that died and I've replaced the hard drive to prolong their lives, but wasn't thrilled with the prospect of going through that again, nor did I want to pay $600+ for a Roamio with lifetime service.



So, I started looking at the TiVo Mini. I had heard about it before but didn't pay much attention to it. The more I learned about it, the more it appealed to me as a replacement for my dead HDXL.



My XL4 is in my living room connected to a smart TV that has all the apps I care about (Amazon Prime Streaming, Vudu & Netflix). So it didn't matter much to me that Amazon & Vudu are not available on the XL4. But the HDXL was connected to a dumb TV and adding Mini to it would allow me to access all three of those on that TV too! Plus, the device only cost $150 and includes lifetime service! And, it's in a bedroom, and the Mini doesn't have a fan or make any noise! Access to all the shows (ALL OF THEM, even the video podcasts like from CNET) from my XL4, without having to schedule them on two separate boxes. And one of the biggest wins for me, is that the TV I'm connecting the Mini to does not have a working HDMI port, but is does have a component connection. Most streaming boxes on the market today only have HDMI and streaming sticks are only able to be plugged in via HDMI. Yet, the Mini has the ability to output to HDMI and component and affords me the benefit of using the streaming apps I care about. It really couldn't have been a better solution for me!



And, on top of all of that, once I got it set up, I found the thing is lightning fast (compared to the XL4). Menus are really zippy. Vudu loads faster on it than on my smart TV, as does Amazon. And Netflix loads faster than on the XL4.



I'm only one day in, so hopefully this experience lasts, but I'm a incredibly happy with this purchase. Finally, I can LOVE TiVo again!




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