TiVo Roamio OTA

8 reviews

May, 2024

Positive
price (5)
usability (4)
reliability (1)
design (1)

Negative
size (2)

General overview
Price comparison

alaTest has collected and analyzed 8 reviews of TiVo Roamio OTA. The average rating for this product is 3.7/5, compared to an average rating of 4.1/5 for other products in the same category for all reviews. People really like the reliability. The design also gets good comments. There are some negative views about the size, and there are some mixed opinions about the usability.

price, design, reliability

size

We analyzed user and expert ratings, product age and more factors. Compared to other products in the same category the TiVo Roamio OTA is awarded an overall alaScore™ of 90/100 = Excellent quality.

Review analysis

(Based on 8 reviews)

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Showing 1 - 8 of 8 Show Reviews: in English

Expert review by : Ben Drawbaugh (engadget.com)

TiVo Roamio OTA review: Finally, TiVo makes a DVR for cord-cutters

Cable TV and TiVo go together like peanut butter and jelly, or at least they did until now. The company that, for all intents and purposes, invented the

Low initial cost ; No cable subscription required ; Streaming options and four OTA HD tuners ; Same software and accessories as the regular Roamio

15 monthly service fee, with no Lifetime Service option ; No HDMI-CEC

TiVo's latest is the best over-the-air DVR ever made, but the $15 monthly service fee (combined with the lack of a Lifetime Service option) means you're trading a low upfront price for some high long-term costs.

Oct, 2014

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Expert review by : Ty Pendlebury (cnet.com)

TiVo Roamio OTA: A great cord-cutting DVR, but ongoing fees make it a poor value

The TiVo Roamio OTA is an excellent DVR, but its monthly fee structure makes it too expensive for people cutting the cable cord. The standard TiVo Roamio is a better choice overall.

The TiVo Roamio is an exceptionally polished DVR for recording free over-the-air TV. The interface is excellent and intuitive, making it dead simple to record shows and series exactly the way you'd like. It has built-in Wi-Fi and a 500GB hard drive....

Despite the $50 upfront cost, the Roamio OTA becomes expensive when you add in subscription costs -- and because it sorely lacks a lifetime option, you'll pay subscription fees forever. It's not compatible with CableCard, so unlike with the standard...

TiVo Roamio OTA is an excellent DVR, but its monthly fee structure makes it too expensive for people cutting the cable cord. The standard TiVo Roamio is a better choice overall for cord cutters.

Apr, 2016

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Expert review by : Chris Ziegler (theverge.com)

TiVo minus TV: testing the cable box for cord cutters

"There is an important service update available for your TiVo box. This update should take less than an hour, and the DVR will restart twice." Oh, this is bringing back memories! The notorious...

As close as you can get to an all-in-one box for cord-cutters ; "Peanut" remote works as well as ever ; Low upfront cost

Booting takes forever ; The UI isn't 100 percent HD ; Should be smaller ; Monthly fee

Aug, 2014

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Expert review by : Michael Brown (techhive.com)

TiVo Roamio OTA review: This DVR would be a cord-cutter’s dream machine, if not for the subscription fee

The hardware is cheap, but not everyone will want to pay for the service, as powerful as it is.

Combines an OTA DVR with a streaming box ; Very powerful software, with a terrific user interface ; Very inexpensive hardware

Mandatory $15-per-month subscription ; No support for premium OTT services such as HBO and Showtime ; Too difficult to program DVR to record only new episodes

As good a DVR as the Roamio OTA is, it would make a cord-cutter’s life even better if it included support for a service such as SlingTV (so that you could get some of the channels that are otherwise available only with a pay-TV subscription), along...

Jul, 2015

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Expert review by : Michael Brown (macworld.com)

TiVo Roamio OTA

If you haven't cut the pay-TV cord because you don't want to give up your DVR, you should take a good look at TiVo's Roamio OTA. This set-top box harbors four HD over-the-air tuners, an on-screen program guide so you can see what's on each channel and...

Combines an OTA DVR with a streaming box ; Very powerful software, with a terrific user interface ; Very inexpensive hardware

Mandatory $15-per-month subscription ; No support for premium OTT services such as HBO and Showtime ; Too difficult to program DVR to record only new episodes

The absence of those services, and my nit-picky comment about recording full seasons of new episodes, are my only complaints about the Roamio OTA. A lot of people hate subscription fees, but the power and the convenience that TiVo’s software and...

Jul, 2015

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Expert review by : Marshall Honorof (tomsguide.com)

TiVo Roamio OTA Review: Pricey Cord-Cutting DVR

The Roamio OTA is OK at what it does, but much more expensive than it lets on. Considering that you can watch live network TV with an HD antenna or catch most network shows on network websites a few days later, it's hard to justify the cost.

Great search features ; Extremely smooth video and audio quality ; Spot-on recommendation service

Miserable, unintuitive setup ; Clunky, nonoptimized interface ; Expensive monthly subscription fees ; Huge device

The Roamio OTA is OK at what it does, but it's tough to set up and, considering fees, much more expensive than its $50 price tag lets on.

Jan, 2015

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Expert review by : Jonathan Knoder (toptenreviews.com)

TiVo Roamio OTA Review

Despite being designed to only record over-the-air content, the TiVo Roamio OTA DVR has the capacity to record content from video and audio streaming services as well. It has four tuners, which let you record multiple shows at the same time, and it...

The TiVo Roamio OTA does not require any sort of subscription.

It can only capture OTA content or streamed video from services you have subscriptions to.

The TiVo Roamio OTA has multiple tuners and 1TB of storage, making it a decent option for a family, though it is somewhat limited in the variety of content it can record.

Sep, 2012

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Consumer review (cnet.com)

"Best way to cut the cord and be very happy doing it"

I am very happy with my Romio OTA box. I don't pay monthly fees since I have been a customer for many years and purchased lifetime service in the past that I have used to upgrade to this latest model. IMO TiVo has treated their loyal customers well....

easy sleek interface - lifetime service for longtime customers

small disk size with factory 500G HDD

Oct, 2014

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