By Joel Santo Domingo The TiVo Roamio series is the new top-of-the-line digital video recorder and media hub from the company that pretty much invented the DVR. The new Roamio series leapfrogs the competition, adding built-in live-streaming capabilities to a mature user interface. It's got six tuners and provides up to 450 hours of HD storage space, so there's virtually no excuse to miss those new and repeat shows when they float by on the rivers of live programming. Think of it as the best DVR on the market, with the addition of online features and the promise of place-shifting in the future. This is the set top box to buy if you can't live without cable or phone company TV service, so it's our latest Editors' Choice for DVRs.
Editors' Note: This review is based on tests performed on the TiVo Roamio Pro, the 450-hour version of the series. Besides the hard drive storage difference, the 150-hour $399.99 (list) Roamio Plus is otherwise identical in features, and while we didn't perform lab tests on this specific model, we expect similar performance.
Design and Features
The TiVo Roamio Pro looks like you'd expect a TiVo DVR to look like: It's not nearly as pretty as the 2006-vintage TiVo Series3 HD which featured an OLED info panel and physical controls on the front panel, but it's a natural evolution of the TiVo Premiere Elite (a.k.a. XL4). The Roamio Pro measures 2.4 inches by 16.5 by 10 inches (HWD), and has a white and black two-tone front panel with indicator lights for power, recording, etc. Hookup is as easy as any other cable company DVR: there's a CableCard slot in the back, along with an HDMI port, Component Video, A/V composite video port, two USB 2.0 ports (for accessories like the receiver for the TiVo Slide remote), eSATA for DVR storage expansion, and a digital audio port for connecting external speakers or a speaker bar.
You get a 3TB internal drive, good for 450 hours of HD content or an insane 3,500 hours of SD content. And you can add up to another 1TB via an external eSATA DVR expander, good for another 150 hours of HD video. This, along with the six tuners means that you'll rarely encounter a situation where you can't record what you want. This outguns the previous TiVo Premiere XL4 with four tuners and 300 hours of HD, and way outpaces most cable and phone company DVRs, which typically offer two tuners and less than 50 hours of HD recording space.
The peanut-shaped remote is both familiar to TiVo veterans and more compact than the original Series 1-3 remote and it supports both IR and RF, which makes it easier to use if you have the box hidden away in a home theater cabinet or closet. It also means that you can use the amber Find Remote button on the TiVo Roamio (and Roamio Plus) DVRs to make the remote chirp the TiVo jingle. Like the TiVo Premiere remote, the Roamio Pro remote includes extra function buttons for cable systems that support On Demand programming.
The user interface hasn't changed too much from the TiVo Premiere UI: You can still search by actors, director, titles, and keywords. There's access to services like YouTube, Hulu Plus, NetFlix, Amazon Instant Video, MLB.TV, Spotify, and Pandora direct from the TiVo Roamio Pro's menus. Netflix has been updated to deliver the same interface seen on other set top boxes like the Wii U and Apple TV, however Amazon Instant Video still doesn't support Amazon Prime streaming yet. Hopefully TiVo will add services like HBO Go in the future.
The speed of the menu system still has the occasional hiccup, as with any set top box with a multi-pane UI, but overall the interface is starting to approach the responsiveness of the older Series 2 and 3 TiVo flat menus. Viewers who don't subscribe to online services will find a couple of annoyances on the TiVo Roamio (and Premiere). Searching for programs that aren't on TV in the next couple of weeks will bring up opportunities to buy them on Amazon or open them in Netflix. This is annoying if you don't subscribe, but convenient if you already have access.
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