TiVo Bolt OTA for antenna 1TB reviews

TiVo Bolt OTA for antenna 1TB reviews – does it work with antenna?

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What is good in TiVo Bolt OTA for antenna 1TB? Stream, download and watch shows on your mobile devices, and schedule recordings almost anywhere with the free TiVo app. The new Bolt OTA includes such features 4K UHD video support, voice control, and built-in streaming to smartphones. Know more in TiVo Bolt OTA for antenna 1TB reviews.

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Pros & Cons – TiVo Bolt OTA for antenna 1TB

Pros

  • Lost remote control alert
  • Access on smartphones and tablets
  • Lots of recording options
  • Easy-to-view channel grid
  • Good Alexa integration.
  • Combined OTA TV, DVR, and streaming
  • Offers four tuners
  • Bolt OTA DVR is great for recording live TV
  • Box contains 1TB of storage for a plethora of DVR content.
  • Hardware and service costs are less expensive than other TiVo boxes.
  • Good voice search and control.
  • Advanced playback, content and search features
  • Good middle ground between cable and pure streaming devices
  • Access to all major streaming services

Cons

  • Fewer streaming services than the competition
  • TiVo monthly or annual subscription is required
  • Bulky remote
  • Limited interface options
  • SkipMode doesn’t work on all types of content.
  • Limited number of available streaming apps.
  • Doesn’t isolate antenna channels that actually receive a channel signal.
  • DVR becomes less useful when you don’t get a lot of channels.

Specs – TiVo Bolt OTA for antenna 1TB


Recording Capacity: 150 HD hours
Hard drive size: 1TB
Video output: v2.0 (4k 24/60, 1080p, 24/60)
WiFi: ac dual-band, N, G, B, A
TV Source:
– Antenna
– ATSC

I/O:
– Remote Finder
– Coax
– Optical audio out
– Audio L/R
– HDMI 2.0 / (4K, 1080p 24/60)
– Ethernet port: 10/100/1000 Mbps
– USB 2.0 ports (2)
– External storage port (eSATA)
– Power: 12V

TiVo Bolt OTA for antenna 1TB Price

The Bolt OTA retails for $250 and owners can either opt for a $6-per-month subscription or a $250 “All-in Service Plan”. TiVo is currently offering a $200 trade-in program for owners of the Roamio OTA until Dec. 22 2018, which would bring the total cost to $300.

By comparison, an Amazon Recast with a 1TB drive and four tuners costs $229, but you’ll also need a Fire TV device, such as a Fire TV Stick 4K ($39). And, you’ll need a Prime membership ($119 per year), but to be fair, that price also includes other benefits such as two-day shipping and unlimited Prime Video streaming.

TiVo Bolt OTA for antenna 1TB reviews

Design

Apart from the glossy black plastic, which picks up fingerprints, the front of the Bolt has a TiVo logo. Yes, this design makes TiVo’s box stand out, but it also means it’s a bit tough to cram in with the rest of your entertainment equipment. TiVo’s Bolt OTA is a shiny black box measuring 11.4 x 7.3 x 1.8 inches that looks like it’s been bent.

Ports

If you run out of recording space there is an e-SATA port to add additional storage if needed. Other connections include HDMI, coax antenna, optical digital, 3.5mm analog, Ethernet and two USB ports. There is also a handy remote finder button on the rear.

Does TiVo bolt work with antenna?

There’s the coaxial jack for the antenna, of course, plus an HDMI port for connecting to your TV. Connecting your new TiVo BOLT OTA with an HD digital antenna is straight forward: you’re ready to go after plugging in your antenna cable. Use the TiVo VOX Remote™ to tell your BOLT OTA to watch, search, browse, or record, and start enjoying all your favorites in eye-popping HD.

Storage

The 1 TB hard drive is a beautiful thing, and improves on the competition: the Tablo Quad OTA DVR asks users to provide their own storage (though it does have a convenient internal compartment for that storage and supports different capacities of SATA laptop-sized hard drives). So that’s at least one major beef that we had with Tablo that won’t be repeated with TiVo.

Recording

Creating a series recording (a “OnePass” in TiVo terminology) brings up all kinds of detailed settings. You can decide which season to start recording from, omit reruns, keep only a certain number of recent recordings, limit recordings to either high- or standard-definition, and create start and stop buffer times. You can also create manual time-based recordings and look through a “to-do list” to manage existing ones. TiVo will alert you when you’ve run into a scheduling conflict.

SkipMode

TiVo’s SkipMode feature works on recorded shows, allowing you to skip over entire commercial breaks with the press of a button. However, there are a bunch of caveats to SkipMode that make it less appealing. First, it only works on recorded shows or content with commercials on services like Hulu—you can’t skip through commercials on live TV. Second, SkipMode is only active for certain programs that air during certain times. Here’s how TiVo’s help section explains it:

Apps

The apps on offer include Netflix (with a dedicated button on the new remote), Hulu, Plex, Amazon Prime Video and YouTube. Sadly, there is no access to live TV streaming services, which would help bolster the local options with cable channels. The Bolt OTA offers the ability to stream recordings via the TiVo mobile app, though I personally have had limited success with that (with either the Roamio OTA or the Bolt OTA). You can also control the box via Amazon Alexa, though the number of commands is currently limited.

If you get tired of watching local channels, you can connect 21 streaming apps to TiVo (including Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Hulu, Vudu, Epix and YouTube) as well as Alexa and IFTTT.

That’s a good selection, but Amazon and Roku offer a much larger menu of streaming services. One exception is Vudu, which is not available through Amazon.

Remote

The new Vox remote has a host of extra buttons over the traditional “peanut” including the new “microphone” button, which adds the ability to search for content. But the biggest change is that the iconic thumbs up/down buttons are tiny and white instead of red and green. In the top half is a circular navigation button surrounded by volume and channel rockers, a voice search button and a few others.

The bottom of the remote has a number pad as well as buttons for skipping commercials and opening Netflix. In the center of the remote is another circular button to control playback of whatever you’re watching: play, pause, fast forward and reverse.

Content search

TiVo’s works well — you can search by title, genre, actor and character; it accurately interpreted my voice and pulled up whatever it was I asked. What’s more, it will search across all your linked streaming services — if the movie is available on more than one service, you can pick the one you want — and will display ratings for that program.

Setup

The user’s part in setting up the Bolt OTA takes little time: just plug the device into your TV using the included HDMI cable and connect your antenna to the device via a coaxial cable. Then, you just need to turn on the TV and follow the on-screen instructions—the longest part is when you have to wait for TiVo to activate the box’s service and fetch all the local channels available through the antenna.

TiVo Bolt OTA for antenna 1TB customer reviews

Must have for OTA people

I have used Tivo for several years. I had the cable version of the Bolt, 500GB, but since cutting the cord a few years ago, I thought I’d upgrade (downgrade?) to the Tivo Bolt OTA 1GB since the monthly subscription was significantly lower and will pay for itself over time vs my other unit. I had bought it on sale, but then it went on close-out soon after at Best Buy and they priced matched the even lower price over the phone!

Being able to do all the usual DVR things like pause live TV, recording multiple channels at the same time, etc. is great, but the big plus is the automatic commercial skip on maybe 90% of the shows I record that are not on Hulu (where I have the commercial free service).

It also works flawlessly with my two older Tivo minis which are unfortunately not wireless, so I have them all connected over my old cable TV wiring using MOCA adapters.

This OTA unit was not as streamed lined to set up than in the past. Not sure why but the initial update downloaded at install reported a beta guide error and to report it to Tivo (could not get past it). After basic troubleshooting with Tivo, they told me to ultimately reboot the box a 2nd time where it retrieved an update once again, and this time it worked. I also had problems fully registering the device online which required a 2nd phone call to Tivo to complete since it kept reporting that it was processing (for days).

By w1980 at Best Buy

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