Goobye sageTV Hello Tivo Bolt.

[nyplayer]

I took the plunge today and ordered the TIVO bolt .... Reasons below.

1. I am a cable subscriber and maintaining SageTV for Cable recording is really a pain the the ***

2. SageTV does not really have any Streaming.

3. I Prefer the TIVO bolt because it has everything I need in 1 Interface. Netflix .. YouTube etc..

4. Tivo Bolt has a 30 Day free trial Free returns if I choose to change my mind

5. You can add external Storage to it.

6. first year subscription free.

7. Can return our Remaining 2 cable boxes at $10.00 each.

8. I can finally retire my Sage Box and get a NAS. for other stuff since the Tivo Bolt also supports plex.

9. supports 4K

[stuckless]

Bolt sounds like a promising device... especially if it has built in plex and netflix. Does it do multi-room (ie, centralized recording, and watch in any connected tivo device).

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by stuckless

Bolt sounds like a promising device... especially if it has built in plex and netflix. Does it do multi-room (ie, centralized recording, and watch in any connected tivo device).

They have Tivo Minis that you can use to replace the cable boxes in any room.

[cncb]

Unless they have made recent improvements, you might be disappointed in the Plex implementation due to having to transcode most videos (unless you are not into watching ripped movies).

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by cncb

Unless they have made recent improvements, you might be disappointed in the Plex implementation due to having to transcode most videos (unless you are not into watching ripped movies).

I cannot even remember the last time I ripped a movie.... The main reason I want it is to record CableTV, Netflix and replace my 2 cable boxes and 1 of my HdHomerun Primes. Plex is just a bonus to View the recorded SageTV shows which I transcode to H264 after 30 days old.

And eventually replace my sageTV box with a high end Nas.

[will]

I've always been interested in trying out a Tivo - love the remotes and they have a great interface.

However, doesn't Tivo encrypt the recordings on the hard drive to be cable card complaint? If your Tivo fails then you lose all your data, external storage included; just like the old Windows Media Center. Has this changed?

[EnterNoEscape]

You can pull anything off of the box that is copy freely, but I presume while it is on the box it is stored encrypted. That's my number one complaint about proprietary boxes, if the drive goes up or the box breaks you just lost everything. To counter this, you could presumably do nightly backups of your copy freely content. My number two complaint is commercial skipping support. TiVo has it, but unless things have improved, it's not as instant as SageTV. Even with these complaints, I'm still very interested in your experience when you start using it.

[bcjenkins]

TiVo only encrypts depending on the flag. You can pull the recordings off of a TiVo using kmttg as well.

TiVo's minis used to require a separate subscription, but they don't any longer.

The Plex integration is a huge add-on if you have a ton of ripped media.

[nyplayer]

That is good to know that I can Copy the Tivo recordings. Most of my channels are copy freely except for a few movie channels. I have 2 primes so I will be de-commissioning one ... (at least I go from 3 tuners to 4) ... I will use Sage in parallel until I feel comfortable with it.

TIVODesktop reportedly works with it to transfer files.

[bcjenkins]

You'll need to use kmttg because TiVo Desktop is no longer for sale.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

You'll need to use kmttg because TiVo Desktop is no longer for sale.

I have tivoDesktop 2.8.3 but it is great to know there is another option ... much appreciated thanks.

I also believe that MCEBuddy can Process Tivo Files.

[wayner]

Maybe the Sage userbase will evolve to become more Canadian as we don't have as many options with stuff like TiVo or CableCARDs. And we can buy HD cable boxes which is cheaper than renting in the long run.

[massmanjr]

I'm a long time Sage TV user. I still use it for OTA recordings, and use MCEBuddy to convert to MP4 for use with plex. I still love Sage. However, I recently took the Tivo plunge (Roamio), with various Tivo minis, due to cable card necessity (copy-protected content) and the lack of desire to tinker with Sage and troubleshoot issues. I've really enjoyed Tivo and the ease of use. The downside to Plex on Tivo (at lease the Roamio) is that 720p is the max stream for Plex recordings, so 1080p gets transcoded and downconverted---which is more taxing on my plex server. I think the Bolt may allow for higher Plex streams (though I'm not sure).

The older I get, the less hassle I want to have with electronics/computers (even though I'm an I.T. guy by trade). I want them to just work (like an appliance). I had a similar issue years ago with Sonos vs. Squeezebox. I first had the Squeezebox, which required my server to be up for local music playback. Once Squeezebox officially became a 'dead product' at Logitech (or it seemed that was the direction), I took the plunge with Sonos Play 1 and haven't looked back since. The Sonos 'just works' and does require less tinkering/reboots than Squeezebox. Plus with the advent of Google Play Music (storing my music on the cloud) and tight integration with Sonos, it's even better.

[bcjenkins]

TiVo
Series 4 and Series 5 (TiVo Premiere, Roamio, Mini, etc.)

Considerations:
These TiVo models currently only support video playback up to 4 Mbps, 720p quality. Content with higher bitrates or resolution will be automatically transcoded to be compatible.
Series 6 (TiVo Roamio OTA, Bolt, etc.)

Additional Direct Play video support:
MKV container with H.264 video encoding
Considerations:
Direct Play of 4K video is supported as long as the content conforms to the 4K media properties mentioned earlier.

[JerryB]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

I have tivoDesktop 2.8.3 but it is great to know there is another option ... much appreciated thanks.

I also believe that MCEBuddy can Process Tivo Files.

I have both tivoDesktop and kmttg installed and once I started using kmttg I found it to be so much faster and to offer more intelligent options, eg run commercial detection immediately after copying the file from my Tivo to my NAS, that I no longer use tivoDesktop.

[nyplayer]

Originally Posted by massmanjr

I'm a long time Sage TV user. I still use it for OTA recordings, and use MCEBuddy to convert to MP4 for use with plex. I still love Sage. However, I recently took the Tivo plunge (Roamio), with various Tivo minis, due to cable card necessity (copy-protected content) and the lack of desire to tinker with Sage and troubleshoot issues. I've really enjoyed Tivo and the ease of use. The downside to Plex on Tivo (at lease the Roamio) is that 720p is the max stream for Plex recordings, so 1080p gets transcoded and downconverted---which is more taxing on my plex server. I think the Bolt may allow for higher Plex streams (though I'm not sure).

The older I get, the less hassle I want to have with electronics/computers (even though I'm an I.T. guy by trade). I want them to just work (like an appliance). I had a similar issue years ago with Sonos vs. Squeezebox. I first had the Squeezebox, which required my server to be up for local music playback. Once Squeezebox officially became a 'dead product' at Logitech (or it seemed that was the direction), I took the plunge with Sonos Play 1 and haven't looked back since. The Sonos 'just works' and does require less tinkering/reboots than Squeezebox. Plus with the advent of Google Play Music (storing my music on the cloud) and tight integration with Sonos, it's even better.

Exactly how I feel ... spend too much time testing SageTV .... Trouble shooting etc... I plan on not using SageTV for OTA. I want an OTA option that can run and record on a NAS ... As I plan on retiring the SageTV server all together.

[KryptoNyte]

I'll be curious to see how everything goes, too. The [eventual] $900 investment is a bit a of a bite.

So the extenders (or mini's) would basically just basically be the cost per mini (any limit?), and then no additional fees? Then I suppose there is also the cost of expanding the storage ...

[stuckless]

Originally Posted by nyplayer

Exactly how I feel ... spend too much time testing SageTV .... Trouble shooting etc... I plan on not using SageTV for OTA. I want an OTA option that can run and record on a NAS ... As I plan on retiring the SageTV server all together.

I don't know if it's the difference between windows/linux or how many tuners, etc, but I have to say, my sagetv setup is rock solid. I have 2 HDPVRs tuning with IR blaster. I have 3 TV connected with either HD300s or Android TVs. Granted, I don't have a lot of plugins installed. I basically have comskip, and the web server plugins (bmt, sage web, sage mobile web). I never update plugins unless there is a feature that I really need (usually it's something I've added in phoenix). But I do agree... if you are rebooting and fiddling with the server all the time to get it working/stable, then it's time to move on... and I'd be there too if I were having to mess with the setup all the time.

Every now and then I think that maybe I should pack it all in and get a Sat/Cable DVR, not because sage isn't working but because I was afraid of what would happen if it stopped working (prior to being open source). But then I remember how much I hated having the Bell TV PVR where I could only watch something on the tv that recorded it, or the fact that if I missed an episode and I got it form somewhere else, then I need to mess with another application/device to watch it... and just how unfriendly the whole thing really was. I then snap back to reality and realize that SageTV is pretty good I'm pretty sure eventually I'll be back to a Sat/Cable DVR... but by then, everything will be on-demand, in the cloud, netflix style tv, and it probably won't be so bad... the concept of "recording" TV will likely become a throwback like "recording" songs off the radio.

[PiX64]

bummer... doesn't look like plex app is available on the tivo mini. mini also doesn't do 4k :-/

other then that i agree with you nyplayer, looks like a very interesting alternative.

[bcjenkins]

The Plex app works on the mini.