TiVo Roamio Pro 3 TB DVR (Old Version) - Digital Video Recorder and Streaming Media Player
Key features
- •Record 6 shows at once (6 tuners)
- •Up to 450 HD / 3000 SD hours recording capacity (3TB). Works with digital cable or Verizon FIOS
- •Access TV and streaming content from Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus, VUDU and more without switching inputs
- •Requires subscription to the TiVo service - as low as $12.50/month with annual plan
- •Note - This product has a cablecard slot but does not include a cable.
TiVo Roamio Pro 3 TB DVR (Old Version) - Digital Video Recorder and Streaming Media Player
List Price: $871.55$784.40DEALYou Save: $87.15 (10%)
Free shippingFree Returns – 30 daysFree Order CancellationSecure Payment2–3 Days DeliveryGet It June 23, 2026In Stock (3)No marketing spamNo account requiredFulfilment by FedEx / Amazon / UPS / ShipwirePayPal / Card Buyer Protection
Customer Reviews
Reviews sourced from verified Amazon purchasers4.4
out of 5
Based on 10 reviews
5★
80%
4★
20%
3★
0%
2★
0%
1★
0%
Fantastic DVR, much better than what cable companies provide
coopdude•February 7, 2016
In 2001, we got our first Tivo recorder. It was amazing to be able to schedule recordings from the program guide and record shows without the hassles of tapes, but still have the ease of fast forwarding. By 2004, HDTVs had started to become a norm, and our cable company offered DVR service for $11.95 a month - cheaper than Tivo's service- while being able to record two shows at once. A better product at a lower price became available, and we switched.
What happened between 2004 and 2015? The cable company failed to iterate the hardware or experience in any substantial way. Meanwhile, Tivo had to reinvent themselves to compete. And that they did. The Roamio easily and handily beats the DVR it replaced (Scientific Atlanta 8300HD) in almost every aspect.
An elephant in the room is cost. The Roamio Pro is more than $400 generally; first year service included, $150/yr thereafter. You have the upfront investment in the hardware is one thing to swallow, but the cost calculation is not easy. My cable company charges $8/mo for plain cable boxes, and $20/mo for non-multiroom DVRs. This pegs the cost for two years for one DVR at about $480. Thus, on cost alone, the Tivo is a losing proposition, costing $600 for two years versus $480 for the cableco DVR (granted, the Tivo is a massively better product for several reasons I'll elaborate on later.)
However, the Roamio has six tuners. It can do a combination of watching and recording six shows at once. And you can buy a TiVo Mini with RF Remote (Current Version). This hooks up to another TV via ethernet (plug in internet) or coaxial (e.g. traditional cable box screw-on cord). These go from $90 refurbished to $120 new (generally), and have lifetime free service. They can watch live TV, recorded programs, or streaming services you are subscribed to (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu Plus, etc.). Once you factor that each Tivo Mini is essentially a multiroom DVR into the equation, and costs much less with no ongoing service fee, the value proposition changes. We rented four HD DVRs for the past ten years at $20/mo. The breakeven on the Tivo is less than ten months. The only cost from the cable company is $2 for a cablecard, and that's essentially a wash because going from four DVRs to one CableCard also eliminated the $1.50/mo additional outlet fee from our bill. So depending on your cost and your service expectation, you can easily save money buying a Tivo - depending on what your cableco charges, and the number of boxes.
In regards to the setup: It's pretty good, with occasional quirks. Tivo hardware in all forms still has a slow boot time (then again, hardware from the cable company was never a champion in this area). The guided setup is pretty good, expect a couple reboots. The box in the settings walks you through setting it up. You do need to register the Tivo's serial number on the website before actually plugging it in though, otherwise the connection to the Tivo service will fail. Once it's done, the Tivo generally runs itself, automatically getting program guide information, automatically recording suggestions (unless you disable it, more on that later), doing a good job of tracking first runs of shows and recording only new episodes from the season you ask for onwards, etc.
Hardware: Well designed, quiet, looks attractive. The main Roamio Pro box has a button that is a "Remote finder"; the remote will play a jingle until the button is pressed so you can find it. The remote is smaller than most cable company remotes but well laid out. It uses radio frequency in addition to infrared, so you don't need to have line of sight to the DVR for commands to go through.
User experience: Good. It was almost sort of comforting that the sounds that played in 2001 on my first Tivo are the same sounds for commands on the new one. That's not to say they're outdated. Menus are intuitive and very fast. Changing channels does take 1-2 seconds (about on par for the cableco DVR it replaced). Guide, pause, rewind, fast forward, etc. are all essentially instantaneous, even on remote Tivo devices within the home. Tivo's OnePass is great with a couple exceptions (just be careful on the channel you pick and select include streaming: no if you want to prefer recordings to the local drive over online services that you may not subscribe to). Suggestions works well to record programs that Tivo thinks you may like (based on other programs you record and rate). It's not perfect but more input (thumbs up/down) trains it and it picks up stuff you'd never record on your own. Suggestions can be disabled, but since they will always be lowest priority (vs. need for live TV and programs you actually asked for it to record, deleted automatically if space is needed) there's no real reason to disable it.
Storage: My previous cable box had room for 20 hours of HD content. The Roamio Pro can do 450 hours in HD, and it's multiroom, so in order to watch the show in one room and resume it in another, I don't need to record it more than once. Storage is also expandable via USB or eSATA. I haven't needed to do so yet.
Reliability: I've only had mine for two months but all is well. My Tivo Series1 was a trooper for many years and was retired for cost savings, not failure. If you're on non-lifetime service, Tivo will replace boxes outside of warranty for $49, which mitigates the risk of hardware failure financially. The Tivo Minis have no moving parts and are thus less likely to fail.
Streaming: Works fantastically in the home. Also works well outside, but be aware that any premium channel (HBO, Showtime, etc.) sets a flag on their channels that prevents streaming from the Roamio to your smartphone or tablet. You can download shows/movies from these premium channels to store on your phone/tablet and watch offline (planes, cars, etc.) later, but you must do the download to the device while at home.
Overall, I can highly recommend the Roamio Pro. If you're looking at it from a pure money saving perspective, consider the cost per regular cable box rental, the cost of DVR rental (if that is a priority) vs. hardware cost of Tivo, the cost of Tivo service after the first year, cablecard rental fee, etc... but the user experience is also much, much better. The only thing you really lose versus a cable company box is the use of ondemand (Comcast subscribers can use on demand with Tivo). With six tuners to record whatever your household wants, this is probably much less of an issue.
If you're looking to use Minis with your Tivo, the main gotcha is they can't work wirelessly, and must use either ethernet or coaxial cable for networking (see my review on the Tivo Mini for details). They really are what makes the Roamio a great DVR if you have more than one cable box in your household.
What happened between 2004 and 2015? The cable company failed to iterate the hardware or experience in any substantial way. Meanwhile, Tivo had to reinvent themselves to compete. And that they did. The Roamio easily and handily beats the DVR it replaced (Scientific Atlanta 8300HD) in almost every aspect.
An elephant in the room is cost. The Roamio Pro is more than $400 generally; first year service included, $150/yr thereafter. You have the upfront investment in the hardware is one thing to swallow, but the cost calculation is not easy. My cable company charges $8/mo for plain cable boxes, and $20/mo for non-multiroom DVRs. This pegs the cost for two years for one DVR at about $480. Thus, on cost alone, the Tivo is a losing proposition, costing $600 for two years versus $480 for the cableco DVR (granted, the Tivo is a massively better product for several reasons I'll elaborate on later.)
However, the Roamio has six tuners. It can do a combination of watching and recording six shows at once. And you can buy a TiVo Mini with RF Remote (Current Version). This hooks up to another TV via ethernet (plug in internet) or coaxial (e.g. traditional cable box screw-on cord). These go from $90 refurbished to $120 new (generally), and have lifetime free service. They can watch live TV, recorded programs, or streaming services you are subscribed to (Netflix, Amazon, Hulu Plus, etc.). Once you factor that each Tivo Mini is essentially a multiroom DVR into the equation, and costs much less with no ongoing service fee, the value proposition changes. We rented four HD DVRs for the past ten years at $20/mo. The breakeven on the Tivo is less than ten months. The only cost from the cable company is $2 for a cablecard, and that's essentially a wash because going from four DVRs to one CableCard also eliminated the $1.50/mo additional outlet fee from our bill. So depending on your cost and your service expectation, you can easily save money buying a Tivo - depending on what your cableco charges, and the number of boxes.
In regards to the setup: It's pretty good, with occasional quirks. Tivo hardware in all forms still has a slow boot time (then again, hardware from the cable company was never a champion in this area). The guided setup is pretty good, expect a couple reboots. The box in the settings walks you through setting it up. You do need to register the Tivo's serial number on the website before actually plugging it in though, otherwise the connection to the Tivo service will fail. Once it's done, the Tivo generally runs itself, automatically getting program guide information, automatically recording suggestions (unless you disable it, more on that later), doing a good job of tracking first runs of shows and recording only new episodes from the season you ask for onwards, etc.
Hardware: Well designed, quiet, looks attractive. The main Roamio Pro box has a button that is a "Remote finder"; the remote will play a jingle until the button is pressed so you can find it. The remote is smaller than most cable company remotes but well laid out. It uses radio frequency in addition to infrared, so you don't need to have line of sight to the DVR for commands to go through.
User experience: Good. It was almost sort of comforting that the sounds that played in 2001 on my first Tivo are the same sounds for commands on the new one. That's not to say they're outdated. Menus are intuitive and very fast. Changing channels does take 1-2 seconds (about on par for the cableco DVR it replaced). Guide, pause, rewind, fast forward, etc. are all essentially instantaneous, even on remote Tivo devices within the home. Tivo's OnePass is great with a couple exceptions (just be careful on the channel you pick and select include streaming: no if you want to prefer recordings to the local drive over online services that you may not subscribe to). Suggestions works well to record programs that Tivo thinks you may like (based on other programs you record and rate). It's not perfect but more input (thumbs up/down) trains it and it picks up stuff you'd never record on your own. Suggestions can be disabled, but since they will always be lowest priority (vs. need for live TV and programs you actually asked for it to record, deleted automatically if space is needed) there's no real reason to disable it.
Storage: My previous cable box had room for 20 hours of HD content. The Roamio Pro can do 450 hours in HD, and it's multiroom, so in order to watch the show in one room and resume it in another, I don't need to record it more than once. Storage is also expandable via USB or eSATA. I haven't needed to do so yet.
Reliability: I've only had mine for two months but all is well. My Tivo Series1 was a trooper for many years and was retired for cost savings, not failure. If you're on non-lifetime service, Tivo will replace boxes outside of warranty for $49, which mitigates the risk of hardware failure financially. The Tivo Minis have no moving parts and are thus less likely to fail.
Streaming: Works fantastically in the home. Also works well outside, but be aware that any premium channel (HBO, Showtime, etc.) sets a flag on their channels that prevents streaming from the Roamio to your smartphone or tablet. You can download shows/movies from these premium channels to store on your phone/tablet and watch offline (planes, cars, etc.) later, but you must do the download to the device while at home.
Overall, I can highly recommend the Roamio Pro. If you're looking at it from a pure money saving perspective, consider the cost per regular cable box rental, the cost of DVR rental (if that is a priority) vs. hardware cost of Tivo, the cost of Tivo service after the first year, cablecard rental fee, etc... but the user experience is also much, much better. The only thing you really lose versus a cable company box is the use of ondemand (Comcast subscribers can use on demand with Tivo). With six tuners to record whatever your household wants, this is probably much less of an issue.
If you're looking to use Minis with your Tivo, the main gotcha is they can't work wirelessly, and must use either ethernet or coaxial cable for networking (see my review on the Tivo Mini for details). They really are what makes the Roamio a great DVR if you have more than one cable box in your household.
Love it! But.... only DIGITAL signals!
SocialButterfly3•October 10, 2015
I bought it because the dvr from my cable company was very small and had only 2 heads. This TiVo has 6 heads and is huge.
I love it. Great for recording all of my favorite shows and then watch when I want to. Glad to see the other resources integrated such as Amazon Prime which I am a member of as well. Also, love that I can download my shows to my iPad and then take it with me without being connected to the Internet. Also, I can stream to my iPad and use the app to schedule recordings.
Here is why I am giving it a 4 star. It only converts DIGITAL signals! No analog signals. Channels 2 - 80 are analog from my cable provider. So.. I cannot record them. I have to switch input from TiVo to cable to watch the analog channels and then back to TiVo for the other channels. It is too bad because there are several channels I love to watch that are not digital yet.
I thought about retunring it, but I love what I can do with the digital channels.
I love it. Great for recording all of my favorite shows and then watch when I want to. Glad to see the other resources integrated such as Amazon Prime which I am a member of as well. Also, love that I can download my shows to my iPad and then take it with me without being connected to the Internet. Also, I can stream to my iPad and use the app to schedule recordings.
Here is why I am giving it a 4 star. It only converts DIGITAL signals! No analog signals. Channels 2 - 80 are analog from my cable provider. So.. I cannot record them. I have to switch input from TiVo to cable to watch the analog channels and then back to TiVo for the other channels. It is too bad because there are several channels I love to watch that are not digital yet.
I thought about retunring it, but I love what I can do with the digital channels.
Tivo - The Most Control A Person Can Have of TV
Kerton•October 3, 2015
Have you every wanted to just grab TV by the nuts, and call the shots?
I've used Tivo since around 2001 to do just that. I watch what I want, when I want, I skip the ads. I get good suggestions. I program shows from my PC or phone.
When I go to a luxury hotel, and there is regular TV there, in a big screen, I cannot watch it. I've been unable to stomach normal, linear, ad-infested TV since 2001. Tivo has ruined that, so beware if you want to continue watching normal TV that once you own Tivo, it will make a regular TV experience induce nausea and sometimes a discharge from your nether regions.
Some people still say "but I have my cable cos DVR". Nice. Good for you. You took the first piece of junk they offered you instead of shopping around and making your own choice. That user interface sucks, it's slow, weak, ugly and has no intelligence for learning your preferences. And it usually comes with a monthly lease approaching Tivo's monthly fee. But it is better than regular TV, so I'll give you that.
Some people watch a lot of TV, and get a lot of value from Tivo. Then there are those that don't watch as much TV. Like me. And we get even MORE value from Tivo. Because when I watch, I watch like a boss. I watch the programs that are best for me, when I want. The less TV you watch, the more you want to filter it, and see only the best.
I've used Tivo since around 2001 to do just that. I watch what I want, when I want, I skip the ads. I get good suggestions. I program shows from my PC or phone.
When I go to a luxury hotel, and there is regular TV there, in a big screen, I cannot watch it. I've been unable to stomach normal, linear, ad-infested TV since 2001. Tivo has ruined that, so beware if you want to continue watching normal TV that once you own Tivo, it will make a regular TV experience induce nausea and sometimes a discharge from your nether regions.
Some people still say "but I have my cable cos DVR". Nice. Good for you. You took the first piece of junk they offered you instead of shopping around and making your own choice. That user interface sucks, it's slow, weak, ugly and has no intelligence for learning your preferences. And it usually comes with a monthly lease approaching Tivo's monthly fee. But it is better than regular TV, so I'll give you that.
Some people watch a lot of TV, and get a lot of value from Tivo. Then there are those that don't watch as much TV. Like me. And we get even MORE value from Tivo. Because when I watch, I watch like a boss. I watch the programs that are best for me, when I want. The less TV you watch, the more you want to filter it, and see only the best.
The BEST DVR for Cable and FiOS. Period.
Chris Olonzo•September 6, 2015
I had a 2-tuner Tivo Premiere XL for years and decided to upgrade to the 6-tuner Roamio PRO. Great performance! Stuff like Amazon, YouTube, and Hulu were painfully slow on the Premiere. On the Roamio, they're quick and work well. The ability to stream to my iPad and Android phone is really cool, now I don't have to wait to get home to watch my recorded shows. The 3+ Terabyte drive in the Pro has been a great investment. I finally have room to get an entire season, sometime an entire series on the HDD at once. 6 tuners sounded like overkill at first, but now I rarely get conflict messages when recording shows in the same timeslot anymore, so that's nice. I like the new remote control as well...nice and compact, but still the time-tested design so I can easily remember where all of the important buttons are by touch. There's an upgraded remote with a backlight and full keyboard for $50,00, ordering that today.
People ask me why I 'still' have a Tivo' ? It's still the best DVR if you have Cable or FiOS, period. People who use DVRs from their cable company simply have no Idea how much better the Tivo interface is. If I'm gonna pay a monthly charge for DVR capability anyways, it might as well be something that's actually easy to use and plenty of capacity, neither of which any of the cable DVRs excel at. My one gripe with this model....I wish it had support for 4K, so I'm reluctant to shell out the money to get lifetime service on this one.
People ask me why I 'still' have a Tivo' ? It's still the best DVR if you have Cable or FiOS, period. People who use DVRs from their cable company simply have no Idea how much better the Tivo interface is. If I'm gonna pay a monthly charge for DVR capability anyways, it might as well be something that's actually easy to use and plenty of capacity, neither of which any of the cable DVRs excel at. My one gripe with this model....I wish it had support for 4K, so I'm reluctant to shell out the money to get lifetime service on this one.
Cable television essential.
..•August 12, 2015
I was anxious about upgrading to this model; changes in the services provided by Tivo for the older HD models I had made it worthwhile, and the price savings I got from Amazon and Tivo for upgrading made it worthwhile. The change from my HD model to the Roamio went quite smoothly. The addition of a 6-tuner ability (replacing the 2-tuner on my HD) is great. I have 2 HD models and often used one to back the other up when I needed a third or fourth tuner to grab my shows. Now a single device gets everything.
The new user interface and remote unit took quite awhile to get familiar with; I had used the Tivo classic interface for about 15 years and knew it like my tongue knows my teeth. After a few months it is fairly deductive on how to do things with the Roamio; we still miss a few of the features (where did the included online games go?) but we struggle on.
I love the addition of Amazon Prime Instant Video viewing; I have retired the Roku I had used for the past couple of years as it is no longer used for anything. I also enjoy the inclusion of more season/episode information on the program screen; before it required some digging, and it simplifies choosing the sequence I want.
My sole irritation with the interface is the imposition of 'recommended' shows at the top of the home screen; in several months of viewing, all I have done with these is 3-thumbs down on them to make them go away. No success. I would rather see 1/3 of the screen real-estate be used for something I actually use, like program listing or similar.
As a very-longtime Tivo user, I hate when I have to watch video via other methods. How can people stand sitting through advertising? Or looking for a decent thing to watch on the tube? I wish this had an OTA tuner, but as I live 75 miles from a broadcast antenna, it currently doesn't rancor me much.
The new user interface and remote unit took quite awhile to get familiar with; I had used the Tivo classic interface for about 15 years and knew it like my tongue knows my teeth. After a few months it is fairly deductive on how to do things with the Roamio; we still miss a few of the features (where did the included online games go?) but we struggle on.
I love the addition of Amazon Prime Instant Video viewing; I have retired the Roku I had used for the past couple of years as it is no longer used for anything. I also enjoy the inclusion of more season/episode information on the program screen; before it required some digging, and it simplifies choosing the sequence I want.
My sole irritation with the interface is the imposition of 'recommended' shows at the top of the home screen; in several months of viewing, all I have done with these is 3-thumbs down on them to make them go away. No success. I would rather see 1/3 of the screen real-estate be used for something I actually use, like program listing or similar.
As a very-longtime Tivo user, I hate when I have to watch video via other methods. How can people stand sitting through advertising? Or looking for a decent thing to watch on the tube? I wish this had an OTA tuner, but as I live 75 miles from a broadcast antenna, it currently doesn't rancor me much.
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