TiVo® - Mini - Black

I got the mini to bring the ease of use and experience of the roamio in the livingroom to the kitchen so I can easily watch all my favorite shows while cooking meals and washing dishes. (I put the remote in a freezer storage page to make it waterproof). So cool now I don't dread doing either of those tasks nearly as much, and I can even get netflix in the kitchen now too! Way worth it, the mini works just as good as roamio in every way, so impressed by it.

Bought this back in April; wanted to use it for a month or so before reviewing....this little box was easy to set up and I had no issues. It is a great companion if you own a Tivo 4 tuner DVR such as a Roamio, etc. What I love is that this device does not require a cable card like the main DVR. It simply borrows a tuner from the host DVR for its functionality. The unit is very small and takes up little space and it runs very cool and quiet. You have two options for set up and that is via ethernet or MoCA; I set my Tivo system up via MoCA therefore all I had to do was just plug in my existing Coax cable . You will have to pay a monthly service fee to use this device but its relatively cheap ; $5.99 a month or you can do a one time buy out of $149.99 for the life of the device. Since the mini borrows a tuner from the Host DVR ( that you already pay a monthly service charge for) I think there shouldn't be a monthly fee. With that being said this little box does a lot! it lets you do about everything that you normally do with the main DVR such as schedule and record shows, view to do list and it also has the apps such as netflix, mlb, hulu plus, etc which is great! the user interface is quick and very responsive. The remote is a little large and bulky compared to the new one that comes with the Roamio's. Keep in mind to make set up go smooth you first need to contact Tivo and activate the Mini on your account then connect to the internet and follow the guided set up very carefully so that the Mini can update its software, etc... once you do that you're good to go.....its a great whole home DVR solution and I like it much better than the whole home system I had with DirecTV for many years. Just keep in mind that the Mini relies entirely on your network so if you don't have a stable network it will not function properly. If your network is stable it works like a charm! The only reason I'm not giving it five stars is because of the required monthly fee to use it.

Easy to set up and just works. No troubleshooting or problems. Keep in mind that this unit uses one of the tuners on the main DVR for it's feed. That is why you see the Roamios with so many tuners built in so you can have many of these in your home. The cable setup went smooth with the help of the TWC tech. Tivo is just awesome.

I have a TiVO Roamio Plus which allows me to connect the Tivo Mini. I purchased 2 Tivo Mini's and connected them to my Roamio Plus. You have to pay for service for your Tivo Mini. So keep that in mind. I opted for the lifetime service. It's pricey, but for me, worth it. I wanted to be able to have DVR usage in the rooms I watch TV. Tivo Mini allows me to do that. My Tivo Roamio is the "brain" so to speak and the Mini's connect to it to access all my recorded shows and HD TV. It does not connect through wireless connection, so you have to keep that in mind also. You have to hard wire it or network it through your existing cable in your house. It's a little tricky to set up, but once it's all dialed in it's worth it. In summary I'd say this. To get all your Tivo's up and going, it's a bit expensive. I paid for the lifetime on all of my Tivo's so it was really expensive, but the best part now, I have no monthly payment and I only have to rent 1 cable card from my cable company now. The set up is a bit tricky and I'd like to think I'm fairly advanced at home networks and computers in general. BUT... once it's all paid for and it's all set up and working flawlessly, that's when you feel like the KING of your domain, that's when you feel like technological god !! I love being able to go to any of 3 TV's in my house and access all my recorded shows. If you can rationalize spending the money (my GF loves TV more than I do and encouraged me to buy these) and you want to deal with the initial headache of the install, then these are for you. Buy them, enjoy them, take control of your home entertainment system !!

I bought this along with a Roamio Plus 6 tuner DVR to replace two Tivo HDs we used to have in the house. WIth six tuners in the Roamio, you really only need to one "main" DVR in the house, and everything else can be "light" units e.g. the Mini. I am really impressed with all of the features on this device. I can easily watch all of my Tivo recordings by streaming them from the main Tivo, I can watch any of my Netflix stuff, live TV comes from the Mini "borrowing" one of the six tuners from the main Tivo when it needs it, etc. The UI is fast and responsive, I can schedule and manage recordings, etc. It really is a perfect companion for the Roamio. There was one small snag during setup when the Mini initially did not see the Roamio even though they were on the same network, but a call to Tivo support and a few minutes on the phone had everything resolved as I think they had some problems on their end with a large number of devices all being registered at once. So far I am very happy with this purchase, the main plus being the very positive "wife acceptance factor" as she can use Tivo like she always has but no longer needs to worry about which of the two Tivo's her program was recorded on. Good stuff!

Great product, does what it says. Had to buy a moca adapter for the network but other then that easy set up. The only Con I have is the remote is not RF so you cannot hide the device behind the tv or something.

If you have a Tivo DVR, this is a must-have to extend its functionality to another TV. I have one for my DVR setup at my apartment and got one for my parents (who have a Tivo Roamio using an outdoor antenna... OTA FTW!). It's best if you use Ethernet cables - my parents' home is fortunate in that I had already run Ethernet cable throughout the house. Response is fairly quick and the interface is just like the DVR, plus you can use Netflix, Hulu, Youtube, etc. on it. Be sure to get it with the lifetime subscription plan - the device is a bit more expensive but that's $7/month in your pocket. Hope this review helps!

Great add to TiVo dvr. Setup easy like it a lot. Needs the better remote with keyboard