Tivo mini – TiVo mini fans who want to watch whatever they want, in whatever room they want, can finally stop waiting. Sure, some people were happy with the TiVo’s multi-room viewing, even if it required multiple DVRs with multiple Now Playing lists and multiple To Do lists to go along with them. But for TiVo fans who want a single DVR for the entire household, the TiVo Mini can be order for $99.99 and $6 per month subscriptions, or $249 for a device with lifetime service. That’s less than the cost of another TiVo, but more than most set-top boxes available at retail. Of course, the Mini can do what the least expensive retail boxes can’t; It replaces a DVR and provides America’s most popular source of programming, premium cable television. How well it extends the TiVo experience to another room, you’ll only know when you click.%gallery-180671%
Table of Contents
Tivo Mini Hardware
The TiVo Mini is nearly as small as the TiVo Stream and its trapezoidal shape is unlike any other TiVo device. How small is this? At 6 x 6 x 1.3 inches, it’s small sufficient to hide behind a TV, and thanks to the holes in the bottom, it should be easy enough to mount on a wall or under a table. There’s an LED on the front that specifies when the box is on and when an IR signal is receive (you can set it to blink only when the device receives IR). Rear connections include essential power, an HDMI output, and an Ethernet port.
Setup Tivo Mini
Setting up the TiVo Mini is similar to setting up a TiVo DVR: You make all the connections in the back and then go through a guided setup. We used MoCA to attach the Mini to the XL4, which we doubt will work for most users. If you don’t have a network linking where the Mini or Premier is, the TiVo will provide a MoCA-to-Ethernet bridge that can go almost anywhere as long as there are Ethernet and coax cables. Our video connection was pretty straight forward with a single HDMI cable related directly to a recent HDTV, and there were no handshake issues to speak of.
The rest of our setup took lengthier than we like, about two hours after the physical connection was made. The process involved installing a software update and waiting for the TiVo Premiere and TiVo Mini to call home. We’re told the update is sole to our Early Access, but all Mini owners will have to wait for the devices to connect to the mothership, as both must be register to the same TiVo account before communicating.
Wrap Up Tinvo Mini
Like other recent versions of TiVo products, the Mini will require the promise updates — including dynamic tuner allocation for live TV and support for Amazon and Netflix before meeting expectations. The TiVo has delivered consistently in the past, but not as fast as fans would like, and for better or for worse, we expect the Mini to be no different. Out of the box, the basic functionality now works well enough to satisfy most while they wait.
Exactly what the full-house functionality will look like after a few updates will be something to see, but as it stands, the Mini doesn’t stand up to the competition in terms of consistency. The Ceton Echo, Dish Joey, and DirecTV offer a more seamless whole-home DVR experience than the RVU Client Mini. But none of them work with the TiVo, and for those who think that’s not an option, you can end up enjoying a true whole-house DVR experience while spending less than the price of another DVR. can.
Conclusion
TiVo fans who want to watch whatever they want, in whatever room they want, can finally stop waiting. Sure, some people were happy with the TiVo’s multi-room viewing, even if it required multiple DVRs with multiple Now Playing lists and multiple To Do lists to go along with them.
But for TiVo fans who want a single DVR for the entire household, the TiVo Mini can be ordered for $99.99 and $6 per month subscriptions, or $249 for a device with lifetime service.
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