TiVo tries to win cable cutters with its Bolt OTA DVR

It's been more than four years since TiVo launched the Roamio OTA, a cheaper version of its Roamio DVR which then offered TiVo's famous TV recording feature in a box specifically designed for cable cut customers. The rest of the TiVo line has evolved for a long time, in the form of the Bolt product family, and now live customers are also getting an upgrade – in the form of the OTA Bolt.

As its name suggests, the OTA Bolt is essentially a stripped TiVo Bolt – there is no cable or cable, just a plug to plug in your hertzian antenna. Like the classic Bolt, it supports 4K and HDR (two new additions to the Roamio OTA), and the company says it's seven times faster and offers three times more memory than the previous model.

The software is identical to the Bolt Vox software, with support for the TiVo voice remote control, Alexa integration and the same streaming services as those offered by TiVo. The OTA Bolt is a bit odd: the regular Bolt has not really been updated since its launch in 2015; The Bolt Vox in 2017 has mostly added a voice remotely and some aesthetic changes. But as the OTA Bolt is supposed to be the new entry-level model, it can not surpass the existing Bolt – but only meet it where it currently stands, even if it happens years later. .

The OVA Bolt costs $ 249 for 1TB of storage, a monthly fee of $ 6.99 for the TiVo DVR service (considerably less than the usual $ 14.99 per month on cable), or a $ 249 flat fee for service for life.

Compare this to the base model of the Bolt Vox, which costs $ 299.99 for a comparable 1TB model, with an additional $ 549.99 lifetime service cost – although there is a cheaper Bolt Vox $ 199.99. prefer. It turns out that the real savings that come from it come mainly from the lower costs that TiVo offers for its service. However, if you like TiVo and you do not pay for the full cable, it's not a bad deal.

Or at least, until a week ago, when Amazon unveiled its own OTA DVR for cable cutters, the Amazon Fire TV Recast. Now, there are some differences between the Recast Fire TV and the OTA Bolt. In other words, the Fire TV Recast does not connect to a TV – you need to connect a separate Fire TV box or stick to your TV to get content. It can record only two programs at a time, compared to four for the OTA Bolt, and only offers 500 GB of storage – at least on the base model (the highest price of $ 279.99 is the same as the standard one). OTA Bolt).

But Amazon's solution also does not have a monthly service cost Verry much cheaper option than TiVo in the long run. While we will have to test the Fire TV Recast and the OTA Bolt, the Amazon offer does not seem to be great news for TiVo, and we must keep in mind the availability of the theoretically less expensive version of Amazon. customers looking to equip their home entertainment facility with a device of this type.

The Bolt OTA will be available at TiVo from Friday 28 September.