Yesterday, TiVo released the long-rumored update to their product line: the Roamio. While we’re not crazy about the name, the units themselves look promising.
As Ben Drawbaugh explains in his review over at Engadget.com, there’s three new models: the Roamio ($199), Roamio Plus ($399) and Roamio Pro ($599). The Roamio has four tuners and a 500GB drive. It supports both an ATSC antenna and digital cable. The Plus and Pro both have six tuners that only support digital cable. The plus has a 1TB drive and the Pro has a 3TB drive. All models include built-in WiFi and a faster processor. The faster processor is key, since the Premier units suffered from a bit of lag, to put it politely.
The Plus and Pro models will support streaming via WiFi within the home to iOS devices. Support for Android devices is “coming soon”. And TiVo promises the new models will earn the “roam” part of their name this fall when they’ll be capable of streaming unprotected content when you’re roaming around outside the home, but within range of WiFi. Cellular streaming is not supported.
The units also include a new remote that supports both IR and RF. There’s a peanut-shaped button on the Roamios’ face that will help you find the remote if you lose it; press the button and the remote plays the TiVo startup sound.
The reviews we’ve seen are unanimously positive and it all looks pretty good to us. We’re glad to see TiVo produce some kit worthy of the TiVo name.
[…] August, TiVo released three models in the Roamio line. You can see the full specs here. TiVo sent us their top-of-the-line model: the Roamio Pro. We’re breaking down our review […]