Messing around with Roku and Tivo, since I've kicked DirecTV.

Tivo, using a Roamio at the beach, and a Bolt at the main house, works great with just the off air programming. Has bride approval.

Roku for Philo leaves something to be desired, due to he guide, but the bride says maybe we'll get used to it.

Mainly using Philo for some channels I'm not sure I can get elsewhere (DIY, HGTV, ID, Lifetime, Hallmark, and a couple others).

Honestly, we tend to watch mostly off air stuff, and the bride watchesall those shows where some guy is being killed (Trying to figure out a way?).

Any other free or low bucks services? We use Prime, and might add Netflix, or others, if they are worth it.

DIY is only available on Philo for now, because its going away later in the year for good. I suppose the their offerings with shift to HGTV which is available on other services like You Tube Tv.

We dumped Hulu for Philo and quite like it (love the cost) at first I didn’t because you would choose a show and it would start from the beginning and would have to fast forward to get to live TV. Then I found a setting that starts the show “live”

Guide is better then Hulu’s IMO.

I got the TIVo edge for the locals. Cant beat this setup and the cost to boot!

Philo?
It only really works on your tractor.
It's small potatoes, but
you get your Farnsworth!

Hulu is good because you get the service with Spotify now.

We just started using Philo this afternoon, so there's some things to learn. How do you get to the "live" function?

Like Tivo a lot, and we get some 50 or so channels, and we do a lot of recording. Went with a bolt due to four tuners and 1TB HD.

Hit the little smiley face icon at the top right, then right below it should be “live Channels start at” and then select live!

I almost ran back to Hulu but was poking around and saw that. The menu layout and overall app is much cleaner and more “cable box” like then Hulu is.

I like Acorn as a low cost, high quality alternative for overseas programming..

Tivo Bolt sounds interesting. How many shows can you have in your list of those to record? 25? 50? more?

Can you have 1 bolt and distribute to 2 TV's? Or does that require 2 bolts? And if 2 bolts can they be "tied" together so shows recorded on 1 can be viewed on the 2nd TV? Can you record 4 shows at one time and watch an already recorded show?

Trying to ditch D* but I'm addicted to the DVR. Is there a monthly/annual charge for Tivo Bolt? If so, how much is it?

The Tivo Bolt work with TiVo Mini's. I think you can network up to 10 of the Mini's, but you are still restricted to 4 channels at a time.

You can also still purchase the Roamio Pro or TiVo Bolt VOX on Amazon, which gives you 6 tuners and 3TB storage. TiVo service is $149 a year, or you can buy lifetime for $500 or something like that.

Personally, I have a TiVo Bolt tied to two Mini's, and then a Roamio in the Master bedroom, for it's own 4 tuners.

TBH, As soon as my contracts are up the next time, I am going to rip everything out and switch over to the TiVo Edges in each room. I've been playing with one, and they work very well over WiFi, and use cloud DVR storage. I also use a lot of apps, so the Edge allows easier access to apps that didn't come native on the Bolt and Roamio.

I am liking Sling. OTA/Streaming integrated into 1 guide.

I am trying to pester Frank @ Dish into harassing the engineers into adding better navigation options for Control systems.

The biggest problem with all these streaming TV services is they navigate like a browser. No guide command, Info, channel +/- etc etc.

If Sling was to add some of the standard commands for control system use Sling would quickly become and integrator favorite recommendation for the cord cutter crowd.

I think they are still in the mode of not eating into the core Dish biz though and dont want to add too many features to Sling just yet...

This is a limitation of the standard controls you find on streaming boxes. Roku, Apple, Amazon, Android TV .... all have very limited buttons for operation.
Until 'all' the streaming boxes have remotes & command sets that support more function, this will always be a problem.
The app developers are not going to add commands into their service that no one can use. It would be pointless.
And before you say it... The 5% of people that would be using their app on a box that could do it (Dish box, HTPC, etc.) does not count. The other 95% of their business is what counts; the masses.

For most any of the Tivo stuff, I find that https://www.weaknees.com/ is the place to go.

I bought the refurbished Tivo Bolt from them on ebay, where they had it on sale for $299.00 including the lifetime service (with a warranty). which was a little over the monthly rate of DTV.

I just got tired of the constant price hikes with DTV. The monthly fee was higher than the average car payment. Not missing it at all.

Sometimes you can find used TiVo boxes online with lifetime subscriptions attached. The service subscription goes with the box. You cannot transfer it to a new box if you upgrade, and no refunds or credits if you change to something else.

Most are selling for a bit too much for something with no warranty at all.

Ebay ones are selling for almost, and sometimes more, that I paid for the Bolt.