At last, the TiVo enthusiasts who want to
see whatever they like, in any room they want, can stop waiting. Definitely
some satisfied with Multi-Room Viewing of TiVo although it required lots of DVR
with many attaching Now Playing lists and ToDo. But for the TiVo fans who want
the only whole-home DVR (DVR for the whole family), TiVo Mini is available for order
with 99.99 USD along with subscription of 6 USD/month, or 249 USD for the
device with whole-life service. It’s cheaper than the expenses of another TiVo,
but more expensive than most of the retail-sold decoding box. Of course, Mini can
be able to do what other cheaper decoding box can’t replace DVR and provide the
most renowned program source in America, premium cable TV. How well it expands
the TiVo experience to different rooms is what you will find if you read on.
Mini
can be able to do what other cheaper decoding box can’t
Hardware
TiVo Mini is nearly as small as TiVo Stream
and its trapezium shape is unlike any other device from TiVo. How small is it?
With 6x6x1.3 inches, it’s small enough to hide behind your TV, and thanks to
the small on the bottom, you can easily attach it to the wall or underneath the
table. On the front is a LED to display when the box is open and when receiving
IR signal (you can set it up just to flash when the device receives IR). The
back connections include power, HDMI out and Ethernet port.
TiVo
Mini is nearly as small as TiVo Stream and its trapezium shape is unlike any
other device from TiVo.
There’s also a coaxial cable, but it’s not
for what you may have thought. Mini doesn’t have an internal tuner, which is
also the reason it doesn’t have CableCARD slot. Instead of that, it bases on 4 tuners
in TiVo Premiere for live TV. TiVo owners with models having only 2 tuners are
unlucky, because Mini requires at least a 4-tuner DVR on the same account. So
coaxial connection is another way to network your devices but it uses MoCA instead
of Ethernet. While being not as popular as CAT5 in the IP communication world, MoCA
has developed as a selective mean for the whole-home DVR. This is thanks to the
number of household in America with a current coaxial cable running to every
room, reliable throughput and in fact it plays well to the traditional TV services
– DirecTV, Dish and many cable companies based on some forms of tech, for
example. Unlike TiVo Premiere with MoCA, Mini won’t operate as a MoCA-to-Ethernet
bridge. So if you’re hoping to make use of its network connection your game
console or smart TV, think again. Though there’re 2 supported ways to network,
some may look for WiFi, but you won’t find it here. That’s nothing to be
surprised because no modern live-TV extender line supports it. We believe this
is due to the reliability factor, especially because TiVo made it clear that Mini
wasn’t supported through Wi-Fi.
There’s
also a coaxial cable, but it’s not for what you may have thought.
To those who don’t have the new HDTV in
every room, there’re outputs for video component and composite with analog
audio through the breakout cables. However, they’re not instantly-used cables,
because they use the 3.5mm jack to save the room at the back of Mini, but these
special cables will be available from TiVo. TiVo Mini pack includes a HDMI cable
and network cable, which is highly evaluated. The final port on the back is a USB
port, which is only useful for those who have necessary TiVo Slide remote and USB
Bluetooth adapter.
A hardware feature that we regret for
missing is HDMI-CEC. Without this control protocol, the dream of having a remote-controlling
program for the TV power, input and volume has flown away. More importantly,
this means that there’s no way for the TiVo app for iPad, iPhone or Android controls
the volume or power of the TV. The last accessory in the box is TiVo remote. It’s
disappointed but not surprised at this price range, our favorite TiVo Glo
Premium remote is not included; instead of that, it’s the basic TiVo Premiere remote.
Settings
Setting up TiVo Mini is alike setting up TiVo
DVR: you perform every connection on the back and run a setting accompanying
with an instruction. We have used MoCA to connect Mini with XL4, which in our
opinion will work for most of users. If you don’t have network connection at
the place where your Mini or Premiere sits, TiVo will provide a MoCA-to-Ethernet
bridge which can go almost everywhere, as long as there’re Ethernet and coaxial
cables. Our video connection is pretty basic, with the one and only HDMI cable
connecting head-to-head with the new HDTV.
Setting
up TiVo Mini is alike setting up TiVo DVR: you perform every connection on the
back and run a setting accompanying with an instruction.
The remains of the settings take more time
than we think, almost 3 hours after the physical connections have been done.
This process includes installing software update and wait for TiVo Premiere and
TiVo Mini to call home. We’re informed that the update is unique for our
initial access, but all the Mini possessors will have to wait for the device to
connect to the mother ship, because both need to be registered to the same TiVo
account before they can communicate. Setting up following the instructions has
fewer steps that the setting up TiVo Premiere – owing to lack of tuner –but
there’re similarly familiar video and audio output settings. By default, video
output is set at auto, thanks to the magic of HDMI, and we’re pleased to
announce that, as for TiVo DVR, separate pass-through is available if you love
to save the conversion for HDTV.
We soon propose that one 4-tuner TiVo
Premiere is necessary. In fact, you can’t even finish the setting by following
the instruction without it. You may be wondering if there’s any technical cause
for this, and our surmise is no. we said so because you can configure Premiere not
to share with any among 4 tuners with Mini. Setting it in this way means
there’s no live TV on Mini – we will discuss another solution in the next part,
as well as other limitations – with another option which is saving 2 tuners to
provide live TV for many Minis in your home concurrently. However, Mini doesn’t
completely forget 2-tuner TiVo. For example, if you have fewer TiVos than on
the internet, Mini can access the memos from the 2-tuner and 4-tuner models.
