Gadgetory

hey there i'm josh goldman with CNET and this is a look at the TiVo mini now unlike most of what TiVo sells this is not a DVR so you cannot record TV directly to it but instead it connects to a TiVo premiere 4 or XL for DVR over your home network extending access to your premieres recordings as well as live TV now there is no wireless support so it connects to your network either by Ethernet or over MOCA which uses your coaxial cable in your home to meet the high bandwidth demands for smoothly streaming live TV setup is fairly straightforward just connect the coaxial or Ethernet to your wall HDMI to your display and plug it in for power it's small and lightweight - so you can easily hide it by mounting it behind the TV or somewhere else out of sight so once it's connected and finds your DVR you'll have pretty much the same experience on the mini as you do on the premier all controlled with the included standard p-nut remote along with access to recorded in live TV you also get on-demand and streaming content services though at the moment Netflix and Amazon Instant Video aren't available however if all you're after is streaming services you'll probably better off going with something like a Roku also you currently have to dedicate one of your tuners for the mini to stream live TV which means you lose it for recording though TiVo says this eventually won't be necessary now the price because you're getting the TiVo service experience on the mini there is a subscription fee involved six bucks a month or a hundred and fifty dollars lifetime and the device itself costs $100 this isn't entirely out of line with the cost of similar setups from other providers but still might be more than some TiVo users are willing to spend I'm Josh golden and that's a look at the TiVo mini