Zapperbox

Can I live without my Tivo?

Tivo has announced they are no longer selling DVR’s. As a longtime Tivo user, this is definitely concerning. Since Tivo supplies the data necessary for the television guide to work, it seems to me that the writing is on the wall as far as ongoing support. Without a growing revenue stream, Tivo relies on their patents, program guide data they sell to others, data from users, their Streaming stick, and their burgeoning move to Smart TV’s. On one hand, we really don’t know when Tivo will stop supporting their set top boxes. The guide data is not just for retail units, but Tivo based set top boxes cable companies supply. On the other hand, I’ve seen companies in the past who were left behind by changes in technology, were unable to “pivot”, and slowly drifted away. I have a bad feeling that is where Tivo is headed.

So I decided to look for replacements. I’ve tried Tablo, which is OK. It is affordable, but is missing features Tivo had. It may still be a good solution for you, and it does have the big advantage that it works with set top boxes like Roku.

I’m now testing a two tuner Zapperbox. It is an android powered DVR which has ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 tuners for over the air broadcasts. This is significant difference between the Tivo and the Zapperbox. ATSC 1.0 is the most common format, which Tivo supports. ATSC 3.0 (dubbed NexGen TV) is an emerging standard which can offer a better picture and more robust reception. It is controversial because it also supports DRM. My understanding is that broadcasters are required to make their basic broadcast content available for viewers, since they are using the public airwaves. While DRM can be used to copy-protect content (restricting access), it is mainly for additional features over just the program itself, since ATSC 3.0 has provisions for delivery of data for application on the TV. Zapperbox supports both DRM and non-DRM content.

Out of the box, Zapperbox will show program guide data that they broadcasters supply, but only looking forward for a day. This makes setting up long-term programming harder. It has to be done manually. Two weeks of program guide data for the Zapperbox is by subscription, similar to Tivo. One upside is one subscription covers two DVR’s in the same home.You can pay by the month, year or lifetime. I went with by the year since it is only $30 a year. Having the subscription schedule makes it much, much easier to set up future recording for shows, so it is really a no-brainer.

The Zapperbox has no internal storage for recording content. There is a microSD slot, but the company recommends not using it. The other option is to use one of the two USB ports. They suggest using a Sandisk UltraFit flash drive. I chose instead to use an external SSD. Popular wisdom with Tivo was to not use SSD’s as replacement drives, due to continuous writing and deleting to the drive, leading to premature failure. But based on information from Zapperbox, I should be fine using a SSD. I got a bigger drive than I will need to allow for provisioning - keeping about 30% of free space. The SSD is working fine, I didn’t even need to use a powered hub - it plugged right into the USB 3.0 port. I am not a hoarder of content - if I haven’t watched something I recorded three months ago - it gets deleted. I have way, way more space than I will ever need. Also, I am just using the Zapperbox’s internal 5 minute live TV pause, instead of enabling the ability for it to pause for longer times by writing to external storage. 5 minutes of pause is really enough for me. If I need a longer pause, I would probably just record the rest of the show.

Setting it up was easy - the process is well thought out. It gave me a QR code so I could register the device and pay for the program data subscription. You are not billed for 30 days, enough time to test it out. I did a channel scan, and to my surprise there were some NexGen (ATSC 3.0) channels in my area. I then had to format the drive, since the Zapperbox told me I needed to have storage attached. That was simple to do - there is a menu option to do it.

So far, it is working well. There is a “record series” option, which is similar to “Season Pass” on the Tivo, but it only records the series on one channel. This means I have to set up a “record series” for each of the channels that a series appears on (think syndicated reruns). On Tivo, you can set up recurring recording for a specific channel, or for any channel the show comes on (think daytime TV court shows or Sports). In Season Pass, you can tell Tivo how many shows in a series to record, but the Zapperbox is missing this. This is useful when you have a show, such as the news or a late night talk show, where you only want the last 5 days of shows at any given time. This is on their roadmap for a future release - there is a menu item for it now on the Zapperbox, but it is grayed out.

The program guide is decent enough, very much like Tivo’s. I am a fan of Svengoolie, but the program guide shows the movie that is being shown, not the show title itself (Svengoolie) so a season pass doesn’t work. It only records the one show. Instead, I set up a recurring recording at the time and channel that the show comes on. Not as nice, but it works. Program search works fine for locating and scheduling shows.

There is no commercial skip on the Zapperbox, but there is the super useful 30 second skip the Tivo has. Fast forward isn’t as interactive on the Zapperbox. In this regard, Tivo is far superior. I often found myself overshooting fast forward on the Zapperbox, and having to back up. An upcoming update for the Zapperbox will show poster frames at intervals to make it easier to fast forward and rewind through content that has been previously recorded. Program search only searches for OTA broadcasts, not shows that are available via streaming. This was a sort of useful feature on the Tivo, but I can survive without it, since Tivo’s own streaming apps aren’t very good. The Amazon Prime app routinely crashes so badly that I have to power cycle the Tivo. There is a Youtube app on the Zapperbox, but I just use a Roku instead.

With more than one Tivo in a house, you can play shows on one Tivo that is on another Tivo. This is really handy. Zapperbox has a set top box that is like the Tivo Mini, but Zapperboxes can also share content between them. With the upcoming 4 tuner Zapperbox, in theory you could have one box hid away where the antenna is, and have set top boxes to play back content. On their road map are apps for other set top boxes. Hopefully we will see a Roku app.

The Zapperbox remote isn’t as nice as the Tivo remote. The buttons are small, and not as ergonomic as the excellent Tivo remote. That being said, one thing I do like about the Zapperbox remote is that it doesn’t have lots of buttons. It is well focused. I am now using a programmable remote - a Sofabaton U2. It is a nice remote that is programmed via an app on a mobile device, and it works fine. While there was a preset for the Zapperbox, I ended up just creating my own - easy enough to do. I like this remote much better because the buttons are bigger, and it will control my Roku and my TV. The Zapperbox remote has a few buttons that can be programmed, but I had a heck of a time getting volume for my LG TV to be programmed on the remote.

Zapperbox’s customer support has been good. I’ve had a few questions, and they get back to me quickly. Their web site is basic but functional. The FAQ handles a lot of the most basic questions people might have.

I have just switched to using the Zapperbox full time. I still have the Tivo, will hold on to it for a while just in case I change my mind. Like some hardcore Tivo users, I have stockpiled a couple of older Tivo’s just in case. For now the Zapperbox does most of the things I use my Tivo for - enough that I’m likely not going to switch back.

Addendum 3/26/2026: Zapperbox continues to regularly roll out updates on their DVR. Now, any Zapperbox DVR can stream live TV from any other Zapperbox. This is a feature that Tivo doesn’t have - it can only play back recorded shows on another Tivo. Technicolor HDR is available now. A feature that I think will be handy is to group shows by ID. And, for the power users - the Quad Tuner DVR. A list of current and future updates is available on their releases web page.