TiVo has unveiled its first TV box for cord-cutters

For the past eight years, a CableCARD and a TiVo DVR have gone hand in hand. No more! Within the next few weeks, the limited edition TiVo Roamio OTA DVR will be available from select Best Buy stores for an initial price of $49. That’s $150 cheaper than the existing base model TiVo Roamio, and still boasts the four tuners, 500GB of storage, integrated WiFi and almost the same software and accessories. The main missing features, for a fourth of the price, are a CableCARD slot and whole-home capabilities. This means you’ll need an antenna and to live somewhere with decent over-the-air reception. It’s an especially interesting offering for those looking to cut the cable/satellite cord, while keeping access to new shows from the big networks.

Much of TiVo‘s growth in recent years has come from partnerships with cable and satellite companies, which have made its DVRs available to their subscribers. But with the release of a new, cheaper over-the-air DVR, the company is going after the cord cutter set. TiVo today is announcing the release of its TiVo Roamio OTA DVR, a $49.99 device that will give customers who don’t have cable or satellite service. Instead, they will be able to connect the DVR up to an antenna to record shows broadcast on channels available through over-the-air digital signals. The Roamio OTA has 500 GB of storage capacity, which holds up to 75 hours of HD programming. It also has four tuners to allow customers to record multiple programs at once, while also being able to tune in live to one channel. The device is also compatible with the company’s TiVo Stream device for streaming live and pre-recorded videos on other devices. And, of course, the over-the-air version of the TiVo DVR has the same content search and navigation functions that its other products do, allowing customers to search across all their over-the-air channels, as well as streaming services like Netflix and YouTube. It also provides personalized recommendations for users based on the programming that they had previously recorded.