The only short comings Tivo Minis have, is they only work with cable.
They are far more reliable then any clients from directv. Far faster then both Dish and Directv's clients.
Tivo minis have fully integrated apps like Amazon, Neflix ,Hulu.
No to mention Roamio plus and pro have 6 tuners, and are fully integrated .
HOPPER with Sling only has Netflix. Hopper 2k you are SOL.
The Genie flat out sucks.
It is featureless slow and packed full of Directv's abundance of fees.
I'll stand by my Rating
I'll put a number on my rating.
85 for Tivo Roamio Plus with 4 minis
75 2 hopper 2 joey (if joeys were consistent with one another in speed and reliability 80)
(6 tuner single Hopper with 2 tuner SuperJoey, With Netflix,Reliable stable Joeys.
85 -90)
HR44, with 3 C41s
65
I know we're guilty of being off topic, but . . .
Over all I do think the Mini is a good companion to TiVo boxes. However, Mini's:
1. Lack picture at TiVo Central. Yeah, picture in the guide, but as soon as I press the TiVo button, it's bye, bye to what was playing, like the news or other content I wanted to monitor, or simply put: It is NOT like the experience at the TiVo box, but a diminished one, unlike Joey's that provide EXACTLY the same experience as at the Hopper box except for PIP.
2. Still default to SD menus for access to MOST controls
3. Lacks multiple playback resume points relating to multiple Mini/rooms/people viewing the content, and this is a MUST HAVE in our home. The Joey displays all the resume points of the different rooms Hopper/Joeys. TiVo's lack of this causing frustration and great annoyance.
4. Lack control of individual tuners like the Hopper. I can't "Join" anything for when I change rooms and don't want to hassle a RECORD command because I don't want to record it, and that is a feature used a lot in our home.
5. Host DVR always reserves at least ONE TUNER for its EXCLUSIVE use. So if all but ONE Tuner is being used, I can NOT watch live TV at the Mini because the Host DVR will NOT release its dedicated tuner. Hoppers have ALL tuners available for whatever a Hopper or Joey. Yeah, the recording work around may work, but it reflects poor design and an inferior experience to the Joey.
6. Mini limits me to ONE tuner for viewing/buffer. While the TiVo box will allow me to cycle trough the tuners and its buffers, I can NOT do so at the Mini, but the Joey will allow me to put all tuners in the buffer mode and allow me to select/swap any of them to view with full trick play, and I can have MORE than three channels (I think the limit is 6) if I buffer more than one Local. The Mini is a one trick Pony--er, tuner, client.
7. Integrated Apps at Mini or TiVo box aren't so great. Face it, even the most loyal TiVo fanboys admit they prefer a Roku for streaming apps because the TiVo experience with streaming services is so spotty and downright inferior to the Roku. It's all over the TCF how utterly goofed TiVo's attempt at integrating streaming services was and is. Anybody serious about streaming services has a Roku, but that means even the Hopper/Joey isn't as good as the Roku experience, but Dish has never advertised itself as "the ONE box" designed to take the place of a Roku or any streamer they way TiVo still promotes it as a replacement for dedicated streaming devices like the tops Roku.
Bottom line is a client should strive to have virtually the same experience as one has at the Host DVR. This is the case with the Joey, but far from it for the Mini. It has too many features lacking compared to the experience at the TiVo box for it to be considered a superior client to the Joey.
Now, I could go on and on about the inferior TiVo Stream and it's abysmal performance via TiVo Online (the mobile device part of it seems to work well enough by my experience), compared to the far superior experience and PQ and controls/features of Hopper with Sling and DishAnywhere, but that would take at least as long as this post. And even the Slingbox performs better than the Stream.
This is not a fanboy post, but my personal experience with these systems. The Joey has its problems and can sometimes annoy me, but my overall experience with it is a superior one to the Mini. However, I don't dislike nor hate the Mini. It does its "CORE" purpose well enough, and I highly recommend it to any TiVo owner who has the compatible TiVo DVR because it saves a boatload of money compared to having to buy an additional TiVo box with all its fees or the newly, ridiculously priced "All-in" fee of $599 with no more discounts if you already own a TiVo DVR. However, when I use the Mini, I am aware of A LOT it can NOT do compared to the Joey, but I love my Mini's. It would be nice if TiVo would continue to improve them. TiVo and the Mini's are far better than ANY of the cable TV DVR's and easily the best for cord cutters who wish to record OTA
PRECISELY because of the Mini compared to Channel Masters non existent multi-room solution (they tell you to go and buy an expensive Slingbox, but that does NOT provide separate experiences at each room like the Mini provides), but TiVo is EXPENSIVE, even MORE so since the introduction of the Bolt. I'm just saying the Joey is a better client than the Mini, not that the Mini is bad product.