Just wondering if anyone could recommend an OTA dvr that works well with a roof top antenna. I’m considering a Fire Tv Recast because we have 2 tvs w/ fire sticks and 1 w/ an older fire box. Recast reviews would be much appreciated. Thanks.
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Ive heard good and bad about recast…mostly good but have never used one. I currently use tablo for whole house dvr for local channels only. Tablo works pretty good but there is a premium that makes it shine. SlingTV also has a dvr box (AirTV)that works with local channels and an antenna and can be combined with sling channels. Other than purchasing the airtv box and antenna you are not required to subscribe to sling. I have used both tablo and airtv and both work pretty well. My advice is set yourself up to where you are not locked to any particular service.
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I bought a recast a few days ago and so far I think it’s great. They’re $100 off right now. The setup was easy and I bought it for recording but I enjoy being able to back up while we’re watching live to see a Football play again or when my wife says, “what did they say?”
I don’t want to overwhelm you with info but there are a lot of choices available. If you are only interested in about twenty episodes to be stored on the Recast at a time for any one TV show then it would be a good choice for you. But you need to be aware that if you don’t watch any of those recordings before it reaches that 20 episode count it will delete the oldest episode to record the next. There is no archiving of episodes for the Recast. I only found out about this fact after I started recording a show that is on every day that I wanted to watch later. I got behind on viewing them and found out the earlier episodes had been deleted. I am very disappointed in the Recast. I would have stuck with my HDTV digital tuners that record if I had known this before purchasing the Recast.
*There is also a DVR from Tablo that’s available but to get the full features for it requires a subscription. There is an older Tablo that is only available from secondary sellers on sites like eBay that does not require a subscription to record but support for the app you would use on a Fire TV device may not last if Tablo removes it from the app store. *There is another company called TiVo that makes an OTA DVR, but it requires a service fee. Channel Master Antenna company is selling the TiVo Edge with a lifetime service included in the price for $299. It has two tuners and 500GB of storage for 75 hours of recording. It also has commercial skipping.
*Sling TV’s AirTV 2 ($99) has 2 tuners without a hard drive. (You supply the supported hard drive). And AirTV Anywhere ($199) has 4 tuners and lets you watch outside your home. This one has a 1TB hard drive. (Sling TV is also a side company of satellite TV company Dish Network.)
All of the DVRs except the digital tuner will have an app available in the Fire TV app store.
*CNET has a list of OTA DVRs that might give you some more info: Best OTA DVR for cord cutters: Amazon Fire TV Recast, TiVo and Tablo - CNET
*There are other options like the Channels app available in the Amazon app store that requires a PC server.
*HDhomeRun DVR is another tuner that connects to your home network and uses an app on your streaming device like the Fire TV. There are several models to choose from. Some with storage and some without that require a PC server to record or use there own Servio device that will record without a PC. There is also an annual subscription of $35 for the show guide.
*Plex is another PC based app that needs a PC to record shows and a Plex Pass ($129) or purchase the app in the app store to access the Plex server you have to setup on a NAS or PC that will need it’s own OTA tuner or have access to a network tuner like the HDHomeRun network tuner. (But there are a lot of people having issues with Plex including me.)
*A free server app alternative to Plex is called Jellyfin. It requires a learning curve if you are not familiar with setting up a server for your content on a PC with a OTA tuner or a NAS device. I’ve spent over a year digitizing my content so I can use this software for a home server.
*This site has more info on PC based choices for your own content server and the apps you can use on the Fire TV to access it. 7 Best TV Recording Software in 2021
*You should decide what features you want from a OTA DVR and use Google or another search engine to research each one more thoroughly to see which one is best for your use. I’ve used a variation of all of the OTA DVRs I listed. I have issues with all that I have tried, each for their cost or feature limitations. I’m still searching for my perfect setup but I’m very picky about the cost and features I want.
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You can also get something like a Mediasonic from Amazon, Walmart etc for about $40.
It will need an external USB / memory card or something to record to.
One tuner but has “pass thru” so you can record one and WATCH another using tv’s tuner.
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