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#4529927 - 07/14/20 12:28 PM Any Over the Air DVR experience?  
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F4UDash4 Offline
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I am getting ready to dump my satellite TV service. I want to get a good external antenna and a means to record over the air TV broadcasts.

I've been researching OTA DVR's and Tablo seems popular but I'm hoping some here have experience in doing this and can offer advice.

Thanks.


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#4529935 - 07/14/20 01:23 PM Re: Any Over the Air DVR experience? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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Not something that we can use here, was looking at what was broadcast here today and it was only 1 kids channel La Trois and no terrestrial digital broadcast, it's either cable or satellite.

In the UK I used Humax DVRs for the over the air digital broadcasts, and I use a couple of Humax Satellite DVRs here in Belgium for my UK TV fix, one in the lounge and one in my cinema.

My car can do both analogue and digital broadcasts (Freeview in the UK) and was using it to search the TV channels this afternoon while waiting in the queue for the recycle park.

Last edited by Alicatt; 07/14/20 01:26 PM.

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#4529936 - 07/14/20 01:26 PM Re: Any Over the Air DVR experience? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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Satellite TV subscriptions have been plummeting in the US over the last couple of years. Almost all of those subscribers have gone to streaming options.


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#4529942 - 07/14/20 02:22 PM Re: Any Over the Air DVR experience? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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I only have experience with an Amazon Fire TV Recast OTA DVR, which also requires a FireTV stick to even operate. It works. The weak link is bad reception in fringe location, though.

The key points I'd look for are a good UI for navigation, and a good on-screen TV guide. The Recast gets it's TV guide from the web, and you can check shows (and flag them for recording) like 14 days ahead. The Recast guide blows away the TVs own built in OTA guide.

Storage on the one I use is like 1TB, IIRC. Loads of shows recorded and so far no storage issues, though external storage is possible with the Recast.


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#4529947 - 07/14/20 03:24 PM Re: Any Over the Air DVR experience? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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For ease of use the Amazon Fire TV Recast is great but as mentioned you do need a Fire TV, Fire TV stick etc to run the interface.
There are some cons to the current (1st Gen) box so it would be nice if the next gen would come out soon.


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#4529959 - 07/14/20 04:38 PM Re: Any Over the Air DVR experience? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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Been doing this for years with my HTPC. It has a TV tuner card plugged into an OTA indoor antenna via coax, so it's easy to schedule recordings to save TV shows to the hard drive.

I've never bothered with stand-alone DVR's, it always seemed too much bother and too restrictive.

#4529963 - 07/14/20 05:02 PM Re: Any Over the Air DVR experience? [Re: BlueHeron]  
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Originally Posted by BlueHeron
Been doing this for years with my HTPC. It has a TV tuner card plugged into an OTA indoor antenna via coax, so it's easy to schedule recordings to save TV shows to the hard drive.

I've never bothered with stand-alone DVR's, it always seemed too much bother and too restrictive.



A DIY solution is a possibility, what card do you use? Software?


"In the vast library of socialist books, there’s not a single volume on how to create wealth, only how to take and “redistribute” it.” - David Horowitz
#4529966 - 07/14/20 05:58 PM Re: Any Over the Air DVR experience? [Re: F4UDash4]  
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The card is old, Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1250. It comes with its own software and remote control.

However, I use Windows Media Center included in Windows 7 (which is why I don't upgrade to Windows 10). If you live in the US you can download your local TV listings and simply schedule recordings from the TV grid, otherwise you need to explicitly set times and channels for recording. It's a very convenient interface, and used to integrate directly with Netflix and PowerDVD before Microsoft abandoned it.


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