DVR Options for Cord Cutters
January 30, 2022
Debbie and I continue to work through our infrastructure planning for our home. As one area of focus for the wiring to support our new home is entertainment, we’re looking at a variety of options. I’ve previously covered topics like whether to use a Smart TV or Streaming Player, TV Antenna options and Cord Cutting.
As we’ll be leaving our our current cable provider behind when we move in, we’re working together to ensure we have all our entertainment needs covered. As many are leaving their cable providers due to cost and robust streaming options, we’re designing the infrastructure to give us the flexibility to support our preferences.
One of the things that Debbie is a particular fan of is the DVR service with our current cable provider. Our lifestyle can get pretty fluid at times with family and friends, travel and recreation, so scheduling our time around when certain programming is on doesn’t work. And we have favorites that we like to save to watch again — movies, TV shows, etc.
As there are generally more pros than cons when it comes to cutting the cord — cost savings, content and inexpensive streaming devices — the main challenge for us is the DVR. Streaming services don’t offer that as an option so the responsibility is on us to address if we want to continue enjoying that capability. Recording over-the-air programming (TV Antenna) will require a separate DVR.
The ideal over-the-air DVR doesn’t exist though. While some devices are better than others, all of them — from Tablo to TiVo to Amazon — have at least one critical weakness. If you want to record broadcast TV channels from an antenna, you must decide which of those weaknesses you’ll tolerate.
The good news is that the lowly antenna is experiencing a rebirth, and we’re likely to see even more over-the-air DVR products. But if you want to start recording broadcast channels now, here’s a rundown of where the current products stand.
What to look for in an over-the-air DVR
Evaluating over-the-air DVR solutions is tough, because there are so many factors that can make or break the experience. Here are some factors to consider:
Ad-skipping features: Advertising is still a staple of broadcast TV, but some DVRs provide tools to help you skip them.
- TiVo is the best in this regard, providing an auto-skip button for some programs, and a 30-second skip button for everything else.
Antenna placement options: Over-the-air DVR is useless if your antenna can’t receive channels, so unless you’ve got coaxial cable wired to the roof — or attic in our case, you’ll need to set up your DVR in a place with solid indoor antenna reception.
- Tablo can operate anywhere in the house.
- HDHomeRun must be wired to your router.
- TiVo and Channel Master are tied to your television.
Granular recording options: Perhaps you’d like to keep only a certain number of recent episodes, or replace your recordings with higher-resolution versions when available. Not all DVRs are equal in the recording controls they provide.
Live TV time-shifting and catch-up: Want to pause your program? How about watching partway through a program so you can skip the commercials? Most DVR solutions support this type of time-shifting.
- HDHomeRun currently doesn’t support time-shifting.
Number of tuners: More tuners means more simultaneous recordings or live viewings. In other words, for example, if you have two programs you want to record that are airing simultaneously, you can capture them both.
- TiVo has four tuners.
- Tablo has two- and four-tuner options.
- HDHomeRun lets you daisy-chain multiple dual-tuner units together.
Out-of-home streaming: Want to watch live and recorded TV from outside your house? This is not really a feature that Debbie and I are interested in but we know people who enjoy this and someday, with our traveling, we may want it too.
Storage options: Many DVRs support storage on external hard drives. The upside of this is that you can add or upgrade the external drives to maintain media library. The downside, if you’re not really technically inclined it could be a deal deal breaker.
- TiVo Roamio OTA doesn’t support storage on external hard drives.
- Tablo has started beta testing a cloud-based storage service.
Whole-home support: Unless you only plan to watch on a single television, you’ll want a whole-home system, which means buying a networked tuner.
Streaming service integration: Many DVR products are whole-home solutions that you access via apps on your existing streaming devices. In these cases, you can access all your favorite streaming services alongside over-the-air video without having to switch inputs.
- TiVo doesn’t support this feature. It supports some major streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Hulu, but you’ll still need a separate streaming box to access others, such as Sling TV and Philo.
OTA DVR solutions still in development
The over-the-air DVR space should get more competitive over time. If you’re on the fence about current solutions, here are some future developments to consider:
ATSC 3.0: Broadcasters are starting to test a new broadcast TV standard called ATSC 3.0 — also known as “Next Gen TV” — which can support 4K HDR video, better surround sound, interactive features and easier access on phones and tablets. This new standard is incompatible with most of today’s over-the-air DVR solutions, which rely on the current ATSC 1.0 standard.
It’s still the early days for ATSC 3.0 though. Major broadcast networks haven’t yet committed to supporting features like 4K, and the FCC is requiring all markets to support ATSC 1.0 until at least February 2023. That means you can still buy current over-the-air DVR solutions that will work.
The Best OTA DVR for Most Cord Cutters
If you don’t need four over-the-air tuners, the Tablo Dual Lite DVR is a compelling value. The Tablo Quad DVR is slightly more expensive, but it makes the fewest trade-offs of any of these products. There are some drawbacks — interlaced video can’t play back at 60 frames per second, and there’s a limited number of streaming boxes you can use for out-of-home viewing.
Pros
- Easy to set up
- Streams TV to lots of devices
- Plenty of options for browsing and recording TV shows
Cons
- Video and audio streams are inferior to broadcast quality
- No ad-skipping features
- No way to channel surf while watching live TV
A good alternative is the Amazon Fire TV Recast (75-hour model). For those who are familiar with Amazon hardware, the Recast is simple to set up, has no subscription fees and lets you launch live channels by voice with Alexa. But because this over-the-air DVR is only compatible with Amazon’s Fire TV devices, it’s not compatible with Roku, Apple TV or Android TV players.
I like this option as Debbie and I already have an Alexa driven household and have Amazon Fire TV Cubes attached to all of our TVs. And the things we potentially give up are non-issues for us.
And if You’re a Power User …
The Channels DVR can be tricky to set up, as it requires you to bring your own media server hardware, and its $8 per month subscription fee is pricier than other over-the-air DVR solutions. But for those who invest the time and money, Channels provides an unparalleled level of polish, video quality and power user features.
This is a viable option for us as I am planning to have a NAS (Network Attached Storage) connected to our network in the media racks. This would give us a place to store the recorded programming along with our music library (for individual room and whole home audio) and picture archive (thousands of digital pictures). The monthly subscription cost is most likely a deal breaker for us though as there are entire streaming services that cost less.
And if You’re a Videophile …
The Tablo Dual HDMI is for you if video quality is crucially important. This over-the-air DVR will record broadcast video in its native MPEG-2 format at a full 60 frames per second. That means you’ll experience no degradation in video quality. On the downside, the Tablo Dual HDMI can’t stream video outside your home or to mobile devices. Despite that drawback, it is one of the best products in its class.
This option actually looks like a solution I’d consider as the video quality is the best you can get and the lack of streaming outside our home or to mobile devices isn’t a factor. The deal breaker may be that you’ll need a unit for each TV you want DVR capabilities on. My preference is a network-based solution that all TVs can access centrally.
Other DVR Options
As you can see there are a lot of options. And I must admit, when I started looking into this I didn’t realize how complex this could get. Depending on many factors surrounding your circumstances — wiring infrastructure, existing equipment, budget, personal entertainment preferences, etc. — there most likely is the ideal solution for you.
Some of you may opt for a completely streaming entertainment environment, as I have friends and family who have opted for that. No coax or antenna at all. There are DVRs for that, some of the options above will accommodate that as well. Our desire to include coax in our wiring plan is as much part of our resiliency planning as addressing entertainment preferences. From a resiliency perspective, it’s another way for us to get digital content, eliminating our dependency on internet access (as long as we still have power).
Hopefully this has been helpful as I have learned a lot throughout my research process for this post. I’m curious, if you’re already a cord cutter, if you’re using a DVR solution, what model are you using and how do you like it? Is it one on the list above? If you’re contemplating cutting the cord, are you looking into DVR solutions? As always, Debbie and I appreciate your comments, DMs and emails. Please keep those coming as our goal is to not only educate ourselves and others but to make this a collaborative environment.
Let us know your thoughts, questions and suggestions for other smart home topics you’d like hear about. Until next week …
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