Customer Ratings & Reviews

It help me to get better signals for my TV channels at my house and DVR function when I needed. Cut your cable cost and cheaper than installation outdoor TV antenna! But you gotta have fire tv stick installed already in order to works and good internet speed connection.

I purchased my Recast (on sale at $129.00 plus tax) about 6 weeks ago, and it has not disappointed. Setting it up was very easy...just connected my antenna, and used the Fire TV app on my phone, which was rather painless. The Recast can be connected wirelessly, or direct to a router with an adapter. Once setup, which took about 10 minutes, I scanned for channels, and was able to get 140 in my area (Simi Valley, CA). This was 50+ more channels than I had with my tv, and smaller convertor box. We regularly watch about 30 of the 140 channels, and unwanted channels can be removed with the favorites setting. The Recast has a 2 week channel guide (at no charge, unlike other OTA DVR's), and you can record 2 shows at the same time. Recordings can be set from the guide, and you have the option to record a one-time show, or make a series recording. We use Philo and Pluto TV as well. The great thing about this is that the Recast allows you to integrate Philo and Pluto channels into the guide, so you do not have to open each app separately to see what is airing. The Recast also allows the pausing, rewinding and fast-forwarding of any live tv channel (that comes from your antenna only). Since Philo has a built in DVR, you can do the same with those channels. Pluto currently does not have any DVR function, so we are limited to watching those channels live only. The Recast also allows you to stream the OTA channels to any other Fire device that is connected to the same network. This eliminates the need to run cables to each of you tv's, which can be a pain. Although I do not consider it a con, others may since it does not work with any other streaming device (ROKU, Apple TV, etc). My only gripe about the Recast occurs when you are using the guide. Once you are on a channel, but decide to bring up the guide to see what else is playing, the guide will appear and the current channel that you are watching will be reduced to a small screen. This is nice as it allows you to continue watching your program while channel surfing. The downside is if after scrolling through numerous channels you want to go full screen with the show you were watching (you didn't find anything else to watch), there is no option for this. You need to go back up (or down) the guide until you get to that channel and hit enter. If you hit the back button on the Fire remote, it will take you out of the program and back to the main menu where you started. This is annoying but not a deal breaker for me. Lastly, with the FireTV app on my phone, I am able to watch any OTA channels outside of my home, as well as any recordings I have. The one shortcoming is that the phone app does not have the channel guide and you are limited to recording only what you are currently watching.

I bought this while looking for a convenient way to get local over-the-air HD channels to my TVs and my phone, and I'm very happy with my choice. Using the Recast, I was able to put a small HD antenna in my attic, where signal strength was strongest, without having to run more wiring to my sets. It's a great solution, with just a couple things to consider. First, setup is fairly straightforward, but it requires using the Fire TV app on your smartphone or tablet. The app allows you to connect the Recast to your wifi, scan for channels, and connect your Fire TV devices (also required if you want to watch live TV on your sets). You can also watch shows directly in the Fire TV app. Second, the app lacks any kind of signal strength indicator, so getting my maximum number of channels was a process of trial and error: scan for channels, see how many showed up, move the antenna a bit, scan again, repeat until I had as many channels as I could seem to receive. It's a bit tiresome, but once you're done, you shouldn't ever have to do it again. Once everything is configured, live channels show up as a menu item on your Fire TV interface, complete with a channel guide and the ability to record shows either while you're watching or on a schedule. You get all the normal pause, rewind, fast-forward DVR options as well. You can get cheaper boxes for connecting OTA HD to your TVs, but for me, the extra cost was worth the convenience and additional features.

One of the down sides to cord cutting is missing out on local channels and sports. With this device and a reasonable antenna, you can keep those channels (for free) to supplement paid services like Netflix or use this to alongside Kodi. Great Amazon integration and interface! One of the reasons I went with Amazon is that they will work on supporting and improving their products. You can count on updates. This is a smooth transition for anyone familiar with or currently owning a Fire Stick or Fire TV product. It's just another "tab" or app. I was willing to pay more up front on this because it comes with storage so you don't have to buy additional devices AND unlike most OTA DVRs, you don't have to pay for the channel guides! You can also watch your recording when you travel, as it will stream from your DVR at home. Catch it on sale for $170 or $180. Honestly if you are using it as a cord cutting transition, just consider it an up front cost to get rid of your outrageous cable bill! My inlaws saved $150 a month and my wife and I saved $175 a month! You'll want decent internet and a good router. The antenna plug into the Recast and then it is streamed to Fire TV devices or devices with apps.

The recast unlike several over the air dvr's does not require a monthly fee for its use or for its program guide. That comes with it for the device purchase price so to you don't incur a monthly fee to use it. Tuner works well. I live in a fringe antenna reception area and its signal does about the same as my large antenna does on my lg tv. The only drawbacks I have with it are 1. since I live in a fringe area where my signal on vhf channels is weak enough that multi-path or atmospheric conditions can sometimes interfere with it I often get an annoying message on the vhf channels from the recast saying weak signal try adjusting the antenna. I really wish there was a way to turn of that annoying message because it even happens while the signal is still strong enough to not pixelate or lose any of the picture except for that message covering the bottom center of the picture. 2. I've been noticing a lot of bandwidth being used by the firetv ecosystem and I've been trying to find info. online to minimize how much its using but what I've found so far looks like it may still blow through the local cable co. monthly bandwidth cap. It apparently keeps using bandwidth so long as the firetv sticks are plugged into the tv's hdmi ports even though the power cord to the sticks are unplugged so to stop it from using bandwidth one must either disconnect them from the tv's hdmi port or cut off the power to the tv set. Overall the recast works well aside from those two issues and I have been able to set it up with features to record tv shows whereby it automatically records the new episodes of them whenever they are on. Also it has options to choose between different picture qualities on the recording to save recording space with standard definition instead of the more memory intensive high definition picture. It also has an additional feature allowing you to priotize your shows so if multiple shows are on at the same time it knows which ones to give recording priority with its two tuners. You can watch one show while recording another with it or you can do as i have done with a splitter on the antenna line between my tv and the recast to allow me to watch what I want on the tv while still being able to have two recordings taking place on the recast at the same time. Another nice feature is in addition to its one half terrabyte of memory built into the recast I was able to hook my one half terrabyte seagate external hard drive up to it through its usb port to double my available recording memory space. The fire tv ecosystem with this recast will incorporate your antenna tv channels into a guide along with pluto tv's free channels all in one guide and this guide can be tweaked to show all channels, only favorites or even hide channels from it Nice feature that will be even better if more streaming services get incorporated into it which I heard that PHILO also works with this channel guide and some others may be working on the app to get included. Good product Amazon but it will be better if you drop the weak signal message or give us a way to disable it. That would have gotten you 5 stars. Also it would be good to find a way to stop the firetv ecosystem from using bandwith without having to cut the power to the tv or unplug the stick's hdmi from the tv.

I’m exploring ways to cut to cord. This a good product in theory but there are some shortcomings that want allow me to cancel my cable subscription. I purchased this hoping to view NFL games on local tv stations. The problem is that I have a 120 inch projection screen and this device is limited to 720p. This is not the best picture quality for a screen that big. Conversely, it looks great on a 55 inch tv. Both screens experience buffering and you are that the mercy of your antenna. The DVR feature is nice and plays back better than live TV. Overall, I’m going to use this product on the TV’s in my home that do not have a cable box to avoid the monthly rental fees.

My father decided to dump cable completely over a year ago. He would often say how much he missed being able to DVR and watch live sports while fast forwarding through commercials. I had purchased an Insignia Fire TV back in 2018 and read several reviews about the Fire TV Recast. My biggest concern was that my father lives in Northern Iowa with the TV towers almost 50 miles away. I took a gamble and purchased the Recast along with a few different antennas from Insignia, RCA, and finally Antennas Direct. He set everything up and did several channel scans in different locations. The best location ended up being in the garage (25 channels) and he was able to connect to the Recast over Wi-Fi. He has used it since July and is very pleased. I had the opportunity to visit him and watch several football games. They came in very smooth with almost no buffering. I deducted one star as the the interface for recording and accessing the channel guide is a little cumbersome. There is plenty of storage for his needs without needing to purchase an additional hard drive. Buy it on sale if you can find it for around $170.00.

The Amazon Fire TV Recast is exactly what is advertised. It is a little tricky to setup, but not difficult. You must have a phone to setup along with an antenna connection. The DVR is very nice and user friendly. The fast forward and rewind are very smooth and work better than the one provided by The cable company. Programming is done very similar to many cable boxes. Once a show has been recorded, it can be accessed by any TV that has a Fire TV adapter. The most important fact is that with the Fire TV Recast, all connected TVs have access to local channels through the one antenna connection. Only two TVs may stream simultaneously with the smaller model. Note also there are only two TV tuners in the small model. Plenty of setting for custom recording to meet most needs.

This is exactly what I needed! We already had three of the 4K Firesticks for on-demand streaming and I wanted a way to record a couple OTA TV shows that we like to watch. Basically, I needed something to replace my old VCR. This installed easily in about 10 minutes and integrated into the Firestick’s menu. Bonus that I can watch TV on my phone now but I probably won’t use that feature. Been using it for a few weeks now and no complaints so far. I am going to install a dedicated UHF antenna for it in the attic soon, I have it connected to a cheap antenna sitting on a bookshelf now and while the picture is great, I sometimes get a popup that says it’s receiving a weak signal. All the popular channels here are broadcasting on UHF frequencies ( go to https://www.fcc.gov/media/television/tv-query to see what frequencies your local channels broadcast on, the channel you know them as isn’t necessarily the channel they transmit on) so I’ll give it a better antenna and see how it does. I would recommend this product if it’s on a good sale price, it’s a little high for what it is at the regular price IMHO. A good deal if you already use Firesticks.

I got this on sale for 150, which I think is about the price for it. I would not pay the normal price as this really just gives you two things. First if your TV is not close to a window, then this gives you the ability to have it placed away from the TV and get better reception with an antenna. I used to get bad reception on NBC and now I get that clear. Plus the antenna is now placed on the window and it really not noticeable any more. Next you get the ability to record network shows and watch them when you want. This is good because in most cases the networks do not have stand alone plans and when they do it just adds more cost. These two things are great, however they would not justify the over $200 cost.

Set up was very easy. To my amazement, I am getting better reception, it work on all my streaming capable mobile electronic devices for when I am on the go or on my echo show and the DVR is a plus although it only records from over the air programming. Friends who have been over to watch football were also impressed. Over all, I am quite pleased.

FireTV is the perfect choice for OTA DVR, if you already have a FireStick. Originally I purchased Tablo, but it had connectivity issues, plus had to pay a fee for channel guide. FireTV has built in storage and allows me to watch OTA channels directly from FireStick. I don’t have to change the input on my TV. It also allows me to access OTA channels and DVR from multiple TVs in the house, with only 1 antenna. No monthly fee for the channel guide is a big savings! Also you can scroll through the guide while still watching the current channel selection! I highly recommend Amazon FireTV Recast!

Think about connecting your free over- the-air TV and share wirelessly to all of your TV? Well, this is the one. I had my antenna installed in the attic, gets great reception. But I have 2 TVs, I don’t have a way to run two antenna wires to two TV, so, this one works great. You connect the antenna, have a Fire TV stick on each of your TV, it will sync all your over the air channels to each TV. The total cost for me to have the whole thing setup —. Antenna w amp about 80.00, each fire stick is 30.00, fire TV recast is 219.00 ( got one on cyber Monday for 195.00). And you can record your over the air TV programs. I got the 500 GB unit, but I have not yet record anything yet. The only draw back is what’s to record over the air TV program? Only few channels programs worth while. Well, if you want to cut the core, this is one choice.

It's about time something like it became available for cord cutters without having to pay a monthly fee. We love it. We have Amazon fire stick TV connected to all of our TVs in our house. Now we can watch all channels on all TVs without having to connect those to the outdoor antenna which is a great feature. The channel guide is great and easy to use. Being able to record shows is priceless. We can watch our channels from anywhere and also have access to our recorded shows. We highly recommend it. We mentioned it to a few of our friends and they went ahead and bought it also. They love it too.

It does what it’s supposed to in terms of recording OTA shows and movies. I have not run into any issues yet. The picture quality is good, up to 1080p for this version. The user interface and guide could use some enhancements though. It mislabels some of the channels and it doesn’t use the channel numbers, instead it uses the channels names to put in order. It also doesn’t let you search for a show to record, instead you have to use the guide. Also, it takes many clicks to get to the app and local channels to watch. Not too bad just takes a little getting use to it. Overall still worth the buy if you are looking for a OTA tuner and DVR combo. No annual fee is nice as others charge a subscription fee. And it plays nice with all you amazon devices and Alexa. Maybe when they release a software upgrade for enhancements then I would give it a 5 star.

Fire TV Recast is the best purchase ever. Programming and setup were easy. DVR is easy to use. The channel guide is free as there are no additional fee's or subscriptions like other OTA DVR devices. The channel guide nicely integrates all the over the air channels, as well as some of the channels from the Pluto TV app and the premium channels (i.e. Starz, Cinemax, Showtime) I purchase through Amazon Prime. Absolutely love the Fire TV Recast.

Fire tv recast is a great dvr for OTA channels. I also like how it shows the channel guide on tv. It is a little expensive but u end up saving with time because they don’t charge a monthly fee . If the phone app would allow me to set up recordings for future programs I would have gave it 5 stars.

we moved into an RV several months ago and could only get very slow internet. Fire TV Recast solved that problem and allows me to record multiple programs from my RV antenna and play them back on my schedule. picture quality is very good. I am very pleased. Easy to setup and use.

The Fire TV Recast mostly lives up to its billing. In its primary location, it does a great job of pulling in over-the-air channels and getting them to a Fire TV Stick or a smartphone. The DVR is straightforward and mostly easy to use. As others have remarked, the Recast's content is integrated pretty heavily into the rest of Amazon's video ecosystem, but it's easy enough to skip over the chaff and get to the wheat of the DVR functionality. Downsides include the fact that the audio cuts out at the end of some recordings. Out of the home viewing is also less than optimal. While it's nice as an option, it would be nice to be able to watch the Recast in a browser or enable Chromecast or other casting options in the Fire TV app. I purchased the Recast on sale. I don't know if it would be worthwhile at full price, but it stands out from the competition when the price is lower.

Best DVR for cord cutters! My antenna and the Recast scanned 62 live TV channels. Reception is crisp and clear and I’ve had no problems with poor reception. All other programming with Amazon Prime, Netflix, and a multitude of other streaming apps, works great. The DVR works like a charm. I couldn’t be happier with the Recast and highly recommend it. Setup is easy and I was up and running no time.