Amazon - Fire TV Recast 500GB OTA DVR - Black

My original review was going to be negative - because the Fire TV Recast did not work with the Fire Cube. But a few days after my purchase I guess Amazon updated things and now everything works together extremely well. This also fixed two other concerns for me - I wanted my antenna to be away from my TV (just needs to be near the Fire TV Recast) and I did not have a turner in my TV for the antenna - which is now not necessary since the antenna plugs into the Recast. This was the last step in 'cutting the cord' with cable, and things are going very well.

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.

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.

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 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.

As long as you have a decent signal from your antenna you have DVR functions like your cable company gives you as long as you have a fire TV or fire stick. You can schedule to record from your fire stick or fire TV in advance but not in advance on your app for your phone or iPad. This is the only drawback that I can fine with it. You can only start recording from the app when the program you wanna record starts. But this is not a game changer, I still like to have the ability it gives you. I would recommend this product and hopefully they make a software change on their app in the future for recording programs.

I bought this along with a Fire TV, so we could get tv reception in our kitchen. There wasn't anyway to get a cable to it's location and an indoor antennas wouldn't work. So I hooked up the Fire Tv Recast to the antenna in our family room and it sent the signal to the Fire Tv through our WIFI. My wife likes to watch the local news while see cooks, so I set it up to record it daily. It has worked flawlessly. It also works great with the Fire stick I have on the other TV.

It does what is says it do in a beautiful way. They keep the simple look and feel of FireTV, and seamlessly integrate OTA signals, with DVR capacity and the many other streaming services like HULU, SLING, NETFLIX, PHILO, PLUTO, etc Installation is VERY simple, Amazon Customer Service is quick and trustful. Maybe the antenna location and installation was the most "traumatic" step of the process, but everything else is plug and play.