[skunark]

I haven’t had a DVR in over a decade, maybe two, but with the current events, stuck at home I decided it might be nice to queue up some recent shows, recent reruns and some late night shows for what I would expect to be a lack-luster fall release of sitcoms.  This is just another stepping stone for cord-cutters and wanted a solution that can work with Roku, Apple TV and even Samsung TVs making it very user friendly.  I believe the choices here are Tablo TV and Plex with SilconDust HDHomeRun.   Tivo is out as I believe that is a per TV only solution, I want just one box to work with many devices.   Right now I’m leaning towards Tablo TV, but curious of experiences everyone has had.  It seems that the reviews don’t indicate video quality and I’m curious if they compress like cable companies tend to do. 

—Jim

[Doublej]

Don't forget Amazon's FireTV Recast. Check the resolution. I think it does something to the native signal when recording it.

AirTV is another option. I don't know if Locast has DVR capability. They say it's free but I think it's $5/month unless you want to be constantly interrupted with ads to subscribe last time I checked which is a long time ago.

[zoso124]

I'm using 2 different HDHomeRun's Prime (Xfinity Cable) and Quatro (OTA) with Channels DVR. I have it running on a QNAP NAS device. We pay $8 a month for the guide. I like the interface better than Plex.

Channels also has Tv Everywhere integration and https://getchannels.com/tv-everywhere/ so I really don't need the Prime. But there are a few channels I can't get via Everywhere.

[skunark]

Amazon FireTV might be a good option, but you need a fire stick per TV adding to my costs.   For me, I have an Apple TV on every TV, but if the quality is significantly better than the other options it might become an option.

Locust TV seems like a great solution for where an antenna won’t work.  No DVR though.   

AirTV seems interesting if there was an app for the Apple TV, seems like they have an app for every other platform.   Anyone use this with Sling TV?   

HDHomeRun I believe requires Plex for it to be used on an Apple TV.    How do you like the video quality?   Is there a significant difference between Cable, OTA and the DVR playback?    There is support for HDHomeRun on Kodi(xbmc) as well, I also have a raspberry pi at every TV, so I could consider that as an option.   

I’ve been trying to nail video quality down too.  A 1080p blu-ray has a max bit rare of 48Mbps, 40 of which is usable by video.  OTA caps out at 19 Mbps for 1080i/720p and I’ve found that Tablo TV records at 10Mbps. I haven’t found much else on this, yet.   I believe that streaming services for 4K content is less than 10Mbps, so hopefully Tablo TV performs as well as the streaming services.   

Another feature high on my list is commercial skip, so more things to track down.   

[Doublej]

Do you know about AVS Forum? Last time I checked it out, on this topic, they had threads for each device and software package out there.

[zoso124]

I had the TabloTV when it came out a few years ago. I didn't like how it re-encoded the OTA Mpeg to MP4. It seems overly compressed and I could definitely see a loss in quality when watching on my 120" screen.

With Channels DVR you can have it detect the commercials. It works pretty well, but it doesn't remove them it just marks them so during playback it will auto skip them, you can rewind if you want to watch them or it skips too far ahead.

[skunark]

There is an Apple TV app for AirTV, not AirTV2 so I got that kinda wrong, but based on what I can tell this isn't supported for Apple TV.  It is disappointing of the product fragmentation, another countless tech product that can't seem to maintain consistent apps across generations.    If i have that information correct about the AirTV2 with or without Sling TV not working on an Apple TV, then this isn't an option for me.

The SiliconDust's HDHomeRun seems pretty flexible with Plex, Kodi and Channels DVR.  I'm curious if Plex and Kodi can select shows to record or is that required through the Channels DVR app?

Zoso, with your two HDHR devices, I assume they share the same app, do you have to bounce between devices or does it merge the content in a single list?   if so this would be interesting to have multiple devices connected to separate antennas in different directions.  Not necessary a need for me now, but this would have come in handy in the past.

Tablo TV seems to be the only option with internal and external HDD expansion and I'm curious if an SSD would matter over a cheaper HDD.  Tablo TV also does commercial skipping.


I do know about avsforums, i have only searched there vs interact.  I haven't found any details on the quality of the video.  It would be interesting if RTINGs would review the current crop of streaming DVRs, I'm sure they would have more detail than I'm after.

[skunark]

Silicon HDHomeRun is doing a kick-starter on an ATSC 3.0 supporting 4k on two of the four tuners, so I've ordered that and I guess it will ship July.   

[zoso124]

There is an Apple TV app for AirTV, not AirTV2 so I got that kinda wrong, but based on what I can tell this isn't supported for Apple TV.  It is disappointing of the product fragmentation, another countless tech product that can't seem to maintain consistent apps across generations.    If i have that information correct about the AirTV2 with or without Sling TV not working on an Apple TV, then this isn't an option for me.

The SiliconDust's HDHomeRun seems pretty flexible with Plex, Kodi and Channels DVR.  I'm curious if Plex and Kodi can select shows to record or is that required through the Channels DVR app?

Zoso, with your two HDHR devices, I assume they share the same app, do you have to bounce between devices or does it merge the content in a single list?   if so this would be interesting to have multiple devices connected to separate antennas in different directions.  Not necessary a need for me now, but this would have come in handy in the past.

Tablo TV seems to be the only option with internal and external HDD expansion and I'm curious if an SSD would matter over a cheaper HDD.  Tablo TV also does commercial skipping.


I do know about avsforums, i have only searched there vs interact.  I haven't found any details on the quality of the video.  It would be interesting if RTINGs would review the current crop of streaming DVRs, I'm sure they would have more detail than I'm after.

Yes Channels let's you choose which HDhomerun gets priority in the guide. For example you can choose which tuner for CBS, OTA or  Cablecard or TVE.

[Bob in St. Louis]

This is a good topic, very relevant for how folks are viewing TV these days.
As a "cord cutter" myself (several years ago), I'm curious about the new tech for bringing OTA and DVR to multiple rooms.
I'm tempted to 'pin' this topic so it doesn't fall into oblivion. Thoughts on that? Y'all think it's worthy?

[skunark]

I mostly discounted OTA DVRs since I cut the cord and started streaming but once this stay-at-home order came to light and that got me thinking it would be nice to time-shift the local news, but these OTA "Streaming" DVRs are really a game changer in so many more ways.  I think this is a good topic to pin just for the fact that it can help solve other problems besides just time-shifting shows.

First, you no longer need to route a coax cable to every TV to got local live broadcasting, just the savings in wiring alone would cover the cost of one or more of these devices.   Really, any device with an App store or a web browser can also view live TV over a reasonable performing WiFi router. 

The SiliconDust HDHomeRun kick-starter will be able to send ATSC 3.0 4k streams without having to purchase tuners for the current crop of UHD TVs that still have ATSC 1.0 tuners.   I'm eagerly awaiting that product and hopefully it will ship in July, but this is a beta product and might not support all networks or devices.   Also, HDHR solves the issue of towers in opposite directions allowing you two purchase two boxes and connect them up to different antennas pointed towards different TV towers

Oh and yeah, those of us with older TVs that the guides stopped working, well this replaces that too. 

[Bob in St. Louis]

Excellent, sounds very promising.
Thie new video tech is a bit over my head, so I'm struggling to keep with the conversation. My knowledge stops at "4k is better than 1080p", the rest is a foreign language. 
Mom has the "master" set-up with the OTA and TiVo. The rest of our rooms (the HT room included) rely on internet and streaming only. Would be nice to see weather reports when it gets nasty (the HT room is the "bunker"), and the occasional NASCAR race (like the one this afternoon!).

So, I'll make this a 'sticky' topic, and we'll see how things go. Thank you!

[skunark]

Silicon Dust HDHomeRun ATSC 3.0 kickstarter completed and will be gain AppleTV support through the kickstarter.   Hopefully the ATSC broadcasts begin around the time I receive the tuner and the dvr box.

[skunark]

The HDHomeRun ATSC 3.0 tuner and servo boxes finally arrived, and just plugged it in.   Hope to report more soon and I will be able to compare it against the Tablo TV once I have a few shows recorded.    For live TV they both seem to work equally well, but i'm mostly after how well they commercial skip and record shows.   I feel like Tablo TV has set a low bar on commercial skip and there are a few channels i've and to adjust the start times.

Jim

[skunark]

After a good week of having HD HomeRun ATSC 3.0 connected it's obvious that it is still in beta with several firmware updates and channel rescanning to enable features.

HD HomeRun has an app/application approach for all the supported devices that is speedy, consistent but mostly focused on consumption and selecting shows to record.   Scanning for channels and updating the firmware requires a website unlike TabloTV the options are pretty consistent across the website and apps.   TabloTV is more browser focused, so you don't have an app to install on your desktop, tablet or smartphone, you just use a browser.  TabloTV does use apps of course for the AppleTV, Roku, Xbox and other streamers.    The browser approach could make it more accessible to older devices....   

One quirk with HD HomeRun that I don't believe exists or will exist is the ability to only keep a limited number of episodes for a given show.     Sure i might want to queue up an entire season of a sitcom but other shows the value would only be with the last episode.  With 2TB of storage it might take me a while before I will have to go in and manually delete old content.     Tablo TV has an additional options to flag shows to keep and free up storage as needed by removing the oldest shows.   

All in all, i think the DVR is great and even better with commercial skip, and I can't wait to compare the 4k video to 4k streaming video.  Both require a fee for commercial skip and an extended TV guide, i can't believe I didn't buy into this sooner.    I now time shift sports and the local news and record less than stellar sitcoms that I probably won't end up watching.

I'm hoping to check out how this works on kodi, xbox and ps4 and I can't wait to see how HD HomeRun progressions over the weeks ahead and really compare the 4k OTA with streaming.

Jim