Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Fire TV Recast, over-the-air DVR, 1 TB, 150 hours, DVR for cord cutters

Top positive review

Exactly what I was looking for ... but Amazon, PLEASE keep working on the User Interface!

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2018

I've been looking for the perfect solution for Local TV DVR plus program guide "forever", but none of the solutions on the market appealed to me. Recast looked to be exactly what I was looking for and for the most part has exceeded my expectations. The tuner(s) seem to pull in more channels than any DTV I have ever connected to my antenna. Playback quality looks very good, haven't run into any device freeze-ups or reboots, program guide seems to be accurate ... extremely promising. My only complaint is a laundry lists of things that Amazon should improve over time. Maybe some of these features exist but I just haven't found them yet ... and by the way another minor complaint is that I haven't seen any kind of online user guide or handy-dandy how-to videos from Amazon ... so far I've just been slowly discovering features by poking around. That being said, here is the current list of dirty laundry (assuming you are watching via a Fire TV):
- Can't page through the program guide a day at a time. You have to scroll through hour-by-hour. Please fix this!
- I haven't figured out what good it does to mark channel as a "Favorite" other than a little heart shows up next to the channel. Near as I can tell you can't flip through favorites, or sort the program guide by Favorites, or do anything by Favorites.
- If a program fails to record for any reason, you get a very informative message that says merely "Failed to Record". Really guys?
- You have to go to Settings in order to see how much free space you have.
- Can't tune directly to a station
- Can't see the signal strength of your stations. This would be EXTREMELY useful for antenna pointing and supported by just about every DTV tuner.
- When I first set it up, Channel Scan from the iPhone FireTV app failed with no explanation. Thought the tuner was completely broken until I tried Channel Scan from my Fire TV.
- If you have multiple sources for a network (i.e. ABC), not very obvious which channel you are watching, and whether recordings will take place only from the channel you are on when you create a series recording. What if the same show is on both ABC's at the same time? is it going to try record from both channels at once? probably so, and I don't think there is any way to control this.
- DVR recording options are very primitive. I gotta believe this is a known limitation and Amazon just wanted to get the product out the door (which I totally agree with)
- List of recorded shows is very primitive. I think I would prefer it sorted by newest-to-oldest, but even better would be multiple options for sorting.
- No way to search through the channel guide, near as I can tell.
- Kinda confusing how you access OTA channels and/or the channel guide in the first place. You can get to the most recently-viewed OTA channels from the "ON NOW" category on the home screen, and maybe or maybe not from "RECENT", and ... surprise ... you can also get to the program guide from the DVR menu which is pretty weird. But you can't get directly to the program guide from the home menu ... you have to somehow find an OTA channel and then press the "Options" key. [Update: another owner pointed out that from the "ON NOW" category you can navigate left to get to the program guide. Well hidden!]

I could go on but you get the point: it's a solid product, thank you Amazon SO much for building this, but please don't stop working on it until it's better than a 15-year-old cable box. Right now it's not even up to that level of features.

1,075 people found this helpful

Top critical review

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Doug

Still a ways to go to be good.

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2018

So far, not so good. Setting up is easy. Integrating into the fire TV was seamless. Scanning channels was quick. Beyond that, not worth the money for what it does. It found channels my TV never did. On the other hand, the far away bay area channels it is not finding when my TV does. There's no option to manually tune to them. That needs to be added. The program guide has a nice layout. No search option though. That needs to be added. The guide is limited to a week or less so if a program you want to set up recording for you'll have to wait for the guide to get to it if it isn't within the narrow range. So that needs to be extended. There's no program guide on the app so if you want to set a recording you have to wait for the program to actuality start. Even then, there's no option to record the series. I've experienced multiple error messages when connecting outside the house. I've tried connecting through my home vpn thinking that my router was refusing the port, but that doesn't help. If it doesn't want to connect, it won't. It's just a bug in their end that needs to be worked out. I still haven't figured out what order recordings are sorted in on the app so finding the most recent is difficult. They are dated, but their is no times so if it is a new recording or something like that, good luck. There is no option to delete recordings from the app.

Update - One additional star for the developers calling to get feedback. Still throwing up error codes far too often when away from home. Best method is to get a decent router with an in home vpn. Even then, it's hit and miss. It appears the sorting is fixed on the app with recordings.

Update - Need to add an option to turn off notifications that a program will be deleted to make space for new recordings. I get it. I don't need to see it all the time. Also interested to know if anyone else's recast freezes at the top of the hour when a new recording starts. I experience this all the time. I have to go back and start from where I left off. Always right at the top of the hour.

1,937 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

Take negative reviews with a grain of salt

Reviewed in the United States on November 20, 2018

Configuration: 4 tuners, 1 TB, 150 hoursVerified Purchase

I pre ordered this a couple weeks before the release and it arrived the day of the release. Points there for reliable shipment, for the option to make payments, and for crediting early buyers when they put it on sale.

Having read through the other reviews allow me to clarify a few things that other reviewers are having issues with. First off this is really a top notch product that works well right out of the box. In sure there is a built in preamp for the tuners and it's obviously of extremely high quality. I'm picking up all of the channels that my old hdhomerun could get plus wpxi out of Pittsburg, which is over 70 miles away. Mote importantly to me, many of the channels I am getting are just plain more reliable with this box than any other setup that I've tried. Streaming is extremely reliable and I've had zero buffering even when both kids are home and making heavy use of the network.

Let's talk interface for a minute. One reviewer mentioned that adding a channel to favorites did nothing except add a star next to it. This is not true. Any channels that you have favorited show up in their own section at the top of the channel guide. I'm currently using this to filter things out a bit as I have multiple options for CBS, NBC, ABC etc and added the one with the most reliable signal for each network to my favorites.

A couple other reviewers said that when you set a timer to record a series it will record all of the old episodes and doesn't have an option to record only the new episodes. This is also not exactly true, although the interface could use a little work here. When you select a show to record it will pop up a dialog asking if you want to record this episode or the entire series. It's true that it will by default record all episodes including any old ones in syndication. However, if you click the hamburger button again it pulls up the recording options screen where you can set it to record only new episodes, along with other options such a setting a buffer time before and after the recording in case the program begins early or ends late. This screen can also be found in the dvr tan under recording options.

What I would like to see, however, is a way to set the options I mentioned above globally. If that functionality is there I haven't found it yet. Instead I have had to go in and set options for every series I set to record, which is a little annoying.

Many people have mentioned that they are disappointed that playback is limited to 720p. I'm a little bit disappointed on this point as well, especially since there it's literally nothing in the product description mentioning this limitation. I considered taking off a star just for this. However, I'm convinced that this was a conscious design choiceby Amazon. They advertise that this box has the most reliable streaming over Wi-Fi of any OTA dvr and I'm convinced that this claim is entirely valid. My old setup used an hdhomerun tuner connected in the attic via a powerline adaptor, mythtv on my computer and kodi as a front-end. It was notoriously unreliable and not very easy to use by my girlfriend or the kids. 1080p channels would quickly saturate the network and as soon as a second recording tried to start it would fail. Playback of recordings involved buffering from time to time as well. In comparison this box has been 100% reliable in both recording and playback so far. So I understand the design choices Amazon made and tend to agree with them. Also, the picture quality is really very, very good and if I hadn't read about the resolution limit I wouldn't have known to look for it.

Continuing with the interface now. This is really very well integrated with the fire tv interface. I like that there isn't a separate apo to open. I have Pluto TV and a few of those channels now show up with my OTA channels now, too (pretty much all of the news channels). I would love it if the rest would be available here as well. My understanding is that PS Vue integrates here as well which I'm sure it's nice forthose using that service. Myself, I'm using Philo and still have to open the Philo app to access my cable channels. I'm hoping that they will get on the bandwagon here. I actually switched from Android TV to the fire sticks because of Philo, and was hesitant to do so because Android's live channels app was at that time something that I loved but that Amazon had no answer for. Well, if they can get a few more of the streaming services to integrate here it will be what the Live Channels app on Android TV promised but never delivered. So to make a long story short, while the recast is perfectly functional right out of the box I have a lot of hope that the changes Amazon made to accommodate it can open up an even more seamless experience in the future.

I think that a lot of the other reviewers were being unfair to this box. It's actually quite excellent and I've never seen a better rollout of a completely new electronics platform. The negatives that several people mentioned are in some cases things they could have solved by clicking around with their remote for a few seconds more. Amazon could polish the interface a little more, and I'm sure they will, but it's already usable now if you spend a minute to figure things out.

In short I highly recommend the Recast. It solved all of the problems I had with ota tv in our house.

Edit: a recent update added some functionality that I had been missing. When you choose to record a series it now asks if you want to record on that specific channel or on any available channel. This is important and I wish that it had been integrated right from the beginning.

To illustrate the importance of this feature, my attic mounted antenna picks up three different NBC affiliates. The strongest one is out of Youngstown, while I also pick up a weaker signal from Cleveland (the antenna is pointed at Youngstown) and a third, very unreliable channel out of Steubenville. I've had plump out a very small number of recordings ever fail, but when they did it was because the box tried to record one odd the weaker stations. This new setting prevents that happening.

My only wish now is that the new setting would integrate with the recording options menu. As of right now it is only available in a pop up right after you select a series to record. As such I went in and deleted all of my scheduled recordings and then re-entered them to make sure that the box knows my preference for which station to use, which was a fairly tedious process.

636 people found this helpful

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Ryan

an Amazon Prime User, Smart Home, Cord Cutter's Dream

Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2018

Configuration: 4 tuners, 1 TB, 150 hoursVerified Purchase

First off, my current home A/V setup:

Channel Master CM-4228HD antenna hardwired from attic to smart panel
Hard wired home network (Cat5e/Cat6) with ATT GigaFiber Internet
FireTV 2nd gen (two separate rooms)
Coax wired throughout the home, but centralized to a smart panel in stairwell closet (along with my network & audio)
Amazon Alexa devices in the home
Amazon Fire Tablet devices in the home
Amazon Prime member
Netflix subscription

Years ago I was a TiVo Roamio user, but paying $15/mo. for a UI and DVR capability for OTA channels didn't have staying power for my idealism and wallet. I went without cable for awhile, then upgraded to AT&T GigaFiber internet, which was offered in my area. As part of the deal, I signed on for DirecTVNOW and have been a customer for about 1.5 years. Basically I'm at the point now where I'm tired of paying for content that I don't watch or use. Enter the FireTV Recast! Simple setup, seamless integration with FireTV and Alexa, and 1TB of recorded storage with presumably room to grow. Sure, I still pay for content here and there (movies, etc.) but between OTA offerings, Netflix, etc. I am still saving money. The Recast will pay for itself in just a few months compared to monthly fees with DirecTVNOW. And while I don't get sports channels outside of OTA offerings, I'm confident that with Amazon's recent news RE: bidding on content rights, I'm fully convinced this will be the future of TV for me in my house hold (i.e. a-la-carte, pay for what I want TV).

UPDATE:

Was having issues picking up some OTA channels... swapped out my Channel Master Coax amplified splitter and now my OTA antenna picked up 120 channels!

Also did some testing with streaming on my FireTV box (2nd gen) vs. my Fire Tablet 8. Minimal to no lag.

The DVR recording menu is fantastic. What sets this apart are the Alexa controls. Works flawlessly.

Absolutely loving this device! Now if it were to only come in a smaller form factor!

404 people found this helpful

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P. Stokes

This is AWESOME!

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2018

Configuration: 4 tuners, 1 TB, 150 hoursVerified Purchase

I set-up the device as soon as I got it. Setup is easy, Plug in the unit and connect the antenna. Once you do that you only have to use your fire-tv to connect and setup the device. I have 2 separate Amazon accounts and all your units have to be on the same account to work properly.

I scanned for channels and only got 4 to view due to my location and the indoor antenna I had. I later installed an outdoor HD Antenna and connected it to my legacy cable wires. I connected the Recast to that cable source and now I am enjoying 40 channels!

I have Fire TV's in every room of the house and I am able to watch over the air Live HD TV on all of them. I can even use my cell phone to watch Live HD TV provided by my Amazon Recast anywhere! I can watch Judge Judy live during my lunch break at work using my Cell Phone! I can also watch anything recorder on the DVR remotely on my cell phone or tablet!

This unit has me ready to cut the cable!

83 people found this helpful

Helpful

jmikes

Perfect final piece to cut the cord

Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2018

Configuration: 2 tuners, 500 GB, 75 hoursVerified Purchase

Very nice product. It was the last piece in my cord cutting. At my house we use the Firesticks for Directv Now and our locals aren’t included like some major cities so we still use our antenna. Having to switch inputs back and forth is a true first world problem. Using a Recast allows all your entertainment needs to be in one place using a Firestick. The instructions in the box are to the point and accurate. Set up is very simple. Once hooked up it will automatically search for channels. Once it does you can now watch live local tv on any Firestick in the house. Via the Fire TV Ap you can watch your local stations on your cell phone. Judge Judy on the way home, perfect. You can also record to the DVR to watch later. There is also a guide with channel listings for several days if not a week or two. Overall the useablility is very forward and easy enough to use. At the time I saw this device I was pricing my own DVR for local TV. You can buy a tuner box and add a hard drive for a few dollars cheaper than the Recast. Having unit integrated into the Firestick though is clutch and very much worth the extra few dollars. If you’re reading this you’re interested in getting one. It’s pretty neat. Get one. I got mine Cyber Monday for $180. I’d wait until you see a sale on these though.

31 people found this helpful

Helpful

A Game Changer!

Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2018

Configuration: 4 tuners, 1 TB, 150 hoursVerified Purchase

Network channels still rule TV with great shows, and one needs a DVR to record them. With 1 TB and 150 hours of recording capacity Fire TV Recast lets me record as much as I want--as opposed to seeing something like 'you have 35% space left' after having something like 15 shows--Now at least 150, a whole order of magnitude more. That's qualitative improvement. On top of that, this device comes with FOUR tuners. This means I can record four shows at the same time--some reviews suggest this is not true, I just tested it and you can record four different channels at the same time. For fast forwarding, you can jump 30 seconds, OR press and hold the fast-forward to see what you're fast forwarding, and press it again to move even faster.

This is an amazing product from Amazon, and I highly recommend it.

After easily installing the Fire TV Recast, a simple DVR menu option now appears in my Amazon TV home screen. Clicking on that lets me select whatever channel and asks me if I want to record this episode or the entire series.

29 people found this helpful

Helpful

Drew M.

Absolute home run! Great product!

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2018

Configuration: 4 tuners, 1 TB, 150 hoursVerified Purchase

Absolutely the best OTA DVR I have used. I've used TiVo which did not seem to broadcast in Dolby. Used Tablo both the original and the Tablo Lite. The Tablo light was a huge mess.
The first one I recieved had a dead WiFi board, The Replacement had difficulty maintaining a Wi-Fi connection in an excellent WiFi Zone. I submitted a trouble ticket to Tablo support who asked me well can you just hardwire it and not use Wi-Fi. Ridiculous customer service. Moving on to the recast. It is everything I would want in a DVR the menus are easy to navigate the free guide is complete. Setup was easy without any problems. Channel changing is very quick as compared to the Tablo unit and now I use the recast DVR App as my primary television watching app and don't switch back to TV just to watch and change channels which I had to do with Tablo since they were so slow to change and update.

I have not experienced any " new release glitches" and am 100% satisfied with this purchase.

25 people found this helpful

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J. Anderson

Hardwire Recast

Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2020

Configuration: 2 tuners, 500 GB, 75 hoursVerified Purchase

If you want to have trouble free performance with Recast, ethernet hard wire both the fire stick and Recast. Amazon sells a hard wire ethernet convertor for the fire stick generation 2 and above, and I use a power line device with a switch for getting hard wire internet to both the Recast and fire stick by using the electricity wiring in my house.. Flawless performance, no buffering or picture degrading. This is the only way for guaranteed hassle free performance.

13 people found this helpful

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Aragorn7

A Review and A Network Tutorial -- What the Recast Needs From You For Success.

Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2020

Configuration: 4 tuners, 1 TB, 150 hoursVerified Purchase

While this review is primarily about the Amazon Fire TV Recast (AFTVR), because it interacts with other devices like your Fire TV Stick (or Cube), your television(s), your wireless network, etc., it will be necessary for me to cover several items in order to discuss the overall performance of the Amazon Fire TV Recast. If you’re not up to a lengthy explanation, stop here. If you’re an expert, you don’t need this. If you are one of those people who just want something to work without understanding how, you may wish to avoid certain technology altogether or at least not complain about a product because you haven’t taken the time to learn its operational function and requirements. You also need not proceed. This review and network tutorial is for the inquisitive who want to understand how the Amazon Fire TV Recast works and particularly with your wi-fi network.

I’ll start out by saying that it appears that the AFTVR is mostly working well for my application. I like it. That said, I was initially going to send it back until I discovered a major tweak. I wish to also say that I believe most of the negative reviews about this device are due to a failure of understanding it’s requirements, your wireless network’s limitations and unrealistic expectations. Since everyone’s equipment and expectations are different, I’ll start with the essential things that need to be understood:

1) The AFTVR only displays and records Over The Air (OTA) broadcasts. As such it will perform no better than your antenna and very minimally worse; so you need a good antenna particularly if you live rurally like I do. I am using a small outside antenna.

2) OTA broadcasts only broadcast in 720p or 1080i (not 1080p). The difference between 720p and 1080i is minimal, but 1080i is minimally better. The AFTVR records the native broadcast, and rebroadcasts up to 720p. Considering that most streaming TV services like Youtube TV or Sling TV broadcast at 720p and people are generally happy with this, it should not then be a problem for those with the same expectations for the AFTVR.

3) Why no 1080p or 4K? Again, OTA broadcasts currently don’t go any higher than 1080i. Plus, if your internet service has data caps and you were using a streaming TV service as well, 1080p and particularly 4K services will chew up that data quickly and dominate your wireless network. Add a family with a few children streaming and playing games over your internet and you might hit your cap in as little as a week. My point is just because you have a 4K TV, doesn’t mean you can obtain or maintain streaming at that resolution without some penalty from your internet service provider or your own home network. 720p streaming uses far less data and is way easier to wirelessly broadcast to your other TV’s without choking your network.

4) How good is the actual picture? That depends on a couple of things. If you’re on an old 802.11g or less wireless network, don’t bother. In my opinion, you want at least the 802.11n standard and ideally 802.11ac on all devices. Why? Because many home routers can only efficiently handle a few devices at a time and it may reduce its overall speed based on the slowest device (e.g. 802.11g) active on your network. Essentially the router is handling traffic from one device to the next and is the reason some routers will allow you to prioritize what device(s) are most important. Nevertheless, too many active devices and the router can’t handle the load and performance can drop off dramatically. Let me explain it this way. Your router is like a traffic cop. Pretend you along with 100 other cars are trying to get through an intersection. The traffic cop can only allow one car to go through at a time. If there were only two or three, you get through rather quickly, but if you’re one of the fifty and the traffic cop believes others in different lanes should have priority, you could wait for a while. If you have such a wi-fi network jam, the Recast will try to avoid this slow down of traffic by reducing the resolution of your broadcast. It does this to avoid pausing, stuttering, or stopping. For the more technical, the Recast is trying to reduce the data packet load on your network. The result unfortunately can be less than desirable performance (poor picture quality), but the fault doesn’t lie with the AFTVR, but rather your wi-fi router (the traffic cop) and the number of active devices online demanding it’s attention.

The above information (by no means exhaustive) helps explain why some people are thrilled with their Recast and others send it back to Amazon. The AFTVR will be no better than the strength of your network. The Recast also cannot exceed unrealistic expectations (e.g. 4K broadcasts) for current OTA broadcasts.

HERE'S THE FIX!

Finally I will discuss why I almost sent the AFTVR packing myself. I have two 4K TV’s using Amazon Fire TV sticks and a 1080p TV using an older Amazon Fire TV box (2015). Initially the resolution appeared fuzzy on all of the TV’s -- more like SD rather than HD quality. The largest screen sizes I have are 55” and 65”; so the SD quality was quite noticeable and I felt ill in the pit of my stomach. I knew there had to be a solution of some kind; so here it is with yet another explanation. A good 1080p or 4K TV will try to upscale a lower resolution to make it look as good as possible on the TV. Your Amazon 4K Fire TV stick (and likely Cube) automatically sets the resolution to preferred 4K because it primarily has offered live TV streaming and movie services that can deliver 4K. Remember, however, the Amazon Fire TV Recast has now been added to your Fire TV Stick and it only broadcasts up to 720p. Apparently when the Fire TV stick accommodates for this, your TV (or at least mine and others who’ve complained) can’t upscale the image properly. The cure is to go to your Amazon Fire TV Stick settings and select “Display & Sounds” > Display> Video Resolution and select 720p 60Hz. When I did this on each Fire TV Stick or equivalent, all my televisions then yielded what looked like 720p. Wow! Couldn’t be happier. The only negative is that when you do want to stream a 4k movie from Amazon, Vudu, Netflix or other service, you will need to remember to go into your FTV Stick and change the display setting back to “Auto (up to 4K Ultra HD)” or whatever resolution you want. Hopefully, Amazon may find a solution for this and offer it in a firmware update, but until then this definitely fixed my issue.

As a side note, remember that on my version of the Recast, you can record up to four OTA broadcasts, but you can only watch two OTA channels at one time even if you are not recording. So at the maximum you can record two and watch two different channels or you can record four and, I believe, watch two of the four being recorded. I hope that makes sense. In other words I currently can only watch OTA broadcasts on two of my three TV’s at a time.

For my network I use 5 Plume Superpods with the main one connected to the modem and a 16 port switch. It utilizes what is called a mesh wireless system; so I get the same performance throughout my house. My Fire TV sticks are all connected at the 802.11a standard (5Ghz band), which provides the greatest wi-fi bandwidth. I have over 50 devices (both hardwired and wireless) with over 30 active at anyone time; so occasionally I may still get a stutter or pause, but it’s not bad and I understand why. There are other router technologies that can offer the same or perhaps better performance, but the Plume Superpods have worked well for me. The key is to make sure you have a good wireless network and plenty of internet bandwidth if you or your family utilize large amounts of data. I currently have 100Mb/s internet service, but large families may require more. I think the AFTVR would probably do fine on a 20Mb/s internet service if your other wi-fi needs are relatively modest. Another way to put it is that when one or two people want to drink from a garden hose...no problem. When 30 people want to drink from the garden hose at the same time...big problem. The cure is a larger supply of water to fill more hoses or in this case, more bandwidth.

For those of you who have endured my review and explanation thus far, I hope I as well as other reviewers have given you the knowledge needed to determine whether the Recast is the right fit for you. While I thought the setup was fairly straight forward, If you consider yourself technically naive, you can always ask your techie friend or relative to set everything up for you and then just show you how to fully use your Fire TV Remote. Bottom line: If you have the proper network and are wanting to cut the cable or satellite cord and you want a DVR and tuner that can record and broadcast your OTA channels to your FTV Stick connected TV’s, the Amazon Fire TV Recast can be just the ticket. It is certainly working for me. If this shoe looks like it will fit, I highly recommend it.

12 people found this helpful

Helpful

Great-Grandpa

BE INFORMED BEFORE YOU BUY

Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2019

Configuration: 4 tuners, 1 TB, 150 hoursVerified Purchase

BE INFORMED –
Before purchasing the Fire TV Recast, it will make your “cord cutting” experience more enjoyable, less frustrating.

My review focuses on making this transition experience a success story for you as it is for me. There are many reviews pointing out the technical aspects of the Recast, read them until you are confident you have sufficient understanding, it is important to do this..

Here are some of the pre-purchase steps I took that made my Recast experience a success. My first focus was discerning my remoteness from OTA (over the air) TV signal. The closest network TV ‘cluster’ towers is 55 miles away, and I would not go forward cutting the cable without having access to the networks. An outdoor antenna aimed directly toward the desired network towers provided the needed signals. I monitored the network stations for nearly two months, gaining confidence in having adequate signals before moving forward in this process. I then invested in the purchase of the Fire TV Recast 4 tuner model. I programed it to record the exact program-series we were recording on our existing cable service and monitored them for more than a month before considering the actual switchover. During that month time, the Fire TV Recast worked flawlessly. It was time to make the cut, not something easy for this 76-year-old to do; to move away from the proven but expensive service. I did the cut. All is well, Amazon Firesticks and the Recast provide the TV service we hoped it would. Remember this is new technology, it will appear similar to your existing cable or satellite TV service, but not exactly, there are some differences, anticipate that.

BOTTOM LINE - (my ratings)

The Amazon Fire TV Recast – Five Stars! The Recast is solid, stable, it does exactly what is stated by the manufacturer.

Amazon Recast Support – Five Stars! At one point I needed a little help and found there is support team. They are superb, a model of how good a support team can be. A special ‘thank you’ to Jarred L. for your personal, prompt, professional oversight. Your efforts in my behalf were the icing on the cake that brought my cord-cutting project to successful fruition, thanks Jarred.

16 people found this helpful

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JME

Let's keep it real....

Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2018

Configuration: 2 tuners, 500 GB, 75 hoursVerified Purchase

Awesome product but lets keep our expectations in check. Some reviews complain that it's not as good as their cable DVR, or the subscription based Tivo. The Recast is buy it ONE time, and you stop spending. No maintenance fees for the channel guide (Tivo), no rental fees for the DVR - one payment and done.

I've owned other OTA devices and the Recast is far superior for channel guide, functionality, integration, and price. Setup was easy but initial channel scan only gave me 15 channels using an indoor square flexible antenna. So I then hooked the Recast up to a $30 external antenna and the Recast then brought in 50 FREE channels. CBS, NBC, ABC etc. are strong and clear - but that's mainly due to moving the antenna outside.

5/5 stars, but room for a little improvement. For example, the ability to record one show, one time, every week. Currently, you can ask to record a "series", but the lowest amount of recordings is 5. I don't want 5 weeks recordings of "60 Minutes" taking up storage space, I only want one. But the device is still leaps and bounds ahead of other OTA dvrs.

Great device, and great integration.

15 people found this helpful

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5 star		56%
4 star		20%
3 star		10%
2 star		6%
1 star		9%

Fire TV Recast, over-the-air DVR, 1 TB, 150 hours, DVR for cord cutters

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Fire TV Recast, over-the-air DVR, 1 TB, 150 hours, DVR for cord cutters

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Fire TV Recast, over-the-air DVR, 1 TB, 150 hours, DVR for cord cutters

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