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

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.

I have had my eye on the Fire TV Recast since it’s initial launch. I have read all of the reviews both professionally sourced and consumer based comparing the pro’s & con’s of the device itself and against it’s competitors. I decided to go ‘All-IN’ on the 4 tuner version, 4K Fire TV stick and the Fire TV Cube 4K as my OTA reception improved 100% after the FCC Repack completed in May, 2020 in the San Francisco market area. I live in a 2 Edge TV reception zone about 22 miles from the broadcast towers. I installed 2 high gain antennas in the attic. One VHF, one UHF, a combiner and pre-amp going to a 4 way splitter. The RECAST is connected directly to the splitter. I receive 63 channels perfectly. The picture quality is noticeably better than what I get from U-Verse. Excellent TV Guide that integrates OTA & Streaming TV services programming into one guide, is a very nice feature. DVR functionality is on par with what you get from Cable TV providers leased equipment and works well. I like that I can watch live or recorded TV on my iPad. Set up was a breeze and it has been easy to use.The only issue that I am experiencing is that when starting a recording or watching live TV on the iPad, it may take two attempts to get it to sync up and play. Also, it would be nice if the Recast had a signal strength/quality meter built in, so that one can keep an eye on TV reception performance or if one has an antenna on a rotator to point at various broadcast transmitters.The build quality seems pretty solid and of good quality. Hopefully, we will get many years of use from the Recast and save a bundle of money in the process!Update after a month and a half of use:The issue with the connectivity with my IPAD seems to have improved after a Firmware update about a week ago. My wife is learning the remote functionality and the Fire TV interface slowly but surely, just like many people do when dealing with a different technology platform.So far so good. I will update my review in December 2020.UPDATE: after about 3 months of use the Recast is mostly working fine. I do have to note that there are a couple of annoyances that I think are warranted for comment.Issue 1) I am experiencing periodic lip sync issues where the audio is out of sync with the persons lips. Usually what happens is that I am watching a channel and everything is fine, then I change the channel and the audio becomes out of sync. I have discovered that if I hit the rewind button that the problem usually corrects itself. A minor annoyance, but an annoyance non the less.Issue 2) I am experiencing WiFi connectivity issues between the Recast and my 10.2” IPad where I am getting a message that the Recast is not connected to my Network. I can tell you that I experience this connection issue even if the IPad is next to the my ISP router which is brand new. To get the video to play on the IPad I have to close all open apps on the IPad. Then I have to reboot the IPad. I then have to open the Fire TV app, go to settings and sign out then sign back in. Then I have to close the Fire TV app and then open it back up to watch TV on the IPad. Note that this works 80% of the time, the other 20% of the time I just give up. This has to be a software problem that I hope Amazon will correct in the next update.So, for me these issues are not a deal breaker.I have yet to use a piece of tech gear that didn’t have its own issues.Wish List for the next Recast:1) ATSC 3.0 & ATSC 1.0 tuners built in.HDMI output for a direct connection to a TV, sound bar or A/V receiver.2). TV tuner signal strength and signal quality meter available off of the hamburger button.3) WIFI signal strength meter.4). WIFI 6 technology.5). Commercial skip feature.6) Skip back 30 seconds button.7) A more intuitive menu system.8) A hardwired coaxial connection from the Recast to a TV or coaxial splitter.9) List recordings according to date, season and episode in a chronological order from oldest to newest.10) Resolve the lip sync problem. It's annoying and detracts from an otherwise decent viewing experience.Update Feb. 2, 2021After approximately 10 months of use I have generally been pleased with the Amazon Recast 4 tuner model with the following exceptions:1) The WiFi connectivity issues between the recast, my WiFi router and my iPad 7th generation continued to deteriorate to the point that I could not view anything on the iPad even if I placed it right next to the WiFi router. So, I went ahead and purchased the Netgear Ethernet powerline adapters to have a physical wired connection between the Recast and the ISP supplied modem/router. That was the trick to get the recast to be viewed on the iPad. Now it works consistently but I must first always close all open Apps on the iPad before I launch the Fire TV app, otherwise it will not connect. These issues will need to be resolved in future product models.2) What I would suggest to the Amazon engineers who may be designing a New model of the Recast is that they include a coaxial cable output so that a customer could directly connect the Recast to a TV or in my case, to a coaxial splitter that would feed a TV signal directly to every room that has a coaxial cable output or connection. This would allow the native received signal to be sent at the original NTSC 720p or 1080i format and hopefully, in the new ATSC 3.0 NextGen TV 4K broadcast standard. This would give the consumer/purchaser every connection option to suit his/her connectivity circumstances. Please make that happen Amazon!