Amazon’s DVR for Over-the-Air TV Is Surprisingly Great

The Amazon Fire TV Recast is a crackers widget . It ’s not wacky in that it looks unearthly . ( It ’s just a simple black box . ) It ’s also not wacky because it does wacky stuff . ( It ’s a DVR for over - the - air TV . ) The Recast is goofy because it does this one hyper - specific thing really well . I ’m not certain why Amazon even wanted to make it , but serious cord cutters will be happy the fellowship did .

I should underline how implausibly focalise this thing is . No Netflix or Hulu . No cable’s length . The Recast plug directly into a TV transmitting aerial and can record program TV . There ’s a 500 - gigabyte example ( $ 230 ) that has two tuners and can immortalize two programs at a time . There ’s also a 1 - TiB model ( $ 280 ) with four tuners that does four programs at once . For now , you could not record cable television television set content . But if you ’re a serious cord cutting tool , why would you require to ?

Amazon Fire TV Recast

Photo: Adam Clark Estes (Gizmodo)

What is it ?

A DVR for over - the - air TV

Cost

Photo: Adam Clark Estes

Photo: Adam Clark Estes (Gizmodo)

$ 230 - $ 280

Extremely round-eyed to apply

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

No like

Only records substance from an antenna

For someone who expend a draw of time with placed - top box , the Recast sort of felt like a new miniature that could do thing my old toys ca n’t . Amazon sent me the large 1 TB simulation as well as an Amazon Basics feeler with 50 miles of stove , and that mean that I could tune up in to 36 channel from my Brooklyn apartment and record up to 150 hours of depicted object through a dim-witted user interface on my Fire TV . ( A Fire TV equipment or an Amazon Show is also need to use the Recast which is a niggling spot annoying , if you do n’t already own one . ) Once I set up the Recast , a new DVR tab key pour down up on the Fire TV home screen , and I was recording “ The Price Is Right ” in no time .

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What immediately strike me was how dang easy it is to use the Recast . The visceral live channel layout looks a lot like the unconstipated Fire TV user interface , so I could browse through the bouncy programming in much the same elbow room I ’d hunt for a show on Prime Video . However , in addition to the option to watch the programme , I could record it . Recorded appearance appeared in a library that I could not only entree on my boob tube but also through the Fire television app on a phone or tablet . It ’s kind of silly to be able to ascertain last night ’s local news on the underpass , but now I can .

The downsides to the Recast are both wide-ranging and knotty , although I ca n’t say there ’s an obvious dealbreaker . It ’s ugly — an menacing black boxwood about the size of two Mac Minis stack on top of each other . Though it only require to be plugged in to big businessman and an antenna , so you could well stash the Recast out of sight . Then , there ’s the fact that you ’ll ask a Fire TV or an Amazon Show to use the DVR . Yet , at $ 40 , a Fire TV Stick is hardly an expensive accessory , especially debate that all of the live TV you ’ll be recording is free . The biggest downside , I guess , is the simple fact that you may only record over - the - air television set . That mean your choice of DVR - able content is pretty circumscribed .

I should also designate out that the Recast is n’t the only gimmick that can record over - the - air tv set . It might be the foxy one , though . Plex is a popular media serverthat you’re able to hack to memorialise live TVusing a tuner made by HDHomeRun . This system is satisfying you get it set up with the tuner and an external knockout drive , but the experience is n’t as simple as the Recast . The HDHomeRun tuner also offers its own DVR service , and a Premium TV feature that lets you record content from dozens more channels , but it cost $ 35 a month , which defies the free TV mission . TiVo , similarly , charges a big fee upfront for the box itself , and then there ’s a monthly fee . After you buy the equipment , using the Recast to memorialise content from your antenna is just easy and free , evermore .

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So perhaps the with child query about the Recast is simply whether or not you want it . If you prospicient , for instance , to watch The Late Show With Stephen Colbert but can never remain up latterly enough , this is the gismo for you . If you already pay for a service like YouTube TV but find yourself only watching hot TV on the major networks , the Recast could save you $ 40 a month . If you already own a TiVO but are sick of paying the monthly service fee , this new Amazon DVR might be the ticket , and if the hassle ofbuilding your own DVRusing aHDHomerunis just too outstanding , then this is a utter simple alternative . But remember the limitations . The Recast can not record cable TV or cyclosis subject , so if you do n’t like what your antenna cull up , you wo n’t have much employment for a equipment that exclusively records that poppycock .

The Recast is n’t for everybody , and it ’s not pretending to be . It is , however , an appealing proposition for some people . If you love free boob tube , there ’s perhaps no other easy room to stockpile wads of hr of it for on - requirement consumption . Yes , it will take some tinkering with an antenna and a Fire TV , but for around $ 200 , the Recast could make your hyper specific electric cord cutting dream come in reliable .