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Amazon Fire TV Developing Networked DVR

Amazon wants you to be able to record its live video programming. To that end, according to Bloomberg News, the web retailer and streaming video service is hard at work developing a networked DVR. Bloomberg says Amazon has not revealed a release date for the DVR.

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A networked DVR is one held in the provider’s central location, not in the consumer’s home. It records live content in real time. The consumer can view the recorded content at will, unbound by TV network broadcast schedules.

Amazon’s Lab 126, which built the Fire TV and Echo devices, is working on the new DVR. Staff for Lab 126 have dubbed the new DVR project ‘Frank’.

‘Frank’ will incorporate the same wireless technology that connects its Echo voice control devices to Fire TV boxes.

The device, according to Bloomberg, could stream recorded video to mobile tablets and phones. Existing Fire TV devices on the customer’s home network will support it. Amazon’s new DVR will be connected through the home WiFi network. It will not plug into a TV.

A conventional DVR (TiVo, Channel Master, etc.) usually plugs into a TV set, and features its own user interface. A networked DVR, by contrast, doesn’t have to be plugged into a TV.  It can be placed anywhere in the home, and can stream recorded content to any TV, streaming stick, or mobile device. In most cases, networked DVRs don’t have their own HDMI ports.

Amazon Prime Video is a subscription service, for which the customer pays monthly or annual fees. Beside the video service, customers get free or discounted shipping on goods ordered through Amazon. The video service is meant to compete with Netflix and Hulu.

 

(For streaming video, you need a reliable internet service. To find the best one for you, shop with Satellite Country. We can help.)

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Magnavox HDD DVR and DVD Recorder w/ Digital Tuner

DVRs For Cord Cutters

Many consumers, exasperated with the high fees and poor customer service common to cable TV subscriptions, have become ‘cord cutters’. They’ve ditched the subscription model. With millions of people using mobile devices for nearly all communications, and with internet video streaming becoming more practical, the cord cutting trend is now irreversible.

Though cord cutting saves money, it comes with drawbacks. Free over-the-air TV is limited to live broadcasts: little other than local news, sports, and award shows. An over-the-air (OTA) DVR can help expand expand your viewing options. Most DVRs have been dedicated boxes available only with cable or satellite TV subscriptions. In the last three years, though, several manufacturers have built OTA DVRs that don’t require subscriptions: TiVo, Tablo, SiliconDust, and Channel Master, among others.

The Channel Master DVR is among the best of them. It sports dual tuners, so you can watch one show while recording another, and its on-screen electronic programming guide is free.  TiVo, probably the best OTA DVR on the market in features and function, requires an annual $150.00 service fee in addition to its $300.00 purchase price.

The most surprising new entries into the OTA DVR market are by Magnavox. Once one of the dominant electronics brands, Magnavox has been a minor player in the industry for the last two decades.

In last week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, though, Magnavox unveiled three new DVR models. Each one has at least two tuners and 1 TB of storage capacity; one has six tuners and 3 TB. All are due for release in the last quarter of 2016. Each has  a free on-screen EPG. Each has a built-in WiFi router, so you can stream live or recorded video to iOS or Android devices. Magnavox says its DVRs will also download content for viewing offline, and one model will burn video into an integrated DVD recorder.

(For streaming video, you need the right internet service. To find the one that works best for you, talk to us. It takes just one phone call.)