# Amazon Fire TV Recast



## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

I thought I would start a new thread now that they have resleased it and provided review and images.

Amazon's Fire TV Recast is a decent DVR for antenna users

Amazon Fire TV Recast hands-on: a very smart and elegant DVR for cord cutters

There are two Recast models to choose from: the $229.99 50GB Recast offers 2 tuners and up to 75 hours of HD storage, while the $279.99 1TB Recast offers 4 tuners and up to 150 hours of HD storage.


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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)




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## bradleys (Oct 31, 2007)

The guide is half a dozen clicks away. Not sure I am a big fan of that... (5:18 on the video)


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## Scooby Doo (Dec 18, 2002)

I have received my Fire TV Recast and completed the install. My initial impression is that the install was very easy and quick as you would expect from Amazon.The channel scan was the fastest I have ever seen. There are no channel numbers in the guide, which I like, and OTA and Pluto TV channels are seamlessly integrated (hopefully with more to come). The picture quality is good: obviously transcoded, but more a slight softening than artifacts. I will let you know more as I explore. Let me know if anyone has any specific questions they want answered.


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## NJChris (May 11, 2001)

Scooby Doo said:


> I have received my Fire TV Recast and completed the install. My initial impression is that the install was very easy and quick as you would expect from Amazon.The channel scan was the fastest I have ever seen. There are no channel numbers in the guide, which I like, and OTA and Pluto TV channels are seamlessly integrated (hopefully with more to come). The picture quality is good: obviously transcoded, but more a slight softening than artifacts. I will let you know more as I explore. Let me know if anyone has any specific questions they want answered.


How is the OTA reception? Anything to compare it to like the original TiVo Bolt?


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## tommiet (Oct 28, 2005)

No auto skip.. TIVO users won't be happy.


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

tommiet said:


> No auto skip.. TIVO users won't be happy.


Lack of Skipmode and Quickmode have become dealbreakers for me.


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## NJChris (May 11, 2001)

tarheelblue32 said:


> Lack of Skipmode and Quickmode have become dealbreakers for me.


I thought I read that Amazon will be adding commercial skip ability in the future?


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

tarheelblue32 said:


> Lack of Skipmode and Quickmode have become dealbreakers for me.


Amazing how one gets spoiled by those, isn't it? Didn't I read in the threads here that Amazon intends to implement commercial skip? (There was, I believe, some discussion if Amazon would be infringing TiVo patent rights if it did so.)


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

NJChris said:


> I thought I read that Amazon will be adding commercial skip ability in the future?


I haven't read anything official from Amazon about adding that. Regardless, even if Amazon officially said that, when will it be added? In a month? In a year? Maybe never.


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## Scooby Doo (Dec 18, 2002)

NJChris said:


> How is the OTA reception? Anything to compare it to like the original TiVo Bolt?


The OTA reception is good. It picked up a few low power TV stations that my Roamio OTA did not; not very scientific or useful, but perhaps an indicator of sensitivity. I also get very occasionally some adjacent channel interference on NBC on my Roamio, which I have not yet seen on the Recast.


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## Scooby Doo (Dec 18, 2002)

tommiet said:


> No auto skip.. TIVO users won't be happy.


I'm a very long term TiVo user, but not an expert or power user. The Recast FF button skips forward 30s and it is very fast, so I think this will work fine for me. The green button commercial skip on TiVo is very nice but not essential for me.


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## Scooby Doo (Dec 18, 2002)

tarheelblue32 said:


> I haven't read anything official from Amazon about adding that. Regardless, even if Amazon officially said that, when will it be added? In a month? In a year? Maybe never.


I think this is pretty official.
Amazon is working on commercial skipping and content discovery for the Fire TV Recast


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## tarheelblue32 (Jan 13, 2014)

Scooby Doo said:


> I think this is pretty official.
> Amazon is working on commercial skipping and content discovery for the Fire TV Recast


When I say official I mean something that's either on the actual Amazon website or some kind of press release directly from Amazon.


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## Scooby Doo (Dec 18, 2002)

I've played around with this thing for about an hour now and I have to say I'm impressed. Not stunned, but impressed. Menus are snappy and intuitive; the main exception is that I was unable to figure out how to search for a show by name to set up a recording. Doesn't mean it's not there, just not something I could easily figure out. Just as a TiVo feels like a DVR that can also receive streaming services, a Recast feels like a streaming device that also has a DVR. It's just a little better integrated: less lag when you switch between the two, and no change in UI design between the two. Overall, I think this is a device that will generate renewed interest in OTA DVR's and I suspect both TiVo and Amazon will benefit from the rising tide.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Scooby Doo said:


> I'm a very long term TiVo user, but not an expert or power user. The Recast FF button skips forward 30s and it is very fast, so I think this will work fine for me. The green button commercial skip on TiVo is very nice but not essential for me.


I never use the green button. I use the channel up/down button for commercial skip.
Channel up skips forward to the end of the next commercial break and channel down skips back to the end of the previous commercial break.


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

Scooby Doo said:


> Menus are snappy and intuitive; the main exception is that I was unable to figure out how to search for a show by name to set up a recording. Doesn't mean it's not there, just not something I could easily figure out.


"Alexa, record Superstore." That should set up to record the entire season, based on what I've read.


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## NJChris (May 11, 2001)

Is there an app for the Apple Tv yet? I didn't see it in the app store on my appletv.


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## Scooby Doo (Dec 18, 2002)

NashGuy said:


> "Alexa, record Superstore." That should set up to record the entire season, based on what I've read.


Hey, that works! I'm still a newbie at voice control but I'm finding I like it more than I had imagined. This will definitely be better than hacking away letter by letter on an on-screen keyboard.


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## miketx (Sep 22, 2005)

So you need to have a Fire Stick for every TV, right? And then each Fire Stick pulls a "tuner" from the Recast for live tv?


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

bradleys said:


> The guide is half a dozen clicks away. Not sure I am a big fan of that... (5:18 on the video)


On my Fire TV Cube it's just "Alexa, open guide".


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## NJChris (May 11, 2001)

miketx said:


> So you need to have a Fire Stick for every TV, right? And then each Fire Stick pulls a "tuner" from the Recast for live tv?


I had thought the app was going to be available on the Apple Tv too. Thought I read that... now that makes me rethink it since I just want to use my ATV as the source and not switch back and forth.


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## CloudAtlas (Oct 29, 2013)

aaronwt said:


> I never use the green button. I use the channel up/down button for commercial skip.
> Channel up skips forward to the end of the next commercial break and channel down skips back to the end of the previous commercial break.


Thanks. I was unaware TiVO could skip backwards to the end of a previous commercial break. Very useful when viewing paused shows at a later time and you can't remember exactly what's just transpired. Before I would just rewind until I saw commercials.

As for skipping forward using ch up I find the large SKIP button faster but YMMV.


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## Series3Sub (Mar 14, 2010)

Amazon can license the commercial skip feature from others. Echostar has commercial skip tech and does license some of its patents (considering how close Bezos and Ergen have been for some time, maybe Amazon is licensing from Echostar), and posters on this forum have cited a number of devices/services that offer commercial skip, and Amazon just may be developing its own CS tech. Amazon can make CS happen in some way sooner than later, but we shall see. I don't see CS feature being a deal breaker for frugal cord shaver/cutters.


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## Series3Sub (Mar 14, 2010)

This Fire Recast is going to appeal to the cord shavers much more than TiVo's Bolt OTA systems purely on *price.* Beyond price is the added attractiveness that it seems easy to set-up and use, uses local storage and all its legal protections and authorizations lacking with "cloud" storage, its use of a more elegant voice control than TiVo's (especially with many households already using Amazon's Echo in some form), and from a company millions already have a relationship, unlike TiVo.

1 TiVo Bolt Vox OTA DVR + All-in Plan = $2 shy of $500. Add 1 Mini Vox at _*$179 *_= Full Price a few dollars shy of_* $680.*_

1 Amazon Fire TV Recast 2 tuner model =* $230*
1 Amazon Fire TV Recast 4 tuner model = *$280
NO ADDITIONAL CHARGES. THE ABOVE IS FULL PRICE.
*
Many may already have a Fire TV of some sort, so purchasing additional Fire TV's may not be necessary, but if a household needs to purchase an additional FireTV, then it a lot less expensive than a TiVo Mini Vox.

Fire TV Recast is what all those frugal cord shavers have been waiting for. Sorry, but TiVo is not going to gain anything in the market from the interest in this device, and the whloe TiVo Bolt Vox OTA looks like an even worse value than it already is. If TiVo does not price the Bolt VOX OTA at $299 (which may not be possible for TiVo to do) and the VOX Mini at $99, then its buh-bye TiVo OTA only DVR's. I have no doubt TiVo management is "freaking out" over the Recast's release. I do see TiVo, at some point before the end of the year, reducing the price of Bolt VOX OTA and even the VOX Mini, but by how much, and for how long, and will it be enough? Recast TV is the first device that is truly a decent alternative to TiVo, and Recast TV may be the first device to end TiVo's participation on the OTA only DVR segment of the business.


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## jth tv (Nov 15, 2014)

Scooby Doo said:


> The OTA reception is good. It picked up a few low power TV stations that my Roamio OTA did not; not very scientific or useful, but perhaps an indicator of sensitivity. I also get very occasionally some adjacent channel interference on NBC on my Roamio, which I have not yet seen on the Recast.


Reception is key for me, if there is even a slight improvement I'll probably buy a Recast. If anyone sees more reports on reception please post.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Tivo REALLY needs to get their player app back on the fire tv and other OTT devices. There should be no need for a proprietary tivo mini for viewing content on the Bolt. A firetv device is a far better streamer than the mini will ever be for nearly ALL services other than tivo.

If Tivo intends to survive, they will need to work with other devices. A walled garden approach is no longer going to remain relevant.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

Just a reminder: AFTVnews.com is the go-to for the best info on the Recast. Most questions here have either already been answered there, or soon will be. Just as with TiVo, better support is available on a free web site than via the "official" support avenues. For TiVo, call it "crowd support".


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## tommiet (Oct 28, 2005)

NJChris said:


> I thought I read that Amazon will be adding commercial skip ability in the future?


They are thinking about it.. Is what I read. No commitment...


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

Uh oh, doesn't sound great: Recast DVR: Digital Media Developer Weighs In


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Fofer said:


> Uh oh, doesn't sound great: Recast DVR: Digital Media Developer Weighs In


Yeah, not nearly as good as Channels app. But Channels ain't free by a long shot (same price as Bolt OTA). You get what you pay for.


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## Scooby Doo (Dec 18, 2002)

Fofer said:


> Uh oh, doesn't sound great: Recast DVR: Digital Media Developer Weighs In


Not exactly an impartial source. We really need measurable benchmarks for things like picture quality, channel change time, and reception sensitivity. Picture quality is hard: depends on the content you are watching, the size of the screen, as well as personal subjectivity; but measures were established when standards were set so it's possible.


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## Bigg (Oct 31, 2003)

tommiet said:


> No auto skip.. TIVO users won't be happy.


The lack of 1080i/p irks me a lot more. I like my PBS shows in crystal clear 1080i thank you very much!



jcthorne said:


> Tivo REALLY needs to get their player app back on the fire tv and other OTT devices. There should be no need for a proprietary tivo mini for viewing content on the Bolt. A firetv device is a far better streamer than the mini will ever be for nearly ALL services other than tivo.
> 
> If Tivo intends to survive, they will need to work with other devices. A walled garden approach is no longer going to remain relevant.


I agree. I wasn't sold on the idea a year or two ago, but at this point, I think TiVo needs to make a headless ATSC 3.0 box with integrated storage, and 4 tuners and 4 transcoders that can work both with existing TiVo Minis as well as streaming and computing devices like Roku, FireTV, Android TV, Chromecast, Apple TV, iOS, Android, Fire OS, Windows and Mac.

Adding apps to the Bolt OTA is a good start, but I think the future is the headless model, since people already have cheap streaming devices available on virtually every TV, and the cost and complexity to scale out is so much less than with TiVo Minis. The problem with the Minis is that no one can figure out how to set up MoCA properly even though it's the simplest and easier to use form of wired networking, so doing everything wirelessly is the way to go.


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## NashGuy (May 2, 2015)

NJChris said:


> I had thought the app was going to be available on the Apple Tv too. Thought I read that... now that makes me rethink it since I just want to use my ATV as the source and not switch back and forth.


If you want to incorporate OTA TV with DVR into your Apple TV, you could get a Tablo plus a USB hard drive to plug into it for storage. It's a pretty easy solution and would be pretty similar to the experience of using the Fire TV Recast, although the final cost of the Tablo is going to be more because they charge extra for DVR service, whereas there's no additional charge with the Recast.

Or you could go with an HDHomeRun-based solution, which is more of a hassle but may offer a little better HD picture quality and faster channel changes. If you go that route, here's what you'll need:


HDHomeRun tuner (Connect Duo model is reg. $100, on sale for $70 around Thanksgiving)
an always-on PC, Mac, or NAS (only certain models supported) connected to your home network with enough storage space for recording
on your Apple TV, use either the Channels app ($8/mo or $80/yr for DVR) or the Plex app ($5/mo or $40/yr or $120 lifetime for a Plex Pass which includes DVR service)
If the HDHomeRun tuner (which is what you'll screw the coaxial cable from your OTA antenna into), the PC/Mac/NAS, and the Apple TV can all be connected to your router by either ethernet or fast, strong signal 802.11AC wi-fi, then you should be OK to get the Connect Duo or Connect Quattro model tuners from HDHomeRun. Those models do NOT transcode OTA TV. The signal remains in full-quality original MPEG-2. However, if any of those three devices have a weaker/slower wi-fi connection, then you would need to get the more expensive HDHomeRun Extend tuner, which transcodes the OTA signals into MPEG-4 H.264.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Scooby Doo said:


> I have received my Fire TV Recast and completed the install. My initial impression is that the install was very easy and quick as you would expect from Amazon.The channel scan was the fastest I have ever seen. There are no channel numbers in the guide, which I like, and OTA and Pluto TV channels are seamlessly integrated (hopefully with more to come). The picture quality is good: obviously transcoded, but more a slight softening than artifacts. I will let you know more as I explore. Let me know if anyone has any specific questions they want answered.


I would be interested in hearing more of your and others' impressions of the picture quality with the Recast, using its wireless transmission; as well as, how well does the wireless transmission work--e.g. with a lesser-robust home wireless network (and such as, are there picture stalls/freezes, etc.?). Including as compared to a TiVo box, standalone or with a Mini. For me, wireless always has been an Achilles heel for TiVo, for people without Ethernet/cable wiring in place where people want to extend their TiVo box capabilities with a Mini (or a second main TiVo main box).


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Series3Sub said:


> This Fire Recast is going to appeal to the cord shavers much more than TiVo's Bolt OTA systems purely on *price.* Beyond price is the added attractiveness that it seems easy to set-up and use, uses local storage and all its legal protections and authorizations lacking with "cloud" storage, its use of a more elegant voice control than TiVo's (especially with many households already using Amazon's Echo in some form), and from a company millions already have a relationship, unlike TiVo.
> 
> 1 TiVo Bolt Vox OTA DVR + All-in Plan = $2 shy of $500. Add 1 Mini Vox at _*$179 *_= Full Price a few dollars shy of_* $680.*_
> 
> ...


Helping shortly on the TiVo side: pick up a Black Friday refurb. TiVo Roamio OTA (with included Lifetime) for around what you would pay for an Amazon Recast and separately-needed Fire stick.  Of course, adding a Mini on the TiVo side for a second viewing location would be significantly more expensive (and potentially more hassle-prone, if you don't have Ethernet or cable wiring in place) than adding a second Fire stick on the Recast side.


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## PSU_Sudzi (Jun 4, 2015)

Series3Sub said:


> This Fire Recast is going to appeal to the cord shavers much more than TiVo's Bolt OTA systems purely on *price.* Beyond price is the added attractiveness that it seems easy to set-up and use, uses local storage and all its legal protections and authorizations lacking with "cloud" storage, its use of a more elegant voice control than TiVo's (especially with many households already using Amazon's Echo in some form), and from a company millions already have a relationship, unlike TiVo.
> 
> 1 TiVo Bolt Vox OTA DVR + All-in Plan = $2 shy of $500. Add 1 Mini Vox at _*$179 *_= Full Price a few dollars shy of_* $680.*_
> 
> ...


I'd rather spend an extra $170 for the TiVo's over the Recasts.


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## Rob75 (Nov 24, 2017)

I'd like to know if anyone is fully wiring their recast and fire sticks. Likewise if it makes a difference with quality and performance.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Rob75 said:


> I'd like to know if anyone is fully wiring their recast and fire sticks. Likewise if it makes a difference with quality and performance.


And I bet the TiVo MoCA experts here can help people with that!


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## Scooby Doo (Dec 18, 2002)

Mikeguy said:


> I would be interested in hearing more of your and others' impressions of the picture quality with the Recast, using its wireless transmission; as well as, how well does the wireless transmission work--e.g. with a lesser-robust home wireless network (and such as, are there picture stalls/freezes, etc.?). Including as compared to a TiVo box, standalone or with a Mini. For me, wireless always has been an Achilles heel for TiVo, for people without Ethernet/cable wiring in place where people want to extend their TiVo box capabilities with a Mini (or a second main TiVo main box).


Let me first describe my set up. I have a four node Google WiFi mesh network and a large number of devices that connect wirelessly to the nearest Google Wifi node. The Recast is in the attic where it connects to a large indoor antenna and directly by ethernet to the router. My internet connection is 1Gbit/s AT&T Fiber and I get about 150-200 Mbit/s on the mesh network. I have found this network supports rock solid video and is generally far more reliable than my previous MoCa network. I have not seen any stalls or freezes on live or recorded content and I have never had to restart the Recast or Fire TV sticks. I find the picture quality excellent, but I am mostly watching on a 32" TV.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Scooby Doo said:


> Let me first describe my set up. I have a four node Google WiFi mesh network and a large number of devices that connect wirelessly to the nearest Google Wifi node. The Recast is in the attic where it connects to a large indoor antenna and directly by ethernet to the router. My internet connection is 1Gbit/s AT&T Fiber and I get about 150-200 Mbit/s on the mesh network. I have found this network supports rock solid video and is generally far more reliable than my previous MoCa network. I have not seen any stalls or freezes on live or recorded content and I have never had to restart the Recast or Fire TV sticks. I find the picture quality excellent, but I am mostly watching on a 32" TV.


Thanks--and so, a pretty strong system there, including with the wired connection to the router. Need to "dumb down" your system to see how Recast works with more challenging (normal?) systems.


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

Amazon isn't charging for the DVR service now, but could they require a fee in the future?


Series3Sub said:


> This Fire Recast is going to appeal to the cord shavers much more than TiVo's Bolt OTA systems purely on *price.* Beyond price is the added attractiveness that it seems easy to set-up and use, uses local storage and all its legal protections and authorizations lacking with "cloud" storage, its use of a more elegant voice control than TiVo's (especially with many households already using Amazon's Echo in some form), and from a company millions already have a relationship, unlike TiVo.
> 
> 1 TiVo Bolt Vox OTA DVR + All-in Plan = $2 shy of $500. Add 1 Mini Vox at _*$179 *_= Full Price a few dollars shy of_* $680.*_
> 
> ...


For a TiVo Bolt Vox OTA DVR you don't need to buy a mini if you want to watch it on a TV through HDMI. For a Recast, you still need to buy at least 1 Fire TV.

TiVo Bolt Vox OTA DVR - $498
Fire TV Recast + 4K stick = $280 + $50 = $330

Still, a significant saving for the Recast solution and there will be a wider selection of apps and the apps will be more full-featured. Plus the Recast uses Gracenote guide data while Tivo uses Rovi guide data.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

shwru980r said:


> ........ Plus the Recast uses Gracenote guide data ..........


Probably, and I hope it's anything but Rovi. But has this actually been confirmed? The only evidence I'm aware of is that a Verge article last year talking about the Amazon Elements TV said it used Gracenote data, and thus it's likely Amazon extended that usage to the Recast.

It's great that the guide data is free but of course there is no guarantee it will remain so.


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

dlfl said:


> Probably, and I hope it's anything but Rovi. But has this actually been confirmed? The only evidence I'm aware of is that a Verge article last year talking about the Amazon Elements TV said it used Gracenote data, and thus it's likely Amazon extended that usage to the Recast.
> 
> It's great that the guide data is free but of course there is no guarantee it will remain so.


I think this article from the verge reviewing the Recast mentions gracenote.

Amazon Fire TV Recast review: the cord cutter's DVR

I was thinking the same thing about the cost of the guide data and could Amazon impose a fee at a later date.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

shwru980r said:


> I think this article from the verge reviewing the Recast mentions gracenote.
> 
> Amazon Fire TV Recast review: the cord cutter's DVR
> ........


Thanks. Yes it does. But how did they know/deduce that?


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

bradleys said:


> I thought I would start a new thread now that they have resleased it and provided review and images.
> ...........


[WHINE]I wish you hadn't. Don't see anything that distinguishes the two threads, so just complicates things for those following the Recast topic. I wish the mods would lock one of these threads.[/WHINE]

Hey, I know your intentions were good but .......


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## jgolden (Feb 17, 2003)

bradleys said:


> There are two Recast models to choose from: the $229.99 50GB Recast offers 2 tuners and up to 75 hours of HD storage, while the $279.99 1TB Recast offers 4 tuners and up to 150 hours of HD storage.


Amazon is already discounting the two Recast for Black Friday, $50 off on the 500GB, and $60 off the 1TB model.


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## hoodlatch (Nov 21, 2018)

1st post here just for your entertainment. I can’t compare recast to Tivo since I haven’t owned both. Why the Recast was chosen for me was easy though. I’ve been waiting years to cut my cable, but didn’t want to pay extra fees for a guide.

I had remodeled my home and stuffed it with Zwave switches, outlets, thermostats, etc. I eventually added Alexa via Echo dots to voice control anything in my home. Eventually replaced some old Roku’s with Firesticks. Tivo was my favorite option(friend has a iffy CableMaster), but was just reluctant with the cost. The moment I could pre-order the Recast I did. It was the perfect addition to my house since I already had the sticks and voice control. 

I couldn’t be happier, and it was affordable! After 22 years I finally chopped the now $140 cable bill.

One more thing I’ll add, which still don’t compare it or knock Tivo, is that I get 3 more channels with it than if I just hook my antenna line to my 6 month old 65” TV. It’s tuner is better than my TV.


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## mtnagel (Nov 15, 2003)

hoodlatch said:


> Tivo was my favorite option(friend has a iffy CableMaster), but was just reluctant with the cost.


Not knocking your decision at all as I'm keeping my eye on the Recast, but when I bought my Roamio OTA, it was $400 and you got a free Amazon Echo so really like spending $300. I know they got rid of the Roamio and the Bolt OTA with lifetime is more expensive, but I thought the $300 Roamio with zero monthly fees was a great deal. I'm very happy with my decision.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

And the deal was even better when they had a ROmaio OTA for only $200 with lifetime that I got a year or two ago. With no more fees to pay.


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## hoodlatch (Nov 21, 2018)

Those were some great deals! I somehow never saw any real good deals with a lifetime guide, while I teetered back and forth with the decision. 

I’m sure there are thousands of people in my situation where a Recast will flow right into their home with minimum cost or add ons. 

And hopefully Tivo will respond with an even better unit at a matching price. We consumers really benefit when competition is thriving.


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

hoodlatch said:


> Those were some great deals! I somehow never saw any real good deals with a lifetime guide, while I teetered back and forth with the decision.
> 
> I'm sure there are thousands of people in my situation where a Recast will flow right into their home with minimum cost or add ons.
> 
> And hopefully Tivo will respond with an even better unit at a matching price. We consumers really benefit when competition is thriving.


Most every holiday sale offer Tivo has is for a recurring service subscription. The Recast seems like the obvious choice over the Bolt OTA. The guide data is unified with other apps and the other streaming apps are far superior to the Bolt. The only advantages the Bolt OTA seems to have is the ability to watch 1080i content at the original resolution and more than 2 concurrent streams, but ~$160 minis are required for additional TVs and the apps are inferior to the fire TV.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

shwru980r said:


> Most every holiday sale offer Tivo has is for a recurring service subscription. The Recast seems like the obvious choice over the Bolt OTA. ..........


Probably true for a majority of people. But there is an important qualifier, which is that the picture qualty (PQ) of the 720p video supported over _your_ wifi network is good enough for _you_. (Note that the Recast will negotiate lower PQ if your wifi connection isn't good enough for its best quality.)

We have very few reports of PQ using the recast but there have been several reports of noticably less sharp video for 1080i sources on this AVS forum thread:
Amazon RECAST OTA DVR formerly known as "Frank" - AVS Forum | Home Theater Discussions And Reviews

My guess is that if you have a large screen (e.g., 65" or more) and not-so-hot wifi, you are likely to be dissatisfied. Two possible saviors:
1. The Recast will establish a "direct" wifi connection to your client device if possible, bypassing your router, and potentially providing a much better signal.
2. You can use hardwired ethernet to connect both the Recast and your client device to your router.

And then there is the final fallback of Amazon's 30 day return policy.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Even if everything is as it should be. It is still down converting from 1080i to 720p. Which is fine when TiVo does it for viewing on tablets and cell phones. But on a regular TV? If you have a good quality 1080i signal, it will be noticeably degraded if it's down converted to 720P.
Although with the bitstarved OTA transmissions in many areas, I guess you might not be able to see the difference.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

shwru980r said:


> Most every holiday sale offer Tivo has is for a recurring service subscription. The Recast seems like the obvious choice over the Bolt OTA. The guide data is unified with other apps and the other streaming apps are far superior to the Bolt. *The only advantages the Bolt OTA seems to have *is the ability to watch 1080i content at the original resolution and more than 2 concurrent streams, but ~$160 minis are required for additional TVs and the apps are inferior to the fire TV.


At times, I think that TiVo consumers can take for granted what TiVo offers. I would add: well-developed trickplay; QuickMode; SkipMode; the peanut remote (which generally is being overlooked, when it is such a marvel); an online interface (to the extent the Recast doesn't have that). (Off the top of my head and without knowing more about the Recast--for example, can shows be transferred to/from it, with a PC?)


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

Mikeguy said:


> At times, I think that TiVo consumers can take for granted what TiVo offers. I would add: well-developed trickplay; QuickMode; SkipMode; the peanut remote (which generally is being overlooked, when it is such a marvel); an online interface (to the extent the Recast doesn't have that). (Off the top of my head and without knowing more about the Recast--for example, can shows be transferred to/from it, with a PC?)


Have to question if the "online interface" is a TiVo advantage. In most cases the Recast playback will be via a Fire TV streaming device which has better performing streaming apps than a TiVo.

The Recast, although it records the raw mpeg2 video, has no way to transfer it to/from a PC. The Fire TV boxes have considerable hacker support, so it would not be surprising to find that capability emerging, probably using the USB port on the Recast.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

dlfl said:


> Have to question if the "online interface" is a TiVo advantage. In most cases the Recast playback will be via a Fire TV streaming device which has better performing streaming apps than a TiVo.


I was thinking, I'm away from home and running late--easy to program my TiVo box to record a show that I otherwise might miss, from my closest PC.


> The Recast, although it records the raw mpeg2 video, has no way to transfer it to/from a PC. The Fire TV boxes have considerable hacker support, so it would not be surprising to find that capability emerging, probably using the USB port on the Recast.


Thanks, very good to know. The current state would dissuade me--a reason I'm still on TE3. But will be interesting to see what the hacker community might do.


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## NJChris (May 11, 2001)

Kind of glad I have the recast now. Transferred one of my Bolts to my sister. It had a 1 year commitment but the reps told me and my sister multiple times they would waive the early termination fee. today I was charged $75 termination fee. On the flip side, my Recast went on sale a few days after I got mine. I asked for a price adjustment and they said they don't do that anymore but gave me a $60 promotional credit anyway for my troubles. Then I get an email from Tivo saying they are giving me a $60 promotional credit due to the sale price. So I got $120 back in promotional credits. Customer Service alone is hugely better. I tried to chat with tivo support and they can't handle billing issues in chat. Customer Service alone is a no-brainer that Amazon has them beat by miles. 

Ok sorry for the minor de-railing but I can put up with a few of the differences when I get much better support from Amazon.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

NJChris said:


> Ok sorry for the minor de-railing but I can put up with a few of the differences when I get much better support from Amazon.


I get my support (what little amount I have needed) here.


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## al_wilson2 (Sep 14, 2016)

I'm really interested in the recast for one reason, and that's the ability to integrate streaming channels like PlutoTV with my local guide. I know I'll lose 1080i, but here's one huge question. Will firetv or recast automatically stretch an SD or 4:3 program to fill a whole 16:9 screen? I love that feature on my TiVo.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

al_wilson2 said:


> I'm really interested in the recast for one reason, and that's the ability to integrate streaming channels like PlutoTV with my local guide. I know I'll lose 1080i, but here's one huge question. Will firetv or recast automatically stretch an SD or 4:3 program to fill a whole 16:9 screen? I love that feature on my TiVo.


So, you like all cars to look like stretch limos, eh?  An interesting question actually. The Fire TV devices don't offer that feature AFAIK, so it would have to be a Recast feature --- which I doubt.


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## mschnebly (Feb 21, 2011)

One thing to remember with the Recast... it's brand new 1st release model. Now that it's rolled out I'd bet that there will be many updates on the way as they get customer feedback. Within a year or so it will probably be far more polished than it is now. Amazon is not a TiVo as it has the $$$ and resources to get this thing up to par at any speed it wants. Personally I don't need a Recast but this thing has the potential to really sell bundled with a Fire TV thrown in.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

mschnebly said:


> One thing to remember with the Recast... it's brand new 1st release model. Now that it's rolled out I'd bet that there will be many updates on the way as they get customer feedback. Within a year or so it will probably be far more polished than it is now. Amazon is not a TiVo as it has the $$$ and resources to get this thing up to par at any speed it wants. Personally I don't need a Recast but this thing has the potential to really sell bundled with a Fire TV thrown in.


And I love the clean-cut, boxy retro look! May be starting a new trend, kind of the opposite to the Bolt.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

dlfl said:


> May be starting a new trend, kind of the opposite to the Bolt.


Yep, but not to the good, aesthetically . . . .


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## mschnebly (Feb 21, 2011)

dlfl said:


> And I love the clean-cut, boxy retro look! May be starting a new trend, kind of the opposite to the Bolt.


So hide it in the attic! Behind a bookcase or anywhere you can so you wont have to look at it. That's a good thing.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

mschnebly said:


> So hide it in the attic! Behind a bookcase or anywhere you can so you wont have to look at it. That's a good thing.


Couldn't agree more! Furthermore putting it in sight wouldn't bother me that much. After all, it's no less attractive than the Cisco Tuning Adapter that is only partially hidden behind my TV. If we can have retro chic trends toward tube amplifiers and turntables, why not a boxy Recast?


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Maybe Amazon will come out with Recast jackets. Wait, wait, that's my idea first, and I'm going to get a patent on it!


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

Mikeguy said:


> Maybe Amazon will come out with Recast jackets. Wait, wait, that's my idea first, and I'm going to get a patent on it!


I'm patenting the T-shirts!

Could it be the Recast shape was inspired by the monolith in 2001 A Space Odyssey? How classy!


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## Scooby Doo (Dec 18, 2002)

dlfl said:


> I'm patenting the T-shirts!
> 
> Could it be the Recast shape was inspired by the monolith in 2001 A Space Odyssey? How classy!


Reminds me of the Gavin Belson box


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## Series3Sub (Mar 14, 2010)

shwru980r said:


> Amazon isn't charging for the DVR service now, but could they require a fee in the future?
> 
> For a TiVo Bolt Vox OTA DVR you don't need to buy a mini if you want to watch it on a TV through HDMI. For a Recast, you still need to buy at least 1 Fire TV.
> 
> ...


They won't ever charge for the EPG data because their main business is as an on-line retailer. They offer a lot of things FREE because it keeps one inside of the Amazon universe to buy more things from Amazon. Amazon's cost to TiVo for guide data (at least I'd noticed the very same descriptions for guide content as are in TiVo and Dish--who also use TiVo EPG data) is absolutely nominal for Amazon's earnings of $2 billion because it PAYS to provide the guide data FREE and get the bigger return. I think only Apple may be the only other company in the US with bigger earnings, but that puts Amazon in a place where it can afford to provide FREE guide data for the returns in sales.

Don't forget that the PLAYBACK and viewing of the OTA on Recast is using Amazon Fire TV and that keeps people with Amazon Prime content or other 3rd party content, and Recast also enhances the value of Amazon Fire TV, and that's a big part of the big picture with Amazon. Freebies, but with a $$ return on free EPG data. Amazon knows that the REALLY BIG sticking point for a lot of OTA services is the FEES in one form or another, such as monthly or even if it is a Lifetime (Tablo or HDHomeRun?) or All-in Plan. It was wise and highly competitive of Amazon to just PAY the FEES to TiVo for EPG data for the Recast users. In fact, "free" or no additional fees for use of Recast has been a big deal with people buying them and with some reviewers because the fees of competitors (Table, et al.) are the heartbreak of psoriasis for those buyers.

I will say that Recast would be more compelling if it were able to do more than 2 streams per box.


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## Series3Sub (Mar 14, 2010)

mschnebly said:


> One thing to remember with the Recast... it's brand new 1st release model. Now that it's rolled out I'd bet that there will be many updates on the way as they get customer feedback. Within a year or so it will probably be far more polished than it is now. Amazon is not a TiVo as it has the $$$ and resources to get this thing up to par at any speed it wants. Personally I don't need a Recast but this thing has the potential to really sell bundled with a Fire TV thrown in.


Even Better! I'm waiting on Recast 2nd Generation newer improved version that I hope will make its bow not too far from now. The 2nd generation Amazon Echo Show and even new Echo Spot and Fire TV Cube were all worth waiting for.


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## Series3Sub (Mar 14, 2010)

PSU_Sudzi said:


> I'd rather spend an extra $170 for the TiVo's over the Recasts.


But the point is that most cord cutters/shavers won't spend the $170 for a client that needs a far more expensive TiVo Bolt with fees or the budget busting All-In-Plan. I don't see the Recast as a replacement for most TiVo users, but I think it does replace TiVo as a solution to some old folks who just want to watch OTA TV at the lowest over-all price.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Series3Sub said:


> But the point is that most cord cutters/shavers won't spend the $170 for a client that needs a far more expensive TiVo Bolt with fees or the budget busting All-In-Plan. I don't see the Recast as a replacement for most TiVo users, but I think it does replace TiVo as a solution to some old folks who just want to watch OTA TV at the lowest over-all price.


Plus, with the greatest of ease: I know that the TiVo box MoCA folks here think that MoCA is a breeze, and perhaps it is in the ideal setup, but I read the unenumerable MoCA "Please help!" threads here and my eyes glaze over from the complications. As vs. a purely wireless setup no more complicated than added a tablet to one's home network. Which, of course, also adds pure location flexibility.


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## jth tv (Nov 15, 2014)

Series3Sub said:


> Amazon's cost to TiVo for guide data (at least I'd noticed the very same descriptions for guide content as are in TiVo and Dish--who also use TiVo EPG data) is absolutely nominal


Amazon owns IMDB so I doubt they would need Rovi/Tivo for a TV schedule.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

According to The Verge review of the Recast (Amazon Fire TV Recast review: the cord cutter's DVR ):


> If you're watching on Fire TV, Amazon displays a cable-like programming guide with details provided by Gracenote.


Other posters and sources have guessed or implied that the EPG is by Gracenote but this is the only source I've seen that states it definitely, and Amazon is mute on the subject AFAIK. I can't believe Amazon would be dumb enough to use Rovi data.


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## PSU_Sudzi (Jun 4, 2015)

jth tv said:


> Amazon owns IMDB so I doubt they would need Rovi/Tivo for a TV schedule.


IMDB just provides movie and tv descriptions, it's not a guide listing of channels.


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## NJChris (May 11, 2001)

Series3Sub said:


> But the point is that most cord cutters/shavers won't spend the $170 for a client that needs a far more expensive TiVo Bolt with fees or the budget busting All-In-Plan. I don't see the Recast as a replacement for most TiVo users, but I think it does replace TiVo as a solution to some old folks who just want to watch OTA TV at the lowest over-all price.


I replaced my Bolt with the Recast. The main reason was the tuner is far superior than my Bolt's tuner. My choice was to spend more for a newer bolt OTA and lifetime or the recast. I went with the MUCH cheaper option. So now I don't have to worry about constantly fine tuning to get a decent signal on some channels. Now I get everything and have zero issues with my signal. Plust PlutoTV is integrated into the channel guide.


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## Saturn_V (Jun 2, 2007)

Came home a few days ago to an ISP outage, and was surprised to find that the Recast still worked. Even though the rest of the FireTV menu was unavailable, the DVR section was still accessible.

still streamed live OTA
still played back recordings
still could start recordings (just could not schedule recordings until the net came back)​
I didn't have anything scheduled to record during the outage, so I'm not sure if it still kicks off recordings without the internet.

Was really pleased. I can't even access HD Home Run or PLEX if the internet's down.


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## davidhilldallas (Nov 16, 2015)

I have the VOX with 3 minis and Im also looking at cutting the cord and either going with tivo OTA or recast...
One question Im trying to learn, does the recast have a way to broadcast to multi TVs like we have using the Minis?

And commerical-skip might be a blocker for me. I do think that over pushing skip forward 6 or 8 times.

ADDED

Does this mean I can watch the DVR contain via the fire stick on another tv ?

_________________________________________
With a 4-tuner Fire TV Recast, you can either:

Record up to 4 programs at once;
Watch up to 1 live and 1 recorded program on different devices, while recording up to 3 other programs in the background;


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

davidhilldallas said:


> I have the VOX with 3 minis and Im also looking at cutting the cord and either going with tivo OTA or recast...
> One question Im trying to learn, does the recast have a way to broadcast to multi TVs like we have using the Minis?


Another source of users: Amazon RECAST OTA DVR formerly known as "Frank" - AVS Forum | Home Theater Discussions And Reviews


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## Saturn_V (Jun 2, 2007)

davidhilldallas said:


> One question Im trying to learn, does the recast have a way to broadcast to multi TVs like we have using the Minis?


No. Each FireTV client uses up one stream. You can't use one stream to multiple FireTV clients. (it's called Multicast in the networking world) The commercial versions of the HD HomeRun tuner do have multicast ability if this is a must-have.



davidhilldallas said:


> Does this mean I can watch the DVR contain via the fire stick on another tv ?


Yes. You can also watch on tablets/phones with the FireTV app installed.


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## dennisofnewport (Jan 5, 2016)

I have had my recast for two weeks and am very happy with the ability to record OTA programs. However, something happened tonight that I hope s not an ongoing issue. It lost its connection with fire stick. I rebooted recast and unplugged fire stick. The issue was not resolved and the red light on recast stayed lite for maybe an hour before returning to green I then had to pair the device. All of my secluded programs whee left untouched. During the time it was not working I did lose two programs I had scheduled to record. My interest is, has anyone else experienced the box losing its connection.



I am not sure if Alex works with recast. I would love to hear how to train her.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

dennisofnewport said:


> ....... All of my secluded programs whee left untouched. .........


Translation please? 

Your posts are welcome here. Here are two forums that are more directly about the Recast:
Fire TV - Devices - Amazon Digital and Device Forum
Amazon RECAST OTA DVR formerly known as "Frank" - AVS Forum | Home Theater Discussions And Reviews


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## dennisofnewport (Jan 5, 2016)

dlfl said:


> Translation please?
> 
> Your posts are welcome here. Here are two forums that are more directly about the Recast:
> Fire TV - Devices - Amazon Digital and Device Forum
> Amazon RECAST OTA DVR formerly known as "Frank" - AVS Forum | Home Theater Discussions And Reviews


Thank for your interest. "my scheduled recordings and prerecorded programs were not deleted."


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## dennisofnewport (Jan 5, 2016)

dennisofnewport said:


> Thank for your interest. "my scheduled recordings and prerecorded programs were not deleted."


Thank you for the links. I know will find them both useful.


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## NJChris (May 11, 2001)

dennisofnewport said:


> I have had my recast for two weeks and am very happy with the ability to record OTA programs. However, something happened tonight that I hope s not an ongoing issue. It lost its connection with fire stick. I rebooted recast and unplugged fire stick. The issue was not resolved and the red light on recast stayed lite for maybe an hour before returning to green I then had to pair the device. All of my secluded programs whee left untouched. During the time it was not working I did lose two programs I had scheduled to record. My interest is, has anyone else experienced the box losing its connection.


The red light on the recast meant it was recording. The connection between the firetv stick and recast only affects being able to view/watch what's on the recast, the shows should still record - it's not dependent upon the connection the the firetv stick for that.


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## dennisofnewport (Jan 5, 2016)

Thanks, Chris. I have connected the recast to the modem with a wifi cable seems to be holding the connection. you are right once I reconnected the recorded programs were there.


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## jth tv (Nov 15, 2014)

aftvnews (saw a reference on zatz):
How, and why, to pull video recording files off of the Amazon Fire TV Recast DVR


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## DallasGG (May 5, 2015)

Recast is adding the capability of an external hard drive for storage. It would be nice if Tivo added this capability for external hard drives other than their own.

Amazon Fire TV Recast now supports external USB Hard Drive Storage Expansion


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## tommiet (Oct 28, 2005)

My Recast is on its way...... Early cord cutting testing. Amazon.... Make me happy and get me the option to skip commercials. I'll build the coffin for my Bolt and Mini's.


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## smark (Nov 20, 2002)

jth tv said:


> aftvnews (saw a reference on zatz):
> How, and why, to pull video recording files off of the Amazon Fire TV Recast DVR


I'll be more interested if I can use it as a tuner for Plex.


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## jth tv (Nov 15, 2014)

DallasGG said:


> Recast is adding the capability of an external hard drive for storage


That is interesting. I am hoping for more information, for example

What happens when the first external is full, can more be added? 
What happens when the external is disconnected ?
Are the drives always running or do they spin down ?
Does a WD Easystore 10TB External USB 3.0 Hard Drive ($200) work ?


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## TeamPace (Oct 23, 2013)

One of the drives they tested on the Recast is the WD Elements 2TB Portable. That same drive was available in a 4TB version which I just ordered from Amazon. I'll know in a few days if that works OK and will report back.


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## DallasGG (May 5, 2015)

TeamPace said:


> One of the drives they tested on the Recast is the WD Elements 2TB Portable. That same drive was available in a 4TB version which I just ordered from Amazon. I'll know in a few days if that works OK and will report back.


I had a 2-3 year old 750GB WD Passport external drive (USB 3.0) laying around and that drive worked just fine for me. It wasn't on their list of "tested drives".

I use my Tivo Roamio for the majority of my recording and playback mainly because of the skip mode, but being able to expand the drive size on the Recast is nice. Also, I'm able to play my Recast recordings away from home which is also a nice option.


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

Time will tell how well the various drives perform. Tivo must have had a reason for limiting the external drives that could be used. If customers start losing recordings due to drive failures it could hurt the image of the Recast.


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## TeamPace (Oct 23, 2013)

Just connected a WD Elements 4TB usb 3.0 portable drive to my Recast DVR. $99 thru Amazon. Super simple, just plugged it in to the USB port and told the FireTV Recast to format it. Took all of 2 minutes total. DVR storage now shows 4.87TB of storage (1TB internal and 4TB external). I figure that to be 750hrs + of storage since not all OTA broadcasts are HD. My TiVo has 450hrs (3TB) and that seems to suit my needs well, so 5TB will be great! I’ll update if I see any issues in use.


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## Rob75 (Nov 24, 2017)

Not being to use external storage is dated. Even video game consoles allow it now. I could see back in the day when the USB interface was slow, but the specs are much faster now for 3.0+


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Rob75 said:


> Not being to use external storage is dated. Even video game consoles allow it now. I could see back in the day when the USB interface was slow, but the specs are much faster now for 3.0+


Is it (on TiVo's part), in part, the Apple model of restricting the consumer's ability to easily expand storage, forcing the consumer to buy a new device, with expanded on-board storage, instead?


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

TeamPace said:


> Just connected a WD Elements 4TB usb 3.0 portable drive to my Recast DVR. $99 thru Amazon. Super simple, just plugged it in to the USB port and told the FireTV Recast to format it. Took all of 2 minutes total. DVR storage now shows 4.87TB of storage (1TB internal and 4TB external). I figure that to be 750hrs + of storage since not all OTA broadcasts are HD. My TiVo has 450hrs (3TB) and that seems to suit my needs well, so 5TB will be great! I'll update if I see any issues in use.


I guess the only drawback is the multiple points of failure. Not sure how the Recast manages the external storage. If the internal drive fails, could you still recover the external drive recordings?


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## wizwor (Dec 18, 2013)

You guys are KILLING me. Last thing I needed was a recast, yet I find myself owning one. I never even needed a TiVo. Or a Mini.


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## TeamPace (Oct 23, 2013)

shwru980r said:


> I guess the only drawback is the multiple points of failure. Not sure how the Recast manages the external storage. If the internal drive fails, could you still recover the external drive recordings?


Yes, that's always a concern with multiple drives but I've had pretty good luck in that regard. I don't really save recordings in perpetuity so a failure wouldn't be the end of the world for me.

From what I've read it sounds like the Recast can save to either drive and there is no user control over that. But I haven't seen anything about it splitting a single recording over both drives like TiVo. So maybe not all recordings would be lost if either drive fails. I'm sure that will get figured out over time.


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## TeamPace (Oct 23, 2013)

dennisofnewport said:


> I have had my recast for two weeks and am very happy with the ability to record OTA programs. However, something happened tonight that I hope s not an ongoing issue. It lost its connection with fire stick. I rebooted recast and unplugged fire stick. The issue was not resolved and the red light on recast stayed lite for maybe an hour before returning to green I then had to pair the device. All of my secluded programs whee left untouched. During the time it was not working I did lose two programs I had scheduled to record. My interest is, has anyone else experienced the box losing its connection.
> 
> I am not sure if Alex works with recast. I would love to hear how to train her.


I've had my Recast since introduced. I had one instance of it loosing connection with my Firestick. It seemed to take a couple of reboots of everything to get it reconnected but once I did it's never disconnected again (several months now). I also like that when you add an additional FireTV device the Recast is automatically included in the interface without any user action.

As far as Alexa, technically it doesn't directly control the Recast but effectively it does thru the Fire TV. You can simply ask Alexa to record a show for you and it will, providing the show is available in the two week guide data. Also you can play, pause, change channels, etc.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

davidhilldallas said:


> I have the VOX with 3 minis and Im also looking at cutting the cord and either going with tivo OTA or recast... One question Im trying to learn, does the recast have a way to broadcast to multi TVs like we have using the Minis? ...
> 
> Does this mean I can watch the DVR contain via the fire stick on another tv ?


That's the only way to view the Recast's content, as the Recast, itself, offers no video outputs. (It's "headless.")

See the Recast FAQ item: What additional equipment or devices do I need to use Fire TV Recast?

Other notable info from the FAQ page:

You can only register one Fire TV Recast per Amazon account.
You can pair Fire TV Recast with all of your compatible devices ... as long as they are on the same network, and registered to the same Amazon account, as your Fire TV Recast.

You can watch live or recorded programs on any two of these devices simultaneously.



Saturn_V said:


> No. Each FireTV client uses up one stream.


This response interpreted "broadcast to multi TVs" without considering the "like we have using the Minis" qualifier. TiVo's whole home solution lacks built-in mutli-casting, as well.



jth tv said:


> aftvnews (saw a reference on zatz):
> How, and why, to pull video recording files off of the Amazon Fire TV Recast DVR


From the article:

"The Fire TV Recast stores all recordings in their raw MPEG-2 format."​
Which maps to the limitation of just 2 simultaneous content streams, similar to what any BOLT offers for mobile streaming transcoding -- so similar to what TiVo will supposedly be offering in their TiVo app for streaming boxes. TiVo Minis stream the raw MPEG2 content, so avoid the transcoding-imposed limitation.

So a question (posed to avoid the work of researching it myself) ... Is there an exception to the "2 streams" limitation for the Recast if both the Recast and Fire TV set-top box are wired to the home network, allowing streaming of the raw MPEG2 content (effectively a TiVo DVR+Mini setup)?


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## Saturn_V (Jun 2, 2007)

There is no way to stream the MPEG2 from the Recast right now. We keep hoping Amazon will allow it eventually- but it's all speculation at this point.


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## shwru980r (Jun 22, 2008)

Saturn_V said:


> There is no way to stream the MPEG2 from the Recast right now. We keep hoping Amazon will allow it eventually- but it's all speculation at this point.


Tivo doesn't officially support MPEG2 wireless streaming either. I think some people use a wireless bridge with a Mini, but Tivo's mobile device streaming is transcoded like the Recast. Tivo is supposed to release a wireless network adaptor for the Mini soon. Even if Tivo supports wireless MPEG2 streaming with the Mini, the app selection much less and the app functionality and performance is substandard.


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## Saturn_V (Jun 2, 2007)

shwru980r said:


> Tivo doesn't officially support MPEG2 wireless streaming either. I think some people use a wireless bridge with a Mini, but Tivo's mobile device streaming is transcoded like the Recast.


I feel that 802.11ac routers can handle streaming MPEG2 over wifi just fine. (but not b/g/n routers) But it's right and proper that both TiVo and Amazon assume lower wifi performance for most people- that are just renting the barebones router/modem combo their ISP/Cable provides.

(hell, the Recast will use the WiFi Direct connection over your actual Wifi network unless you change it)

My Steam Links are streaming 40 Mb/s over wifi just fine. But only after I upgraded to 802.11ac.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Saturn_V said:


> *I feel that 802.11ac routers can handle streaming MPEG2 over wifi just fine.* (but not b/g/n routers) But it's right and proper that both TiVo and Amazon assume lower wifi performance for most people- that are just renting the barebones router/modem combo their ISP/Cable provides.
> 
> (hell, the Recast will use the WiFi Direct connection over your actual Wifi network unless you change it)
> 
> My Steam Links are streaming 40 Mb/s over wifi just fine. But only after I upgraded to 802.11ac.


Which is the protocol the upcoming Mini wireless adapter has been mentioned as being capable of, including in direct connection to a Bolt which also has 802.11ac.


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## mooseAndSquirrel (Aug 31, 2001)

Is there a wishlist feature? About to move and cord cut, and this looks more attractive to me than TiVo, especially given the no-subscription guide. But it would be great to have wishlists.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

mooseAndSquirrel said:


> Is there a wishlist feature? About to move and cord cut, and this looks more attractive to me than TiVo, especially given the no-subscription guide. But it would be great to have wishlists.


Unfortunately not. But realize when you cut the cord, you have far fewer channels to record, so wishlist isn't as necessary. I do miss that feature a little, but I'm able to work around it. Commercial skip is another feature I miss, but can easily work around.

A great subscription-free cord-cutter Tivo would be the lifetime Roamio OTA 1TB on sale for $250 at the moment. It's a far more full featured DVR than Recast and cheaper than Recast. But what you lose in DVR features with Recast, you gain in streaming features. So it's just a trade-off you'll have to evaluate for yourself. This is coming from a guy who cut the cord a long time ago and has both Roamio and Recast and uses Recast 99% of the time. I value having easy access to all my streaming and DVR over the few nice-to-have features I lost moving from Tivo.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

mooseAndSquirrel said:


> Is there a wishlist feature? About to move and cord cut, and this looks more attractive to me than TiVo, especially given the no-subscription guide. But it would be great to have wishlists.


Pretty sure the Recast has no wishlist feature but if you don't already own a TiVo I would recommend you give serious consideration to the Recast/FireTV route. Advantages (in addition to free guide data that is probably better than TiVo's expensive guide data) include:

Fire TV's are better streaming boxes than the apps provided on Tivo's.

Much cheaper to support multiple TV's and doesn't require hardwired (Ethernet) connections to do so.

Limitations include:
Simultaneous streaming of Recast channels limited to 2 fire TV devices.

Recast video resolution is limited to 720p

Those limitations apply only to the OTA channels provided by the Recast. Streaming services such as Netflix, etc., are received individually by each Fire TV device and resolution can be at least 1080p on those.


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## mooseAndSquirrel (Aug 31, 2001)

Thanks. Thinking it’s the way to go. It’s just me and my wife and 2 TVs. I have an older fire stick and fire box. 720 doesn’t sound great (oh how quickly we are spoiled), but my broadcast is mostly news and Colbert.

I have to review my watching habits, but am currently only really looking at HBO, Comedy Central and AMC on my cable subscription. I pay for SHO, but that’s been limited to Shameless and I can really live without that. I can get HBO Go cheap enough, just need to figure out how to get Comedy Central and AMC without having to get some expensive package with dozens or hundreds of channels I’m not interested in.

My current Xfinity “triple play” is $275/month, all in. I can get Gig (v. 105 w Comcast) internet from AT&T for $70/month, an Ooma phone for 10. I already have Netflix and Amazon Prime. So no matter what I do I’ll save at least $100 a month.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

dlfl said:


> Limitations include:
> Simultaneous streaming of Recast channels limited to 2 fire TV devices.
> 
> Recast video resolution is limited to 720p
> ...


Also no VUDU app, right? Any others missing?


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

krkaufman said:


> Also no VUDU app, right? Any others missing?


I'm pretty sure you can sideload Vudu and whatever other apps aren't in the Amazon app store, like Kodi. Technically no Youtube app either, but you can load a launcher app that brings it up in a browser which works just as well.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

mdavej said:


> I'm pretty sure you can sideload Vudu and whatever other apps aren't in the Amazon app store, like Kodi. Technically no Youtube app either, but you can load a launcher app that brings it up in a browser which works just as well.


Right, but now you're upping the skill level and effort required; and then multiply the effort by each sideloaded app across every TV. And is the sideloading a one-time thing, or will the user have to periodically revisit each box to manually upgrade each app when the box's OS updates, or when a new version of the app is released?

Also, it's my understanding, perhaps wrong, that sideloaded apps don't necessarily come with the full functionality seen on boxes where the app is natively supported. e.g. Would a sideloaded VUDU app on a 4K Amazon Fire TV have 4K/HDR support?


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

krkaufman said:


> Right, but now you're upping the skill level and effort required; and then multiply the effort by each sideloaded app across every TV. And is the sideloading a one-time thing, or will the user have to periodically revisit each box to manually upgrade each app when the box's OS updates, or when a new version of the app is released?
> 
> Also, it's my understanding, perhaps wrong, that sideloaded apps don't necessarily come with the full functionality seen on boxes where the app is natively supported. e.g. Would a sideloaded VUDU app on a 4K Amazon Fire TV have 4K/HDR support?


Ok, I see where you're going with this. But it's completely impossible to load the thousands of apps available in the Amazon app store onto ANY Tivo. So you have to jump through one hoop to load one app on a Fire stick. Big deal. There is no comparison to the extremely limited app possibilities on Tivo.

Also, no Vudu is a non-issue when you can rent the same content on a dozen other services.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

mdavej said:


> Ok, I see where you're going with this. But it's completely impossible to load the thousand of apps available in the Amazon app store onto ANY Tivo. So you have to jump through one hoop to load one app on a Fire stick. Big deal. There is no comparison to the extremely limited app possibilities on Tivo.
> 
> Also, no Vudu is a non-issue when you can rent the same content on a dozen other services.


Yes, I thought some of the earlier Fire TV app coverage comments glossed over cons, but I wasn't really "going anywhere," as much as lazily looking for confirmation of what my tangential exposure had led me to believe. And we aren't really talking about the 1000s of apps available for streaming boxes, but a few fairly mainstream apps ... viewed, in my case, from a perspective of needing to replace the functionality we currently have on the TiVo platform.

So I'll persist in my ignorance as to:

whether sideloaded apps have full functionality;
whether sideloaded apps require maintenance over time, what triggers the need, and how much effort is needed for an app update rather than the initial sideload;

And, sure, VUDU may be a non-issue to others, but since VUDU was the focal point for my digital movie collecting (i.e. purchases, not rental) since we upgraded to the TiVo Roamio platform a few years back, access to VUDU is critical for our setup. (Movies Anywhere helps with porting titles from VUDU to other retailers, but MA only covers about 70% of our library.)

The Recast seems like the start of a good product, but it also seems like opting for the Recast is a bit like buying into the Apple ecosphere.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Yes, you are buying into an ecosphere, which I also dislike. But at least there is a backdoor. I've taken advantage of Amazon's super cheap hardware (Kindles, Fire sticks, etc.) and used sideloading for years for full access to the Play store. I sideload so often, I don't give it a second thought. If I could run the Recast DVR app on a generic Android TV box, I would in a heartbeat. But I can't, so I play the game and make the best of it.

To answer your questions, most of the apps I've sideloaded are fully functional. The few that aren't are typically not designed for a TV platform, i.e., the apps are made for phones.

Some apps will prompt for updates and update themselves even if sideloaded. But others won't. They'll just stop working properly and you'll have to find a new version. It can be a pain sometimes.

Regarding fully functional Vudu, I've never used it, so I can't say for certain. If you can spare $20, get a stick and put it through its paces. Even if you end up not buying into Recast, the stick is a handy thing to have when you travel. Plus you can use it with the upcoming Tivo app. So not a big risk.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

mdavej said:


> Some apps will prompt for updates and update themselves even if sideloaded. But others won't. They'll just stop working properly and you'll have to find a new version. It can be a pain sometimes.
> 
> Regarding fully functional Vudu, I've never used it, so I can't say for certain. If you can spare $20, get a stick and put it through its paces. Even if you end up not buying into Recast, the stick is a handy thing to have when you travel. Plus you can use it with the upcoming Tivo app. So not a big risk.


Ok, if there's a chance that the app could self-maintain once sideloaded, I'd be closer to good. (The installs I'm dealing with are 5 hours away; sister's and mom's.) I have a Fire TV box on which to test, if I can find it, and the above indicates it may be worthwhile.

And, yeah, I'm down w/ the travel stick. I have a Roku stick and have gifted them to my post-college nephews.

Thanks for the feedback.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Yeah, I have the same situation. My mom is 4 hours away, and I switched her from Tivo to Recast. Problem with her was she would always get confused about what content was on what source and switching among them. I had tried in the past to automate with a Harmony remote, but she would never use it, insisting on using her OEM remotes on everything. With Recast, she can manage everything with the Fire remote without getting confused.

At first, I got myself an identical Recast system mainly so I could walk her through anything if she gets stuck. But that almost never happens. Now I use Recast myself almost 100% of the time. I haven't turned on my Tivo in a couple of months. But I may go back eventually, if the new Fire TV app for Tivo works well.


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## rorrim (Jun 21, 2005)

mooseAndSquirrel said:


> Thanks. Thinking it's the way to go. It's just me and my wife and 2 TVs. I have an older fire stick and fire box. 720 doesn't sound great (oh how quickly we are spoiled), but my broadcast is mostly news and Colbert.
> 
> I have to review my watching habits, but am currently only really looking at HBO, Comedy Central and AMC on my cable subscription. I pay for SHO, but that's been limited to Shameless and I can really live without that. I can get HBO Go cheap enough, just need to figure out how to get Comedy Central and AMC without having to get some expensive package with dozens or hundreds of channels I'm not interested in.
> 
> My current Xfinity "triple play" is $275/month, all in. I can get Gig (v. 105 w Comcast) internet from AT&T for $70/month, an Ooma phone for 10. I already have Netflix and Amazon Prime. So no matter what I do I'll save at least $100 a month.


Philo can get you those cable channels for $20 a month and the guide data is integrated with the Recast channel list.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

rorrim said:


> Philo can get you those cable channels for $20 a month and the guide data is integrated with the Recast channel list.


This bumps the value of the Recast. Just wish they didn't have the 2 stream limit (even if only by making the raw MPEG2 available for wired network connections).


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## mooseAndSquirrel (Aug 31, 2001)

rorrim said:


> Philo can get you those cable channels for $20 a month and the guide data is integrated with the Recast channel list.


Thanks! And actually for what I want, $16/month.

But I assume that this is streaming only and if there are commercials, I am stuck with them? I have gotten spoiled with skipping the commercials on things like The Americans and Full Frontal.


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## rorrim (Jun 21, 2005)

mooseAndSquirrel said:


> Thanks! And actually for what I want, $16/month.
> 
> But I assume that this is streaming only and if there are commercials, I am stuck with them? I have gotten spoiled with skipping the commercials on things like The Americans and Full Frontal.


Yes, you do get commercials. Depending on the network you may be able to skip them, but it's hit or miss. Once you add a show to your saved programs, it automatically records it in the DVR with unlimited storage. It's available for playback for 30 days and then it either disappears or, more likely, can still be delivered over VOD. They offer a free trial for the full experience so it's easy to test out to see if you like it. I primarily signed up for Paramount Network and AMC and it's working for me.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Had a crazy experience with my Recast last night. Tried to play a recording, but only played about 15 seconds, then stopped. Couldn't watch live TV, couldn't delete recordings, almost nothing worked. Recast appeared to have failed catastrophically. Tried multiple restarts of both my stick and recast and power cycled my router. None of this made any difference. I was ready to contact Amazon for a replacement.

Then finally a clue. I tried to play a Pluto channel from the Recast guide, and got an error like "content not available in this region". It finally dawned on me that I had forgotten to turn off my VPN connection to the UK as I had been watching BBC the night before.

I turned off the VPN, and BOOM, everything started working perfectly again.

Just putting that out there in case anyone out there as bone-headed as me runs into the same thing.


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## TeamPace (Oct 23, 2013)

krkaufman said:


> Also no VUDU app, right? Any others missing?


No Vudu app but there's an easy work around! Download the MoviesAnywhere app and link your accounts, you'll be able to watch any of your purchased content from virtually any service all in one place. You can't purchase new items directly from the MoviesAnywhere app but that can be done on your phone.

The other really nice thing is your purchased content will show up in the FireTV interface under "Your Videos - Your Video Library"! you don't even need to go to the MoviesAnywhere App. It works great for me.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

TeamPace said:


> No Vudu app but there's an easy work around! Download the MoviesAnywhere app and link your accounts, you'll be able to watch any of your purchased content from virtually any service all in one place.


Thanks, but MA covers 5 studios and only movies, leaving 40+% of my VUDU content behind.


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## OrangeCrush (Feb 18, 2016)

krkaufman said:


> Thanks, but MA covers 5 studios and only movies, leaving 40+% of my VUDU content behind.


I have heard (but not tried) sideloading the Android TV app works fine.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

OrangeCrush said:


> I have heard (but not tried) sideloading the Android TV app works fine.


Yes, it was hashed-out above, starting at the post just quoted by TeamPace.


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## OrangeCrush (Feb 18, 2016)

krkaufman said:


> Yes, it was hashed-out above, starting at the post just quoted by TeamPace.


Ah, apologies, didn't page back through the thread.


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## rorrim (Jun 21, 2005)

I have Vudu sideloaded on my FireTV devices and it works great!


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

rorrim said:


> I have Vudo sideloaded on my FireTV devices and it works great!


Then I'd welcome any clarification you think necessary to the info posted between posts 112 and 119.


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## ncted (May 13, 2007)

Has anyone with the Recast experienced any issues with the Repack? I am wondering how well Amazon is keeping up with channels as they change frequencies.


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## rorrim (Jun 21, 2005)

krkaufman said:


> Then I'd welcome any clarification you think necessary to the info posted between posts 112 and 119.


Sure. These are the instructions I used and it worked flawlessly. I did it just recently, so I have no idea if it will maintain itself with updated versions.

How to Install VUDU on FireStick 2019 - with Video Tutorial


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## wizwor (Dec 18, 2013)

dlfl said:


> Here are two forums that are more directly about the Recast:
> Fire TV - Devices - Amazon Digital and Device Forum
> Amazon RECAST OTA DVR formerly known as "Frank" - AVS Forum | Home Theater Discussions And Reviews


Typical of AVS, one of the 'Special Members' thread crapped and everyone went away. The Fire TV Devices thread is kind of dead too. Maybe the Recast is kind of dead...


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## Fofer (Oct 29, 2000)

DallasGG said:


> It would be nice if Tivo added this capability for external hard drives other than their own.


Indeed, but seems unlikely. TiVo's not even supporting or selling their external storage solution anymore.


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## rorrimmirror (May 3, 2002)

I really like the Recast, though I have my Roamio connected to the same antennas as I continue to evaluate. I have an interesting problem with the Recast that I have yet to figure out though. 

I have two 55” Insignia FireTV editions. On one of them I have a Samsung sound bar and subwoofer connected through the optical connection. On that TV, audio cuts out for a second or so every few minutes but only when playing back a recorded show. Watching live or in any other app is fine.

Disconnecting the sound bar and enabling the TV speakers solved the problem, so I moved the sound bar to the other identical TV with the same results. Hmmm ...

Next I moved my FireTV cube to one of the Insignia TVs with the Samsung sound bar connected and there was no problem. The best I can tell is that there is some sort of audio problem specific to the Insignia TV running the internal FireOS and at least to this specific sound bar, but only on recorded playback from the Recast. It’s a weird failure symptom but I can replicate and then fix it easily.


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## OrangeCrush (Feb 18, 2016)

rorrimmirror said:


> On one of them I have a Samsung sound bar and subwoofer connected through the optical connection.


You either have a bad optical cable or there's an issue with the audio signal encoding. If it's an encoding problem, you'll always have it over an optical connection. What other flavors of audio input does the soundbar have?


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## rorrim (Jun 21, 2005)

OrangeCrush said:


> You either have a bad optical cable or there's an issue with the audio signal encoding. If it's an encoding problem, you'll always have it over an optical connection. What other flavors of audio input does the soundbar have?


I can't get that to reconcile with the symptoms since they are very specific, unfortunately. I've swapped out everything and it is one specific failure case.

1. Insignia 55" FireTV Edition #1 - Works fine using just the internal speakers. Works fine when connected to the Samsung sound bar through an optical connection for all audio in all applications except for recorded shows on the Recast. Even live TV works fine. Replacing the optical cable and the sound bar to a Sony model provides identical results. Connecting my FireTV Cube or FireTV Stick 4K to the TV and using either sound bars works fine. It's only the combination of using the built in FireOS on the TV with a sound bar and even then only on recorded programs from the Recast.

2. Insignia 55" FireTV Edition #2 - Exact same results as TV #1.

3. Sony 65" TV - Works fine with a Sony sound bar and subwoofer with an optical connection and a FireTV Cube. I tried the FireTV Stick 4K and also got good results. I moved the Samsung sound bar with the same optical cable I was using on the Insignia's and couldn't recreate the problem.

I've made every audio setting change in the TVs one by one with no effect. Switching to an HDMI cable for audio output to the sound bar(s) also had no effect.

Now that I have an old FireTV Stick, a new FireTV Cube, and two televisions with FireOS built it, it's starting to become very clear that there as some differences between the code bases. I think my short term solution is just to buy a couple of FireTV Stick 4Ks and bypass the internal FireOS on those TVs. The sticks have better functionality anyway.


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## Saturn_V (Jun 2, 2007)

rorrim said:


> Connecting my FireTV Cube or FireTV Stick 4K to the TV and using either sound bars works fine. It's only the combination of using the built in FireOS on the TV with a sound bar and even then only on recorded programs from the Recast.


Try switching the FireTV's sound settings to Stereo instead of Dolby Digital.

I have a Vizio soundbar that's *slow* to detect Dolby Digital (Soundbar via TV optical connect) If it doesn't see the signal immediately it goes silent. And I know that Recast recordings will try to pass the "raw" audio (Dolby Digital) by default.


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## rorrim (Jun 21, 2005)

Saturn_V said:


> Try switching the FireTV's sound settings to Stereo instead of Dolby Digital.
> 
> I have a Vizio soundbar that's *slow* to detect Dolby Digital (Soundbar via TV optical connect) If it doesn't see the signal immediately it goes silent. And I know that Recast recordings will try to pass the "raw" audio (Dolby Digital) by default.


Unfortunately, that's not an option on the Vizio TVs. My two options are raw PCM and Dolby Digital DTS. I just checked, and tried PCM again with no success.

Using all of the same equipment, the only thing that seems to fix it is to use an external FireTV device which I am OK with. I was looking for a couple of inexpensive 55" TVs and Best Buy had these on a super sale. Even having to purchase a couple of FireTV sticks, they are still less expensive than anything else I considered so I'm not unhappy with the purchase. However, I did wonder before I bought how many differences there are between the Cube, Stick, and built in FireOS and there are quite a few with the FireOS TV having less features. They also seem to have a lot more bugs especially in regard to the Recast. For example, if I delete a recorded show from my Cube or Stick, sometimes the FireOS TVs reflect it immediately and sometimes it takes days to remove them from their list ... but only on the FireOS TVs. It's probably why they were on such a great sale.


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## ncted (May 13, 2007)

Not sure if anyone noticed, but the Recast (and other FireTV devices) are on sale right now:

https://smile.amazon.com/b/?ie=UTF8&node=8521791011&ref_=ods_fs_smp_cp


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## tommiet (Oct 28, 2005)

Watch it... They are on sale about every 30 days.. Watch it..... I do like my ReCast.


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## ncted (May 13, 2007)

tommiet said:


> Watch it... They are on sale about every 30 days.. Watch it..... I do like my ReCast.


I have camelcamelcamel setup to notify me of sales. I am waiting to see if it ever gets back down to $220 for the 1TB version.


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## Adam C. (Jul 24, 2017)

ncted said:


> I have camelcamelcamel setup to notify me of sales. I am waiting to see if it ever gets back down to $220 for the 1TB version.


I see it currently listed for 229.99 . You're going to hold out for another 10 bucks?


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## mschnebly (Feb 21, 2011)

This looks like something TiVo should have done. Very interesting.

Tablo Quad OTA DVR Now Shipping

If you watch the video of installing a HDD it shows just how simple this should really be. A very well thought out box.


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## ncted (May 13, 2007)

Adam C. said:


> I see it currently listed for 229.99 . You're going to hold out for another 10 bucks?


Well, I am not quite ready to buy, but if it does drop down to the historic low price, I might go ahead and pull the trigger on it. I did pick up a 4K Firestick yesterday though. I've been struggling with using my BT headphones with my Sony soundbar as the transmitter. The soundbar keeps losing the pairing every couple of weeks for some unknown reason. Sony is happy to walk me though re-pairing, doing a factory reset, etc., but doesn't think there is anything wrong with my soundbar, so they won't replace it. With the firestick, I can pair directly between my streaming device and my headphones, and cut out the soundbar. I watch with headphones at night, so as to not disturb my wife in the next room.


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## tommiet (Oct 28, 2005)

ncted said:


> I have camelcamelcamel setup to notify me of sales. I am waiting to see if it ever gets back down to $220 for the 1TB version.


Both ReCast go on sale @ the same time. I did get the 1TB last month. I'm happy with it.


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## krkaufman (Nov 25, 2003)

mschnebly said:


> If you watch the video of installing a HDD it shows just how simple this should really be. A very well thought out box.


Simple, if not as slick as a slide-in slot. Yeah, TiVo should have been doing this for years, at least since they added the ability to auto-format and install the OS with the Roamios. I'd think allowing the customer to select just the drive capacity they want would have fit with the original "your way" marketing.


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

I can't help but wonder about the motivations: (1) it's possibly/probably cheaper to manufacture a TiVo box without a drop-in hard drive capability (remember, TiVo is the company that dropped regular RCA ports with the base Roamio, instead moving to a uni-port--some people explained here that this cost savings can add up); and (2) by making hard drive replacement less easy, it encourages people to trade up (keep in mind that people here at TCF are not the same as the general populace, tech. and skill-wise).


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## Spazz75 (Aug 12, 2019)

I'm hoping that someone can please help me with my Recast. Whenever I playback a recorded show, the picture quality degrades during playback. The picture looks really bad. Less than 480 most of the time. If I fast forward a bit, the picture looks great again and short after, it looks like crap again. When I'm watching live TV, I don't have this problem. The picture looks solid, but this only happens with recorded shows.

Recast in on wifi and I'm watching it through FireTV second gen 4k box.

Any help with be greatly appreciated.


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

Spazz75 said:


> I'm hoping that someone can please help me with my Recast. Whenever I playback a recorded show, the picture quality degrades during playback. The picture looks really bad. Less than 480 most of the time. If I fast forward a bit, the picture looks great again and short after, it looks like crap again. When I'm watching live TV, I don't have this problem. The picture looks solid, but this only happens with recorded shows.
> Recast in on wifi and I'm watching it through FireTV second gen 4k box.
> Any help with be greatly appreciated.


Try here: https://www.avsforum.com/forum/42-h...azon-recast-ota-dvr-formerly-known-frank.html


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

Spazz75 said:


> I'm hoping that someone can please help me with my Recast. Whenever I playback a recorded show, the picture quality degrades during playback. The picture looks really bad. Less than 480 most of the time. If I fast forward a bit, the picture looks great again and short after, it looks like crap again. When I'm watching live TV, I don't have this problem. The picture looks solid, but this only happens with recorded shows.
> 
> Recast in on wifi and I'm watching it through FireTV second gen 4k box.
> 
> Any help with be greatly appreciated.





JoeKustra said:


> Try here: https://www.avsforum.com/forum/42-h...azon-recast-ota-dvr-formerly-known-frank.html


And of course the official support options:
Amazon Sign-In (which will open a support contact page)
Note: Don't bother with the email contact option. They will give you boilerplate troubleshooting and tell you to use the telephone option for real support.

and:

Fire TV - Devices - Amazon Digital and Device Forum
Note: That forum will only get you support if another forum member has had the same problem and knows the solution.


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## Saturn_V (Jun 2, 2007)

Spazz75 said:


> Whenever I playback a recorded show, the picture quality degrades during playback. The picture looks really bad. Less than 480 most of the time. If I fast forward a bit, the picture looks great again and short after, it looks like crap again.


The Recast has its own wi-fi network. And the Recast will use the WiFi Direct network with your FireTV endpoints unless you change it. So make certain that your FireTV stick/cube is using your router's network instead of the Recast's by using the Developer Tools Menu on the FireTV.

How to access the hidden Developer Tools Menu on the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick

Play a DVR recording from teh Recast and bring up the System X-Ray:









If your network's SSID doesn't show up- you're on the Recast's wifi.


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

Great info, @Saturn_V , although you seem to be assuming it's never better to use WiFi Direct. Why?

Your link to AFTVnews.com reminds me of the sad fact that that site is no longer updated because its operator hired into Amazon. The site was a far easier and quicker way to get Fire TV information than the official Amazon support pages. He still tweets some useful news at @Elias .


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

The Recast is back on sale at its floor-end prices, this time at Best Buy.  Both in-store and online.

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/amazon...-video-recorder-black/6301666.p?skuId=6301666 (2-tuner)

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/amazon...ng-media-player-black/6314555.p?skuId=6314555 (4-tuner)


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## Saturn_V (Jun 2, 2007)

dlfl said:


> Great info, @Saturn_V , although you seem to be assuming it's never better to use WiFi Direct. Why?


WiFi Direct or WiFi P2P is inferior to WiFi through a Wireless Access Point. It's fine for remotes or game controllers, printers, or exchanging configs via WPS. Relatively small packet communication.

But not for media streams. The Recast streams peak at about 10 Mb/s and it constantly changes. If you've ever tried Miracast- which is essentially WiFi Direct; it's notoriously unreliable.


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## whitepelican (Feb 15, 2005)

Can someone tell me if it is possible to use the Recast to stream live TV to a fire stick located outside the home? Or is it only for phones/tablets?


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

Sorry, no can do. However, may theoretically be possible over VPN. I haven't resorted to that myself. Nor have I tried "casting" from phone to fire stick. That's another possibility.

I used to go to a lot of trouble to watch my own stuff on hotel TVs when travelling. Then it dawned on me that the laptop/tablet screen in front of my face was exactly the same size in my field of view as the TV across the room. Plus my laptop/tablet worked fine with my headphones and already had access to all my stuff since it had all my apps, logins, VPN, etc. I travel all over they world, and that's been the simplest, most reliable and least time consuming solution for me.

I'll also add that I usually don't even try to watch anything until I've been in a place at least a week. I try to get the lay of the land, watch the local news, etc. that first week. I can get a pretty good idea what's happening on the news no matter what the language.


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## JimT48 (Jun 8, 2019)

Saturn_V said:


> The Recast has its own wi-fi network. And the Recast will use the WiFi Direct network with your FireTV endpoints unless you change it. So make certain that your FireTV stick/cube is using your router's network instead of the Recast's by using the Developer Tools Menu on the FireTV.


I see on the screen that my SSID changes when I play back a recording. How do I change this to my router?


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## dlfl (Jul 6, 2006)

Harold Thomson said:


> I see on the screen that my SSID changes when I play back a recording. How do I change this to my router?


Check out this thread starting at post #3:
Fire TV Recast connection to Fire TV in large home - Fire TV - Devices - Amazon Digital and Device Forum
I don't have a Recast so can't test this but my understanding is it will disable using the WiFi direct connection.


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## Saturn_V (Jun 2, 2007)

whitepelican said:


> Can someone tell me if it is possible to use the Recast to stream live TV to a fire stick located outside the home? Or is it only for phones/tablets?


My mom's nursing home has terrible cable. I tried running a spare Fire stick on it, and although Alexa can see it- and I can connect to it with Amazon music; The DVR heading on the menu doesn't show up. Both the FireTV endpoint and the Recast must be on the same network.

Recast streaming to phones/tablets works great- as long as you have at least 5Mb upstream on your residential internet and your router plays nice.


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## Saturn_V (Jun 2, 2007)

Harold Thomson said:


> I see on the screen that my SSID changes when I play back a recording. How do I change this to my router?




__
https://www.reddit.com/r/fireTV/comments/a3vaxo


Hold down the rewind and left buttons on your remote for 3 seconds
Then press the menu button
After a few seconds a secret menu will appear. Scroll to bottom and **check** the only check box on the screen.
In the end, the "Disable Congestion Optimizer" checkbox needs to be checked. That will force your WiFi instead of the Recast's WiFi Direct. Double check with the Dev Tool.

The only annoying thing is that it's not global. This needs to be done individually on *all* FireTV sticks/boxes that access the Recast.


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## BillyClyde (Mar 3, 2017)

whitepelican said:


> Can someone tell me if it is possible to use the Recast to stream live TV to a fire stick located outside the home? Or is it only for phones/tablets?


If you haven't bought a recast yet and are in the market, the HDHomerun tuners (Quattro, Duo, Prime, etc.) when paired with the Channels app can be viewed outside the home and remotely using their app on FireTV and AppleTV. No VPN or fudging needed.


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## whitepelican (Feb 15, 2005)

BillyClyde said:


> If you haven't bought a recast yet and are in the market, the HDHomerun tuners (Quattro, Duo, Prime, etc.) when paired with the Channels app can be viewed outside the home and remotely using their app on FireTV and AppleTV. No VPN or fudging needed.


It's funny you mention this, because I did something similar. I bought the HDHomeRun on sale last week and also got the lifetime Plex Pass. I'm currently watching it remotely from my beach cottage where I can't get any OTA channels normally, and it's working perfectly to view all my channels from home. I don't understand why the Recast doesn't allow this functionality though, especially since I'm watching Plex on a Fire stick.


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## Adam C. (Jul 24, 2017)

I was hoping the Recast would be on sale again for Labor Day but it appears there are no deals anywhere. Since I can't get the Tivo Stream to work outside the home I'm thinking of getting a Recast for the sole purpose of out of home viewing.


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## mdavej (Aug 13, 2015)

I was pleasantly surprised to see channel numbers added to the guide in the latest update. This is a feature I've been wanting since day one. Finally I can sort out which of the dozen PBS channels with identical logos I'm looking at in the guide.


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## tommiet (Oct 28, 2005)

Commercial skip in beta testing now!


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## wizwor (Dec 18, 2013)

Adam C. said:


> I was hoping the Recast would be on sale again for Labor Day but it appears there are no deals anywhere. Since I can't get the Tivo Stream to work outside the home I'm thinking of getting a Recast for the sole purpose of out of home viewing.


Black Friday is just around the corner!


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## Adam C. (Jul 24, 2017)

I know this is an old thread, but does anyone know what ever happened with the auto commercial skip feature that was supposedly coming out? I have not heard anything about it since last year.


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## Saturn_V (Jun 2, 2007)

I've never heard of that feature announced for the Recast, at least not by Amazon itself.


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## Adam C. (Jul 24, 2017)

Saturn_V said:


> I've never heard of that feature announced for the Recast.


It was supposedly in beta testing last summer but I never heard a word about it since then. I guess they were not able to move forward.

Amazon Fire TV Recast quietly rolls out commercial skip feature


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