Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Audio / Video
  3. News

Tell Amazon Fire TV Recast which show to record and it does the rest

Simon Cohen
By

Not content to simply give streaming services like Netflix a run for their money, Amazon has taken aim at cable and satellite providers. Revealed at Amazon’s Seattle hardware event alongside a mountain of other new Alexa devices, Amazon’s new Fire TV Recast is a combo OTA receiver and DVR that’s designed to stream free over-the-air HD content to Fire TV, Echo Show, and compatible Fire tablet and mobile devices.

Fire TV Recast comes in two flavors: A $230 two-tuner model with a 500GB, 75-hour-capacity DVR, and a $280 four-tuner unit that houses a 1TB, 150-hour drive. It will let you record up to two or four shows at once (depending on the model), and stream on multiple devices at a time. If you need more recording capacity, you can add it via a USB-connected external hard drive, for virtually unlimited recordings.

Recommended Videos

It’s a move that will no doubt thrill cord cutters intent on ditching their monthly cable bill, but it also signals yet another category that Amazon wants to dominate: OTA hardware. The 800-pound gorilla in this space is TiVo, which currently sells its Roamio OTA Vox receiver for $399, along with its All-In, no-monthly-fee service. There are others like Tablo TV, and more recently, Plex.

Fire TV Recast with Alexa
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Recently, Amazon added the ability to specify the show you want to record, and then decide if the DVR should record all instances of that show across all channels or just the episodes that air on a specific channel, according to CordCutterNews. That would be redundant on cable or satellite where all channels come in with similar quality, but OTA can be a different story. It might be worth the risk of episode duplication if you can find a clearer signal on another network.

Related

Of course, no Amazon device would be complete these days without Alexa support, and Fire TV Recast is no exception. You can search for shows, browse recordings, change over-the-air live TV channels, control playback, and schedule, cancel, and delete recordings using your voice. The Fire TV Recast doesn’t have far-field microphones or a voice-enabled remote — instead, it will only take Alexa commands via other networked devices, like an Echo, Echo Dot, Sonos One, etc.

When we got our hands on a Fire TV Recast, we were impressed by the sophistication of the user interface, which felt like a natural extension of the Fire TV product. The setup procedure is dead simple, including a wizard that helps you find the perfect placement for your OTA antenna (not included with the Fire TV Recast). Unlike some other OTA solutions, the Fire TV Recast can be placed anywhere in your home that has access to power, your OTA antenna’s input cable, and a strong Wi-Fi signal. The device also has an Ethernet port, in case you’re in the unlikely situation where a wired connection proves easier.

We’ll keep you updated as Amazon adds new features to the Fire TV Recast, so be sure to bookmark this page.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Simon Cohen
Simon Cohen
Contributing Editor, A/V
Simon Cohen covers a variety of consumer technologies, but has a special interest in audio and video products, like…
I replaced my kitchen TV with an Echo Show 15 — and I kinda liked it
Amazon Echo Show 15 showing Fire TV experience, with an Amazon Fire TV voice remote in the foreground.

For the better part of the last 20 years, my family has had a TV in our kitchen. It was the cheapest 19-inch flat screen I could find at the time -- a 720p Sharp model -- and we hooked it up to our cable connection and a Tivoli One speaker for better sound. It worked just fine -- no complaints. But when Amazon asked if I wanted to try swapping that ancient rig out for something a bit more modern, like an Amazon Echo Show 15 with its latest Fire TV update, I figured why not? Three weeks into the experiment, here’s how it’s going.
You’re gonna need a mount …

1.
The original Sharp 19-inch TV …
2.
… and the Amazon Echo Show 15.

Read more
God of War TV show officially ordered to series by Amazon
Kratos looks at the Leviathan Axe.

Amazon Studios and Sony Pictures Television will move forward with developing a live-action television series based on the God of War series of games.
Variety reports that Amazon has ordered this previously-rumored show to series and that it will focus on adapting the narrative of the 2018 game, where Kratos explores the Norse realms with his son Atreus while on a quest to spread his wife's ashes from the highest peak in Jotunheim. This God of War show will also add to a strong lineup of notable fantasy IP on Amazon Prime, as the service also features shows based on The Lord of the Rings and The Wheel of Time. In fact, The Wheel of Time executive producer Rafe Judkins will act as the God of War series' showrunner.
Joining Judkins will be writers Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, who are known for their work on Children of Men, 2008's Iron Man, Cowboys & Aliens, and The Expanse. God of War director Cory Barlog will be an executive producer alongside Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan, Yumi Yang, Jeff Ketcham, and Roy Lee.
Recently, PlayStation has been making a significant push into the film and television scene with movies like Uncharted and shows like The Last of Us, which airs on HBO in January. Projects based on Twisted Metal, Ghost of Tsushima, and Jak & Daxter are also in the works. It makes sense to expand God of War to the medium of television, especially after November's God of War Ragnarok became Sony's fastest-selling first-party game of all time.
It will be interesting to see if any elements from that sequel, and the original trilogy on PS2 and PS4, also make their way into the first season of this show. The God of War live-action series does not currently have an announced release date or cast.  

Read more
Amazon Echo Show 15 is getting the full Fire TV update today
Amazon Fire TV on Echo Show 15.

The line between the Amazon Echo Show 15 and a Fire TV is blurring, with the former getting the experience of the latter starting today with a software update.

It won't quite turn your Echo Show 15 into a Fire TV 15, per se. But it'll give it full access to the Amazon Appstore, and that means you should have all the apps available to essentially turn it into a wall-mounted streaming powerhouse (provided that everything's square when it comes to APIs and app updates, but we have a feeling Amazon and the developers will have that figured out in short order, if things aren't already working as expected).

Read more