Jim Rossman: My recommendations for recording over

Feb 06, 2024

A TiVo Bolt OTA remote

It's hard to imagine now, but getting up to fiddle with the antennae was part of the television-watching experience until fairly recently. Known as bunny ears for their dual extending rods, users manipulated their TV's antennae to get the picture to come in clear and, hopefully, stay that way.

This week, a reader writes: "I switched to an antenna to watch TV quite a while ago. I have used streaming services to watch network shows I did not see live. Those services continue to increase in price, so I think I am going to buy an over-the-air digital video recorder. I think you wrote a column about those. Could you tell me how I could access that column and any other information that would be helpful?"

I wrote a column about sub-$50 over-the-air DVRs back in April. You can do a search for my name and "OTA DVR," and you can find that old column.

Spoiler: I don’t recommend those cheap DVRs. What I do recommend are a few other types of over-the-air DVR.

I personally use a TiVo Bolt OTA, but that model has been discontinued.

TiVo does have Edge Antenna DVR, which costs $400 from ChannelMaster.com. It is a traditional set-top box that connects to one TV. It comes with lifetime guide service, so there’s no ongoing subscription cost. You will need an internet connection to download the guide data. It has a 500-gigabyte hard drive and can record two shows at a time.

I also like the $199.99 Tablo Quad OTA DVR, which is a small box that does not connect to your TV directly. You connect the antenna to the box and then connect the box to your home’s network, either through an ethernet cable or over Wi-Fi. The box has four tuners, and the recordings are streamed over your home’s network.

You can watch on a phone, tablet or computer as well as most smart TVs and streaming devices. Load the Tablo app on your device or TV, and it’ll find the Tablo DVR on your network. Then, the streaming will commence.

This is the best solution for watching on multiple TVs in your house. You can also watch outside the house on your portable devices.

This box does not come with storage, so you’ll need to attach your own hard drive. Also, only 24 hours of guide data is available unless you subscribe to a monthly or yearly guide data service. The subscription costs $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year.

Other over-the-air DVRs are available. The AirTV2 is a networkable box like the Tablo. It is designed to add local channels to the Sling TV streaming service, but you can use it by itself.

If you have any cord-cutting or over-the-air DVR questions, send me an email.

Jim Rossman writes for The Dallas Morning News. He may be reached at [email protected].

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