It always seemed like an abandoned device to me and now it looks like Amazon might be finally killing it.
I agree. I purchased the Amazon Fire Phone in January of 2015. I had the original phone replaced 3 months later because it would lock up constantly. 3 years later the battery started ballooning, so I replaced it with a Samsung Galaxy phone.
I decided right then that I wouldn’t purchase Amazon electronic devices that were trying to compete with products from other major manufacturers. It seemed to me that Amazon would quickly lose interest in a product that didn’t immediately rack up hugh sales records. This would then obviously lead to lack of future support or improvements.
Tablo may not be able to add every feature users have asked for, but they are still supporting devices that are up to 8 years old. I think that is pretty impressive. Many electronic manufacturers will support devices with updates and/or fixes for 3 or 4 years and then you’re on your own.
3 Likes
With Amazon its not alwasy just about raw sales. There are recent articles why they acquired Roomba. So they cam map homes - data demographics. They may generate some profit from sales, but analytical data is worth billions.
And its not just the dimensions, its knowing activity and other goings on.
I would suspect there’s way too much tech support for OTA devices along with all the consumer variables… major headache.
1 Like
The end of the article mentions there is also the possibility a DVR device itself isn’t being abandoned, just the existing devices and a newer device may be coming.
2 Likes
The single biggest reason that most don’t own a recast DVR - it only works with FireTV devices. To succeed, they must open it up to more devices. There are more issues, but none as big as that.
3 Likes
I bought a recast when they first escaped. The general view of those of early victims was that it would grow with added features over time.
Amazon never added any significant features and, as the article states, it was depreciated when Amazon revised the victim interface on their fire devices.
The software is not solid. I have no idea how the system works in terms of which devices do what in the control and viewing of recording, but the network reliability is horrible. Several of my firesticks can no longer view programs even though they are still shown in the menus. Getting help from Amazon is a fool’s game. They are very friendly but clueless and have never solved one issue I have had with this system.
The bottom line is that recast has never been a good solution and should be discontinued. The system architect should go back to being a short order cook. The developers should go back to being gardeners. Amazon should apologize to all of us who were stupid enough to believe they would deliver a good product.
1 Like
See Fire Phone. 
1 Like
As I said earlier “It always seemed like an abandoned device”. A new version seems unlikely to me and I don’t want one if Amazon won’t support it. We have companies like Tablo that care about their products.
Amazon has now confirmed that the Fire TV Recast is being discontinued with the following statement to TechHive:
We are constantly evaluating our product and service offerings to best serve the evolving needs of our customers. Many of the features offered by the Recast are now available through other apps on Fire TV, and we are focusing our efforts and resources on other Fire TV devices and services that provide great value to our customers.
-Amazon spokesperson
That means there will now be Recast users moving to tablo. And as always they will be asking for Recast features so that tablo works and looks like a Recast device.
1 Like
Tablo has one killer feature Recast doesn’t. Continued support!
5 Likes
I just typed in “Fire Recast DVR” on amazon and the first two results that came up after the sponsored ads were “Tablo Quad Over-The-Air [OTA] Digital Video Recorder [DVR] for Cord Cutters - with WiFi, Live TV and Tablo Dual LITE [TDNS2B-01-CN] Over-The-Air [OTA] Digital Video Recorder [DVR] for Cord Cutters - with WiFi, Live TV Streaming, Black”.
There were no results for the Recast DVR.
1 Like
Congratulations Tablo! Free advertising. The sponsored ads aren’t even related!
1 Like
When a product is no longer available on Amazon, it is amazing how their search logic tends to pop up relevant alternatives. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the walmart.com application search couldn’t find it’s way out of a paper bag. 
1 Like
I think that there’s always a risk when a “big company” that isn’t focused on a particular market, tries to get into that market. There’s just no “real interest”. If it works, it works, if it doesn’t work, they just shut it down. And it’s worse with bigger companies where volumes may have to really big in order to continue the path. No one is ever going to associate Amazon with the OTA market. Never. And arguably, I wouldn’t associate them with streaming or tablets either (let the buyer beware).
Amazon is about “shopping” (cloud Walmart… since Walmart didn’t see it coming).
Maybe Recast didn’t complement prime video but conflicted with prime video direction. Or maybe they were just tired of the hassle of dealing with chinese engineering and manufacturing.
Yea, more about selling. I believe their primarily about data mining and analytics. They know what people want before they realize it, or how to target shoppers to decide what they need and push to so they don’t even need to think about it.
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.