What features would make the 4th Gen the very best OTA DVR?

General Discussion
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I purchased my residence in 1987. It had a tower with three 10 foot sections, the bottom buried in the ground, and was also supported to the eave of the one storey house. It had a small VHF antenna and a rotor. My neighbour gave me an old controller with a rocker bar. I never did get the wiring 100%, but by moving two wires I could rotate the antenna.

In October 1995, the antenna was replaced VHF/UHF extreme distance, which is still in use today. The rotor was also replaced.

Devices that I’ve had, or still have, that were/are OTA antenna rotor friendly.

Meaning, I’m able to add new channels when the antenna is rotated, and previously located channels are kept.

NOTE: If I remember correctly, electing a brand new scan, not an add channel scan, would delete previously found channels with every device.

Fisher FVH-4904 Video Cassette Recorder

PHD-VRX PVR

Channel Master DVR+

Sony KDL-19M4000 - Tablo WIFI

Sony KDL-46HX701 - Antenna & Tablo WIFI

Sony KDL-32BX320

Sony XR-48A90K - Tablo WIFI - Has not been hooked up to the antenna, but it appears that previously found channels are retained, when the antenna is rotated to add new channels.

https://www.sony.ca/en/electronics/support/articles/00152397

Tivax Digital Converter

JVC AV-27BH6

The first TV that I hooked up to the antenna was a 19 inch TV, which might have been a JVC.

I have 2 Legacy 4 tuners, 1 HDMI 2 tuner (which is hooked up to a Sony TV in the basement and is not used), 1 Gen Four 4 tuner.

When I bought the first Legacy 4 tuner, I couldn’t believe that the unit would not allow the ability to add new channels, and retain the previously found ones.

83

Hmmm… Stability?

84

I would like to record one season at a time. I enjoy some of the older shows, but recording all 8 seasons takes up a lot of disk space.

85

When viewing the guide, I would like to be able to jump to a date and time.

1 Like
86

This pertains mostly to the Roku interface

  1. Put the settings icon at the top of the home screen
  2. I have 3 Tablos and need to know which one I’m on. Show the name of the unit at the top of the home screen since each Tablo is named. That saves the time and aggravation of navigating to settings to find out which unit I was left on every time I open the unit.
  3. A more difficult request is to provide at least 2 profiles to keep diverse recordings and favorites from getting jammed under the one profile. Show the name of the profile on the home screen.
  4. When watching a live program, don’t exit, allow watching the next program without forced intervention.
  5. When watching a series, autoplay the next episode without intervention.
  6. As you can see, I consider that huge blank space at the top of the home screen to be a blank canvas that can be used for all kinds of useful things, especially the settings icon.
1 Like
87

This may be something that is different with the 4th gen units, but can you not select the channel as opposed to the specific program on the channel and have it continue past the end of the program? That is definitely possible on legacy units.

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On the Gen 4, you can. However, if you are recording the program on that channel, it will kick back to the Guide at the end of that recording. Not sure why. It didn’t always do that.

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I got messed up a couple of months ago when I specified channel 5.1 instead of 39.2to record Sunday night NFL games the problem was that games on other chans didn’t record. I fixed it by changing to All

Yes! It did record by channel number.

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Understood. I was referring to your comment about live TV. I consider live watching it live. :slight_smile:

91

Same here. I have a habit of tuning to a news chan like Scripps news and just leaving it there while I do other things. It’s just plain irritating that it demands my attention when it jumps back to the guide one minute into the next program and forces me to select the next program.

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After about 200 episodes have accumulated in a program, I am unable to watch any of these episodes because Tablo crashes. It would be great if this DVR actually worked as a DVR.

2 Likes
93

It kicks back to the guide even when not recording the chan