ZapperBox ATSC 3.0 Tuner with DVR

General Discussion
41

ZapperBox now has official OTA TV DRM support & DVR DRM support.

42

I asked them if they plan on having a 4 tuner ATSC 3.0 with DRM.
Here is the response:

*"Yes. Working on it.

We do not have a date yet. Still working on encrypted channel support."

43

The Zapperbox now will show all the ATSC 3 channels, but not record encrypted yet that is the next release, records the unencryted ATSC 3 though right now. Nice device except a little expensive for only 2 tuners, so I think keeping many away. They keep saying beta as I think they just don’t want people complaining if things go wrong, but the DVR does work fine, season passes and 30 second skip can stack so 6 presses skips 3 minutes and so on, just lacking some DVR options.

There is actually already a 4 tuner ZB, but they do not talk about it until DRM is fully working on the 2 tuner and they can see how much processing power and all that it uses. They could even need to redesign the 4 tuner if they need to make it more powerful, so why I think they will not talk about it.

44

Have any new updates come out about a Tablo ATSC 3 DVR? All my major networks are now on ATSC 3 channels in a little better quality and some get even stronger signal here.

I been using the ZB, but also have the white 2 tuner Tablo and plan to get the 4 tuner white Tablo, but I have so many DVR’s or will, rather hold off for an ATSC 3 Tablo but no idea when or if it is coming.

45

My guess is the 3.0 is more or less still on hold. They are working on getting the Gen 4 regular Tablo’s working properly first.
Basically, when it comes to external ATSC 3.0 tuners, the legal and other landscape is still a field of constantly shifting mines. DRM threw a massive nuclear bomb into the works.

46

I’m bothered by DRM as well. It certainly has gummed up the works, and I can think of no legitimate reason to have it on the public airwaves. My hope is that it will be abandoned at some point, either because of market conditions or because they’re forced to.

2 Likes
47

The Zapper guys have all the ATSC 3 channels viewable now and you can record the unencrypted ATSC 3 channels now. The next update they say will allow recording of the DRM ATSC 3 channels so should be done by end of year or earlier unless they hit a snag.

I am not promoting them here :thinking: but they could be the first consumer ATSC 3 DVR that is fully working I think and could ease some of the negative publicity about ATSC 3 DRM. The HDHR ATSC 3 DVR seems to have hit a couple big hurdles and I have doubts they will get it working anytime soon, so Zapper seems to be the big savior “if” they do get it fully working by the end of this year.

48

Your statement shows how messed up ATSC 3.0 really is. We shouldn’t need a hardware ‘savior’ to overcome the issues. The only ones that can save us from this mess are the ATSC org or FCC.