There is an early access version, and I'm currently in limbo over cancelling Dish and either going with the Vue in hopes of a future leanback enabled app, or renting a cablecard and using an HDHomeRun Prime. With HDHomeRun Record we could use the Shield to record from our cablecard which sounds great, but I don't want to dive in without knowing if it works well or not.
Unless Plex integration is great, I'm feeling like its a letdown.
It's definitely beta. I use it to record some obscure shows that don't show up elsewhere. The problem is that there's no way for it to track what it has recorded unless the original files are in the recording directory. That's a problem as the shows are fucking gigantic (~1gigabyte for an hour long show) and it adds up quick. So what happens is that some shows record over and over and over again because some networks air the entire show before the new episode airs on TV and the DVR has trouble differentiating if the episodes have been recorded or if they are truly "new". Basically it's not quite ready for prime time but it's a decent option.
So I just found this post. There are a lot of good answers in here. I Currently use the DVR and have been for over a year since the 1st Build.
I have a cable card in an HDHomerun Prime and a Shield TV. MY DVR server is installed on a Linux box I have that have a giant Raid 5 array. Luckily my Cable company does not flag any channels as DRM so I can watch and record any channel on the setup.
I have the HDHomerun View app running on my Shield, my desktop and my Microsoft Surface. On the Shield I get full access to my recordings through the View app and for live TV I can use the View app or the Google Live Channels app which gets the channels out of the View app. Live channels looks nicer but cannot see the recordings.
The View app is basically the same on Windows and gives me the ability to watch Live TV on my HTC Vive VR headset in a giant virtual theater screen which is nice. I also get direct access to the recorded files which is nice if I feel like stripping out commercials. Plex also monitors the folder where the shows record which is nice. That gives me remote access to my shows on my phone.
Over all the DVR works well for my needs. A few things that are not yet implemented are as follows:
DRM support: Others have mentioned this but as I said above it does not currently effect me.
Sharing of Tuners: Actually this may be solved but I have not noticed. The idea is that if you have two shows back to back on the same channel there might be 30 seconds or so of overlap in the recordings. It should use the same tuner. Otherwise it will activate another tuner and if there are other shows recording at the same time it might cause one show to not record.
Timeshifting: The idea that you go to a channel and it starts buffering live TV so you can pause content and then decide to record it while watching and it starts recording from the beginning of the buffer.
I recall there was supposed to be iOS support as a stretch goal but I presume Apple is too restrictive on DRM and MPEG2 video and that may not happen. Plex support is supposed to come in some form but as it stands I can already add recorded folders to Plex manually and they will index and work just fine.
Overall I recommend it.
I backed them on Kickstarter initially but then after months did a chargeback on the card used for the Kickstarter because there were very important things they didn't disclose in the Kickstarter, and then the app and what it shaping up into, their progress on the project, and customer support/communication with backers is all just plain shit.
I'd stay far away. Good for Live Channels app/Live TV only if you want one of their tuners just for that. For DVR - find other means (even if it's using their tuners with another DVR software - just stay away from their DVR software is my advice).
DVR recording is solid, released for Windows, Mac, Android, Linux, and most NAS boxes.
HDHomeRun VIEW clients for Windows 10 and Android, with the Mac client nearing release.
You can discover new shows, movies, or sporting events, schedule recordings - entire series, latest season, filtered by a sports team, or individual recordings.
The main items in development (not released yet) are DRM support for protected cable TV channels, and pause/ff/rw support of live TV.
Im late on this thread, but I'll give you my assessment. I have a few ADT1s, a Shield, and an always on computer. Currently my computer serves as a media server and DVR. Overall, I think the product is probably between alpha and beta. The UI is kinda silly (hard to read at long distance), not very feature rich. Channels and DVR playback are good, although DRM channels still dont play via the DVR app (which is why you could argue its still an alpha). Ive found no issues with the recorded quality of shows, although in a few instances Ive found duplicates of shows (for example, with a PBS program for my kid it will not recognize the same show from a different PBS channel as being a dupe). I can see how someone wouldnt wanna deal with it, but Its good enough for how I watch TV. In fact, I dropped a few bucks on another Prime because I see potential. A big upside to the design is that you can use the DVR library with PLEX and stream it remotely.
I am in, I haven't checked recently but they still haven't implemented DRM support.
Right now the Kodi app, Windows app, and the Shield app(the gray one) all work for recording non-drm shows.
The green Shield app will still play DRM but you can't record anything. Well, you can record it but it won't playback.
They are well over a year past their goal of when this was supposed to be shipping.
It'll happen eventually but it's still very much in alpha stages. I wouldn't waste the money yet