State of DVR

by mr_yuk

I am trying to compile a list of DVR options for AndroidTV and the pros/cons for each. Please suggest additions/edits.

AndroidTV Native App DVR

  • Plex DVR (beta) - Requires PlexPass, can run entirely on ShieldTV (possibly other AndroidTV boxes) no live TV view or pause support, average quality and ease of use. Includes EPG as part of Plex Pass in addition to the other pre-existing Plex Pass features, (also as annual and lifetime), currently only supports HDHR tuners

  • HDHomeRun DVR app (beta) - $60, buggy, no live TV pause support. Active, albeit slow development, will have a $30/year subscription that will enable all the DVR services and a 14 day EPG, will support multiple HDHR devices

PC Server-based DVR

  • Plex DVR - see above

  • Emby - Media server, works with Kodi or Emby player apps. Supports Live TV, DVR features.

  • NextPVR - Good, requires Kodi or Emby and guide costs $25/year

  • MythTV - Integrates with Kodi, supports live pause, rewind, auto commercial skip

  • SageTV - Server app with native Android TV client app. Capabilities?

Hardware-based DVR

  • Tablo - All-in-one device supports DVR, LiveTV, Pausing. active, albeit slow development, really benefits from $5 monthly subscription (also available as annual or lifetime), available as in a 2-tuner and 4-tuner model. No 5.1 audio support.

  • Other options?

Observations

  • None of the native Android TV DVR apps support live viewing or pausing. These solutions are very new and should improve with Android 7.

  • An ideal solution would be for a native Android TV app to provide both the server and client software (supporting multiple tuners) and work well to support multiple transcoded streams. This is hardware dependent and currently only the ShieldTV has the hardware power. Plex server is currently the only native server option but my testing with multiple streams did not work well. I was able to watch a BR rip MKV from the ShieldTV while simultaneously streaming a transcode of a similar MKV to my phone but I had to be careful which movies I selected. Anything with a high bitrate resulted in frame drops. I was not able to get 3 streams working but YMMV.

alaninsitges

None of these are even close to ideal, at least for me, I don't want Kodi's overhead and messy UI in the middle of my Android TV.

The killer app will be Live Channels in Nougat when it arrives: great native guide, direct support for USB tuners (and presumably IPTV). I'm using it now on my Shield with live TV via a dvblink server on my NAS, with their beta Live Channels enabler. It works great. I can't wait to be able to ditch the server and just plug the tuner into the Shield.

NashGuy73

Based on current rumors, we may see another OTA DVR solution coming next year -- one that would be categorized under "hardware-based DVR". A new TiVo device called "Mantis" recently passed through the FCC and it appears to be a headless network DVR with OTA tuners, much like Tablo. It would likely offer apps for various popular streaming platforms, although who knows if Android TV will be on the list. http://zatznotfunny.com/2016-09/tivo-mantis-ota-dvr-slated-ces-unveil/

Andrroid

Some more info on ones you've already picked:

  • Tablo - active, albeit slow development, really benefits from $5 monthly subscription (also available as annual or lifetime), available as in a 2-tuner and 4-tuner model.

  • HDHR - active, albeit slow development, will have a $30/year subscription that will enable all the DVR services and a 14 day EPG, will support multiple HDHR devices

  • Plex DVR - will always be a Plex Pass feature, but includes EPG as part of Plex Pass in addition to the other pre-existing Plex Pass features, (also as annual and lifetime), currently only supports HDHR tuners

And an addition:

  • Emby - Integrates well with their media server, can use various tuners but HDHR is the popular choice, EPG must be provided by user ($25/yr from schedules direct). Emby app is $5 or you can pay for Emby premiere (available as monthly, annual or "lifetime", though the lifetime has some limitations to it).

Its also important to note that Plex DVR and the HDHomerun DVR are the only ones that can run the DVR engine on the Nvidia Shield TV. The other options need some sort of backend device/software (in addition to a tuner).

Chumplor

If you can run mythtv server on another computer, Kodi with the mythtv plugin works perfectly (live pause and rewind, auto commercial skip, etc).

Sgt-JimmyRustles

Question, what's your idea of "multiple transcoded streams"? The Shield should at least be able to handle 2 or 3 while doing something else on the Shield.

Andrroid

As for NextPVR, I would probably file that separately, under Kodi - its a DVR software backend that relies on Kodi as the front end.

To that end, you could include all the DVR backends that Kodi can take advantage of.

netvagabond

Something to keep in mind about Tablo is that it can not do 5.1 sound at all and isn't likey to be able to do it in the future.

I moved off my Tablo to a HDHR using Live channels and Plex for DVR.

anonymous_labrador

Also keep an eye on TVheadend for PC server based DVR. I have it running on my Synology NAS with a HDHomerun connected via the network. It integrates fairly well with Kodi to enable timeshifting, recording etc.

Live Channels integration app was recently released and it works pretty well.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ie.macinnes.tvheadend

No live TV pausing/rewinding yet but it is on it's way.

https://tvheadend.org/boards/5/topics/21407

https://plus.google.com/communities/102705346691784371187

Frank-NL

There is another native DVR app that is working quite well although it doesn´t support series recording yet. According to the devs this is coming soon.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.futarque.amoeba