Plex adds Amazon Fire TV and web support for live TV

Plex adds Amazon Fire TV support

Plex upgraded its Fire TV app so users can now stream live TV channels from an antenna and set up a DVR.

The company announced on Wednesday in a blog post that Amazon Fire TV and Fire Stick devices were the latest to gain support for streaming live OTA television. Plex’s Live TV function now also works the web. 

Here’s how it works.

By connecting a TV tuner to your Plex server (e.g. desktop PC, or NVIDIA Shield TV), you can stream, pause and rewind live over-the-air (OTA) channels. Your server acts as storage space for your DVR content. A HDHomeRun or Hauppauge tuner is needed along with a TV antenna for your setup. 

You can read more about how I’ve set up a desktop computer, and a NVIDIA Shield TV as Plex media servers.

I’ve been trying out the new Live TV features on Fire TV and so far, Plex is off to a solid start. Pausing and rewinding live TV works well. With rewinding, Plex jumps back several seconds when you hit the rewind button on the Fire TV remote. If you hit the fast forward button, Plex jumps back to the live feed.

To take advantage of Live TV and DVR options on Plex, you need a Plex Pass subscription, which costs $5 per month. You’ll also need a TV antenna, a HDHomeRun or Hauppauge TV tuner and storage space like a hard drive to set up a Plex Media Server. 

Live OTA options expanding for cord cutters

This year, cord cutters and folks looking to break away from costly cable bills are getting more options to take advantage of OTA television.

I just finished reviewing ClearStream TV, a single-band tuner that wirelessly stream OTA channels to Roku, Google Chromecast and Fire TV devices.

Mohu is expected to release Mohu Airwave antenna sometime in “early fall”. The Airwave is designed to wirelessly push OTA signals to the same lineup of media streamers.

Plex debuted Live TV support on June 1 on iOS and Android TV apps, and since then has been expanding to other devices.

On Aug. 2, Plex moved out of beta. Apple TV and Android mobile devices got Plex Live TV support on the same day.