ClearStream TV adds recording for live over-the-air TV
ClearStream TV tuners can now record live over-the-air television on Amazon Fire TV, Android and iOS devices.
Antennas Direct announced the new recording feature in a blog post on Tuesday. The popular antenna-maker debuted ClearStream TV back in the summer.
It’s a palm-sized device that connects plugs into an antenna, and power adapter. The ClearStream TV connects wirelessly to a router and pushes live OTA channels like NBC and FOX to a corresponding app on a streaming device or smartphone. A software upgrade to the app added the recording option. ClearStream TV already allowed users to pause and rewind live TV, and provided a channel guide.
Viewers can pause and rewind up to 60 minutes. There is no scheduled recording feature available on ClearStream TV, so programming a start time and an end time is not supported.
The ClearStream TV app also needs to be active on the tablet, smartphone, or Fire TV streaming device you are using to record your program. To watch live TV on another TV channel while recording, users will need to use a signal splitter.
How to record on ClearStream TV
The recording feature was added through a software update. Once you update your ClearStream TV app, a record button should appear at the bottom of the screen when you’re watching live TV.
Start recording live TV by pressing the symbol at the bottom of the screen. The recorded show will be saved on the streaming device you are using when you start the recording.
At the moment, it appears the best streaming device to use the ClearStream TV may be the 2nd generation Amazon Fire TV. A micro SD card can be used with a Fire TV for expandable memory. Antennas Direct says that users should check the available storage space on their device prior to recording. According to their calculations, two hours of recording will use roughly 3GB of storage in standard definition. HD will take up even more space.
You can watch your recordings without a WiFi connection when its stored on a smartphone or tablet.
No pausing, rewinding with ClearStream TV on Roku
Most Roku streaming players don’t have much for data storage options. Antennas Direct says because of these memory limitations recording, pausing, and rewinding live TV is not available.
Those features on the ClearStream TV app work by allocating a certain amount of memory locally on your smartphone, tablet or streaming media player, and using that memory as a buffer for the video. Roku streaming media players have very limited memory onboard, as well as restrictions on how channels can perform on their devices, according to Antennas Direct.
Founder and Editor of The Cord Cutting Report. Before launching the site in 2016, he worked for more than two decades as a staff writer or correspondent for a number of daily newspapers, including The Boston Globe. His enthusiasm for tech began with the Atari 2600. Follow @james_kimble
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