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If you want to watch live TV, you don't have to pay a huge monthly bill when you can get it for free. If you live in an area with good over-the-air reception, putting up a TV antenna is an easy way to cut the cord and get access to a wealth of TV programming. Pair an affordable antenna with an Over The Air recorder, and you'll be able to pause live broadcasts, save your shows for later and fast-forward through commercials.
Our Picks The best OTA DVR overall Nuvyyo Tablo 4th Gen $100 at Amazon 8.3/10 CNET Score CNET Score CNET provides expert, unbiased reviews of products and services. When we assign a score, we use a scale of 1-10. Each product we score is evaluated by criteria specific to its category with most assessing pricing, quality, features and performance. Read more on: How we test The Tablo range has been a favorite of cord-cutters for many years, but now the selection has been whittled down to a single model: the Tablo 4th Gen OTA DVR. While previous Tablo models have always skewed to the enthusiast side of the cord-cutting world the 4th Gen 4 is instead designed with a broad appeal. Even better, there's no monthly fee. The Tablo 4th Gen DVR is easy to use, it's very affordable and it works straight out of the box. It's the model to get if you just want to watch and record OTA TV at the lowest possible price. Pros No ongoing fees
User-friendly
Record straight out of the box
Two weeks of guide data Cons No offline downloads or external streaming
No info button for Roku Expand Pros & Cons Best OTA DVR for Sling TV users AirTV 2 $196 at Amazon 7.7/10 CNET Score CNET Score CNET provides expert, unbiased reviews of products and services. When we assign a score, we use a scale of 1-10. Each product we score is evaluated by criteria specific to its category with most assessing pricing, quality, features and performance. Read more on: How we test The AirTV 2 has its pluses, especially as it's affordable and works without incurring a monthly charge. Yet this OTA DVR is really designed to complement a $40-plus-a-month Sling TV subscription by adding local channels. And you need to add an external hard drive (not included) to make the AirTV 2 function as a true DVR, though it lacks live TV pause. If you want pause functionality it's worth upgrading to the $200 AirTV Anywhere which includes an onboard 1TB hard drive. Pros Affordable and integrates seamlessly with Sling TV
Doesn't require a Sling TV subscriptionNo monthly fee Cons Doesn't include a hard drive
DVR can't pause live local TV
Unable to watch channels via a web browser or on Apple TV Expand Pros & Cons
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