I'm retired & looking for ways to reduce my monthly bills. I'm tired of paying FIOS $140/month. Some streaming channels offer cloud DVR. I'd rather have a physical hard drive either in the box or external to the box. My streaming box, whichever I choose must have DVR capability.
Is it possible to connect an external hard drive as a DVR on the 4K?
There's no USB port. There's an ethernet port. Can a networked hard drive be attached?
Apple TV 4K
I read on this website:
I'm researching the different streaming devices.
I don't want to fool with installing 3rd party software or turn my mini into a server. I want to keep it simple.
Apparently, networking the 4K is an option. I don't completely understand how networking works. But that would be expensive. I'd have to buy a NAS hard disk & the Home Run or similar hardware. No thanks!
Well, darn! My FIOS contract is up for renewal next month. Ultimately, I want to cut the cord but I'll have to do it in stages. I hope that this time is my last time renewing my contract with FIOS. Maybe a future version of 4K will have a USB port so an external hard drive can be connected.
Thanks for your help.
Apple TV is a streaming device and does not allow for connecting to any external drive. If you're looking to watch cable then you will still need to subscribe to a service, as you've found most streaming services that offer live TV offer cloud DVR.
If you're ok with just accessing OTA channels you could purchase an HD Home run and use the channels app. It can connect to a NAS for DVR capability.
https://getchannels.com/how/
All such devices being offered are going to be streaming only, so you would have to use networking regardless of what you were to choose.
The HD Home Run is used to connect an antenna and make your OTA channels available to the network, including Apple TV. NAS systems are not expensive, however you can also use any computer for DVR purposes within that setup.
If you want cable however, the only other option is using a streaming service that offers those channels, and those use cloud-based DVR.
Earlier models of Apple TV did have a USB port but were only for servicing (i.e. connecting to iTunes to restore). The 4K removed that port. It was never possible to connect a physical drive. The future is going more towards the cloud so I would say it's unlikely that will change.
Apple TV 4K DVR
