WatchAir, Smart Antenna for A Wireless You, Local Live TV Streaming and Recording, No Wire to TV

I first heard about the WatchAir on Kickstarter and I thought it was a great product. I regret not purchasing it through the Kickstarter campaign because it was significantly cheaper than the retail price. I was really drawn to the idea of being able to run one coaxial cable from my antenna into this box and then distribute it over my entire home network no matter where I am (in the living room on my 4K TV, in the bedroom, or even in the bathroom on my phone!), it serves this purpose best.There are a few other devices on the market (e.g. HDhomerun) that do what the watchair does but not as well, in my opinion. First of all the watchair app is available on roku and the hdhomerun app is not, unless you install kodi and add the plug in. The Watchair has a built in 8GB of storage capacity for DVR recordings. Just plug in a USB hard drive or a flash drive and you can increase the internal DVR memory instantly. The HDhomerun requires that you use an external NAS device that runs linux/ssh. The ChannelMaster DVR has USB storage capability but it does not stream live and recorded video to all your devices, as far as I can tell. There are a few other off-the-air DVR/tuner boxes available but they all charge a monthly fee or some large one time fee. WatchAir is just a no BS approach to the DVR.Now I'll describe the set up process. When I first received the WatchAir, I quickly attached the antenna and power supply without ever opening the instructions. I downloaded the app, created an account on their website, logged in to the app and then began the setup process. The app walks you through placement of the WatchAir within your home. It has some feature that uses your phone's camera and internal compass to tell you where to place it. I skipped this as It seemed like it was a bit off, probably due to the compass in my phone always being inaccurate. I used tvfool.com to determine which direction is best to face the antenna. (You want the widest face of the antenna arms facing the area that the channels are being broadcast from in your area. I set it up in a west facing window. It's best not to use the included adhesive until you've tried a few different locations. The app then directs you to plug in the WatchAir and look for it's wifi network to connect to. I had trouble in this step because I would connect to the WatchAir's wifi and then switch back to the app as instructed and it would not be able to locate the WatchAir. I found out by trial and error that I needed to disable the cellular LTE connection on my phone for the app to find it, they don't tell you this in the app. Once you connect to it and the app finds it, it will ask you which wifi network you would like to connect it to and prompts for the password. Give it a few seconds to update its configuration and then it will be connected to your home network. Once that happened it told me it needed to update the firmware which was pretty quick.Once I got past that step I did a channel scan and it picked up about 32 channels (including sub-channels). I thought it was pretty good since I am about 35 miles from the nearest transmit tower (Willis Tower, Chicago) and an outdoor antenna is basically required. I tested it with a couple of different antennas I have plugged into its antenna port. Using an RCA flat panel antenna with pre-amp I was able to get up to 43 channels in one scan. If the signals are too weak, which some were, it will not let you add them to your channel list. I plan to get an outdoor antenna so that I can pick up CBS (VHF-HI band).I recorded a few episodes of "Ask This Old House" and the video quality was good, basically the same as if watching it live. I do think that there is a slight degradation of the video quality with streaming/DVR over using the TV tuner built into my TV, but that is the price I pay for convenience.The app is visually appealing and it makes recording very easy. Just browse the TV schedule (with thumbnail images), select the show you want to record, click the record button.Overall I am very satisfied with the purchase except for the fact that 3 weeks after purchasing it at $239, Amazon lowered the price to $169 and they will not give me a refund even though I am in the 30 day return window. So, I can return it for $7 in shipping, buy another and get my $70 back. I have recommended this DVR to my friends and Co-workers and at $169 I think it's even better.The one issue I'm having with the app is after enabling the video stream over the web (instead of just on my local network) the app cannot find my WatchAir. I think i might have to set up some port forwarding on my router to get this working, I just haven't looked into it yet.

Much better range than I expected. I live about 40 miles from the broadcast towers and have to use an outdoor antenna, on a 22 foot pole, to get signal. I purchased this, mostly out of curiosity, and was surprised that I could get almost as many channels with the WatchAir as I could with my outdoor antenna-- and this is just hanging in a first floor window.The setup process might frustrate someone who is completely non-technical. It's basically like setting up an Amazon Echo Dot. You install the app on your phone, connect your phone to a working WiFi, start the setup, and it will connect you to the hotspot in the WatchAir. You supply the parameters for your home WiFi, let it scan channels, and that's it.I didn't realize that it would provide an on-screen guide of TV listings and that it would be so feature-rich. I really like this thing and will probably buy a second unit to use in our camper.If you're even slightly tech oriented you'll have no problem setting this up. If your kids have to connect your phone to your car's Bluetooth handsfree for you then you'll probably get frustrated and write a bad review. Even though this is an excellent product, you have to have a tiny bit of technical acumen.

I had never heard of the WatchAir before two days ago. It's an ingenious product. For those of you cutting the cord, this smart antenna integrates seamlessly into your wireless network. There are no wires to run and no monthly anything! The reason I give it four stars and not five is because it has a single tuner, this means that more than one device can't watch independent programs. However, it has built in storage for five hours of recording. There is a mini SD card slot that will take 2 TB and a USB port for further expansion. This is all very cool for an antenna. You download the WatchAir app and setup is pretty self-explanatory. Local networks are 25-45 miles away and it found 40 of them and none had a weak signal. Where I live is pretty flat and not all locations are created equally. I also have the antenna mounted INDOORS. The app tells you which direction to face the antenna. It comes with a mounting bracket and two-sided tape. It's on the latest firmware version 1.8.3 and a lot of bugs have been worked through. You can stream over the air HD content to several different devices. I can watch on my phone, laptop, tablet, computer and Apple TV. The bottom line: if you're thinking of cutting the cord, this is a way to get local channels for free. It's perfectly legal! Update: Yesterday, I acquired a second WatchAir. I put this one in the highest window upstairs where the only obstacle is some trees in the distance. I pulled in 44 channels, including one all the way from Buffalo, NY. Now, I can reliably get all my local channels, and then some. I'm 99% close to cutting the cord completely! Each WatchAir has a unique ID, and you can rename it, so it's easy to know which one I'm connected to.