Table of Contents

Setting up a DVR storage device

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Local DVR storage is where your recordings will be saved. Your storage device can be an HDHomeRun FLEX (or SCRIBE, SERVIO), a PC, a Mac, or a Linux based computer or NAS

Only one storage device is needed to serve your entire network. All devices on your network will be able to set new recordings and access previous recordings.

Silicondust HDHomeRun DVR storage devices

The HDHomeRun FLEX, SCRIBE, and SERVIO models are able to act as DVR storage devices:

  • HDHomeRun FLEX - The HDHomeRun FLEX has a USB port that will allow a customer to add their own USB hard drive. With a hard drive, the FLEX will operate the same as a SCRIBE model, with both tuning and DVR handled by that unit. While the SCRIBE comes with one year of DVR service, the FLEX requires a separate DVR service purchase.
    Setting up the USB hard drive on the FLEX:
    1. Plug a USB hard drive into the FLEX's USB port
    2. In a web browser go to http://hdhomerun.local
      1. NOTE: That address will go do the first HDHomeRun device found on your network. If you have more than one HDHomeRun device, use the “device ID” printed on the bottom of the unit instead of “hdhomerun” in the address. For example, if your device ID was 104FFFFF then you would go to http://104fffff.local
    3. Then click the “Format” button. That will erase and format the hard drive for recordings

Do-it-yourself/ Bring-your-own-hardware DVR storage

Already have a NAS (network attached storage), an always on desktop computer, or old unused PC? You can set that up as your DVR storage!

Personal computer

NAS - Network Attached Storage

Using a Windows PC, most NAS devices can use our NAS install tool, or you can use one of the following:

Other

  • Android TV certified Android TV or Google TV box (such as the Nvidia Shield TV) with around 500 GB (or more) of storage available.

Due to read/write speed limitations on recent versions of Android TV and Google TV, we now discourage using these devices for DVR storage.

Multiple DVR storage devices

  • Multiple DVR storage devices are supported, and will be automatically consolidated into a single library of recorded programs in the HDHomeRun app.
  • DVR devices will talk to each other and decide which one should record a given program or not, to prevent duplicates.
  • The DVR device with the most free drive space at the time of recording will typically be preferred.
  • If a DVR storage device goes offline, then any recordings it had will be considered missing. If using Automatic/series recording (requires Full Guide subscription) the DVR will attempt to re-record the missing programs on the remaining DVR storage devices.
  • DVR devices will sync with each other about every four hours. If a secondary DVR storage device joins the network, duplicates might happen until that sync occurs, as a fail-safe to prevent missed recordings.
  • FLEX and SCRIBE models can be both a tuner and a DVR storage device
  • FLEX and SCRIBE models can act as DVR storage for other supported HDHomeRun tuner models

Next step: DVR in the HDHomeRun app

Once you finish setting up a DVR storage device, see our guide link below for instructions on using the DVR features in the HDHomeRun app.
Instructions on using the DVR features in the HDHomeRun app