I've had my Connect Duo for years - it works perfectly fine. It even had a firmware update.
It got me thinking. Aside from the additional (2) tuners and ATSC 3.0 potential, would upgrading to the Flex 4K improve my Channels DVR experience significantly enough (performance-wise) to an upgrade worth it?
I don’t think you can really justify it at the moment. Most atsc3 channels are DRM depending on your location. If I were you I would let the DRM debacle play out and see where the government, broadcasters, and SD land with atsc3.
If you were new to cutting the cord of just need more tuners, my first stop would be FB marketplace and then a new atsc3 hdhr if nothing is around on the used side. There is no “performance” gain with the new tuners beyond atsc3, atsc3 reception range, and tuner count.
You can check how many of your local atsc3 stations are DRM here
I have 4 HDHR's. 2 ATSC3 and 2 of the old 2 tuner models. I have had 3 failures with the ATSC 3 HDHRs. Each time they sent me a warranty replacement but I'll tell you, the old 2 tuner models will not quit. Never had 1 issue...
Kind of what I thought.
Yeah, the ATSC thing, - in wait and see mode. If there's no significant performance upgrade with 4k Flex, then I'm good.
Appreciate the response. Thank you
I really think it depends on where you are. As Rice mentioned, DRM is an issue, but you also find out which stations broadcast in HDR and Dolby Atmos, because that makes a noticeable difference.
I have two HDHR Extends for Channels DVR, but I also have a ZapperBox that handles DRM. In the SF Bay Area, FOX, NBC, and CBS are DRM, and ABC and CW do not have DRM and can be tuned by the Flex 4K. Only CW and NBC broadcast in HDR and Dolby Atmos, and these are the only two stations that I think look noticeably better than their ATSC 1.0 counterparts. FOX, CBS, and ABC look pretty similar in both ATSC 1.0 and ATSC 3.0, IMO. So for me, it is not worth it to get a Flex 4K just to record CW with better picture and sound quality. I do occasionally watch/record NBC using the ZapperBox, but I use Channels DVR and the HDHR Extends for almost all my OTA recording/viewing.
If you have any stations that you enjoy watching that are not DRM and broadcast in HDR and Dolby Atmos, you would might enjoy having a Flex 4K. Otherwise, I would wait. It's possible that we might see the FTC allow stations to start broadcasting ATSC 1.0 using MPEG-4, which might result in better picture quality with your existing tuners. At least that is the prediction at the end of this excellent recent video about how the ATSC 3.0 transition is going.
