easy to use DVR

"Recording" encrypted streams will be prohibited by the TOS (Terms of Services) that YOU agreed to by subscribing. Therefore there is no real easy direct and legal way to record those streams unless your streaming service OFFERS some way to download and watch later.

It is for those reasons why many services "offer" paid ENCRYPTED streaming, if it was easy and legal to record the encrypted streams then someone would start offering FREE copies online and then there would be no reason for anyone else to "buy" a paid streaming service.

I suspect your "watch free" App should allow you to at least rewind and or rewatch at a later time..

Back in the analog Days I bought some REPLAY TV's.. alas they no longer make them (Did nto make the transistion to Digital) They were rated as the #1 User interface..> DISH network based their user interface on the Replay (But the Replay was still better) Last owner of the Replay was DirecTV.

I was not aware it did not allow OTA shows to record.

There are many.. Direct's original User interface was based on TiVo. I do not know if Direct has updated but if you like their User interface. Try a TiVo. See if you can get an in-store demo however

Based on the fact TiVo sued Direct and won.. I suspect you will like it.

Now I'm using a Spectrum DVR.... Which SUCKS EGGS far as User Interface is concerned.

Our dish box in the MH will record antenna tv but the one in the house will not. They claim there is a tuner for it but won't say where to buy it. Maybe you should ask directv if they have a tuner for your box.

Please remember the programs you watch are property. They belong to someone. The programs are not your’s. The owners are giving you a license to use them under certain conditions. Recording these programs to watch at your leisure isn’t what the owners are permitting.

K Charles wrote:
Our dish box in the MH will record antenna tv but the one in the house will not. They claim there is a tuner for it but won't say where to buy it. Maybe you should ask directv if they have a tuner for your box.

OP bought a new "Smart TV" that has a built in "Free" streaming app that they wish to record the programs from that "app"..

Don't see how the Direct DVR could "record" that streaming Internet app which would not be supported by Direct..

That App would be supported by the TV manufacturer perhaps as some "incentive" to buy that TV brand over others?

The lines of TV sources over the yrs have gotten pretty blurry and most sources do not mix..

K Charles wrote:
Our dish box in the MH will record antenna tv but the one in the house will not. They claim there is a tuner for it but won't say where to buy it. Maybe you should ask directv if they have a tuner for your box.

If your Dish receiver is one of the Hopper series, at the link below scroll down to the $29.99 "AirTV Dual-Tuner Adapter". This is the same OTA adapter Dish supplies in a black housing instead of white, and at a higher price. I have one of them on each of my Hopper w/Slings, and they work quite well.

www.airtv.net/products

If you have a Windows PC you could record programs using PlayOn Desktop software. You can then connect your PC to your TV and play the recorded programs.

Here's a link to their site:
https://www.playon.tv/

Tom_M wrote:
If you have a Windows PC you could record programs using PlayOn Desktop software. You can then connect your PC to your TV and play the recorded programs.

Here's a link to their site:
https://www.playon.tv/

OP is not asking about "play on".

They are asking about recording "Watch free" that is included on their TV from Vizio..

Two different streaming apps.

A little research tells me that "Watch Free" is actually powered by "Pluto"..

Found that HERE and HERE at Vizio's website.

In the links above, it does mention that there is a "mobile" App so might be able to get an app for your phone.. Not so sure about for a PC though as I don't see any mentions of OS but assuming "mobile" it is most likely Andriod/"iOS" type of thing..

But as I mentioned before, these streams will most likely be encrypted/protected making it easy for recording is not in the cards, will require considerable effort and time on your part, will require additional software and hardware and the final result/product will be an inferior copy of a copy of a copy of a copy with lots of generation loss.

It is streaming, it is a free gift from Vizio for you buying their product, you SHOULD be able to simply REWIND or REPLAY the stream ANYTIME without the need for "saving it" to your local device.. That IS the point of all of this streaming stuff..

And you can thank the MPAA and Actors Guild for all of these "protections" to prevent you from making a recording easily..

They learned from what happened when VHS/Beta hit the world that they must do a better job of controlling and protecting their content.. With the advent of DVD and then BlueRay with high quality copying possible something had to be done..

While one could use screen recording software on a PC, the result is a vastly inferior quality recording that is limited to the screen resolution of the PC which will be less than HD quality.

As pretty much any available content ever made is on-demand somewhere, why bother recording anything? Most networks put their shows in an on-demand queue 1-24 hours after airing. You just need to figure out what apps you need to get the content you want. Some apps or APK's have every conceivable show and movie that ever existed. Most pay apps like Youtube, Netflix, prime etc aren't very expensive now and contain an impressive amount of content and I am sure one of them contains the shows you want to see - anytime you want to see them. Most are pretty easy to use the search feature without wading through an ocean of content.

Gdetrailer wrote:
While one could use screen recording software on a PC, the result is a vastly inferior quality recording that is limited to the screen resolution of the PC which will be less than HD quality.

PlayOn is indeed screen capture software. I haven't used it in quite a while but the recording was quite good. My present notebook is set at 1080 which is HD so PlayOn should make an HD recording. Many people are quite content with playing DVDs which are only 480.