# Tvheadend

5 Hacker News commenters recommended Tvheadend and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free server for receiving over-the-air TV and radio, praised for deep customization, reliability, and a full-featured DVR.

## Why people recommend it

- Lots of customization (2 comments): "I looked a bit and seems like it's the best. So much customization it would be hard to reach it's quality" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47982899)) "Works very reliable, supports all kind of complex configurations, best way of receiving OTA TV and radio." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47985194))
- Reliable with complex configurations (1 comments): "Works very reliable, supports all kind of complex configurations, best way of receiving OTA TV and radio." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47985194))
- Full-featured DVR system (1 comments): "fairly full-featured DVR system" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47983903))
- Long-established, well-known project (1 comments): "tvheadend has been around for a long time, glad to see it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47982673))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [TiVo DVR](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tivo.md): 13 recommend
- [HDHomeRun](https://hackerapproved.com/p/hdhomerun.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Tvheadend", https://hackerapproved.com/p/tvheadend/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).