HDHomeRun has long been our go-to hardware for over-the-air TV. Plug in an antenna, and you can watch that free signal from just about any device on your home network. (Our go-to these days is the HDHomeRun Scribe Quatro, which features a built-in hard drive for DVR functionality.)
But one gaping hole in that lineup has been Apple TV, which has always required you to purchase a third-party app from Channels. That's changed, however, with the development of a native tvOS app from HDHomeRun itself. The app is now available for free.
This was all brought about thanks to a stretch goal on the crowdfunding campaign for the ATSC 3.0 version of HDHomeRun.
And ... it pretty much looks and feels like HDHomeRun on any other platform. It's functional, even if it's not the most attractive app you've ever seen. It's currently limited to just live TV, though — no DVR support, and no support for channels with DRM.
The important part is that it's free. Channels — which, again, is an excellent app for HDHomeRun — costs $25 on Apple TV. (Same as on Android and Amazon Fire TV; it's free on iOS.) And, in fact, I'd recommend you just go ahead and buy Channels if HDHomeRun is something you're going to use every day, because it's that much better of an experience.
But, still. You can't beat free.
To download the app, just search for HDHomeRun in the app store on your Apple TV.
