Freetvarr

What Freetvarr is ​

Freetvarr records free-to-air TV and files each episode into your TV library. Watch it on your TV in Plex, Jellyfin, Kodi, or another media player, with pause, rewind, and skip.

With it, you can:

  • Record from a 7-day guide on your phone or computer: one episode, or every episode of a series.
  • Watch recordings in your own player. Each episode goes into a series and season folder with its episode number, so your player shows the right title and artwork. If you use Plex, Freetvarr also tells Plex to scan its library.
  • Cut the ad breaks, if you want them gone. Freetvarr keeps the original in case a cut goes wrong.
  • Watch live TV in a browser on any phone, tablet, or computer, with no app to install, and pause or rewind up to 30 minutes. To watch live TV on the TV itself, use one of the TV apps that Live TV lists.
  • Clear out TVHeadend. If you use Plex, Freetvarr can delete each recording once Plex has the episode.

Freetvarr runs in Docker next to TVHeadend and a TVHeadend-compatible tuner, on a computer that stays on, such as a NAS or a mini PC. Hardware covers the tuner, and Getting started covers the install.

Plex DVR ​

If you have a Plex Pass, you may not need Freetvarr. Plex's own DVR records free-to-air TV from a network tuner straight into your Plex library, and that is a fine choice. Plex DVR instead compares the two and says what Plex DVR costs without a Plex Pass.

How it files recordings ​

TVHeadend names each recording after the programme title only, for example The Block.ts. Plex, Jellyfin, and Kodi match a file to an episode only when the name has a season and episode number (S01E02) or an air date. Freetvarr finds new recordings. It files each episode of a series into your TV library as Show/Season 01/Show - S01E02.ts, or by air date when the TV guide has no episode number. A one-off, such as a sports final, goes to a separate folder named after its title. When Freetvarr sees the recordings folder and the library through one mount, the import is a hardlink: it is instant and uses no extra disk space.

Where it works ​

Everywhere TVHeadend works. Freetvarr talks only to TVHeadend's HTTP API and the recordings folder, so the broadcast standard is TVHeadend's problem: DVB-T/T2 (Australia, New Zealand, UK, Europe), DVB-C and DVB-S, ATSC (United States and Canada), ISDB-T. The tuner model, the TV guide source, and the mux scan list differ by country, and all of them are TVHeadend settings.

Any tuner that TVHeadend can drive works: a network tuner, a USB DVB stick, a PCIe card, SAT>IP, or IPTV. Hardware covers the choice.

NOTE

These pages use Australian values in their examples (the Australia/Sydney time zone, the au-Sydney mux list, a Sydney XMLTV feed, a comskip.ini tuned for Australian channels) because that is where the author lives. Each one is an example. Substitute your own region's values as you go; Hardware and TVHeadend say what to pick instead.

What Freetvarr isn't ​

  • Not an indexer integration (Sonarr / Radarr / Prowlarr). Freetvarr works with the recordings TVHeadend has made, and its TV Guide schedules what TVHeadend records next. It doesn't search the internet for content.
  • Not a tuner. TVHeadend drives the tuner, scans the muxes, and writes the files. Freetvarr talks to TVHeadend's HTTP API and never controls the hardware. See TVHeadend.
  • Not authenticated. There's no login, so it's built for a home network you trust. The usual web hardening is in place (CSRF protection, rate limiting, a strict content-security policy), but anyone who can reach the page can change its settings, so don't expose it to the internet. See the security model.
  • Not a converter. Files arrive from TVHeadend as .ts (the raw broadcast format) and stay .ts; Freetvarr never re-encodes them. The optional ad removal drops the ad sections without re-encoding, so there's no quality loss. If you want .mkv, run the files through Tdarr or similar afterwards.
  • Not a notifier. No Discord / ntfy / push integration.

IMPORTANT

Tested against TVHeadend 4.3 fed by an HDHomeRun Flex Quatro, with Plex Media Server. Other tuners and TVHeadend versions are unverified.

Background ​

The author first wrote Fetcharr, which copied recordings off a Fetch TV box into Plex. When Fetch announced its Gen 3 levy, he bought an HDHomeRun tuner, set up TVHeadend, and swapped Fetcharr's pieces one at a time until the new setup worked. That became Freetvarr. Only after all that did he notice that his own Plex Pass already covered Plex DVR, which records from the same tuner with no extra software; Plex DVR instead compares the two. For people without a Plex Pass, Freetvarr is one option, but the hardware still costs a few hundred dollars. Leaving Fetch TV compares that cost with a new Fetch box.

Where next ​

It works on a phone, too.

Dashboard on a phone
The TV Guide on a phone
Live TV on a phone

GPL-3.0-or-later. Not affiliated with or endorsed by SiliconDust, TVHeadend, or Plex.

Source on GitHub