If I end my cable subscription and have only an indoor antenna for my Roku TV, am I able to record shows on, e.g., CBS or public TV, for later play back?
This is probably a very basic question, but I am not tech-savy. Thanks for any advice.
No, there is no recording capability with any Roku device, player or TV. But there are ways to record over the air (OTA) broadcasts.
One way is adding a TV tuner to a computer and use some sort of DVR (digital video recording) software, which most computer TV tuners provide. Hauppauge probably has the widest variety of computer TV tuners. Some attach to a USB port, while some are internal PC cards. Many have more than one tuner, so you can record more than one broadcast at a time. Your only limitation on recording is the free space you have on a hard drive.
There are a number of stand-alone boxes that offer OTA recording. TiVo and Tablo are two manufacturers. These too offer multi-tuner devices.
A third option is a network tuner. Silicon Dust is probably the largest manufacturer of these devices. Their advantage is you can place the tuner anywhere it's convenient to connect to your network and the OTA antenna. If you connect a hard drive directly to the network tuner, you can tell it to record whatever you like. Silicon Dust offers an app/channel for Roku and other streaming devices, so you can program it to record from your Roku, as well as watching the recorded program at any time.
This is what I now use after using a PC card tuner for years. I have the HDHomeRun 4K Flex, which has four tuners, two of which can tune the new ATSC 3.0 stations. It sits out in my garage, very close to the antenna I have hanging from my garage ceiling. I use a home theater PC (HTPC) to control my recordings, rather than connecting a drive to the Flex. I also use a software program called VideoReDo to edit out the commercials, then save the finished file to my main media server.
You can use one of the HD Homerun devices with it's app added to your Roku to watch local programming or record it and playback. I've used this setup for years on both a Tivo Stream 4K and now on Roku Express 4K+. All you need in addition is a storage drive. I use my computer since it has plenty of room. You can also program it to record anything up to about 2 weeks down the road or every weekly program in a series.