HDTV Reviews and Prices

Style: Dual Tuner

197 of 205 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars great network tuner with many restrictions., August 10, 2008
By JarOfSonicMen See all my reviews This review is from: SiliconDust HDHomeRun HDHR US Dual Networked High meaning Digital TV (White) (Electronics) OK, let us get the cons out of the way first: This box doesn’t have a slot for CableCards, which means that you aren’t going to use it to record anything except either OTA digital TV (from an antenna) or the big networks on clear QAM from your cable. That is just the way it’s, that is what this box was intended to do, and that can not be changed. It’ll not pick up analog or encrypted digital cable channels. It doesn’t interact with your TV at all, unless you’re using your TV as a computer monitor. This isn’t the way to change your old TV to get digital TV.

So what good is it? You may be able to use it to pick up digital TV from an antenna or unencrypted QAM (usually network) cable signals, and stream to your computer for watching or recording.

I have two of these on my local network. I use them to stream Fox, NBC, ABC, and CBS to my MythTV box, where I record everything broadcast by the Big four in primetime onto two 750GB disks, which hold about two weeks of the programming I record. I demoted my TiVos to cable channel and backup network use.

If your computer isn’t dual core, it is not powerful enough to watch HDTV with (though it’ll do OK recording, if you have something else to watch with/on).

This unit also has a builtin infrared port that will transmit the codes from your remote control to your computer after you configure it.

It does come with many software, but I do not know what it does, I already had my older HDHomerun hooked up, and just added this one in MythTVSetup. As another reviewer mentioned, there isn’t a toll free number to call for support, they use the internet and forums at silicondust. It is worth many time poking around those forums to see what people are doing, and what problems people are having, to see if this item is really what you need.

It does exactly what I want, and I am considering adding a 3rd one for PBS and CW recording, and to experiment with building a Gray Hoverman HDTV antenna.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST it’s vital to use only RG6 coax cables and 2MHz rated splitters for most cable HDTV. One foot of RG58 between my splitter and my HDHomerun totally destroyed the signal to that input. Do not convince yourself yours is broken till you know your cables are good.

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72 of 73 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars four Years of dependable Use, September 23, 2008
By Glenn R. Howes (Nashua, NH) See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME) This review is from: SiliconDust HDHomeRun HDHR US Dual Networked High meaning Digital TV (White) (Electronics) What I like about this product is the flexibility a networked device delivers. All the computers in my house can access it as needed: the Linux box running MythTV, the Vista PC running Media Center, the Mac running EyeTV. My iPhone can access the HDHomerun to check on antenna signal quality (using an iPhone application I wrote: Signal GH). A tuner in a PCI slot or on a USB dongle could not be almost as useful and could tend to be harder to setup as special device drivers could be obliged. And if every computer had own tuner, my antenna signal strength could be split down to nothing.

I was an early adopter of this gadget, buying one in November 2006. It was dependable and has good sensitivity for over the air transmits hooked up to my rooftop antenna. The maker released a steady stream of firmware updates ensuing in a gadget you may be able to rely on not to crash. As a software engineer I am impressed with the quality of the publicly available code for controlling the device.

I’ve found it to be very easy to use with MythTV, making it one of the not many easy things about MythTV. Both tuners are connected to my home’s antenna system. I have a big UHF antenna with a pre amp on a short mast on my roof about 30 miles from the big cluster of antennas near Boston, MA. On instances when the trees are full of leaves, I get many intermittent picture loss on two of my channels, but for most of the year I get free network TV of great quality, though I wish NBC and PBS could cut down on their sub channels.

My Kill A Watt tells me my HDHomerun draws 6W, which is not awful, and newer revisions are recognized for somewhat better power handling but something to think about for people worried about still another constant electricity sink.

In spring of 2010, I also bought the blue single tuner model. It appears to be just the same quality, easy use, and signal locking of it is expensive sibling. I bought it over another dual tuner as there are never four good programs on simultaneously but on occasion there are three.

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30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of five stars great device the future of television?, May 16, 2008
By John S. Lyon Smith (Redmond, WA USA) See all my reviews
(REAL NAME) This review is from: SiliconDust HDHomeRun HDHR US Dual Networked High meaning Digital TV (White) (Electronics) This product is great. After receiving the device I literally plugged it in to the cable TV, network and power, installed the EyeTV 3.0 software on my iMac and BAM!! It worked. Beautiful high meaning TV TV right on my Mac desktop. I can not fault the device. Yes it’s ugly but you may be able to put in a cupboard on on a counter and never have to look at it again. I really do not understand why does not stock the device. The only downsides that I encountered are with the Electronic Program Guide for the EyeTV software which really uses TitanTV. It took 24 hours for it to download the 1st program guide, , then I had to manually tweak all the stations.

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