Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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63 of 66 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful network tuner with some limitations., August 10, 2008
OK, let's get the cons out of the way first: This box does not have a slot for CableCards, which means that you are not going to use it to record anything except either OTA digital TV (from an antenna) or the major networks on clear QAM from your cable. That's just the way it is, that's what this box was designed to do, and that cannot be changed. It will not pick up analog or encrypted-digital cable channels. It does not interact with your television at all, unless you are using your TV as a computer monitor. This is NOT the way to convert your old TV to receive digital TV.
So what good is it? You can 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 4 in primetime onto 2 750GB disks, which hold about 2 weeks of the programming I record. I have demoted my TiVos to cable-channel and backup network use.
If your computer is not dual-core, it's not powerful enough to watch HDTV with (though it will 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 some software, but I don't know what it does, I already had my older HDHomerun hooked up, and just added this one in MythTVSetup. As another reviewer mentioned, there is not a toll-free number to call for support, they use the internet and forums at silicondust. It's worth some 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 are looking for.
It does exactly what I want, and I'm considering adding a third one for PBS and CW recording, and to experiment with building a Gray-Hoverman HDTV antenna.
LAST BUT NOT LEAST It is very important to use only RG6 coax cables and 2MHz-rated splitters for most cable HDTV. 1 foot of RG58 between my splitter and my HDHomerun completely destroyed the signal to that input. Don't convince yourself yours is broken until you know your cables are good.
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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
2 Years of Reliable Use, September 23, 2008
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. Even 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 would not be nearly as useful and would tend to be harder to setup as special device drivers would be required. And if every computer had its own tuner, my antenna signal strength would be split down to nothing.
I was an early adopter of this gadget, purchasing one in November 2006. It has been reliable and has good sensitivity for over the air broadcasts hooked up to my rooftop antenna. The manufacturer has released a steady stream of firmware updates resulting in a gadget you can rely on not to crash. As a software engineer I'm impressed with the quality of the publicly available code for controlling the device. El Gato sells a package with this tuner and their (really good) EyeTV software for OS X, and I would recommend Mac users go that route.
I've found it to be extremely easy to use with MythTV, making it one of the few easy things about MythTV.
My Kill-A-Watt tells me my HDHomerun draws 6W, which isn't horrible, but something to keep in mind for people worried about yet another constant electricity sink.
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic device - the future of television?, May 16, 2008
This product is fantastic. 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 was working. Beautiful high definition television TV right on my Mac desktop. I cannot fault the device. Yes it is ugly but you can put in a cupboard on on a shelf and never have to look at it again. I really don't understand why Amazon doesn't stock the device. The only downsides that I have encountered are with the Electronic Program Guide for the EyeTV software which actually uses TitanTV. It took 24 hours for it to download the first program guide, and then I had to manually tweak all the stations.
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