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| SiliconDust HDHR-US HDHomeRun Networked Digital TV Tuner (White) |
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List Price: $169.99
Our Price: $169.99
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: SiliconDust USA, Inc
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Electronics
Brand: SiliconDust USA, Inc
Color: white
EAN: 0094922698360
Feature: 8-VSB (ATSC over-the-air digital TV)
Is Autographed: 0
Is Memorabilia: 0
Label: SiliconDust USA, Inc
Manufacturer: SiliconDust USA, Inc
Model: HDHR-US
Publisher: SiliconDust USA, Inc
Studio: SiliconDust USA, Inc
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Features
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8-VSB (ATSC over-the-air digital TV)
QAM64/256 (unencrypted digital cable TV)
IR Receiver (signal PC with a standard remote control)
100baseTX high speed network
1 year warranty
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Editorial Reviews:
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With HDHomeRun, you can receive all unencrypted DTV and HDTV content delivered by your cable provider, even if you don?t have a ''digital cable'' package. With HDHomeRun and an antenna, you can get HDTV broadcasts in your area.
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| Spotlight customer reviews: |
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great dual tuner QAM
Comment: This does exactly what it claims. Solid product and very reliable. This is a pretty good deal for two HD tuners and doesn't take up any PCI or PCIx slots.
Really simple to set it to a channel and then pull up a program such as VLC to watch TV and/or save the stream. High quality picture and audio.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Local channel quality/quantity key to unlocking the awesome
Comment: The HDHomeRun performs like a champ. Local cable (TW NYC) provides a decent free feed of broadcast + TNT,TBS,AETV in a unencrypted QAM. It's too bad the dual tuner goes to waste since I rarely have two things I want to record/watch. Check out the channel guide from SiliconDust for the channels your cable provider tosses out in unencrypted QAM, but don't trust the channel labels. Labels don't necessarily match what's currently being broadcast. Expect to get all local broadcast in SD/HD (major networks +1 channel each for 24hr weather), 3-4 PBS channels per station and some but not all basic cable channels (TNT, TBS, AETV, CSPAN, Local Access, not much else). Worked exactly as described, I just wish more was available as unencrypted QAM
Bundled software is minimal, though functional. Hardware compatible with many many PVR software apps. I use MythTV (Linux) after initial testing with VLC and bundled ArcSoft TotalMedia 3.5 (Windows). Can't speak for it's ATSC/OTA abilities, but likely stable/consistent assuming sufficient signal strength from your Antenna.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Disappointing product, disappointing return policy
Comment: HDHomerun worked for about 3 minutes before my mythtv system came up with an error. ANTonline won't issue a return since the box was open. I am still working on trying to get any cable signal back - it's been 2 weeks. I am very disappointed because from other reviews it sounded like this box was plug-and-play.
Customer Rating:
Summary: It is an excellant addition for me.
Comment: I have had the unit for two weeks. Overall I am pleased with the device. It integrates well with Windows Media Center (I run 32 bit Vista Home Premium Version) adding HD channels to the list of call signs and show discriptions went easily. All record funtions work the same. I use an expanded basic Comcast Cable TV feed and can view all of the local HD signals and also about 20 radio stations. But it misses seeing all of the available channels that my LCD TV sees with its built in HD Tuner.
I have an onboard analog tuner; I can record two HD and one analog at the same time and watch anyone of them. I would have to add another analog tuner to watch and recorded on two different analog channels at the same time.
One downside is setup documentation. Basically nothing comes with the device but a CD which I did not use and did not have set up instruction on it. The instructions from the web site are fairly strait forward and downloading the software was easy. But it took a leap of faith at one point where events in the script failed to materialize. I had to reboot the computer and then the tuner was seen by my computer on my network.
Not impressed with their Tuning system for running in just a Vista Mode. From what I have read in previous posts there are third party software options.
I am very happy with the video quality results I get from an Optima projector (WXGA) I bought about three years ago as well as pumping it to my LCD TV. It matches the video quality of the LCD TV tuner. The Olympics and football look great!
I intend to add Microsoft extenders to other rooms soon and try sending signals out to other points around the house.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Wonderful network tuner with some limitations.
Comment: 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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