I bought an HDHomeRun tuner a long time ago.. one of the fairly early units, and it has always worked reasonably well. I think I may get more drops than with my previous PCI based tuners, but it has been pretty good overall.

After moving to a new location, I found that there were several channels that seemed strong, but would not lock with my HDHR. The analog version of the channels looked very good, with no multipath/ghosting. But, I would never get a reliable lock on the digital channels.

So, I picked up a new HDHR at the local MicroCenter, and after swapping that in, all the problem channels before are now locking.

This is all seen with the HDHR as the tuner for my MythTV backend.. just thought I'd post my experience in case others are having problems.

Interesting. Had you upgraded the firmware on your old one to the latest over time?
-Trouble

There's a Rev 2 HDHomeRun hardware that was just recently released. Device numbers start with 1013. It's got a new demodulator which supposedly works better than the previous model in multi-path environments.

Cyberestore is the only retailer I know of that sells guaranteed Rev 2 models. Albeit, the HDHomeRun I ordered from Newegg on the last week of March was Rev 2 so I'm guessing most other retailers would be carrying those now.

Yes, I have upgraded the firmware on my older unit.
I have continued to test the new one, and while I can still get some breakups on the marginal channels, there were several that simply would not lock with my older unit.

The device number on my new unit starts with 1014, so it's a revision 2.

Hmm, so they've released a newer batch, again? Out of curiosity, where'd you buy yours?
Rev 1 - Oren CAS220 chipset (http://www.zoran.com/Cascade2)
Rev 2 - Micronas DRXJ chipset (http://www.micronas.com/products/by_function/drx_393yj/product_information/index.html)

I got it at a MicroCenter store, in Santa Clara / San Jose, CA. They had two boxes in the store, so I picked the one that looked newer. I guess I picked right.

Meh, no MicroCenter near where I live. Oh well, cyberestore.com guarantees Rev 2 models so I guess I'll go with them.

dvrupgrade.com has been shipping rev 2 units since February, with free shipping.

Already bought mine from cyberestore.com. I left the HDHomeRun in my shopping cart and they emailed me a 5% off coupon because they noticed I didn't check out. :D

Coupon's AIRSTAR. They told me it should be good at least until end of April. :)

Can someone tell us how to figure out by number which rev. we have?

Check your device number.
1012xxxx & lower = revision 1
1013xxxx & higher = revision 2

There's a Rev 2 HDHomeRun hardware that was just recently released. Device numbers start with 1013. It's got a new demodulator which supposedly works better than the previous model in multi-path environments.

Is it only better in multipath environments? What about weak signal/distance tuning? I bought mine from DVRUpgrade on Feb. 2 and it starts with 1011 serial number, so I guess it's Rev. 1. I haven't been able to get it to work with MythBuntu - Myth says it can't lock in any channels. I was trying to get it to work for a about month in April after my build before I went on vacation, and HDHR support claims I have low signal. I'm in Denver, about 8 miles from the downtown low level antenna broadcasts. I borrowed a Haupage USB tuner from a friend and plugged it into my Vista laptop and oriented my amplified indoor antenna (MANT510) so that I was able to pick up most of the local HD stations clearly (only a couple PBS stations which broadcast from a mountain which may be behind another mountain in my line of sight were unviewable), plus a few outlying stations (Fort Collins? Co. Springs?). I don't know what to do. If the Hauppage has no problems, why should the HDHR? My $900 HTPC is basically a doorstep for now, and I'm not so sure waiting until next year when they must complete building the high powered antennas in the foothills will solve my problem. I think it's too late to return my HDHR to DVRUpgrade, but if I still can't get it to work, will probably try that.

I'd have to guess something else is wrong. Try using the HDHR software with vlc to see if you get anything (I do this on windows for ease). Perhaps you have your antenna plugged into port 1 and are tuning on port 0 or vice-versa? 8 miles away with an amplified antenna should get you everything. Also, are you making sure to scan ATSC instead of QAM? I'm 40+ miles away from the area towers and can pick up at least a few channels with a set top unamped antenna on an old hdhr that I bought the first week it came out.
-Trouble

"8 miles away with an amplified antenna should get you everything."

Or you might get overload. Try a directional non-amplified antenna.

A device ID of 1013xxxx or higher is rev 2.



RF tuner demodulator chip power consumption
Rev 1: Thomson DTF8640B Oren CAS220 7.2W max
Rev 2: ? Micronas DRX 393yJ 4.5W max

What RF tuner does the rev 2 unit have? This info should be
printed on the "tin can". Could someone with a rev 2 unit
take a look?

Are there any other differences between the rev 1 and rev 2 units?

hmm, i just got one and the i have the 1014 version. revision 3?

hmm, i just got one and the i have the 1014 version. revision 3?

I got one with a 1014 number, popped the cover, and the circuit board says version 2.3. The sticker on the tuner module says:

JINXIN
UVS1805BDMW1
0803-2527

"8 miles away with an amplified antenna should get you everything."

Or you might get overload. Try a directional non-amplified antenna.

Denver stations were still broadcasting at low power from downtown in the spring when I last tried. In August, I believe most of them moved to the new antennas on the foothills 20 miles away, but I think they're still at relatively low power until Feb 17. I haven't had time to tinker with it more since then, but I hope to test it out again this weekend or the next few. I've since built another PC with enough processor power and Ubuntu to be my all-purpose PC which I hope to run Myth front end on also.

Denver stations were still broadcasting at low power from downtown in the spring when I last tried.

I'm in the Denver area as well (Boulder) and I have the older HDHR (1010). Sure wish I had seen this thread before I got mine off of eBay a couple months ago. Nonetheless, I am getting virtually all of the local stations, from roughly 30 miles out.

If you haven't done so already, I would suggest getting hold of a Windoze machine and playing around with the HDHR through the little HDHomeRun Config (GUI) utility. With that you can see what kind of signal strength, signal quality, and symbol quality you are getting on each channel.

On the analog frequencies for major commercial stations (e.g., 2,4,7,9,20, 31), you should see a high signal strength reading but zero signal quality/symbol quality. If you don't see that, then either your HDHR is kaput or your antenna setup is defective.

On the digital frequencies (e.g., 16,17.18,19,32,35,38) you need a decent signal strength (45% is bare minimum) but the more important things to pay attention to are signal quality/symbol quality. If the signal quality bounces around a lot and the symbol quality goes in an out of lock(green), then you probably have some multipath issues to deal with. You can try fiddling with the antenna location and orientation to find the most stable positioning for the set of channels you care about. When you are happy with what you see, THEN go and try finding the channels in Myth.

Hope that helps.