Thoughts on HD Homerun

I think many people are waiting for the HD HomeRun Prime, which has been delayed several times. SD is waiting for Cable Labs certification, and the next approval date is May 5th. We have seen those approval dates come and go for a year or so now. Anyway if you are not familiar, here's the link.

http://www.silicondust.com/forum/vie...f2ff7006e7e0a2

I think the OP is wanting to go OTA and not have a monthly cable bill.

I have a hd homerun for ota lying around. Where do you want it shipped?

If the OP doesn't want it, I'd love to have a basic one. Adding a new HTPC to the bedroom this month...

Been using one nearly a year and half. No problems at all and all three of my PC's with Windows Media Center can use a tuner if one is free. That's the best thing about having it on the network, any computer on said network can use the tuners.

To the OP:

Most of the people here are going to have HDHR1's and 2's which have been discontinued and replaced by the HDHR3. So you might want to be more specific about whether you intend to buy a used HDHR1 or 2 and want comments about those units or if you intend to buy a new HDHR3 and only want comments about the new model.

BTW, IMHO, there appears to be a FUD campaign against the HDHR's recently so you might want to take the source of any negative comments into account.

The HDHomerun?

I want one.

Ya, hoping they don't fail CableLabs certification this time. I'm guessing they've failed it a few times hence the delay.

I've had my dual tuner HD Homerun for quite some time now, and migrated from MCE through VMC and now to 7MC all with the same unit. It's been almost 2 years now since I canceled my cable TV for OTA, saving me ~$90/mo. I really love the tuner, and I've been shopping Ebay to pick up a second one used but haven't quite found the right deal yet.

Before the HD Homerun I had a WinTV PCI card under XP/"Whistler" (circa 2004), and then when MCE came out (2005?) it was only compatible with certain tuners so I had to buy a different Win TV card for that. I have nothing negative to say about the Win TV cards or Hauppauge, but the convenience of having the tuners external to the PC was a real bonus for me.

Once I get a second one I plan to assign one tuner to my HTPC giving it 3 total tuners and for the other tuner I'll build a small ITX box for a bedroom just to use as a tuner/extender. Another convenience - being able to support multiple PCs from a single HD Homerun...

No, it works well. Keep in mind this is HDHR NOT the Prime which isn't released yet.

Like many others here, I use the HDHR2. I use with it limited basic cable. I show my dual tuners between two machines. I've been happy with it.

Not that you plan to do it, but with the HDHR3, there is only one signal feed, so you cannot use cable and OTA feeds into the same box. From what I read, the new box is smaller, and supposedly has better performance. It's also cheaper than HDHR2.

The new prime, HDHR3-CC, when released with have three tuners. Suggest MSRP is going to be $250.

The HDHRs are a good value, especially if you already TV/PVR solftware.

I have one, but I don't like it. I prefer avermedia duets instead. Simpler setup, cheaper and less cabling. Obviously if you need an external device, the duet won't help you.

the only issue I've had with the duet is after 3 years it looks to be dying so I had to buy another one. I guess 3+ years of continuous use was too much.

just my 2 cents.

*sigh* If it ever gets released. It feels like I've been waiting forever. When it's finally released, then I'll re-subscribe to cable (I'm missing some of my sports in HD). I figure two HDHR3-CC's would be cheaper in the long run than 1xHD-DVR ($25/mo) and 2xHD-STB ($5+$15/mo) rentals.

You've got one less (coaxial) cable on the HDHR3-US compared to the original HDHR. Still have power and network cables, though.

I like the HDHomeRun because it's out of the way. I have a pair of rabbit ears by the window (apartment so can't use external antenna nor mess with in-wall coax runs) and instead of having to run coax to every room, I just have a short (3') run to the HDHomeRun's connected to a nearby gigabit switch, which is then connected via a 50' cat6 cable to the primary switch. I find that easier/simpler than running coax to every HTPC/TV. Less signal loss, too.

I've been using my HDHR for a couple years now, using it for basic cable. Never had a problem with it, which I love. Can't say that for a lot of computer type hardware. I've also heard that it works well with OTA.

You can also check out the forums at Silicondust for more info.

I have owned the HDHR3 for almost 2 months now (since it was released). I really like. We dropped cable and only use it for OTA recording. Because its a network tuner you have so much more flexibility. We have our antenna in the attic and being able to use ethernet cables to get the signal to the PC instead of just COAX is a huge benefit in my situation. Like someone else also noted, other devices on your network can also access the TV feed, we use an XBOX to watch live TV.

You don't live in AZ by chance? I've got an unopened Eagle Aspen DTV2Bufh that I don't need. Sell it cheap...

I've had my hd home run duel tuner for about a month and I love it. I'm 100% OTA also enjoying the cost savings. I use the hd home run for recording one show while watching though the tv's tuner. What I have noticed is the picture quality is better though the tv antenna than my htpc. I haven't tweaked anything yet I'm not even sure if there is anything to tweak using win7 media center. I also have noticed a slight dimming and brightness at times during playback of recorded shows and at times watching live though the hdhomerun again not sure why that is yet. I can watch tv through the tv tuner record a show and my wife can watch though her laptop cooking dinner.

I have the HDHR3 and it's worked great for me for the month I've had it. I've got it hard wired and using it to capture ClearQAM signal after I cut cable.

It took me awhile to get it up and running but that was my own fault. I'm the type that ignores directions and likes to figure things out myself. If your like that, save yourself a bunch of time and follow all the setup instructions on the website

http://www.silicondust.com/support/h...ructions/wmc7/