5 Responses to “SiliconDust HDHomeRun HDHR-US Dual Networked High Definition Digital Television (White)”

1. JarOfSonicMen
   August 2nd, 2010 @ 6:15 pm

   Review by JarOfSonicMen for SiliconDust HDHomeRun HDHR-US Dual Networked High Definition Digital Television (White)
   Rating:
   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.

2. Glenn R. Howes
   August 2nd, 2010 @ 6:22 pm

   Review by Glenn R. Howes for SiliconDust HDHomeRun HDHR-US Dual Networked High Definition Digital Television (White)
   Rating:
   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.

   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, and newer revisions are known for slightly better power usage but something to keep in mind for people worried about yet another constant electricity sink.

   I’ve recently also purchased the blue single tuner model. It appears to be just the same quality, ease of use, and signal locking of it’s higher priced sibling. I bought it over another dual tuner as there are never four good programs on at the same time but often there are three.

3. John S. Lyon Smith
   August 2nd, 2010 @ 6:36 pm

   Review by John S. Lyon Smith for SiliconDust HDHomeRun HDHR-US Dual Networked High Definition Digital Television (White)
   Rating:
   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.

4. Gluteus Maximus
   August 2nd, 2010 @ 6:52 pm

   Review by Gluteus Maximus for SiliconDust HDHomeRun HDHR-US Dual Networked High Definition Digital Television (White)
   Rating:
   I was debating for a while if I should purchase a mac mini with the hd homerun or an apple tv or tivo. A tivo will cost me $299 plus a monthly cost. The apple tv will cost $299. A mac mini is $599 plus $170 for the hd homerun for a total of $769.

   It cost more than tivo or the apple tv but you can do a lot more with a mac mini and hd homerun combined. You can use it as a standalone computer and dvd player.

   The hd homerun can record two shows at once and will work just like the tivo.

   If you pair the hd homerun with elgato eyetv software this setup becomes superior and easy to use.

   The mac mini can do the same as the apple tv. You get less memory on the mini but cheap external hard drives take care of the problem. The mini comes with a remote and front row as well.

   Here is my setup:
   
   -Mac Mini 1.83ghz c2d
   
   -Silicon Dust HD HomeRun
   
   -Elgato EyeTV Software
   
   -Google these free plugins for EyeTV: pyetv (integrates eyetv into front row), etvcomskip (skips commercials automatically when watching a recorded show.
   
   -Logitech Dinovo Edge Mac Edition: This is essential to the setup. Its a keyboard with a built it trackpad. No more shuffling between a keyboard and mouse. Its an all in one making life a lot easier.

   The hd homerun works perfect. With elgato eyetv software setup was really easy.

5. ScottW
   August 2nd, 2010 @ 7:21 pm

   Review by ScottW for SiliconDust HDHomeRun HDHR-US Dual Networked High Definition Digital Television (White)
   Rating:
   This device is MAGIC. I had XP with Media Center 2005 with a dual-tuner analog (NTSC) card. I needed to add digital (ATSC) tuners for the OTA digital transition in June, but still need analog for some in-house devices that broadcast analog via RF modulators.

   I tried several different analog/digital combo and hybrid cards. I had the best luck with the Hauppauge 2250, but that “best” still meant random lockups in MCE, corrupted recordings, codec problems, and hours with technical support and different driver versions. None of the cards provided anything approaching stable operation.

   Then I found the HDHomeRun. The install worked first time, XP Media Center saw both the new tuners, and everything works perfectly. I now have FOUR tuners (the two old NTSC, and the two new ATSC in the HDHomeRun) and all work flawlessly. No lockups, no reboots, no driver nightmares.

   Some technical tips:
   
   - If you want to use HDHomeRun with XP Media Center 2005, you must have an analog tuner card installed before installing HDHomeRun. This is because XP MCE2005 requires a analog tuner. Vista MCE and Windows7 MCE do not have this requirement, so they can use HDHomeRun without any internal tuner card. Similarly, third-party TV/PVR apps can use the HDHomeRun on XP without an internal tuner card.
   
   - With XP and Media Center 2005, you must have the Media Center Rollup update installed. There are instructions and links for this on SilconDust’s web page.
   
   - Two concurrent video streams from the HDHomeRun will generate about 60mbps on your local network. That’s 60% of a 100mbps network, which is fine if you don’t have much other traffic on your LAN. If you have a lot of other traffic, consider upgrading your LAN to gigabit Nics/Routers/Switches.
   
   - If you have a router and are using MAC filters, be sure to add the HDHomeRun MAC address to your router’s MAC filter table. The MAC address is printed on the bottom of the HDHomeRun.
   
   - The HDHomeRun requires DHCP (no way to set a static address, although if your router supports DHCP reservations you can use that).

   I have one disagreement with the previous reviewer who said to “use 2MHz-rated splitters”. First, I think he meant “2Ghz” since “2Mhz” is far below the TV band. Second, SiliconDust’s setup instructions warn that “splitters rated for 2GHz operation should be avoided…” because they “…do not perform well at cable/antenna frequencies.” SiliconDust recommends using splitters rated for “50Mhz-900Mhz or 50Mhz-1000Mhz operation” with the HDHomeRun.

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