Home > Consumer Reviews > SiliconDust HDHomeRun HDHR-US Dual Networked High Definition Digital Television (White)

I got this to record TV with the same PC that I use for Internet etc. It is a Core2Duo 8500. The included software did not recognize the two tuners so I tried a couple of others, settling on BeyondTV. The tuners of this unit are not as good as those on my DTV converter, so I had to get a better antenna. Sometimes the DTV box would be running the TV OK, but the same broadcast would be unwatchable on the HDHR with the PC. So, for an antenna, I got the Channel Master 4221HD, new version, mounted on the post of a old unused torchiere floor lamp with the lamp bowl removed, indoors. The output is split between the two tuners with RG6 cable throughout. I'm on the 2nd floor, about 25 miles from the two local transmission towers. I've not seen the worst weather yet, but the reception and recording is now pretty good. HDHomeRun's own little application says I sometimes get 100% signal strength, 95% signal quality, 100% symbol quality.

On the computer, I decided to add an ethernet card to give the HDHomeRun its own exclusive port rather than connecting it to my router. Windows will sometimes get into a state where it is endlessly trying to find an IP address for the HDHR even if the address is set manually. Download a simple DHCP server application, like DHCPsrv, to solve this. The solution is not perfect. Sometimes you have to turn off that DHCP server and then turn it on again. Also, once in a long while, say weeks maybe, you might have to power cycle the HDHR to reboot it. The symptom for this is a TV program which plays good for 3 seconds and then hesitates for 2 seconds repeatedly.

Edit: The DHCP server application is unneeded if the Windows DHCP Client service is on as it is by default. See Settings > Administrative Tasks > Services. Even when this is on though, setting a permanent 169.254.x.x address up in the 2nd panel which appears in the setup for the ethernet card speeds up the connection process greatly. The "good for 3 seconds.." phenomenon noted above may have been due to RF interference from a nearby radio amateur.

Now with this, I can actually save electricity by watching TV on the computer without turning on the TV. I can check out programs that I wouldn't have bothered with before. BeyondTV is pretty easy to use and has two interfaces. One is designed for a TV sized screen, but the other is designed for a web browser. You can see much more on the latter and use it with the mouse much more easily. They give you a free remote too when you buy the program, but I've not used it. BeyondTV downloads TV listings from the Net, which you click set up to record.

Also, with BeyondTV, be sure you don't have any other video playing programs active when trying to view TV or recorded programs. There's some kind of contention and you end up with an interlaced picture. Close the BeyondTV window, then quit the other application. Then, BeyondTV will show a beautiful picture again.

All in all, it's a very good product. Give it its own hard disk. Try BeyondTV. Give it a good antenna. And, with any luck, reception will get even better after June, 2009. Lastly, you might have to upgrade your video card to watch HDTV on your monitor. The Nvidia 8500GT Silent Magic works OK. I have no affiliation with any of the companies mentioned above.

I am a very technology oriented person and have built several PCs. I just built my first Media Center PC and came across the HD HomeRun product. I was skeptical about how well a tuner would really work, and whether my 100Mbit wired network could handle high definition signals. Wow! This thing was simple to setup and worked right off with Vista Media Center Edition. It is so much simpler than having to install PCI cards and run coaxial cable to your PC, you can install this thing anywhere you have a cable outlet (or antenna) and a network jack!

I am using this with Time Warner Cable in Cincinnati and it detects and picks up the ClearQAM stations perfectly. I was a little surprised because I have read other tuner reviews where the tuner could receive a station but wasn't able to detect the station on channel scan. For the record I have digital cable, but my understanding is that ClearQAM comes through even if you only have analog cable.

This isn't a fault of the product, as it is clearly explained, but my only wish is that this thing could pickup analog too. I have one Hauppauge MCE 150 PCI card in the PC to get the analog cable stations (kids can't live without Nick and Disney).

Buy it - you will be happy!

I use this for watching OTA HDTV channels on my Gentoo Linux workstation. It does that job admirably and with none of the driver issues that plague other Linux TV solutions. It consumes about 15-20% of my 3GHz quad-core processor when the real-time HDTV stream is being displayed on the desktop.

It comes with a single CD that contains no manual, and almost no software. You have to go to the SiliconDust website to get information on how to install and run it. It's really fairly simple if you already have a DHCP server running on your network, and an application capable of streaming video (ala VLC on Linux). There's an ebuild for Gentoo available on the http://bugs.gentoo.org bugzilla that installs the config program and the config GUI. Then plug the HDHomeRun into your network and the DHCP server assigns it an address. Attach the antenna or cable input. Then run the config GUI, and it will find the device on the network and allow you to scan the channels and open a VLC window to watch the stream. When you're not actively streaming the box shuts down automatically to avoid wasting network bandwidth.

Took me about 10 minutes to go from out-of-the-box to watching 1080p HDTV on my Gentoo box. That's amazing.

Not much to be said here that hasn't been mentioned in the dozens of online reviews for the HDHR. If you are looking to setup an HTPC that can receive OTA HD or unencrypted digital QAM then the HDHR is for you. The picture quality if remarkable. One word of caution, Silicon Dust has a recall on one of the earlier power supplies that shipped with the unit. Go to their site and make sure you have the right one. They'll ship it to you for free if necessary. Otherwise you risk the HDHR locking up during your favorite TV show.

Really good HD quality. Works with El gato TV and Mythtv flawlessly on a celeron processor. Kind of expensive but it is the best multiplatform HD tunner you can find right now.