Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Update: Failed after 2 months. I get a message to connect ethernet cable when it is already attached. I also replaced the router to see if that would help but it didn't. It gets a lot hotter now than it used to also, much hotter. -------------------- I don’t want to make it sound like this thing is no good, because that’s not the case, it’s just that it is a very unusual piece of ‘AV’ electronics that has little information floating around on it with some strong points, and just as many weak points. First off, the tuner is not all that sensitive; my plane Jane Vizio 436-G1 in my office has a better tuner. The side scroll channel guide has both good and bad aspects. Some may love it, some may hate it; it’s definitely a different take on channel guides. You can expand to the left to display upcoming shows and then scroll down and the expanded section remains to produce a comprehensive display of programs currently or soon to air. The ‘Discover’ option is another way to browse upcoming programs but for some reason the channel the programs are on is not indicated (this is probably to eliminate duplications but is another oddity that has both good and bad aspects). The app design seems to have been intended to be idiot proof, so it doesn’t have a lot of options or flexibility. ‘Surfing’ isn’t possible, it takes anywhere from 2 to 4 seconds for the system to change a channel. AV enthusiasts may be a little disappointed on how little control you have. Things like the channel scan; there is only one option and that’s to do a complete channel scan. There is no add channels or single channel search or anything like that. Some signal information is available on the web at my.hdhomerun.com where there is a signal strength meter and channel signal format info display. This kind of information is not available in the app itself. The web signal strength meter there is instantaneous, not real time. When you open the web page you can’t even see the device info, you have to scroll up to the top to see it. There is a .exe you can download (the support/downloads option at the top of the webpage) that has a real time signal meter that you can view on your computer called hdhomerun_config_gui.exe and hdhomerun_setup.exe has other tuner information you can access. To get the most detailed information regarding signal reception you really need both the Web and the .exe files. The app for my android TV crashes hard sometimes, there is no response from the remote at all. Exiting and restarting does not help, even going as far as turning off the TV and unplugging the HDHomerun box itself would not unfreeze it. Turns out the easiest way to fix it is to go to Settings (for the TV), go to apps and ‘force stop’ on the HDHomerun app, then relaunch. I found that if you have more than one station that share the same virtual channel number, only one can be included in the channel list. I assume the second (higher frequency) one during the search overwrites the first. I really need both, but if I can only have one, the one I want is the one that is overwritten. It can also display channel ID for the channel it gets, but shows guide data for the one that it doesn't. This is an outright flaw in system software that needs to be corrected and you may get hit with it if you have repeaters in your area. Note that for ATSC 3.0 stations, this problem doesn't occur since those stations get a prefix number to separate them from their ATSC 1.0 counterparts. (Note: I have since found there is an odd quirk in the software that if you do a channel scan from the Android App (maybe others too) for some reason the channel that does not show appears in the channel list while the search is being done but is then replaced by the channel that does show when the scan is complete. Odd for sure but if you start a scan and then cancel it, the channel that was not showing before sometimes will stay in the list and you can now view it but it usually won't stay that way for more than a week or so, sometimes just days. Of course, the one that was showing, now is not but you do have a back door way to force the channel you want to use to be in the list.) There is no DVR capability without buying the yearly $35 Silicon Dust channel guide. Even though the record functionality appears to be there, it is hobbled and does nothing. The Pause function is active without a subscription but I find the fast forward and rewind buttons to be pretty clunky. You press the button and wait for about 3 to 5 seconds for the action to complete (probably a 30 second jump). The progress bar does not always reflect the fast forward and reverse inputs and the whole thing requires practice to use efficiently. Note that the fast forward and rewind function if fairly smooth and reasonably fast on recorded shows (meaning that you did buy the yearly subscription). The record menus are as unique as the channel guide; interesting in some ways and frustrating in others. You get the option to record from a specific channel, but not from a specific time slot. Also, there are two options for seasons to record, either current or all. Unfortunately, current must mean the current season, not the season currently being shown on the show you want to record. For Windows users (and probably Apple and Linux too), the audio can’t be controlled from the Windows sound slider, and the audio slider on the HDHomerun Windows app does not alter the volume (other than 0 volume does mute it). You have to use the physical volume control on whatever device is producing audio. Also, to view ATSC 3.0 content on Windows you have to download the HEVC extension for 99 cents. The device states it draws 1 amp at 12 volts (12 watts), it does not get very hot, the router is much hotter. Tuner is weak and may not have the kind options and flexibility AV enthusiasts would want or expect but it is a unique and interesting (and sometimes frustrating) design. Really needs an HDMI output. The user interface is clunky in some aspects but useful and efficient in others. Not a bad device though, just may be a little different than what you are used to.