HDHomeRun - CONNECT DUO Tuner FREE Live OTA TV - Black

The product name is HDHomeRun Connect. The first two letters are HD and the troubleshooting guide online for "HD channels do not play smoothly" says "This is a known issue of the current player. We are working on updates to better handle HD channel playback." After purchasing this "HD" product, how long are their customers supposed to wait before it delivers on its namesake? I will be returning mine tomorrow.

Super quick and easy process to get up and running on my (wired) computer with the free software. Picture quality was much better than expected....however, I had issues getting anywhere near the same quality & results on wifi devices. I ended up returning the Connect, and purchasing an Extend to get the on-device transcoding, thinking that that was the problem. The results weren't any better with the Extend. Oddly, streaming remotely through PLEX, it worked great...so I'm guessing that my specific issues are more related to my so-so wife, and not these HDHR devices themselves

Easy as can be ... connect the HDHomeRun to your router and a TV antenna and BAMM! TV anywhere in your house from any device that is on your home network. All it takes is the HDHomeRun app on your tablet, phone or computer or streaming device. I have it on the Nvidia Shield TV for our primary TV and using it also on mobile and laptops. The DVR add-on service for only $35 is a great deal and runs flawless. Does not lockup or crash like some other apps/tuner combinations that are out there. Especially noteworthy if you have something like a sports event recording and you get home before the end of the event you can view it from the start while the HDHomeRun records the rest of the game!

HDHomeRun allows you to literally walk around the house with a TV in one hand. This would have been considered just a dream a few years ago and nobody 20 years ago would have dreamed of this. The TV I am describing is actually a tablet (iPad or Android - you supply yourself or sold separately). Although, you should have a fairly good tablet and router to use this product. Since this product does not "transcode" - i.e. compress the video on the fly, there is a lot of data that has to be carried by your router (recommend AC router or better) and the tablet must be able to process this to avoid pixelation. The video will break up if you are any distance from your router unless you have a good AC1200, AC1750, AC1900, AC3200 dual or triband router. An N router will work, just don't stray too far from your router. Forget about using anything less than an N router - the pixelation and breakup of images make the product unusable. Also, your client (tablet, PC) on the receiving end should be a fairly good/modern product. Don't try to use an end-of-life product and expect good results. Other than that, this product works very well using prescribed good tablet/router combination. Some bugs/minor-glitches on the client software, but they are not too bad. Mainly just start the software on the tablet in landscape (not start the software in portrait orientation) and you should be just fine. In other words, all the bugs are tolerable and if you work around them, the product adds so much convenience and value that you forget about the short-commings. Don't expect perfect from this product, especially considering its pricing as compared to other products. Also, consider that you DO NOT have to pay a subscription like TiVo. The subscription on TiVo is highway robbery compared to free over the air TV and this product (compare, and you will see what I mean). You can pay for a subscription on this product to get a better TV guide (channel listing), but that is optional and only if you want PVR and extended channel listing capability. This is a very good product for the price.

If you have a television connected to an antenna and are able to receive stable Over The Air (OTA) pictures, you can use this device; with it, a computer, smartphone, or some smart TV's can command the Silicon Dust "Connect" to tune 1 or 2 stations and place them on you home wired internet. What you do with it then is up to you: I have a WINDOWS 8.1 pc with Media Center which allows watching, recording, and scheduled recording of OTA TV without use of our FIOS cable; picture quality is better than FIOS. I also have a WINDOWS 10 PC running VLC which allows reduced functionality vs. Media Center but which includes recording. Silicon Dust advertises this as a DVR - that is not 100% accurate, but it does enable DVR functions for OTA TV; Silicon Dust also offers a "Guide" subscription to enhance scheduling if you have no other service. For me, this is a 5* device. But note that I am 17 miles from the PHL area CBS/NBC/ABC/FOX TV transmitters and have a rooftop VHF/UHF antenna from the old days which provides strong, stable OTA signals (until the FCC messes things up again).

I bought this version of HDHomerun to connect to an over the air antenna based upon YouTube raves by Lon.TV and my interest in subscribing to their internet pad dvr feature (they never explain it is software, not hardware) . However, I have not been able to get it to work yet. I am disturbed at the BAD documentation. There is NO NO NO video showing the basic install process so you don't know what to expect. You only get a piece of paper telling you to go to a website where it tells you to download an app. For Windows 10, I had to go to the Microsoft store and download their free app. But all I got was a Green HD icon and when launched, it showed a full black screen with the green HD logo an some text in the lower right. Nothing else. So I called support at 925-233-2240 and got a recording. They are in California and only work business hours there. But I called at about 3:30 California time and no answer, and no response to my message. I called the next morning and left another message. It is now 7:30 am their time, so maybe they will call. But right now the unit is useless. They do have a website with a troubleshooting database, but no introductory video of how installation should work. They want me to do all the work of reading all their knowledge pages to find a solution. Not impressed. Now many people like this product, so I will come back and fix this when I get a response and it is working, but this is a caveat, and comment about BAD setup documentation. I am old school - I expect competent written and vidoe details on setup and use of a product and I could not even find a YouTube video by reviewers that showed the setup process. I am using Chrome and Windows 10 on a new Intel 8th generation i7 system and have a working wifi and internet. I even downloaded the app to my Android Samsung 10" tablet and got the same exact black screen. See the pictures. I am just trying to get the hard wired system to work.

This is a very good option that makes it much "easier" to watch OTA television. I am now able to focus "just" on my Apple TV interface to do all my streaming. I chose to use the Channels app on Apple TV - yes, it's not cheap, but it works really well. I have what I consider to be a good antennae - the Mohu Curve in the optimal place in my home. I was able to get that hard-wired into my home network and now I can watch OTA channels on my different Apple TV systems. In Indianapolis, we don't get NBC on any of the streaming TV systems that I am aware of. This way, I can still watch Sunday Night Football on any of my TVs. The Channels app also is great in that it actually has a program guide for OTA channels. The setup happened in the time it took for me to hook up the HDHomeRun unit to my network and then walk down to the basement where I brought up the setup tool - it was already done and waiting for me. Now I can watch local channels on Apple TV, my mobile devices, and even on my computer if I wanted to. Great device, easy to set up, simply fantastic viewing experience. For cable cutters, this allows you to stop switching sources and lets you only need one good antennae.

I have been using Silicon Dust products for the past 5 years and their hardware and customer service is always top notch. I recently purchased the new 4 tuner Connect model and when I was in the store and saw the 2 tuner model available I picked it up. Using both the 4 tuner and 2 tuner model on one antenna doesn't affect my signal at all because of their special chip installed inside. It is very easy to set up and use. I would recommend these products to anyone looking at cord cutting or cord shaving.