HDHomeRun - SCRIBE DUO 1TB DVR - Black

I've been without Local Access TV for years due to a 2017 Vizio I bought that didn't come with a tuner. Luckily, i stumbled upon this unique device that allows me to watch local access on any device connected to my internet. I have an unhealthy obsession with Antique Road Show and a few other extremely odd PBS shows, and now I can RECORD them and gleefully watch every antique that touches a curators hands. Seriously, the HDHomerun device works elegantly and appears to be made of seriously good components vs. a cheap external tuner. The device boots up right away when you install the homerun app on your devices. You can't go wrong with this thing.

I've used Silicon Dust HD HomeRun products for many years and recommend them. The Scribe works very well with Android and Windows apps. It had a few schedule issues early on but their support was very responsive and it now reliably records scheduled programs. But Roku support is still beta and doesn't work very well. Rewind doesn't work, fast forward is very slow and jumpy. Pause works OK. I don't think there has been a new beta release since August. I'm growing impatient, my primary purpose for purchasing this was to use it with Roku to play on the TV. I can't recommend it for this purpose. If it's not better in a fairly shot term I'll have to investigate alternatives. Until then I can't recommend it for Roku users. I'll update the review after the next code release. My ratings are based on Roku, if my primary use were Android or Windows I'd rate it highly.

The SiliconDust HDHomeRun Scribe DUO 1 TB DVR is a great OTA DVR for completing a cord cutter's arsenal to capture live TV episodes for watching at a later time, while not having to pay for cable. It comes with a years service for the HDHomeRun guide and that is $35 annually to provide the guide service. This allows for recording two shows at once and playback to many different devices. A great purchase and glad I added it to my cord cutters kit. Very nice to have the builtin 1 TB DVR on the HD HomeRun device itself.

After discovering an antenna in the attic of the house we bought last year, I picked up this tuner/DVR. Initial setup took longer than expected because I incorrectly assumed this has Wi-Fi support. After connecting this to a Wi-Fi/ethernet bridge I had on-hand, I was able to complete the setup. The Scribe was able to pick up all the channels listed on the FCC's DTV reception map for our address with good picture quality. That said, the first party smart TV apps are not good, lacking support for the DVR function, and the PC support is poor at best. The thing that ultimately pushed me to return this was near constant buffering, which may be attributable to the Wi-Fi/ethernet bridge in use.

I liked that it did not compress the video before sending over Ethernet compared to the Fire recast. However the software that interfaces to the HDHomeRun is horrible. There is no way to view a schedule of upcoming shows on multiple channels. You have to look at one channel at a time and then scroll through that channel. Also is says it works on Roku but you cannot schedule recordings over Roku or Windows 7. You can view recorded shows but not schedule. This did not work for me so I took it back and went with the Fire Recast even though it did not have as high of video quality as the HDHomeRun. The user interface was just too unusable.

I have a TiVo Roamio OTA as part of my home theater, but I really watch more TV on my Mac. I had an Elgato EyeTV hybrid that served me well for years, but it’s software is not supported on Mac OS Catalina, so I had to look for a replacement. At first, I had my doubts about this HDHomeRun, but I’m glad I got it. It works great, and has some advantages over EyeTV: it has two tuners, so it’s possible to record two shows at a time, something that I couldn’t do with my old device. It also make it easier to record shows at consecutive time slots. I highly recommend this product.

I may have to have the Geeks come out, because I have yet to be able to find the guide for the channels my new antenna brought in so that I can record. In addition, I heard that I'll have to subscribe to a service, which is fine. Still learning at age 62!

This was a little tricky getting setup to use - not really much in the way of instructions, but with some hit and miss attempts I finally got it up and running. Works good with my LG OLED TV, TV syncs up without the need for a computer to use the DVR. Nice that I can record two programs at once.