Customer Ratings & Reviews

pro: easy to use. no fees/subscriptions needed to use. great for recording off of an antenna (I don’t have cable). con: the remote range is terrible. have to be about 3-4 feet from the box for it to work. other: no internal storage so you plug in your own USB or external hard drive via USB

it was very easy for a 70 year old man to install. it also picked up all the channels. it records perfect. I can watch a show and pause because it starts recording. I will fast forward during comercials and catch up. I can set time recording easy. I am 110% pleased with performance.

This thing works great! Very easy to install. I have an old analog TV with a built in video tape machine which we use when the grand kids want to watch a Bambi movie. I connected the D to A converter, turned on the power and it scanned for channels. We get about 25 channels. This old TV was made in 2002. Amazing!

Works as advertised. The unit makes it easy to find channels. It reminds me of the old cable box from years past,but handles the task well.

Not an over the air DVR. Cannot watch begining of recorded program while it is recording. Not sure if it allows signal to go through coaxial output while recording because TV and device are connected to separate antennas. NTFS formating required for flash or thumb drive. During playback the audio goes out of sync when fasting forwarding thru commercials, but if recording stopped and resumed it goes back into sync.

Does as advertised. Nice clear picture and easy to use.

Good for the price but the way of using it a bit old and the guide should improve it.

I love the ease of this digital recorder. I still have an old tv but now I can not only watch it, but I can record ( with a USB) it has an EPG so you know what’s on for a few hours in advance.

Bought this because we cut cable and needed a way to run the sound through our home theater system. Install was a little tricky due to the instructions not being 100% clear but overall it wasn't too bad. Part of the issue could have been our receiver is several years old. We haven't tried the record a show function so I can't comment on it. The box is very small in size which makes it nice to be able to hid behind things.

I gave it a 5 star rating as the benefit of the doubt. It was intact when I picked it up at Best Buy. But I couldn't get it to record consistantly with any flash drive. I then exchanged it for a Mediasonic brand similiar converter, which behaved the same way. I returned it, also, to Best Buy and was looking for yet another brand to try. But first, I visited a manufacturers online forum about the matter of the Mediasonic unit not working properly. I learned that flash drives are not recommended for these converter/recorders, that flash drives are unsuitable. It was said that an #external hard drive should be used instead. I had mixed feelings, it was good to know that there was a reason I was having little success with flash drives and a remedy by using an #external hard drive, but flash drives for recording would be so convenient. I bought a 1TB #external harddrive and another Mediasonic unit, and it has been doing ok, as it is supposed to. And I'm thinking there is a very good chance that the Aluratek unit will do just as well with an #external hard drive instead of a flash drive. I think these 2 diffrent brand of converter/recorders are just about the same inside, and the instruction manuals look almost exactly alike.,

I own 2 of these DVR's and they work as described. The operation instructions leave a lot to be desired. It took me a couple weeks to figure out all of the operation features because the instructions are very difficult to follow. Someone in the US need to re-write the instructions in a format we can follow. I am recommending this product only to people that are patient in figuring how something works.

Bought it for the recording aspect.no problem as of now. Tried a thumb drive first then switched to a external hard drive which works better. Always came up about 12 minutes short on a one hour program with the thumb drive. Works good with my antenna. Just have to be patient while using the remote sometimes it doesn’t respond as fast as it should.maybe I’m doing something that is causing that

So far It’s good a little hard to get around all the things it does but it works. I cut the cable because of cost and really nothing to see with aluratek tv and a antenna I get all my local tv that’s good enough. One last thing the remote is very cheap be careful.

I had been looking for a extender for my tv for the longest. The lady at best buy told me I needed a converter box instead. I purchased the box and went home and connected it to my tv. I was able to catch over 30 channels depending on where and how the antenna was positioned. I caught the channels I wanted to watch and then some

Given the reception problems I have (low elevation of location, high surrounding bldgs, etc.) it does about as well as can be expected. Must adjust the location of the antenna for different stations, depending on the time of day and the wind direction. Still learning the remote, which lacks some features of the remote of the previous converter box. Don't like the compulsory numbering of channels, which makes the actual channel numbers of TV stations irrelevant. Digital recorder of no use to me.

we did buy one in the store and found it to be just okay, but then found out it mainly defective. HOW? We returned it to try another but had to order one in. No problem at all and had it in 2 days. Once we figured out a few more things with it, it is working great. It will record what we ask and the bigger hard drive and now no issues. If you are looking to save $ this is a great product for recording local and watch it later. We would recommend it and all for about $100 with the bigger hd.

I bought this converter box when I lost my local channels on Directv. I've used this device to record over the air channels when I'm not at home. It works just like a VCR from the olden days, but the shows record digitally to a USB thumb drive.

Wife has been wanting to watch local news and over the air channels. Have old tv and needed converter box. This was a lucky pick. Doubles as a cable dvr so my wife can record shows she wants and watch later. Easily worth $30

Cat knocked over TV broke coaxial cable input off tv Body. Hooked this up to coax and HDMI to TV works great with a little lag time to get synced.

Because it only last about a year then have to buy another one