Customer Ratings & Reviews

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

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

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 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.

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.,

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

It did not pick up the data from the provider necessary to present the channel identification in the same way the channel listing stated it. Instead it assigned its own channel identification which required manually creating your own channel listing.

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.

I was assured by the Best Buy salesperson this device would record two channels at once - no, it will not - I was also assured I could record a channel and watch a different channel - again, it will not allow that - the device packaging fails to mention you must watch a sub-channel of the channel you are recording, i.e. if you record 13-2 you must watch another 13 channel - the remote is garbage and not at all user-responsive - each button has to be pushed in just the right way at just the right angle - the manual for the device is complete garbage also and I was only able to figure out the basics of using this device by watching videos others had put online, thankfully - the device consistently loses my timers and I have to start from scratch, and altho "weekly" is a recording option, the timers usually disappear before the week comes around - overall it's a pretty big waste of money, but for someone like me who is in a rural area without streaming ability, it's my only dvr option since Tablo requires WiFi, as do most other dvr options - but if you have access to high-speed internet, I would definitely avoid this device!

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

Unit was very easy to setup and the small compact size made it easy to place.

very good tuner /recorder as theese are very hard to find in america...this designed to take the place of video tape deck to time shift what ever you wish to watch;;; best buy them self do very poor job selling anyting and chage way too much on lot of things and poorly stocked stocked ,,, what is there is 2 to 3 times more costly than next supply house.. beware

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 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.

easy to set up good in put easy channel easy to use

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.

It is relatively easy to program and records as desired

This item is now two years old. It was purchased for its DVR feature. It is subject to periodic random reboots and periodically loses track of crucial details of the programmed recordings to be made, resulting in scheduled recordings being missed. This unit uses an external hard disk (limited to 2TB) for it's storage. The disk is encrypted so that recordings cannot be copied off to other, larger media (likely by agreement with content creators).

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.

Everything works as it should. My only gripe is the channel information displays way to long for my taste. When switching back and forth between NFL games you have a large gray box that blocks the bottom of the screen every time. Would be nice to have a setting to avoid this.