Top positive review
5 people found this helpful
Definitely working out for me.
By Edward D on Reviewed in the United States on June 29, 2016
I purchased this after finding a video on youtube , the goal was to be able to return my cable boxes and expand the available devices that are able to use the cable channels. The device I purchased still requires a cable card, which is far cheaper than renting three cable boxes with multi room DVR functionality. The device was easy to setup, getting the cable card activated was a bit more of a chore, but that's all on my cable provider and has no bearing on the product itself. The software is pretty straight forward, it allows you to create favorite channels, but more importantly allows you to hide channels your not interested in. By eliminating Standard Def, Shopping Network, Music Channels etc, this brought down my selection from an unwieldy 410 channels to a more manageable 97 channels. The unit itself needs to be connected to the coax cable from the cable provider and then plugged into your router, not directly to a TV (A fact that sent me on a game of "hot potato" with my cable company customer service till I was finally transferred to someone who had a clue and could activate my cable card). This makes it available to client devices that have access to your home network. This includes Windows,Mac's,Linux PC's, Smart TV's that ether run android or are DLNA compliant, Android Phones and Tablets (IOS is not supported directly yet). With the exception of the DLNA Compliant method, you can download a client for the other devices and install it, DLNA is it's own creature but it still works well, however the implementation on my Panasonic tv isn't pretty but quite functional. My set up allows me to watch Live TV on any of my computers, tv's, phones and tablets. I chose to set up my tv's each with a Raspberry Pi both 2's and a 3, running Xbian Kodi image and the HDHomerun viewer app, as the Xbian Kodi Image gave me the best results over my wireless N network, (others Kodi images I tried suffered from stuttering and visual artifacts). Best results would be running everything over ether-net, but I don't have that luxury. There is also a DVR version of the client that will allow you to set up recordings for your shows, it's in Beta right now, but for $60 you can get early access, I went with it and it's quite usable in it's current form, though I look forward to the end product. Pro's- The Product itself is easy to set up, the hardware and software provide all the things you need to get it up and running. Ability to hide channels your not interested in. Allows you to save on cable box rentals and watch Live TV on more then just your TV's. Combined with Plex or Emby you can watch from outside your home network as long as you have an internet connection. Clients for Windows, OS10, Linux, Xbox 1, Playstation 4, Nvidia Shield and Android. Con's- Some knowledge of how your home network operates and a bit of computer savvy required to really get the most out of it. Beta DVR software is an additional $60 dollars to get early access. If your cable company provides protected content, you may not be able to see those channels on devices that don't support that. (My provider doesn't yay!) Only 3 tuners, if 4 people want to watch live tv on 4 separate devices or if it's recording (uses a tuner), somebody will be unhappy. (Although you could get another one). Doesn't work natively on IOS or Roku devices and requires 3rd party software (Plex,Emby or some other) Transcoding is handled through third party software (if needed), see Plex and Emby. If someone leaves the client running you'll need to shut it down to free up the tuner it's using. On a final note any ROI is going to depend on how much you spend on supporting hardware/software.
Top critical review
7 people found this helpful
Worse, I also had to get a tuning adapter ...
By D Anderton on Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2014
I purchased this tuner with two objectives in mind: i) Save the $10/mo I was paying the cable company to rent a digital cable box and ii) Distribute TV to various PCs in the house. Ultimately, despite the relative quality of the tuner and support from SiliconDust--the device failed on both counts. First, it was a major effort to get the tuner up and running with my cable connection (Time Warner). I had to get a cable card to decode the protected channels. The card rents for $2.50 a month--an improvement over the cable box--but still an expense. Worse, I also had to get a tuning adapter from TWC. A relatively unknown 'feature' of digital cable is that some channels are not actually transmitted to your home until you tune them in. You need something to communicate back to the network that you just tuned to channel 'blah' and then the network sends the signal--all this to save on bandwidth (which is a worthy goal, but it does complicate things). The tuning adapter is 'free'--no extra cost which is nice but it's about as bulky as a cable box so it didn't help clean-up the surfeit of wiring around my TV. Next you have to register your card with the network. A bit tedious, but straight-forward...requires a call to the cable company's support desk. So, now I was ready for some serious TV....not so fast. The app used to display TV is Windows Media Center. I had purchased a thin tower PC specifically for media and had it attached to my TV for viewing internet content. It was about 1 year old when I bought the SiliconDust tuner. Thought everything would be peachy....but the computer came with Windows 8 (not even Windows 8.1)--and it was the 'standard' edition. Turns out that WMC only comes with Windows 8 Pro. First I updated to Windows 8.1 -- which though not much better than Windows 8--is still better (e.g., you can find the icon to turn power off without doing crazy jestures). Then I had to upgrade to Windows 8.1 Pro for $100. Yikes!!!! Now I thought everything would be peachy--and the SD turner did work with my PC to deliver cable content to my TV. Setup with WMC was a medium pain--but eventually I got it working. Its not as convenient as turning on a cable box and changing channels, you need to make sure your PC is on, you need to launch WMC and you need to use a WMC compatible remote (which, oddly enough, I actually had lying around the house). Personally, I didn't mind too much, but my spouse never got into the extra steps necessary to get to the digital cable stations and simply reverted to watching the legacy analog cable stations. Ok, so to save $7.50 a month, I had to buy the SD box AND upgrade to Windows 8.1 -- will take a long time to recoup that investment. Now for the BIG disappointment. I had purchased a spiffy HP laptop with Windows 7 Pro -- while they were still selling Windows 7. It was newer than my media PC and came with a dual video adapters (the native Intel and an NVidia GE-Force). The laptop is a 15 inch HP Envy (aka "Apple Envy") with an I7-4700 processor, 12 GB of memory (yes 12) and the two video adapters. With Windows Pro 7, WMC was included and I thought NOTHING could go wrong. Plenty of horsepower, plenty of memory, the right software, etc. Oops, not so fast there Sundance....After getting everything setup, the PC refused to play the cable content. All channels were 'blacked out'. This was a head-scratcher and I had to consult support at Silicon Dust. They were nice enough, but blamed the problem on a 'hole' in the HDCP digital rights management. To the uninitiated, HDCP is the security mechanism that is supposed to let you play the digital media you have purchased without permitting you to make 'perfect' digital copies. The story goes--as per SD support, that there is an error in the way Windows handles HDCP and with my TWO video adapters it was confused into thinking I was diverting the digital stream to something other than my display. SD blamed Microsoft for the error and said there was no work-around. Checkmate. Bottom line: The tuner itself is a nice little piece of hardware and does do its job well. The SD folks are nice, and the support was helpful, even if the ultimate answer was most disappointing. If you are not techno-savvy, I wouldn't bother with the tuner. The tedium of getting everything setup compared to simply knuckling under and paying your cable provider for a box is simply not worth it. Even if you are a super-geek and are willing to jump through all the hoops, its likely that other members of your family will not be so sanguine about playing TV out a PC. PS: Ultimately, I dumped TWC entirely for Unverse and will probably jump to Google Fiber when my neighborhood gets wired. So, technology marches on. Don't be the last person to buy a buggy whip....watch where technology is going.
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