Derek Press

The HDHomerun by Silicon Dust is a bit of an oddball device. It’s not something everyone wants or needs but those who have one and know how to put it to good use are blessed with amazing functionality and reliability.

So what does it do? It’s an external tv tuner that allows you to watch tv on your computer. Big deal, you say. Well, the thing that sets the HDHomerun apart from other devices is that it’s got a network port and you plug it into your local area network. The device then streams its source of video over your network and it can be accessed by any computer in your LAN that’s capable of handling the stream. I think any dual core with 2+ GB RAM should be fine but my P4 2.6GHz 1GB, for instance, couldn’t handle the HD.

This device is perfect for someone like me. I don’t have cable and rely on OTA digital TV, Hulu, and a few other sources (no Netflix). I don’t think cable is worth the price for how much TV I watch, but I wanted the functionality of recording and pausing live TV. I’ve had a couple bad experiences with previous internal TV tuners and wasn’t expecting to find that the niche had improved. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The HDHomerun installed in minutes and after a minor issue with Windows 7 Release Candidate (had to turn off Windows Firewall, even though there was an exception already), I had glorious HD in Windows Media Center. For free. Note: The firewall issue disappeared with later builds of Windows 7.

So what if you have cable? Is this thing of any use? Well, it depends. If you have digital cable with a set-top box from your cable provider, you won’t get most of those channels through the HDHomerun. It has two digital tuners (meaning you can watch one channel and record another, or stream to two computers at once) but your video source must be unencrypted for it to be streamed through your network. By law, your cable provider must send you ABC, NBC, and CBS unencrypted. You’ll likely get others such as PBS, CW, religious channels, etc etc. Comedy Central, for instance, probably wouldn’t work)

If you’re serious about HD and want the best picture quality available, throw up an antenna (check www.tvfool.com to see what kind you need) and plug it straight into your HDTV or HDHomerun. I’ve seen cable HD and OTA is better. I hardly ever turn my TV on anymore to watch TV.

I love mine but some people might not feel it’s worth it. So here are some pros and cons.

Pros:
-Easy setup
-Reliable, no power cycling necessary
-Works with many software DVR packages (I prefer Windows 7 Media Center but MythTV, Sage, BeyondTV, etc all work fine)
-Silent
-No need to swap a TV tuner card to a new PC when you upgrade
-Active forums and firmware releases

Cons:
-Somewhat expensive (currently $124 at Amazon)
-No network configuration built-in (gets a dynamic IP)
-Forum-only support from SiliconDust

The bottom line is if you’re looking for a TV tuner for a HTPC, you should look at the HDHomerun very closely. It’sworth every penny if it fits into your home theater setup.