Product review: SiliconDust HDHomeRun HDHR-T1-US Single Networked High Definition Digital Television (used with Fedora Linux)

I have been using this card for over a year and I am very pleased with it. I use this network card to build home-made DVR. It records digital content broadcast in the clear I received on my cable.

This card is controlled by a netbook computer running Linux (Fedora). I wrote some scripts that allow me to schedule the programs I am interested in (daily, weekly, once), and then view the content via media player. My scripts put recordings into folders uniquely named after the programs I am interested in, and give them unique names based on the program name and time it was recorded. When I am ready to watch my recordings I switch my TV to HDMI input connected to the netbook computer and use my TV as a computer screen to navigate the folder of the show I am interested in watching, and then start it is a media player.

This gives me a very cost efficient DVR set up.

Some restrictions to keep in mind:
(1) This box does not have a slot for CableCards so it cannot record encrypted digital cable channels
(2) You can record only one thing at a time
(3) While the show is recording you cannot watch the file being created (but you can watch a previously recorded show, of course, since it is already written to disk).

A collage of three photos under customer photos:
Photo #1: HDHomeRun view from the top
Photo #2: the back of the HDHomeRun
Photo #3: bottom (silver) netbook computer hooked up to HDHomeRun, top (black) 2T external drive for storage

I bought this card to replace to my VCR for time shifting the shows I watch - i.e. something I can use without paying a monthly subscription - and this works perfectly.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.



Ali Julia review ★★★★★