It’s not often we comment on a device still under review, let alone a device that’s still in transit, but this is a device that goes on sale often. We’ve got an HDHomeRun Network TV Tuner landing on the review bench next week, and imagine my surprise when I saw it on sale almost 30% off.
What is a Network TV Streamer? It’s a device that takes the analogy or digital free to air broadcast signals and streams them over a standard IP based network. We first came across it when trying to solver a reader question about how to get free to air to a TV in their house that didn’t have coaxial cable.
Using an IP-based free to air TV streamer isn’t as easy as plugin a couple of cables and you’re set, but it’s not much more difficult either. Basically you need to have software that can receive IP TV, luckily most Android TV devices can do this via the Live TV app; that’s one of the use cases we will be testing.
The other option is an app-based system on a device like a Windows PC or Android device. For that, HDHomeRun has its own app ecosystem to provide these options. This week, scorptec has the 4 tuner version of the Silicondust HDHomeRun CONNECT Tuner on sale down to $243 from $329.
With 4 tuners, this device can simultaneously send your free to air signals to 4 different devices all of which can be watching different content.
While we haven’t reviewed the device yet, it seems well-reviewed by others, and if you have a specific use case where you need to get free to air broadcast to somewhere you don’t have coax (but have either a LAN port of WiFi) then this just may be the solution you’ve been looking for.
I used a good old Sony PlayTV tuner (dual) or two connected to a Raspberry Pi. The tuner I found in the rubbish room at home and the driver is included in Raspbian. Then simply use sudo apt install tvheadend and apart from following the wizard I am up and running. Add a route on the firewall to TVHeadend and apply a good password etc and it can watch or record TV from anywhere (kodi) and it cost me nothing because I had it all hanging around at home.
I’ve had one of these for ages. I use it with MythTv to record free to air TV and it’s fantastic.