Setup:
In March, I built AMD based Vista Home Premium computer in my living room and connected said PC to my Sony HDTV. The PC is modest - AMD x2 4000, 1 GB Ram, 200 GB Drive. It is networked with 4 other computers via a cat5e network.
Since my Sony was an early model without a built in HD tuner, I was always searching for a PC based solution that pumped HD programming into that beast. A few years ago I purchased a DVico Fusion 5 HDTV tuner card. It was ok but very buggy with XP and support was brutal. The Fusion 5 tuner provides 1 tuner and could be connected to your home's cable coax or an over the air antenna (rabbit ears). It then tuned high def television programming and displayed it through the TV. Software such as GBPvr and Windows XP Mediacenter were used during this phase as a way to record programming and display live programs.
In April I found a group of early adopters on AVS forums who were following the progress of the HDHomerun. I kept up with the forum posts for a few weeks and was sold on the idea after a compatible Vista driver software was released. Joe User make still be asking what this device is. Well, here is my attempt:
HDHomerun = A small box with 2 HD tuners that plugs into your network's broadband router/gateway device (Linksys, Dlink, Netgear). When installed with cable/antenna and configured with compatible software (Windows XP Mediacenter or Vista Mediacenter), it allows you to view, record and playback high def programming on any of the PC's in your network.
The advantages over an add-on PCI card:
- It can be used by all PC's on the network
- It can be placed anywhere (no tied to a specific PC)
- It includes 2 tuners (can watch or record 2 programs at the same time)
- Support is excellent as is the community involvement
- Integrates very well with Vista's Home Premium Mediacenter
- Easy to setup and update. Frequent updates.
- Flexible platform that is compatible with Windows, Apple and Linux
Anyone with Vista Home Premium and the desire to record television programs should look into this. I've since cancelled DirectTV and depend on this thing as my main source for the majority of my television viewing. We pull in 6 digital signals (all major networks except UPN).
I give this hardware a 6 out of 5 stars. Check it out - you will not be disappointed. Give me a shout if you want to learn more about it.
