SiliconDust HDHomeRun PRIME HDHR3-CC $139 Free Shipping

An appletv is not fast enough to play the 1080i streams this is going to send down the pipe. Your best bet using an appletv2 is to wait for the hdhr4 which will support x264 transcoding.

Quote from poetuan : I could be wrong but I think you can right click on the wtv files and converted to dvrms file type then use what ever converter to convert to your video file type you want.

yes but not if it is flagged copy-once.

Thanks for your input guys. I wanted to find an cheaper alternative for an extender besides the Xbox

Quote from Mummel : $200 for this device vs $8 a month for my DVR? Thats a lot of months to pay it back. I'm all for this, but it seems like the rental option is the better choice as hardware changes all the time. You'd probably want to upgrade the HDHomeRun in 2-3 years anyway. I'm not sold. The other thing I'm not sure about is can one encode the files after they have been recorded in Media Center? I can easily pull files off my DVR, reencode them and play them to all devices in my house from my NAS including phones, iPad, and TVs connect to WDTV. Isnt the Windows Media Center format extremely limiting?

An hd dvr from Comcast is $15/month for each box. Most household have more than 1 tv so the fees do add up. I was renting 2 hd dvr and 1 hd box costing me $37/month. Didn't take me long to enjoy the savings. Now I got 6 tuners and a lot more space to record.

If I have a DNLA device, I can watch live HDTV with this? How is the quality? I have a blu ray in my room that has wifi with DNLA. I'd like to watch live HDTV in my room without paying another 7 bucks a month for a cable box.

Quote from kjp168 : If I have a DNLA device, I can watch live HDTV with this? How is the quality? I have a blu ray in my room that has wifi with DNLA. I'd like to watch live HDTV in my room without paying another 7 bucks a month for a cable box.

From what I've read it's not there yet. Slim ps3 is the only constant working device right now. It's in early beta so it might be a couple of more months. Ppl are reporting hit or miss on other devices

Quote from Mummel : $200 for this device vs $8 a month for my DVR? Thats a lot of months to pay it back. I'm all for this, but it seems like the rental option is the better choice as hardware changes all the time. You'd probably want to upgrade the HDHomeRun in 2-3 years anyway. I'm not sold. The other thing I'm not sure about is can one encode the files after they have been recorded in Media Center? I can easily pull files off my DVR, reencode them and play them to all devices in my house from my NAS including phones, iPad, and TVs connect to WDTV. Isnt the Windows Media Center format extremely limiting?

First, I would like to know where you get a DVR for $8/month?

Single person with single TV, sure.

Multi-person household with multiple TV's it adds up pretty quickly.

Whole house DVR is $20/month form Verizon, additional HD boxes are $10/month. A household with 5 TV's will pay $60/month in hardware rental fees alone.

An HTPC with a multistream CableCard tuner can serve up to 6 TV's at once, and you only pay one CableCard rental fee. There is nothing that can beat the cost, flexibility and reliability of WMC, yet.

Edit: Which $8/month DVR allows you to remove recorded copyright protected files and convert them to whatever you want?

i take it this deal is dead. does this deal pop up pretty often? i was a day late and a dime short on this. really need one but have to hold out for the 140 price point.

Quote from Juanleeto : i take it this deal is dead. does this deal pop up pretty often? i was a day late and a dime short on this. really need one but have to hold out for the 140 price point.

These at the $130/$140 prices are quite often. It's the $120 price that takes a little waiting for.

Quote from poetuan : Thanks for your input guys. I wanted to find an cheaper alternative for an extender besides the Xbox

Xbox banned from Xbox Live can be had on eBay for ~$50 and it can be set to open directly to the WMC interface. I don't think there is a cheaper/better alternative.

Also, if your cable company marks any of your recordings as "Copy Once" you can still watch them on extenders like the Xbox, as opposed to another computer.

I was disappointed to find that any other computers, be they in my homegroup, in my workgroup, WMC or not are unable to play "Copy Once" content like the Xbox.

For all the experts out there,
1. Which model of Xbox 360 is best used as a Windows Media Extender? I heard that some xbox models are really loud compared to cable box.
2. I see some xboxes sold on eBay have no hard drive. Can I still use them as an extender?
3. Will I see a big jump in electricity bill if I use 3 xboxes instead of 3 cable boxes?
Thanks.

Quote from qwertyuio : For all the experts out there, which model of Xbox 360 is best used as a Windows Media Extender? I heard that some xbox models are really loud compared to cable box. Also, will I see a big jump in electricity bill if I use 3 xboxes instead of 3 cable boxes? Thanks.

The slim Xbox is quieter than the old fat ones. Just get any with hdmi then you're fine. My Comcast boxes were running even when it was off, so I think the Xbox be more energy efficient. Even if it does draws more it'll be minimal

Quote from poetuan : The slim Xbox is quieter than the old fat ones. Just get any with hdmi then you're fine. My Comcast boxes were running even when it was off, so I think the Xbox be more energy efficient. Even if it does draws more it'll be minimal

Thank you.
The slim xboxes are the one with 4GB & 250GB, right? Also, does the Xbox need a hard drive if I only use it as an extender?

Quote from qwertyuio : Thank you. The slim xboxes are the one with 4GB & 250GB, right? Also, does the Xbox need a hard drive if I only use it as an extender?

Those are the 2. Someone more knowledgeable gonna have to answer the hard drive questions since I don't know the answer