Today's Giveaway Prize
Woot has SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime 3-Line Digital CableCard HDTV Tuner w/ Gigabit Ethernet (HDHR3-CC) for $129.99. Shipping is $5. Thanks gabbyryan23
Note: This tuner requires a valid cable provider subscription and Cable Card from your provider, please check for compatibility with your carrier
Price Research: Our research has shown that the SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime 3-Line Digital CableCard HDTV Tuner w/ Gigabit Ethernet is $70 lower (34% savings) than the next best available price from a reputable merchant including shipping, with prices ranging from $205 - $375 - DJ3xclusive
Frontpage Deal
SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime 3-Line Digital CableCard HDTV Tuner w/ Gigabit Ethernet (HDHR3-CC) $135 (expired)
Wiki Community Board
This can and should be used by you to post updated deal information.
Be sure to read this because it may contain answers to your questions!
This can and should be used by you to post updated deal information.
Be sure to read this because it may contain answers to your questions!
PRICE JUST DROPPED $20 to $129.99 + $5.00 S/H is the world coming to an end it's 2012 the mayian thingy... 
IS THIS DEVICE AS SIMPLE AS A CABLE CO. DVR/PVR, or A Tivo?:
=No, this device is not a simple plug and play device like those. It requires a PC/HTPC\Laptop, it must be set up with a CableCARD that you either must pick up at your CC if they allow that, or may require a truck roll from the cable company. If you have Switched video you may also need a Tuning Adapter from your Cable Company and you must be able to do basic connections. You must do an initial set-up scanning process on your computer as it searches for your lineup / channels based on your zipcode. Those devices can have conflicts, issues / problems all on their own or related to WM7.
So why would anyone bother with it?
Well for starters it costs a whole lot less than those other two. Second it is nearly can be configured / set up used in a vast number of scenarios that the others can't.
WHO IS THIS DEVICE FOR?:
=Cable Television Subscribers
WHAT DOES IT DO?:
=With this unit and a CableCARD - rented from your Cable Company =&= [after you have set it up (provisioned it) with your Cable Company]. This device will allow the user with a Windows 7 operating system & the built in Media Center, to WATCH and RECORD up to 3 programs simultaneously. And not just some, but it's all the channels you pay your cable company for whether that be (Basic / Extended Tiers \ even Movie Channels etc. that you subscribe to (Ex. HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Epix...).
Windows Media Center has a built in 10 day ahead TV guide and allows for entire seasons to be recorded. Also options like recording all shows new & old or just recording the new seasons shows. You can prioritize shows and rename / re-order or \ renumber channels to.
IDK if any of the other TV Tuner programs have yet passed the Cable Company's requirement or not...
If not then it's still just Windows 7 PCs that pass the digital Cable advisor check.
Here's a work around article if you fall into one of the reasons why it won't pass listed...
http://www.missingremote.com/guid...a-center-7
(For many it's an economical way to replace your Set Top Box \ & / or \ high priced DVR from the cable company). Another way to think about it if you are new to Home Theater PC's is, it turns a computer into a Tivo like device.
CAN'T I DO THAT WITH MY COMPUTER ALREADY?:
=No, not unless you already have another CableCARD device like from Ceton -- & -- then you already know all about this. If you already have a "TV Tuner" in your computer or via your network the most common will only allow you to record NTSC (analog), ATSC OverTheAir (Local broadcasts - distance dependent on your antenna, station power, station type UHF or VHF, and the obstacles/terrain in between), or Open / Clear QAM that are channels left un-encrypted by the Cable Company (what is available in Clear QAM is entirely YMMV - depends on your TV district, your cable cable company & what they choose to do).
So with those types of TV tuners you are limited usually to Basic (analog), Extended Basic (analog), and whatever combination of those channels that they leave un-encrypted on their digtial Clear QAM 256 tier. (Typically most post the Locals in HD (ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, & FOX, some have 40 channels digital music, some local local channels and a few others).
What this device allows is for you to get all those channels that you pay for. If you pay for HBO, this device will not only let you watch it but as long as their isn't a block on the recording you can record it. (*there are flag once and watch once issues but this is just a basic overview).
HOW DOES IT WORK?:
=This unit requires the user to rent a CableCARD from your cable company (CC). Some CC's provide the first one for "free"
, others charge a few dollars on up. The card does the work of what your Cable SetTopBox does to decrypt cable channels) and allows the user with this device to set up their Computer like a DVR/ PVR \TIVO. The Silicon Dust HD HomeRun Prime sits external to your computer, it has it's own power source and instead of using the PCI or PCI-Express ports of a computer internally, it utilizes your home network to send the signal to your computer. Or it could be directly connected via Ethernet cable to the Lan port on your computer if you only plan to record & watch on that one PC. But using the network vs an internal card allows lots of configuration methods. Some people add second Gigabyte Lan Cards into their PCs (very reasonable now a days through SD's). Some use a separate gigabytes switch to keep the traffic off of the router, or they connect it to the router to allow streaming to other areas of the house.
HOW CAN IT BE CONFIGURED / SET UP?:
Well, one of the features of the HDHR-Prime is that it has dynamic pooling of the 3-tuners. So for example there were three people each at three different computers (say two hooked up to HDTV's and another on a laptop) each one of those users could take control of a tuner and watch or record ONE program on that computer. * this can be an issue if you say Computer A has two things simultaneously set to record and (requiring 2 of the 3 tuners) but two other people already have tuners in use, this will cause a conflict and one of the items on computer A won't get recorded.... but that's a more complex problem.
For most people they will have ONE computer set up as a HTPC and it will do all the recordings and so it will take 1,2,or all 3 of the tuners at once to record programs. The other computer users / media extended users can always playback previously recorded programs at any time (those don't count towards the tuner pool). The media streaming devices came out a bit before their time and so ebay is where you'd have to go to find them EXCEPT for any Xbox 360 which even without paying for Xbox Live Gold can do live streaming, or playback previously recorded shows. Even banned Xbox's work for this.
WHAT IF I DON'T HAVE CABLE, AND JUST WANT OverTheAir BROADCASTS?Then the HDHomeRun 2-Tuner device from this deal is better. http://slickdeals.net/f/4634432-S...69-99-w-FS
Then this is a much cheaper device on sale for $69.99 (with two tuners either ATSC-OTA or Clear QAM)
Some additional things that get asked:
ONCE THE DEVICE IS SET UP W/ A CABLE CARD, IT CAN BE REMOVED AND THE DEVICE WILL OPERATE AS A CLEAR QAM 3-TUNER DEVICE.
-Can't use this to Buy the On Demand movies or streaming content from your cable provider
-From Woot's site: "HDHomeRun PRIME is not compatible with satellite TV or IPTV services such as U-Verse"
-From Woot's site: "Using the available iPad app, you can watch, pause and record directly on your iPad"
Stream/watch Remotely
http://www.phreefi.com/2012/01/ac...-from.html
IS THIS DEVICE AS SIMPLE AS A CABLE CO. DVR/PVR, or A Tivo?:
=No, this device is not a simple plug and play device like those. It requires a PC/HTPC\Laptop, it must be set up with a CableCARD that you either must pick up at your CC if they allow that, or may require a truck roll from the cable company. If you have Switched video you may also need a Tuning Adapter from your Cable Company and you must be able to do basic connections. You must do an initial set-up scanning process on your computer as it searches for your lineup / channels based on your zipcode. Those devices can have conflicts, issues / problems all on their own or related to WM7.
So why would anyone bother with it?
Well for starters it costs a whole lot less than those other two. Second it is nearly can be configured / set up used in a vast number of scenarios that the others can't.
WHO IS THIS DEVICE FOR?:
=Cable Television Subscribers
WHAT DOES IT DO?:
=With this unit and a CableCARD - rented from your Cable Company =&= [after you have set it up (provisioned it) with your Cable Company]. This device will allow the user with a Windows 7 operating system & the built in Media Center, to WATCH and RECORD up to 3 programs simultaneously. And not just some, but it's all the channels you pay your cable company for whether that be (Basic / Extended Tiers \ even Movie Channels etc. that you subscribe to (Ex. HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Epix...).
Windows Media Center has a built in 10 day ahead TV guide and allows for entire seasons to be recorded. Also options like recording all shows new & old or just recording the new seasons shows. You can prioritize shows and rename / re-order or \ renumber channels to.
IDK if any of the other TV Tuner programs have yet passed the Cable Company's requirement or not...
If not then it's still just Windows 7 PCs that pass the digital Cable advisor check.
Here's a work around article if you fall into one of the reasons why it won't pass listed...
http://www.missingremote.com/guid...a-center-7
(For many it's an economical way to replace your Set Top Box \ & / or \ high priced DVR from the cable company). Another way to think about it if you are new to Home Theater PC's is, it turns a computer into a Tivo like device.
CAN'T I DO THAT WITH MY COMPUTER ALREADY?:
=No, not unless you already have another CableCARD device like from Ceton -- & -- then you already know all about this. If you already have a "TV Tuner" in your computer or via your network the most common will only allow you to record NTSC (analog), ATSC OverTheAir (Local broadcasts - distance dependent on your antenna, station power, station type UHF or VHF, and the obstacles/terrain in between), or Open / Clear QAM that are channels left un-encrypted by the Cable Company (what is available in Clear QAM is entirely YMMV - depends on your TV district, your cable cable company & what they choose to do).
So with those types of TV tuners you are limited usually to Basic (analog), Extended Basic (analog), and whatever combination of those channels that they leave un-encrypted on their digtial Clear QAM 256 tier. (Typically most post the Locals in HD (ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, & FOX, some have 40 channels digital music, some local local channels and a few others).
What this device allows is for you to get all those channels that you pay for. If you pay for HBO, this device will not only let you watch it but as long as their isn't a block on the recording you can record it. (*there are flag once and watch once issues but this is just a basic overview).
HOW DOES IT WORK?:
=This unit requires the user to rent a CableCARD from your cable company (CC). Some CC's provide the first one for "free"
, others charge a few dollars on up. The card does the work of what your Cable SetTopBox does to decrypt cable channels) and allows the user with this device to set up their Computer like a DVR/ PVR \TIVO. The Silicon Dust HD HomeRun Prime sits external to your computer, it has it's own power source and instead of using the PCI or PCI-Express ports of a computer internally, it utilizes your home network to send the signal to your computer. Or it could be directly connected via Ethernet cable to the Lan port on your computer if you only plan to record & watch on that one PC. But using the network vs an internal card allows lots of configuration methods. Some people add second Gigabyte Lan Cards into their PCs (very reasonable now a days through SD's). Some use a separate gigabytes switch to keep the traffic off of the router, or they connect it to the router to allow streaming to other areas of the house. HOW CAN IT BE CONFIGURED / SET UP?:
Well, one of the features of the HDHR-Prime is that it has dynamic pooling of the 3-tuners. So for example there were three people each at three different computers (say two hooked up to HDTV's and another on a laptop) each one of those users could take control of a tuner and watch or record ONE program on that computer. * this can be an issue if you say Computer A has two things simultaneously set to record and (requiring 2 of the 3 tuners) but two other people already have tuners in use, this will cause a conflict and one of the items on computer A won't get recorded.... but that's a more complex problem.
For most people they will have ONE computer set up as a HTPC and it will do all the recordings and so it will take 1,2,or all 3 of the tuners at once to record programs. The other computer users / media extended users can always playback previously recorded programs at any time (those don't count towards the tuner pool). The media streaming devices came out a bit before their time and so ebay is where you'd have to go to find them EXCEPT for any Xbox 360 which even without paying for Xbox Live Gold can do live streaming, or playback previously recorded shows. Even banned Xbox's work for this.
WHAT IF I DON'T HAVE CABLE, AND JUST WANT OverTheAir BROADCASTS?Then the HDHomeRun 2-Tuner device from this deal is better. http://slickdeals.net/f/4634432-S...69-99-w-FS
Then this is a much cheaper device on sale for $69.99 (with two tuners either ATSC-OTA or Clear QAM)
Some additional things that get asked:
ONCE THE DEVICE IS SET UP W/ A CABLE CARD, IT CAN BE REMOVED AND THE DEVICE WILL OPERATE AS A CLEAR QAM 3-TUNER DEVICE.
-Can't use this to Buy the On Demand movies or streaming content from your cable provider
-From Woot's site: "HDHomeRun PRIME is not compatible with satellite TV or IPTV services such as U-Verse"
-From Woot's site: "Using the available iPad app, you can watch, pause and record directly on your iPad"
Stream/watch Remotely
http://www.phreefi.com/2012/01/ac...-from.html
View Forum Thread
If you remote the PC from the Tuner and TV/Extender, you will need to decent network going. My PC, Tuner and TV/Extender are all separated by wireless. It works pretty well but my wireless runs very well relatively speaking. I think for most people its better if wireless is only used between two of the three.
I just can't imagine having a win 7 machine on all the time for the TV, won't it crash? won't it need reboot? and if you're trying to catch that last few minutes of a basketball game and your computer needed a reboot that'll tick someone off big time.
BTW, anyone have problem with this and the TWC card? I'm in southern California. I don't dare to think how much they want to charge you for this.
Now, how do I hook this up to my slingbox?
Edit: didn't read the whole op. Sorry.
How does woot works? Is the price drop some kind of a volume related thing? I'm not complaining, just want o learn how woot worked.
EDIT:
From woot forum (posted by woot.com staff member):
> Same Price Free shipping @
> http://www.amazon.com/SiliconDust...B004HKIB6E
> $149.99 + Free Shipping
> In Stock. Sold by J&R Music and Computer World
Well, looky there. We done lowered the price! Take that!
Usual disclaimer: If you ordered before the price change, have no fear. You will get the lower price and will most likely be contacted by our wonder customer service people to explain it all.
Now, go buy 3!
In 4 1!
I like the HD HomeRun Prime product just fine, but after years of using GBPVR I have to say I think Windows Media Center sucks. The multi-room DVR capabilities are limited to expensive xboxes instead of inexpensive htpcs because of the way DRM is handled. The WMC guide has failed to update sports listings for games 5-7 of playoff series, recordings fail erratically, and most importantly WMC has a really poor interface design when it comes to being a music player--it is far too busy a display and makes getting the right playlist, album, or genre with the remote extremely annoying.
Given that MS is going to orphan WMC in Windows 8, I suspect MS will be throwing in the towel soon on the whole HTPC vision. I think the studios and the cable companies have basically won the right to control what TV we record and when and where (as in what room of the house) we watch it. So much for the digital convergence.
Maybe my father in law was right to stock up on VCRs. At least he can carry the tapes from one room to the next, though he has to change the channel on his HD to SD convertor manually.
I just can't imagine having a win 7 machine on all the time for the TV, won't it crash? won't it need reboot? and if you're trying to catch that last few minutes of a basketball game and your computer needed a reboot that'll tick someone off big time.
BTW, anyone have problem with this and the TWC card? I'm in southern California. I don't dare to think how much they want to charge you for this.
You can choose when to apply updates to a windows 7 pc so it does not just randomly reboot. I have a windows 7 pc on all the time and cannot remember the last time it crashed.
I like the HD HomeRun Prime product just fine, but after years of using GBPVR I have to say I think Windows Media Center sucks. The multi-room DVR capabilities are limited to expensive xboxes instead of inexpensive htpcs because of the way DRM is handled. The WMC guide has failed to update sports listings for games 5-7 of playoff series, recordings fail erratically, and most importantly WMC has a really poor interface design when it comes to being a music player--it is far too busy a display and makes getting the right playlist, album, or genre with the remote extremely annoying.
You can choose when to apply updates to a windows 7 pc so it does not just randomly reboot. I have a windows 7 pc on all the time and cannot remember the last time it crashed.
I like the HD HomeRun Prime product just fine, but after years of using GBPVR I have to say I think Windows Media Center sucks. The multi-room DVR capabilities are limited to expensive xboxes instead of inexpensive htpcs because of the way DRM is handled. The WMC guide has failed to update sports listings for games 5-7 of playoff series, recordings fail erratically, and most importantly WMC has a really poor interface design when it comes to being a music player--it is far too busy a display and makes getting the right playlist, album, or genre with the remote extremely annoying.
Given that MS is going to orphan WMC in Windows 8, I suspect MS will be throwing in the towel soon on the whole HTPC vision. I think the studios and the cable companies have basically won the right to control what TV we record and when and where (as in what room of the house) we watch it. So much for the digital convergence.
Maybe my father in law was right to stock up on VCRs. At least he can carry the tapes from one room to the next, though he has to change the channel on his HD to SD convertor manually.
WMC isnt perfect, but it's pretty darned good. From reading up, most WMC errors are user errors and easily fixed. You should head over to AVSForums and check out their HTPC section, and look at Assassin's posts. Terrific resource.
And the "expensive" Xbox to the "inexpensive" HTPC? You can get a new 4GB Xbox 360 slim model for 179 most weeks - where can you get a decent enough (better than a Foxconn bare bones...) HTPC for that much? Cheapest one ive been able to price out, and in a small-ish form factor like the 360 has been $330-$370. Using Gigabit Ethernet, the Xbox has been a MORE than adequate method, and passes the WAF :-)
Now, how do I hook this up to my slingbox?
I can't start Media Center with RDP (Remote Desktop / MSTSC), and with logmein it really sucks to hope that it works with my iPhone on weak 3G.
Anyone have advice for this, or is remote DVRing just going to suck? That's one thing that really makes me wish I just opted in for the lifetime DVR with FIOS.
I can't start Media Center with RDP (Remote Desktop / MSTSC), and with logmein it really sucks to hope that it works with my iPhone on weak 3G.
Anyone have advice for this, or is remote DVRing just going to suck? That's one thing that really makes me wish I just opted in for the lifetime DVR with FIOS.
Try Remote Potato http://www.remotepotato.com