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
Can this, or the Ceton, do live rewind.
like can i live rewind while watching sports? i dvr alot of shows (too many) but also watch alot of sports... i need a bigger hdd (my comcast dvr is 500gb), so I want one of these, but i still need live rewind.
I have Time Warner... I got rid of our DVR several months ago and now only have one HD Receiver that I'm renting from them.
1. This Tuner will replace the receiver I have from Time Warner so it can be returned, correct? ( I believe that is what the WIKI above said).
2. Do I just take the card out of my current Time Warner box and put it in the Tuner, or do I have to go get a new/different card from them?
TIA
2, correct, just make sure it's an M-Card.
I have Time Warner... I got rid of our DVR several months ago and now only have one HD Receiver that I'm renting from them.
1. This Tuner will replace the receiver I have from Time Warner so it can be returned, correct? ( I believe that is what the WIKI above said).
2. Do I just take the card out of my current Time Warner box and put it in the Tuner, or do I have to go get a new/different card from them?
TIA
2. I believe they would give you a new card--though I don't know for sure.
2, correct, just make sure it's an M-Card.
Thanks
2, correct, just make sure it's an M-Card.
2. I believe they would give you a new card--though I don't know for sure.
Thanks... I have the Xbox extender right next to my TV and wireless router... so I think I'm good on that part
Any reason to have two of these things?
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 use this to remotely access my HPTPC.
Been waiting since the last Woot deal because for some reason my order didn't go thru. When I went to try again they were all gone
This works though as it is $20 cheaper
Can this, or the Ceton, do live rewind.
like can i live rewind while watching sports? i dvr alot of shows (too many) but also watch alot of sports... i need a bigger hdd (my comcast dvr is 500gb), so I want one of these, but i still need live rewind.
Windows 7 is needed not win xp. However, I belive it can work with mythTv which is Linux.
I have Time Warner... I got rid of our DVR several months ago and now only have one HD Receiver that I'm renting from them.
1. This Tuner will replace the receiver I have from Time Warner so it can be returned, correct? ( I believe that is what the WIKI above said).
2. Do I just take the card out of my current Time Warner box and put it in the Tuner, or do I have to go get a new/different card from them?
TIA
As for cost...the boxes range from 60-80 and the lifetime service is 399 when you use code plsr and no monthly fees ever. also very easy to use and never messes up. windows media center is a nightmare as seen by the posts here.
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.
Please point me in the direction where one can get an HTPC that will pass DCA test for under $150 (cost of new XBOX) or under $80 (cost of linksys Media Center extender as of th elast SD on it). I would gladly buy an $80 HTPC. Thank you.
Windows 8 Home WILL have WMC. Windows 8 Profesisonal will not come bundled with WMC, but it can be added as a separate module. Which makes perfect sence. People who use Pro, i.e. office folks don't need WMC, and there is no need for Microsoft to pay CableLabs licensing fees to include it in all those copies of Windows that will never use it.
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 set Windows to update when you normally sleep or otherwise not watching or recording TV. You can set Windows to boot into WMC directly, so it is completely transparent to a technically challenged end user.
Can this, or the Ceton, do live rewind.
like can i live rewind while watching sports? i dvr alot of shows (too many) but also watch alot of sports... i need a bigger hdd (my comcast dvr is 500gb), so I want one of these, but i still need live rewind.
I have Time Warner... I got rid of our DVR several months ago and now only have one HD Receiver that I'm renting from them.
1. This Tuner will replace the receiver I have from Time Warner so it can be returned, correct? ( I believe that is what the WIKI above said).
2. Do I just take the card out of my current Time Warner box and put it in the Tuner, or do I have to go get a new/different card from them?
TIA
Any reason to have two of these things?
We have 1 HTPC connected to the main TV, and 4 addiitional TV connected to the HTPC via home network using $80 Linksys Media Center extenders. Each TV is operated independantly (using remote supplied with the extender) from each other, but also share the recordings, and the pool of 8 tuners.
Also, recordings can be initiated or scheduled from any of the TV's and viewed on any of the TV's regardless of the copyright protection flags, since THIS IS THE WAY IT WAS INTENDED TO BE DONE.
To all: Don't even think that you can stream 3 HD channels over your wireless. Each HD stream is about 20 Mbps and has to have 100% packet quality. Wireless, unless it is in perfect unison (i.e. in the same room over short distance) has too much packet loss for TV to be streamed reliably.
You need a wired network, or powerline at the least.
Recently one of our laptops sort of got crippled when my daughter spilled water on it. The keyboard works, but not perfectly.
I was wondering if I could somehow turn this laptop in to a HTPC. What exactly would one need to have it act as the server in this regard? I have two Xbox 360s that I could use to stream the content from the server, but would a windows 7 laptop suffice for HTPC server purposes or would I need to get a separate machine?
1) just to clarify, w/o a htpc, xbox extender, i CANNOT hook this up directly to the tv? since it is a tuner, can i just hook it directly up to my tv w/o a htpc???
2) when i do have a htpc built, can i "slingbox" it during my business travels and watch shows on the road?
3) if slingboxing is possible, can my family watch 2 shows at home while i watch a 3rd show while on the road since it has 3 tuners?
tia