This is an excellent product for having two accessed from multiple devices on your network at the same time.
In the box you receive.
- HDHomeRun device w/ power adapter.
- Coax cable
- Ethernet Cable
- Elgato eyeTv 3 CD-ROM
- License card (with 2 license keys)
- Quick Start Manual
Setup is very easy. You unpack the device, hook the power up, hook the source up (coax/antenna/etc), and hook it up to your network. Then install the software on your mac. eyeTv then guides you through locating your device, setting up the software, tuning the channels, etc.
The HDHomeRun on it's own is a great product, and can be bought for cheaper on it's own. However, you won't get the two copies of eyeTv that you need to use on a mac. If you have a Windows Media Center Edition (I think?), XBMC, or a few other pieces of software, you can use this without using eyeTv software, and you would then purchase the cheaper stand alone product.
However if you have a Mac, this package is the way to go. The eyeTv software is excellent. Allows easy recording, encoding (for playing on iPhone/iPad/Apple TV/etc), and works incredibly well. It's a stark contrast to most third party windows clients that don't seem well thought up, and a lot of times are just a pain to deal with.
You can also play live tv (requires Core 2 Duo mac, or the elgato Turbo .264 HD) on your iPad/iPhone, and recorded tv as well. The catch is that you have to have a computer with the eyeTv software running on it to do this. There is XBMC for iPad, which can connect directly to it, however since it is uncompressed, over wifi it means a lot of stuttering.
Using this on my ~2006 iMac worked very well, and worked even better on my wife's ~2010 MacBook Pro. It's nice to be able to open up and use it on either computer without having to move a hardware tv tuner. It's also especially nice on a laptop because you don't have a dongle and antenna hanging off the laptop.
I'd recommend this product over any of the other elgato tuners, unless you need a product that can take in video (composite, etc) which the HDHomeRun cannot do. It records/views super easy, and since there are two tuners you can record one and watch another.
Edit: I failed to mention that this little box has TWO tv tuners in it. On my iMac eyeTV will even record two shows at once. Don't have recording setup on the other computer, so not sure if it can do one in each place, but it should be able to. This is also the updated version of the HDHomeRun hardware, the only differences I could find online were that this box is smaller and better looking, and instead of two antenna/cable connectors, there is just one for both tuners. Elgato HDHomeRun Network Dual Tuner for HDTV for Mac or PC (10023030)
Elgato HDHomeRun Network Dual Tuner for HDTV for Mac or PC
Cut off my Comcast cable TV that we only used to record our weekly shows that are available over the ATSC airwaves for free. Put the HDHomeRun on the network, installed EyeTV on our iMac and started recording all of our shows, I have it set to automatically export an h.264 AppleTV formatted copy to my iTunes library when recording is complete, so all we have to do is flip to my library on the AppleTV and bam save $150 a month!
I also installed the EyeTV app on my iPhone and my daughters iPod from the App store and we can watch live tv or the recorded shows from anywhere we have an internet connection (even 3g) utilizing the free "My EyeTV service"!
Turns any computer into a TV screen and records shows. Picture quality excellent. it completely works as specified is reliable and good software.
The only weirdness is the TV screen jumps ok and I've no idea why.
I like this device overall. It has worked well for me. Just know that it passes the digital stream *directly* into the network, with no compression. If the network is wireless (i.e. Wi-Fi), it can be easily overwhelmed and produce chops and delays in the resulting video.
This Tuner works very well for getting a TV signal to multiple Macs. The software is mostly elegant, and includes an automated workflow to move shows from the EyeTV software to your iTunes library (and by extension the Apple TV). The quality is great as long as the bandwidth holds up. HD content uses about 1.9MB/sec, SD about 600KB/sec. On an 802.11n, with the computer in close proximity to the router, things work great, though obviously it would be better if wired. The companion eyeTV software for iPad & iPhone is also excellent and overall this is a neat way to convert one ClearQAM or OTA signal for digital television to something that can be captured by any computer or i-device on your home network. Believe it or not, the eyeTV iPhone & iPad app will even let you stream your home TV signal to your phone or iPad ANYWHERE (even on 3G). Block and compressed, sure, but it does work!
Elgato EyeTV 3 and website support are lagging features that allow for easy operation and dual channel recording without going through hoops. Elgato claim is that it is not intended to record more than one channel on one Mac. However, I am recording two channels on one mac most of the time when pre-programmed and a100% of the time when done manually.
I figure EyeTV 3 will change soon to better accommodate this new box.
If you buy the Silicon version of this box for a Mac, you are going to be unhappy as you will pay more for EyeTV 3. Of course, there may be other apps you can use on a Mac. I have not tried any others.
Overall, I love this box and seeing that it is very new, I am sure it will only get better on the software and support. - Hauppauge - Dvr - Elgato - Eyetv'
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