Which Set Top Tuner Now???

[Benny-W5TYZ]

I just returned my 3rd HD Silicone Dust Dual tuner. First unit had a bad power plug receptacle on the power port. Second would not pick up the same channels I was receiving with my Visio TV scanner program. the third one would scan 45 channels, but would only show about 22-25. All the missed channels showed up on TV as "Video type not supported" Next time I would scan it would pick up the "Lost" channels and lose some others. I have 3 antennas up 30 feet because my channels are east and west of me (Zip 77632). I am not using a signal pre-amp. Silicone Dust accused me of running an amp and just overloading their system. I would still like to have a separate tuner that I could use for tuning. The HD homerun had a great program for antenna tuning. I also like the fact that I could run two TV'S off of the unit. What else is out there, that is reasonable and has good reviews? Right now without a set-top tuner I am receiving 45 channels, which I never received with the Homerun Duo tuner. Does anyone have any suggestions? My received channels are from 9 to 62 miles.
Thanks,

Benny - W5TYZ

 

[primestar31]

Tablo QUAD Over-The-Air DVR | Tablo

Our Tablo QUAD OTA DVR is for TV lovers who wish to record and stream up to 4 channels from their HDTV antenna simultaneously. Includes 4 Over-the-Air ATSC Tuners, Virtually Unlimited Storage (SATA or USB), and more. Great for large households!

www.tablotv.com

 

[Benny-W5TYZ]

Hi Mike...
Thanks for your response...I am really not interested in a DVR option, however, if it comes with it OK...We would prolly not ever use that function. What kind of track record does this unit have..

Benny - W5TYZ

 

[primestar31]

Pretty good actually. I presently use a Tivo Roamio, BUT, if I ever have to replace it, it'll be with one of these.

Tablo Quad DVR review: The best gets bigger

Tablo's quad-tuner DVR maintains an edge over competitors with simple setup, reasonable prices, and some neat new features.

www.techhive.com

Nuvyyo Tablo Quad review: Cord-cutting for the geek-minded

The Nuvyyo Tablo Quad offers excellent performance for power users, but other options are easier for beginners to use.

www.cnet.com

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/reviews/tablo-quad-ota-dvr-black/6367485

 

[solarvic]

I have 2 tablo players and a new homerun tuner for the for the new Nextgen signal and consider the homerun a waste of money and wish I would never have seen it. The reason I have 2 tablo players is I have 1 antenna aimed north for erie so named that one erie. The other one I have aimed south for pittsburg for and named it pittsburg. Once you have them registered to your wifi you don,t need the computer to scan channels or anything else. I have roku + sticks, amazon fire sticks and a Nvidia player that can control any of the tablos operations. With the homerun you have to do channel scans with the PC which is a pain in the butt for me. Also I don,t even want to get and make any investment in the harddrive system you have to have to connect to your computer to record with. With tablo each player needs it,s own plug and play xternal hard drive to run it. which is simplier for me.

 

[Benny-W5TYZ]

You must live around Sandy Lake PA...My home town...
Benny - W5TYZ

 

[Benny-W5TYZ]

Pretty good actually. I presently use a Tivo Roamio, BUT, if I ever have to replace it, it'll be with one of these.

Tablo Quad DVR review: The best gets bigger

Tablo's quad-tuner DVR maintains an edge over competitors with simple setup, reasonable prices, and some neat new features.

www.techhive.com

Nuvyyo Tablo Quad review: Cord-cutting for the geek-minded

The Nuvyyo Tablo Quad offers excellent performance for power users, but other options are easier for beginners to use.

www.cnet.com

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/reviews/tablo-quad-ota-dvr-black/6367485

 

[Benny-W5TYZ]

I've looked at them and have about decided on the Tablo Dou with the built in memory. Just a few bucks more, in case I ever want to record, I won't have to go looking for the memory stick...
Thanks for the input..
Benny

 

[Benny-W5TYZ]

I have 2 tablo players and a new homerun tuner for the for the new Nextgen signal and consider the homerun a waste of money and wish I would never have seen it. The reason I have 2 tablo players is I have 1 antenna aimed north for erie so named that one erie. The other one I have aimed south for pittsburg for and named it pittsburg. Once you have them registered to your wifi you don,t need the computer to scan channels or anything else. I have roku + sticks, amazon fire sticks and a Nvidia player that can control any of the tablos operations. With the homerun you have to do channel scans with the PC which is a pain in the butt for me. Also I don,t even want to get and make any investment in the harddrive system you have to have to connect to your computer to record with. With tablo each player needs it,s own plug and play xternal hard drive to run it. which is simplier for me.

 

[Benny-W5TYZ]

Thata kinda like I am. My main stations are East toward New Orleans, and West toward Houston. I have two antennas also up at 30 ', and a third one up at 35' UHF only, Long Yagi, and I'm able to get 45 channels real good out of the 3.
Thanks again for the input...
Benny

 

[solarvic]

You must live around Sandy Lake PA...My home town...
Benny - W5TYZ

I live between sheakleyville and Hadley, West of route 19 about a mile as the crow flys. Actually about 9 miles east of sady lake. You need a ext hard drive to run the tablo . They have a website and forum that preety well explains everything you need to know and recomended hard drives. While editing my post I see a recomendation about the Mediasonic which is similar to the channel master dvr I use to scan channels when I want to peak the antenna position that I have on a rotor.

 

[rabbit73]

I have 3 antennas up 30 feet because my channels are east and west of me (Zip 77632)......I would like to have a separate tuner that I could use for tuning.

Hello, Benny; welcome to the forum.

Your rabbitears.info signal report:
RabbitEars.Info

I suggest you try the Mediasonic HW-150. It has a tuner that is at least as sensitive as my SONY TV and is able to add a channel after scan.

It also has a signal quality scale (SNR/MER) that shows the Digital Cliff (SNR 15 dB) at 39-40% which is helpful with antenna experiments.

 

[Benny-W5TYZ]

I live between sheakleyville and Hadley, West of route 19 about a mile as the crow flys. Actually about 9 miles east of sady lake. You need a ext hard drive to run the tablo . They have a website and forum that preety well explains everything you need to know and recomended hard drives. While editing my post I see a recomendation about the Mediasonic which is similar to the channel master dvr I use to scan channels when I want to peak the antenna position that I have on a rotor.

There are a couple of good Trout Streams, close to you at Guy's Mills. I grew up there in Sandy Lake then my family moved to Texas. I still own a Camp close to Tionesta.
Thanks for the info.

Benny - W5TYZ

 

[Benny-W5TYZ]

Hello, Benny; welcome to the forum.

Your rabbitears.info signal report:
RabbitEars.Info

I suggest you try the Mediasonic HW-150. It has a tuner that is at least as sensitive as my SONY TV and is able to add a channel after scan.

View attachment 149803

View attachment 149804

It also has a signal quality scale (SNR/MER) that shows the Digital Cliff (SNR 15 dB) at 39-40% which is helpful with antenna experiments.

View attachment 149805

View attachment 149806

HI Rabbit...That tuner looks interesting, more what I'm looking for. Like I said as far as a DVR, I most likely would never get used. I had one with my Dish subscription and in 4 years it never got used. I'll look this one over and see what it will do...
Thanks again,

Benny - W5TYZ

 

[rabbit73]

That tuner looks interesting, more what I'm looking for. Like I said as far as a DVR, I most likely would never get used.....

The DVR feature on the inexpensive converter boxes isn't that great, but the tuner is sensitive and the 39-40% Signal Quality point is similar to the 50% Signal Quality point on the SiliconDust HDHR GUI:

and you don't need a computer to use the Mediasonic HW-150.

 

[Benny-W5TYZ]

There are a couple of good Trout Streams, close to you at Guy's Mills. I grew up there in Sandy Lake then my family moved to Texas. I still own a Camp close to Tionesta.
Thanks for the info.

Benny - W5TYZ

The DVR feature on the inexpensive converter boxes isn't that great, but the tuner is sensitive and the 39-40% Signal Quality point is similar to the 50% Signal Quality point on the SiliconDust HDHR GUI:

View attachment 149808

and you don't need a computer to use the Mediasonic HW-150.

 

[Benny-W5TYZ]

Hello, Benny; welcome to the forum.

Your rabbitears.info signal report:
RabbitEars.Info

I suggest you try the Mediasonic HW-150. It has a tuner that is at least as sensitive as my SONY TV and is able to add a channel after scan.

View attachment 149803

View attachment 149804

It also has a signal quality scale (SNR/MER) that shows the Digital Cliff (SNR 15 dB) at 39-40% which is helpful with antenna experiments.

View attachment 149805

View attachment 149806

HI Rabbit....
I received my new Mediasonic 150 STB from Amazon about an hour ago...Sunday delivery. That thing is smooth as glass. I already picked up 4 more channels that I was not able to get with my Smart TVwhich is a total of 49 now with several dup's and 3 times as many as I scanned with my HD Silicon Dust STB, at 1/3rd the price and it has a built-in DVR. Thanks for putting me on to this. It took a while to figure out that when the pilot light is on the unit is off. I finally figured I'd just wait till tomorrow to fool with it and I thought I was shutting it off and here it came mon. I could buy 3 of these 150's for what I paid for that HD Homerun. I did get a full refund though...
Thanks again for the input.

Benny - W5TYZ

 

[Benny-W5TYZ]

HI Rabbit....
I received my new Mediasonic 150 STB from Amazon about an hour ago...Sunday delivery. That thing is smooth as glass. I already picked up 4 more channels that I was not able to get with my Smart TVwhich is a total of 49 now with several dup's and 3 times as many as I scanned with my HD Silicon Dust STB, at 1/3rd the price and it has a built-in DVR. Thanks for putting me on to this. It took a while to figure out that when the pilot light is on the unit is off. I finally figured I'd just wait till tomorrow to fool with it and I thought I was shutting it off and here it came mon. I could buy 3 of these 150's for what I paid for that HD Homerun. I did get a full refund though...
Thanks again for the input.

Benny - W5TYZ

 

[Benny-W5TYZ]

I just found out that all channels are showing up as B&W, no color at all. What happened. This is on my just installed Mediasonic -150. What did I not get connected?

Benny - W5TYZ

 

[primestar31]

I just found out that all channels are showing up as B&W, no color at all. What happened. This is on my just installed Mediasonic -150. What did I not get connected?

Benny - W5TYZ

Try replacing the HDMI cable. Maybe even just reseating it will fix that issue. I'd pull the power plug first, reseat the HDMI cable both on the dvr, and on the tv side, and plug it back into it's power and see what happens.