Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Elgato HDHomeRun TV Tuner

K

kolax

macrumors G3
Original poster
Mar 20, 2007
9,181
115
I already own a TV tuner that uses the EyeTV software, but the annoying thing is having to move the aerial about and find good reception, and the fact that I have to sit in specific places in order to get reception just annoys me.

So I saw this - ideal solution. Plug into my Airport Extreme N and wirelessly watch TV without having to worry about whether I'm going to get a signal in the place I'm sitting.

Now, I heard a while back that network TV tuners suck up bandwidth, and the quality isn't always that good. But I've had no experience using network TV tuners, and I'm hoping that on an N network, bandwidth issues won't be a problem.

Does anyone have any experience with this TV tuner? Is it worth the money?
 
K

kolax

macrumors G3
Original poster
Mar 20, 2007
9,181
115
Never mind, found the answer on the Elgato's FAQ's.

For those who are interested in this concept:

HDHomeRun typically receives video streams between 19 and 38 Mbps. This means 100BaseT Ethernet (100Mbps) is the ideal network setup. 802.11 wireless probably won't offer enough bandwidth - even the new 802.11n architecture may not perform as well as 100BaseT.

If you try to use HDHomeRun with a network not up to the task, then the video may not appear at all. If your network is filled with lots of other traffic, then that can also affect the performance of HDHomeRun.
Click to expand...
 
PcBgone

PcBgone

macrumors 6502
Feb 3, 2008
260
0
I have the hdhomerun. I use it on my imac, my wife her macbook. Ive never tried wirelessly until now after reading your thread.

At first when I first got it I wasnt to impressed. I even contacted el gato about the choppiness of the video. They couldnt help resolve. I got it resolved by getting a better Antenna, the antenna I was using was an indoor antenna, which I have changed to an outdoor antenna. Its a night and day difference!

Anyway, now I just checked wirelessly, and ran through a few stations running at 20mbps streaming...not a blip in it. My Signal Strength and Quality are near 100s now. My Imac is right next to my time capsule which is producing the wireless signal, however. So the further you go away from it Im sure you will have some jitteriness.
 
C

Celeron

macrumors 6502a
Mar 11, 2004
705
9
I have an HDHomeRun, I love it. I was using it with EyeTV at first, on my Mac Pro. I've since switched to a dedicated Windows Vista PC (a Dell actually), that only handles the TV recording. This allows me to use my Xbox 360 as an extender, so I can watch all my recorded shows on my 50'' HDTV. Its been really great overall, the only problems I've had (and they've been minor at best) were caused by Windows, not the HDHomeRun. I have it tucked away in my laundry closet and haven't touched it since I installed it 4 months ago.
 
K

kolax

macrumors G3
Original poster
Mar 20, 2007
9,181
115
PcBgone said:
I have the hdhomerun. I use it on my imac, my wife her macbook. Ive never tried wirelessly until now after reading your thread.

At first when I first got it I wasnt to impressed. I even contacted el gato about the choppiness of the video. They couldnt help resolve. I got it resolved by getting a better Antenna, the antenna I was using was an indoor antenna, which I have changed to an outdoor antenna. Its a night and day difference!

Anyway, now I just checked wirelessly, and ran through a few stations running at 20mbps streaming...not a blip in it. My Signal Strength and Quality are near 100s now. My Imac is right next to my time capsule which is producing the wireless signal, however. So the further you go away from it Im sure you will have some jitteriness.
Click to expand...

So it works perfectly fine wirelessly without any blimps? Doesn't cause bandwidth issues on the network (like internet slowdowns, download speeds being crushed)?

Edit: It appears I can't find anywhere (online or retailer) that actually sells it! Elgato's official store doesn't ship outside North America.
 
PcBgone

PcBgone

macrumors 6502
Feb 3, 2008
260
0
Kilamite said:
So it works perfectly fine wirelessly without any blimps? Doesn't cause bandwidth issues on the network (like internet slowdowns, download speeds being crushed)?
Click to expand...

Perfectly is a relative term. During the 5 mins that I was using it wirelessly, I did not experience any blips..Granted, my imac is not even 1 feet away from my time capsule so the signal is very strong. My wife uses the hdhr as well, however she plugs her macbook in, due to her wireless login problems that she has and we havent been able to get it fixed.

Right now, my wife is surfing the net, I have the hdhr running in the background wirelessly in hd(which is running about 21mbps) and my time machine is backing up.

No blips, no slowdowns on the network that I am able to see. Im happy with it. But again, my antenna strength is near 100s, and my imac
is less then 1 foot away from the router...

Id get one, and make sure if you go the antenna route to get a good quality antenna, as the signal strength/quality effects blips more then wireless. If you go the Qam channel route through your cable company, then you wont have to worry about that. You may have a few blips here an there, but its no big deal. Its a milisecond and then corrects...Im very happy that I ditched Dishnetwork for this setup!
 
O

Oneness

macrumors regular
Feb 4, 2007
183
0
Cowtown
Okay, let me get this straight. Is the only difference between the HDHomerun and Elgato's other TV tuners is that the Homerun is for a network setup while the Hybrid and EyeTV are only for individual computers? Right?
 
K

kolax

macrumors G3
Original poster
Mar 20, 2007
9,181
115
Oneness said:
Okay, let me get this straight. Is the only difference between the HDHomerun and Elgato's other TV tuners is that the Homerun is for a network setup while the Hybrid and EyeTV are only for individual computers? Right?
Click to expand...

Yes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom