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patm95 · 2014-06-30, 03:29

Hi all. I am considering something to watch TV over my network. Any opinions on which one of these products are better? Primary purpose would be to watch TV over my network at home, but also might be nice to watch over the 'net as an added bonus. Is there another product that might better than either of these that I don't know about? Thanks in advance.

Tahman · 2014-06-30, 07:24

I installed HD HomeRun earlier this month for use on my home LAN. My daughter's bedroom and my study do not have good FTA reception. The HDH accesses the FTA aerial jack in the living room and avails two tuners for use by my daughter and me. Cost including delivery was AUD$142.00. The HDH is not bullet-proof. However I am a satisfied user at this time. I would give it 3 1/2 to 4 stars, or a Distinction (75% to 84.9%). I would recommend it to you.

nickr · 2014-06-30, 08:17

Slingbox and HDHR are completely different products.

HDHR has tuners in it and is simply a network connected tuner. It tunes your free to air programming [1] and distributes it untouched [2] over your network.

Slingbox has no tuner. It encodes the output of your cable box or satellite box and distributes it over your network.

[1] Some models also use cablecard to enable you to record SOME encrypted material.
[2]Some models re-encode to h.264.

noggin · (This post was last modified: 2014-06-30, 10:20 by noggin.)

(2014-06-30, 08:17)nickr Wrote: Slingbox has no tuner. It encodes the output of your cable box or satellite box and distributes it over your network.

Some Slingboxes sold outside the US certainly DO have tuners in them. My original UK model had a DVB-T Digital OTA tuner in it. The Slingbox Pro HD sold in the UK still includes an OTA DVB-T tuner.

However the Slingbox is far more suited to remote viewing, and I don't think has any form of integration with XBMC. The HD Homerun is a solution for streaming content around your home network primarily and has good XBMC integration. A third alternative, if you're in to hacking, is a low-power ARM box (like a PogoPlug, GoFlex Net etc.) running TV Headend with a USB Tuner. I use this in some situations. Very good support for DVB devices, and some support I believe for ATSC. Not sure how much support for US Cable.

patm95 · 2014-07-01, 01:27

Thanks for the input. I think had home run is more suited for me.