slaingod

So the HDHomerun is a little bit difficult to describe, but it does a lot in a little package.  Basically this is a little device that attaches to your router and allows any computer on your network to watch and record HDTV from OTA (Over the Air) antenna or from any unencrypted HDTV channels from your cable provider using the QAM protocol.  Here in New York City, RCN and Time Warner both use QAM, which helps as OTA is less than ideal in the NYC apartment environment. (It can also connect directly to a single computer if necessary.) There is an added benefit that all of the normal, unencrypted, non-HDTV digital channels are also available for watching and recording, as well as the Digital Music Choice channels, at least on RCN. The HDHomerun has 2 antenna inputs, so you can a) watch and record 2 TV shows at once from the same or different computers,  or b) have one set of HD channels from OTA and another from QAM.

Arguably, you have to commit to a fully computer mediated AV experience for this to really be useful to you, meaning that your primary TV viewing/music listening experience is through your computers attached to LCD/Plasma displays and connected to your stereo, rather than through cable boxes.   But if you are willing to do that, you can save yourself 10-15$ a month in HDTV and cable box fees from your cable provider per month. For me, because I download so much of my TV, and have so many mp3’s on a server for playback thorughout my house, it is a no-brainer.  But there is still this reticence in peopel to use their brand new 1080p LCD/Plasmas as the awesome computer monitors they really are.

Since HDTV is the real draw here, this is a list of the HD channels I get on RCN NYC:

• CBS
• NBC
• FOX
• ABC
• CW
• My9 (formally UPN, local origination)
• PBS HD (WNET-HD)
• NGC-HD (National Geographic Channel)
• TNT
• TBS

So no Discovery HD or HDNet, as those channels are encrypted. But you also get digital versions of regular Discovery, BRavo, A&E, MTV, etc. that your normal basic cable package has, all without dealing with cable boxes.

The one caveat here is that setup can be a little bit of a pain. There are tools for mapping the channels from QAM/OTA to get them to work with various media center software out there, like Windows Media Center, GBPVR, Team Media Portal, Beyond TV, and SageTV, but it will take you an hour or so and possibly a forum post to get everything in order, with the channel guides, etc.

The technology behind this puppy is pretty cool: It basically takes the raw ATSC/QAM data and strips it of a few headers, and then transmits the raw MPEG2 TS/TP (Transport Stream/Transport Program) data at full resolution over the network, which uses a couple of megabytes a second on your router. I may have the details slightly off here, but you should get the basic idea.

This device isn;t for everyone, but if you have a little bit of the computer geek in you, then this is hard to pass up.