https://www.amazon.com/SiliconDust-HDHomeRun-Flex-ATSC-NextGen/dp/B092GCN9NL
that box is capable of over the air digital reception and you can plug in an external usb drive and use it as a dvr. why wouldn’t they add an hdmi port to just allow it to plug into a tv?
i haven’t bought one yet, but i have to envision that when you try to pump the video into your local network then to your tv you have to be doing a fair amount of video compression. (compression beyond what would be done if it was just put onto the hard drive and pumped directlty to the tv via hdmi) … does anybody really have a clue why this decision was made (lack of hdmi port)?
the other question that i have is: does anyone have experience with the homerun and do you notice the video compression? i’m picky when it comes to the image quality. i have a tivo bolt and if there is any video compression i do not notice it.
Compression depends on the broadcast. Digital stations can dynamically adjust bandwidth allocation to each stream, so primetime content will look better.
SD channels look like compressed garbage. Far worse than just DVD.
As far as why no HDMI, I can give a few reasons:
- Cheaper
- Easier if your TV is far from your antenna.
- Most people use a single streaming device for all TV and like not switching HDMI
I’ve got a TabloTV. For primetime content, it looks great.
I’d like an HDMI option, but I have not had any issues with the network connection. It is nice being able to watch on my Ipad.
I have one. My understanding is that it send the original broadcast mpeg over Ethernet without further compression, but I wouldn’t bet my life on that being true and I would guarantee that you care way more than I do. I’m just happy it works.
But I do think that’s the idea behind it being a network device. So all your devices can watch the signal rather than just the one it’s attached to by HDMI.
I’ll also note that all the clients I’ve tried have terrible interfaces ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
when you say all the clients you’ve tried have terrible interfaces… do you mean the clients for hdhomerun? or do you mean something else.
Clients for HD Homerun. I’ve only tried their own AppleTV client and Plex. Both of them work but have but I find them really unintuitive and difficult to navigate.
I used to use an HDHomerun with cablecard, I never noticed any compression artifacts.