Well, it’s still that time of year… The news is slow and giving gifts is good. DVRUpgrade, generally known for providing TiVo hard drive upgrades (and a ZNF sponsor), let me play with the HDHomeRun ($~170) for the last few months and now we’re giving it away.
The HDHomeRun is a pretty clever dual-tuning HD device, handing both OTA ATSC and unencrypted digital cable (clear QAM). Not only does it dual tune but, by being a network device, it allows you to watch television content from any computer on the LAN — Sort of a rudimentary in-home place-shifting, if you will. The HDHomeRun is pretty much platform independent feeding Windows (Beyond TV, SageTV, Windows MCE), Mac OS X (VLC, EyeTV, SageTV), and Linux (SageTV, MythTV).
I will warn you that the HDHomeRun runs a bit geeky, requiring some effort to configure (I used it on Mac with VLC, and with Beyond TV and MCE on Windows) and your cable provider can derail you at any time by changing which digital HD channels are served in the clear and where they are located. However, it’s quite the useful and versatile little device — something I would have really appreciated a few years ago with my HTPC and projector.
If you want in on the giveaway, please leave one comment. The catch is that you must provide a link to another comment you’ve left on ZNF, excluding contest posts and excluding prior contest comment submissions. I’ll randomly pick the winner tomorrow AM, so I can get this shipped (lower 48 states only, please) before I hit the road for work.