HDHomeRun: A Promising, Yet Flawed, Whole-Home DVR Solution
For cord-cutters seeking an over-the-air DVR that offers pristine picture quality across multiple televisions without breaking the bank, Silicon Dust’s HDHomeRun Scribe DVR and its sibling, the HDHomeRun Servio, present compelling options. However, their software leaves much to be desired.
Hardware: A Solid Foundation
The HDHomeRun Scribe eliminates the need for external storage and server hardware. It incorporates a 1TB hard drive, recording engine, and TV tuner within a single compact unit. The Scribe Duo supports simultaneous recording and playback of up to two channels, while the Quatro expands that capacity to four channels.
The HDHomeRun Servio, on the other hand, is an upgrade for those with an existing HDHomeRun Connect or Extend tuner. It houses the recording engine and storage but lacks an antenna input.
Installation and Setup
Setting up the hardware is a breeze. Simply connect an over-the-air antenna, plug in the power adapter, and connect the device to your router via ethernet cable. The my.hdhomerun website guides you through the remaining setup steps.
Software: The Achilles Heel
HDHomeRun’s software has historically been its weak point. While it has seen improvements, it still falls short compared to other over-the-air DVRs in terms of features and user interface.
Live TV
Live TV viewing utilizes a non-traditional programming guide called "SliceView." Instead of a grid, programs appear in a strip along the right side of the screen. As you scroll right, a description and future listings for the highlighted channel pop out. This approach minimizes on-screen clutter during channel surfing but requires more clicks to preview upcoming shows.
DVR Interface
The DVR menu is not easily accessible and requires navigating through a series of submenus. Creating team-based sports recordings is also confusing, with no clear prompts or confirmation options.
Playback controls lack visual previews or time readouts during fast forward or rewind, making it difficult to gauge your position within a program. Watching recordings in progress does not present an option to continue watching live, unlike most other DVRs.
Visual Aesthetics
HDHomeRun’s apps suffer from an outdated aesthetic, featuring a lime green color scheme and bubbly background patterns that evoke the late 1990s. Despite announcements, the company has yet to incorporate promised animations, transition effects, or movie trailers.
Missing Features
HDHomeRun trails behind competitors in several key features:
- No Automatic Ad-Skipping: TiVo, Tablo, Plex DVR, and Channels DVR offer automatic ad-skipping, a feature that enhances the viewing experience by removing commercial breaks.
- No Out-of-Home Viewing: HDHomeRun does not allow mobile device access to recordings or live TV, unlike Amazon’s Fire TV Recast and other solutions.
- Sparse Recording Options: HDHomeRun provides limited recording capabilities, lacking manual scheduling, automatic deletion of older episodes, and recording constraints to specific channels.
- Roku App in Beta: The Roku app is in beta and requires additional firmware installation on the Scribe or Servio. It does not provide access to recording management features and has a different interface from other platforms.
Strengths
Despite the software deficiencies, the Scribe and Servio do possess some strengths:
High Video Quality: Both devices record over-the-air channels at full quality and stream the video without any noticeable degradation.
Device Compatibility: HDHomeRun’s apps are available for a wide range of streaming devices and platforms, including Roku, Fire TV, Android TV, Windows, and iOS.
Expandable System: The system is expandable, allowing you to add more tuners or storage by connecting additional HDHomeRun devices.
Discover Tab: The "Discover" tab offers a helpful way to browse upcoming movies, shows, and sports, facilitating content discovery.
Conclusion
The HDHomeRun Scribe and Servio have the potential to be exceptional whole-home over-the-air DVRs. They offer affordable hardware, easy setup, and native broadcast quality video. However, the software remains a significant obstacle, lacking key features, suffering from an outdated interface, and introducing unnecessary complexities.
If video quality is your top priority, the Scribe and Servio may still be worth considering. However, those willing to tolerate some quality trade-offs may find more feature-rich and user-friendly alternatives in the market.
For those seeking a fully polished and comprehensive over-the-air DVR experience, third-party software solutions combined with HDHomeRun hardware remain a more compelling option.
