Review: The SiliconDust HDHomerun Connect Quatro!

April 7, 2018: Please take a look at the follow-up to this review.

Koherence’s projects have long been powered by SiliconDust HDHomerun tuners. At present 13 HDHR4s are feeding the three production Entangles, and a venerable HDHR Rev 2 handles other sundry tasks. The RF and power supply cabling has started to become quite…entangling…so the announcement of the four-tuner HDHomerun Connect Quatro was received with much anticipation. As soon as a (not quite local) Best Buy got it in stock, I was off to get one for evaluation! Continue reading “Review: The SiliconDust HDHomerun Connect Quatro!”

The Project Entangle Wishlist (i.e. why write a DVR?)

So I’ve been getting this question a lot over the past several months: Why Project Entangle? Why would I go about writing a DVR?

On the surface it’s easy to think I’m crazy (in addition to being inkoherent). After all, there’s the Tablo OTA DVR (in fact I’ve had one since the Indiegogo days, although it’s been gathering dust for a couple years). Plex has added DVR support. And the fine folk at SiliconDust now have a DVR for their HDHomerun devices too. And there’s TiVo. Having been affiliated with them for close to two decades, I have a variety of them from Series2s to Roamios. Continue reading “The Project Entangle Wishlist (i.e. why write a DVR?)”

Just What Is High Definition?

I recently read a newsgroup thread that started with someone asking just what high definition was. The thread wound in some surprising ways, with individuals asserting, among other things, that anything 16:9 was high definition and that 480i digital content was high definition (while presumably 480i analog was not). I suspect most of you wouldn’t agree. After all, we all know 720p and 1080i are HD while anything less is SD, right? Well things aren’t quite so clear cut.

Continue reading “Just What Is High Definition?”

First Look: DIRECTV Now

Parting ways with Comcast hasn’t been as traumatic as I’d feared. Netflix’s library of Star Trek episodes has filled my “background TV” needs. And Prime Video along with Netflix have sufficed for those times when I couldn’t find anything to watch OTA.

However every now and then I get that yearning for Discovery and the History Channel. So I was quite intrigued to hear that DIRECTV was launching an IP streaming service. Even better, as part of the early adopter promotion, I could get the “Go Big” package for $35 for life. And to sweeten the deal even more, by pre-paying the first three month’s subscription I could also get the new AppleTV free. Needless to say I signed up as soon as the service was available.

Continue reading “First Look: DIRECTV Now”

Cutting the Cord

I’m not a big fan of sending money to Comcast. Over the past few years they’ve disconnected my broadband with no warning or notice (and taken three weeks to get it reconnected), somehow managed to deauthorize my cable modem, and have installers who absolutely love drilling holes in the side of my house (perhaps they’re part termite). They also inevitably require a half dozen calls to get a CableCard paired correctly. Continue reading “Cutting the Cord”