MediasonicATSC Digital Converter Box with TV Tuner Function (HW130RN)

2/19/21I bought my first Homeworx tuner about 7 years ago. It worked "flawlessly" (for such a low cost unit, I do not expect perfection). Last weekend a power outage finally took it out. The new one is a lot smaller because they replaced the built-in power supply with a wall wart.While I'm happy with the new one (only $19!), I actually liked the larger one better for these reasons:1. It's easier to use a standard 2-prong cord than a wall wart power supply (cords fit better on plug strips)2. The larger box stayed put on the shelf better because it's wider and a bit heavier.The cord on the new wall wart power supply is shorter than the old power cord so I had to use a short extension cord too reach my plug strip.My new tuner does not have the DVR capability. The old one did, but I never used that feature so i saved $10 without it.You can see how they got the price under $20...external power supply and no DVR feature (which is just a firmware mod).I should mention that I live close to a metropolitan area and have line of sight to a big TV transmitter so I get about 35 stations with excellent quality.I thought about dropping this to 4 stars because of the change to the external power supply. But... it's a great tuner for less than $20! How can I complain?

I bought this primarily as a DVR to record the local team's football games off-air.For this review, please bear in mind that one reason this unit is so cheap is because the Quality Assurance effort applied to its manufacture minimal. You can expect a wide variance in product quality. This review is about my unit in particular. Yours WILL be different, or dead on arrival.I initially tested this with a 47" Visio flat screen TV. I was not initially impressed. There was some jitter evident in the image if one looked very closely. The first test recording "seemed" to have an audio issue. Otherwise, this is a fine product of Chinese engineering. The screens were in good English, by the way. The documentation, not so much.The first thing about making recordings with this unit is that you MUST be getting a picture without dropouts in it (scrambling of the picture and/or audio glitches). If not, you can forget getting useful recordings with the unit. It's not a flaw in the unit, it's the technical reality. I can only get a "perfect" image on a few of the channels where I live. This is disappointing, but not the unit's fault.The most pronounced problem with my first test recording (which was NOT made with a perfect single). Had wildly fluctuating audio. This WAS a problem with the unit, and is disappointing, but read on.Next, I turned off the unit, removed the USB drive I was recording to, and plugged it into my new laptop. Here, I found the following about Video Recordings, which are placed in a subdirectory named "HBPVR":File type: .mts plus .mts.metaCODEC: MP2 UncompressedYup, this unit provides a PERFECT recording. What comes in goes out. If you're getting a good signal, you get a recording with all the original image fidelity. It looks _amazing_ on my laptop which has a 4K screen.Now back to the problems I mentioned at the start. The video jitter is _not_ present when I play back the recordings on a computer. And, the audio dropouts are not present either. Unfortunately, there are STILL audio dropouts during playback _on the unit_ even when there is an excellent signal. Further investigation showed the problem is with audio processing in the HDMI interface section of the design. I can live with it, so I will keep it. As mentioned at the top, you may not have this problem (it may be specific to my unit) or, you may have a different fun problem.Other than that, it seems to be a great little unit. And I do mean little. It looks much bigger on the Amazon site. The remote range and position sensitivity is not as bad as I feared from reading reviews. It comes packed in a tiny cardboard box with a carrying handle. Save it so you can carry it around if you ever need to!

I am one of the few people that purchased the Vizio Chromecast TV's which were only in stores for one year. It is basically a computer monitor with a built in ROKU. You will need this product if you have the same TV and want to add local channels. It allows you to convert coaxial to HDMI. It worked perfectly. I did purchase a HDMI cable separately just to be sure. The channel quality is decent on some channels, better on others. Since I don't have cable I just wanted to make sure I am able to still see the news if my internet goes out. (This has happened multiple times). Overall, good product.

Lasted 2 weeks and quit working. Do not waste your money.

After getting the converter box set up and programmed, I found that the volume was at such a low level that neither I nor my company could even hear the newscast. I tried adjusting the sound on the TV, but that made no difference as the volume ended at a low level, no matter what. My company then plugged the audio cord into the audio jacks on the TV and converter box and that increased the volume just barely. I also found that trying to read the very small font on the program list feature and on other features was very difficult from even just a few feet away. These blocks of information are set against a grey screen, so they do not stand out and are not easy to read or respond to with the remote. I will keep this as a spare but have found the same kind of converter box I have had and really like on Ebay. I could not figure out how to set the time, even, so I just gave up on that. The remote is very small and the wording on that is miniscule, as well. I guess when they design these units, the engineers all wear huge magnifying glasses--but this just isn't for people with normal vision or normal hearing.

I use this converter box everyday since I quit getting cable. Works great and saves me money. No cable anymore

I purchased this converter and it stop working within a week. It will not power on. I recommend this product from this seller. 1 year later, converter still works PERFECTLY….UPDATE: seller sent me a new one and it works PERFECT. Thanks so much. Would definitely purchase again.