ATSC Digital Converter Box with TV Tuner, TV Recording, USB Multimedia Function, 1080P HDMI, Metal Case, Clear QAM, by Mediasonic HomeWorx (HW250STB)

My 15 year old LG M237WD 23" Flatron Monitor/HDTV finally died on me leaving me in a strange new world where you can no longer find a new, low-cost Monitor/HDTV with a built-in antenna input and tuner. Today you need a monitor with 2 HDMI inputs and a separate HDTV tuner with antenna input to do the job. The question today is which ones do the best job at the lowest price? After extensive online research, I decided on the AOC 24B2H2 24" LCD Monitor and the Mediasonic HOMEWORX HW250STB Convertor Box/Tuner. In short, I am extremely happy with the choices I've made. Before you make your decisions, I highly recommend you download and read the online user manuals available by searching for them online. In particular, you need the online AOC user manual to properly describe and utilize the the 5 tiny buttons on the bottom edge of the screen used to power on and access monitor settings. The paper guide included with the AOC monitor does NOT describe how how to use these buttons. The HOMEWORX manual omits fully describing how to prepare for, record, and playback TV programs on a USB flash drive. If you are computer savvy, formatting, recording, playback and deletion of TV programs is easy to figure out. If not savvy, you may need to ask HOMEWORX for help. The AOC monitor is very easy to set up. You just need to insert the neck at the bottom of the screen into the base. The screen can be tilted from 20° up to -5° down. You plug in your 1 or 2 HDMI cables from the HOMEWORX tuner and your computer, the power cord, and your speaker or earphone 3.5mm connector cable, and you're done! The HDMI button under the bottom screen edge allows you to easily switch between the tuner and your computer. Audio is automatically switched between devices with the HDMI button. On Windows 10, a 24B2H2 Intel(R) Display Audio interface is automatically installed by the AOC monitor and becomes the Default Playback Device. I have an audio cable running from my computer to my speakers in addition to the HDMI cable. If needed, I can switch the Default Playback Device back to Realtek High Definition Audio to enable me to record audio using Audacity software, which I use to record stock market Earnings Webcasts. (Note: Audacity requires a wire connection between the Realtek audio output and input to enable recording audio off the Internet.) The AOC display itself is excellent, strong clean colors and high definition. The screen is matted, NOT glossy as incorrectly listed by Amazon. The HOMEWORX tuner has a handy easy to use large remote control along with manual control bottons on the tuner itself. In addition to the HDMI port, it also has RCA jacks and can act as a HDTV converter box for an old analog TV or as audio output for a stereo amplifier. It has a USB-A port for a USB flash drive or other form of storage drive. When not turned on, the HOMEWORX digital display acts as a clock showing the time of day. Signal reception by the HOMEWORX is excellent. This has the best reception of any HDTV tuner I've used so far, and I receive stations I could not receive before so long as the weather and temperature inversions permit.

Perfect for me connected to Spectrum digital cable in Southern California. This is the 3rd brand I have worked with since discovering my 50" tv coax port was defective. Spectrum changed from converter boxes over to digital directly through the cable. The channel display on the front of this box matches the channel that Spectrum says it is. The other 2 brands did not. The channel I select using the remote is the channel that the Spectrum channel list says it is, the other 2 brands did not. The quality of the remote feels -how can I say this?- REAL. It has a solid feel and makes me believe that it should work for a long time. The first brand had failed buttons and felt cheap. This one feels real. The placement of the number keys is like what I would expect after using push button phones and 10 key calculators here in The U.S.. row 1=1,2,3 row 2=4,5,6 row 3 =7,8,9 and zero is centered below 8 with the - key on that row with zero. Amazingly, the other brands chose arrangements that made me hunt for the keys. One had 4 across and the other was 3 across but zero and - were off in another area away from those number keys. All in all, this feels like a quality product and has a good logical arrangement of keys to make it easy to use, displays correct numbers in LED on its face so I do not have to press a button to make the TV display the channel. My last feature that is very useful to me is the wide range LED on the remote at a frequency that bounces nicely so the remote works even if i point at a wall or ceiling. very useful when I forget and set something in front of the receiver. The others required direct line of sight. This converter box cost $8-$10 more than the others and so far is well worth it to me.

This is the third Mediasonic Homeworx device I have purchased. It's great as a tuner; it's actually more sensitive than a couple of TV sets I own and pulls in weaker signals easily. There's an option for an on-screen display showing the strength of the signal which really helps when you're adjusting the position of your antenna to get the strongest possible signal. Some people find the menus and interface kind of clunky but I appreciate the basic, no-frills look. It's very easy to read and navigate. I also enjoy being able to record broadcasts to a USB device so I can watch them later. My only criticism is that the device sometimes forgets that I deselected some TV stations and adds random ones to my list, but it's easy enough to deselect them again.

Awsome! I just need a dumb VCR (digital video recorder). It can schedule recording via EPG or manual schedule recording. it can time-shift. It can record live show with a one record button. Recording and time-shift require external hard drive. It can play mp3, m4v, mp4 and mkv files. It can do slide show from photo file. It automatically set the time it received from the TV station. Not CEC compatible, it won't wake up the TV when you turn on the DVR. It name the recorded file with just the Station Caller ID and Time. I wish it name the file based on the show title and maybe include show description in META-DATA format. it's not perfect. It crashes a few times, hard lockup, just reboot itself for no reason. Over all, very happy with it. Do not use USB thumb drive for recording! UPDATE: I have so many issues with Homeworx HW250. 1) I cannot set the clock. Clock is set automatically from the TV station. Changing station leads to clock change causing scheduled recording to be missed or too early. 2) Timezone mysteriously changes from what I set for no reason. 3) Sometime audio out of sync during live view or play back. 4) Sometime hard lock up when playing back a recorded show. 5) Close caption works sometimes (when it feels like it). 6) Tuner susceptible to interference. 7) Remote control not responsive. 8) Recorded show has station name and ID as a filename. Not the show title or description. Very confusing. Can be aggravating. I really want it to work but as is I cannot use it much. It seems like an unfinished beta product.

2nd Purchase... 1st one which was 5 stars, follows this updated review of a recent 2nd purchased unit UPDATE SEP 2026 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sadly, while everything else works, the clock is still screwed up. I had tested it over a few days leaving it powered up but have since discovered that the clock still wanders even on "Auto". Yesterday I found the clock was out by 3 hours. I really wish I could have purchased one of the V1 hardware units as that works!!! but this new version (hardware or software may be to blame) just cannot synchronize the clock. I'm astounded that this is such an issue. For goodness sake, clocks are one of the simplest electronic gadgets... yet this unit cannot stay insync nor can you set it for your time zone. So if you buy one and intend to do timer recordings, make sure you verify the clock before you set up a recording. I still have to say the quality of the recordings and the features in this unit are outstanding for the cost. So I hate to drop this to a 3 star but setting time on a DVR is important for many folk!!!!. UPDATE AUG 2026 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I had Amazon replace the defective unit. The replacement works. Support did send me the latest software update which I appreciate. That has resolved some other issues except 1.... When powered off, the time of day clock is still not accurate. Within 24 hours it moves forward several minutes. Worse than that, when you power on, the current time shown on programs is out by numerous hours. The only way to reset it is to change the time to "Auto", which then shows the clock out by 2 hours, then change the time again (in my case) to GMT -7hrs. As long as you don't power it off, the time stays accurate but once powered off, you've got a small out of messing to get it reset/accurate again. I've reset the star rating to 4 stars simply because their software just doesn't seem able to keep accurate time. I don't know who does their programming but it's time to put it in the hands of an expert!!!! Just don't turn it off and it works great, the recordings are excellent and overall for the money, it's a very formidable OTA broadcast DVR. NEW PURCHASE JULY 2026 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oh dear... how can you go backwards??? I'm so disappointed... The original DVR I purchased was a refurb in Oct 2025 and I gave it 5 stars because for $25 it was outstanding. I needed a 2nd unit for a TV which has a ATSC-1 tuner and I was missing some key OTA broadcasts. So knowing this DVR had a ATSC-2 tuner I thought I'd buy a 2nd unit. I was initially pleased to see that it was a 2026 hardware and software version... they've likely fixed a lot of "issues???" No, they've introduced a lot of issues... 1. No matter what I do, keeping the Time of Day accurate ONLY works if you keep the unit powered ON. The older unit is generally powered OFF and it has a clock display that keeps great time. The new unit is awful. Within a couple of hours being powered OFF, it was already 20 minutes out!!! That means if you want to set up Timer recording... I'm out of luck 2. Setting the time menu item to "Auto" is useless... It ALWAYS sets it 2 hours ahead of my actual Time Zone so I have to set the time to -7hrs GMT. That works so it's just a minor quirk. There is a greyed out option to select a time zone but no matter what I tried, I cannot get it to display, it looks like they removed that feature in favor of setting the GMT manually. Also, after numerous attempts, I also discovered that unless you set the channel on the TV first to a local channel, fixing the clock to display the correct time is impossible. Again quirks that can be addressed but you have to find out through trial and error as there's no documentation supplied. I emailed Support but not heard back yet. However, I suspect this unit has a hardware defect. The clock is so messed up which makes Timer recordings impossible. So I've sent this one back and ordered a replacement. I was thinking of waiting for Support for a week or so but other reviewers issues with support leave me concerned this might drag on. Besides, the fact that the unit cannot keep time when powered off, is in my mind, an electronic problem and therefore a defective unit. The older 2025 unit has no such issues with keeping correct time or setting time. Hopefully the replacement will resolve the Time of Day issues. On a positive note, they have made some software improvements to the 2026 unit since my older 2025 version. When pressing REC it starts recording immediately. My older unit has a 4-5 second delay before starting to record. Not a huge issue but nice that they have addressed this. I just wish there was some decent documentation (NONE supplied). I've found quirks with the menus but all were overcome once I figured out to use "<-" and "->" sometimes instead of "OK". Overall, I do love this DVR and if the replacement unit fixes the Time of Day issue, I'll update the review again and pop it back to 5 stars but for now, until I'm sure they've not introduced a hardware or software defect, not being able to do Time recordings is a major problem. None the less, for last years model I stand by the 5 Stars. Price/performance it's an incredible buy. 2nd UPDATE of original 2025 Model ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. I discovered from a Google search that the time to REC is influenced heavily on the size of the USB drive you use... So I replaced the current USB drive with a 500GB hard drive... and the time to REC has now dropped to 7 seconds. That I can definitely live with. I may try a 500GB SSD at some time but I have a few old 500GB hard drives laying around doing nothing so this is a good solution for me. I know this may seem upsetting to some BUT... I also discovered you can have multiple drives so for REC I use the smaller drive which will hold about 60 hours of recording and for cataloging of other stuff, I use a larger capacity (4TB for about 512 hours of playback). Regardless, for $25 for a "Like New" box, I'm really impressed. 2. I found a simple solution to the issue of not being able to watch one program while recording another. I used a Coax Splitter. So the OTA Antenna Coax is the Input to the Splitter (btw. its a tiny adapter for a couple of dollars). There are 2 outputs each for Coax cable. One goes to the Homeworx box "Antenna In" and the second goes to the TV "Antenna In" (In my case I'm using a modern TV which already handles ATSC already. Won't work if you have a NTSC only TV). You also still need the HDMI from the Homeworx to the TV. Now I can switch the TV to HDMI and setup a recording and let the Homeworx record say channel 45-1, then I can switch the TV to Antenna and watch whatever other channel I want. OK, it's not a perfect solution, but it is a workable and minimally invasive solution as far as I'm concerned. Hope these little tidbits help. I still stress, the recording quality of this Homeworx is excellent. And for $25 for the "Like New" box I received, I could not be more pleased. I don't have to pay for any subscriptions, I can watch and record whatever the Antenna receives, I can pass other video/audio/picture files I want to the Homework via the Windows formatted NTFS drive and watch ATSC recordings on the USB drive from the Homeworx, on my computer. UPDATE: ~~~~~~~ I replaced the Seagate USB drive with a Samsung 1TB SSD in a USB enclosure. Now pressing REC takes about 17 seconds before recording starts. That's considerably better than the 30+ it was taking with a Segate USB spinning drive. It still bother me it takes so long though. The SSD drive was empty, I had just reformatted it so it's not like it was doing a lengthy directory search. I can work with the 17 seconds but it is irritating that if I just hit REC while watching something that catches my eye, by the time the recording starts... I've missed it... I suspect that this delay also occurs when time recording so whatever time I set for recording, I need to start 1 or 2 minutes earlier to ensure I get the start. That being the case, whether I use a SSD or a Hard Disk drive will make little difference so I may just go back to the Seagate drive as it's a 4TB. I tried setting the antenna option as "pass through" but I couldn't get this to work. Basically, "Pass Through" is (used to be) the option that allows you to disable the tuner in the convertor box and simply pass through the antenna signal through the coax cable to the TV. Again, not a huge issue in how I'll be using the box and I'll try and find out what this option really means/how to use it in the Homeworx box. ORIGINAL REVIEW: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ First off, I have to admit to a boo boo... When I reviewed the different convertor boxes and of course the user reviews, I narrowed down my selection to this one and although $40... I scrolled down the screen and bought it. When it arrived I was disappointed because it was a pre-used unit. It was marked as "Like New", had been opened and sea;ed with a white sticker and that sticker had been cut and opened and finally the ragged box was taped closed. There I was about to return it and I checked the price I paid $25... "Huh I thought it was $40"... DUH.. when I purchased, in my haste i clicked the "Like New" buy option. So for $25, I thought I'd open it up and check it out.... Although the box had been opened and reopened several times, the contents were pristine. Remote had no batteries so grabbed a couple of AAA's and slipped them in. So I plugged it in and I'll admit I did not have high expectations. Job 1... configure it for OTA channels. NO... I don't read instructions first.. my view is that most things like this should be intuitive.. Hit the Menu button and it soon became obvious. Set the Time Zone, when to channel search, selected Auto and then waited.... It took a couple of mins but found all the channels the TV I was using previously had found so there was no loss of channels in that aspect. Played with the buttons.... You can enter a channel manually (use the Up/Down buttons) or you can use the Green "TV List" button and then scroll up/down to find the channel you want. EPG will give you the details of current channel and forthcoming programs on that channel. Used the yellow "Aspect" button to set the aspect ratio to Auto. Tried the various manual settings which all worked great. I really LOVE an aspect button on a remote... OTA channels are a mixed bag to say the least and some channels don't correctly display the aspect. So being able to override for you personal preference is a big deal for me. At this point I had played for about 30 minutes and wanted to see how well the DVR feature worked. In fairness, I've never owned a DVR so some readers may find my comments amusing... I found an old 2TB Seagate USB drive (old but powered by the USB port NOT a separate power adapter). I reformatted it on my PC and then plugged it in and went to the Menu option for USB. It has a Format option there!!!. Well of course it does... but I wanted to know if I could record on a standard preformatted Windows NTFS drive. Behold... a message tells you... you can only format up to a 2TB drive. If the drive is a 4TB drive, format it on your computer. So I thought, what the heck, lets see if this box formats the 2TB drive differently and makes reading on a computer problematic. Let the format finish, tried it on the PC, Windows sees it and shows it empty. Plugged it back into the Homeworx Box, found a random channel to watch and just hit the "REC" button. Now there's only one minor quirk here... it throws up a message about "Enter Record. Waiting..." which lasts 30 seconds before the message goes away and then a record timer length count appears on the top left of the screen and it start recording. I let it record for about 10 minutes and then stopped the record using the industry standard [] symbol button (stop), unplugged the drive, rushed it over to my PC, plugged it in, found the directory HBPVR, and found the .mts file. Played it using VLC. No problems whatsoever. At this point I decided to create a few of my own directories and copied, pictures, music and video files (various file types). Plugged back into the Homeworx and pressed the USB button. Found the menu. PVR ~~~ THIS is where your recorded programs are held. They are in .mts format. Just one point. I had a .mts file on my computer which was a copy of a video file from a Canon Digital Camera. It would NOT play. Recorded files no issue but this previously recorded on a different device would not. Media ~~~~~ Does not support .flv nor .asf (no surprise) Did support various others (these are a minimum I expected it would and pleased it does): mp4, mkv, avi, mpeg BTW, Media does NOT see .mts files... You have to be in the PVR menu section to see .mts files Music ~~~~~ It "played' .wma (didn't complain about it) but no audio. I have a few different .wma files but the same issue with all of them. appears to play but no sound produced. It played .mp3 and .wav no problems whatsoever. Almost all my music library is .mp3 so I have no issues with the .wma not working. Small irritation but not worth griping about. Pictures ~~~~~~ Supports .jpg just fine. I know there are others and I have examples of many other image types but I have no concerns... I'm only interested in .jpg and any image file is easily converted to .jpg with free software All the different file testing did encounter one issue. When I was trying to get it to play .flv and it said "Unsupported", which was just fine, I hit OK again and the box locked up. I had no choice but to Power Cycle (pull the plug out the wall) to get it to clear. I will admit I could have left it a few minutes and maybe it would have cleared it self but I wasn't interested in waiting to see. Problems. ~~~~~~~~ I set up a timer record for CBS Channel 5.1 to start at 4am until 4:10am (test). I watched it... at 4am the box cycled and went into a reboot (like it thought it had to wake itself up).. came back up and gave me a 5 sec timeout about wanting to record, then went to the "Enter Record. Waiting..." and 30 seconds later it started recording (all without touching the box). However... this took over a minute in total so my recording missed the first minute. I changed drives and used a USB3 4TB Seagate drive (uses power from USB not external PSU). It already had a load of stuff on it. When I tried to record "on the fly", every time it took 65 seconds before the recording actually started. That is a real concern. You can't simply perform a manual immediate recording. Also, the disk already contained numerous movies/TV shows. There was a .avi and a .mp4 file that I found at random it would NOT play. The .avi didn't even show up in the directory list but it was there. It does have a weird file name so I think that may be the problem. However the .mp4 file was a standard movie file formatted H.264 and should have played but the Homeworx kept reporting "File Type not supported" even though it showed the file size details etc on the right window. Still need to figure out why.... But to be clear... This is NOT a box intended to play all/any media files... It's a box designed to record shows you want and play them back WHICH IT DOES. Plus you can move those files to a PC and they play equally correct there too. So obscure files I've created or downloaded that it couldn't handle is more my issue not Homeworx!! CONCLUSIONS ~~~~~~~~~~~~ I still have some experimenting to do to see if some of the quirks are me or the system and for $25, it definitely fulfills my needs. A lot of the testing I did was purely to see what it could do and not relevant to how I expect to use the box in general. BOTTOM LINE. The quality of recordings was excellent. OTA channels in 1080p recorded in 1080p. There were no glitches or interruptions or any issues with the recorded program. Those recordings replayed on the Homeworx perfectly and they played perfect on my PC too. Now it's time to read the manual and see if any of the problems I did encounter are due to me or the unit. None the less, I would definitely recommend this box (especially the $25 "like new" version). I'll update the review if I find any useful features or solutions I uncover.

This little settop box is truly impressive. With the help of a 5G filter (sold separately), I was able to pull in 60+ crystal clear channels with only a modest little antenna. The UI is a little drab and basic but easy to navigate and understand. I had no trouble deleting the few channels I would never watch, and was able to group my most-watched channels into a Favorites list for faster, easier selection. I was also able to select any channels that are listed only by their call letters and change them to their more popular names, which is a nice touch. The remote is large enough to be held comfortably, and the buttons are well laid-out. Oddly, the channel up/down buttons are not labeled as such, but are logically positioned on the remote. Setting up a program to record seems to be a pretty straightforward process, though I haven't tried it yet. Be aware that the unit does not have its own internal hard drive, so you must supply an outboard one yourself. My only real quibble is with the front panel fluorescent display. It's way too bright and is not dimmable, which could be annoying to some users. For under $40, you can't go wrong with this great little tuner. I highly recommend it.

Work great. I purchased two converters to keep two older analog TVs useful. I wish to keep the older TVs since they have built in VCR and DVD. I paired the converters with digital over the air antennas purchased on Amazon, in a separate review (the antennas work really well). These converters keep the two older analog TVs useful for over the air channel reception which is all I want for those TVs in order to keep the built-in VCR capability viable and TVs semi-relevant in spare rooms, don't need cable to watch local channels. Instructions easy to follow and built in USB power supply useful for the powered range booster on the antenna. I purchased two converters at what I think is a great price point with no regrets. Remote works well and very functional, does not control TV. The relatively compact size of the converter is another great feature. I would purchase again.

I usually don't rate a product made in China 5 stars but I do love this digital converter box. Mediasonic is an American company I believe. If you want to cut the cable and to be able to record local TV and don't want to pay a monthly fee (makes sense if you are looking at cutting the cable) and don't want to pay a lot for the recorder (also makes sense) then this is the item you want. Set up is intuitive and went well (would have been a little easier if I had known the converter is set to channel 4 out of the box for use on an old TV using the RF1 cable). I also have it connected to a new TV via the supplied HDML cable. I love the old school interface; it is easy to understand and use. And I have found that the feature that shows you the signal strength is indeed very useful and easy to use. It doesn't come with a storage device which is necessary for recording. Mediasonic does not recommend using a flash drive, though it looks like from YouTube videos and comments that some people do use them. I had an Iomega SSD drive laying around and it is working great. I copied the files that were on it then I used the converter to format it after attaching it. I actually like that I can remove the storage device. I can put movies, pictures, or music on it to play on the TV. And I can go in the other direction too; my wife has me use American Idol recordings to create MP3s for her music player. That will now be easier as I can plug the Iomega into the computer and use Audacity to create her MP3s. Know that it can only record 1 program at a time. That isn't a problem for us. There is a 15-20 second gap between the recordings of my wife's Young And The Restless and The Bold And The Beautiful which follows it. I haven't tried the "Loop Through" function that allows you to watch one station while recording another but I anticipate that will work easily. Similarly I haven't yet tried the feature that allows you to pause and rewind and then fast forward with live TV. Only sort of related; for cable cutters now looking for antennas; if you are within 10 miles of most of your broadcasters like me, or maybe even within 30 miles, with no big hills in the way, then I suggest also getting the simplest least expensive antenna. The $11 Phillips antenna works fine for me. They are just pieces of metal attached to a cord. Check out The Antenna Man's YouTube channel for a lot more detail on that, and a review of this converter box.

It works great, I got 23 channels even though I didn't raise the antenna but it's just near the window, very easy to use, once you install it it will show you the language selection and then it will automatically search for channels and the channel storage will end automatically, you just need two AAA batteries for the remote control, everything is great and the picture is clear and the sound is clear and the remote works quickly, I'm happy because I got my old TV back again and I'm drinking my coffee and watching TV as if I'm living in the eighties the good old days, thanks to this seller and the manufacturer, I'm very happy I recommend buying it immediately it's very cheap

Failed after 6 weeks: the unit no longer responded to the remote control. Replacing the remote did not resolve the problem, The failure was in the unit itself. The manufacturer's customer service promised to send a replacement unit but after three months of repeated emails with customer service they never sent the replacement. They do not honour their 1 year warrantee. It is now 3 months since I first filed the complaint.

Bought this converter so I could use an old c. 1998 tube TV in place of a modern flat screen that died, and in most respects it is not as cheap and nasty as I expected. It uses the same antenna setup as the old TV and receives all the same stations as the old TV did - some with signal as low as 40% are a bit glitchy but completely watchable. One very distant station, that only came in about 20% of the time on the old TV doesn't come in at all with this converter but I can hardly fault it for that. Otherwise it's pretty solid. The case is metal, which is nice. It runs warm but there are vent slots so I don't expect it to overheat. The menu system is fairly intuitive if you've ever set up a digital TV before. I did have to consult the manual once to find the default password for the parental controls. I was pleasantly surprised to find the RF output can be switched between a pass-through of the antenna signal and a ch3/ch4 modulated down-converted signal so this can be used even with small TVs without AV inputs. It also has an HDMI output so it can be used as a second tuner on modern TVs or with monitors that have no tuner built in. It would be nice if it had an S-Video output since my TV doesn't have component inputs, but the composite output works okay and the picture is bright and clear. The weak point in all this is the remote. It's a lightweight, generic plastic remote and it's not universal meaning while it runs the converter box just fine, it can't be programmed to also control the TV. I need to keep the TV remote around to handle functions like power and input select. The converter has its own volume and mute functions but since I'm also using other devices on other inputs with this TV I need to use the TV volume and mute functions as well and it's really a bit more complicated than it needs to be. The other thing about the remote - and this is a bizarre coincidence that I can't really blame anyone for - is that it uses the same codes as an Android TV box I purchased in 2017 in Europe. So both devices respond in different ways as I press the buttons. Truly strange. I have had to cover the front of the Android box with black tape so the InfraRed remote signal is blocked. I use a bluetooth remote with it anyway. What are the odds of that? Weird weird. I like the LED channel display on the front of the converter. It reminds me of the old Zenith TV I had when I was a kid that always showed the channel number on a similar display. I haven't tried any of the PVR functions because I don't have a drive to hook up, but when I do I will update this review if there are any serious issues. All in all would I buy it again? Yes, yes I would.

This converter box works and it tunes ATSC channels as advertised. I can use my old TV and watch OTA broadcasts. Electronic program guide from the OTA channels are nice too. There is also a signal strength detector built in. My video shows the channel list, EPG, and the channel info screens from the user interface. You can remove or skip channels and add favorites using Program Edit menu. Password is 000000

On the odd chance that you're using a drive that was originally internal (i.e., "naked" drive), be aware that this device cannot create partitions. It can only format. I almost returned it until I figured this out. Most people will use an external drive, so no problems there, since these are usually pre-partitioned and pre-formatted. However, if you find that the drive disappears after every time you power off the device, connect it to a computer and partition it there, then reconnect to the PVR and format. Otherwise, it works as you would expect. Like others have stated, it can be a bit sluggish when changing channels or switching to USB from tuner. To set the timer, I usually go to the channel I want to record, then press EPG to call up the guide. It only shows 12 hours. I don't know if this is a limitation of the device or from OTA data. However, you can set the date/time manually. If you set it via EPG, it is not "smart", in that it doesn't know when the program actually starts and/or ends. I usually manually adjust the timer so it starts 5 min early, and since I record sports, I set an extra 30-60 min in case the game goes over(time). The PVR will turn on when it is supposed to and turn off when the recording is done. A couple of gripes: LED display is really bright, and I wish there were a USB port on the back, so a "permanent" hard drive sits out of the way. PVR gets pretty hot, so make sure it has room to breathe. 3-stars because there's nothing special about it, but there's nothing really bad about it. I would recommend it for casual use, but you may want something better if you do a lot of recording.